FLINT: How Can You Help The People of Flint?

Many of you have contacted me wanting to know how you can help the people of Flint with the two-year long tragedy of drinking water contaminated by the radical decisions made by the Governor of Michigan. The offer is much appreciated by those who are suffering through this and who have not drank a glass of unpoisoned water since April of 2014.
Unfortunately, the honest answer to your offer of help is, sadly, you can’t.
You can’t help.
The reason you can’t help is that you cannot reverse the irreversible brain damage that has been inflicted upon every single child in Flint. The damage is permanent. There is no medicine you can send, no doctor or scientist who has any way to undo the harm done to thousands of babies, toddlers and children (not to mention their parents). They are ruined for life, and someone needs to tell you the truth about that. They will, forever, suffer from various neurological impediments, their IQs will be lowered by at least 20 points, they will not do as well in school and, by the time they reach adolescence, they will exhibit various behavioral problems that will land a number of them in trouble, and some of them in jail.
That is what we know about the history of lead poisoning when you inflict it upon a child. It is a life sentence. In Flint, they’ve already ingested it for these two years, and the toll has already been taken on their developing brains. No check you write, no truckloads of Fiji Water or Poland Spring, will bring their innocence or their health back to normal. It’s done. And it was done knowingly, enacted by a political decision from a Governor and a political party charged by the majority of Michigan’s citizens who elected them to cut taxes for the rich, take over majority-black cities by replacing the elected mayors and city councils, cut costs, cut services, cut more taxes for the rich, increase taxes on retired teachers and public employees and, ultimately, try to decimate their one line of defense against all this, this thing we used to call a union.
The amount of generosity since the national media finally started to cover this story has been tremendous. Pearl Jam sent 100,000 bottles of water. The next day the Detroit Lions showed up with a truck and 100,000 bottles of water. Yesterday, Puff Daddy and Mark Wahlberg donated 1,000,000 bottles of water! Unbelievably amazing. They acknowledged it’s a very short-term fix, and that it is. Flint has 102,000 residents, each in need of an average of 50 gallons of water a day for cooking, bathing, washing clothes, doing the dishes, and drinking (I’m not counting toilet flushes, watering plants or washing the car). But 100,000 bottles of water is enough for just one bottle per person – in other words, just enough to cover brushing one’s teeth for one day. You would have to send 200 bottles a day, per person, to cover what the average American (we are Americans in Flint) needs each day. That’s 102,000 citizens times 200 bottles of water – which equals 20.4 million 16oz. bottles of water per day, every day, for the next year or two until this problem is fixed (oh, and we’ll need to find a landfill in Flint big enough for all those hundreds of millions of plastic water bottles, thus degrading the local environment even further). Anybody want to pony up for that? Because THAT is the reality.
This is a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions. There is not a terrorist organization on Earth that has yet to figure out how to poison 100,000 people every day for two years – and get away with it. That took a Governor who subscribes to an American political ideology hell-bent on widening the income inequality gap and conducting various versions of voter and electoral suppression against people of color and the poor. It was those actions that led Michigan’s Republican Governor to try out his economic and racial experiment in Flint (and please don’t tell me this has nothing to do with race or class; he has removed the mayors of a number of black cities. This, and the water crisis in Flint, never would have been visited upon the residents of Bloomfield Hills or Grosse Pointe — and everyone here knows that). We have now seen the ultimate disastrous consequences of late-20th century, neo-conservative, trickle down public policy. That word “trickle,” a water-based metaphor, was used to justify this economic theory — well, it’s no longer a metaphor, is it? Because now we’re talking about how actual water has been used to institute these twisted economic beliefs in destroying the lives of the black and the poor in Flint, Michigan.
So, do you still want to help? Really help? Because what we need in Flint – and across the country – right now, tonight, is a nonviolent army of people who are willing to stand up for this nation, and go to bat for the forgotten of Flint.
Here’s what you and I need to do:
1)Demand the removal and arrest of Rick Snyder, the Governor of Michigan. When the police have an “active shooter” situation in a building, they must first stop the shooter before they can bring aid to the victims. The perp who allowed the poisoning to continue once he knew something was wrong — and his minions who cooked the evidence so the public and the feds wouldn’t find out – must be removed from office ASAP. Whether it’s via resignation, recall or prosecution, this must happen now because he is still refusing to take the aggressive and immediate action needed. His office, as recently as this past Thursday, was claiming the EPA had no legal authority to tell him what to do. You know the EPA — that federal agency every Republican politician wants eliminated? Governor Snyder is not going to obey the law. He has covered up the crime, and I submit he has committed an act of voluntary or involuntary manslaughter. Last month I posted a meme of me holding a pair of handcuffs with the hashtag #ArrestGovSnyder:
 It went viral, so I posted a petition (link) to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch asking her to arrest the Governor – and asking President Obama to send help to Flint immediately. As each day brought a new revelation of the Governor’s corruption or incompetence, and with Rachel Maddow on a nightly tear, the momentum built. MoveOn.org and Democracy For America joined me in circulating our petition. We are now on our way to having a half-million signatures! Then Bernie Sanders became the first candidate to call for the Governor’s removal. That same day, President Obama issued his first emergency order for Flint. The next night, Hillary Clinton fiercely called out the racist actions of the Governor.
You want to help? Sign the petition – and get everyone you know to sign it. Now. Another half-million signatures could become the tipping point we need. All eyes are on Flint.
2)Make the State of Michigan pay for the disaster that the State of Michigan created. The Governor wants the President to declare Flint a federal disaster zone and have him send federal money to fix the problem. Not so fast. All relief aid for Flint currently coming from the federal government to Michigan is going through the Governor’s office to disburse. That is literally paying the fox to fix the chicken coop he destroyed. As a Michigan resident and voter, I think that the people who elected Governor Snyder must show some of that personal responsibility they’re always lecturing about to the poor. The majority of my fellow Michiganders wanted this kind of government (they elected him twice), so now they should have to pay for it. This year the state treasury posted nearly a $600 million surplus. There is also another $600 million in the state’s “rainy day fund”. That’s $1.2 billion – just about what Flint’s congressman, Dan Kildee, estimates it will cost to replace the water infrastructure and care for the thousands of poisoned children throughout their growing years.
And before there is any talk of federal tax dollars being used (and, yes, they will be needed), the state legislature must remove the billion-dollars’ worth of tax cuts the Snyder administration gave the wealthy when he took office. That will go a long way to helping not just Flint but Michigan’s other destitute cities and school districts.
3)The Federal Government must then be placed in charge. The State government cannot be trusted to get this right. So, instead of declaring a federal disaster zone, President Obama must declare the same version of martial law that Governor Snyder declared over the cities of Flint and Detroit. He must step in and appoint a federal emergency manager in the state capitol to direct the resources of both the state and federal government in saving Flint. This means immediately sending in FEMA in full force. It means sending in the CDC to determine the true extent of not just the lead poisoning in the water, but also the latest outbreak that has been discovered in Flint – a tenfold increase in the number of Flint people who’ve contracted Legionnaires Disease. There have now been 87 cases since the switch to the Flint River water, and ten people have died. The local hospital has also noted sharp increases in a half-dozen other toxins found in people’s bodies. We need the CDC. The EPA must take over the testing of the water, and the Army Corps of Engineers must be sent in to begin replacing the underground pipes. Like the levees in New Orleans, this will be a massive undertaking. If it is turned over to for-profit businesses, it will take a decade and cost billions. This needs to happen right now and Obama must be in charge.
4)Evacuate any and all Flint residents who want to leave now. They’ve suffered long enough and, until the water is truly safe, no one should have to stay there who doesn’t want to. The state and FEMA should move people into nearby white townships that are still hooked up to Lake Huron water.
5)For those who choose to stay in Flint, FEMA must create a temporary water system in each home. One idea that has been suggested is to deliver two 55-gallon drums to every home in Flint. Each day water trucks will arrive to fill them with fresh clean glacial water from Lake Huron. The drums will have taps attached to them. People can’t be expected to carry jugs of water from buildings that are miles away.
In the end, we will need to create a new economy and bring new employment to this town that created the middle class, that elected the first black mayor, and that believed in and created the American Dream. They deserved more than to be poisoned by their own Governor — a Governor who thought that, because the people in the town were politically weak, he could get away with this unnoticed and without a fight. He figured wrong.
A crime against humanity has been committed against the people of Flint, making them refugees in their own homes. Tell me honestly: if you were living in Flint right now, and you learned that your children had been drinking lead-filled water for two years, and then you discovered that the Governor knew this and the state lied about it – tell me, just how fast would your head be spinning? With your children now poisoned, and with the poisoning continuing… is the word “nonviolence” dominating your thoughts right now? Are you absolutely, stunningly amazed how peaceful the people in Flint have remained? Are you curious how much longer that can last? I hope it does. If you want to help Flint, sign the petition, demand that the federal government take action, and then get involved yourself, wherever you live, so that this doesn’t happen to you – and so that the people we elect know they can no longer break the law as they rule by fiat or indifference. We deserve much better than this.

For a better world,
Michael Moore

Sign the petition. #ArrestGovSnyder

520,951

520,951

SIGNED THE PETITION

Dear President Obama and Attorney General Lynch:
We, the undersigned, call upon you to investigate and, if warranted, arrest and prosecute the Governor of Michigan, Rick Snyder, for violating the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulations in cutting off clean drinking water to the city of Flint and making the citizens, instead, drink polluted water from the Flint River; for fraud and political corruption; and for covering up the criminal actions of his administration. The children of Flint, already amongst the poorest in the U.S., will now have to endure a life of pain, irreversible brain damage and lower IQ’s because of Governor Snyder’s actions. There is no way to totally reverse the effects of lead in a child’s blood stream. At the very least, justice must be served — and other elected officials must be put on notice, by the actions you will take against the Governor, that people’s lives are more important than balancing a budget.
We ask that you, President Obama, come to Flint and see first-hand the tragedy that has taken place — and then send in the CDC, the EPA, FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers to repair the damage the Governor of Michigan has done to Flint.

Your information is private. It will not be available to the public.

Bill Cosby: Court Finds Accuser Lied About Assault

Bill Cosby won’t be charged in two cases investigated by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office, the DA announced Wednesday.

According to a charge evaluation sheet, prosecutors think neither of the two allegations could have resulted in charges within the statute of limitations.

The accusers, listed as Jane Does No. 1 and No. 2, had accused Cosby of sexual assault.

Want an in depth biography of Bill Cosby? Buy it here.

“We are satisfied that the Los Angeles DA’s office fully and fairly evaluated all the facts and evidence, and came to the right conclusion,” said Chris Tayback, a lawyer for Cosby.

“We recognize that the bar for criminal prosecution, which is proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, is extremely high,” he said. “We nonetheless commend the efforts of the LAPD and the District Attorney’s Office with respect to their criminal investigation.”

Investigators learned Cosby was in New York the weekend of the event at which the woman said Cosby assaulted her. He attended only one party at the Playboy Mansion that year and it was in February, the charge evaluation sheet said.

Seems that at least one of the Cosby accusers lied. How many more jumped on the “let’s accuse Bill Cosby” bandwagon? This is why people are found innocent or guilty in a court of law, not the court of public opinion.

And yet now a Congressman has now advocated that, without Cosby having yet had his day in court, that the highest award the comedian has ever received should be stripped from him…


Arizona congressman Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) will introduce legislation to revoke embattled comedian Bill Cosby’s Presidential Medal of Freedom this week. Why not wait until he’s been tried. And NOT just by the media…

The legislation would revoke Bill Cosby’s Medal of Freedom as a result of Cosby’s  admissions in 2005 about an alleged sexual assault that took place more than ten years ago.

Central Park Five: Teacher Jeena Lee-Walker Fired Over Lesson Plans On Administrator Fears Of Inciting 'Riots'

Raymond Santana, right, Kevin Richardson, and Yusef Salaam, left, react to supporters Thursday, Jan. 17, 2013, in New York. The three men who were exonerated in the 1989 Central Park Jogger case.

Teacher Says She Was Fired For Teaching Students About The Central Park Five

BY CASEY QUINLAN JAN 8, 2016 11:37 AM

A New York City high school teacher says she was fired after teaching her class about the Central Park Five — a case involving five black and Hispanic men who were accused of raping a jogger as teenagers but later exonerated after spending between six to 13 years in prison — because administrators were worried the lesson would “rile up” students of color.

Central Park Five members defend teacher who claims she was fired for teaching the case



The English teacher, Jeena Lee-Walker (pictured below), told the New York Daily News that administrators at her former high school critiqued the 2013 lesson, saying it should have been more “balanced.” Court papers show administrators said they feared the lesson would cause “riots.” And according to Lee-Walker, administrators were afraid the lesson would “rile up” the black students in her class.


In her interview with the Daily News, Lee-Walker said she thought “students in general, and black students in particular, should be riled up” about the case, which is often held up as an example of how the criminal justice system unfairly targets young men of color. But she subsequently received bad performance reviews and eventually received a dismissal.

Lee-Walker has since filed suit against the Department of Education and school administrators for failing to give her 60 days notice about her termination, which violates the teacher’s union contract.

The story has attracted a lot of attention from educators — and especially from teachers who are concerned about teacher diversity and who say this type of action from administrators may hobble teachers of color professionally. Jose Vilson, a middle school math educator in the Inwood/Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City and the author of This Is Not A Test: A New Narrative on Race, Class, and the Future of Education, sent several tweets criticizing the administrators for their comments.

UWS High School Teacher Claims She Was Fired For "Central Park Five" Lessons

BY BEN YAKAS IN NEWS ON JAN 8, 2016 5:30 PM

English teacher Jeena Lee-Walker screenshot via Daily News

An English teacher at an Upper West Side high school claims that she was fired because of a lesson on the Central Park Five which administrators warned her would "rile up" black students.
Jeena Lee-Walker, 37, is suing the High School for Arts, Imagination and Inquiry after she was fired for insubordination and poor evaluations, all of which she believes was the result of her pushing back on topics like the Central Park Five.
Lee-Walker tells the Daily News that her problems with administrators started almost immediately after she started working at the school in 2013. She says she was shocked when she was told to be more "balanced" covering the case of the Central Park Five in November 2013: "I was stunned,” she told the News. "I was kind of like, the facts are the facts. This is what happened. These boys went to jail and lost 14, 18 years of their lives. How can you say that in a more balanced way?"
Although she agreed to change her approach, she felt that students had good reason to be "riled up," telling the News, "I kind of wanted to hook them in, engage them, win them over. I thought that this material was not only engaging but important...They were really moved by the documentary and rightly so. They really identified with the teenagers."
Lee-Walker argues in her lawsuit that retaliation against her "violated her First Amendment right to discuss the Central Park Five case, and that the firing violated the city’s contract with the teacher’s union because she was not given a required 60 days notice."
The Central Park Five, who were wrongfully jailed for the 1989 rape of a Central Park jogger, have received a $42 million settlement from the city in recent years. In 2014, they sued the state seeking $52 million in damages for the emotional trauma of being incarcerated for years for a crime they were coerced into confessing to.

Teacher Fired for Heroic Incompetence

 by ADAM LAATS on JANUARY 10, 2016

http://iloveyoubutyouregoingtohell.org/

I’m no cynic. But anyone who’s paying attention knows that schools serve a range of purposes. We see depressing evidence today that one of their primary functions is to contain and control young people. How do we know? Because a teacher in New York City was fired, according to her, for talking about structural racism in a way that would “rile up” her African American students. Yikes.

The story is grim. Jeena Lee-Walker has sued New York schools for her termination. Beginning in 2012, school administrators asked her to tone down her teaching about the Central Park Five case. As all New Yorkers remember, a group of young men were falsely convicted of raping a woman. They were eventually freed, but only after spending long years in prison.

Lee-Walker taught her students about the case. Many of them, she thought, “should be riled up” about the deep injustice done, as well as about continuing injustices in American society.

Her administrators thought differently. They gave her several bad evaluations and eventually fired her for “insubordination.”

Let me be crystal clear here: I think all teachers should be like Ms. Lee-Walker. All teachers should “rile up” their students about injustices in our society.

But we need to recognize two complicating factors. Though I’m a big fan of his, I think Curmudgucrat Peter Greene misses the boat here when he says Lee-Walker was “fired for competence.”

She was fired for two other reasons, reasons central to the successful functioning of any school. Even as we praise Ms. Lee-Walker’s bravery and integrity, we need to be a little more clearheaded about what was really going on. In short, Ms. Lee-Walker’s unwillingness to go along with the school system really DID make her incompetent as a teacher. Heroic, yes, but not willing to do the job.

That might sound odd, so let me offer two long-winded explanations.

First, teachers are not simply private citizens. Ms. Lee-Walker will not have luck protesting that her First Amendment rights have been breached. And, by and large, none of us want to cede to teachers such rights. Consider, for example, what we might think if she had been accused of promoting political or religious agendas with which we don’t agree. What if she “riled up” students by denouncing abortion? Or by denouncing evolution?

In principle, then, we need to acknowledge that teachers are bound to stick within curricular guidelines established by the school and community. I’ll repeat: in this case I think those guidelines are utterly bogus. I think we should encourage all New York City high schools to emulate Ms. Lee-Walker’s decision to teach the Central Park Five case. It is the truth and young people deserve to learn about it.

But if and when a heroic teacher decides to go against her superiors, she should be prepared to be kicked out. That is equally true whether we agree or disagree with the teacher’s ideas. I’m going to say this again, just because I think it could be misinterpreted: In this case, I side wholly with Ms. Lee-Walker. Her protest, however, should not be taken as a simple case of good teaching vs. evil administrating. Rather, this is a heroic attempt to push the curriculum in New York City schools toward this sort of teaching. Ms. Lee-Walker should have expected to get fired—even WANTED to get fired—because that was her only chance to take her appeal to a wider stage.


We don’t have to like it, but I think we need to be clear about our terms. In this sort of case, the closest analogy is that of Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses. To some, she was a hero, to others a poorly coiffed villain. In the end, however, she was a government bureaucrat who refused to do her job. Whatever we think of her politics or religion, no institution can function if it doesn’t purge such folks.

That brings us to our second point. This story drives home the depressing custodial role schools and teachers play in our society. We tend to think of schools as educational institutions—and they are—but they are also holding pens of varying levels of pleasantness.

As a result, a big part of the job of school administrators is to keep the students relatively calm. With a dizzyingly high student-to-teacher ratio, most schools rely on passive and compliant students. When and if students choose to throw off schools’ restraints, there is not much administrators can physically do to coerce them into submission.

In some schools, this results at worst in hijinx such as food fights. In other schools, we get a prison-like atmosphere in which students are continually monitored and physically controlled.

Is that a good thing? Not at all. But if we want to make sense of this case and the many other cases like this, we need to understand the many things that schools do in our society. Teachers are not merely Socratic wisdom-peddlers in the agora. They are street-level bureaucrats who help process large numbers of young people in educational containment systems.


The point of Ms. Lee-Walker’s actions—if she was acting intentionally—was not merely to teach children something true. The point was to make a public spectacle of the fact that New York City schools do not regularly include that sort of teaching. She was not “fired for competence,” but for her stubborn insistence on principled incompetence, her brave unwillingness to go along with a system that fails students so miserably.

Raymond Santana (c.), one of the members of the Central Park Five, came to the defense of a Manhattan teacher who says she was fired for teaching the case in her classroom.

Central Park Five members defend teacher who claims she was fired for teaching the case

BY VICTORIA BEKIEMPIS, STEPHEN REX BROWN, RICH SCHAPIRO  NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Updated: Friday, January 8, 2016, 2:57 PM

(From l.) Korey Wise, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana and Yusef Salaam spent several years in prison after they were wrongfully convicted of raping a jogger in 1989.

Two members of the Central Park Five came to the defense Friday of an Upper West Side teacher who claims she was fired for building a curriculum around the notorious case.

“We're with her 100% to fight this injustice," Raymond Santana, 41, told the Daily News.

“We would love to be down at the federal courthouse when she goes in" and give “any other support that is needed.”

“I absolutely appreciate her and absolutely commend her," he said. "Anything (she and her lawyer) need, we will be here — and be ready."

Santana and Salaam spoke out a day after the Daily News revealed Lee-Walker’s claims that she was canned for teaching her students at the High School for Arts, Imagination and Inquiry about the racially charged case.


Yusef Salaam, 41, offered a similar vow to stand behind axed teacher Jeena Lee-Walker.

Walker’s Central Park Five program explored the travails of the five black and Latino teens who spent several years in prison after they were wrongfully convicted of raping a female jogger in 1989.

Lee-Walker, 37, was fired in May after school administrators told her to tone down the curriculum because they feared the lessons would “rile up” black students and trigger mini “riots,” according to a federal lawsuit filed by the axed teacher.


Lee-Walker says she was accused of insubordination and given poor evaluations after she pushed back against the administrators’ demands.

Lee-Walker, who graduated from Barnard and has post-grad degrees from Harvard and Fordham, did not specify damages in her suit.

Santana, who spent seven years behind bars for the crime, said he was “troubled” by the suit’s description of the administrators’ claiming the lessons might incite a riot.


"It takes us back to 1989, where the media put these labels on us — that we were animals," he said.

"A person working in the school system shouldn't view our kids like that."

Salaam said the news of Lee-Walker’s treatment has triggered painful memories.

“For us, in terms of the Central Park Five, it’s like we're being tried and prosecuted all over again,” said Salaam who was also imprisoned for seven years.


"There are lots of people out there who truly feel like we are guilty of something.” 

Donald Trump and the Central Park Five

BY AMY DAVIDSON JUNE 23, 2014

Kharey Wise as he looked when he was arraigned, in 1989, in the Central Park jogger case. Photograph by John Pedin/NY Daily News Archive/Getty.

Donald Trump is angry about the settlement the city reached, this weekend, with the Central Park Five—the men who had, as teen-age boys, been wrongly convicted in the “Central Park jogger” rape case and been called animals by just about every institution in this city. The rape had been committed between 9 or 10 P.M., on an April evening in 1989; someone had beaten the jogger so badly and so brutally that by the time she was found, hours later, stripped and covered with mud, she had lost three quarters of her blood. The police detective on the scene told reporters that her body had already turned cold; she wouldn’t have survived much longer. The woman, as she later let the world know in a book, was Trisha Meili, then an investment banker at Salomon Brothers; she had been bashed in the head and remembered nothing. The rest of New York, though, was sure of what had happened to her, and who was to blame. Here was the headline in the Daily News, on April 21, 1989:

WOLF PACK’S PREY
Female jogger near death after savage attack by roving gang


And the headline from the next day:

Park marauders call it
‘WILDING’
…and it’s street slang for going berserk
The Times, that same week, reported, “The youths who raped and savagely beat a young investment banker as she jogged in Central Park Wednesday night were part of a loosely organized gang of 32 schoolboys whose random, motiveless assaults terrorized at least eight other people over nearly two hours, senior police investigators said yesterday.” And: “she was raped by at least 4 of the 12 boys, Chief Colangelo said.” The five schoolboys who were eventually tried—Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, and Kharey Wise—were all black or Hispanic.

And, in early May, 1989, Donald Trump took out a full-page ad in the Daily News to say what he thought he knew about the case. Trump was on the front page of the papers often enough that season; the Post’s “SPLIT!” headline marking the end of his marriage would help fill the tabloid space between the teen-agers’ arrest and their conviction, as did “MARLA BOASTS TO HER PALS ABOUT DONALD: ‘BEST SEX I’VE EVER HAD,’ ” which quoted his then-mistress and second wife; soon, there was also coverage of his baroque business failures. Perhaps he thought it gave him gravitas, that spring, to weigh in on the character of the teen-agers in the park: “How can our great society tolerate the continued brutalization of its citizens by crazed misfits? Criminals must be told that their CIVIL LIBERTIES END WHEN AN ATTACK ON OUR SAFETY BEGINS!” And his headline suggested what ought to be done with them:

BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY.
BRING BACK OUR POLICE!
The “park marauders,” the “roving gang,” the “crazed misfits” were fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen years old. The confessions they gave, as children, had been false, spun out under the pressure of hours of police interrogations. (They were, had anyone been ready to acknowledge it at the time, also inconsistent; they also had parents whom they weren’t able to see before their questioning.) The boys were sent to prison. One of them, Kharey Wise, who at sixteen was the oldest and sentenced as an adult, was still there when, eleven years after the rape in the park, he happened to cross paths with a prisoner named Matias Reyes. It occurred to Reyes that it was his fault that Wise was there. He confessed that he, and he alone, had raped and beaten Meili, as he had raped other women over the years. He described to police how he had tied her with her clothes; it had been part of his M.O. in other cases, something that gave credibility to his confession. It moved beyond a doubt when a DNA test matched Reyes to the semen found on Meili’s body. The DNA hadn’t matched any of the teen-agers—one of the many details that got blinked over in the trial. They were exonerated twelve years ago, and the charges were formally dropped.

Since then, talks about some form of restitution for the young men dragged on even as a movie, “The Central Park Five,” gave a wider perspective on the real injustice in the case—the failure of the police, the courts, the press, of the word on the street, of any engine of public doubt. Everything that should have struck one as odd—the cartoonish way that the boys, in their confessions, talked about the rape itself—was taken as proof of the boys’ perversity. Their guilt had been a given; the only question that people seemed interested in, at the time, was what their supposed wildness said about our society, about the boys’ ”culture,” or lack of it. A real-estate developer could take out an ad that contemplated executing children, and only be considered disreputable because of the decor of his buildings.

The Daily News reprinted that ad on Saturday, next to Trump’s new op-ed. Perhaps he feels that he got a good deal, having the ad run again for free; there is no contrition in what he has to say now. The settlement, which Mayor Bill de Blasio had said, in his campaign, he wanted to get done, gives each man about a million dollars for each year he spent in jail. (Together, that was forty years.) Trump wrote on Saturday that this was “a disgrace”; he said that he’d talked to a detective who called it “the heist of the century.” How much would Donald Trump pay to not spend a single year in jail? He doesn’t mention Reyes; he talks about police “blunders” as if they were all in the teen-agers’ favor—“The recipients must be laughing out loud at the stupidity of the city.” Does he imagine that it must be obvious to them, as it is to him, that the decades of their lives weren’t worth much anyway? He wrote, “These young men do not exactly have the pasts of angels.” At fourteen years old, one doesn’t have much of a past to speak of; what one might have is a future. Or is an angel, for Trump, someone who stays in a hotel with a lot of gold paint on the wall?

It’s simple, in some ways, to see the Central Park jogger case as an artifact of a feverish moment in late-eighties New York—of a piece with its joyous and awful kinetics, the crack epidemic, the painted-over subways, the fear of AIDS, the absurdity of Ivana’s ski-slope confrontation with Marla. But some fevers never seem to subside. The tendency to write off teen-age boys because of distrust of their neighborhoods or the color of their skin, to assume that jail is the place for them, has not gone away. Neither, somehow, has Donald Trump.

Former Oath Keeper Prepping Open Carry March For Blacks In Ferguson

Nov 13, 2015

He wants to prove how safe it is for blacks to have guns in Ferguson, MO.

Sam Andrews, a white gun shop owner, told the paper he wanted to hold the rally in Ferguson after being told by African-Americans the Second Amendment doesn’t extend to them equally because they felt they’d be shot for openly carrying guns.

“We intend to show that this right is not just for white people,” Andrews told the Post-Dispatch.

The group, which he said will be racially integrated, will listen to speeches then march about three blocks to Ferguson police headquarters.

U.S. NEWS

Gun lover prepares armed Ferguson march to prove it’s safe for blacks to openly carry in public

BETHANIA PALMA MARKUS
13 NOV 2015 AT 15:53 ET  

A former member of the militia group Oath Keepers is organizing an open-carry march for black gun owners, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.

Sam Andrews, a white gun shop owner, told the paper he wanted to hold the rally in Ferguson after being told by African-Americans the Second Amendment doesn’t extend to them equally because they felt they’d be shot for openly carrying guns.

“We intend to show that this right is not just for white people,” Andrews told the Post-Dispatch.

The group, which he said will be racially integrated, will listen to speeches then march about three blocks to Ferguson police headquarters.

Andrews originally made the vow to hold the protest after speaking with protesters during civil unrest in Ferguson, following the police shooting death of unarmed black teen Mike Brown. Brown’s death at the hands of Ferguson police Officer Darren Wilson and the failure of prosecutors to charge the cop sparked weeks of protesting and violence, marked by a heavily militarized police response.

The Oath Keepers made their presence known during protests memorializing the one-year anniversary of Brown’s death this year.

“Every person we talked to said if they carried they’d be shot by police,” Andrews hadsaid at the time. “That’s the reason we’re going to hold this event, and it will be a legal demonstration. I’m sick and tired of law enforcement who doesn’t think they have to abide by the law.”

Missouri law allows, anyone with a valid permit can carry a gun, either openly or concealed, according to St. Louis Public Radio.

“If you’re a black person, or a Hispanic person, or an Asian person, you absolutely have the same exact rights to open carry your firearm as any white person does,” Andrews told the radio station. “It’s important that the minority children of America see black adults carrying firearms and doing it a very safe and very professional way. If the government can intimidate you into never exercising your rights, they have in a de facto way take your rights away from you.”

Andrews told the radio station he expects about 80 to 100 people to attend the rally at 11 a.m. on Monday. He applied for a permit with the city, which the Post-Dispatch reports is under review. Andrews vowed to sue if his request was denied and says the event will move forward, with or without a permit.

Oath Keepers is an American organization associated with the patriot movement. It encourages members—some of whom are current and former U.S. military and law enforcement officers,—not to obey orders which they believe would violate the United States Constitution. The group is best known for its controversial presence in Ferguson, Missouriduring protests and unrest in the city, and during which its members were armed with semi-automatic rifles^[1][2] and were described as a far-right militia group by the media.^[3][4][5][6] Oath Keepers are now involved in Malheur National Refuge in support of the protesters.

The organization describes itself as a non-partisan association of current and formerly serving military, police, and first responders, who pledge to fulfill the oath all military and police take to “defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”^[7]

Click here to see video

Organizational history

Oath Keepers was founded in March 2009 by Stewart Rhodes.^[8][9] Rhodes is a Yale Law School graduate, a former US Army paratrooper, and a former staffer ofRepublican Congressman Ron Paul.^[10] Rhodes was disbarred by the Montana Supreme Court for conduct violating the Montana Rules of Professional Conduct on December 8th, 2015 after refusing to respond to disciplinary action regarding grievances filed against him in the Federal District of Arizona and ordered to pay the costs of the disbarment proceedings.^[11]

Rhodes is reported to have taken inspiration from the idea that Hitler could have been stopped if German soldiers and police had refused to follow orders.^[12] In this same context, Stewart has compared Hillary Clinton to Hitler, writing in S.W.A.T. Magazine in 2008, '“It” (a full-blown totalitarian police state) cannot happen here if the majority of police and soldiers obey their oaths to defend the Constitution and refuse to enforce the unconstitutional edicts of the "Leader." Imagine that Herr^[13]Hitlery is sworn in as president in 2009. After a conveniently timed “domestic terrorism” incident (just a coincidence, of course) or yet another Prozac induced mass shooting, she promptly crams a United Nations mandated, Great Britain style, total ban on the private possession of firearms through a compliant, Democratically controlled Congress.'^[14]

Membership

The organization claims on its website that full membership is open to "currently serving military, reserves, National Guard, police, fire-fighters, other first responders (i.e. State Guard, Sheriff Posse/Auxiliary, Search & Rescue, EMT, other medical 1st responders, etc.) AND veterans/former members of those services," and that others who support the organization's mission can become associate members.^[7] The organization claims to have up to 30,000 firefighters as members, though this figure has been questioned by some critics.^[15]

Racism accusations

Protesters have accused the group of racism, especially after groups of all-white members armed with rifles congregated in Ferguson during demonstrations related to police brutality and racial inequality.^[16] The group says its bylaws prevent potential members from joining if they have a history of bigotry or have been associated with any discriminatory organization.^[17] Mark Potok, a senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center, said in an interview that the group has no history of political violence, but that, "The core ideas of these groups relate to the fear that elites in this country and around the world are slowly and steadily and nefariously moving us towards a one-world government, the so-called New World Order."^[18]

In August 2015, John Karriman, a teacher at Missouri Southern State University's Police Academy and head of the Missouri chapter of the Oath Keepers used the term “mulatto” to describe U.S. President Obama on CBC Radio’s As It Happens program.^[19]

St. Louis County police officer Dan Page was relieved of duty in 2014 after pushing CNN journalist Don Lemon on live television in Ferguson. Subsequently aYouTube videotaped speech was found in which he had criticized President Barack Obama, Muslims, and denounced hate crime laws while addressing an Oath Keepers meeting. The YouTube video had a disclaimer stating that Mr. Page's opinions did not reflect those of the local chapter nor of the national organization.^[20]

Activities

Ferguson protests

Main article: Ferguson unrest

In late November 2014 during the unrest in Ferguson, the Oath Keepers put out a national request to its members to help in the city after the grand jury decision was released in the Shooting of Michael Brown case. In reference to the perceived failure of the government's response to the unrest, the organization's founder, Stewart Rhodes, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “We thought they were going to do it right this time, but when Monday rolled around and they didn’t park the National Guard at these businesses, that’s when we said we have got to do something." On December 2, 2014, volunteer security guards associated with the Oath Keepers kept armed watch on Ferguson rooftops, ignoring a police order to stop.^[21]

In August 2015, four members of the group appeared again on the streets of Ferguson, following peaceful street demonstrations on the anniversary of Brown's shooting.^{[16][12][22][23][24]} According to an article in the Washington Post, "The men — all of them white and heavily armed — said they were in the area to protect someone who worked for the Web site Infowars.com, which is affiliated with talk-radio conspiracy theorist and self-described 'thought criminal against Big Brother'Alex Jones." The Oath Keepers claimed to be on the side of the protestors.^[25] St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar told the newspaper that the Oath Keepers' "...presence was both unnecessary and inflammatory.”^[25]

The group's activities in Ferguson led to them being labeled "vigilantes" by some journalists.^[26][27]

Pacific Northwest mine disputes

In 2015 armed Oath Keepers in the Pacific Northwest attended two disputes between gold miners and federal authorities. In April they gathered in Medford, Oregonafter the owners of the Sugar Pine Mine near Galice were ordered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to stop working it.^[28][29] In August they patrolled the White Hope Mine in the Helena National Forest, about 20 miles from Lincoln, Montana; the US Forest Service said the mine had engaged in illegal construction and tree-felling.^[30][31]

Bundy Ranch standoff

Main article: Bundy Ranch standoff

In 2014 Oath Keepers were present at the Bundy Ranch standoff, when agents of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) seized cattle that a rancher was judged to be illegally grazing on federal land in Clark County, Nevada.^[32][33]

Oregon mine owner

Oath Keepers have attended protests, their members armed with firearms to provide security at the request of an Oregon mine owner.^[28]

Kim Davis

On September 10, 2015, the Oath Keepers announced that they would travel to Rowan County, Kentucky to "protect" Kim Davis from federal marshals should she be held in contempt for a second time for violating a court order prohibiting her from interfering with marriage licensing in her office.^[34]

Members were advised the following day that Kim Davis' legal team, acting on her behalf, had declined their offer. While members were still welcome to visit Rowan County, it would be in an unofficial capacity only with Kim Davis' right to the "...time honored, respectable, and honorable American tradition" of civil disobedience being acknowledged.^[35]

Reception

In the Southern Poverty Law Center's (SPLC) 2009 report The Second Wave: Return of the Militias, Larry Keller wrote that the Oath Keepers "may be a particularly worrisome example of the Patriot revival."^[36] Keller described Richard Mack, an Oath Keeper, as a "longtime militia hero"^[36][37] and quoted him as having said, "The greatest threat we face today is not terrorists; it is our federal government. ... One of the best and easiest solutions is to depend on local officials, especially the sheriff, to stand against federal intervention and federal criminality."^[36] Mack, a former sheriff, responded by denying the claims, saying, "I have had no contact with any militia group and have never been a member of any militia."^[38][39]

In 2009 the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) wrote in a report that, "The 'orders' the Oath Keepers refuse [to obey] reveal their extreme conspiratorial mindset, because the 'orders' are not instructions ever likely to be actually handed down by Obama or his officials; instead, they are reflective of the anti-government conspiracy theories embraced by the extreme right."^[40]

Quoting the Las Vegas Review-Journal, MSNBC political commentator and former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan said, "Oath Keepers, depending on where one stands, are either strident defenders of liberty or dangerous peddlers of paranoia." Buchanan himself concluded that "America was once their country. They sense they are losing it."^[41][42]

Fox News Radio host Lou Dobbs spoke with founder Stewart Rhodes on his radio show in 2009 and criticized the Southern Poverty Law Center for "perpetuating the same kind of intolerance it claims to condemn."^[43] On Hardball with Chris Matthews, Matthews questioned Rhodes about his "vigilante group" and on his "strange view of the world."^[43]

Midnight Ride

The Oath Keepers have sponsored a film, Midnight Ride, by filmmaker James Jaeger. The film purports to show how the "militia system" could maintain "constitutional order" if the United States were hypothetically under martial law. According to Jaeger, the film is inspired by lawyer and Oath Keepers member Edwin Vieira's book, By Tyranny Out of Necessity: The Bastardy of Martial Law, and will feature interviews with politician Ron Paul, writer and conspiracy theorist G. Edward Griffin, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, former sheriff of Graham County, Arizona, Richard Mack, and Oath Keepers national Chaplain Chuck Baldwin.^[44]

Jaeger has been criticised as anti-Semitic by the editor of The American Interest magazine, Adam Garfinkle.^[45] Jaeger's websites feature a number of antisemitic articles, including, "Who rules America"^[46] and, "Stunning Jewish Success Dominates American Media".^[47] Jaeger has accused Mossad and Israel of being behind 9/11.^[48]

References

1. Jump up^ Sakuma, Amanda; Rayford, Bradley J (11 August 2015). "‘Oath Keepers’ armed with guns roam streets of Ferguson". MSNBC. Retrieved 7 September 2015.With their hands resting casually on the assault rifles strapped across their chests, the men formed a diamond around their subjects, surveying the area in search of a threat.
2. Jump up^ Duara, Nigel. "'Oath Keepers' with rifles roam among Ferguson protesters, raising concerns". Los Angeles Times. 11 August 2015. Retrieved 31 August2015. As protests in Ferguson continued on a sweat-soaked Missouri night, at least three men openly carrying assault rifles approached the south end of West Florissant Avenue -- and began to attract a crowd themselves.
3. Jump up^ McCoy, Terrence. "The Oath Keepers: The Little-known Militia Now Roaming the Streets of Ferguson." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 1 Dec. 2014. Web. 13 Aug. 2015. The Washington Post
4. Jump up^ Dearden, Lizzie. "Oath Keepers: Who Are White Militia at Ferguson Protests and Why Are They Allowed to Carry Guns?." The Independent. Independent Digital News and Media, 11 Aug. 2015. Web. 13 Aug. 2015. The Independent
5. Jump up^ Tesfaye, Sophia (22 August 2015). "Far-right extremists patrol Ferguson: Oath Keepers militiamen descend on city". Salon. Retrieved 14 August 2015.
6. Jump up^ "Return of armed militia group Oath Keepers to Ferguson raises concern". Chicago Tribune. August 14, 2015. Retrieved August 14, 2015.
7. ^ Jump up to:^a b Oath Keepers Official Website "About Oath Keepers", Retrieved on 13 August 2015.
8. Jump up^ Acosta, Jim (November 18, 2009). "Who are the Oathkeepers". CNN. RetrievedNovember 18, 2009.
9. Jump up^ "Incorporation Information for the Oath Keepers, Inc.". Nevada Secretary of State. E0559982009-3 (State of Nevada). October 22, 2009. RetrievedNovember 18, 2009.
10. Jump up^ Maimon, Alan (October 18, 2009). "Ready To Revolt: Oath Keepers pledges to prevent dictatorship in United States". Las Vegas Review-Journal. RetrievedOctober 24, 2009.
11. Jump up^ Scribd.com
12. ^ Jump up to:^a b Fowler, Sarah (12 August 2015). "Ferguson unrest: Who are the mysterious 'Oath Keepers'?". BBC News. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
13. Jump up^ "Herr" is German for "Mr.", indicating a male person. The proper German word for "Mrs." (Clinton) is "Frau".
14. Jump up^ Rhodes, Stewart. "Just Following Orders." S.W.A.T. Magazine Apr. 2008. Web. 20 Aug. 2015. Oath-keepers.blogspot.com
15. Jump up^ Fowler, Sarah. "Ferguson Unrest: Who Are the Mysterious 'Oath Keepers'? - BBC News." BBC News. BBC, 12 Aug. 2015. Web. 13 Aug. 2015. BBC
16. ^ Jump up to:^a b Laughland, Oliver, Jon Swaine, and Joanna Walters. "White Militiamen Roam Ferguson with Rifles While Black Men Wrongly Arrested." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media Limited, 12 Aug. 2015. Web. 13 Aug. 2015. The Guardian
17. Jump up^ Oath Keepers Official Website - Bylaws "BYLAWS OF OATH KEEPERS, Article VIII 8.02b", Retrieved on 13 August 2015.
18. Jump up^ Wang, Hansi Lo. "Oath Keepers Say They're Defending Ferguson; Others Say They're Not Helping." NPR. NPR, 12 Aug. 2015. Web. 13 Aug. 2015. NPR
19. Jump up^ Bambury, Brent. "An Oath Keeper on guns, race and Ferguson". CBC Radio. Retrieved 11 September 2015.
20. Jump up^ McLaughlin, Michael. "St. Louis County Police Officer Dan Page Suspended Following Inflammatory Video." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 22 Aug. 2014. Web. 13 Aug. 2015. The Huffington Post
21. Jump up^ Bogan, Jesse (December 2, 2014). "'Oath Keepers' are back on the rooftops in Ferguson despite St. Louis County ordinance". St Louis Today. Retrieved 13 August 2015
22. Jump up^ "Heavily-armed white men patrol Ferguson, 'ready to confront authorities to defend US Constitution'". RT (TV network). 2015-08-11. Retrieved 2015-08-11.
23. Jump up^ "Heavily armed 'Oath Keepers' inject new unease in Ferguson". Irish Times. 2015-08-11. Retrieved 2015-08-11.
24. Jump up^ "Oath Keepers arrival at Ferguson protest 'inflammatory,' top cop says". Fox News. August 11, 2015. Retrieved August 11, 2015.
25. ^ Jump up to:^a b Larimer, Sarah; Phillip, Abby (11 August 2015). "Who are the Oath Keepers, and why has the armed group returned to Ferguson?". The Washington Post. Washington Post. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
26. Jump up^ Annabel Grossman (December 1, 2014). "Ferguson police shut down armed 'Oath Keeper' vigilantes guarding rooftops of besieged town". The Daily Mail (London).
27. Jump up^ Paul Vale (December 1, 2014). "Vigilante 'Oath Keepers' Offering Free Security In Ferguson Told To Stand Down By St. Louis Police". Huffington Post.
28. ^ Jump up to:^a b Urquhart, By Jim (23 April 2015). "Oregon mine that summoned armed guards in land dispute files appeal". Reuters. Retrieved 2015-08-13.
29. Jump up^ Moriarty, Thomas (23 April 2015). "Armed protesters gather at Medford BLM office over Sugar Pine Mine dispute". Mail Tribune. Local Media Group. Retrieved 2015-08-13.
30. Jump up^ Puckett, Karl (6 August 2015). "Constitution advocates issue cease, desist order at mine". Great Falls Tribune. Retrieved 2015-08-13.
31. Jump up^ Swearingen, Marshall (12 August 2015). "Dispatch from White Hope Mine dispute in Montana". High Country News. Retrieved 2015-08-13.
32. Jump up^ Henandez, Daniel (April 3, 2014). "Federal rangers face off against armed protesters in Nevada 'range war'". The Guardian. Retrieved Aug 13, 2015.
33. Jump up^ Botkin, Ben (13 April 2014). "Bundy ranch dispute with federal land agency draws variety of foot soldiers". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Retrieved 2015-08-13.
34. Jump up^ Badash, David (September 10, 2015). "Kim Davis wont be arrested again promise patriot militia group". thenewcivilrightsmovement.com. Retrieved September 13,2015.
35. Jump up^ "Kim Davis’ Legal Team Declines Oath Keepers’ Offer to Protect Her Against Unlawul Arrrest (sic)". 9 September 2015. Retrieved 12 September 2015.
36. ^ Jump up to:^a b c Keller, Larry (August 2009). "The Second Wave: Return of the Militias". A Special Report from the Southern Poverty Law Center (Montgomery, Alabama): 5–10. Retrieved September 12, 2013.
37. Jump up^ Fausset, Richard (September 18, 2009). "Oath Keepers organizer sees need to sound an alarm". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 2, 2009.
38. Jump up^ "Sheriff Richard Mack (RET) Responds to Southern Poverty Law Center Smear Attack on Oath Keepers and on Sheriff Mack" (Press release). Oath Keepers. August 14, 2009. Retrieved November 3, 2009.
39. Jump up^ Johnson, Jon (September 2, 2009). "Local man appears on Internet news show". Eastern Arizona Courier. Retrieved November 3, 2009.
40. Jump up^ "Rage Grows in America: Anti‑Government Conspiracies." ADL Special Reports: Rage Grows in America: Anti-Government Conspiracies. N.p., 16 Nov. 2009. Web. 13 Aug. 2015. Adl.org
41. Jump up^ Patrick J. Buchanan (October 20, 2009). "Alienated and Radicalized". MSNBC.
42. Jump up^ Maimon, Alan (18 October 2009). "Oath Keepers pledges to prevent dictatorship in United States". Las Vegas Review-Journal (Las Vegas, Nevada: Stephens Media LLC). Retrieved 4 July 2014.
43. ^ Jump up to:^a b Maimon, Alan (October 25, 2009). "Ready To Defend: Oath Keepers speak out at inaugural conference". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Retrieved October 25,2009.
44. Jump up^ Alias, Elias. "MIDNIGHT RIDE, The Movie: Update From James Jaeger".Oathkeepers.org. Oathkeepers. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
45. Jump up^ Garfinkle, Adam (2009). Jewcentricity: Why the Jews are Praised, Blamed, and Used to Explain Just About Everything. John Wiley & Sons. p. 137. ISBN 978-0470198568.
46. Jump up^ Havibakhshi, S. "Who Rules America?". Jaeger Research Institute. Retrieved13 August 2015.
47. Jump up^ Blankfort, Jeffrey. "Stunning Jewish Success Dominates American Media".Jaeger Research Institute. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
48. Jump up^ Jaeger, James. "THE TERRORIST ATTACKS Was 9/11 a False Flag Operation?". Retrieved 13 August 2015.