People Before Profit blog

Killed by NYPD: The system, its problems and the fightback

Fri, 15 Dec 2006 08:23:00 +0000

NEW YORK — “No justice, no peace! No justice, no peace!” protesters chanted Dec. 6 as they rallied in Manhattan’s Foley Square. The event was planned months in advance to bring attention to the issue of police brutality in New York City. But following the shooting death of groom-to-be 23-year-old Sean Bell, the event took on new meaning and urgency, marking the beginning of a series of actions that will take place across the city in the coming weeks.

Undercover police fired 50 shots outside the Kalua Cabaret in Queens on Nov. 25, killing Bell and wounding Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield. This was not the first time NYPD officers have been “excessive” in the use of their weapons and deadly force. The similarities in police conduct and the department’s response to other cases of police shooting of unarmed individuals are striking. Below are some of these similarities.

Police identification

When the plainclothes officers tried to stop Bell and his friends from leaving the club where his bachelor party took place, they allegedly shouted, “Raise your hands,” while trying to pin them in the street with their car. It is unclear if they identified themselves as police officers. The Bell family said they did not identify themselves. This would explain why Sean Bell’s car almost hit one of the officers and struck the unmarked police car. If the young men believed they were being attacked by unknown assailants, they would have tried to defend themselves or flee.

This is what occurred with Freddie Rivera, who was 17 when he was killed by a police officer who did not identify himself in August 1998. He was shot with dumdum bullets (bullets that expand on impact) in his chest. Rivera was attempting to flee.

Another such case is Jose Antonio Sanchez, a restaurant worker who tried to break up a fight between two customers, not knowing that one customer was an undercover cop trying to arrest the other one. The undercover officer chased Sanchez around the restaurant into the kitchen. The officer claimed Sanchez lunged at him with a knife. The officer then shot him dead. Witnesses stated that Sanchez did not lunge at the officer and that the officer did not identify himself.

Phantom weapons

The police who killed Sean Bell said through spokespeople they believed he had a weapon in his car. No such weapon was ever found. Unfortunately, this is all too common in cases where victims have been shot.

Police describe many of these scenarios as victims “reaching” or “making a motion,” assuming they — often times Black or Latino young men — have a weapon. Or, police say victims are simply holding an object that they mistook for a gun, as in the infamous case of Amadou Diallo, an African immigrant living in the Bronx who was shot 41 times in February 1999 for holding his wallet. Or take another case: Eric Pitt and Donald Taylor were shot dead in their car when they were stopped by police. Police opened fire on them after one officer suspected they were “reaching for something.”

Contagious shooting

The 50 shots poured into Bell’s car and the 41 shots that took Diallo’s life are notorious examples of police “overshooting.” As outrageous as these numbers seem, they are not the record. That unfortunate distinction goes to an incident involving Wen Ping Hsu, who during a gunbattle with police in December 1994 was shot at 250 times. In the crossfire, an innocent man, Laakhraj Dalipram, whose car Wen was trying to carjack, was killed.

Question swirl at these numbers. How can police fire 250 or even 50 shots? The term used for such events is “contagious shooting.” When one police officer opens fire others follow suit, believing their lives to be in danger. The 9-mm handgun that is standard police issue can deliver up to 18 bullets, which also leads to contagious overshooting. It is important to note that the previous standard issue police gun was a six-shot .38-caliber revolver. They switched to 9-mm pistols in 1993.

Victims are always criminals, even if they are innocent

The search by the police for the mysterious fourth person seen running from the police shooting scene has angered Bell’s family. They are adamant that no such person exists. This is reminiscent of when the police searched Diallo’s apartment in search of anything illegal or that could otherwise be used to make their case, a move that angered Diallo’s mother. Fox News didn’t waste any time in making public Bell’s past arrests, arrests that have nothing to do with his shooting. This is part of a pattern of the police aided by the sensationalist corporate media — to first assume guilt on the part of the victim. Gone is the innocent-until-proven-guilty foundation of the justice system.

Bloomberg – Giuliani with a smile?

There are questions as to whether the Bell shooting is being handled appropriately by Mayor Michael Bloomberg. People are drawing comparisons between him and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who presided over the Diallo shooting in his final term. The Diallo case brought out thousands of protesters who committed civil disobedience and filled the jails.

Bloomberg, who was once described by the Rev. Al Sharpton as “Giuliani with a smile,” has learned from the mistakes of the Giuliani administration. He was quick to involve Black elected officials and leaders following the shooting, holding meetings with them and posing for photo-ops. He also met with Bell’s family, something Giuliani never did during the Diallo case. Giuliani’s stance angered members of the African American community and many elected officials.

But Bloomberg, after all, is a billionaire media mogul. He of all people knows the importance of a good public relations campaign. The real questions are: what can be done? And is change possible? Below are some demands that protesters are calling for.

Repeal the 48-hour rule

Following the shooting of Amadou Diallo, there were calls for repealing the 48-hour rule. The rule gives police a grace period after a shooting. They get 48 hours to collect themselves, get their stories straight and sober up if they are intoxicated or on drugs.

Needed: a strong prosecution

Many officers accused of questionable conduct or unjustified deadly force have gone on to be acquitted, as in the Amadou Diallo case. In that instance, lawyers representing the police won a change of venue, getting the trial moved from Diallo’s home borough to upstate Albany, N.Y. The four officers who shot Diallo went on to be acquitted there. It is clear that this same tactic will be employed by the defense team for the police in the Sean Bell shooting case. Protesters are calling for a strong and swift prosecution with no change of venue.

A community review board

A community review board — with teeth — means getting the community involved in overseeing cases of police shootings. Average citizens from the area in which an individual was shot would debate as to whether the police were justified in their shooting and then make recommendations for action. This demand is viewed as a “ridiculous” proposition by the Police Department. But the community review board proposal takes as its model New York’s community boards — volunteer citizen governance bodies.

Fire Police Commissioner Kelly

Councilman Charles Barron from Brooklyn is spearheading the call to have NYC Police Commissioner Ray Kelly fired. Someone in the administration should be held accountable for the shooting, he argues.

Better training

Following the Diallo shooting, African American and Latino officials fought for and won more training designed to curb excessive force and accidental shootings. It is clear that this has had no effect and something more comprehensive — a review and change of problematic policies, for example, is needed.

Most victims of police shootings are African American, Latino or other people of color, but not all, especially in the case of people with mental illness or other disabilities.

The killing of Sean Bell has put the spotlight on police misconduct once again. A coalition of individuals and groups such as Sharpton, United for Peace and Justice, 1199/Service Employees Union and many others is mobilizing for a mass rally Dec. 16 calling for “Justice for Sean Bell.”

But in reality it is not just Bell and his family who are in need of justice, but the many others who have been killed by police as well. This article focuses on the actions of police in New York City, but this is part of a nationwide pattern. Other such incidents have occurred throughout the country. This is part of a broken system that is in need of fixing.

Sam Delgado (sdelgado@cpusa.org) is a freelance writer who works for the Communist Party USA.

Some additional deaths from police violence to remember

Manuel Chametla, 18 October 2006 A deli worker shot in the chest by a retired police officer who mistakenly fired his weapon while reaching for his beeper.

Timothy Stansbury, 19 January 2004 Shot and killed by a housing police officer. A grand jury said the officer’s gun discharged accidentally.

Ousmane Zongo, 43 May 2003 Shot by police investigating a counterfeit operation in his building.

Patrick Dorismond, 26 March 2000 Unarmed security guard shot by police outside a midtown cocktail lounge.

Angel Reyes, 47 August 1999 Shot by police during an undercover drug operation.

Gideon (Gary) Busch, 31 August 1999 A mentally ill man who was killed after four policemen, arrayed in a semi-circle around him, fired 12 bullets at him.

Kenneth Banks, 36 October 1998 Hit in the head by a two-pound radio hurled at him by a police officer.

Alex Santos, 23 August 1998 Shot during an undercover drug operation.

William J. Whitfield, 22 December 1997 Shot by police investigating reports of gunfire.

Sherly Colon, 33 April 1997 Witnesses claim police pushed her from the roof of her public housing residence and that handcuffs were removed from her body. Police said it was a suicide.

Anthony Baez, 29 December 1994 Killed by an illegal chokehold after a football from a neighborhood game accidentally hit a nearby police car.

Eleanor Bumpurs, 67 October 1984 A grandmother, who suffered from obesity and mental illness, was shot by police during a wrongful eviction.

Ellison win a rebuff to Bushs policies

Fri, 15 Dec 2006 08:05:00 +0000

Commentary

MINNEAPOLIS — The success of the Keith Ellison congressional campaign here was noteworthy from several perspectives.

First, Ellison, who is African American, put together a broad coalition consisting of many ethnic groups — Jews, Arab Americans, Muslims, African Americans, Latinos, Asians and whites — as well as trade unionists and peace activists. He engaged in considerable struggle to maintain such a coalition, particularly with the diverging positions of the large peace and antiwar groups in the Twin Cities.

The fact that Ellison met with progressives in an attempt to hammer out differences and maintain a working relationship augurs well for how he will handle disputes and disagreements once in office.

Second, this election clearly informed the ruling class that the electorate does not support the current policy of the Bush administration in Iraq. Neither does the electorate support the Bush administration’s tax cuts for the wealthy at the expense of the working class. Finally, the electorate informed the ruling class in this election that there will be no privatization of Social Security.

What people do want is health care for all, an increase in the minimum wage, and an end to U.S. imperialism abroad.

Keith Ellison spoke to the needs of a broad group of people and that is why he was elected. Not only is Ellison progressive on domestic issues, but his words and deeds clearly set forth his principles in the international arena: he will not sanction torture and he will support the constitutional rights of all.

Despite divisions in the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, Ellison’s campaign mobilized the grassroots in a way reminiscent of the late Sen. Paul Wellstone. Ellison showed respect and tolerance for differences among his various constituencies, while maintaining his own integrity. He exhibited passion for the underdog and the oppressed, while maintaining a sober, reflective demeanor.

Although much has been written about Ellison’s Muslim religion, we can expect that he will fight for a secular society while in Congress, a society where no single religious creed is imposed upon the populace. We can expect that he will speak to the needs of working families and that he will stand on the side of those who need the protection of government the most, regardless of race, creed or national origin.

Where your money goes: Were getting poorer because were paying more for debt

Fri, 15 Dec 2006 07:51:00 +0000

So, let’s link two recent financial stories:

1. According the Federal Reserve’s latest quarterly “Flow of Funds” report, household debt continues to climb, topping out at 24 percent of household net worth and 135.5 percent of disposable income.

2. CNBC reported that $20 million bonuses in financial services are passé; you need $40 million to truly be a player. Annual bonuses to the employees of five major investment banks will total $36 billion this year, or an average of over $200,000 a piece, with that loaded toward the top end of the pay scale.

The point? Most of us are getting poorer not because we’re buying more, or even that we’re making less — both of which are true — but because we’re paying more for debt. And to whom are we paying it? Without being too judgmental about it, to the bloodsucking, greedy, increasingly unrestrained capitalist leeches on Wall Street. Uh, sorry. I mean, to the burgeoning financial services industry.

Right now, American households pay out $1.4 trillion a year to service debt, says the Fed report. That’s more than 10 percent of our gross domestic product. If we feel strapped, it’s because we are. A large number of American families are coming to resemble developing countries: they’re foregoing necessities to service debt.

Why? Certainly we use charge cards more, but credit card rates, freed from legal limits on usury, have outpaced spending. And falling housing prices have reduced assets, increasing the percentage of debt against assets.

But according to Charles W. McMillion of MBG Information Services, “The real story — what is propelling total debt — is the abundance of exotic home loans. These are the interest-only, minimal-payment loans pushed not just by fly-by-night shops, but by many of the major banks and savings and loans. Many people had no idea what they were signing in order to buy huge houses that they couldn’t otherwise afford. Now the payments have jumped, debt is up, and they’re in trouble.”

Although Congress passed the bankruptcy-restriction bill, that won’t prevent people from running out of money. Nor will it save strapped homeowners from foreclosure. In the meantime, though, all that interest money keeps flowing into Wall Street and shows up as $40 million bonuses. And they accuse us of class warfare.

This article originally appeared at TomPaine.com.

Two victories for civil liberties: more to come?

Fri, 08 Dec 2006 06:34:00 +0000

News Analysis

As 2006 winds down, two court victories were racked up for civil liberties against the Bush administration’s authoritarian policies. More such triumphs are likely.

In Los Angeles, Ninth District Federal Judge Audrey Collins gave a partial victory to civil liberties defenders in a case brought by the Humanitarian Law Project, a nonprofit organization active internationally in aiding the peaceful resolution of conflicts.

The attorneys for the HLP, Georgetown University law professor David Cole and Nancy Chang of the Center for Constitutional Rights, asked the court to declare unconstitutional an executive order (EO 13224) issued by President Bush a few days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. In that order, Bush had given himself the power to declare organizations “Specially Designated Global Terrorists,” and to bar any U.S. person or organization from dealing or “associating” with them.

The plaintiffs claimed that the self-granting of such open-ended power was unconstitutional. To illustrate: the Humanitarian Law Project wanted to provide information to the Kurdish Workers’ Party, PKK, on how to use peaceful methods to reach its goals. It also wanted to provide direct humanitarian aid in Sri Lanka after last year’s tsunami, but the area where it wished to do this is controlled by the Tamil Tigers organization, with which the aid would have to be coordinated.

The U.S. government considers both the PKK and the Tamil Tigers terrorist groups. By “associating” with them in any way, the Humanitarian Law Project would risk being itself designated as a “Specially Designated Terrorist Entity,” in which case its workers would face huge fines and long jail terms.

Judge Collins, who had previously ruled similar sections of the USA Patriot Act unconstitutional, granted some but not all of the plaintiffs’ requests. First, she recognized the HLP’s standing to bring suit because the language of the executive order might exercise an unconstitutional prior constraint on things they might want to do. Second, she ruled unconstitutional the manner which President Bush decides which organizations and individuals are “Specially Designated Global Terrorists,” because it appears to be completely up to the president’s whim.

The judge also granted the plaintiffs’ request to quash as unconstitutional the part of the executive order allowing people to be classified as terrorists and prosecuted because of being “otherwise associated with” designated terrorist organizations, because it could criminalize activities that are protected as free speech and association under the First Amendment.

The judge was careful to limit the scope of the ruling to lessen its precedent-setting value, and she did not overturn more detailed restrictions on specific humanitarian aid activity, including rights training, proposed by the plaintiffs. However, this is still considered a victory, and attorney David Cole plans to appeal the items that were decided in the government’s favor.

In another case, Portland, Ore., attorney Brandon Mayfield negotiated a settlement of $2 million and an apology in a suit against the federal government, which had spied on and arrested him after the Madrid train bombings in the spring of 2005.

Mayfield, a Muslim, was wrongly incriminated by a false fingerprint reading. The Bush administration ignored warnings from Spanish authorities that the reading was incorrect, and blundered on arrogantly. The settlement lets Mayfield pursue a further lawsuit seeking to overturn sections of the Patriot Act giving the government the unchecked powers of surveillance that made the incident possible.

There are signs the Bush administration will face even greater problems on the civil liberties front in the new Congress. Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) will chair their respective Judiciary committees. Both have said they will examine violations of civil liberties, including the recently passed military commissions legislation, spying by NSA and other government agencies, and incidents such as the Mayfield case.

If major changes occur, much of the credit can go to the grassroots movement to defend constitutional rights, whose tactic of working for passage of city, county and state resolutions on civil liberties have kept these issues on the front burner.

Texas GOP in disarray

Fri, 08 Dec 2006 06:25:00 +0000

Commentary

HOUSTON — In the wild, wild west of Texas politics, Republicans have set a new standard since the November election.

In a bizarre twist following Tom DeLay’s reign of terror, Shelley Sekula-Gibbs won a special election on the same day as the general election, Nov. 7. The special election was called by Bush crony Gov. Rick Perry to replace DeLay. She replaces DeLay for the few weeks between the election and the next congressional session, which will begin in January. Bush campaigned in person for Sekula-Gibbs.

However, Sekula-Gibbs lost the Nov. 7 general election. In January, Nick Lampson, the labor-backed Democratic candidate and winner of the general election, will occupy DeLay’s seat until 2008.

Sekula-Gibbs, aka Sekula-Rodriguez, is a dermatologist from the Clear Lake (i.e. NASA) area of Houston. She had been a seat on the Houston City Council in 2001 as Sekula-Rodriguez. She had been married to popular local newscaster Sylvan Rodriguez who died in 2000 from pancreatic cancer. In 2002 she married Robert W. Gibbs Jr., director of corporate community relations at Reliant Energy, and was re-elected under her present name. (Houston-based Reliant has been under investigation over the 2000-2001 California electricity ripoff. It is suspected of gaming the market by decreasing energy production, causing electricity prices to surge.)

Since her swearing-in in Washington, Sekula-Gibbs has been a spectacle Texas has never seen the likes of. Apparently she mistook herself for DeLay and decided to hammer through legislation on immigration and taxes. However, she didn’t bother to read the papers, or she would have noticed that the right wing suffered a major defeat on Nov. 7.

In her grandiose efforts to make a name for herself in the few weeks she is in office, she has succeeded only in alienating Tom DeLay’s staff, who deleted their computer files and resigned en masse in disgust with her management style. She retaliated by calling for an investigation of her own staff.

Sekula-Gibbs held a reception after her confirmation, and it was rumored that she was miffed that Bush and Cheney did not bother to attend. Most people agree that she has fouled any possibility of seeking office in the future.

Meanwhile, on Nov. 15, the state’s all-Republican Court of Criminal Appeals slapped President Bush’s hand after he engaged in a rare act that might be deemed presidential. He intervened on behalf of 46 condemned Mexican inmates, asking state courts to give them new hearings.

Bush acted after the International Court of Justice, the judicial arm of the United Nations, decided that the arrests of the Mexican citizens had violated the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and called for new hearings. But Judge Michael Keasler wrote for the Texas court, “We hold that the president has exceeded his constitutional authority by intruding into the independent powers of the judiciary.”

One of the defendants’ attorneys, Sandra Babcock, replied, “By denying [my client] even that opportunity, the Texas court has undermined the security of Americans abroad who depend on the Vienna Convention for protection.”

Maria Eugenia Campos Galvan, a deputy to Mexico’s Parliament from the border state of Chihuahua, noted, “It is a violation of human rights, and I strongly reject this decision.”

Republicans can claim one victory, however. Ted Jackson, who founded a company in Louisville, Ky., that has produced campaign materials for the GOP since 1984, was accused of stealing the design for the “W” bumper stickers from a Wichita Falls man, Jerry Gossett.

An Associated Press picture of Gossett holding his bumper sticker reveals the similarity with the stickers widely seen throughout the country.

A federal jury in Texarkana, Texas, decided in favor of the GOP that the bumper sticker was not plagiarized. Jurors said they didn’t have enough evidence to convict.

When you’re down and out, it is good to know that at least you can hold onto your bumper stickers.

phill2 @ houston.rr.com

Sean Bell: What justice requires

Fri, 08 Dec 2006 06:23:00 +0000

Commentary

Fifty bullets. One bullet can kill a person — imagine what 50 did to 21-year-old Sean Bell and his two friends. What happened to these three unarmed young men on Nov. 25 in Queens, N.Y., is a horror, a tragedy — and a crime.

As is obvious, something is profoundly wrong in New York City. What the police did that night was indefensible, but unfortunately not unprecedented. The list of those shot dead by city police officers over the years includes kids and women. (Remember Eleanor Bumpers?)

Outrage goes beyond the Black community, as it should. People across the city are shocked by the violence of this act, and horrified that those who are supposed to uphold the law and protect innocent people can do the opposite.

Clearly, though, African American, Latino, Caribbean, African, South Asian, Arab and other racially oppressed people have the sharpest concerns here. It is simply dangerous to be Black in this city, especially if you are young and male. That has to change.

As many have said, there must be more than conversation; there must be action. Calls for a special prosecutor and that the utmost urgency and speed be given to the investigation of Sean Bell’s killing are absolutely right. How could such a crisis not require emergency steps?

Obviously, the New York Police Department needs the most serious and thorough examination of, and changes made in, its procedures, culture and leadership, which bear the markings of Mayor Giuliani’s tenure. It’s time to raise again the concept of a civilian control board with real powers and real teeth.

A multiracial, multicultural, multimillion-person city like New York requires a special kind of police, one that serves, protects and is accountable to all the people.

But the problem, of course, is much bigger than the police commissioner or the NYPD. And that is because the problem is systemic — it is the institutionalized racism that permeates our society, the effects of which include relentless poverty, joblessness, low graduation rates, substandard housing and segregation and epidemics of curable illnesses, to name the most egregious.

How to change the perception of African American and Latino young people as criminals? That will require action on many levels, changes in the police, including much more vigorous recruiting in those communities but not only that.

It requires fully funding public education, so that kids stay in school and graduate, and graduate with skills.

It will require making the CUNY, the city college system, more accessible and affordable to working-class young people — as it used to be.

It will require jobs — good jobs.

It means stopping the hemorrhage of affordable housing — if you can’t afford to live here, and there are no good jobs here, what kind of life does the city offer?

We have a new governor — it’s time to abolish the Rockefeller Drug Laws, which have produced the disproportionately high rates of incarceration and an atmosphere of suspicion and hostility towards African Americans and Latinos.

Are there solutions to this situation? Of course — there must be the political will, though, and resources. Changes must go beyond the surface of the problem.

These matters cannot be left to the present leadership of the police department, which has proved unable or unwilling to really change the situation. Nor can it be left to Mayor Bloomberg and the other billionaires who decide everything in this city. There is a need for some kind of people’s summit, to develop a plan of action, and all kinds of mass pressure and action to win it.

Elena Mora (emora @ cpusa.org) is the chair of the New York State Communist Party.

Texas GOP in disarray

Sun, 03 Dec 2006 05:56:00 +0000

Commentary

HOUSTON — In the wild, wild west of Texas politics, Republicans have set a new standard since the November election.

In a bizarre twist following Tom DeLay’s reign of terror, Shelley Sekula-Gibbs won a special election, called by Bush crony Gov. Rick Perry, to replace DeLay. Bush campaigned in person for Sekula-Gibbs. She replaced DeLay for the few weeks between the election and the next congressional session, which will begin in January.

However, Sekula-Gibbs lost the Nov. 7 general election. In January, Nick Lampson, the labor-backed Democratic candidate and winner of the general election, will occupy DeLay’s seat until 2008.

Sekula-Gibbs, aka Sekula-Rodriguez, is a dermatologist from the Clear Lake (i.e., NASA) area of Houston. She won a seat on the Houston City Council in 2001 as Sekula-Rodriguez. She was married to popular local newscaster Sylvan Rodriguez who died in 2000 from pancreatic cancer. In 2002 she married Robert W. Gibbs Jr., director of corporate community relations at Reliant Energy, and was re-elected under her present name. (Houston-based Reliant has been under investigation over the 2000-2001 California electricity ripoff. It is suspected of gaming the market by decreasing energy production, causing electricity prices to surge.)

Since her swearing-in in Washington, Sekula-Gibbs has been a spectacle Texas has never seen the likes of. Apparently she mistook herself for DeLay and decided to hammer through legislation on immigration and taxes. However, she didn’t bother to read the papers or she would have noticed that the right wing suffered a major defeat on Nov. 7.

In her grandiose efforts to make a name for herself in the few weeks she was in office, she succeeded only in alienating Tom DeLay’s staff, who deleted their computer files and resigned en masse in disgust with her management style. She retaliated by calling for an investigation of her own staff.

Sekula-Gibbs held a reception after her confirmation and it was rumored that she was miffed that Bush and Cheney did not bother to attend. Most people agree that she has fouled any possibility of seeking office in the future.

Meanwhile, on Nov. 15, the state’s all-Republican Court of Criminal Appeals slapped President Bush’s hand after he engaged in a rare act that might be deemed presidential. He intervened on behalf of 46 condemned Mexican inmates, asking state courts to give them new hearings.

Bush acted after the International Court of Justice, the judicial arm of the United Nations, decided that the arrests of the Mexican citizens had violated the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and called for new hearings. But Judge Michael Keasler wrote for the Texas court, “We hold that the president has exceeded his constitutional authority by intruding into the independent powers of the judiciary.”

One of the defendants’ attorneys, Sandra Babcock, replied, “By denying [my client] even that opportunity, the Texas court has undermined the security of Americans abroad who depend on the Vienna Convention for protection.”

Maria Eugenia Campos Galvan, a deputy to Mexico’s Parliament from the border state of Chihuahua, noted, “It is a violation of human rights, and I strongly reject this decision.”

Republicans can claim one victory, however. Ted Jackson, who founded a company in Louisville, Ky., that has produced campaign materials for the GOP since 1984, was accused of stealing the design for the “W” bumper stickers from a Wichita Falls man, Jerry Gossett.

An Associated Press picture of Gossett holding his bumper sticker reveals the similarity with the stickers widely seen throughout the country.

A federal jury in Texarkana, Texas, decided in favor of the GOP that the bumper sticker was not plagiarized. Jurors said they didn’t have enough evidence to convict.

When you’re down and out, it is good to know that at least you can hold onto your bumper stickers.

phill2 @ houston.rr.com