Wednesday, December 21, 2011

65 Anracho-Punks Sent to Re-Education Camp in Banda Ache

Indonesia Punk Crackdown Leaves Youths Unchanged

SEULAWAH, Indonesia -- Mohawks buzzed and noses free of piercings, dozens of youths march in military-style for hours beneath Indonesia's tropical sun – part of efforts by authorities to restore moral values and bring the "deviants" back into the mainstream.

But the young men and women have shown no signs of bending.

When commanders turn their backs, the shouts ring out: "Punk will never die!" Fists are thrown in the air and peace signs flashed. A few have managed briefly to escape, heads held high as they are dragged back.

Sixty-five young punk rockers arrived at this police detention center last week after baton-weiling police crashed a concert in Aceh – the only province in this predominantly Muslim nation of 240 million to have imposed Islamic laws.

They will be released Friday, after having completed 10 days of "rehabilitation," from classes on good behavior and religion to military-style drills aimed at instilling discipline.

Nineteen-year-old Yudi, who goes by only one name, says it's not working.

He tried unsuccessfully to shake off police when they took an electric razer to his spiky mohawk. At the sight of his hair scattered in the grass, he recalls, tears rolled down his face.

"It was torture to me."

"I can't wait to get out of here," he added. "They can't change me. I love punk. I don't feel guilty about my lifestyle. Why should I? There's nothing wrong with it."

His girlfriend, 20-year-old Intan Natalia, agrees.

Her bleach-blond hair has been cut to a bob and dyed black and she's been forced to wear a Muslim headscarf.

"They can say what they want, but I like life as a punk," she says. "It suits me."

Two young men hated it so much at the detention center, they tried to escape.

They almost succeeded, pretending they had to go to the bathroom, then fleeing to the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, 30 miles (50 kilometers) away.

Police found them strolling the streets nine hours later and brought them back.

It was just after midnight.

"They said they missed their parents, but it's pretty clear they were lying," said local police chief Col. Armensyah Thay. "They didn't go home. How could they? They've been living on the streets."

The crackdown marked the latest effort by authorities to promote strict moral values in Aceh, which, unlike other provinces in the sprawling archipelagic nation, enjoys semiautonomy from the central government.

That was part of a peace deal negotiated after the 2004 tsunami off Aceh convinced separatist rebels and the army to lay down their arms, with both sides saying they didn't want to add to people's suffering.

More than 230,000 people were killed in the towering wave, three quarters of them in Aceh.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

DA dropping death penalty against Abu-Jamal

Written by KATHY MATHESON

Wednesday, 07 December 2011

PHILADELPHIA — Prosecutors on Wednesday abandoned their 30-year push to execute convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal, the former Black Panther whose claim that he was the victim of a racist legal system made him an international cause celebre.

Abu-Jamal, 58, will instead spend the rest of his life in prison.

Flanked by police Officer Daniel Faulkner's widow, Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams announced his decision two days short of the 30th anniversary of the white patrolman's killing.

He said that continuing to seek the death penalty could lead to "an unknowable number of years" of appeals, and that some witnesses have died or are unavailable after nearly three decades.

"There's never been any doubt in my mind that Mumia Abu-Jamal shot and killed Officer Faulkner. I believe that the appropriate sentence was handed down by a jury of his peers in 1982," said Williams, the city's first black district attorney. "While Abu-Jamal will no longer be facing the death penalty, he will remain behind bars for the rest of his life, and that is where he belongs."

Abu-Jamal was originally sentenced to death. His murder conviction was upheld through years of appeals. But in 2008, a federal appeals court ordered a new sentencing hearing on the grounds that the instructions given to the jury were potentially misleading.

After the U.S. Supreme Court declined to weigh in two months ago, prosecutors were forced to decide whether to pursue the death penalty again or accept a life sentence without parole.

Williams said he reached the decision with the blessing of Faulkner's widow, Maureen.

"Another penalty proceeding would open the case to the repetition of the state appeals process and an unknowable number of years of federal review again, even if we were successful," the district attorney said.

Widener University law professor Judith Ritter, who represented Abu-Jamal in recent appeals, welcomed the move.

"There is no question that justice is served when a death sentence from a misinformed jury is overturned," Ritter said. "Thirty years later, the district attorney's decision not to seek a new death sentence also furthers the interests of justice."

According to trial testimony, Abu-Jamal saw his brother scuffle with the patrolman during a 4 a.m. traffic stop in 1981 and ran toward the scene. Police found Abu-Jamal wounded by a round from Faulkner's gun. Faulkner, shot several times, was killed. A .38-caliber revolver registered to Abu-Jamal was found at the scene with five spent shell casings.

Over the years, Abu-Jamal challenged the predominantly white makeup of the jury, the instructions given to the jurors and the accounts of eyewitnesses. He also complained that his lawyer was ineffective, that the judge was racist and that another man confessed to the crime.

His writings and radio broadcasts from death row put him at the center of an international debate over capital punishment and made him the subject of books and movies. The one-time journalist's own 1995 book, "Live From Death Row," depicts prison life and calls the justice system racist.

He garnered worldwide support from the "Free Mumia" movement, with hundreds of vocal supporters and death-penalty opponents regularly turning out for court hearings in his case.

His message resonated on college campuses and in Hollywood. Actors Mike Farrell and Tim Robbins were among dozens of luminaries who used a New York Times ad to call for a new trial, and the Beastie Boys played a concert to raise money for Abu-Jamal's defense.

Faulkner's widow labored to ensure her husband was not forgotten.

"My family and I have endured a three-decade ordeal at the hands of Mumia Abu-Jamal, his attorneys and his supporters, who in many cases never even took the time to educate themselves about the case before lending their names, giving their support and advocating for his freedom," she said Wednesday. "All of this has taken an unimaginable physical, emotional and financial toll on each of us."

Amnesty International, which maintains that Abu-Jamal's trial was "manifestly unfair and failed to meet international fair trial standards," said the district attorney's decision does not go far enough. Abu-Jamal still has an appeal pending before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court over the validity of ballistics evidence.

"Amnesty International continues to believe that justice would best be served by granting Mumia Abu-Jamal a new trial," said Laura Moye, director of the human rights group's Campaign to Abolish the Death Penalty.

Members of Philadelphia's police community stood with Williams and Maureen Faulkner as the decision was announced. Former police union president Rich Costello blasted the courts for ordering a new sentencing hearing.

"Where do Maureen and the Faulkner family go for a reduction in their sentence?" Costello said. "For 30 years now, they have been forced to suffer grief, anguish, abuse, insults, intimidation, threats and every other sort of indignity that can be visited on a family already in grief."

Faulkner lashed out at the judges who overturned the death sentence, calling them "dishonest cowards" who, she said, oppose the death penalty. The widow also vowed to fight any special treatment for Abu-Jamal behind bars, saying he should be moved to the general population after being taken off death row.

"I will not stand by and see him coddled, as he has been in the past," Faulkner said. "And I am heartened that he will be taken from the protective cloister he has been living in all these years and begin living among his own kind — the thugs and common criminals that infest our prisons." -- (AP)

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Third Veteran Hospitalized after Police Abuse at Protests

Tohono O'odham Veteran remains hospitalized after being pepper sprayed by police at ALEC

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Tohono O'odham Veteran David Ortega remained hospitalized Wednesday night after being pepper sprayed at the protest of the American Legislative Exchange Council, ALEC. Doctors are undertaking tests to see if Ortega had a heart attack or stroke after police repeatedly fired pepper spray on the peaceful protesters.

"It was like a cloud of pepper spray," Ortega said Wednesday night recovering in a Scottsdale hospital. "I was carrying the Veterans for Peace flag when another person was hit directly in the face with pepper spray. I rushed to the front to help him, like I always do as a Peacemaker."

Ortega said the pepper spray was fired at them several times. Ortega began experiencing shortness of breath and chest pains and was hospitalized. Ortega has been serving as a Peacemaker at Occupy Tucson in recent weeks. He is known nationally as a Peacemaker at Indigenous rights events. He is the third veteran to be hospitalized after police brutality in recent weeks.

Scott Olsen, Marine and member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, was shot in the head by a police projectile at Occupy Oakland. Olsen is still struggling to recover his speech. Then Kayvan Sabeghi, 32, also a veteran, was beaten by police, arrested and jailed the night of the shutdown of the Port of Oakland. He suffered a ruptured spleen.

During Wednesday's peaceful protest, Tohono O'odham youth Alex Soto was hit directly in the face with pepper spray by the police.

Indigenous Peoples, including O'odham and Navajos resisting relocation at Big Mountain on the Navajo Nation, are now gathered in Scottsdale will continue their protest and resistance of the corporate influence of ALEC. They announced plans for Thursday.

Dozens of protesters were attacked by police with pepper spray on Wed. Seven people were confirmed arrested so far in a day of action against ALEC, protesters said in a statement.

On Wednesday, starting at 8 a.m., hundreds marched and converged on the Kierland Westin Resort and Spa in Scottsdale, where ALEC is attempting to hold its annual States and Nation Summit.

“We will continue to use diversity of tactics to send the message to ALEC members that the we are watching and we will not stand for the further destruction of our communities and environment that ALEC members push into law in order to fill their own pockets," stated Alex Soto of O’odham Solidarity Across Borders.

“The amount of force that police are using to protect ALEC’s corporate interests reveals how corrupt this system is," Soto said.

The resisters said, "Behind closed doors of ALEC meetings, thousands of state politicians and hundreds of powerful transnational corporations come together to create laws that advocate for, among other things, the desecration of Indigenous land through eco-cide and the growing dragnet of incarceration that sweeps up immigrants and people of color, all for the profit of global corporations, like SB1070. "

Additional actions are planned through December 3.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1
4pm: March at Freeport McMoran
Converge at Freeport McMoran, Downtown Phoenix, AZ.
Decentralized Actions at Various Sites
Locations throughout the valley All day
Rally against ALEC influence on Arizona Politics organized by Arizona at Work
Speaking Event w/ Lisa Graves, Publisher of ALECexposed.org
6pm: At OccupyPhoenix
Full schedule located at: www.azresistsalec.wordpress.com/schedule/

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Turn on, tune in and get better?

Hallucinogens and other street drugs are increasingly being studied for legitimate therapeutic uses, such as helping patients deal with post-traumatic stress disorder, addiction, chronic pain, depression and even terminal illness.

By Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times

UCLA psychiatrist Charles Grob [pictured at right] led a team that found psilocybin improved the mood of patients with “existential anxiety” related to advanced-stage cancer. (Mark Boster, Los Angeles Times / November 15, 2011)the active ingredient in "magic mushrooms" — could help with depression or anxiety following a grim diagnosis.


Janeen Delany describes herself as an "old hippie" who's smoked plenty of marijuana. But she never really dabbled in hallucinogens — until two years ago, at the age of 59.

A diagnosis of incurable leukemia had knocked the optimism out of the retired plant nurserywoman living in Phoenix. So she signed up for a clinical trial to test whether psilocybin —

Delaney swallowed a blue capsule of psilocybin in a cozy office at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. She donned a blindfold, a blood pressure cuff and a headset playing classical music. With two researchers at her side, she embarked on a six-hour journey into altered consciousness that she calls "the single most life-changing experience I've ever had."

What a long, strange trip it's been. In the 1960s and '70s, a rebellious generation embraced hallucinogens and a wide array of street drugs to "turn on, tune in and drop out." Almost half a century later, magic mushrooms, LSD, Ecstasy and ketamine are being studied for legitimate therapeutic uses. Scientists believe these agents have the potential to help patients with post-traumatic stress disorder, drug or alcohol addiction, unremitting pain or depression and the existential anxiety of terminal illness.

"Scientifically, these compounds are way too important not to study," said Johns Hopkins psychopharmacologist Roland Griffiths, who conducted the psilocybin trial.

In their next incarnation, these drugs may help the psychologically wounded tune in to their darkest feelings and memories and turn therapy sessions into heightened opportunities to learn and heal.

"We're trying to break a social mind-set saying these are strictly drugs of abuse," said Rick Doblin, a public policy expert who founded the Multidisciplinary Assn. for Psychedelic Studies in 1986 to encourage research on therapeutic uses for medical marijuana and hallucinogens. "It's not the drug but how the drug is used that matters."

Regulators and medical researchers remain wary. But among at least some experts at the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration, the shift in attitude "has been dramatic," Doblin said.

Researchers explored the usefulness of hallucinogenic agents as an adjunct to psychotherapy in the 1950s and '60s. But allegations that hallucinogens were used in government-funded "mind control" efforts, freewheeling experimentation by proponents like Dr. Timothy Leary, and the drugs' appeal to a generation in revolt quashed legitimate research for decades.

The thaw has been slow in coming. In 2008, Griffiths co-wrote a report in the Journal of Psychopharmacology comparing psilocybin with a placebo for people dealing with incurable diseases. Psilocybin resulted in "mystical experiences having substantial and sustained personal meaning and spiritual significance," according to the study, the first since 1972 to explore a hallucinogen's therapeutic value.

In January, a team led by UCLA psychiatrist Charles Grob reported in Archives of General Psychiatry that psilocybin improved the mood of patients with "existential anxiety" related to advanced-stage cancer. The benefits lasted at least three months.

Janeen Delany is a typical case: The insights she gleaned during her encounter with psilocybin continue to shape her attitudes toward life and death.

Delany said her "trip" awakened a deep and reassuring sense of "knowing." She came to see the universe and everything in it as interconnected. As the music in her headphones reached a crescendo, she held her breath and realized it would OK — no, really easy — not to breathe anymore. She sensed there was nothing more she needed to know and therefore nothing she needed to fear about dying.

And that, paradoxically, has allowed her to live.

"When you take the veil of fear away from your life, you can see and experience everything in such a present way," she said. "I don't have to know what the future is. Every day is the day of days."

Fighting addiction

Such mystical insights are central in another potential use for psilocybin — as an addiction treatment. Griffiths is conducting a pilot study combining psilocybin with cognitive behavioral therapy to help smokers quit. Four people have completed the program, and so far none has returned to smoking, Griffiths says.

At the University of Arizona in Tucson, addiction specialist Dr. Michael P. Bogenschutz has proposed a clinical trial to test whether psilocybin can help ease alcohol dependence. If the NIH agrees to fund the study, it would be the first instance in decades of government financial support for a trial involving any drug of abuse.

Psilocybin's effect on the brain can be described, if not explained. It increases the activity of serotonin, a chemical that affects mood. Brain networks associated with emotions are highly active in the presence of psilocybin, as are structures involved in higher reasoning and judgment, MRI scans show.

Griffiths says that subjects routinely describe their psilocybin experience as one that "helps reorganize their thinking." For those facing death, that can bring new perspective on loved ones, on life and on what lies beyond; for those stymied by addiction, it can cut the addictive substance down to size. "Their enslavement to cigarette smoking will be almost funny," Griffiths said.

Psilocybin isn't the only drug on the cusp of a medical renaissance. Ketamine, best known as "Special K," has shown promise as a fast-acting antidepressant. It induces euphoria, hallucinations and "out of body" experiences when smoked or snorted. When administered intravenously at low doses, it can lift symptoms of deep depression in a matter of hours.

Ketamine's use in anesthesia has made it easier for researchers to study. They suspected its influence on a neurochemical called NMDA would make it a good antidepressant, since NMDA's activity is altered in people with depression.

In case reports, severely depressed patients who got ketamine in preparation for electroconvulsive shock therapy showed improvements in mood (even when the shock therapy failed), and several small clinical trials have demonstrated its fast-acting abilities. The findings indicate that for suicidal patients who can't afford to wait weeks or months for a standard antidepressant to take effect, ketamine could be a valuable rescue drug.

LSD may also be on the road to legitimacy. A 2006 study in Neurology surveyed people who used the drug to cope with persistent cluster headaches and found that it cleared them up and made them less frequent in most cases.

The results prompted Dr. John Halpern of Harvard Medical School's McLean Hospital to test a nonhallucinogenic LSD analog from the vaults of pharmaceutical giant Sandoz. At a research meeting in June, Halpern reported that 2-Bromo-LSD reduced the number of daily cluster headaches in six sufferers who participated in a pilot study.

Treating trauma

War has also created openings for the rehabilitation of some of these drugs. Ecstasy is a case in point.

The drug — whose chemical name is methylene dioxy methamphetamine, or MDMA — was patented in 1912 by Merck & Co. Its psychoactive properties prompted doctors to prescribe it for their patients; one pharmacologist called it "penicillin for the soul." But in 1988, the Drug Enforcement Agency declared MDMA a Schedule 1 controlled substance with high potential for abuse. Psychotherapists stopped prescribing it or continued to do so furtively.

On the street, Ecstasy has a reputation for dissolving anxiety and fear, suppressing social inhibition and enhancing one's willingness to trust others. PTSD sufferers avoid reminders of their pain or shut down at the prospect of facing it. A dose of Ecstasy appears to help these patients revisit their traumas and reflect on them without fear.

"It can connect people more with their emotions without them feeling they'll be overwhelmed by them," said psychiatrist Michael Mithoefer of Charleston, S.C., a clinical investigator for the Multidisciplinary Assn. for Psychedelic Studies.

Mithoefer has received FDA permission to test whether Ecstasy can help Iraq and Afghanistan veterans overcome their PTSD when used during psychotherapy sessions; six veterans have enrolled in the study. In an earlier clinical trial, Ecstasy helped 10 of 12 women recover from PTSD stemming from child sexual trauma. Only 2 out of 8 women who took a placebo had similar results, Mithoefer reported last year in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.

Ecstasy's reputation for enhancing trust has clear roots in its biological effect. Using brain scans, Columbia University psychologist Gillinder Bedi found that subjects who took MDMA showed heightened activity in a brain region associated with processing rewards and depressed activity in the amygdala — a source of fear reactions. In animals, MDMA boosts the hormone oxytocin, which promotes trust, sociability and interpersonal attachment.

A drug can't be dismissed because of a dangerous reputation or colorful history, Bedi said, if trials demonstrate that it is safe and can benefit patients.

New life

Janeen Delany said her psilocybin experience had added life to her years — and perhaps years to her life.

Every three months, she gets her white blood cells checked. With her form of leukemia, those counts are expected to rise steadily as the disease progresses. But in June 2009, four months after her psilocybin session, they went down. Every three months since, they have retreated further, leading two of her three doctors to declare her in remission.

Delany said her psychological improvement may have helped reverse her fortunes. Her lead oncologist is skeptical, but her neurologist is not so quick to dismiss the link. One should never underestimate "the healing power of the psyche," he told her.

Whatever, Delany said. Remission is beside the point.

"The fear is gone. It's all about living," she said. "The big stuff? Sheeesh — it's handled."

melissa.healy@latimes.com

Monday, October 3, 2011

Police Arrest More Than 700 Protesters on Brooklyn Bridge

October 1, 2011, 4:29 pm

Police Arrest More Than 700 Protesters on Brooklyn Bridge


Updated, 1:23 p.m. Sunday | In a tense showdown above the East River, the police arrested more than 700 demonstrators from the Occupy Wall Street protests who took to the roadway as they tried to cross the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday afternoon.

The police said it was the marchers’ choice that led to the enforcement action.

“Protesters who used the Brooklyn Bridge walkway were not arrested,” Paul J. Browne, the chief spokesman for the New York Police Department, said. “Those who took over the Brooklyn-bound roadway, and impeded vehicle traffic, were arrested.”

But many protesters said they believed the police had tricked them, allowing them onto the bridge, and even escorting them partway across, only to trap them in orange netting after hundreds had entered.

“The cops watched and did nothing, indeed, seemed to guide us onto the roadway,” said Jesse A. Myerson, a media coordinator for Occupy Wall Street who marched but was not arrested.

A video on the YouTube page of a group called We Are Change shows some of the arrests.

Around 1 a.m., the first of the protesters held at the Midtown North Precinct on West 54th Street were released. They were met with cheers from about a half-dozen supporters who said they had been waiting as a show of solidarity since 6 p.m. for around 75 people they believed were held there. Every 10 to 15 minutes, they trickled out into a night far chillier than the afternoon on the bridge, each clutching several thin slips of paper — their summonses, for violations like disorderly conduct and blocking vehicular traffic. The first words many spoke made the group laugh: all variations on “I need a cigarette.”

David Gutkin, 24, a Ph.D. student in musicology at Columbia University, was among the first released. He said that after being corralled and arrested on the bridge, he was put into plastic handcuffs and moved to what appeared to be a Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus, along with dozens of other protesters, for over four hours. They headed first into Brooklyn and then to several locations in Manhattan before arriving at the 54th Street precinct.

Men and women had been held separately, two or three to a cell. A few said they had been zip-tied the entire time. “We sang ‘This Little Light of Mine,’ ” said Annie Day, 34, who when asked her profession said, “I’m a revolutionary.” Ms. Day was wearing laceless Converse sneakers: police had required the removal of all laces as well as her belt. She rethreaded them on the pavement while a man who identified himself as a lawyer took each newly freed person’s name.

None of the protesters interviewed knew if the bridge march was planned or a spontaneous decision by the crowd. But all insisted that the police had made no mention that the roadway was off limits. Ms. Day and several others said that police officers had walked beside the crowd until the group reached about midway, then without warning began to corral the protesters behind orange nets.

Sarah Maslin Nir for The New York TimesBrett Wolfson-Stofko, center, ran through a line of cheering supporters after being released from the Midtown South Precinct in Manhattan.

The scene outside the Midtown South Precinct on West 35th Street around 2 a.m. was far more jovial. Only about 15 of the rumored 57 people had been released, but about a dozen waiting supporters danced jigs in the street to keep warm. They snacked on pizza. One even drank Coors Light beer, stashing the empty bottles under a parked police van. When a fresh protester was released, he or she ran through a gantlet formed by the waiting group, like a football player bursting onto the field during the Super Bowl. “This is so much better than prison!” one cheered.

“It’s cold,” said Rebecca Solow, 27, rubbing her arms as she waited on the sidewalk, “but every time one is released, it warms you up.”

The march on the bridge had come to a head shortly after 4 p.m., as the 1,500 or so marchers reached the foot of the Brooklyn-bound car lanes of the bridge, just east of City Hall.

In their march north from Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan — headquarters for the last two weeks of a protest movement against what demonstrators call inequities in the economic system — they had stayed on the sidewalks, forming a long column of humanity penned in by officers on scooters.

Where the entrance to the bridge narrowed their path, some marchers, including organizers, stuck to the generally agreed-upon route and headed up onto the wooden walkway that runs between and about 15 feet above the bridge’s traffic lanes.

But about 20 others headed for the Brooklyn-bound roadway, said Christopher T. Dunn of the New York Civil Liberties Union, who accompanied the march. Some of them chanted “take the bridge.” They were met by a handful of high-level police supervisors, who blocked the way and announced repeatedly through bullhorns that the marchers were blocking the roadway and that if they continued to do so, they would be subject to arrest.

There were no physical barriers, though, and at one point, the marchers began walking up the roadway with the police commanders in front of them – seeming, from a distance, as if they were leading the way. The Chief of Department Joseph J. Esposito, and a horde of other white-shirted commanders, were among them.

Ozier Muhammad/The New York TimesPolice secured some protesters’ hands with plastic ties.

After allowing the protesters to walk about a third of the way to Brooklyn, the police then cut the marchers off and surrounded them with orange nets on both sides, trapping hundreds of people, said Mr. Dunn. As protesters at times chanted “white shirts, white shirts,” officers began making arrests, at one point plunging briefly into the crowd to grab a man.

The police said that those arrested were taken to several police stations and were being charged with disorderly conduct, at a minimum. A police spokesman said some protesters — mostly those without identification — were still “going through the system” late Sunday morning.

A freelance reporter for The New York Times, Natasha Lennard, was among those arrested. She was later released.

Mr. Dunn said only people at the very front could hear the warning, and he was concerned that those in the back “would have had no idea that it was not O.K. to walk on the roadway of the bridge.” Mr. Browne said that people who were in the rear of the crowd that may not have heard the warnings were not arrested and were free to leave.

Earlier in the afternoon, as many as 10 Department of Correction buses, big enough to hold 20 prisoners apiece, had been dispatched from Rikers Island in what one law enforcement official said was “a planned move on the protesters.”

Etan Ben-Ami, 56, a psychotherapist from Brooklyn who was up on the walkway, said that the police seemed to make a conscious decision to allow the protesters to claim the road. “They weren’t pushed back,” he said. “It seemed that they moved at the same time.”

Mr. Ben-Ami said he left the walkway and joined the crowd on the road. “It seemed completely permitted,” he said. “There wasn’t a single policeman saying ‘don’t do this’.”

He added: “We thought they were escorting us because they wanted us to be safe.” He left the bridge when he saw officers unrolling the nets as they prepared to make arrests. Many others who had been on the roadway were allowed to walk back down to Manhattan.

Mr. Browne said that the police did not trick the protesters into going onto the bridge.

“This was not a trap,” he said. “They were warned not to proceed.”

In related protests elsewhere in the country, 25 people were arrested in Boston for trespassing while protesting Bank of America’s foreclosure practices, according to Eddy Chrispin, a spokesman for the Boston Police Department. The protesters were on the grounds and blocking the entrance to the building, Mr. Chrispin said.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, speaking briefly before marching in the Pulaski Day Parade in Manhattan on Sunday, also defended the police’s actions.

“The police did exactly what they were supposed to do,” the mayor said, noting that those who march without the city’s permission would continue to get summonses. “It’s very easy to get a permit,” he added.

As the morning wore on, Zuccotti Park had the hallmarks of Sundays the world over. There was brunch: someone had donated bagels and lox. There was the morning paper: protesters who had camped for the night read the self-published newspaper “The Occupied Wall Street Journal,” some snuggled the metallic blankets usually worn by marathon runners. One man brushed his teeth without water, standing up.

The scene was largely quiet, save a man in a fedora freestyle rapping with drummers in the east corner of the park. Many of those who had been arrested returned at about 3 a.m. to a heroes reception, said Rick DeVoe, 54, from East Hampton, Mass. They were sleeping in.

“It’s not always at a fever pitch,” Mr. DeVoe said. “It’s not easy sleeping out, it’s not easy going to jail.”

Quiet political discussions continued around the sleepers. One woman gave a pep talk to what looked like a new recruit. “It’s about taking down systems, it doesn’t matter what you’re protesting,” she said. “Just protest.”

Some tourists wandered in between the makeshift beds and volunteers sweeping up cigarette butts. A man visiting from Virginia and his 4-year-old son snapped photos, as did an elderly couple passing through.

Natasha Lennard, William K. Rashbaum and Elizabeth A. Harris contributed reporting.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Two officers charged with murder, manslaughter in death of homeless man


Two Fullerton police officers have been criminally charged in the violent confrontation that left a homeless man dead, Orange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas announced Wednesday.

Officer Manuel Ramos [left] has been charged with second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter in connection with the beating of 37-year-old Kelly Thomas, a homeless schizophrenic man. Officer Jay Cicinelli [right] has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and excessive use of force.

Rackauckas said the department reviewed 151 witness statements, videos of the beating, medical reports and police statements.

The district attorney's office had been awaiting the coroner's determination on the cause of death before deciding whether to file charges.

Officers approached Kelly Thomas on July 5 at the bus depot in downtown Fullerton while responding to a report of someone trying to break into cars. According to witness accounts, Thomas ran when officers attempted to search his bag. Exactly what happened next is unclear, but witnesses said they saw multiple officers hitting Kelly and shooting him with a Taser while he was on the ground.

Officials from the district attorney's office have said they were awaiting toxicology and other test results from the coroner before making a decision on the case. That report was handed over to the district attorney's office Tuesday, but the findings were not made public.

Thomas, a 37-year-old homeless man with schizophrenia, was a regular presence in downtown Fullerton. He died five days after the confrontation, after being removed from life support.

Earlier this month, an attorney representing the Thomas family released hospital records that showed Thomas had tested negative for drugs and alcohol and that the immediate cause of death was "brain death" due to "head trauma" from the incident.

The hospital records released showed that he suffered brain injuries, a shattered nose, a smashed cheekbone, broken ribs and severe internal bleeding. Thomas also had been shocked with a stun gun "multiple" times, including in the left chest near the heart, the records showed.

Thomas' father, Ron, has been pushing the district attorney's office to file charges against the officers, and the case has sparked a furious reaction, including weekly protests outside the police station and a recall campaign against three City Council members.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Redwoods versus red wine

The redwood tree and the wine grapevine are both iconic in Northern California. Two wineries are petitioning the state to let them clear redwoods and Douglas firs to make room for new Pinot Noir vineyards. Environmentalists want the trees protected.

Redwoods

Chris Poehlmann, right, with fellow environmentalist Peter Baye, says: "We are not going to let them rip these trees out by their roots, change the soil chemistry with amendments and develop neighborhoods so that these forests will never grow back." (Louis Sahagun / Los Angeles Times)


Two plants have long been iconic to Northern California: the soaring redwood tree and the lush wine grapevine. But should one be sacrificed for the other?

That question is being raised in Sonoma County a few miles from the Pacific and above the fog line, where two large wineries are petitioning the state to allow them to clear 2,000 acres of redwoods and Douglas firs to make room for new Pinot Noir vineyards.

Sonoma County planners say it would be the largest woodland-to-vineyard conversion in California's history and, not surprisingly, it's touched off a debate between fans of the majestic trees and aficionados of the grapes.

On one side are vintners eager to satisfy the public's growing taste for California Pinot Noir, a varietal that has a growing fan base and is part of the post-recession rebound of the state's wine industry.

On the other are environmentalists who want to protect the ecosystem of second-growth forests still recovering from earlier logging and even some winemakers, who are uneasy with the idea of cutting down redwoods to expand their industry's reach.

Codorniu, based in Spain and one of the world's largest wine producers, wants to use the land to expand the grape production of its winery in Napa, called Artesa. Another Napa winery, Premier Pacific Vineyards, wants to cultivate more Pinot Noir grapes and build 60 high-end estates on adjacent lands it already owns, called Preservation Ranch.

In exchange, the developers promise to restore streams, add more than 200 acres to a county park, plant 1 million redwoods and Douglas firs and make other environmental improvements.

Passions are running high among the opposition, though. One environmentalist critical of the project has taken to carrying a giant plywood replica of a chain saw to public meetings of the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors. Chris Poehlmann, a 61-year-old specialist in designing interactive museum exhibits, has also appeared at the meetings dressed as a 7-foot-tall, 40-pound wine bottle.

"We are not going to let them rip these trees out by their roots," Poehlmann said, "change the soil chemistry with amendments and develop neighborhoods so that these forests will never grow back."

Countered Nick Fry, president of the Sonoma County Wine Grape Commission: "This is not a plan to build a mall," he said. "They're talking about growing grapes."

The project is slated for Annapolis, a remote coastal outpost known for its grazing sheep and wildlife, including the endangered steelhead trout, a symbol of the nearby Gualala River, one of the cleanest waterways in California.

The land where developers envision future vineyards is ideal for redwoods and firs but also for the finicky Pinot Noir grape. The days are bright and warm and the nights cool; excellent conditions for growing the thin-skinned grape.

There is an economic draw to the area too. Just as "Napa Valley" on a wine label can command a higher price for a bottle of Cabernet, there is a certain amount of cachet to Pinot Noirs made along the Sonoma Coast.

Tom Adams, a Preservation Ranch official, contends that the project's opponents are exaggerating the effect of converting the land to vineyards and downplaying the benefits. These forests can be cleared and preserved at the same time, he said, to serve the needs of the land and its residents — as well as the corporations' financial interests.

"We are here, first and foremost, because this is a premier location with potential to produce world-class wine," Adams said.

The effort comes just as the state's wine industry is emerging from a slump. After two years of sluggish wine sales and a glut of inventory, consumers are starting to reach for — and spend more on — their favorite varietals.

Domestic wine sales grew 7% in 2010 over the previous year, according to the Wine Institute in San Francisco. And for the first time, American consumers in 2010 bought more wine than the French (though the French still drink far more wine per capita than Americans).

Not surprisingly, U.S. winemakers are seeking to capitalize on the public's renewed interest and hedge their bets by diversifying what they produce. One wine getting attention, particularly among restaurant sommeliers, is Pinot Noir.

A high-end Pinot Noir from Sonoma may not be cheap — but it's often less expensive than a bottle of Cabernet from Napa.

"People want something to drink in a restaurant that they can enjoy and yet still afford. More often, that's a Pinot Noir," said Merry Edwards, owner of a winery in the Sonoma County town of Sebastopol.

But the idea of turning these forest lands into grape farms chills some conservationists.

"I don't see a need for more deforestation to have a great wine economy, because there is a lot of cleared land already available," said Adina Merelender, a UC Berkeley conservation biologist.

"The big issue for us," added Jay Holcomb of the Sierra Club, "is that redwoods-to-vineyards conversions are worse than clear-cutting because they are permanent."

Opponents organized under the banner Friends of the Gualala River have enlisted allies among the Kashia Band of Pomo Indians, who worry that the project would destroy sacred remains scattered throughout the targeted groves.

"I get mad just thinking about the people from far away who can't wait to buy wine from vineyards that would destroy our forests and ancestral lands," said Violet Parrish, a Pomo tribal elder who lives near Annapolis. "We don't want those vineyards, or the fertilizer and pesticides that would pollute water supplies our children will depend upon."

One thing everyone seems to agree on, though, is that Sonoma County, the lead regulatory agency considering the land deal, faces some tough choices when planners take up the issue later this year.

Sonoma County planner David Schiltgen says the project is "controversial from beginning to end."

"They are proposing to completely remove the forest and replace it with vineyards," he said, "at a time when political winds are howling with global deforestation and carbon-sequestration concerns."

louis.sahagun@latimes.com

p.j.huffstutter@latimes.com

Monday, August 15, 2011

Temecula quarry plan meets resistance from neighbors, tribe

The Pechanga Band of Indians and other neighbors object to a plan to dynamite a Temecula mountain and create a massive rock quarry worth billions.

Mark Macarro, opponent of Temecula quarry

Mark Macarro, tribal chairman of the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians, is trying to prevent a quarry proposed for a site that his people consider sacred. The quarry would be about 500 yards from the Pechanga reservation. (Gina Ferazzi, Los Angeles Times / August 11, 2011)

By Phil Willon, Los Angeles Times
A boulder-strewn mountain west of the Temecula Valley, created by violent mashing of tectonic plates during the Jurassic Period, holds more than 270 million tons of granite that's become as politically explosive as the dynamite that may eventually blow it to bits.

The ridge is an anonymous landmark for most drivers speeding south on the 15 Freeway toward Escondido, but to the Granite Construction Co., those gray rocks look like money.

The company plans to build a gargantuan rock quarry on the mountain that could supply concrete and asphalt to fast-growing northern San Diego County for the next 75 years.

But the proposed project has riled many in the community, who see it more as a threat to the area's future than an economic boon.

Among others, the project has stirred the ire of the influential Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians, whose reservation and four-star resort casino lie near the foot of the peak. The proposed quarry is on private, non-reservation land on Pu`éska Mountain, tucked within a series of peaks that the Pechanga Band and other Luiseño people believe is the cradle of creation and place of origin for all Luiseño.

"We're kind of demanding here that our value system is not going to be trod on any longer," said Tribal Chairman Mark Macarro, lamenting that many of the Luiseño's sacred sites outside of tribal lands already have been lost to development.

And the Pechanga Band — which has contributed $351,000 to state politicians and California's Democratic and Republican parties in 2011 alone — is pushing legislation in Sacramento that would, in essence, outlaw rock mines near reservations.

The Pechanga Band's presence adds a twist to usual David-versus-Goliath disputes that play out in many far-flung towns over proposed mines, landfills and prisons, providing a counterweight to the political muscle of Granite Construction, a multimillion-dollar Northern California construction company that contributes generously to local and state politicians.

Adding to the intrigue has been the response by Temecula, one of the most conservative, pro-business nooks of the Inland Empire. The city has spent more than a half a million dollars to nix the project, and even mounted an unsuccessful attempt to annex the quarry site into the city limits.

The quarry's five-year march through Riverside County's permitting process has unleashed furious PR campaigns and counter-campaigns, trumpeting the project as an economic savior or black plague to the recession-flattened region.

The county's planning commission on Monday will hold its fifth hearing on the project, the first of which drew more than 1,000 people. No matter the vote, the 414-acre quarry site will end up with the Riverside County Board of Supervisors, where its fate remains a mystery. And the project will probably end up in court.

Officials with Granite Construction say the rock mine will produce 99 high-paying jobs and twice that number at outside firms that offer support to the mining operation. Company pamphlets also boast that the new rock mine will improve air quality: The local supply of aggregate rock will eliminate the need to haul concrete and asphalt from mines in Corona, Irwindale, Lake Elsinore and the Coachella Valley.

"The emissions and wear and tear on the roads will be lessened significantly," said Granite Co. spokeswoman Karie Reuther. "You'll eliminate 16 million truck miles every year and all the greenhouse gas emissions that go along with that.''

The mining company signed a pact with the South Coast Air Quality Management District to use low-emissions trucks to haul the gravel and sand from the quarry, and to provide constant air monitoring to ensure that hazardous contaminates or particulates don't drift into nearby neighborhoods. The mine will be hidden by a ridge, out of view of both Temecula and traffic on the interstate below, Reuther said.

Temecula City Councilman Jeff Comerchero, who boasts of being pro-business and a developer, dismisses Granite's assertions about the benefits to the local economy and environment.

He said having a mine perched over the city, with dynamite blasting away all day, will cripple Temecula's tourism industry. A study commissioned by the city estimated that the mine would reduce property values by $540 million and cause construction, tourism and retail sales to plummet, costing the region $80 million a year.

Two-thirds of the aggregate mined from the site — which will carve a 1,000-foot-deep hole in the mountain — is expected to be used in San Diego County, adding to Temecula's disenchantment.

"This is critical to the future quality of life to our citizens," Comerchero said. "I have a big problem with them coming in and saying they are doing this to make life better for everybody. It will generate $5 billion during the life of the quarry. That's a lot of incentive to get their project done at all costs."

The Temecula Valley's wineries, school board, homeowners groups and tourism council are opposed.

More than 169 doctors in the region also joined forces against the quarry, concerned that particulates from the continuous blasting would be carried by coastal winds that blow west into the valley every afternoon.

Their gravest concern is crystalline silica dust, a carcinogen that's a common byproduct of granite and other materials. Those fears have not been muted by assurances from the South Coast Air Quality Management District and the company's environmental review that assert that the rock mine would not produce crystalline silica or other hazardous particulates that would endanger nearby neighborhoods.

"We feel it's a chance that we don't want to take," said Temecula pediatrician Daniel Robbins, leader of Physicians Against the Quarry. "We know with some of our patients, even a slight decrease in air quality can cause a problem."

Representatives with Granite Construction say they are trying everything possible to assuage community concerns, including offering to install air monitors at schools and at Temecula City Hall. Reuther said the company will take extraordinary measures to reduce dust from the mine.

Reuther said Granite wasn't aware of the Pechanga Band's objections until about five years into the permitting process. The company was working to address those concerns until a few weeks ago, when it says it learned the tribe was pushing legislation to kill the project.

Pechanga band officials said the tribe raised concerns with county planning officials in 2005, specifically warning about sacred places in the area.

According to the Luiseño story of creation, it was within those mountains where the earth and the sky came together to form the world, and they still are home to the spirits of the first people. The proposed quarry would be on the peak that was the cremation site for the first death, which brought death into the world.

"We're not anti-development. We're not anti-mine, but it's a problem with that particular site," Macarro said. "It's really hard to overstate how important this is in how we view the world."

phil.willon@latimes.com

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Leonard Peltier in the Hole 'They are torturing me'

Leonard Peltier Imprisoned in Small Cell - Dangerously Hot

Wednesday, 27 July 2011
By Leonard Peltier


Dear Friends,

For over 35 years I have been in federal prison for crimes I did not commit. Since June 27 the guards have had me in the hole, a small miserable cell with little air that is dangerously hot. They are torturing me by keeping me in solitary confinement this is an effort to break and kill me. However, the public pressure being generated by my many supporters and counsel is making a real difference.

The government wants me to die in here, but I'm not going to. A dynamic new legal team with lead attorney Robert R. Bryan of San Francisco has brought an innovative approach to the case. He is not going to let them continue to slowly execute me. Robert has launched a complex investigation spanning the entire country. The team also includes Nicole Gibier, my International Legal Liaison, and Cheryl J. Cotterill, associate legal counsel. With the leadership of Dorothy Ninham from the Oneida Reservation, Wisconsin, who I knew long before being arrested, and dedicated volunteers, we are rekindling the movement.

I am innocent. A racist jury tried me. A biased judge would not let me have a fair trial and the prosecution manufactured evidence including a supposed murder weapon. Later on October 15, 1985, the government admitted that it "can't prove who shot those agents." The judge would not even let me prove that the FBI intimidated and tortured witnesses and was engaged in a Reign of Terror a war against the people on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

Robert's experience, tenacity, and unbridled approach can once and for all win my freedom. He has won countless murder cases and has represented members of the American Indian Movement. Robert successfully defended Jimmy Eagle, indicted for the murder of the two FBI agents in the case for which I was wrongly convicted. He understands the struggle.

To succeed we must have money for my defense. We desperately need your help. Please make a contribution (and indicate that your donation is for the "Legal Defense") to:

Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee
PO Box 7488
Fargo, ND 58106


You can also contact my attorney directly:RobertRBryan@gmail.com (Law Offices of Robert R. Bryan, 2107 Van Ness Avenue, Suite 203, San Francisco, California 94109-2572).

I believe in the Spirit of Crazy Horse. They have imprisoned my body, but my spirit soars like an eagle. I will never give up, despite the threats to my health and life from this long imprisonment. I am an innocent man and will continue fighting against the genocide of my people.

In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,

Doksha,

Leonard Peltier

Thursday, June 30, 2011

O'odham: Not Guilty in Border Patrol Lockdown Protest

DATE: Thursday June 29, 2011
Contact: Alex Soto
Phone: 602-881-6027
Email: stopbordermilitarization@gmail.com

Border Patrol Headquarters Occupation Protesters Found Not Guilty
Reaffirms Call to End Border Militarization

Chuckson (Tucson), AZ - The six protesters who locked-down and occupied the United States Border Patrol (BP) – Tucson Headquarters on May 21, 2010 were found not guilty on the remaining count of a disorderly conduct "with serious disruptive behavior” charge.

The legal defense, William G. Walker and Jeffrey J. Rogers, argued that the remaining charge of disorderly conduct did not apply because it did not meet any of the statutes of the charge. After three hours of deliberation, the judge found the six not guilty.

The city prosecutor had attempted to re-introduce the previously misfiled criminal trespassing as a misdemeanor charge, but this charge was dismissed after the first trial date for the occupiers in February. After an objection by the defense, the state’s motion was denied.

“Today’s not guilty verdict shows that we, as O’odham, are not the ones who are disorderly. It is the Border Patrol, the Department of Homeland Security, and the various levels of government that perpetrate the violence in our communities,” stated Alex Soto, Tohono O’odham, one of the protesters and member of O’odham Solidarity Across Borders Collective. “When will the institutions, whose conduct continues for more than 500 years of trespassing, that terrorize indigenous and migrants communities, be held accountable?”

“No state entity can deny peoples’ inherent right to freedom of movement," said Marisa Duarte, one of the protesters standing trial. "Borders are a colonial weapon used to continue the genocide of indigenous people and their culture. Through trade they exploit natural resources and use the profits to further the progress of neo-liberal infrastructure projects such as CANAMEX and NAFTA. This results in the criminalization of those who defy borders through living their lives traditionally. You see the forced relocation of families from borders all around the world. Today we say no more to this criminalization of people.”

O’odham Elders and community members attended the court proceedings to demonstrate their support.

“Today we celebrate our victory in court, but understand this is just one step in ending border militarization. We took action last May in order to directly confront the issues in our communities by physically intervening and occupying the Border Patrol station. Since that time, many have answered the call to end border militarization, and victories like today have inspired more action,” said Franco Habre.

As the six waited for the state’s decision, 16 angry community members targeted the prison firm G4S (formally Wackenhut) and were cited criminal trespassing charges. The16 declared in no uncertain terms their opposition to the company’s profiteering at the expense of immigrant communities in Tucson, across the nation and throughout the world. Their action, which was organized autonomously by Tucson community members, was carried out under the banner of Direct Action for Freedom of Movement.

The six still stand firmly with their commitment and demands to end border militarization and their initial demands are listed below:

- Immediately withdraw National Guard Troops from the US/Mexico border
- Immediately halt development of the border wall
- Immediately remove drones and checkpoints
- Decommission all detention camps and release all presently held undocumented migrants
- Immediately honor Indigenous Peoples rights of self-determination
- Fully comply with the recently signed UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples
- Respect Indigenous People's inherent right of migration
- End NAFTA, FTAA and other trade agreements
- Immediately end all CANAMEX/NAFTA Highway projects (such as the South
Mountain Freeway)
- Immediately repeal SB1070 and 287g
- End all racial profiling
- No BP encroachment/sweeps on sovereign Native land
- No raids and deportations
- Immediate and unconditional regularization (“legalization”) of all people
- Uphold human freedom and rights
- Uphold the rights of ALL Indigenous People - repeal HB 2281, support the UN
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People
- Support dignity and respect
- Support and ensure freedom of movement for all people

Soto concluded, “This action was a prayer. We’d like to thank those who stood with us during this process and to all who firmly stand with us to end border militarization. The occupation of the Border Patrol station was never about any group/organization, or us, it was about directly confronting the terror that the state unleashes upon indigenous and migrant communities, so we can critically challenge border militarization. As an O’odham, I always think back to my grandparents’ teachings: We as O’odham people have always traveled freely, regardless of the border. It’s our land, who we are, and we will defend it.”


To view the occupation video and for additional resources please visit:
http://www.oodhamsolidarity.blogspot.com/
http://www.survivalsolidarity.wordpress.com/

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

U.S. judge acts to help endangered species in California

Federal agencies are given six months to enhance protections in four Southern California national forests for 40 endangered species.

By Louis Sahagun, Los Angeles Times

June 29, 2011


A U.S. District Court judge Tuesday ordered three federal agencies to "take all necessary measures" to better protect 40 endangered species in four national forests in Southern California.

Judge Marilyn Hall Patel's action followed a 2009 federal court decision that management plans for the Angeles, Cleveland, Los Padres and San Bernardino national forests failed to ensure that human activities not jeopardize already-imperiled plants and animals.

Patel gave the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Forest Service six months to develop and implement long-term safeguards for the 40 species, which include the California condor and California gnatcatcher. The forest managers will have to develop a comprehensive program to reduce activities threatening the survival of the few steelhead trout left in the Los Padres and Cleveland national forests.

They were also ordered to report on the impacts that suction dredge mining in the San Gabriel River has had on the Santa Ana sucker, and "explain why such mining should not be immediately halted." Suction dredge mining, which is used to separate gold from stream gravel, harms water quality by spreading silt and sand.

Concrete river channels, dams and pollution caused by urban runoff have played roles in the suckers' decline, scientists say. Today, the fish clings to existence in small, shaded stretches of the Santa Ana and San Gabriel rivers and Big Tujunga Creek.

Officials from the agencies were not immediately available for comment. Ileene Anderson, spokeswoman for the Center for Biological Diversity, which sued over the agencies' forest management plans, said, "We're ecstatic. We always felt we had a strong case, and on Tuesday, the judge agreed."

Pending development of the new protection plans, Patel ordered the U.S. Forest Service to halt construction and public access in the vicinity of Williamson Rock and Little Rock Creek Road in the Angeles National Forest, popular hiking areas that are also home to endangered mountain yellow-legged frogs and arroyo toads. Both amphibians have lost nearly all their historic habitat.

In addition, Patel closed the Cherry Canyon area of the Los Padres National Forest to recreational shooting.

Kim Delfino, California program director for the Defenders of Wildlife, said, "The lesson of this ruling is this: These federal agencies can no longer get by simply saying, 'Nothing is going to happen to these species — trust us.'"

In addition to the condor and gnatcatcher, animals and plants expected to benefit from the ruling include the San Joaquin fox, Steller sea lion, Smith's blue butterfly, ash-gray Indian paintbrush and bird-footed checkerbloom.

Monday, June 6, 2011

Elmer ‘Geronimo’ Pratt, at 63; former Black Panther leader

NAIROBI — Former Black Panther Party leader Elmer “Geronimo’’ Pratt, whose California murder conviction was overturned after he spent 27 years in prison for a crime he maintained he did not commit, died early yesterday from a medical ailment, an associate said. He was 63.

Mr. Pratt died at his home in Imbaseni village, 15 miles from Arusha, Tanzania, where he lived, said a friend, former Black Panther Pete O’Neal.

Mr. Pratt was convicted in 1972 of being one of two men who robbed and fatally shot schoolteacher Caroline Olsen on a Santa Monica tennis court in December 1968.

Mr. Pratt insisted he was in Oakland for Black Panther Party meetings the day of the murder, and that FBI agents and police hid and possibly destroyed wiretap evidence that would prove it.

The Black Panther Party was an African-American revolutionary leftist organization, active in the United States from 1966 until 1982. It achieved notoriety through its involvement in the Black Power movement and in US politics of the 1960s and ’70s.

Lawyer Stuart Hanlon, who helped Mr. Pratt win his freedom, said Mr. Pratt refused to carry any resentment about his treatment by the legal system.

“He had no anger, he had no bitterness, he had no desire for revenge. He wanted to resume his life and have children,’’ Hanlon said from San Francisco. “He would never look back.’’

Mr. Pratt lived a peaceful life in Tanzania that he loved, O’Neal said. Mr. Pratt returned from a visit to the United States about 10 days ago and remarked that he appreciated the pace of his life in Africa.

“He’s my hero. He was and will continue to be,’’ O’Neal said. “Geronimo was a symbol of steadfast resistance against all that is considered wrong and improper. His whole life was dedicated to standing in opposition to oppression and exploitation. . . . He gave all that he had and his life, I believe, struggling, trying to help people lift themselves up.’’

Mr. Pratt worked with the United African Alliance Community Center in Arusha for the last nine years that he lived in the Tanzanian community, which sits near the base of Mount Kilimanjaro. The organization, which O’Neal founded 20 years ago, works to empower youth.

Mr. Pratt’s lawyers, who included high-profile defense attorney Johnnie Cochran, blamed his arrest on a politically charged campaign by J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI against the Black Panthers and other perceived enemies of the government.

Mr. Pratt’s belated reversal of fortune came with the disclosure that a key prosecution witness hid the fact he was an ex-felon and a police informant.

Superior Court Judge Everett Dickey granted Pratt a new trial in June 1997, saying the credibility of prosecution witness Julius Butler — who testified that Mr. Pratt had confessed to him — could have been undermined if the jury had known of his relationship with law enforcement. He was freed later that month.

Cochran, best known representing such clients as O.J. Simpson and Michael Jackson, called the day Mr. Pratt’s freedom was secured “the happiest day of my life practicing law.’’

Prosecutors announced two years after the conviction was overturned that they would abandon efforts to retry him.

“I feel relieved that the L.A. DA’s office has finally come to their senses in this respect,’’ Mr. Pratt said at the time. “But I am not relieved in that they did not come clean all the way in exposing their complicity with this frame-up, this 27-year trauma.’’

He settled a false imprisonment and civil rights lawsuit against the FBI and city of Los Angeles for $4.5 million in 2000.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Idaho and Montana prepare for wolf hunts

By Kim Murphy, Los Angeles Times It used to be you could look across the ridge from Ron Gillett's house and a couple of dozen elk would be foraging for grass. Then you'd hear a scary kind of howling, and the elk would take off, a pack of wolves close on their heels.

It got so that Gillett couldn't stand to see the spindly elk calves fall into the wolves' hungry embrace — not when hunting elk has been part of his livelihood for much of his life. He'd get screaming mad at wolf advocates who came to watch in wonder as the packs executed their skillful and deadly dances around their prey.

"When I see a cow elk with her guts hanging out, and a little calf that's been hamstrung — I know I'm on the right side. No question about it," Gillett said. "These Canadian wolves are the most cruel, vicious predators in North America."

Now the days of talking compromise are over, he said. "We're killing 'em."

A week after Congress quietly passed a budget rider requiring wolves to be removed from the endangered species list in Idaho and Montana, state officials are preparing to draw up plans for new wolf hunts.

Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter, a Republican, just signed an emergency law authorizing him to declare a wolf "disaster." Gillett and others hope that is a prelude to county sheriffs setting up posses to take out wolf packs that have fed on dwindling elk herds.

There has perhaps been no more contentious issue in the modern West than the federal government's reintroduction of wolves 16 years ago into the northern Rockies. Their number has grown to at least 1,700 and sparked fiercely competing narratives of the relationship between ranchers, hunters, wildlife and wilderness.

This month, years of litigation and tense political standoffs concluded in a flash, with a little-discussed rider attached to the must-pass federal budget bill by Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho).

The law requires the Interior Department within 60 days to remove northern Rockies wolves from the endangered species list everywhere but Wyoming, where negotiations continue, and specifically prevents the courts from intervening.

Though conservation groups launched a desperate battle to defeat the measure, "it took everybody a while to realize just how little support wolves had in Congress," said Louisa Willcox, a Natural Resources Defense Council wildlife advocate in Montana.

Idaho officials said they had no immediate plans to exercise the emergency declaration. They said they would probably wait for an organized hunting season similar to one in 2010, when the federal Endangered Species Act designation was briefly lifted and 188 wolves in Idaho were shot by hunters.

But wolf advocates fear that the congressional green light will result in a virtual open season on wolves in Idaho that could kill so many that the animals — whose population in the state declined 19% last year to 700 even under federal protection — may ultimately be thrown back into danger of extinction.

"It's going to be ugly. They're talking about trapping, baiting, snaring, electronic calls," said Lynne Stone, a representative of the Boulder-White Clouds Council, a wilderness advocacy group in Ketchum. "I'm trying to steel myself for it, figure out how I'm going to handle it. But I'm sitting here feeling like I'm living in a nightmare."

Stone has spent years documenting the movements of wolves in the nearby Sawtooth Wilderness and the mountains around Sun Valley. But these days, there isn't much to see. The Idaho hunt in 2010, combined with road kill and a shooting by federal Wildlife Services agents, wiped out most of the Phantom Hill pack near Ketchum.

Conflicts with ranchers near Stanley had prompted federal agents to take out many of the 13 wolves in the Soda Butte pack there the previous fall, and after hunters shot three more, only one Soda Butte wolf remained. "He's still up there," Stone said.

She has become much more wary about driving out to Stanley, where she once lived. Gillett, who leads a group popularly known as the Idaho Anti-Wolf Coalition, was charged with assault in 2008 when he was accused of shoving Stone and grabbing her camera. The case ended in a hung jury.

"We're hoping people can see what kind of circus is going on here," said Garrick Dutcher, spokesman for Living With Wolves, a documentary film project that captured the rituals and habits of a pack of wolves in the Sawtooth Wilderness. "I'm not aware of any time when an animal was a cause for a state emergency disaster declaration. I mean, that's when the National Guard gets called in, right? It's really just a call to arms, a rallying cry, for wolf haters."

Yet many Idaho residents say elk in Idaho — a mainstay of the hunting economy — are down 20%. Hunters booking at Gillett's cabins are a fraction of what they once were. Many say it's easier to admire wolves when they aren't stealing through your pastures and driveways at night.

Karen Calisterio told a state Senate committee considering the wolf emergency law this month that she was approached in November in her driveway in the northern town of Tensed by four large wolves. "For 18 long, horrifying minutes, I was trapped," she said. "They had plenty of open space to run into in all directions, and yet they kept advancing on me as I was screaming into my cellphone."

That Idaho and Montana will kill wolves later this year appears beyond doubt. The question is how many. That will be determined by state wildlife managers in the coming months.

Conservationists have said there are barely enough wolves now to ensure their survival.

Gillett makes no bones about how many he wants here. "Zero," he said.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

3-Week Update on Japan’s Nuclear Crisis

3-Week Update on Japan’s Nuclear Crisis

Two nuclear plants northeast of Tokyo were initially the main focus of concern after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami: Fukushima Dai-Ichi (or Fukushima I) with six reactors and Fukushim Daini (or Fukushima II) with four reactors.

Currently, all the reactors at Fukushima Daini have reached cold shutdown, meaning the water in the reactors is below boiling temperature and should remain that way as long as nothing disrupts the cooling. There have been no reported problems with the spent-fuel pools at this site.

Serious problems remain at Fukushima Dai-Ichi with both the reactors and spent fuel pools, which contain large amounts of radioactive fuel. All the operating reactors were shut down in the period after the earthquake but before power was knocked out by the tsunami.

However, fuel in an operating reactor becomes highly radioactive and that radioactivity continues to generate heat even after the reactor has been turned off and the fuel has been removed from the reactor, so the radioactive fuel rods must be continually cooled for years. This is done by circulating cooling water around the fuel that is in the storage pools and in the reactor.

If the cooling stops, the fuel begins to heat up. If this continues long enough the cladding may get hot enough to react with water in the air to release hydrogen, which can explode if it builds up. If the cladding continues to heat up and react with water, it can expand and rupture, releasing radioactive gases. If the fuel heats up enough, the fuel pellets can begin to melt, which releases larger amounts of radioactive gases.

While the reactor has several layers of containment to keep gases in the core from escaping to the atmosphere—a steel reactor vessel and a steel and concrete containment structure—damage to the reactor vessel and reactor containment can allow some of this to escape, as can intentional venting of gas from the containment to reduce pressure. Gases released from spent fuel in the pools are contained by the reactor building, but can be released if the building is damaged.

The earthquake and tsunami caused a loss of AC power to the facilities so that motor-driven cooling of the reactors and spent fuel pools stopped. Cooling was provided for a few more hours to the reactors by steam-driven pumps, but those stopped when the batteries needed to operate the systems ran out of power. Workers have struggled to resume cooling to minimize damage to the fuel and release of radioactivity.

Current Status at Fukushima Dai-Ichi

The Fukushima Dai-Ichi facility has 6 reactors, all built in the 1970s. Three—Units 1, 2, and 3—were operating at the time of the earthquake, while Units 4, 5, and 6 were shut down for maintenance. All the fuel had been moved from the Unit 4 reactor vessel into the spent fuel pool, so there is no concern about the Unit 4 reactor vessel. The Unit 5 and 6 reactor vessels still contain more than 75% of the fuel they use when operating, so they require cooling.

Units 5 and 6 are located a short distance away from the other reactors and do not appear to have been as badly damaged. The cooling systems have reportedly been restored to both these reactors and their associated spent fuel pools, so they are not considered a threat at this time.



Image from New York Times

The Fukushima Dia-Ichi facility also has a common storage pool for spent fuel, which contains fuel that has been out of a reactor for at least 19 months. Since the radioactivity of the fuel rods falls with time, this fuel is not generating as much heat as fuel more recently removed from the reactors, which is stored in the spent fuel pools located in the reactor buildings at each of the 6 reactors. Workers have reportedly been adding cool water to the common pool as needed, and this pool is apparently not currently seen as a threat.

So the concern at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi site is focused on the fuel in the reactor cores at Units 1, 2, and 3, and the spent fuel in cooling pools at Units 1, 2, 3, 4.

Reports say that electric power has now been reconnected to all four reactor buildings. While lights have been turned on in the control rooms of these reactors, few other systems appear to be working, including instrumentation that would allow workers to know what is happening in the reactor cores and spent fuel pools.

Atmospheric radiation releases

A significant amount of radiation has been released to the atmosphere from this site since the beginning of the crisis. Two of the main health hazards from the radioactive gases that have been released are from iodine-131 (I-131) and cesium-137 (Cs-137). One analysis estimated that roughly 20% of the I-131 and up to 50% of the Cs-137 released in the Chernobyl accident was released from Fukushima to the atmosphere within the first few days of the accident.

Very high radiation levels are being detected at some points many kilometers away from Fukushima, outside of the evacuation zone, although there is no clear picture at this point because the locations of the readings are not publicly available and there has not been a systematic survey.

Japan initially ordered residents to evacuate out to 3 km (1.9 miles) around the Fukushima site, with residents out to 10 km (6.2 km) told to stay indoors. By late on March 12, Japan expanded the evacuation zone to 20 km (12 miles) with sheltering to 30 km (19 miles). On March 25, Japanese officials said they were encouraging residents to evacuate out to 30 km.

In contrast, on March 17 the U.S. embassy told US citizens to evacuate out to a radius of 80 km (50 miles) from the site.

As the radiation is carried by winds across the ocean, it spreads out and becomes diluted. While trace amounts have been detected in the US, these amounts have been much lower than the natural background levels of radiation that people are constantly exposed to, and are not a serious health hazard.

The radiation released to the atmosphere at Fukushima came from two main sources. First, when cooling stopped in the reactor cores, the fuel began to heat up and the pressure in the reactor vessels increased. To reduce the pressure, workers vented to the atmosphere some of the radioactive gas that had built up in the vessel and primary containment. There are also reports that the primary containment of Unit 2 and possibly Unit 3 may be damaged; if that is true, that would also allow radioactive gases to escape.

Second, loss of water in the spent fuel pools led to fuel assemblies being exposed to air, which caused damage to the fuel that then released radioactive gases. While the pools are contained in the reactor buildings, hydrogen explosions in the buildings of Units 1, 3, and 4 created holes in the walls that allowed these gases to escape. And vents were opened in the walls of the Unit 2 reactor building to prevent a buildup of hydrogen that could cause an explosion.

Fortunately, monitoring indicates that deposition of Cs-137 is currently no longer occurring around the site. This is because efforts to cool the reactors and spent fuel pools have been successful enough to eliminate the need for additional venting and to stop further releases from the spent fuel pools. However, as discussed below, additional venting may soon be needed.

It is also important to note that the amount of Cs-137 and other radioactive material that remain in the fuel in both the core and spent fuel pool is much larger than the amount that has already been released. Some of this remaining radioactive material could be released if new problems occur, so this remains a very serious concern.

Other releases of radiation

The other source of radioactive contamination around the plant is from contaminated water. To attempt to cool the reactors and spent fuel pools, many thousands of tons of water were dropped by helicopter or sprayed by hoses at the plants. Some of the runoff water from these efforts has apparently become contaminated and run into the ocean, since radiation has been detected in the coastal waters.

More recently, there is a concern about very highly contaminated water in trenches outside the buildings, especially at Unit 2, which appears to be coming from water that has collected in the lower parts of the reactor turbine buildings. Japanese officials apparently believe this is water that was pumped in to cool the fuel in the reactor that has somehow leaked out into the turbine buildings.

On Monday March 28, press reports said the radiation level of this water from the Unit 2 reactor was 1,000 milli-Sv/hr. This is high enough that an hour-long exposure would give someone a radiation dose sufficient to cause acute radiation syndrome. At an April 2 press conference Japanese officials said that this highly contaminated water is leaking into the ocean.

Less highly radioactive water has also been found in tunnels under the turbine buildings at Units 1 and 3.

This issue is creating new problems for workers at the plant. The volume of radioactive water is so large that they are running out of places to store it. To cut down on the volume of water they need to remove and store, they are trying to reduce the amount of water they pump into the reactors to cool the fuel in the cores. But without that cooling, the fuel in the cores has been heating up. This leads to a buildup of pressure in the reactor that may require additional venting of radioactive gas to the atmosphere. If the heating becomes great enough, it can also lead to additional fuel damage and further release of radioactive gases from the fuel.

There is speculation about the amount of fuel in the reactor cores that may have melted, and given the lack of cooling it may be substantial. But because of the lack of monitoring in the reactor vessels no one really knows the condition of the fuel. The state of the fuel at Three Mile Island was not known for several years after the accident there. Similarly, because of lack of water in some of the spent fuel pools early during the Japanese crisis, people assume that some of the fuel in the pools may have melted, but the status is not known.

I-131 and Cs-137

Because I-131 has a half-life of only 8 days, it reaches a stable concentration when the reactor is operating but decreases relatively quickly once the reactor stops. So very little of this material remains in the fuel in the spent fuel pools; for example, fuel that has been out of the reactor for two months would have less than 1% of the I-131 it had when it was removed from the reactor. This means that the I-131 found outside the plant likely came from venting the reactor cores.

If at this point workers can control the temperature and pressure in the cores to eliminate the need for additional venting, this would essentially cap the amount of I-131 released. Moreover, even if future venting is required, the longer venting can be delayed the more the level of I-131 in the core will decrease. Already, the amount in the fuel in the core is only about one-fifth of the amount present when the earthquake hit.

Recent reports say that seawater collected near the Fukushima I facility showed I-131 levels several thousand times safety standards. This high level seems to indicate that the iodine must have come from fuel in the core.

Cs-137, however, has a half-life of 30 years so it decays much more slowly and its release remains a serious concern. This is the main contaminant that has caused long-term evacuation of areas around Chernobyl.

The fuel in the core of Unit 3 has been a particular concern because it contains mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel, which is made from both uranium and plutonium oxide rather than just uranium. While releases from fuel with larger amounts of plutonium raises additional health concerns, the MOX fuel in Unit 3 only makes up about 6% of the core (32 out of 548 total fuel assemblies), so the increased risk due to the presence of MOX fuel is probably negligible. Public opposition to MOX in Japan slowed down the program and is the chief reason why there is so little MOX in the core and why the risk from the additional plutonium is limited.

Updated information about the reactors can be found on the New York Times site.