Law and Disorder May 31, 2021

Palestine Legal Director Speaks On Recent Israel-Palestine Conflict

Zionism, the idea of creating a Jewish homeland in Palestine, was and is a settler colonial project that started 100 years ago. But Zionism had a problem. It’s illustrated by the story of an early Zionist Congress in Vienna sending three rabbis to Palestine to report on what they saw. The rabbis went and reported back that “the bride is beautiful but she’s married to another man.” Palestine was densely populated and had been for thousands of years. It was not, as Zionist propaganda would have it, a land without a people for a people without a land.

The Zionist goal then and now was to get rid of the Arabs. In this they have almost succeeded. But not quite.

The recent 11 day horrific slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza, approved in advance by the Biden administration and conducted by Israel with American supplied weapons started when Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an effort to consolidate right wing support evicted Palestinians from their homes in a Palestinian neighborhood in Jerusalem. The Prime Minister also had his military invade and shoot up the Al-Asqua mosque in Jerusalem while 300 Palestinians were there praying on the last day of Ramadan. In response on May 18th the Palestinians staged a general strike in Israel proper, the West Bank, and Gaza. This was the first time a general strike had been conducted by the Palestinians against their Zionist and British oppressors since 1936 which which was broken by the British and the Zionists.

The Zionist apparatus in the United States is extremely strong. Through lawsuits and political pressure they have carved out what Michael Ratner called  – the Palestine exception to the First Amendment. Telling the Palestine story is quite difficult. To counter this Michael Ratner set up the organization Palestine Legal in Chicago. It is headed by Palestinian American attorney Dima Khalidi. Before the cease-fire, 1700 people in Gaza were injured and 210 killed, including 65 children.

Guest – Dima Khalidi, founder and Director of Palestine Legal. Her work includes providing legal advice to activists, engaging in advocacy to protect their rights to speak out for Palestinian rights, and educating activists and the public about the repression of Palestine advocates. She most recently has an article published online in Truthout.

—-

The Dallas 6: Andre Jacobs

In 2014 and 2016,  Law and Disorder covered the case of the Dallas 6. They’re a group of prisoners who in 2010 protested the ongoing abuse from prison guards while locked in solitary confinement at the SCI Dallas prison in Pennsylvania. Abuse there included tasering genitals, being hog tied, cutting off of clothes and leaving the men in cages for hours at a time.

They witnessed another prisoner, Isaac Sanchez, being strapped into a restraint chair for hours even overnight. When guards threatened to do the same to them, the men tried to cover their cell doors with their bedding and refused to leave their cell in an effort to protect themselves and gain the attention of authorities. Prison guards stormed the six cells, armed with batons and electrified equipment. They left the men beaten, bloody, naked, eyes burning, their flesh scorched with pepper spray.

The Dallas 6 are Andre Jacobs, Anthony Kelly, Anthony Locke, Dwayne Peters, Derek Stanley, and Carrington Keys. The six men were forced to remain in the Restrictive Housing Unit, or solitary confinement for up to ten years.

Guest – Andre Jacobs, Andre served more than two decades in prison, was the victim of prolonged and tortuous prison guard abuse, became a successful jailhouse lawyer, and has been released from prison. He started the business Supreme Network Global to help and guide young men and women who have been in similar circumstances.

—————-

Law and Disorder April 18, 2016

web1_TTL041416Dallas-six1-1 wfhcphila_image008_74

Dallas 6 Trial: No Conviction, Ends In Mistrial

In April of 2014 we spoke with Chandre Delaney, an activist and the mother of Carrington Keys, one of the Dallas 6. The Dallas 6 are a group of inmates who in April 2010 protested the ongoing abuse from prison guards while locked in solitary confinement known as the Restrictive Housing Unit at SCI Dallas prison in Pennsylvannia. Abuse included tasering genitals, being hog tied, cutting off clothes and leaving inmates in cages for hours. The inmates protested by placing bedding over the window of their cell doors to attract attention of the prison administrators. Instead of receiving assistance, the inmates were brought up on riot charges.

The Dallas 6 are Andre Jacobs, Anthony Kelly, Anthony Locke, Dwayne Peters, Derek Stanley and Carrington Keys and were forced to stay in solitary confinement for up to 10 years.They presented testimony in December of 2013 describing the details of their abuse in solitary confinement. The trial for the remaining 3 of the Dallas 6 ended in a mistrial.

Guest – Attorney Michael Wiseman who is representing Dwayne Peters of the Dallas 6. Michael is a criminal defense litigator focusing on criminal and capital defense at trial, on appeal and in post conviction proceedings in state and federal court.

—-

bdsmap boycott_divestment_sanctions

21 States Introduce Anti-BDS Legislation

Israel advocacy groups and state law makers who support them have introduced anti-BDS legislation in New York California Florida and 19 other states across the United States of America, including the US Congress.

BDS – boycott , divestment, and sanction – is a peaceful tactic to pressure Israel to comply with international law and to influence public opinion and policy in the U.S. in favor of respecting the human rights of Palestinians.

The demands of the BDS movement are : Israels’ withdrawal from the territories of the West Bank which they have occupied since 1967 and the right of Palestinians expelled by the Israelis in 1948 and 1967 to return to their homes and equal rights for Palestinians who are citizens of Israel.

Support for BDS is now more widely rooted and impactful than ever before.  Israel and its supporters in the USA are failing to slow down their gradually intensified isolation.
As a result we are seeing well-funded campaigns to silence Israel’s critics.  Journalist Glenn Greenwald has called this “the greatest threat to free speech in the west.”

Guest – Attorney Rahul Saksena with Palestine legal, a group formed by the Center for Constitutional Rights and the National Lawyers Guild to defend the civil rights and civil liberties of critics of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
—–

 PR El_Faro_wide2
Humanitarian and Economic Crisis in Puerto Rico

There is a humanitarian and economic crisis in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico has been a colony of the United States since it was invaded in 1898. Puerto Ricans are unable to vote for president or Congress, enter into trade agreements, control their own borders, issue tariffs, or, unlike any other state or city or corporation, they are unable to take advantage of a bankruptcy laws to restructure their debt. There are 3 million people living in Puerto Rico and their government owes $72 billion in bonds bought up by American citizens and corporations. For the last seven years there’s been a fire sale of Puerto Rican assets, including the sale to private interests of the largest airport on the island and the largest highway. Forty percent of the population are unemployed. Three weeks ago Puerto Rican governor Alejandro Padilla signed into law an emergency bill that would allow him to suspend the counties debt repayment. $422 million is due on May 1, 2016.

Guest – Attorney Linda Backiel – long-term National Lawyers Guild member. Linda practices law in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
——————–

Law and Disorder April 14, 2014

Updates:

——

scidallas2 carrington2

The Dallas 6: Abuse In Solitary Confinement

In April of 2010, a group of inmates locked in solitary confinement at SCI Dallas prison in Pennsylvania were suffering so much abuse and brutal treatment by prison guards they had placed their bedding over the window of their cell doors to attract attention of the prison administrators. Instead of receiving assistance, the inmates were brought up on riot charges. Last December the inmates known as the Dallas 6 defended themselves and presented testimony describing the details of their abuse in solitary confinement.

Shandre Delaney:

  • This case, the Dallas 6, began in April 2010. These men were all in the RHU at SCI Dallas, in Dallas PA.
  • The RHU is the restrictive housing unit, its an acronym for solitary confinement.
  • All of these men had been victims of abuse and torture during their stay in solitary confinement.
  • The Dallas 6 are Andre Jacobs, Anthony Kelly, Anthony Locke, Dwayne Peters, Derek Stanley and my son Carrington Keys.
  • Most of these guys went into solitary for minor infractions, maybe to stay 60-90 days. My son stayed in there for 10 years, and I think all of the other guys about the same.
  • These guys were jailhouse lawyers. These guys were people who spoke up and sent word to the outside about what was going on in solitary confinement.
  • Once you do that – they call it misconduct, which are write ups, they’ll give you false write ups, and all types of things just to keep you in there longer.
  • The cells are 6X9. In solitary, they might have a window to the outside. There is a bunk that they sleep on. There is only a slot for food to come in and out.
  • You’re supposed to come out of your cell for one hour a day. They may get a shower 2 or 3 times a week.
  • They lied to me for years and told me he wasn’t allowed visits. I later found out that they’re allowed one visit per month.
  • The group that I work for Human Rights Coalition, some of the information that was sent from SCI Dallas, a 93 page report was written called Resistance and Retaliation.
  • They sent a copy back in (to SCI Dallas) they didn’t mark out the guys’ names, so once the guards got a hold of this, and saw the guy’s names, they started one by one beating guys.
  • They took one guy and put him in a restraint chair. You’re only supposed to be in the restraint chair for 2 hours, they kept there over night.
  • They (the guards) told the guys (Dallas 6) we’re comin for you. In order to bring attention from a lieutenant or a superior officer, you have to cover your cell window.
  • They covered their cell windows. The guards put on riot gear and one by one they beat these guys very bad.
  • It’s all on video tape. They tasered a lot of the guys on their genitals.
  • They have you like a hog or something, I saw it on the video.
  • They cut their clothes off and left them for hours in cages.
  • May 5, 2014 is supposed to be the official trial date. The official trial date has been going on for 2 years.
  • I was praying every night hoping the phone didn’t ring and they tell me they killed him.
  • They took out to shower and threw him down the steps and broke his nose, they busted his teeth out with a stick before.
  • They put glass in his food.
  • HRCoalition.org
  • Dallas 6 Blog 
  • Petition to Indict Luzerne County Officials 
  • Summary in Support of Petition to Indict 

Guest – Shandre Delaney, a powerful activist with HRCoalition and the mother of Carrington Keys, one of the Dallas 6.

—–

condoleezza_rice_bc_commencement rutgers_university

Rutgers University Plans to Give Condoleezza Rice Honorary Degree

Students and faculty at Rutgers University have rejected the idea to invite former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to speak at this year’s commencement ceremony and receive an honorary degree. The Board of Governors in February of this year unanimously voted to award Rice the invite for a fee of 35 thousand dollars. They also voted to give the national security adviser under former President George W. Bush an honorary degree. Resolutions signed by the university faculty and staff calls for Rice to be disinvited.

Professor Deepa Kumar:

  • Historically our process at Rutgers University has involved having 20 some faculties, students, involved in the process of selecting the commencement speaker, typically by canvasing students and canvasing faculty and then making a recommendation to the president as to who to invite.
  • When president Barchi came to your university in 2012 he completely violated this open and democratic process, formed a committee of 6 people including himself. Then they decided to go ahead an invite Condoleezza Rice.
  • We believe that this was actually politically motivated. What suspect is that Chris Cristi who was riding high at that time in 2012, before bridge-gate, very likely wanted to have Condoleezza Rice as Vice Presidential candidate when he runs.
  • So far we have taken out a petition drive, the students have their own petition drive, hundreds of people have signed up. We’ve also talked about holding a protest outside should our efforts fail.
  • The last time Dr. Rice was invited to be a commencement speaker was at 2006 at Boston College, when everybody turned their back to her when she started to speak.
  • Condoleezza Rice was very much a part of the systematic lying to the American public and quite frankly we at Rutgers teach our students to ethical to be responsible citizens.
  • At Rutgers we have a 44 percent minority student enrollment. It’s a very diverse school and I welcome African American women as commencement speakers but I think there are better people like Anita Hill or Angela Davis.
  • In 2002 we know from a Senate Committee Intelligence Report of 2009 that when Rice was chair of the National Security Council she gave a verbal approval to then CIA director George Tenet to go ahead and use enhanced interrogation techniques.
  • She’s been quite steadfast in defending the use of torture. She gave a speech at Stanford University where she argued that if torture is authorized by the president then it doesn’t violate the Geneva Convention against torture.
  • Commencement at Rutgers – May 18, 2014.
  • Senator Feinstein called the use of torture a dark chapter in the history of this country.
  • Clearly torture is a violation of international law and the Geneva Convention and I think to confer a Doctor of Law degree to someone who has been intimately connected with this “dark chapter” in our history I think is a serious embarrassment for Rutgers University.
  • I’m really proud to be among the hundreds of faculty members and students who are actually standing up against this to disinvite her.
  • Dick Cheney comes out and defends the torture program even now.
  • If I Was Allowed To Speak

Guest – Deepa Kumar, an Associate Professor of Media and Middle Eastern Studies at Rutgers University. Her latest book is Islamophobia and The Politics of Empire by Haymarket Books and is in response to the events of 9/11, the Bush administration launched a “war on terror,” ushering in an era of anti-Muslim racism, or Islamophobia.  Her first book, Outside the Box: Corporate Media, Globalization and the UPS Strike (University of Illinois Press, 2007), is about the power of collective struggle in effectively challenging the priorities of neoliberalism.

———————————————————————–
Help Support Law and Disorder Right Here

Donate now!

Law and Disorder is now a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions for the charitable purposes of Law and Disorder must be made payable to Fractured Atlas only and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.

Law and Disorder November 11, 2013

Updates:

—-

pepperspray2 brigitt3

Lawyers You’ll Like: Attorney Brigitt Keller

On our Lawyers You’ll Like series we’re joined today by Attorney Brigitt Keller. She’s the Executive Director of the National Police Accountability Project (NPAP).  Brigitt holds a law degree from Fribourg University Law School in her native Switzerland and an LLM in American Law from Boston University.  She is admitted to practice law in New York.  Prior to attending law school, Brigitt counseled victims of domestic violence and was instrumental in founding the Swiss National Council of Women’s Shelters.  In addition to her engagement for NPAP, Brigitt is a fellow at the International Center for Conciliation and occasionally teaches conflict resolution workshops.

Attorney Brigitt Keller:

  • NPAP’s mission is to hold law enforcement officers including prison personnel accountable for civil rights violations and police misconduct and brutality.
  • As an organization we provide training and support for civil rights attorneys, legal workers and community activists.
  • We also work with other organizations with similar efforts to change policy and practices and provide relevant information to the public.
  • We see increasing disproportionate measures taken by police.
  • The police (NYPD) no longer stop people when there is suspicious activity. They preventively sweep up hundreds of thousands of young men of color.
  • When tasers were initially brought on the market, they were really sold to the public with the argument that they would be used instead of firearms.
  • What we observe today and this counts for all over the country is that tasers are used in cases where there would never ever be a justification for the use of a firearm.
  • When you think about why should we have police, its really to protect the people of this country,
  • Young people of color have a very good sense of when policing is legitimate and when its not legitimate.
  • These strategies make the community very unsafe. People will not call the police if the police behaves like an occupying army.
  • I find the involvement of community activists and families of victims incredibly important.
  • There is a different awareness today about police misconduct.
  • I want to make clear that damage has been done already – that the fact that the judge was recused from the case with in my opinion, no valid reason. Secondly, the police are allowed to violate the rights of New Yorkers until the stay will be lifted.
  • My interest in the law started initially by working for 7 years in a shelter for domestic violence victims.
  • Police violence is something truly international. Even in a country like Switzerland where crime numbers are pretty low, there is police violence.
  • I find it important that there is no abuse of power and police violence is abuse of power.
  • www.nlg-npap.org

Guest – Attorney Brigett Keller – Executive Director of the National Police Accountability Project (NPAP).  Brigitt holds a law degree from Fribourg University Law School in her native Switzerland and an LLM in American Law from Boston University.  She is admitted to practice law in New York.  Prior to attending law school, Brigitt counseled victims of domestic violence and was instrumental in founding the Swiss National Council of Women’s Shelters.  In addition to her engagement for NPAP, Brigitt is a fellow at the International Center for Conciliation and occasionally teaches conflict resolution workshops.

—–

panel22 Bloomberg_Cornell_2

A Panel Discussion: Militarizing, Domestic Spying, and the Boycott of Israel

We hear a presentation by Anna Calcutt (New Yorkers Against the Cornell-Technion Partnership – NYACT), NYC-based BDS activist, will supply background on the conception and planning of the Cornell-Technion campus in NYC, along with reasons to oppose The Technion–including its deep-rooted ties with the Israeli weapons industry and military, the growth of the anti-Technion campaign, and what needs to be done next.

Recorded by Deep Dish TV

—————————————————————————————————-

 

Law and Disorder July 8, 2013

Updates:

—-

timoney bahrain_protests22

White-washing Human Rights Abuses and Suppressing a Popular Revolution

Two years since the Arab-Spring demonstrations erupted in Bahrain, human rights abuses continue to this day. In 2011, an independent report exposes these abuses that compelled the Kingdom of Bahrain to hire former NYPD police chief John Timoney to white was acts of political repression. Who is John Timoney and why was he outsourced to Bahrain? We ask legal worker and journalist Kris Hermes who recently penned the article John Timoney and Kingdom of Bahrain: White-washing Human Rights Abuses and Suppressing a Popular Revolution.

Kris Hermes:

  • Shortly after the Arab Spring began in 2011, Bahrain followed in the footsteps of Tunisia and Egypt by demonstrating against the ruling monarchy that’s been in power for more than 200 years.
  • Those protests were met with intense repression by King Hamad.
  • The protests made of the Shiite population who argue they’ve been systematically discriminated against in employment, housing, education.
  • The ministry of interior hired John Timoney as well as John Yates who is from the UK.from Britains metropolitan police department.
  • John Timoney started with a long career in the New York City Police Department, he was probably most well known for his handling of the Tomkins Square Park riots in 1988.
  • Regardless of what he did to clean up the Philadelphia Police Department, his handling of the Republican National Convention protests were abysmal. He came down very hard on protesters in 2000, essentially establishing a new form of policing in the United States that for the most part was intolerant of political demonstrations.
  • He became the police chief of Miami in 2002 and oversaw one of the most violent police reactions in modern history. He not only used what he learned in Philadelphia, conducting preemptive raids, using infiltration and heavy surveillance, brutalizing protesters on the street, and wrongfully arresting hundreds of people.
  • In Miami he used a whole panaply of weapons against protesters, including tear gas, pepper spray, rubber and wooden bullets, bean bag rounds, tasers and electric shields.
  • He gained a reputation both in Philly and Miami.
  • He’s been in Bahrain for a year and a half now and has a two year contract and its just about up.
  • That’s the reason why the article was done, an assessment on how Timoney has done in Bahrain in terms of his crown control measures.
  • Andrews International: Part of a security apparatus that is increasingly private in terms of policing and security personnel that are deployed around the world.
  • It allows the US to expand its militia around the world as well.
  • The death toll of political demonstrators has only increased since Timoney arrived on the scene. One of his favorite tools to suppress demonstrations in the United States is tear gas.
  • Things are pretty dire for political dissidents in Bahrain.

Guest – Kris Hermes, activist who provides legal support work on cases involving political dissidents.

—-

morsi-egypt1 mideast-egypt-protests2

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi Ousted Following Days of Massive Largest Anti-Government Protest

Last week, democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi was ousted following historic demonstrations by Egyptian protesters.  Morsi and his advisors have been held under house arrest in the Egyptian Republican Guard Club, the highest Brotherhood leader, Mohammed Badie, and some associates of his have been arrested. Protesters accused Morsi of supporting Obama’s anti-Syrian agenda, ignoring critical economic problems and betraying his support for Palestinians. However, what are the some of the economic issues involved that led up to these massive protests?

Omar el-Shafei:

  • We’re going through a real historic process. At least you had 20 million people in the streets expressing their anger in different Egyptian cities.
  • This is a continuation of the process that started in January 2011, not just Egyptian but an Arab phenomenon.
  • I think its a complete anger, bitterness and disillusionment of the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood.
  • We have to remember that the Muslim Brotherhood has been the largest opposition force during the last decade of the Mubarack dictatorship.
  • After one year in power they managed to alienate everybody. They were essentially ruling as a continuation of the old regime, and pro-imperialist foreign policy.
  • The dominant image of the Arab Spring is purely political, middle class, youthful mobilization aiming at democratizing despotic regimes.
  • The Mubarack dictatorship for years and sometimes decades have applied neoliberal economic policy that tremendously increased class divide, so the social element of this revolution was vital.
  • In the case of Egypt, the revolution in 2011 came after five years of the biggest wave of workers struggle in the history of the country, since the 1940s.
  • The continuation of the revolution is in large part of the worker mobilization. After the revolution we didn’t have independent trade unions, they incorporated by the state.
  • More like the agent of the state against the liberal movement.
  • Since then we’ve witnessed an emergence of thousands of trade unions and they are playing an important part in the revolution in social demands.
  • The message from below even when it is apparently limited demands it has the potential of raising people’s confidence and enhance a process of self radicalization that can link these demands to a wider vision of transformation in society.
  • What happened in Turkey a few weeks ago and Brazil more recently has very much has inspired the Egyptian struggle.
  • What we are witnessing is a huge mobilization against the Muslim Brotherhood. The military prefer to remain in the background.
  • We are in a prolonged revolutionary process and I think that the people are learning from their own experience.

Guest – Omar el-Shafei, political activist, and independent researcher currently living in NYC. He is a doctoral candidate of International Law at Paris VII University in France. Omar is a founding member of the “Committee of Solidarity with the Struggle of the Egyptian People” in Paris, France, and author of “Workers, Trade Unions, and the State in Egypt, 1984-1989,” Cairo Papers in Social Science, American University in Cairo Press (Volume 18, Monograph 2, Summer 1995).
———————————————————————