People Before Profit blog

November election results: Not as good in Virginia as in Louisiana

Mon, 30 Nov 2015 17:26:00 +0000

Virginia Democrats failed to capture the senate in the state legislative elections on November 3, though this would have required only one seat to change hands. Millions were spent against pro-gun Republicans in key races hoping for an upset.

Contrast this with the results in Louisiana. Hope remains that 300,000 Louisiana residents would be added to the Medicaid rolls because Louisiana elected a new Democratic governor, John Bel Edwards, who said it would be his first agenda item once sworn in.

That has changed in the last few days as Edwards is now walking back that statement as state officials work on the details. State officials say the projected savings won't add up. Edwards and his transition team say they are working to implement these reforms "early" during his administration rather than "immediately" after he takes over.

Observers are giving Edwards credit for naming state Sen. Ben Nevers as his chief of staff. Nevers is one of the strongest supporters of Medicaid expansion in the Louisiana legislature.

Edwards served in the state assembly. He's pro-life and pro-gun, but campaigned on expanding Medicare as his Number 1 priority. His Opponent, U.S. Senator David Vitter, tried to make a big issue out of Syrian refugees immigrating to the U.S.

While Louisiana works on health reform technicalities, then, Medicaid expansion is dead for the time being in Virginia.

Virginia's Democratic Governor. Terry McAuliffe had failed in his effort to woo Republicans to allow 400,000 Virginians to get health insurance. Republicans say Medicare is expansive and provides poor quality health care.

Tell that to someone who doesn't have any health insurance!

What McAuliffe tried to do in the elections was zero in on a handful of legislative races: His strategy was to win a majority in the Senate and force Republicans to negotiate with him.

The problem? Democrats didn't turn out. Only 26 percent of registered voters in Virginia voted. Virginia Democrats now have to figure out way to turn out their base, especially entering the 2016 presidential season.

"Not a single incumbent lost," Quentin Kidd, director of the Judy Ford Wason Center for Public Policy at Christopher Newport University, said. "No Senate seats traded control, and Republicans ... maintain their control in the Senate."

Now, health care reform in Virginia is in hands of a future Democratic governor, assuming they have the votes. McAuliffe will spend the rest of his term drumming up economic development and helping elect Hillary Clinton, with whom he is politically aligned.

There were some minor victories in Virginia, however. Democrats gained three seats in the House of Delegates. Democrats in this chamber can fend off a veto override vote if they stand together.

Photo: Governor McAuliffe announces more than 1,400 veterans housed in the past year, making Virginia is the first state in the U.S. to functionally end veteran homelessness. Governor McAuliffe's website.

Chicago protesters demand Mayor Emanuel's resignation

Mon, 30 Nov 2015 15:09:00 +0000

The release of graphic footage showing the police shooting that resulted in the death of Laquan McDonald has sparked substantial protests in the streets of Chicago, and a call for the resignation of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Police Superintendent Gary McCarthy, and Cook County's State's Attorney Anita Alvarez.

As reported previously by People's World, Laquan McDonald was a young African-American man, who was fatally shot 16 times on Oct. 14, 2014 by white officer Jason Van Dyke. On Nov. 19 of this year a Cook County judge ruled that the Chicago Police Department had to make the dashboard video public no later than Nov. 25.

On Tuesday, Nov. 24 the video was finally released, a full year after McDonald's death. That same day hundreds of protestors took to the streets to demand justice for McDonald. Demonstrators marched between Roosevelt and State to block traffic, while chanting "16 shots." This was in reference to the number of times McDonald was reportedly struck by Van Dyke's bullets. The reportedly nine-hour protest resulted in five arrests.

By Wednesday morning of last week activists and their supporters had taken the call for justice to social media, where the hashtag #ResignRahm began trending. Mayor Emanuel, along with Police Superintendent Gary McCarthy, and Cook County's State's Attorney Anita Alvareza have come under intense scrutiny due to the 13 months it took to file charges against the officer and the delayed release of the video to the public.

A twitter user, Sarah Chambers, posted, "When Rahm tells us there's no [money] for special-ed, but there's millions for settlements to try to cover up murders of black kids #ResignRahm." Chambers' tweet is refers to the $5 million settlement with the McDonald family back in April before the family even filed a lawsuit.

Another Twitter user, Michelle Favia noted, "Chicagoans deserve better than Emanuel, McCarthy, Alvarez. #ResignRahm."

On Wednesday the City Council's Black Caucus held a press conference in which they called for more accountability in city government. Although the caucus did not call for the resignation of Mayor Emanuel, they did call for, the second time in recent weeks, the resignation of Police Superintendent McCarthy. Alderman Howard Brookins said at the press conference, "We as a city have to demand better of our elected officials who are charged with protecting us all equally. It is no excuse for this type of behavior."

What has also come to light is a possible video from a local Burger King located in the area where McDonald was killed. Jay Darshane, a district manager for the fast-food chain, has come forward stating that several police officers entered the restaurant located just yards from the scene, demanding to view the restaurant's password-protected surveillance video.

Darshane stated that after the officers left, there were at least 86 minutes of footage missing from the surveillance video. Darshane, who explained to the Chicago Tribune that he actually testified about the missing footage before a federal grand jury earlier this year, said, "I was just trying to help the police with their investigation. I didn't know they were going to delete it."

State Attorney Anita Alvarez countered this statement at a recent press conference saying, "We have looked at those videos and ... it doesn't appear that it's been tampered with."

On Nov. 27, Black Friday, hundreds of demonstrators marched, stopping traffic on Chicago's famous Michigan Avenue. The demonstrators, led by the Rev. Jesse Jackson and U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, declared that the mayor, police commissioner, and prosecutor must step down. They also demanded a federal investigation into the Chicago Police Department. The protesters locked arms outside the doors of major retailers such as Apple, Tiffany & Co., and Neiman Marcus preventing shoppers from entering. The chants of the demonstrators included "Stop the cover-up!" and "16 shots! 16 shots!"

Van Dyke, the officer who shot McDonald, turned himself into authorities last week. Van Dyke will be charged with first-degree murder in connection to the shooting death. Van Dyke had been on paid leave since McDonald's death, but has since been fired from the Chicago police department.

Since his arrest new information has surfaced regarding previous complaints of misconduct against the former officer. As reported by CNN, in connection with Citizens Police Data Project, Van Dyke had a history of complaints before he gunned down McDonald. The allegations involved use of excessive force, and one complaint alleges he used a racial slur.

A jury previously awarded a Chicago man $350,000 after determining Van Dyke employed excessive force during a traffic stop. If Van Dyke is convicted of first degree murder in the McDonald case he could face a minimum of 20 years in prison. This case would mark the first time in 35 years that a Chicago police officer has been charged with first-degree murder for an on-duty fatality.

As the investigation continues leaders in the pursuit of justice say that protests and demonstrations will continue. As Charlene Carruthers, National Director of the Black Youth Project 100, stated in a recent interview with Democracy Now, "At a time when there is such profound distrust and alienation from the police in the neighborhoods most affected, and such a lack of confidence - such a crisis of legitimacy for the institutions of criminal justice, this is one of the things within the power of the city to do, to begin to restore a degree of confidence, to begin to restore a degree of trust. But it has to start ... Laquan McDonald has now joined Michael Brown and a number of other names as our kind of shorthand for fundamental defining of structural issues in American life."

Photo: Protest on Michigan Avenue, Chicago. Michelle Zacarias/PW

Los Angeles climate change action: "Our planet, our health!"

Mon, 30 Nov 2015 14:39:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES - While the eyes of the world are on Paris, for the global climate summit hundreds of thousands of people are hitting the streets in cities throughout the world calling for a 100 percent clean energy and to protect the future of our world on this day of worldwide climate change action.

In Los Angeles on Sunday, Nov. 29, hundreds of activists, environmentalists, union members and community groups staged an unprecedented march and rally as part of worldwide global climate actions. A large group of climate activists and supporters gathered in downtown Los Angeles in front of Los Angeles City Hall where a highly spirited rally and march took place.

The event was organized in Los Angeles by SoCal 350 with the intent of bringing attention to the for a lower carbon sustainable future. This worldwide action is intended to send a message to world leaders during Paris climate summit now taking place. It is part of the activities involving over 2,000 marches in some 175 countries.

Becky Tolly attended her first climate change march. In her opinion Los Angeles is the ideal place to hold a climate change march and rally. "We need to find a solution to reducing pollution," she said "and Los Angeles is the place to make a great statement on climate change and to be part of this worldwide climate change action."

At a U.S-China climate meeting in Los Angeles in September, Los Angeles Major Eric Garcetti said, "Cities are the primary source of greenhouse gas emissions and are on the frontlines of battling the extreme weather caused by climate change."

The Paris gathering aims are to get nations to submit their national climate change plans outlining how they plan to transition toward a low carbon, highly resilient future in order to keep a global temperature rise under 2 degrees Celcius. The big questions are whether the industrialized countries will embrace renewable technologies and whether corporations will act responsibly.

Another huge climate change rally is schedule in downtown Los Angeles Thursday, December 3. Convergence for Climate Action, as it is called, is demanding a meaningful international treaty to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and to create a sustainable energy future that puts human need over corporate greed.

Photo: SoCal 350 Climate Action Facebook.

Planned Parenthood condemns inflammatory GOP rhetoric re Colorado tragedy

Mon, 30 Nov 2015 13:17:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - Dawn Laguens, Planned Parenthood's executive vice president, condemned Republican presidential candidates for continuing "hateful rhetoric" that led to last Friday's shooting at a Colorado clinic that killed three people, including a police officer

On Sunday morning talk shows, Carly Fiorina, Donald Trump, and others used this tragedy "to repeat false claims about Planned Parenthood. Instead of looking for lessons to prevent this from happening in the future, they're doubling down on their effort to block women from getting preventive health care at Planned Parenthood," Laguens said in a statement.

According to numerous press accounts, the shooter, Robert Lewis Dear Jr., invoked the phrase "no more baby parts" after his arrest on Friday night. This was a reference to inflammatory videos created and disseminated by extreme anti-abortion activists with ties to violence - videos that have been discredited and debunked.

Yet on Sunday morning, Fiorina and Trump continued to attack Planned Parenthood services, pushing a political agenda opposed to women's reproductive rights, and they continued to invoke the discredited videos referenced by the killer.

Full statement by Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America:

"We are grateful for the enormous outpouring of support from people all across the country who are appalled by this act of violence and want to see an end to the hateful rhetoric that fueled it."

"It is offensive and outrageous that some politicians are now claiming this tragedy has nothing to do with the toxic environment they helped create. Even when the gunman was still inside of our health center, politicians who have long opposed safe and legal abortion were on television pushing their campaign to defund Planned Parenthood and invoking the discredited video smear campaign that reportedly fed this shooter's rage. Now, Carly Fiorina, Donald Trump, and others are using this tragedy to repeat false claims about Planned Parenthood. Instead of looking for lessons to prevent this from happening in the future, they're doubling down on their effort to block women from getting preventive health care at Planned Parenthood. Just last week, Ted Cruz accepted the endorsement of a group whose leaders have been convicted and served prison time for threatening to firebomb abortion clinics."

"One of the lessons of this awful tragedy is that words matter, and hateful rhetoric fuels violence. It's not enough to denounce the tragedy without also denouncing the poisonous rhetoric that fueled it. Instead, some politicians are continuing to stoke it, which is unconscionable."

"At Planned Parenthood, our top priority is the safety and wellbeing of our patients and staff. Our doors are open today, in Colorado and across the country, and nothing will deter us from providing high-quality health care to millions of people."

Photo: A police officer is transported to an ambulance near a Planned Parenthood clinic Friday, Nov. 27, 2015, in Colorado Springs, Colo, after a gunman opened fire at the clinic killing three people. (Daniel Owen/The Gazette via AP)

Louisiana voters toss out right-wingers

Wed, 25 Nov 2015 16:17:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - According to some pundits, Louisiana voters rejected Senator David Vitter's bid for governor because of his problems with his zipper.

Not so, say many close observers. Vitter lost because voters were sick and tired of Republican right-wingers like him destroying their economic security by giving their state away to huge corporations.

In protest, they voted decisively for John Bel Edwards, a relatively unknown Democratic state representative who promises that Medicaid expansion will be among his top priorities. He's the first Democrat in eight years to be elected governor of any Deep South state.

Of course Edwards reminded voters about Vitter's personal flaws and this played a role in his defeat. In 2007, during his first term as U.S, Senator, Vitter admitted that an allegation dug up by a Louisiana newspaper was true: five years earlier he had patronized a Washington prostitution service.

Vitter then did a mea culpa. Voters forgave him and he was re-elected in 2010.

At the beginning of this year's campaign for governor, the smart money was on Vitter. There was even talk that no Democrat would run against him. Edwards was finally chosen to be the sacrificial lamb.

Early on, however, it became clear that voters might forgive Vitter's personal straying but they would not forgive him for being part of the right-wing GOP gang ruining Louisiana.

Louisianans remembered how Vitter had used the devastation caused by Katrina to kill unions, permanently displace thousands of African Americans who had lived in New Orleans, and to privatize and destroy much of that city's public school system.

Right wingers drained Louisiana's economy

Meanwhile, Vitter's counterpart in Louisiana, Governor Bobby Jindal, had pushed through a 53 percent cut in funding to public colleges and universities between 2008 and 2014.

Moreover, at a time when Louisiana's economy was being hit by a post-Katrina recession, Jindal doubled tax giveaways to corporations from one billion dollars to two billion. As a result, government revenues shrank and Jindal cut public services and benefits.

Also, as a rising star in the national right wing galaxy, Jindal famously refused to set up a state Obamacare insurance exchange and refused to accept any additional federal monies to expand Medicaid.

These right wing shenanigans left Louisiana's economy in a shambles. Residents are now burdened with a $500 million state budget deficient. What's worse, that gap is expected to balloon to $1 billion next year.

Jindal's net approval rating of 20 percent ranks second worst among the nations' governors. Only Kansas' Republican Sam Brownback is more disliked by his constituents.

During the election, Vitter tried to distance himself from Jindal, but to no avail. Voters saw that their policies over the years have been identical.

Not that Vitter and Jindal are buddies. Far from it. Over the years, they have been stabbing each other in the back vying for hegemony over the Louisiana Republican Party.

In fact, there was speculation that Jindal's announcement that he was quitting the U.S. presidential was timed to take media attention away from Vitter, who was trying to revive his campaign by railing against Syrian refugees.

"The Jindal news was also an untimely reminder to voters of just how deeply they loathe their current Republican governor," reported Suzy Khimm in the New Republic magazine.

As for Vitter, not even the support he received from GOP presidential contenders Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz helped. Vitter lost the election by a 12 point margin, and he announced he wouldn't run for re-election to the Senate.

The "breeze of hope"

In his victory speech, Edwards said "... the people [of Louisiana] have chosen hope over scorn. ... I did not create this breeze of hope that's rolling across our beautiful and blessed state. But I did catch it.

"This breeze," Edwards continued, "has its roots in the songs of the Louisiana Hayride, the food of our Cajun ancestors, the spirituals of our African-American churches, the faith of our Italian strawberry farmers and the energy of Native Americans and our Hispanic immigrants."

Edwards is widely considered to be staunchly conservative, but his reference to "Hispanic immigrants" might be a signal that he will withdraw Louisiana from the lawsuit brought by 26 governors against President Obama's executive order granting protections to undocumented persons whose children are U.S. citizens.

Most important, Edwards' election is a hopeful sign that governors, especially Deep South governors, will stop preventing their constituents from receiving Medicaid benefits.

According to the New Republic, "In Louisiana, voters rejected the party that had turned down Medicaid expansion. [Even] Vitter didn't campaign against the expansion, insisting that he was open to some version of the option even as he opposed Obamacare.

"That position seems to be gaining traction in the Deep South, where residents have the most to benefit from the Medicaid expansion; Alabama's GOP governor recently suggested that he was considering [expanding Medicaid] as well."

And nationally respected blogger Keith Brekhus wrote in the PoliticusUSA online newspaper that "Edwards' victory will give Louisiana a chance to reverse eight years of damage done by Bobby Jindal.

"The voters have decisively voted to change course in Louisiana."

Photo: Louisiana Gov.-elect John Bel Edwards takes photos with others during the 2014 Louisiana Federation of Teachers convention in Lake Charles. In a sign of the strength of Edwards' ties to the union, the Democrat's first speech since winning the weekend runoff election was Monday at their convention. Rick Hickman | American Press via AP

Trump condemned for hate-mongering.

Wed, 25 Nov 2015 12:58:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - There seems to be no limit to the Nazi-like proposals being spewed by billionaire real estate mogul Donald Trump, the front-running GOP candidate for president. Nor does there seem to be any bottom to the pit of hatred into which he is dragging other Republican candidates.

This past week he called for the closing of mosques, singled out the entire American Muslim community for surveillance and proposed that all Muslims be required to register themselves on a nationwide database so that they could be tracked wherever they went.

When asked how his ideas differed from what the Nazis required of Jews, Trump responded, four times, "You tell me."

He has also said that if he were president, he'd bring back the form of torture known as water-boarding.

In a televised interview by George Stephanopoulos, Trump said "We have to - I would bring it back, yes. I would bring it back. I think waterboarding is peanuts compared to what they'd do to us."

Thankfully, pushback to Trump's fear-mongering is growing.

Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich is circulating a petition calling on all national leaders to "condemn this hateful venom from the leading Republican candidate for president of the United States."

Ari Fleischer, the former press secretary for President George W. Bush, called Trump's remarks "intolerable."

During most of the campaign, Trump has pushed his fellow right candidates even further to the right. Until now, each one has been trying to out-Trump Trump every time he has made some outrageous, hateful remark.

But now, the candidates are distancing themselves from Trump, although they still seem cowed by the threat of his making them the butt of his next insulting joke.

According to the New York Times "Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who is campaigning on a platform in which 'religious freedom' plays a major part but is also seeking to inherit Mr. Trump's supporters ... hit on a gentle way of dissociating himself from the idea [of requiring Muslims to register.] "I'm a big fan of Donald Trump's," [Cruz said] "but I'm not a fan of government registries."

Jeb Bush was more courageous in opposing Trump.

During a TV political talk show, Bush told Trump "You talk about closing mosques, you talk about registering people - that's just wrong."

In a speech in New Hampshire, Chris Christie took on Trump without naming him. He said "The indiscriminate closing of mosques or the establishment of a national registry based on religion will do nothing to keep us safer and shows a lack of understanding on how to effectively prevent terrorist attacks."

Christie also snapped back when Trump claimed to have seen on television "thousands and thousands of people in Jersey City cheering" while the World Trade Center towers fell on September 11, 2001.

"I think if it had happened, I would remember it," Christie said.

Actually, no one remembers seeing anyone cheering on 9/11. No news reports exist of people cheering in the streets, and both police officials and the mayor of Jersey City have made statements implying that Trump must have dreamed what he claims to have seen.

However, after hearing Trump, presidential Candidate Ben Carson said that on 9/11 he, too, saw cheering crowds in New Jersey. It was like a scene in The Crucible where young women in 1692 take a cue from a witness at a Salem witch hunt trial. They claim that they, too, "saw Goody Proctor with the Devil."

Later, Carson said he was "thinking of the protests" he saw "going on in the Middle East."

Trump's anti-Muslim remarks drew condemnation not only from American Muslims but also from Christian, Jewish and interfaith leaders

"We had expected a rise in Islamophobic rhetoric during the election cycle," said Ibrahim Hooper, the communications director for the Council on American Islamic Relations, "but we never thought it would hark back to the rhetoric of the 1930s."

Russell D. Moore, the president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, said "I do think it's scary when we have candidates talking about shutting down houses of worship, about having badges for religious groups. That ought to alarm every American."

Hopefully, condemnation of Trump's despicable public statements will spread.

The full text of the petition being circulated by Robert Reich is:

"We urge President Barack Obama, along with all living former presidents, all presidential candidates, leaders of the clergy, university presidents, heads of every large philanthropy, and editors-in-chief of every major newspaper, to condemn this hateful venom from the leading Republican candidate for president of the United States.
"Together, if we can stand united in defense of America's values, we can turn the tide against Donald Trump and his dangerous bigotry."

To sign the petition, click here.

Photo: A demonstrator dressed in a puppet head with dollar signs in his eyes holds up a sign protesting the scheduled guest appearance of Donald Trump on "Saturday Night Live," Nov. 4, in New York City. Kathy Willens | AP

Protests in Chicago after release of video in Laquan McDonald's shooting

Wed, 25 Nov 2015 12:23:00 +0000

CHICAGO -- The investigation into the death of Laquan McDonald wages on in Chicago, as authorities released the dash footage of the shooting to the public Tuesday afternoon. Laquan McDonald, a young African-American man, was walking down a Chicago street on the night of October 20, 2014, when he was fatally shot sixteen times by a white officer. It was reported by police that McDonald was carrying a 4-inch knife and behaving erratically.

According to a spokesperson for the police union an officer told the 17-year-old to drop the knife. When McDonald reportedly didn't comply, the officer opened fire on the teenager. McDonald died on the scene. Van Dyke, the 37-year-old police officer who killed McDonald, has been on paid desk duty since the incident.

It has taken over a year for the footage to be released to the public, but on Thursday, November 19, a Cook County judge ruled that the Chicago Police Department should make the dashboard video public no later than November 25. Mayor Rahm Emanuel, whose office sought to keep the video hidden from the public for over a year, announced he would not seek to have the judge's decision overturned on appeal.

The mayor's office released a statement last Thursday saying, "Police officers are entrusted to uphold the law, and to provide safety to our residents. In this case unfortunately, it appears an officer violated that trust at every level." At a later press conference on the issue Mayor Emanuel said, "This officer didn't uphold the law. In my view, he took the law into his own hands. He didn't build the trust we want to see. And he wasn't about providing safety and security. So at every point, he violated what we entrust." At the press conference Emanuel urged Chicago residents to keep their protests peaceful.

Many who seek justice in the McDonald case criticized the city and the mayor's, initial decision to keep the video from the public. Rev. Jesse Jackson was quoted as saying, "He [McDonald] was shot 16 times 13 months ago and the tape was delayed and the officer was not arrested, not fired, not charged. ... The decision was made that this video was too provocative and they should lock it into a legal process," Jackson said. "This is a public camera. It belongs to us."

The video, being described as intensely graphic, shows McDonald being repeatedly shot while lying on the ground. The video also shows McDonald's body convulsing quickly several times, consistent with the striking shots. Many say the video might never have been released had it not been for the work of freelance journalist Brandon Smith, who successfully filed, under the Freedom of Information Act to get it released.

Jason Van Dyke, the officer who shot McDonald, turned himself in to authorities Tuesday morning. The Chicago Sun-Times first reported that Van Dyke will be charged with first-degree murder in connection to the shooting death. This case would mark the first time in 35 years that a Chicago police officer has been charged with first-degree murder for an on-duty fatality. Van Dyke could face a minimum of 20 years in prison if convicted.

Many in the city are preparing for inevitable protests and outrage as the footage is viewed. The mayor's office reportedly met with many church and community leaders in order to urge calm in their respective communities. The Rev. Ira Acree, pastor of the Greater St. John Bible Church in Chicago's West side Austin neighborhood, who attended the meeting with the mayor, is quoted in the Chicago Tribune as saying, "Many in my community feel betrayed, many are so very angry and protests are imminent, and from the meeting today it's very clear Mayor Emanuel knows that. He put a lot of pressure on us to use our influence to make sure these protests or demonstrations are peaceful... Of course, we did respond to the mayor that there are so many people so angry and so disappointed in how they've been played by the city, the Police Department and the state's attorney. There is a group that is not listening to him and not listening to us either, but nevertheless we are hoping these protests and demonstrations will be peaceful. But we know they are coming, because if there was no protest that would mean we've become immune to this madness."

Since April, the investigation into McDonald's death has been handled jointly by federal and state authorities, spearheaded by the Chicago branch of the FBI. The city had already reached a settlement with McDonald's family, voting unanimously back in April to pay $5 million even before the family filed a lawsuit.

Although the lawyer for the family states that McDonald's mother would rather not have had the video released, it was explained that the family still believes that what is "important is that the community be told the truth about what happened, about how he was shot. The fact that there was a narrative put out there by the Chicago police, by the union initially, that a police officer had to shoot [McDonald] in self defense, that he was approaching a police officer and lunged at a police officer with a knife, is not true. He was shot while he was walking away."

Late Tuesday night, just hours after the release of the video protestors took to the streets of Roosevelt and State to block traffic, while chanting "16 shots," referring to the number of times McDonald was reportedly struck by Van Dyke's bullets.

By clicking here you can view the video that has been released. Be advised that the content is violent and disturbing.

Photo: Chicago Police form a line to keep a protest for 17-year-old Laquan McDonald from entering Grant Park, early Nov. 25. Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke, who shot Laquan McDonald 16 times last year, was charged with first-degree murder Tuesday, hours before the city released a video of the killing. Paul Beaty | AP

Climate march in Northern California demands environmental justice

Tue, 24 Nov 2015 17:20:00 +0000

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Under the slogan, "Defend the earth. Show up, stand up," on November 21^st, an estimated fifteen hundred people took to the streets of Oakland to march for Climate justice. As a widely spread press release for the event, from the NorCalclimatemob.net website, noted, "a coalition of over 100 labor, environmental, faith, and social justice groups" marched and held a rally to demand "a legally binding global agreement to implement rapid, effective and just responses to climate change at the 2015 UN Conference of Parties in Paris."

The press release refers to the upcoming 21^st Conference of the Parties 2015, happening this year in Paris, also being called COP21. It is an annual conference that has been happening since 1995. The first, which took place in Berlin, worked under the UN Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC). As the Conference of Parties website explains, "this convention set out a framework for action aimed at stabilizing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs) to avoid "dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system." This year's conference will, for the first time in over 20 years of UN negotiations, "aim to achieve a legally binding and universal agreement on climate, with the aim of keeping global warming below 2°C." The always large conference is expected to attract up to 50,000 participants. This will include 25,000 official delegates from government, intergovernmental organizations, UN agencies, and others.

The crises of climate change has been dominating the media for some time now. Despite the scientific evidence showing the damage the crises of global warming is having on our environment, debates continue from those who deny the existence of climate change, and also the road forward in handling the ongoing issue.

Many detractors happen to be in the Republican party, like Congressman Steve Scalise, R La.,, s claiming, "The Obama administration needs to finally abandon their radical climate change agenda that is killing jobs and increasing costs for American families." And Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican in Washington State, attacked one of the main political spokespeople for combating climate change, Nobel-winner and former Vice President, Al Gore, by saying, "We believe Al Gore deserves an 'F' in science and an 'A' in creative writing."

But protesters put a sense of urgency on talking about global warming and climate change, explaining, "Northern Californians, like millions of people worldwide, are mobilizing to confront the crises of climate change. Collectively these voices are saying that anything less than a binding, just agreement that lowers emissions in a way that matches the requirements that scientists have laid out is unacceptable. Time's up. From Oakland to Paris: global climate change demands global solidarity and immediate action

"Northern California is already suffering from multiple impacts of climate change, including a years-long drought, extensive wildfires, unpredictable flash floods, and more extreme weather events"

As author of "This Changes Everything," Naomi Klein has stated: "We can reinvent a different future."

The Oakland march began at Lake Merritt Amphitheatre where supporters gathered at 10:30 a.m., marched the streets of downtown Oakland, ending at the Frank Ogawa/Oscar Grant Plaza. Chants that rang out through the streets included, "Carbon Tax Me," "Planet over profits," "Let's go beyond fossil fuels," and "Chevron/Shell get off, our land is not for profit." Once at the plaza representatives from various labor unions and other organizations spoke on climate justice.

Martina Cole, the executive treasure for National Nurses United, explained how many of her fellow nurses see the aftermath of the climate crises in their hospitals every day. Cole said the increase of "asthma rates, cancers, and the like from pollutions," shows that climate change is also a health crises. Cole went on to say that the "current for profit healthcare leaves people uncovered against this climate chaos," and that we need to "move away form an economy based on fossil fuels." Cole also emphasized the role that labor has to play in environmental justice, pointing out that, "it is a myth that labor has to be against the environment. It doesn't have to be that way."

Youth and students were also significant supporters at the rally. Claire Tacherra-Morrison, of UC Berkeley's Fossil Free Cal, stated, "People's lives are already drastically affected by climate change here in the Bay Area and around the world. As university students, we have the opportunity to use our privilege to demand change...Students are working to end the UC system's investment in fossil fuel companies because this toxic industry is destroying the future we are being educated for."

Many who attended the march and rally were hopeful that something significant would come from the upcoming summit in Paris. Josie Camacho, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the Alameda Labor Council, summarized, "The climate crisis affects more than California-it affects our nation and the world's many poor and working families who are now being disproportionately affected... The actions we take today will determine the world our children and grandchildren will live in tomorrow."

Today in history: Anna Louise Strong is born, changes worlds

Tue, 24 Nov 2015 16:01:00 +0000

Anna Louise Strong was born 130 years ago on November 24, 1885, in Friend, Nebraska.

She was a journalist and activist, best known for her reporting on and support for communist movements in the Soviet Union and China. Her numerous volumes of on-the-spot reportage interpreted vast human experiences in many virtually inaccessible parts of the globe and provided timely political orientation that affected millions of readers.

In 1908, at the age of 23, Strong received a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Chicago with a thesis later published as The Social Psychology of Prayer. As an advocate for child welfare Strong was convinced that problems in the structure of social arrangements were responsible for poverty. She was 30 when she returned to Seattle to live with her father, and found herself drawn to pro-labor and progressive politics.

When Strong ran for the Seattle School Board in 1916, she won easily, thanks to support from women's groups and organized labor and to her reputation as an expert on child welfare. She was the only female board member. She argued that the public schools should offer social service programs for underprivileged children and that they should serve as community centers. But other members devoted meetings to mundane matters like plumbing fixtures.

In the year of her election the Everett Massacre occurred. Strong was hired as a stringer by the New York Evening Post to report on the bloody conflict between the Industrial Workers of the World (or "Wobblies") and the army of armed guards hired by Everett mill owners to keep them out of town. She soon dropped her neutrality and became an impassioned spokesperson for workers' rights.

On the school board, Strong opposed the U.S. entering World War I in 1917, and spoke out against the draft. Parents and women's clubs joined her in opposing military training in the schools, but the Seattle Minute Men, many of them veterans of the Spanish-American War, branded her as unpatriotic. Strong stood by the Wobbly member Louise Olivereau in urging

draftees to consider becoming conscientious objectors. In 1918, Olivereau was tried for sedition, found guilty, and sent to prison.

Fellow school board members were quick to launch a recall campaign against Strong, and won by a narrow margin. She argued that they must appoint another woman as her successor, so they chose a prominent country club woman.

Strong wrote forceful pro-labor articles and promoted the new Soviet government in Seattle's labor-owned daily newspaper, The Union Record. On February 6, 1919, two days before the beginning of the Seattle General Strike of 1919, she proclaimed in her famous editorial: "We are undertaking the most tremendous move ever made by labor in this country, a move which will lead - NO ONE KNOWS WHERE!" The strike shut down the city for four days, but ended with its goals still undefined and unattained.

Taking her friend Lincoln Steffens' advice, in 1921 she traveled to Poland and Russia as a correspondent for the American Friends Service Committee, which was providing foreign relief to the Volga famine victims. After a year of that, she was named Moscow correspondent for the International News Service.

Strong's many observations in Europe inspired her to write. Some of her works include The First Time in History (1924, preface by Leon Trotsky, then a member of the Politburo, the highest policy-making government authority), and Children of Revolution (1925). In 1925, during the era of the New Economic Policy in the USSR, she returned to the U.S. to arouse interest in industrial investment and development in the Soviet Union. She lectured widely as an authority on the USSR. In the late 1920s, Strong traveled in Asia, and became friends with Communist leader Zhou Enlai, who played a major role in the Chinese revolution. As always her travels led to books: China's Millions (1928), and Red Star in Samarkand (1929).

In 1930 she returned to Moscow and helped found Moscow News, the first English-language newspaper in the city. In 1931 she married fellow socialist and journalist Joel Shubin, remaining married until his death in 1942. Books from this period include: The Soviets Conquer Wheat (1931), the best-selling autobiographical I Change Worlds: The Remaking of an American (1935), This Soviet World (1936), and The Soviet Constitution (1937).

In 1936 she returned home to the U.S., quietly and privately distressed with political developments in the USSR after Joseph Stalin launched the Great Purge. A visit to Spain resulted in Spain in Arms (1937); visits to China led to One Fifth of Mankind (1938). In 1940 she published My Native Land. Other books include The Soviets Expected It (1941); the novel Wild River (1943), set in Russia; Peoples of the U.S.S.R. (1944); I Saw the New Poland (1946), based on her reporting as she accompanied the Red Army; and three books on Communist successes in the Chinese Civil War. She traveled widely throughout the USSR, and met with Stalin, Vyacheslav Molotov, and many other Soviet officials. She also interviewed factory workers, farmers, and pedestrians.

In great part because of her overtly pro-Chinese Communist sympathies, she was arrested in Moscow in 1949 and charged by the Soviets with espionage. She returned to the USSR in 1959, but settled in China until her death in 1970, publishing a "Letter from China." She fostered a close relationship with Zhou Enlai and was on familiar terms with Mao Zedong.

Other books by Anna Louise Strong include plays, fiction and poetry, early religious tracts, Inside North Korea: An Eye-witness Report (1949), and The Stalin Era (1956). Her numerous volumes of on-the-spot reportage interpreted vast human experiences in many virtually inaccessible parts of the globe and provided timely political orientation that affected millions of readers.

Strong's papers reside at the Suzzallo Library at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Adapted from Wikipedia.

Photo: Anna Louise Strong, living American in Moscow, 1937, The New York World-Telegram and Sun collection at the Library of Congress.

Immigrants descend on Supreme Court to back Obama’s executive order

Mon, 23 Nov 2015 13:05:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - Friday, the Administration asked the Supreme Court to re-affirm the President's right to issue an executive order that protects over five million undocumented persons who have children born in the U.S.

At the same time, some 1,000 immigrants and their allies rallied at the Supreme Court building to support the President.

"We would have never gotten the executive order in the first place," Gustavo Torres told the crowd, "if we hadn't held demonstrations and civil disobedience actions and if we hadn't voted in elections." Torres is the executive director of Casa, an organization that advocates for immigrants in three states.

The crowd roared si, se puede, "yes we can!"

If implemented, the executive order, issued by President Obama a year ago, would prevent families from being broken up. Among other provisions, it grants residency status and benefits such as Social Security to undocumented parents of children born in the U.S. The parents must have lived here for at least five years and have no criminal record.

Although presidents have been taking executive action on immigration since the Eisenhower administration, and although mayors of 33 U.S. cities filed court briefs supporting Obama's order, the governors of 26 states, mostly Republicans, last November asked a federal judge based in Texas to issue an injunction blocking the order from implementation. The judge did so.

The 26 states are the same ones that recently passed voter suppression laws. They each have very small numbers of immigrants. On the other hand, the cities who back Obama's order have disproportionately large numbers of immigrants.

The Administration appealed to the Fifth Circuit court in New Orleans to reverse the decision of the judge in Texas. Two of the three members of the Fifth Circuit court were appointed by George W. Bush. Unsurprising, November 9, the Court ruled two to one to block Obama's order from being put into effect.

"We are not 'illegals.'"

The rally at the Supreme Court was one of two held here in Washington Friday. Participants in the other demonstration had marched from the Arlington, Va., courthouse to the White House.

The same day, tens of thousands of immigrants rallied in a total of 25 cities in 15 states. The following day, thousands more held demonstrations in eight cities in five states. At each one, participants demanded mantener unidas a las familias, "keep families together."

Ivania Castillo, an immigrant from El Salvador, spoke at the Supreme Court rally. She was one of a group of undocumented persons who had staged a nine day hunger strike in New Orleans in support of Obama's order.

"We want to send a message to the Republicans," she said: "la lucha continua. The fight will continue until we have won liberation not only for the 5 million with children, but for all the more than 11 million undocumented immigrants in this country."

Amalia Avila is from Mexico. She said, "I risked my life to come here to find the American dream. I work hard and pay taxes.

"We are not 'illegals,'" Avila continued. "No human being is illegal. God made us all. I want to be allowed to stay in this country with my son."

Gustavo Torres, the head of Casa, said: "We are more American than those judges in Texas and New Orleans. We are very proud to be immigrants and to be making our contribution to America, We need to send a message to those who hate us: we are going to stop hate against any and all communities."

He added "Today, we must especially join the fight to welcome Syrian refugees to the United States."

The rally at the Supreme Court was organized by Casa and two unions, Local 400 of the United Food and Commercial Workers and Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU 32 BJ).

Jaime Contreras, an SEIU 32BJ organizer, said "Along with immigration policy reform, we must fight for the rights of all workers, because even when workers get papers, they can still be exploited. We all need a higher minimum wage."

The crowd answered: el pueblo unido jamás será vencido, "the people, united, can never be defeated."

Summing up the hopes of the participants in the rally, Amalia Avila said: "We will find justice and justice will find us."

Photo: Casa Executive Director Gustavo Torres (center) leads immigration rights rally at Supreme Court. | Larry Rubin/PW

COP 21: Help the PW raise $6,000 for climate coverage in Paris

Mon, 23 Nov 2015 11:23:00 +0000

We take sides - yours - with stories to save the planet and you. Now you have a chance to help us do it.

People's World will be on the scene in Paris to cover the United Nations historic climate change summit, and we want to bring you with us.

Climate change and Paris attacks are two topics dominating the news and intersect in surprising ways. Bernie Sanders aptly connected terrorism and global warming, saying at the recent Democratic debate: "If we do not get our act together and listen to what the scientists say ... you're going to see all kinds of international conflict."

President Obama and other heads of state will be there, as will an estimated 40,000 environmental activists, trade unionists, scientists, doctors, and others who represent civil society from every continent. People's World will be there too.

We need $6,000 to offset the cost of sending two seasoned journalists - Teresa Albano and Blake Deppe - to Paris from Nov. 29 - Dec. 7. You will hear and read the the stories of everyday people working to put people and the planet before profits. You will get information and unique analysis. You will be able to read, tweet, like, listen, and watch the takeaway from Paris.

Peoplesworld.org seeks to bring the social justice, activist-journalist tradition of The Daily Worker and other socialist and working-class oriented publications to a new media and technology savvy audience.

With a small staff, a scrappy network of volunteers and more than 90 years of advocacy journalism behind us, peoplesworld.org is recognized as a force on the labor and progressive media scene, winning awards for reporting and editorial content. (Read one of the 2015 award-winning stories by clicking here.)

People's World does not receive corporate cash and relies solely on the generosity of readers and those who support labor-oriented, progressive social justice news and views. You can join our growing team of supporters with your donation and bring us to a new level of recognition and influence.

Strapped for cash? Help get the word out about the campaign by sharing with your friends and family through social media. See you in Paris!

P.S. - Read Blake's blog on the upcoming trip: "En voyageant: France, je viens ici."

And don't forget - each level of giving brings these additional rewards:

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Find this campaign right here on Indiegogo, and don't forget to like and share that page - and this article - with everyone! Vous voir à Paris!

Photo: Blake Deppe/PW

Millions of immigrants continue to wait for relief

Fri, 20 Nov 2015 11:41:00 +0000

This Friday, Nov. 20, marks the one-year anniversary of President Barack Obama's announcement of executive action on immigration. We had hoped to see relief for millions of immigrants this year, but unfortunately all too many immigrants still live and work in a climate of fear.

In his speech last year President Obama said hardworking immigrants trying to provide for their families should not be the focus of ICE actions. Months later, an ICE investigation and raid of Ruprecht Company, a meat-packing plant in Mundelein, IL, led to arrests of immigrant workers and dozens of people losing their jobs.

Many of you have stood with Ruprecht workers in the past, and again today we are calling on you to help us take action.

It's time to take action!

Watch and share our union's recently-released video explaining ICE's raid of the Ruprecht Company meatpacking plant.

Join us in telling ICE (@ICEgov) to take responsibility for putting hardworking immigrants out of work by firing Chicago ICE Field Director Ricardo Wong. Someone must be held accountable. Click to tweet our call to action or use the hashtag #FireIceNow to let ICE know you want an immediate end to all unjust immigration raids.

Maria Elena Durazo is General Vice President for Immigration, Civil Rights, and Diversity, UNITE HERE

Photo: Jose Luis Magana/AP

Today in history: Watching the School of the Americas for 25 years

Fri, 20 Nov 2015 11:16:00 +0000

Today, and for the rest of the weekend, School of the Americas Watch (SOA Watch) will gather on its 25th anniversary to connect activists and organizers from across the Americas. The continental movement will converge in Georgia to call for the closure of the School of the Americas and the closure of Stewart Detention Center, one of the largest private for-profit immigrant prisons in the country. SOA Watch continues to make the connections between SOA violence and the root causes of migration from violent and impoverished Latin American countries.

Originally called the U.S. Army School of the Americas, the now-named Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) is a United States Department of Defense academy located at Fort Benning near Columbus, Georgia, that provides military training to government personnel in U.S.-allied Latin American nations.The school was founded in 1946 and from 1961 was assigned the specific goal of teaching "anti-communist counterinsurgency training," a role it continues to fulfill.In this time, it educated several Latin American dictators and generations of their military, and included the uses of torture in its curriculum. Its graduates have been among the most brutal military thugs in the world, responsible for coups, wholesale murder, and complete economic submission to Washington.

Actions this weekend will denounce the failed U.S. policies, which have left a sickening legacy of impunity and human rights violations throughout the hemisphere. Since 1990, SOA Watch has brought together torture survivors, human rights defenders, students, teachers, families, inter-faith groups, labor activists, migrants and immigrant rights activists for a weekend of collective action, education, commemoration and solidarity across all fronts of the struggle.

From Ferguson to Ayotzinapa, SOA Watch denounces the militarization of police across the Americas and calls for an end of state-sponsored terrorism and violence against our communities. "Our clamor for justice must be heard!" they say, echoing a thunderous, multilingual hemispheric voice.

As in previous years, the weekend schedule of events includes an impressive lineup of speakers and performers, including:

• Nadín Reyes Maldonado, a Mexican human rights defender and founder of ¡Hasta Encontrarlos!

• Tawana Honeycomb Petty, Detroit-based poet, author, mother, social justice organizer and activist

• Father Roy Bourgeois, founder of SOA Watch

• Music by Aaron Fowler and Laura Dungan, Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls, ¡Aparato!,Charlie King, Colleen Kattau, Emma's Revolution, Francisco Herrera, Kuumba Lynx Performance Ensemble, Olmeca, and Omari.

Impressive gains against the U.S. militarization of Latin America have been scored in many countries, such as Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, El Salvador, Nicaragua, not to forget Cuba, of course. But the pressure from SOA is unrelenting, as the U.S. tries to establish independent relationships with the military and police as a wedge to use in subverting progressive governments. There is no end to this struggle as long as a powerful nation seeks to exert control over its weaker neighbors.

SOA Watch continues to demand justice and accountability. The weekend involves workshops, peacemaker training, puppetry, informational tabling, printed informational brochures, and direct action. Oftentimes, arrests of activists participating in direct action (such as attempting to scale fences) has led to long public trials in which the role of SOA is exposed, thus becoming part of the effort to get the word out to the American people as to just what our government is doing in its name.

Shameless anti-refugee bill passed by GOP-run House

Fri, 20 Nov 2015 10:10:00 +0000

The Republican Party and the right have descended to a new level of repulsive shamelessness that many thought was not possible even for them.

Their spokespersons and presidential candidates have vied with each other for the most outrageous statements designed to generate fear and hatred against the largest group of victims of the Salafist terrorist group ISIS, namely the millions of refugees fleeing from the fighting and repression in Syria, Iraq and other directly affected countries.

They have gone further, trying to link the Paris terrorists to Muslims and immigrants in general. Several have called for the admission only of Christian refugees and no Muslims, a position shared with some of the most backward right wing European leaders, and sharply at variance with the U.S. Constitution.

Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson compared the refugees to rabid dogs, while Donald Trump, to nobody's surprise, outdid all the rest by suggesting that Muslims may have to be forced to wear special identification badges, like the armbands the Nazis made the Jews wear in Europe. Thirty one governors, all but one of them Republicans, have indicated that they will not accept the settlement of the refugees in their states.

They have no right under law to do this, but the fear arises that in those states, even if the federal government insists, as President Obama has said it would, in settling the refugees, state and local governments will not cooperate with providing them with basic services. On the other hand, a number of state governors and the Chicago City Council have announced that the refugees are welcome.

Hoping to gain electoral traction for 2016 on the basis of the fear and anger roused by the terrorist attacks in Paris on November 13, the Republicans shoved through a bill in the House of Representatives, the SAFE (American Security Against Foreign Enemies) Act, HR 4038, which could have the effect of delaying the processing of the paltry number of Syrian refugees (10,000 of the millions that exist) that the federal government has announced it will admit. Iraqi refugees are also covered, as well as people who have recently traveled to those two countries. Refugees are already screened by United Nations Relief Agencies and by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The new procedure would require that all be screened by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as well, and that each refugee be signed off on by several levels of officialdom. The main problem is that this is likely to slow down the process of offering relief to desperate people.

The legislative procedure was unusual in that Congress held no hearings as to what the bill's impact might be on actual government operations. The bill passed on Thursday with 289 votes "for", 137 "against" and 8 "not voting". Broken down by party, 242 Republicans voted to pass the measure, and only two voted against it, with two others not voting. Forty seven Democrats voted in favor, while 135 voted "no" and six did not vote.

The matter now goes to the U.S. Senate. Civil liberties supporters are calling for all of us to immediately contact our U.S. senators to ask them to vote "NO" on HR 4038, for the sake of humanity, common sense and the honor of our country. The very user friendly website of the U.S. Congress can help you find contact information for your senators, here: www.congress.gov. Given the urgency of the situation, it is best to make telephone calls, but one can also send e-mails and faxes.

President Obama has said he would veto this legislation, but it does not hurt to also contact the White House to urge him to do so also: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact

There is no evidence whatsoever that any refugee admitted to the United States, whether Muslim or other, has ever committed a terroristic act.

Photo: Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan rammed anti-refugee bill through Congress. | AP

Alarm grows over prosecutor conduct in Tamir Rice case

Thu, 19 Nov 2015 13:53:00 +0000

CLEVELAND - With alarm growing that a serious miscarriage of justice may occur in the Tamir Rice case five prominent clergy sent a letter to Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty Nov. 12 asking that he step aside and allow an independent prosecutor to take over. Previously, the Rice family and their attorneys made the same request after McGinty took no action since police gunned down the 12-year-old black child last November, but is publicly releasing reports from experts he hired claiming the police acted reasonably.

The attorneys have raised serious questions about the validity of the reports since the police involved were not interviewed and there was no way to determine their state of mind. In addition, over 50,000 have signed a petition posted at colorofchange.org for McGinty to step aside.

The clergy, including prominent Protestant ministers and Jewish rabbis said they were especially disturbed by comments McGinty made at a recent public forum that the Rice family were "strange people" with "economic" motivations as they demanded justice for Tamir. The religious leaders also noted that while McGinty had publicized pro-police opinions, he had shown "disregard" for the June 11 finding of Cleveland Municipal Judge Ronald Adrine, based on the widely seen video of the incident that probable cause exists to charge the officers involved with crimes including murder, manslaughter, negligent and reckless homicide and dereliction of duty.

After his speech at the forum McGinty refused to say whether he would provide the Grand Jury with Adrine's opinion telling this writer that the judge had not given it to him and the grand jurors "read the newspapers."

Organized labor has also gotten involved in the issue. At its meeting Nov. 11, the executive committee of the North Shore AFL-CIO Federation of Labor agreed to send a request to McGinty that he provide the Grand Jury with Adrine's opinion as well as that of Cleveland Marshall Law School Professor Jonathan Witmer-Rich.

Professor Witmer-Rich, an expert on police law, argued in an Oct. 25 Plain Dealer opinion piece that the case must go to trial since legal experts can explain the law, but are no better in judging whether police act reasonably and in fear for their lives than ordinary citizens seated in a jury panel.

The shooting of Tamir Rice occurred on the afternoon of Nov. 22 after a resident saw him waving a toy gun in the park outside Cudell Recreation Center. The resident called police with the information that it could be a child with a toy.

However, the police dispatcher, who has since resigned, alerted a nearby squad car only saying that there was a black male with a gun in the park. The patrol car swooped down on Tamir, then standing alone in a picnic shelter, and rookie officer Timothy Loehman jumped out and immediately fired his gun. Tamir was left bleeding on the ground while the officers tackled and handcuffed his 14-year-old sister, who came running from the rec center. They then forced her into the squad car. They also restrained his mother, but administered no first aid to Tamir. Eventually an ambulance arrived and took the child to the county hospital where he died the next day.

McGinty has thus far refused requests that he step aside and ignored a letter from over 100 public officials, clergy, labor and community leaders as well as petitions with over 60,000 signatures that he seek charges in the case. The Tamir Rice Justice Committee has asked that messages to McGinty be emailed to tmcginty@prosecutor.cuyahogacounty.us The committee urges that he be asked to step aside or to recommend to the Grand Jury that they file charges or at least be given opinions advocating a trial.

Photo: AP

Elizabeth Warren rolls out women's economic agenda

Thu, 19 Nov 2015 11:19:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - "Achieving pay equality for women isn't enough," Senator Elizabeth Warren, D.-Mass., said here yesterday when she unveiled the Women's Economic Agenda developed by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a progressive think tank. "We have to make sure that all workers - men and women - are earning enough to live on."

A recent EPI study shows that the gender pay gap has closed some 40 percent. It's not because women are earning more. It's because men are earning less.

Elise Gould, EPI's senior economist, explained that "the same factors that have kept women's pay from growing over the last dozen years are the same forces that have suppressed wages for male workers."

Wages for all workers have been suppressed, Gould said, because of national policies consciously adopted to guarantee that most of the wealth being created through increased productivity goes to those who are already the richest, most powerful people in America.

It hasn't always been this way. For decades following the end of World War II, Gould said, pay for the vast majority of American workers went up as productivity rose.

Then economic policies turned against workers. Productivity grew 72.2 percent between 1973 and 2014, but hourly pay for the typical worker rose just 0.20 percent annually. From 2000 to 2014, the gap between productivity and pay grew faster and wider. Productivity rose 21.6 percent but pay increased only 1.8 percent for the typical worker.

If the fruits of higher productivity had been shared with those who had produced the wealth instead of being lapped up by the top one or two percent, Gould said, no one with a full time job would be living in poverty today. Overall, wages would be up 70 percent.

However, because of current economic policies some 35 million working Americans are living in poverty. Many are working two or three jobs.

In presenting the Women's Economic Agenda, Senator Warren pointed out that more than half of low wage workers are women and that some 14 million children are being brought up in poverty.

"This is an economic issue," Warren said, "but it is also an issue of American values. No one who works full time should be living in poverty."

Schedules That Work bill

Warren discussed her Schedules That Work bill. If passed (which is unlikely in today's Republican-controlled congress) it would prevent employers from calling workers in at the last minute. It would also stop managements from calling workers in, deciding they aren't needed and sending them home without pay.

"Women especially need some control over their work schedules," Warren said, "because a large number have sole responsibility for children. How can you plan for childcare if you don't know what your schedule will be day to day?"

U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro, D.- Conn., said that along with scheduling allowing for family responsibilities, women also need paid family and medical leave.

"Congressional representatives such as myself," DeLauro said, "can take off as many days as we want to. Yet, one quarter of all workers have been fired or threatened with being fired for taking just one day off to take care of their kids."

Women's Economic Agenda

EPI's economic agenda for women addresses the issues Sen. Warren and Rep. DeLauro discussed. It calls for equal pay that's also a living wage. It stresses the importance of fair scheduling and paid family and medical leave.

"The surest way for workers to obtain these rights," said EPI President Larry Mishel, is to strengthen the right of workers to join unions and engage in collective bargaining."

He added: "Women in unions are more likely to be paid higher wages and have access to needed benefits and protections. When unions are strong, those benefits and protections spread to nonunion workers as well."

The agenda also calls for raising the minimum wage for all workers and eliminating the subminimum wage currently being forced on workers who earn tips.

The agenda states that "More than half of elderly women are economically vulnerable," so it's vital that the nation protect and strengthen Social Security and pensions.

Moreover, it states that "The United States must invest in early childhood education and more affordable child care."

The agenda ends by calling for national monetary policies that "prioritize wage growth and very low unemployment."

"I always get applause when I say I'm for equal pay for equal work," Senator Warren said. "But real economic equality and real economic equity will take real changes in America's economic policies.

"It won't be easy."

Photo: Senator Elizabeth Warren D.-Mass., unveils the Economic Policy Institute's Women's Economic Agenda. | Larry Rubin/PW

Rezoning plan will cause more displacement in New York

Thu, 19 Nov 2015 11:04:00 +0000

Mayor Bill de Blasio's Housing New York plan promises to address the affordable housing crisis by building 80,000 units and preserving 120,000 units of "affordable housing" over the next 10 years. But the plan is generating considerable resistance from community members, who say that it will usher in more displacement than truly affordable housing.

The plan slates 15 neighborhoods in all five boroughs for rezoning, including East New York in Brooklyn, the Jerome Avenue corridor in the Bronx, the Bay Street corridor in Staten Island, Flushing and Long Island City in Queens, and East Harlem and Washington Heights in Manhattan. Both in these neighborhoods and city-wide, the administration is pushing major changes to zoning rules to let developers construct bigger buildings in exchange for having a percentage of the apartments rent for below market rate.

What are the components of the city's plan?

The plan has two main parts: Mandatory Inclusionary Housing and Zoning for Quality and Affordability.

Mandatory inclusionary housing, sometimes referred to as Mandatory Inclusionary Zoning, would apply to any future upzoning anywhere in the city, whether of a whole neighborhood or just one site. In exchange for more buildable square feet, the developer will be required to set aside a percentage of units as permanently affordable, rent-regulated housing.

The city is proposing three different options for affordability.

Option 1: Twenty five percent of the housing must be affordable to households earning an average of 60 percent of the metropolitan area median income (AMI). Currently, this would be $46,620 for a family of three, so a two-bedroom apartment would cost about $1,150 a month.
Option 2: Thirty percent must be affordable to households earning an average of 80 percent of AMI-$62,150 for a family of three, and $1,550 rent for a two-bedroom.
Option 3: Thirty percent of housing must be affordable to households earning an average of 120 percent AMI-$93,240 for a family of three, with a two-bedroom renting for about $2,330. This option would be available only in "emerging" markets. The city has not yet specified which neighborhoods are "emerging," but it has excluded Manhattan below 96^th Street, which is considered a "strong" market.

In the rezoned neighborhoods, the City Planning Commission and city councilmember will choose which of the three options-or a combination-will apply. For example, if a neighborhood is rezoned with Option 1 along with Option 3, it would be the developer's choice whether to go with Option 1 or Option 3 for a building.

Once these rules are in place, neighborhoods would not be able to require a higher proportion of affordable housing or lower rents. The city could only get developers to do more by giving additional subsidies, and it would not be mandatory that developers use them.

Affordable for whom?

Most of the affordable housing created under these plans will be out of reach for those who need it most: the more than 950,000 city households who earn less than 50 percent of AMI, or about $39,000 for a family of three. Under the Bloomberg administration, the majority of "affordable housing" went to households earning between $80,000 and $130,000. Data shows the city has a surplus of housing for families in this income range.

With the lowest-rent option creating housing for families earning 60 percent of AMI, these apartments will not be accessible to the vast majority of people currently living in the first three neighborhoods slated for rezoning. The median household income in East New York as of 2013 was $31,986, about 41 percent of AMI. In the Jerome Avenue area of the South Bronx, it's just $25,000, less than one-third of AMI, and East Harlem's median was 37 percent of AMI as of 2015.

Option 3: market-rate housing?

It should be questioned why Option 3 belongs in a plan aimed to create affordable housing. Households earning 120 percent of AMI are well above the median for New York City, and it would seem, can afford market-rate housing. A $2,300 two-bedroom is market rate in most of the outer boroughs. In East New York, they're going for significantly less, below $2,000. Why should the city give away extra buildable square feet to developers who are building at or even above market rate?

To make matters worse, the high-income Option 3 is targeted for "emerging markets," code for working-class areas where the real-estate market is heating up. This would leave a back-door escape for all developments in these areas and would result in virtually zero affordable housing.

Secondary displacement and gentrification. Fears that the rezonings will unleash a wave of gentrification and secondary displacement of current tenants are well founded. In the South Bronx, which one developer has rebranded as the "Piano District," residential sales prices more than doubled between 2012 and 2014. As long as laws allowing massive increases on vacant rent-regulated apartments remain on the books, landlords will have a powerful motive to drive out lower-rent tenants in the "emerging markets."

Mayor de Blasio knows this and is beefing up protections for tenants in the rezoned neighborhoods-spending $12.3 million on legal aid for tenants facing eviction and sending out "tenant support specialists" to canvass buildings. This is a step in the right direction, but will not be enough.

Double-dipping of subsidies and 421a. As the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development points out in their white paper "Mandatory Inclusionary Housing: Financial Feasibility and the Current City Proposal," the mayor's plan adds little or no affordability beyond that required by the state's pending 421a law, a 35-year tax break which all the developments would be eligible for automatically. The only significant difference is that the units would be permanently affordable, while 421a only guarantees affordability for 25 years.

No living wage or union labor. There will be no requirements for developers to build with union labor, which would guarantee safe construction sites and living-wage jobs.

What are the alternatives?

The Real Affordability for All Coalition, which Met Council is a part of, is proposing another way to trade increased density and height for truly affordable housing. Called the Real Affordable Communities plan, it proposes an optional density bonus for developers who meet high standards of affordability and job quality. In exchange for increased density, developments will have to be 50 percent affordable for households at or below a neighborhood's median income (a range from 30-60 percent of AMI). Developers will also be required to ensure that a certain percent of work hours for construction be performed by city residents, disadvantaged local residents, and women, and use the building trades unions' apprenticeship program.

ANHD's analysis reveals ways to leverage a larger percentage of affordable apartments and deeper affordability for them. The group says "strong markets areas," most of Manhattan below 96th Street, would be able to support development that were half reserved for people at 60 percent of AMI, or with a smaller percentage reserved for people at 30 percent of AMI.

The zoning decisions being made right now at the local and city-wide level will influence the landscape and character of our city for years to come. Zoning shapes the development of the city. It influences land value, investment and speculation in certain neighborhoods, and ultimately, who can afford to live in them. If we want a city that is affordable to the hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers who are being priced out of their homes, we must be involved in these often complicated discussions, and we must organize to demand that our city resources are used to create truly affordable housing.

This article originally appeared in The Tenant, a publication of New York's Metropolitan Council on Housing.

Photo: Bebeto Matthews/AP

Writing black troops out of Civil War history paved way for Jim Crow

Wed, 18 Nov 2015 16:17:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - "If we don't tell our own story it will not be told," says Dr. Frank Smith, founder and director of the African American Civil War Museum and Memorial here.

Regiments of African American soldiers, called at the time United States Colored Troops (USCT), were key in winning every major victory during the last two years of the Civil War. They captured Charleston, the cradle of secession, and Richmond, the capital of the confederacy. Yet their crucial role has been largely ignored.

According to Smith, writing black troops out of Civil War history helped lay the groundwork for almost 100 years of segregation and Jim Crow.

To this day, only two places in America are devoted exclusively to honoring the USCT: the Museum and the Memorial, which stand across the street from one another. The Memorial is a nine foot high sculpture called The Spirit of Freedom encircled on three sides by the Wall of Honor which shows the names of all who fought with the USCT.

"Without us, nobody would know who these soldiers were," Smith says.

Three out of every four black soldiers in the Civil War had risked their lives to escape from slavery in order to risk their lives as soldiers fighting to end slavery altogether. They knew that the Confederacy had passed a law stating that all blacks captured in uniform would be treated not as prisoners of war, but as slave insurrectionists. The penalty was death.

Moreover, the Union Army barred blacks from becoming officers.

Despite all, close to 179,000 African Americans volunteered for the USCT. Nineteen thousand more were sailors. (Unlike the Army, the Navy was not segregated until Woodrow Wilson became president.)

Eighteen African American soldiers and five sailors won the Medal of Honor.

Banned from the Grand Review

Measures to remove from memory the victories of black regiments began thirteen days after the Civil War ended.

President Andrew Johnson staged a two day Grand Review of the Armies on May 23 and 24, 1865. All the armies of the Union paraded proudly down Washington, DC's Pennsylvania Avenue to the cheers of ecstatic the crowds.

All the armies, that is, except for the regiments of the USCT. They were banned.

"This was a key event in American history," Smith explains. "The whole nation saw no black soldiers, only pristine white troops. The message sent to both the white and black communities helped create the racial divide."

To help counter the damage done long ago, this past May the African American Civil War Museum staged a re-enactment of the Grand Review as part of the sesquicentennial commemoration of the Civil War's end. This time, black troops were front and center.

Black were not only banned from the celebration at the end of the War; they were also banned from the Union Army at the beginning.

"We are ready ... to go."

When the Civil War began, Frederick Douglass urged Lincoln to recruit blacks into the Army. He wrote: "We are ready and would go. ... Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letters, U.S., ... and a musket on his shoulder ... there is no power on earth that can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship."

But Lincoln would only allow blacks to be hired as ditch diggers and such like.

Even so, many African Americans were eager to fight. In 1862, blacks formed Union regiments in Louisiana, Kansas and South Carolina.

"As victims of brutal oppression, blacks had been de-humanized and humiliated," Smith says. "Despite this, they took their lives in their hands and ran through deadly Southern territory to escape slavery and join the Union Army. After escaping, some even went back to their plantations and recruited others to join up."

The official ban against blacks joining up ended almost two years into the War.

It became clear to Union generals that slave owners were forcing slaves to work for the Southern war effort. In response, Congress declared that it had become an "indispensable military necessity" to free enslaved persons. It passed a series of "confiscation" acts which contained the assumption that enslaved blacks were "property" but also that slaves in the South were war materiel and thus legitimate targets of confiscation.

In this way, Congress encouraged enslaved people in the South to join the Union Army. The regiments that had been formed previously became "official" and new fighting units were organized.

The last "confiscation" measure was an executive order, the Emancipation Proclamation. The War Department publicly authorized the recruiting of African Americans by establishing the Bureau of Colored Troops.

The tradition of fighting for freedom

Today, black families can learn whether or not their ancestors fought in the Union Army by using a computerized registry at the African American Civil War Museum.

One soldier in the registry, Caesar Cohen, is Michelle Obama's great-great-grandfather.

If they want to do so, families can express their pride by making audio recordings through a program run jointly by the museum and the National Park Service.

Along with the registry, the museum has many ways to bring history alive. It showcases re-enactors and has displays of photographs, documents, and artifacts. The museum also sponsors lectures, seminars and special programs for students from pre-K to the 12th grade.

Smith says he got the idea for the museum and memorial when he was an organizer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Mississippi. Local leaders who were risking their lives fighting to exercise their right to vote told him they were inspired by the fact that their grandfathers had been soldiers in the Civil War.

Several of these leaders had themselves been soldiers in World War II and had returned home determined to bring to Mississippi the freedom they had fought for in Europe.

Smith says that these leaders were following a tradition begun in the Civil War:

"Soldiers in USCT regiments had gone through the crucible of war," Smith says. "They had mastered the weapons and skills they needed to defend their new-found freedom."

For more information about the African American Civil War Museum and Memorial, go to www.afroamcivilwar.org.

Photo: Larry Rubin/PW

Third way Democrats preparing to challenge the left for factional control

Wed, 18 Nov 2015 16:04:00 +0000

In South Carolina - the heart of the old Confederacy - Hillary Clinton declared a couple of weeks ago that America has reached a point where "both our democracy and our economy are not working for the majority." Channeling FDR, she even mentioned the possible need for a "new New Deal."

Socialist candidate Bernie Sanders, of course, regularly denounces an economy that he says is rigged to benefit the wealthiest. He calls for a 'political revolution' and tells Republicans who try to rollback voting rights and derail democracy that they are "cowards."

And let's not forget Martin O'Malley who has been talking up the immorality of the for-profit prison system and the enduring legacy of racism in the United States.

Each of these three candidates seems eager to prove they will be the toughest on Wall Street. They all strive to explain that theirs is the best plan for raising wages and curbing corporate power. On the whole, the race for the Democratic nomination has become a contest of who can out-progressive the other two.

If you don't keep in mind the recent history of the Democratic Party, it can be easy to overlook how new such a situation really is. All one has to do is think back to the 1990s and Bill Clinton's declaration that the 'era of big government' was over and it suddenly starts becoming clear that there is a different Democratic Party on display lately.

The days when promising cuts to welfare and brandishing centrist credentials were the path to a Democratic victory seem to be long gone. The Obama campaigns of 2008 and 2012 of course have a lot to do with that. It is a sign of the times.

And although the attacks in Paris put terrorism and national security back at the top of the discussion when they met in a debate in Iowa this past week, all three of the 2016 Democratic candidates have continued to concentrate much of their fire on America's growing inequality problem and the need to regulate finance.

Not everyone in the Democratic Party, however, is happy about this leftward shift.

Backlash against the Left

Earlier this month, on the morning right after Clinton, Sanders, and O'Malley wrapped up their second debate, a very different type of Democratic meeting convened in New York. In a closed-door strategy conference, members of the conservative faction of the Democratic Party met at Columbia University to map out their agenda for 2016.

The main item up for discussion: how to block the move toward populist economics and turn the national discussion away from inequality.

The meeting was convened by Will Marshall and the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI), which was the think-tank of policy wizards who engineered the Democratic Party's move to the center in the 1990s under the banner of the 'third way'.

Though their star has faded in recent years, the New Democrats (as the centrists have been calling themselves for the last quarter century) are determined to once again take control of the party and its message. They are not holding back in their attacks against the 99 percent movements that are reshaping the Democratic Party.

In a recent column, Marshall wrote that "another rousing round of populism, business-bashing and exhortations by Senator Bernie Sanders to Americans to stop worrying and learn to love democratic socialism" only spells trouble for the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton when she eventually captures the nomination.

Bill Clinton's former guru, Al From of the now-defunct Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), joined in and warned Democrats to shy away from talking too much about inequality. He says it just revs up the base to redistribute golden eggs from a "dead goose."

Urging the center-left to worry more about growing the pie rather than how it is sliced, the third way New Democrats promote a pro-growth message, but they underplay the extent to which wealth inequality in America has soared over the last three decades. By shifting attention away from the systemic failures exposed by the Great Recession, their hope is that the anti-austerity and social justice movements will be derailed and lose steam.

With the decline of the New Democrats' influence over the past several years, a number of people on the left side of the political spectrum have rushed to declare victory in the factional battle. Adam Green of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee recently claimed that, "The battle for the soul of the Democratic Party is coming to an end."

The celebrations were commencing as far back as 2011, when From's DLC closed its doors after 25 years. At the time, the group Progressive Congress said that the DLC's demise was proof that progressives were winning the battle for the party.

Many other left-liberal writers and organizations toasted the DLC's demise and are basking in the glow of their own influence in the Democratic Party lately. But their celebrations may be premature.

It is still too early to assume the New Democrats are dead and ready for burial. Such overestimations of the left's strength could prove problematic once primary season is over and the realities of a general election campaign start changing the political terrain.

Enduring strength of the third way

This is not to belittle what has been achieved so far, of course. It is great to celebrate the fact that Clinton, Sanders, and O'Malley are all talking from the progressive playbook.

The current state of the debate is certainly symbolic of how influential a number of popular movements - from Occupy to the Fight for $15 to Black Lives Matter - have become.

Developing a successful strategic outlook that will carry labor and the left beyond the primaries, however, requires a proper comprehension of the current balance of forces in the Democratic Party. This battle between the centrist and left-liberal factions of the party has been going on for thirty years, and it would be shortsighted to think that the third way Wall Street Democrats are just going to slink off in defeat.

Although the DLC is gone and PPI is smaller than it was in the past, there remain a number of other major New Democrat players on the scene. The New Democrat Coalition of centrist members in Congress still commands the allegiance of some fifty House members, for instance.

And the think-tank Third Way (which takes its name from their ideology) is perhaps even more embedded in big finance and Wall Street money than some of the older groups. It was started with seed capital from Monster.com billionaire Andrew McKelvey in 2005.

With a highly active policy development staff, Third Way has succeeded the DLC as the intellectual center for Democratic moderates. The agenda it has put forward, which New Democrats are rallying around, forcefully rejects any focus on inequality.

According to Third Way, any predilection that Democrats have for populist measures or taking on the top 1% should be dampened and exchanged for upbeat messages of success. The advice is to not talk about potential grievances or injustices, but rather only emphasize classless concepts like opportunity, responsibility, and community.

Adapt to the new economy - don't try to challenge it. Globalization and free trade can't be altered or controlled. That is the core of the third way message. It is an attempt to put a more compassionate face on neoliberal ideology.

The left would be making a serious mistake to underestimate the enduring influence of this outlook among the Democratic establishment. Inside the Obama Administration, the number of third way adherents in top positions continued to grow even while many progressives were already celebrating the supposed end of the third way.

DLCer Rahm Emanuel and Third Way board member Bill Daley both served as President Obama's chief of staff. Bruce Reed, former head of the DLC, filled the same role for Vice President Biden. Janet Napolitano, Bill Richardson, Ken Salazar, Tom Vilsack, and Kathleen Sebelius were all alumni of the DLC who filled important positions in Obama's cabinet.

Simply noting the affiliation of such figures and their appointment by the White House is not to paint them all as enemies of progress, of course, but rather to illustrate the enduring strength of the third way faction.

Democratic Party as an arena of struggle

The moderate message is one that could become quite hard for the Hillary Clinton campaign to resist should she become the eventual nominee. There will certainly be a temptation in the general election to tilt away from the emphasis on economic justice that has been necessary when facing liberal Democratic primary voters and caucus-goers.

Many progressives and left activists have long questioned the nature of Clinton's relation to their movement, and rightfully so. She has solid credentials as a New Democrat and was a key promoter of the third way internationally along with Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Al From, and Will Marshall during the 1990s.

But that is not the end of the story.

To be a nationally-viable candidate for the Democratic Party, a certain amount of ideological and political flexibility is needed. Most Democrats - and the Clintons foremost among them - are susceptible to the blowing of the political winds.

That is why the battle for the soul of the electoral center-left has to look beyond the primaries.

If the Sanders-Clinton contest has shown us anything, it is that although the main battle is against the Republicans and the ultra-right, the Democratic Party itself is also an arena of struggle.

Many think of Sanders as the candidate of the progressive, left-liberal wing of the party. He has certainly injected a number of issues and ideas into the debate that probably would not otherwise have been a part of the discussion. It does not correlate, however, that Hillary Clinton is therefore automatically the candidate of big business Democrats.

Does she have an affinity for the third way faction? Judging by history, certainly so. But is she a hard-core ideologue? Certainly not.

The main takeaway from the increasingly contentious Democratic factional battle, then, is that it may be necessary to think of the Clinton candidacy as the next arena of struggle. The third way Democrats clearly do. Their main concern in this race is how they can shape the message and direction of the Clinton campaign. It is perhaps time for the left to think in such terms as well.

If Bernie Sanders isn't the nominee, then socialists and progressives need a plan for what to do next. Surrendering to the narrative that Hillary is simply another Wall Street Democrat will do nothing but leave us all flat-footed when it comes time to go up against the GOP.

Photo: Charlie Neibergall/AP

Protests continue in Minneapolis after fatal shooting of Jamar Clark

Wed, 18 Nov 2015 15:30:00 +0000

Jamar Clark was fatally shot by an officer of the Minneapolis police department on Sun., Nov. 15. According to reports the incident began early Sunday morning when police were called to James and Plymouth avenues in over a domestic dispute involving Clark and his girlfriend.

Police say Clark was causing interference as EMTs tried to get his girlfriend into an ambulance. A struggle broke out, during which, according to police, Clark was shot by an officer.

Clark was then taken to Hennepin County Medical Center, where he died late Monday night after having been on life support.

Reported witness' accounts claim that Clark was handcuffed and on the ground before he was shot by the unidentified police officer. As reported by the Star Tribune, Nekelia Sharp, a resident who lives across the street from the scene of the shooting, said an ambulance was called after Clark and his girlfriend got into an argument.

Sharp stated that Clark was handcuffed and then shot after trying to speak to his girlfriend while she was being put into the ambulance. In a video, posted on Facebook by a witness at the scene, one woman can be heard repeatedly shouting, "Y'all just killed that man!"

Police have gone on record saying that Clark was not handcuffed when he was shot. According to a police scanner audio of the incident, posted on the Minneapolis Police Clips Facebook page, an officer is heard requesting all available squad cars, saying, "We've got a big crowd; we need a lot of cops."

The Minneapolis NAACP released a statement immediately following the shooting, calling for an investigation into the incident, and for supporters to mobilize for justice. The statement read: "Jamar Clark was murdered, execution style, by the Minneapolis police department... Upon arriving at the scene, the police placed the victim in handcuffs and slammed him to the ground."

The NAACP press release quotes Teto Wilson, a North Side community resident, as saying, "The young man was just laying there; he was not resisting arrest. Two officers were surrounding the victim on the ground, an officer maneuvered his body around to shield Jamar's body, and I heard the shot go off."

Jason Sole, an associate professor at Metropolitan State University and a member of the local NAACP chapter, was quoted in the Star Tribune as explaining, "We've been saying for a long time that Minneapolis was one bullet away from Ferguson. Well, that bullet was fired last night."

A day after the shooting Black Lives Matter protestors helped to organize, along with the local chapter of the NAACP, a shut down of the Minneapolis interstate highway. A spokeswoman for the Minnesota State police, Lt. Tiffany Schweigart, reported that 200 to 300 people took part in the protest, which closed traffic on Interstate 94 for about three hours on Monday night. Fifty-one people were arrested at the demonstration. As reported by CNN, when police attempted to redirect traffic protesters formed a human chain to block the detour.

Nekima Levy-Pounds, president of the Minneapolis NAACP, stated, "The Minneapolis NAACP stands in solidarity with the North Side Community residents in demanding accountability for the egregious conduct of Minneapolis Police officers, when they shot and killed Jamar Clark." Levy-Pounds stated that the NAACP seeks an independent investigation into the shooting, demands that the officers involved be fired and prosecuted, and that there be a public apology from city leaders for "the police abuse that occurred and how residents were treated following the shooting."

Black Lives Matter in Minneapolis has issued five major demands. They want footage from the incident released to the public, an independent investigation (not by another police agency), media coverage of the eye-witness testimony and not just the police point of view, full community oversight with full disciplinary power, and for officers to live in the communities they serve.

Mica Grimm, an organizer with Black Lives Matter Minneapolis, explained to the Star Tribune that, "We're here because police officers have gotten away with murder for so long and we're tired of it." She explained that Black Lives Matter Minneapolis, along with supporters, planned on protesting outside the Fourth Precinct station for as long as it took until justice was served.

Minneapolis Police Chief Janee Harteau said that the two officers involved in the shooting have been placed on paid leave. The shooting is now being investigated by the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), which is part of the state Department of Public Safety. Mayor Betsy Hodges urged anyone who witnessed or has a cellphone video of the shooting to step forward. Witnesses are urged to call the BCA at 651-793-7000.

Despite the investigation protestors seeking justice continue to mobilize in Minneapolis. James Hill, Jamar Clark's father, said, "My son wasn't a bad kid. ... The police don't care, the mayor don't care, the police [chief] don't care, because they're going to cover up for each other. My son's got to get a stand somewhere, and I'm here to give him a stand."

Photo: Kandace Montgomery, a Black Lives Matter organizer outside of the the Fourth precinct during a press conference on Monday about the shooting. | Matt Gillmer/AP