Amendment 13, SECTION 1:
NEITHER SLAVERY NOR INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE, EXCEPT AS A PUNISHMENT FOR CRIME WHEREOF THE PARTY SHALL HAVE BEEN DULY CONVICTED, SHALL EXIST WITHIN THE UNITED STATES, OR ANY PLACE SUBJECT TO THEIR JURISDICTION.
Prison for profit?
It has been alive and well since the "ending" of economical definition of slavery. We think of criminals as a person that deserves to be severely punished, a danger to society and a disease to our communities. The same feelings were felt towards Africans and Black Americans during and after "slavery." Unjustice: Either take a Plea Bargain or be Convicted
In the United States, Federal drug defendants who won’t plead guilty pay dearly, according to our new report, “An Offer You Can’t Refuse.” Prosecutors use their ability to vary the charges to seek longer mandatory sentences for people who turn down plea bargains. Defendants who go to trial receive sentences that, on average, are three times as long. Not surprisingly, 97 percent of drug defendants are convicted by pleas, not trial. Prosecutors have an incentive to plead people out – it’s faster and cheaper than going to trial. Also, a prosecutor’s credibility depends on making good on a threat of a stiffer sentence for those who turn down a plea bargain. Read More... 16 Year Old Jailed at Rikers for 3 Years WITHOUT Trial
Browder was a 16-year-old sophomore in high school walking home from a party in the Bronx when he was arrested on a tip that he robbed someone three weeks earlier. He was hauled off to Rikers Island, a prison known for punishing conditions and overuse of force, and was held because he couldn’t pay the $10,000 bail. Browder went to court on several occasions, but he was never scheduled for trial. After 33 months in jail, Browder said a judge offered freedom in exchange for a guilty plea, threatening that he could face 15 years in jail if convicted. He refused. Then one day, he was released with no explanation. “They just dismissed the case and they think it’s all right. No apology, no nothing,” he told WABC-TV. Now at age 20 with his teen years behind him, Browder is first faced with finishing his GED and trying to make up for three years of his teen years lost. Read More... White Americans do more drugs,
Black Americans get more Time Nearly 20 percent of whites have used cocaine, compared with 10 percent of blacks and Latinos. Higher percentages of whites have also tried hallucinogens, marijuana, pain relievers like OxyContin, and stimulants like methamphetamine. Crack is more popular among blacks than whites, but not by much. Still, blacks are arrested for drug possession more than three times as often as whites. Of the 225,242 people who were serving time in state prisons for drug offenses in 2011, blacks made up 45 percent and whites comprised just 30 percent. US and its Love for "Criminals"
Read More... Ray Kelly 'wanted to instil fear in black and Latino men...
"How else would we get rid of guns," Adams said Kelly asked him.
In 2013, New Yorkers were stopped by the police 179,063 times. 159,104 were totally innocent (89 percent).
Michael Giles
Attacked with no provocation, yet he is jailed for protecting himself. Michael’s attacker admitted he was angry that someone had interrupted his dance, and wanted to hurt the next person he saw. That next person standing to the side, not partaking in the violence, was Michael. His attacker was not fighting alone, state witnesses testified that there were between 30-40 people involved in the brawl. The state’s own witnesses also testified that the aggressor instigated several other fights that night, and was acting erratically and violently. His attacker’s own friend testified she was worried the aggressor would kill or seriously injure someone. In comparison, state witnesses testified that Michael, was calmly standing to the side, and did nothing to provoke the attack. No Such Thing as Black On Black Crime
New Evidence In Georgia Infant’s Death Points To Parents, Not Two Teens
Just days after Sherry West told police her 13 month old was shot and killed by two black teens, West’s 21 year old daughter went to police to tell them that she suspected her mother may have killed her infant brother. Immediately after the shooting, Glassey said West began asking questions about how long it would take her to collect the insurance money. West’s daughter also told both media and police that her mother made conflicting statements to her, regarding the child’s death - including different stories about who was shot first. On July 16th further evidence was released to the public that implicates the parents involvement in the child’s death. Police tests immediately following the shooting revealed gun powder on the hands of both Sherry West and the baby’s father, Louis Santiago. Central Park Five
Served 5-13 years in prison for a crime they did not commit. Five teenagers were convicted of the attack on the Central Park jogger, Trisha Ellen Meili. All pleaded not guilty and claimed that their videotaped confessions were concocted by the cops. Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Yusef Salaam, and Kharey Wise served sentences ranging from five to thirteen years. Wise got out of prison August 12 -- just months after the only DNA collected at the crime scene, which was never tied to any of the accused, was matched to Matias Reyes. Inmates denied medical treatment. instead, they have to prayA new report alleges illegal and deadly mistreatment of Arizona inmates whose medical care the state contracted out to the country’s largest private prison health care provider.
The report, released last week by the American Friends Service Committee, a progressive Quaker group, comes as an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit against the Arizona Department of Corrections awaits an appeals court ruling over the state’s challenge to its class action status. The ACLU alleges “grossly inadequate” care that creates “grave danger” for inmates, including “critically ill” people who were told to “be patient” or “pray” for healing, or that “it’s all in your head.” In 2011 and 2012, the deaths of thirty-seven total inmates were reported in the Arizona Republic. In contrast, writes the AFSC, fifty people have died in custody in the first two-thirds of this year. Last year, the Arizona Republic charged that “Arizona’s prison system has two death rows”: Those “officially sentenced to death” and those who “die as victims of prison violence, neglect and mistreatment. Using Inmates in Drug Trials
An influential federal panel of medical advisers has recommended that the government loosen regulations that severely limit the testing of pharmaceuticals on prison inmates, a practice that was all but stopped three decades ago after revelations of abuse. Until the early 1970’s, about 90 percent of all pharmaceutical products were tested on prison inmates, federal officials say. But such research diminished sharply in 1974 after revelations of abuse at prisons like Holmesburg here, where inmates were paid hundreds of dollars a month to test items as varied as dandruff treatments and dioxin, and where they were exposed to radioactive, hallucinogenic and carcinogenic chemicals. Black Girls Disproportionately Sent to Juvenile Detention
Nationwide, African-American girls continue to be disproportionately over-represented among girls in confinement and court-ordered residential placements. They are also significantly over-represented among girls who experience exclusionary discipline, such as out-of-school suspensions, expulsions, and other punishment. Studies have shown that Black female disengagement from school partially results from racial injustices as well as their status as girls, forming disciplinary patterns that reflect horrendously misinformed and stereotypical perceptions.
WISCONSIN JAILS MORE BLACK MALES THAN ANY OTHER STATEAbout 1 in 8 black men of working age (13 percent) are in state prisons or jails.
According to census figures, African-Americans make up 6.5 percent of the state's population. Wisconsin also leads the nation in the percentage of Native men behind bars; 1 in 13 Indian men are incarcerated there. U.S. jails are to charge inmates up to $142 per night to stay there in an attempt to balance their budgets. |
Prisons For Profit Industry
A new report from the advocacy group In the Public Interest shows private prison companies mandate high inmate occupancy rates through their contracts with states – in some cases, up to 100 percent. The report, “Criminal: How Lockup Quotas and ‘Low-Crime Taxes’ Guarantee Profits for Private Prison Corporations,” finds three Arizona prisons must be filled to capacity under terms of its contract with Management and Training Corporation. If those beds aren't filled, the state must compensate the company. The report found that occupancy requirements were standard language in contracts drawn up by big private prison companies. One of those, The Corrections Corporation of America, made an offer last year to the governors of 48 states to operate their prisons on 20-year contracts. That offer included a demand that those prisons remain 90 percent full for the duration of the operating agreement. Read More... Trayvon is NOT the first, and will not be the Last
Trayvon Martin The fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman took place on the night of February 26, 2012, in Sanford, Florida. Martin was a 17-year-old, African American high school student. He was unarmed and headed home after buying skittles and sweet tea from a gas station close to his home. George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old multi-racial, Hispanic-American, claimed to be the captain of the Neighborhood Watch was the neighborhood watch coordinator cl for the gated community where Martin was temporarily staying and where the shooting took place. Zimmerman, against the instructions of the Emergency dispatcher pursued Martin on foot calling him “the suspect.” When the case garnered international attention, sparking protests all over the world, the state of Florida filled charges against him 46 days after Martin’s death. Zimmerman was tried for second-degree murder and manslaughter, and found not guilty on July 13, 2013. Ervin Jefferson The 18-year-old was shot and killed by two security guards — also African American — outside his Atlanta home on March 24, 2012. His mother says that he was unarmed and trying to protect his sister from a crowd that was threatening her. Amadou Diallo 22-year-old Amadou Ahmed Diallo, a Guinnea-Bissau immigrant, was killed when four white, New York police officers in plain clothes fired 41 shots at him; 19 of which hit his body. The officers said they thought Diallo was reaching for a gun when they shot him in the doorway of his apartment. It was just his wallet. During the trial, the officers admitted that they never considered the situation (four strangers in an unmarked car with guns approaching a guy on his stoop at night) from Diallo’s point of view. They were acquitted of all charges. Patrick Dorismond The 26-year-old father of two young girls was shot to death in 2000 during a confrontation with undercover police officers who asked him where they could purchase drugs. An officer claimed that Dorismond — who was unarmed — grabbed his gun and caused his own death. But the incident made many wonder whether the recent acquittal of the officers in the Amadou Diallo case sent a signal that the police had a license to kill without consequence Ousmane Zongo In 2003 Officer Bryan A. Conroy confronted and killed Zongo in New York City during a raid on a counterfeit-CD ring with which Zongo had no involvement. Relatives of the 43-year-old man from Burkina Faso settled a lawsuit against the city for $3 million. The judge in the trial of the officer who shot him (and was convicted of criminally negligent homicide but did not serve jail time) said he was “insufficiently trained, insufficiently supervised and insufficiently led.” Timothy Stansbury Unarmed and with no criminal record, 19-year-old Stansbury was killed in 2004 in a Brooklyn, N.Y., stairwell. The officer who shot him said he was startled and fired by mistake. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly called his death “a tragic incident that compels us to take an in-depth look at our tactics and training, both for new and veteran officers.” A grand jury deemed it an accident. Sean Bell Hours before his wedding, 23-year-old Sean Bell left a strip club that hosted his bachelor party, jumped into a car with two friends, and was killed when police fired 50 shots into his vehicle. Police say they opened fire after Bell rammed his car into an unmarked police van filled with plainclothes officers. They say they followed Bell and his friends outside the club suspecting that one person in their group had a gun. Referring to Bell and his friends, Mayor Bloomberg told the Associated Press ”there is no evidence that they did anything wrong.” A judge acquitted the officers of all charges in 2008. Orlando Barlow While surrendering on his knees in front of four Las Vegas police officers, Orlando Barlow was shot with an assault rifle by officer Brian Hartman 50 feet away. Hartman argued that he feared Barlow was feigning surrender and about to grab a gun. Barlow was unarmed. A jury ruled the shooting “excusable.” Hartman later resigned from the force a month before a federal probe uncovered that he and other officers printed T-Shirts labeled ”BDRT” which stood for “Baby’s Daddy Removal Team” and “Big Dogs Run Together.” Aaron Campbell Portland police officers got a call to check on a suicidal and armed man at an apartment complex. Aaron Campbell,25, came out of the apartment walking backward toward police with his hands over his head. The Oregonian reported that police say Campbell ignored their orders to put his hands up. At which point one officer fired six bean bag shots at his back. Witnesses say they saw Campbell reach his arm around his back, where the beanbag struck him. Officer Ronald Frashour said he saw Campbell reach both hands around his waistband to get a gun, so he shot Campbell in the back with an assault rifle. The jury acquitted the police officer with no criminal wrongdoing. Victor Steen 17-year-old Victor Steen died when he fled from police, after being tasered, crashing his bicycle andthen run over by police cruiser. Steen committed a simple traffic violation while riding his bike. The deadly incident was captured on video. The officers were acquitted of any criminal wrongdoing. Ronald Madison and James Brissette In 2005, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, five officers opened fire on an unarmed family on the east side of the Danziger Bridge, killing 17-year-old James Brissette and wounding four others. Then, officers shot at brothers Lance and Ronald Madison. Ronald, a 40-year-old man with severe mental disabilities, was running away when he was hit, and an officer stomped on and kicked him before he died. In a federal criminal trial, five officers involved in what have become known as the “Danziger Bridge Shootings” were convicted of various civil rights violations, but not murder. Oscar Grant On New Years morning, 2009, three Bay Area Rapid Transit officers pulled 22-year-old Oscar Grant and four other black men off a train in Oakland. You can view what happened afterwards in this Youtube video. In it, former-transit officer Mehserle can be seen shooting Grant in the back. During the trial, Mehserle argued that he thought Grant was reaching for a gun near his waistband. To stop this from happening, Mehserle said he intended to Tase him, but shot him with a pistol instead. He was sentenced to two years in prison and served 11 months. Jordan Davis On Nov. 23, an unarmed, 17-year-old Jordan Davis, was shot and killed by Michael Dunn after an argument over loud rap music. Dunn, 46, saw Davis through the window of a sport utility vehicle at a Jacksonville convenience store gas station before driving away, authorities say. Officials say Dunn parked next to the vehicle where Davis was sitting with three other teens. Dunn complained about the loud music and they started arguing. Dunn told police he thought he saw a gun and fired eight or nine shots into the vehicle. No weapons were found in the vehicle. He is charged with first degree murder. Kenneth Chamberlain On November 19, 2011, after his Life Aid medical alert necklace was inadvertently triggered, police came to Chamberlain’s home and demanded that he open his front door. Despite his objections and statements that he did not need help, the police broke down Chamberlain’s door, tasered him, and then shot him dead. Chamberlain was a 68-year-old, African-American, retired former-Marine, and a 20-year veteran of the Westchester County Department of Corrections. He wore the medical alert bracelet due to a chronic heart problem. A grand jury reviewed the case and decided that no criminal charge would be made against police. Abner Louiama 30-year-old Haitian immigrant, Abner Louima, was arrested and sodomized with a broomstick inside a restroom in the 70th Precinct station house in Brooklyn. The case became a national symbol of police brutality and fed perceptions that New York City police officers were harassing or abusing young black men as part a citywide crackdown on crime. One officer, Justin A. Volpe, admitted in court in May 1999 that he had rammed a broken broomstick into Mr. Louima’s rectum and then thrust it in his face. He said he had mistakenly believed that Mr. Louima had punched him in the head during a street brawl outside a nightclub in Flatbush, but he acknowledged that he had also intended to humiliate the handcuffed immigrant. He left the force and was later sentenced to 30 years in prison. The commanders of the 70th Precinct were replaced within days of the assault. As the legal case wore on, Charles Schwarz, a former police officer, was sentenced in federal court in 2002 to five years in prison for perjury stemming from the torture case. A jury found that Mr. Schwarz had lied when he testified that he had not taken Mr. Louima to the station house bathroom where the assault took place. Kimani Gray 16-year-old Kimani was shot four times in the front and side of his body and three times in the back by two New York City police officers as he left a friend’s birthday party in Brooklyn on March 9, 2013. The only publicly identified eyewitness is standing by her claim that he was empty-handed when he was gunned down. Kendrec McDade 19-year-old college student McDade was shot and killed in March 2012 when officers responded to a report of an armed robbery of a man in Pasadena, Calif. He was later found to be unarmed, with only a cellphone in his pocket. His death has prompted his family to file a lawsuit, in which McDade’s parents argue that he was left on the street for a prolonged period of time without receiving first aid. According to court documents, McDade’s last words were, “Why did they shoot me?” The officers involved were initially placed on paid administrative leave but have since returned to duty. Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams Russell and his passenger, Malissa Williams, were killed in Cleveland after police officers fired 137 rounds into their car after a chase in December 2012. Officers said they saw a possible weapon, but no weapon or shell casings were found in the fleeing car or along the chase route. The couple were riddled with bullets following a car chase which began when the sound of a car backfire was mistaken for a gunshot by police. Steven Washington Washington was shot by gang-enforcement officers Allan Corrales and George Diego in Los Angeles one night in 2010 after he approached them and appeared to remove something from his waistband. The officers said they’d heard a loud sound in the area and the 27-year-old, who was autistic, was looking around suspiciously. No weapon was ever recovered. Alonzo Ashley Police say that 29-year-old Ashley refused to stop splashing water from a drinking fountain on his face at the Denver Zoo one hot day in 2011, then made irrational comments and threw a trash can. The responding officers, who didn’t dispute that he was unarmed, killed him with a Taser, saying he had “extraordinary strength.” No criminal charges were filed against them. Wendell Allen Allen was fatally shot in the chest by officers executing a warrant on his house on March 7, 2012, in New Orleans. The 20-year-old was unarmed, and five children were home at the time of his death. Police found 4.5 ounces of marijuana on Allen after they killed him. An attorney for the family says that New Orleans police are investigating whether Officer Joshua Colclough was wrong to pull the trigger. Travares McGill In 2005 in Sanford, Fla. (the same county in which Travyon Martin was killed), the 16-year-old was killed by two security guards, one of whom testified that Travares was trying to hit him with his car. But evidence showed that the bullet that killed the teen hit him in the middle of the back and that the guard kept firing even after the car was no longer headed toward him. Ramarley Graham 18-year-old Ramarley Graham was shot and killed in February of 2012, when Officer Richard Haste and his partner followed Graham into his grandmother’s apartment where Graham was attempting to flush a bag of marijuana down the toilet. Haste fatally shot Graham, who was unarmed, in the chest. The officers did not have a warrant to be inside the home. A Bronx judge later tossed out an indictment against the NYPD cop. No weapon was ever uncovered from the scene. Tyrone Brown 32-year-old former Marine from East Baltimore, Tyrone Brown, was shot 12 times in a crowded bar after an off-duty Baltimore police officer fires 13 rounds at him for groping one of the officer’s lady friend’s. That officer, Gahiji Tshamba, was indicted for murder and faces a maximum life in prison charge if convicted. Tshamba was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Ernest Hoskins, Jr. 21-year-old who was shot to death by his boss, Christopher Reynolds, after they got into an argument during a lunch meeting at Reynolds home. Reynolds was arrested and charged with first degree murder 3 weeks after he killed Hoskins in Nov. 2012. Chavis Charter 21-year old who was found dead from a gunshot while handcuffed in the back of a police patrol car on July 29, 2012, was ruled a suicide. Keaton Otis 25-year-old Keaton Otis was shot and killed by Portland police in May 2011. He was killed after wounding an officer during a traffic stop in Northeast Portland. A grand jury later found no criminal wrongdoing by the Portland police officers. It’s suspected the police first pulled over his son after suspecting he was a gang member. A civil rights case by the Department of Justice was opened in June 2012. Danroy Henry, Jr. 20-year-old Danroy “DJ” Henry, a junior at Pace University in New York, was shot and killed by police outside a bar in Pleasantville, N.Y. early on Sunday, Oct. 17, 2010. His friend and fellow Oliver Ames High School graduate Brandon Cox and another young man were in the car with him. The officer who shot him said Henry was driving toward him and wouldn’t stop. That officer was cleared by a grand jury but is among several officers and jurisdictions being sued. A recent update in the case says the first official account of the shooting was purposely misleading. Idriss Stelley On June 12, 2001, Idriss Stelley shot more than 48 times and killed by nine San Francisco Police Officers at a movie theater. He was mentally-ill and both his girlfriend and mother confirmed with police that he needed to take his medicine when he disrupted a movie theater that prompted the police’s arrival. Jonathan Ferrell. This is Jonathan Ferrell. He was in a car accident at 2:30 in the morning on Saturday. It was pretty bad, he was forced to climb out of the back window of his car to get out. He ran to the nearest home and knocked on the door. The woman who owned the home called the police. The police arrived and saw Jonathan nearby. Jonathan ran to them, unarmed. He was probably so happy to see someone that could help him. The police shot and killed him after they tazed him. Jonathan was 24-years-old and a football player at Florida A&M University. He had just gotten engaged. His friends described him as a loving, peaceful man with a bright future. The cop who shot him has now had voluntary manslaughter. We have to make sure that the cop, Randall Kerrick, does not get away with this. In most cases like this, the cop gets no jail time and no sentence, and in many cases, they’re let back onto the force afterwards. Rekia Boyd Prosecutors say Dante Servin, 45, fired five shots from his car into a small group that had walked away from a large crowd of hundreds of people drinking, smoking and hanging out in a city park on March 21, 2012. Servin has said he meant to shoot a man pointing a gun at him - an object later learned to be a cell phone. One of the bullets Servin fired hit Rekia Boyd, 22, in the head. She later died while Antonio Cross, who held the cell phone, was shot in the hand but otherwise uninjured.The 9mm Glock Servin used in the shooting was unregistered. Aiyana Stanley-Jones Aiyana Mo'nay Stanley-Jones, slept on the couch as her grandmother watched television. Outside, Television was watching them. A half-dozen masked officers of the Special Response Team—Detroit's version of SWAT—were at the door, guns drawn. The SWAT team tried the steel door to the building. It was unlocked. They threw a flash-bang grenade through the window of the lower unit and kicked open its wooden door, which was also unlocked. The grenade landed so close to Aiyana that it burned her blanket. Joseph Weekley, the lead commando—burst into the house. His weapon fired a single shot, the bullet striking Aiyana in the head and exiting her neck. Police first floated the story that Aiyana's grandmother had grabbed Weekley's gun. Then, realizing that sounded implausible, they said she'd brushed the gun as she ran past the door. But the grandmother says she was lying on the far side of the couch, away from the door. Kylen English The family of Kylen English, who died after he reportedly escaped from a police cruiser while handcuffed, then jumped off the Salem Avenue bridge, filed a lawsuit Monday against the city of Dayton and Grandview Medical Center. The lawsuit, filed by attorney James Greene, also names Alex Magill, the Dayton police officer who was driving the cruiser, as a defendant. The lawsuit claims that Magill was negligent, as were hospital officials who treated English for a head injury shortly before his death. Magill, city officials and hospital officials could not be reached for comment late Tuesday. English, 20, died July 17 after police say he escaped from a police cruiser while handcuffed and jumped off the Salem Avenue bridge. Video of Kylen being beaten |
Robert Cameron Redus
Robert Cameron Redus, 23, was pulled over around 2:30 a.m. for driving erratically, according to a police report. Police said a “struggle ensued between the suspect driver and the police officer” before Cpl. Christopher Carter fired several shots. Police told ABC News they don’t know the cause of the struggle, or why Carter fired the shots. But one witness saidhe heard someone say “‘Oh, you’re gonna shoot me?’ like sarcastic almost,” before he heard 4-6 shots fired. Redus was pronounced dead at the scene. Carter was put on paid administrative leave while authorities investigate the incident. Tyler Comstock Police shot dead a 19-year-old who drove off in his father’s truck Monday, after a dispute with his father over a pack of cigarettes. According to audio dispatches, police knew it was the boy’s father who called the police after a minor argument. But police pursued the moving vehicle onto the Iowa State University campus, and fired six shots into the vehicle after Tyler Comstock refused to turn the car off and revved his engine. “It was over a damn pack of cigarettes. I wouldn’t buy him none,” Tyler’s father, James Comstock, told the DesMoines Register. “And I lose my son for that.” Marlon Brown In the graphic video, Brown, 38, tripped then threw his hands in the air and turned to face police a moment before he was struck by the cruiser on May 8. The city of DeLand reached a $550,000 settlement with the Browns but did not admit to any wrongdoing in the deadly chase that began with a traffic stop for a suspected seat belt violation. |