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Link:  http://indymedia.us/en/2009/12/39732.shtml

Indymedia.us is happy to announce that we've managed, after nearly a year of legal action on our behalf by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, to successfully fight back against a bogus subpoena request issued by the FBI in conjunction with a grand jury investigation. The request demanded we turn over all IP address logs for a day in June of 2008 - not only did Indymedia.us object to this blatantly illegitimate and overly broad request, but, per accepted Indymedia best practices, we do not keep such logs in the first place, in order to maximally ensure the privacy of our site users.

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Jorge Steven Lόpez-Mercado, an openly gay teenager in in Caguas, Puerto Rico, was slain in November 2009. Lόpez-Mercado was decapitated, dismembered and partially burned, and his assailant claimed to be motivated by "gay panic". Many are drawing comparisons to the 1998 slaying of University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard.

Activists in a number of American cities held public gatherings to mourn the death of Lόpez-Mercado and to protest against the continuing climate of homophobia which spawns hate crimes. In Chicago, the Gay Liberation Network, along with representatives from Orgullo en Accion and Boricua Pride/ALMA held a march in Chicago's Humboldt Park neighborhood.

Chicago Indymedia coverage: Photos — Hundreds gather to mourn slain trans youth activist | Learning from the lynching of Jorge Steven Lόpez-Mercado | March/Vigil for Burned and Decapitated Gay Puerto Rican Teen

The following is video footage from a "National Day of Outrage" held by CU Citizens for Peace and Justice in coordination with the National Action Network.

There are clips from Nick Green, Dr. Lou Turner, Durl Kruse, Carol Ammons, Aaron Ammons, and Seon Williams.

by Tom Gomez

Danny (not his real name), is 28 and a father of 2 children: one born when he was 16 years old, the other when he was 19. Like most of the men here in the Sterling Correctional Facility, he has little formal education, no job skills, and has spent most of his adult life in prison for drug charges – both here, and in the neighboring state of Arizona where he was born.

Recently Danny returned to prison again, this time from a halfway house in Denver, not for alcohol or drugs, but for having 2 children. Arizona, which provides income support, housing assistance and medical coverage to his first child, wants its money. The state has filed an order to garnish 25% of Danny's pre-tax earnings for unpaid child support. Colorado has done the same for unpaid child support for his 9-year old.

Danny has had no contact with either of his children, both born to unwed teenage girls, in over 5 years. He says he tried to maintain contact with the children's mothers from prison but lost touch over time. While Danny may have lost touch with his children, the state governments that have provided the children with food stamps, section 8 housing and medicaid have not lost touch with him. The tens of thousands of dollars he owes in back child support payments, plus interest, keeps growing every year he's in custody. It is, in fact, the very reason Danny says he's back in custody.

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It seems that the only thing Cecil Bynum and the police agree about is that after he was arrested for a small amount of 'crack' cocaine on Colfax Avenue in Denver (in January of '05) his thumb had to be amputated.

Bynum, now 40 years old and serving a 24-year sentence as a habitual offendor, was a passenger in a car pulled over by Denver police, who arrested him on an outstanding warrant for failure to appear in court on a summons for trespassing. Police allege that during the course of that arrest, Bynum gagged while trying to swallow a piece of "crack" cocaine that resulted in his being sentenced to 24 years in prison. They deny any knowledge of, or responsibility for, the fact that 2 days later his thumb, badly mutilated and by then seriously infected with staph, had to be amputated.

Predictably perhaps, Bynum, whose case is now on appeal, tells a different story. According to Bynum, who was last released from prison in 2004 and has an extensive record of drug-related offenses, police had had seized his ID and social security card after detaining him in early 2004 as a suspected drug dealer. Despite the fact that no drugs were found on Bynum, who insists he was working as a day laborer through a temporary service at the time, police refused to return his identification. As a result, Bynum says that the same officer who seized his ID and social security card then singled him out for harassment, intimidation and persecution, citing him no less than 3 subsequent occasions for "trespassing" for not having his ID after he was stopped and searched. When Bynum attempted to retrieve his ID from police however, he alleges that he was told the documents were the subject of a "personal hold" placed on them by Officer Heart, the same officer responsible for both confiscating the documents, and for repeatedly citing Bynum for not having them.

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(Actually, this is for all Colorado and all of the country. Why's that option not there in the "Region" box?)

Health care bill, now in hands of the Senate, ignores every industrial threat and harm to health. It finds that people's behavior is the biggest threat. Could this be because all Senators are economically-linked to health-harming industries, AND their insurers and investors? Sworn and public-paid Congress members wouldn't go AWOL on their solemn oaths and duties to the people, would they?

If it were not for people, there would be no Health Crisis.

The legislation the Senate is discussing now is quite interesting and telling by what's there, or not.

See the Bill at: democrats.senate.gov/reform/patient-protection-affordable-care-act.pdf

A convenient search tool at the site finds the number of times a word appears in the legislation:

Nutrition 29 times
Tobacco 25
Smoking 11
Obesity 9
Exercise 9
Behavior 8
Lifestyle 5
Alcohol 2

However:

Pesticides 0
Insecticides 0
Herbicides 0
Dioxins 0
Mercury 0
Chemicals 0
Carcinogen(s) 0
Chlorine 0
Radiation 0
Depleted Uranium 0
Salmonella 0
Pollutant(s) 0
Pollution 0
Vehicle exhaust 0
Smog 0
E-coli 0
Asbestos 0
Toxins 0
Toxic 0
Hazardous waste 0

And... Marijuana 0
Condoms 0
Vegetarian 0
Organic(s) 0

There seems to be a theme here, perhaps aimed at reassuring us that private industries, especially investment properties of for-profit insurers, are no threat to health. That is off the radar. Nothing to worry about or act on there.
We (the) people are the problem.

On Monday, November 23, 2009, Urbana-Champaign participated in a “National Day of Outrage” held by Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network to call attention to the national epidemic of violence in urban communities. Champaign-Urbana Citizens for Peace and Justice organized a rally to take place on the same time as events in more than 20 other cities across the country.

The rally, which took place at the Champaign County courthouse, was specifically to address the police killing of Kiwane on October 9, 2009. The report by the state police is currently in the hands of State’s Attorney Julia Rietz who is expected to release her decision on whether to prosecute the police involved any day now.

 November has been quite a month for change here at Grand Junction Alternative Media (GJAM).  GJAM is the umbrella media group for such projects as The Red Pill, CUNTastic, The Peep Show, Vignettes: Glimpses of Culture, Confluence Books, and more.   At the beginning of this month the collective, after a many month-long process, have changed the name of GJAM to Confluence Media Collective.  CMC will be continuing all of GJAM's media projects, except one, Confluence Books storefront will be closing at the end of November.  We are sad to have to close the storefront, and we are looking into becoming a mobile infoshop to bring radical literature to all the small radical communities around the region.  On Friday 13th of this month CMC held its first Variety Show, highlighting CMC's many artist, writers, and activists. In the coming months look for the variety show to come to a radical community near you soon. 

CMC is always looking for new co-conspirators.  Get in touch with us. gjredpill@hotmail.com or visit our website: www.gjredpill.org.  Many of our books, zines, and DVD's are for sale on our website.

 

From the newswire: "On Tuesday, the Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign kicked off its first day with a successful blockade at the home of Lenise Forrest, a community member and mother of two. At 9AM on November 17, supporters began arriving to blockade the house from eviction, and with the increasing police presence circling the block, many people were wondering what would happen next.

Supporters were prepared to stand between Lenise's family and the police to prevent the eviction of the family. Then, just as the corporate news arrived, the police suddenly disappeared. After the press conference the police stayed away most of the time, and the threat of eviction dwindled. In all, the eviction blockade turned out to be not a clash with police, but instead a great community building event in which people from all parts of chicago came together in solidarity.

Read more | Watch video | Anarkismo.net coverage

Two banners were dropped on the University of Illinois campus by a group of anonymous activists in the early morning of November 20th in solidarity with the UC occupations and the UC strike. This banner drop follows a three day strike in the UC college system, national and international solidarity actions with UC, and the recent local success of the Graduate Employee’s Organization in obtaining a fair contract.

One banner, hung off the English building, reads “Education is NOT for Sale. Support the UC strike.” The International Students Movement's statement “Education is not for sale” speaks to both the UC strike and the continuation of the fight against the privatization of public education in an attempt to make college more accessible. Another banner that briefly hung off the Alma Mater, alluding to cuts in the state budget and the continued pay disparity between administrators and other workers at the university, read “Chop from the Top. Solidarity with UC.”

 

I’ve already commented on the split before, but ODOT just keeps doing more to prove that they’re a villain and are hostile towards the revitalization of our urban core and all the hard work that is being done.

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After two days of picketing in stormy weather, the Graduate Employees Organization (GEO) emerged victorious. The GEO called a strike on Monday, November 16, after contract negotiations broke down over the issue of tuition waivers for out-of-state graduate students. Their strike is an example of how sheer people power can push back against the growing corporatization of public education.

In recent years, the University of Illinois has been racked with several scandals, most notably the “clout-gate” scandal in which well-connected students gained admission while more qualified students were turned away. As a result, the president, chancellor, and almost all of the Boart of Trustees were forced to step down. The so-called “global campus” was shut down, but only after incurring millions of dollars in debt. A proposed Academy of Capitalism and Limited Government Fund was opposed by faculty for its lack of oversight. A decade after it was founded, the research park on south campus has become home to multinational corporations like Caterpillar and the stealth military contractor SAIC with little benefit to the university.

Recently a story about Ms. Pignotti entitled “Monica Pignotti Introduces the PIGNOTRON” was published in the open newswire of COIMC. COIMC was contacted by Ms Pignotti via email and her request to remove the article follows.

Subject: Complaint about libelous harassing posting about me on
Colorado Indymedia
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 2009 03:28:51 +0000
From: pignotti@att.net
To: webmaster@coimc.org

 

I want to make you aware that a person who has been cyberstalking me by
placing literally hundreds of false postings and ads all over the
internet about me has posted the following ad on your website that is
libelous not only of me, but also of my university. See:xxxxxxxxxxxx

Of course, there is no "PIGNOTRON". This is a libelous smear of my name
and my institution, Florida State University. Please remove this posting
or I will be consulting the university's attorneys.

Thank you,

Monica Pignotti

When COIMC receives a request to un-publish an article we on the editorial board post the request after evaluating weather the request has merit. It is the consensus of the COIMC editorial board that this request does indeed have merit and so the story on the open news wire about Mrs Pignotti has been removed for violation of the COIMC editorial policy (you can find our editorial policy at http://colorado.indymedia.org/no... ) specifically the two paragraphs bellow.

Posts which are obviously incorrect or misleading. This includes attempts to spread disinformation or to impersonate another individual. For example, if you post an article written by someone else and with your byline this is misleading and will be deleted.

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The November episode of Chicago Independent Television features extensive on-the-ground coverage of the protests and violent police response to the grassroots protests against the G20 summit in Pittsburgh. We'll also join a Chicago protests in Hyde Park against the war in Afghanistan on the war's eighth anniversary.

Read more about Episode 52 | CIMC TV Podcast | CIMC Video Page | CITV on YouTube

Despite the rain and cold, hundreds showed up on Monday, November 16, 2009 to join picket lines thrown up around several buildings on the quad at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. After negotiations broke down over the weekend, the Graduate Employees Organization (GEO) called for a strike. They have been without a contract for more than three months.

In the morning, picket lines were set up at all entrances of Gregory Hall, Foellinger Auditorium, Davenport Hall, the Foreign Languages Building, and the English Building. Hundreds of classes were cancelled across campus and all of the classes in the English Building were called off. GEO members marched in circles and joined in chants that could be heard from inside the buildings. The GEO drum corps travelled to each building to keep the picket lines inspired with live drumming. A trombone player joined them playing to the tune of the 1980s pop song, “I Want Candy,” which GEO members adapted to, “I Want Contract!”

The Graduate Employees' Organization held two actions on Thursday, November 12, 2009.  The first was an early morning rally at the Board of Trustees (BOT) meeting held at the Springfield campus.  Approximately 80 to 100 members and supporters rallied outside the meeting, then were invited inside by Interim President Stanley Ikenberry, Former President, B. Joe White, and BOT Chair Christopher Kennedy (of the Kennedy family).  See forthcoming video for more on this. 

A second GEO rally began at 12:00 pm at the Urbana-Champaign campus.  A very large group of between 150 and 200 GEO members and supporters gathered on the quad and then marched to Swanlund Administration Building.  Video on this will be posted later this evening. 

Be sure to visit the GEO Web site:  http://www.uigeo.org so visit http://www.iresist.org for more video footage - throughout next week.

 

About 25 people, including several youth and their parents, showed up at the Champaign County courthouse on November 12, 2009 for a juvenile hearing of the other 15 year old involved in the police shooting of Kiwane Carrington. Police had originally responded to a burglary on October 9, but after it was discovered that one of the two youth lived at the house, charges of felony resisting arrest were leveled against the surviving boy. After the hearing, supporters and family members assembled in front of the courthouse for a rally.

Before the hearing, State’s Attorney Julia Rietz was seen outside her office talking with Ed Piraino, known as a local “plea doctor” who had been appointed by the court to handle the case. When inside the courtroom, Rietz appeared personally and Piraino was present for the defense―but not for long. Local attorney Alfred Ivy, who ran against Rietz in the 2008 democratic primary for State’s Attorney office, entered a substitution of counsel and will be taking over the case.

African American men are ten times as likely to be incarcerated. Police periodically mishandle domestic violence calls. Women and men of color are routinely victimized be police and court "justice" systems because of their race or ethnicity.

Columbus needs an alternative to systems that have failed us time and time again, leaving women and survivors of abuse and assault trapped in dangerous situations, without justice, and abusers without rehabilitation.

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The Graduate Employees Organization (GEO), the largest union in Champaign-Urbana, is gearing up for a strike. In a vote by members, 92% agreed to strike.

A press conference announcing the news was held at the YMCA today. Peter Campbell addressed the local media. Two dozen GEO members stood behind him with signs.

The GEO could not say when the strike may begin. Their planning committee is deciding on the course of action.

Below is the full press release from the GEO.

BD

 

Several weeks ago, we published the contents of the 2004 FBI files on the Denver Anarchist Black Cross. Now we are announcing that on November 30th, we will be filing a new set of Freedom of Information Act Requests for FBI files on behalf of ourselves and others involved in social justice movements around Denver.

There has been a long history of state repression targeting various movements for liberation and justice in the Denver area. With the acknowledgment just several years ago of the existence of the Denver Police Department’s spy files on activists, and the release of various FBI documents and files pertaining to individuals and groups active in our area, we feel that there is a need for this new round of FOIA requests. It has been years since the release of these previous records. These years have been filled with continuous organizing and resistance and, we can only assume, continued monitoring by state agencies.

If you are currently involved with, or have been involved in the past with any social justice organization or project in Denver and want to be added to this FOIA request for records, please contact us at denverabc@rocketmail.com. We have forms for each requesting individual to fill out, and we must have these signed, notarized, and in hand for mailing by November 30th, to meet our self-imposed deadline. If you wish to decline seeking personal records, but want an organization listed in the request, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

In solidarity,
Your comrades with the Denver Anarchist Black Cross
denverabc.wordpress.com