Valley communities unite against police violence: Remembering the victims in Scottsdale

I've spent the last two Friday nights down on the corner of Scottsdale and Indian School Roads protesting the execution of John Loxas by Officer James Peters, as well as the bigger issue of police brutality and lethality in the Valley. It's surprising how many passers-by are clueless about John's death. Anyway, we're a leaderless and disorganized mass of about 30-40 people from all over the place, but we're finding each other out there, slowly, and a group with coherent objectives is taking form. Several groups, actually, seem to be coming together, with different tactics to employ. 

Here's the common page we share information on right now: Scottsdale Campaign for Justice and an end to Police Murder.

The page specific to the marches is here: Scottsdale Blackout March for Justice and an End to Police Murder 

I want to encourage anyone with concerns about police brutality and use of lethal force in our community to turn out for these Friday demonstrations, from about 8pm to 10pm - especially those of you who have survived such encounters yourself. If you have been victimized by the police or the state with violence, you have likely also been isolated and frightened or shamed into silence. Come be with us, either anonymously, clad in black, or openly, as a survivor willing to join forces with other survivors of police and prison violence.

I'm hoping to get some folks with resources down to our street corner to train community members on dealing with police and putting together a COPWATCH group, to how the city administrative and political structure work and where citizens may be able to exercise a voice. I'm also hoping that these Friday gatherings will be a place where survivors can share their stories and people can safely bring their families - that we'll continue to have both a stationary, vigil-type action at the corner as well as a march through the streets of downtown that people can choose to participate in. It's on the march where police confrontations and violence against us (including the act of arrest) are most likely to occur, as happened this past Friday when Jeff was so aggressively taken into custody for talking to a driver on the street.

If you can't make the Friday anti-police violence vigils/marches, at least follow on Facebook, share what information you come across, sign the petitions people put up there, and show your support in some other way. You can write letters to your own city councilperson (post copies or message Peg so we can track official inquiries and responses), research other cases of police violence in your own community, pick up and drop off supplies like candles, glow sticks, and sign-making materials, or have a gathering during the week to make signs, chant sheets, or cookies for the Friday demonstrations while talking strategies for citizen action with some like-minded folks. All of that could be really helpful and can be done at your convenience. 

The specific cases in Scottsdale we're most concerned with right now are those of John Loxas, Jason Prostrollo, and David Hulstedt. There are survivors with standing to sue in both instances who are vulnerable to further police and state harassment, including prosecution. David, who was paralyzed by a Scottsdale police bullet in the back (also while holding an infant), is being prosecuted for kidnapping and child abuse to make their shooting of him look justified - they filed charges against him shortly after his family filed a lawsuit against them. Both families will need support in the weeks and months to come so that they don't end up isolated and further victimized - we'll just need to leave it to them to let us know how we can be most supportive. 

Here are some great photos from this past week's candlelight vigil and march, by Robert Haasch. Please come out next Friday, March 8 at 8pm and join us. Be sure to wear black and bring a candle if you can.

More on abusive GA state COs.

Solidairty from Firehouse (Anarchist) Cafe' and Gallery, Phoenix, AZ.

January 1, 2011.

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From the excellent on-line Black Agenda Report this week,
word on the prisoner abuse in Georgia.

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Arrested Georgia Correctional Officer Oversaw Vicious Beating of Prisoner “in His Capacity” As Supervisor

Black Agenda Report
By Bruce A. Dixon
Created 03/15/2011 - 21:17
Submitted by Bruce A. Dixon on Tue, 03/15/2011 - 21:17


By BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon

In this, the first of several reports on the aftermath of the courageous protest of Georgia prisoners last December, we update the case of Terrance Dean, brutally beaten by prison guards at Macon State Prison on December 16, 2009, and the role played by TOPS, The Ordinary Peoples Society, in working with his family and legal team, and in the larger struggle to roll back the nation's policy of mass incarceration.


Three months after inmate protests at multiple Georgia prisons, public records have emerged to document the vicious assault and battery committed upon handcuffed prisoner Terrance Dean by correctional officers and supervisors of Macon State Prison. The arrest warrants [6]sworn out for one of seven Georgia prison guards arrested in late February [7] alleges that one Christopher Hall, the supervising officer, "was present at the time of this assault [on Terrance Dean], and supervised this act in his capacity as the C.E.R.T. supervisor'"

"Dean has suffered severe and life-altering injuries as a result of his battering by correctional officers, according to his attorney, "Mr. Dean has visited three different medical facilities due to his injuries. He's now at Augusta State Medical Prison, where he receives extensive rehabilitation including speech pathology and daily physical/motor skills rehab so that hopefully he can someday walk, speak and write normally again."

For almost two weeks after the vicious assault Georgia's Department of Corrections failed to notify the prisoner's family of Dean's beating, his critical condition or his whereabouts. It was only when tips reached Dean's family from inside the prison that his sister Wendy Johnson knew something had happened to him. When state officials finally admitted he had been critically injured, the Dean family helped Terrance Dean retain an attorney, Mario Williams of Williams Oinonen LLC [8]. And on the recommendation of other prisoners and their families, the Dean family reached out to Rev. Kenneth Glasgow, founder of The Ordinary Peoples Society [9], an advocacy organization founded by former inmates. TOPS had been working with current and former prisoners and their families across the southeast for more than a decade.

We waged a successful struggle over several years to restore voting rights not just to former prisoners in Alabama, but to many of the people still serving their time," Rev. Glasgow told us. "We've been providing housing, counseling and a new start to people coming out of the prisons for a good while. And we've been assisting the self-help networks of prisoners still on the inside who want to begin healing themselves, their families and eventually their communities when they reach the outside. So it's no surprise that Ms. Johnson came to us. We checked the references of her Atlanta attorney, and found he came highly recommended. We've been working closely with Mr. Dean's family and their legal team since that point."

Inside sources and public records requested by Dean's attorney, along with known facts of the case together paint a horrifying picture of brutality imposed and impunity enjoyed by correctional officers in Georgia. Allegedly, after a verbal altercation with an officer, Dean was placed in handcuffs and taken to a secluded part of the prison. There he was beaten nearly to death. The Department of Corrections made no effort to contact Dean's family, only admitting he had been injured and transferred when the family and community members demanded to know his condition and whereabouts in front of news media nearly two weeks later.

Dean's family and their attorneys expect to pursue civil remedies against those responsible for the near-fatal beating.

"The fact that the State of Georgia pressed charges against the officers for aggravated battery is a great first step; the Georgia Bureau of Investigations obviously showed a lot of integrity throughout its investigation," declared Dean's Attorney. "More needs to be done, such as better and more training for Correctional Emergency Response Team members on the constitutional limits of force. The Department of Corrections has the ability to require more than the State mandated one hour per year of training in this area."

Pastor Kenneth Glasgow of The Ordinary Peoples Society agrees.

"We know that the brutal beatings by correctional staff and attempts to cover them up are a daily fact of life in prisons across the nation."

"This is why The Ordinary Peoples Society [9], along with other groups of concerned former prisoners convened the first national meeting of Formerly Incarcerated People [10] the week before last in Selma and Montgomery Alabama. We had representatives of the formerly incarcerated present from all 50 states, and committed ourselves to ongoing action around rolling back the nation's policy of mass incarceration. We know we cannot change the prisons without a massive program to educate our neighbors on how more prisons have made us less safe, less prosperous, and less secure. Our next national meeting of the formerly incarcerated will be in Los Angeles this November. We're in this, with prisoners, their families and communities, for the long haul."

Bruce A. Dixon is managing editor at Black Agenda Report, [11] and based in Marietta GA, where he is also a state committee member of the Green Party of Georgia. He can be contacted at bruce.dixon(at)blackagendareport.com.

Dear Governor Brewer: Please deport prisoner Tripati.

The email below came to me this week from the family of Mr. Tripati, a prisoner I've been corresponding with for the past number of months. I've tried direct advocacy on some of these issues with the ADC to no avail. It troubles me greatly to receive this, and I don't know what else to do but write to the rest of you about it, hoping someone else has some ideas of how to help.

I'd be worried by this news anyway, but Anant hasn't answered the last few notes I sent him. I thought they threw him back in the hole for threatening to publish what he has on them (that was the last thing he wrote to me about) - or that maybe they were intercepting our mail or keeping him from writing to me anymore because I was giving them a hard time (his family is buried in debt and he's penniless in prison, but the ADC insisted to the courts that he has money, so he lost his indigent status - all I asked corporate counsel for was to investigate Mrs. Tripati's claim that her husband is indeed indigent, and that she is now disabled and can't work. I was blown off.).

Really, not only have I kept this stuff out of my blogs since January, but I was also very civil to both Director Ryan and his attorney, considering that his family has reason to believe that the ADC is deliberately trying to kill him. They have no reason to think they aren't, anyway, given all they've put the guy through. I thought that particular accusation was extreme, myself (and not productive) - why kill him when they can just bury him in that place? I'm not so sure about that anymore, though - nor do I think torture is much less criminal than murder, especially when dragged out in confinement year after year.

I think Anant may have earned a bit of ire from some of those people by being such a vexatious litigant, but the ADC has done some pretty horrid things to him (and a lot of other folks - very little of what I've heard him allege is unique). The only way to make prisons stop hurting people sometimes is to sue them yourself because no one else will - Anant has done so on numerous occasions. I've heard from other sources that the ADC routinely steals and destroys prisoner's evidence against them (including responses to grievances) so they can't successfully challenge them in court. And health care is atrocious; everyone who's had to use it that I've spoken to agrees. So, I have a hard time having sympathy for the dear old ADC.

According to Anant, ADC employees also destroyed evidence he needed to prove that he's innocent of the crimes he was originally sent to prison for 17 years or so ago. He got 52 years (4 consecutive sentences out of one trial) for some bail bond scheme or something that he took to trial and lost - that's more than most rapists and murders get, and he was convicted of non-violent crimes. That just seems wrong; it's clearly vindictive. It might as well have been life without parole - he'll die in that place if he can't get exonerated or pardoned or even thrown out of the country (Anant's a UK citizen who was so harshly sentenced at such extraordinary expense to the citizens of this great state for accusing the prosecution and judge of racism and corruption).

Anant Tripati

Even if Anant was guilty, 17 years is long enough - why can't we just deport him before his sentence is up? Why keep shelling out $25,000/year on him after all this time (oh, a lot more than that, once you add up the medical and legal stuff)? Send him back to Fiji - make the UK support him in his infirmity and old age. Just seven months ago the governor and legislature couldn't wait to get rid of illegal aliens crowding the prisons - so they ordered the ADC to turn hundreds of them over to ICE before their sentences were up, as long as they were in on non-violent crimes - there was special legislation for that purpose. No other prisoners were released early - not even the sick and dying citizens we have locked away (it was to save money and get rid of Mexican nationals, not to demonstrate mercy or compassion. God forbid we show any of that in Arizona).

Gene Greeley's claim that Anant's prison medical record has been lost is literally unbelievable, especially coming from him (he's the health services administrator at ASPC-Tucson, I believe). Every time I hear that man's name it's in the context of a prisoner being neglected, abused, or lied to (feel free to contact me if you have something good to say about his treatment of prisoners or families, though, and I'll mention it). I think Greeley knows exactly where those records are - his memo to Anant confirming that they were lost lost sarcastically asks him to let him know if he has any idea where they could be (Anant sent the note to me, and I've seen Greeley's signature before). What was the point of making that remark if not to mock him? Prisoners aren't even allowed to see their own medical records, much less handle them. If Anant can't walk out of there with all the effort he's put into being exonerated, how is his medical record supposed to just walk out of there, if not without the assistance of Mr. Greeley and his loyal henchmen?

Mrs. Tripati and her daughter have appealed to the Governor's office more than once in the past year about Anant's medical care, his dietary needs, and the ADC's retaliatory treatment of him. Ryan is Brewer's top cop, though, hand-picked for the job, groomed by years of working for Stewart (here) and the Bush administration (supervising Iraqi prisons): I don't think she's about to can him over a criminal alien's medical needs. We can't even get health care out of her for all the children in this state, much less the sickest prisoners. I doubt Brewer even reads these letters - I suspect her office sends everything from Anant's family straight over to Ryan's office with a note saying "deal with it," so they stop bugging her.

You folks keep right on bugging her. Hold her responsible. I will too - as will my comrade Brian at Operation-Nation, I'm sure (check out his blog - he has a great piece this week on the MCSO being taken over by the feds because of the Arpaio investigation). The governor won't want to help, but she won't get away anymore with quietly ignoring them until Anant dies (or she gets voted out of office). She certainly can't claim ignorance now that another letter is public: and I have a bigger audience than I did six months ago (including the DOJ). If her staff doesn't tell her what's going on, this is going to turn around and bite her before election day -and she won't even see it coming.

So, heads up, Governor Brewer: here we are. You might want to read what Mr. Tripati's daughter has to say; his wife is probably too ill from the stress and trauma of his deterioration and prolonged incarceration (as well as all of his ancillary expenses) to keep knocking on your door herself. At the very least, you should tell the ADC that man's family reports that they are impoverished and to re-evaluate their assertion that he isn't indigent: Ryan must know that his department's claim on that account is BS. That's just downright dirty pool. They're trying to keep him out of court, but I don't know if he can even buy stamps, much less pay for special dietary and medical supplies and MD co-pays if he's not afforded indigent status.

Mr. Tripati is not just Charles Ryan's prisoner, Governor Brewer: he's yours. His family is your prisoner too, so long as they aren't free to get help for him; they can't even pay an attorney anymore to fight for his medical treatment - which appears to be part of the ADC's agenda. Please take responsibility for assuring his safety and welfare as long as he is in your care and respond to his family's desperate appeal to you for help. You could do anything from order that he be evaluated by proper specialists, to setting in motion a pardon and deportation. We will all be awaiting your reply.

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From: Aradhna Tripati
Date: Mon, Jul 5, 2010 at 5:28 AM
Subject: Matter Requiring Immediate Attention
To: Jan Brewer

Dear Governor Brewer,

On July 3, 2010 at approximately 6:15 am, my father Anant Kumar Tripati (ADOC 102081) collapsed. Specifically, he could not speak and had slurred speech. He could not stretch his arms and open his fist as his fingers were twisted. His color changed and he was sweating. Timely actions by nurses, including providing him with oxygen, reduced damage. These symptoms, according to medical experts we consulted by telephone in Cambridge, could indicate mild stroke. However, this could not be confirmed because of the absence of further examinations by appropriate specialists including a neurological specialist.

On July 1, 2010, my father was informed he may have kidney problems which according to experts may be due to not having regular meals and meals of poor quality. He has been in an ongoing dispute with prison staff who have repeatedly lost his medical records, prevented him from receiving appropriate medical treatment, and refused to maintain a medically prescribed diet.

It is clear that my father is in poor health and these health problems are being severely exacerbated by a failure by ADOC prison staff to provide consistent medical care. Indeed he appears to have been targeted by vindictive actions to deliberately withold a his medically ordered special diet due to a dispute with Officer Gene Greeley.

Due to his ill health, it is clear that he is in danger of loosing his life if not provided with an adequate medical treatment and diet. His family do intend to hold ADOC liable for these failures in the event of any avoidable fatality, and have extensive documentary evidence detailing the withdrawal of his medically prescribed special diet and the refusal of the prison to restore it over the past year.

I ask you to simply investigate fully the actions of prison staff and to ensure that this inmate receives appropriate care. It hardly seems constructive for the AZDOC to refuse to take this seriously, as they have done in response to past complaints, both from the point of view of providing basic medical care to inmates but also for unnecessarily exposing itself to criminal liability. Given his poor state of health, I also request that you consider releasing him to his family on compassionate grounds so that we can take care of him.

Regards,

Aradhna Tripati

Illinois DOC: Stop Harassing Prisoners

Here are a few links about the issues raised in the lawsuit over the Illinois Department of Corrections serving so much soy in its food to accompany the post about the harassment of Larry Harris. It's pretty impossible to find anything about him or the other guy named in the email on the internet yet - they've just been buried in prison for years, both of them. One's a sex offender, the other was convicted of armed robbery. Guess the prison figured no one would care what happens to them anyway. 

What they must not get is that this lawsuit isn't about those guys or just that state. It's about the civil rights of prisoners, and the retaliation these guys are experiencing is standard across the country, wherever prisoners stand for their rights. Whatever we think of their crimes, they're trying to change conditions that all prisoners may be suffering under - and for that, a lot of prisoners' families across the country should help us keep an eye on the guys involved in this lawsuit.


The next logical place for Illinois to implement their soy-toxic diet is in the free lunch programs for kids. They've already started, as I understand. If they can squash this lawsuit - or win it - the state will be feeding the poor nothing but soy for the next few generations, burying any evidence that it ever caused anyone a problem. They start out with stuff like this in prisons because its harder for prisoners than anyone to fight it. So, let's pay a little closer attention to this, now. 

The folks in Illinois really don't want to escalate things by hassling these guys. They aren't invisible anymore. Isn't that like tampering with witnesses - threatening and harassing the plaintiffs in a lawsuit against you?  That's not only unethical, I think it's a crime...

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Soy in Illinois prison diets prompts lawsuit over health effects


http://www.illinoistimes.com/Springfield/article-6267-a-diet-to-die-for.html



Prison Calls it Food, Inmates Disagree


Taste-testing Nutraloaf: The prison food that Just Might be Unconstitutionally Bad

Perp Walk for Arpaio? Stephen Lemons

 Ex-U.S. Attorney David Iglesias on Joe Arpaio: "I Would Seek an Indictment" (w/Video)

By Stephen Lemons in Feathered Bastard

Fri., Oct. 30 2009 @ 11:14AM

CBS 5's nearly 10-minute segment on Sheriff Joe Arpaio's abuse of power last night did not disappoint. Essentially, reporter Morgan Loew and producer Gilbert Zermeno laid out all of the major cases of retaliation by the MCSO against the sheriff's political opponents: Maricopa County Supervisor Don Stapley, Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, ex-New Times staffer John Dougherty, Village Voice Media Executive Editor Michael Lacey, VVM CEO Jim Larkin, and so on.

Then they put it before a no-nonsense ex-prosecutor: former U.S. Attorney for New Mexico David Iglesias.

He's a Republican, was part of the team from the Navy's Judge Advocate General Corps that inspired the Tom Cruise film A Few Good Men, and has more integrity than Arpaio has enemies. Iglesias was one of several U.S. Attorneys purged by the Bush Administration because they would not pursue politically motivated prosecutions. He has never met Arpaio, and has no ax to grind with him.

So what did Iglesias say he would do based on the evidence and his own research? Basically, he'd make Arpaio do the perp walk.

"I would go to a grand jury," said Iglesias. "I would work very closely with the civil rights criminal division in Washington, DC. And, based on the information that I have, I would seek an indictment."

Iglesias was aghast at what he saw in CBS 5's file on Arpaio detailing the sheriff's history of political payback.

"I thought, `This is remarkable, I can't believe this happening in the United States,'" stated Iglesias, who with his buzz cut looks like he stepped out of an old episode of Dragnet. "This is something that I have seen in South America, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Asia. Absolutely unacceptable. We don't do this kind of thing in this country without some kind of consequence."

In his extended interview with CBS 5, Iglesias specifically cited two federal statutes that Arpaio may be in violation of: 18 USC 241 and 18 USC 242. The first is "conspiracy against rights," and makes it illegal for two or more people to "conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States or because of his having exercised the same." 

 

As for 18 USC 242, that's "deprivation of rights under the color of law." The statute makes it illegal for anyone "under the color of any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom" to deprive someone of "any rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or to different punishments, pains, or penalties, on account of such person being an alien, or by reason of his color, or race, than are prescribed for the punishment of citizens."

I called the office of Arizona's new U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke for a comment on Iglesias' assertions in the CBS 5 newscast, and I'm waiting for a response. Will Burke -- who was Janet Napolitano's chief of staff while she was governor -- do something about Arpaio? Or will he follow Napolitano's example, and sit on his hands for the remainder of his tenure?

CBS 5 also confirmed that the FBI has been investigating Arpaio since the Bush Administration, and Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon stated in the piece that he has been interviewed by the FBI. Thing is, if they've been looking into Arpaio for over a year, and Iglesias is saying that based on stuff in the public domain that he would indict, then it is long past time for Burke, or his boss, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, to act.
In another interesting revelation, former U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton, who is representing county Supervisor Don Stapley, gave a motive for Arpaio's revenge against Stapley, which has involved Stapley being re-arrested by the MCSO after the first round of corruption charges were dropped.

"He opposed the sheriff's budget," Charlton told CBS 5. "He insisted that there be someone placed inside his office that audit the budget. He disagreed with the sheriff on his use of funds to do the [immigration] round-ups."

The segment also included an interview with former New Times columnist John Dougherty concerning his investigation into Arpaio's land holdings. And the piece used file footage of a 2004 confrontation between Dougherty and some of Arpaio's henchmen, who later claimed Dougherty was attempting to assault the sheriff with a "silver, metallic object." That object? A tape recorder.

Kudos to CBS 5 for an eye-popping hunk of TV journalism. You should take a look at CBS 5's Web site for full-length interviews with Charlton, Iglesias, and Gordon. Also, CBS 5 has the full segment up on its Web site, here.