ICE’s deadly indifference puts us all in danger | Editorial – nj.com
hmm
Category: Race,
DOJ Wants to Suspend Constitutional Rights for Coronavirus Emergency
The Trump Department of Justice has asked Congress to craft legislation allowing chief judges to indefinitely hold people without trial and suspend other constitutionally-protected rights during coronavirus and other emergencies, according to a report by Politico’s Betsy Woodruff Swan.
While the asks from the Department of Justice will likely not come to fruition with a Democratically-controlled House of Representatives, they demonstrate how much this White House has a frightening disregard for rights enumerated in the Constitution.
The DOJ has requested Congress allow any chief judge of a district court to pause court proceedings “whenever the district court is fully or partially closed by virtue of any natural disaster, civil disobedience, or other emergency situation,” according to draft language obtained by Politico. This would be applicable to “any statutes or rules of procedure otherwise affecting pre-arrest, post-arrest, pre-trial, trial, and post-trial procedures in criminal and juvenile proceedings and all civil processes and proceedings.”
…Enacting legislation like the DOJ wants would essentially suspend habeas corpus indefinitely until the emergency ended. Further, DOJ asked Congress to suspend the statute of limitations on criminal investigations and civil proceedings during the emergency until a year after it ended.
…They also asked Congress to pass a law saying that immigrants who test positive for COVID-19 cannot qualify as asylum seekers.
As coronavirus spreads through the country, activists are calling on politicians in office to release prisoners and immigrants held in detention centers, both of which can be a hotbed of virus activity with so many people in close quarters and limited or non-existent supplies of soap, sanitizer, and protective equipment.
DOJ Wants to Suspend Constitutional Rights for Coronavirus Emergency – Rolling Stone
Unamerican asshats
Why Sanders Isn’t Winning Over Black Voters
Opinion | Why Sanders Isn’t Winning Over Black Voters – The New York Times
Ya gotta love it when an opinion piece starts out by referring to “assumptions” but doesn’t spell out what the assumption is or who holds it. It’s like: grab that glass of wine, reader, because this is going to be seven minutes of your life that you can’t get back.
“But consider a reason Mr. Sanders has done poorly among black voters that few are talking about: People with the most to gain by the numerous programs proposed by Mr. Sanders have also been the most disappointed by politics.”
Oh, for the love of Gaaa-uuughhh……. Really, few people are talking about it? By few, do you everyone who has a byline who has written about it? Because I will grant that they are not the sum total of the population. It might not be the first thing that gets brought up, but it sure as sh*t comes up pretty quick. I mean, where has the good doctor been? And who the eff have they been talking to?
Blah, blah, blah. Widespread and wholesale disenfranchisement is far from the only reason Bernie isn’t catching on in certain populations like older African-Americans.
Missed some opportunities? Is that what the kids on the street are calling a not-poor-super-super-white-guy-blinders-on reaction to #BLM? Dude brought some mayo with him on that one.
Oy!
Has it been a good week for the royals?
“God speed, guys, but I predict that hearts will harden towards Harry and Meghan over the next few years. Not because they will continue to cost us millions in security, but because they will become emblematic of us, the British, not being able to have nice things. We drove these photogenic rich people away — yes, by tittering at their interest in saving the planet one Learjet flight at a time, but also by being weirdly possessive of their child and creepy to the point of ugh about how many photos we could take of him.” – Harriet Walker, The Times
Has it been a good week for the royals?
hmmm
Feds to immigration courts: remove coronavirus info posters
“Per our leadership, the CDC flyer is not authorized for posting in the immigration courts. If you see one (attached), please remove it. Thank you.”
However on Tuesday morning— just four hours after the Miami Herald published this story—a Department of Justice spokesman contacted the Herald to say that the “the signs shouldn’t have been removed. It’s now being rectified.”
Officials declined to discuss why the email was sent in the first place, and who told the chief immigration judge to issue the directive.
Email records show that shortly after that, the chief immigration judge then sent a follow-up mass email to court administrators that said staff can now put up the coronavirus posters. Attached were four CDC posters, two of them the very same ones they asked employees to remove.
Feds to immigration courts: remove coronavirus info posters | Miami Herald
For the love of….
Thousands of women are trapped in Lebanon. They risk jail time to leave
Since October, Lebanon’s economy has buckled under soaring prices, a tanking currency, ballooning unemployment and a growing debt crisis.
…The Lebanese Pound has lost over 50% of its value, limiting migrant women’s ability to send financial support to their families. With plummeting demand for their work, many have stopped sending remittances and are sinking deeper into poverty.
…Growing numbers of women — who came to Lebanon in better economic times to earn a living and send money back to their families — are scrambling to return to their home countries. But many lack immigration papers, including their passports.
…Rights groups estimate that tens of thousands of migrant women in Lebanon are undocumented. For these workers, the hurdles to leaving the country could amount to a dead-end.
… She left her job without retrieving her passport. Her boss had confiscated it when she started work, a practice that is illegal yet widespread.
…Migrant domestic workers in Lebanon are caught in a bind. The sponsorship system, known as Kefala, links legal residency to a work contract.
…If she tries to leave this working relationship, then her status in the country is illegal. If she tries to leave Lebanon, she will likely be detained, with undocumented workers accumulating fines for every year they spend in the country without contract.
…Lebanon’s security forces classify workers who leave their jobs without their sponsor’s consent as “runaways,” even if the employer violated the terms of the country’s standard contract for sponsorships, for example through overwork, withholding salary payments, or sexual and physical abuse.
…Like many other migrant women in Lebanon, she doesn’t believe her embassy will help repatriate her. She has decided to try to get herself deported, which will mean waiting out her departure in one of Lebanon’s notoriously overcrowded prisons where malnourishment and mistreatment are rampant, according to multiple reports by rights groups and local media.
It is ”common” for migrant domestic workers to voluntarily surrender to police, a diplomatic source in Lebanon told CNN.
…“My friends told me to get myself arrested. But then I heard the police aren’t arresting migrants anymore because their jails are so full.”
…The embassy worker told her that if and when she settles her fees, she would need to wait for another three months before she can go home.
…According to the International Labor Organization, ex-employers “frequently” press charges against domestic workers. Many demand that the worker reimburse them for recruitment fees.
“There may be a justified reason for that court case, but often, research shows that they are based on false accusations.”
…“If there is a court case it …(leaving the country) becomes a longer process and a more complicated process.”
Thousands of women are trapped in Lebanon. They risk jail time to leave – CNN.com
Sigh…
Alabama Execution of Death Row Inmate Nathaniel Woods For Cop Killings Will Be a ‘Modern Day Lynching,’ Family Say
Spencer confessed to gunning the three officers down in the deadliest day in the Birmingham Police Department’s history. But he maintained that it had been an act of self-defense—a ‘”knee-jerk reaction”—when he saw Chisholm pointing a gun at him.
…Woods’ defenders say he is innocent—he never fired a weapon and there was no plot to kill the officers that day.
His attorneys say the surviving officer had testified that Woods surrendered to police before Spencer started shooting —but also changed his testimony from earlier statements to [belatedly] include a claim that Woods had threatened the officers before they were killed [one would imagine after the charges were chosen.]
…”The way that they convicted him on the theory of complicity, saying there was a plan to kill that day, it is completely not supported by the evidence,” she told Newsweek.
…”The evidence shows that Kerry Spencer acted alone, acted impulsively and confessed the day that he was arrested. He has maintained that story, that narrative, for the entire time that he has been sitting on death row.”
…Faraino added that the execution shouldn’t only be stopped because Woods is innocent, but also because there is evidence of witness and evidence tampering and use of improper tactics in the case.
…She and other attorneys representing Woods’ have collected evidence that they claim shows key witnesses in the case either testified falsely or didn’t testify after making deals with the police.
“There were many issues with his trial and the way that the prosecutors conducted themselves, there is evidence of witness tampering, there is evidence of moving the physical forensic evidence that was collected at the scene and overall, there were just improper tactics used to confuse the jury and lead to a guilty verdict,” she said.
The Appeal reported that two of the officers, Owen and Chisholm, “had a reputation for corruption and violence” and collected money from drug dealers in the neighborhood in return for protecting their operations, according to documents.
…”The prosecution constructed and managed a narrative of guilt. There is no denying that Nate was not always a law-abiding citizen. He had a record, admitted to selling drugs, and disrespected the four white police officers. But he did not commit capital murder.”
…”We know and the world knows that he’s an innocent man. We all know that he’s innocent. So for [Governor Ivey], and her staff, or whoever, the Attorney General, to want to execute him knowing this information, it’s just plain murder.”
Jeezus…
DOJ Creates New Section Of Attorneys To Strip People Of Their Naturalized Citizenship
DOJ Creates New Section Of Attorneys To Strip People Of Their Naturalized Citizenship
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Amy Klobuchar Fought to Give Immigrants Deportation-Eligible Sentences
Salim didn’t realize, he later said, citing a language barrier, that income from a second side job also needed to be included.
The lapse resulted in a criminal overpayment of benefits of $12,549 — or $782 per month. The dollar amount made the crime a felony, which put Salim, a permanent American resident but not yet a citizen, at risk of deportation. In an agreement with the judge, Salim pleaded guilty, and the judge downgraded the sentence to a gross misdemeanor, handing down a suspended sentence of 364 days (just two days shorter than a felony sentence would have been), probation, and restitution.
…The office of Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar, with Klobuchar’s signoff, decided to appeal the guilty verdict, arguing that the stayed sentence should be increased by two days, pushing it back into felony territory, which would be grounds for the legacy Immigration and Naturalization Service to begin deportation proceedings.
…Laura Lynch, senior policy counsel at the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said the decision to appeal the Salim case was “deeply, deeply troubling,” saying that it fit a pattern of “overzealous prosecutors that choose to spend limited resources to turn misdemeanors into felonies that result in unjust deportation, which is a very severe penalty.”
…The State of Minnesota has neither any standing nor any business being a “gopher” or a “water boy” for the INS. It is just none of their business. The defendant in this case is not “Lucky Luciano,” but rather an immigrant, a resident alien, who failed to report all household income for purposes of continuing to get more welfare and food stamps. To be sure, it is against the law, but the legally prescribed penalty for this crime is the lowest possible felony sentence that can be given in the State of Minnesota.
… KLOBUCHAR’S OFFICE’S flip attitude toward the immigration consequences of their prosecutions extended to another case around the same time. In July 1999, James Stanford Byron, a legal permanent resident who hailed from Trinidad and Tobago, was charged with felony marijuana sale and possession. The judge in his case stayed imposition of his sentence, handing down three years probation. Thanks to good behavior, he was granted an early discharge from probation in December 2000, and the felony was reduced to a misdemeanor on his record.
Byron thought he was out of the woods and, in February 2003, visited Trinidad and Tobago. On his way back home, he was detained in Miami by immigration authorities, who flagged his felony conviction and put him in the process of deportation.
…Klobuchar’s office stepped in, appealing the ruling to a higher court, and arguing that Byron should suffer the consequences of his felony plea, even if it was later reduced to a misdemeanor.
……In her 2006 Senate campaign, Klobuchar ran as a tough crime fighter. “I’m someone who puts people in jail for a living,” she boasted.
Amy Klobuchar Fought to Give Immigrants Deportation-Eligible Sentences
Reinstating a felony that had been reduced to a misdemeanor to deport someone? Deport someone over foodstamps??? Jeezus, Amy….
Tribes secure big voting rights win in North Dakota
Residents of reservations will be able to register and vote this year even if they don’t comply with the state’s restrictive voter identification law, which requires voters to have an ID with a residential address, under an agreement announced late Thursday.
…The address requirement has disenfranchised thousands of people living on reservations, because the state does not assign street numbers to their homes.
…Under the new consent decree, the secretary of state has promised to ensure Native Americans may vote if they do not have a street address or don’t know what it is. (Some buildings on reservations have formal addresses but no signage, and almost all residents rely on post office boxes and have those numbers on their tribal IDs.)
…The state has maintained the rule was designed to deter voting fraud, but Native Americans see it as a straightforward bid to suppress their reliably Democratic vote.
…Native Americans constitute about 5 percent of the state’s population, making them a crucial voting bloc in close contests. Different tribes have been challenging the law in federal court for almost four years.
Tribes secure big voting rights win in North Dakota – The Fulcrum
Progress.
‘Please let me go:’ Video shows 6-year-old girl crying, pleading during arrest at Orlando school
Orlando Police Department officials previously declined a public records request to release the body camera video showing Kaia Rolle’s arrest at Lucious and Emma Nixon Academy on Sept. 19, 2019, citing student privacy issues, however, the family’s attorney was given a copy and shared it with local news outlets.
…Kaia’s grandmother, Meralyn Kirkland, previously told News 6 her granddaughter was acting out in class, a side effect of a lack of sleep from a medical condition, so she was sent to the office. While Kaia was there, a staff member grabbed her wrists in order to calm her down and that’s when she lashed out and kicked, according to Kirkland.
Turner wrote in Kaia’s arrest report that Beverly Stoute, whom he identified as an assistant principal, was the victim in the case and she wanted to press charges because Kaia kicked her on the legs and punched her arms several times.
‘Please let me go:’ Video shows 6-year-old girl crying, pleading during arrest at Orlando school
The arrest record is the legal record of the incident. You don’t call the police unless you want someone arrested. Period. The school denial of the goal being the child’s arrest is galling. Lying to save their own jobs should preclude them from working in education.
Similarly, the department’s apology is meaningless. It is 100% responsible for their officers’ behavior. There are no mistakes in law enforcement, only justice and injustice.
Finally, Beverly Stoute is the perpetrator in this injustice, not the victim. Any other telling of these events is an outright lie.
As long as we tolerate people like Stoute and Turner working in our country’s schools no child is safe.
Fired Orlando cop who arrested 6-year-olds said school faculty member wanted to press charges against girl, report shows
In the student’s arrest report, obtained by the Orlando Sentinel late Tuesday, Turner said staff member Beverly Stoute — identified in the report as an assistant principal — “stated she wanted to press charges and would testify in court.”
…The report included only a brief, four-sentence narrative and didn’t indicate how the incident began.
…Though Stoute was identified in the arrest report as an assistant principal, she was listed as a teacher on the charter school’s website, one of five named on the site’s staff page. There were no assistant principals listed, only a principal and a dean of students.
There was no record of a Beverly Stoute in the state’s online teacher certification database. Two other staff members at the school — the dean and a teacher — also did not appear to be in the system. Florida law requires teachers “employed by or under contract to” a charter school to be certified by the state.
…Over the course of Turner’s 23-year tenure at OPD prior to retiring last year, he was disciplined seven times for violations of department policy that ranged from unsafe driving to a child-abuse arrest in which he was accused of injuring his 7-year-old son. He was also accused of sending threatening text messages to his ex-wife in 2009 and racial profiling
…The Nixon academy, which had 116 elementary students enrolled at the end of last school year, earned a D on Florida’s annual school report card issued this summer.
The officer should have been in jail for tasing a victim repeatedly after they were on the ground and posed no threat to the officer, not to mention his own domestic violence. The thin blue line protects criminal and thugs and sanctions lawlessness on the part of the people charged with upholding the law.
A school administrator who cannot handle a child’s temper tantrum should not be that job. Wanting to press charges on a six year old child should disqualify them from ever working around children again. This individual poses a clear risk to children. They should be forbidden to be alone with children, let alone employed in a school.
The administrator in question doesn’t have the proper qualifications and certifications to work in the school in the first place, a glaring act of malfeasance by the school system she is employed by.
Finally the school is not functional and needs to be closed.
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