The Houston Chapter of Friends of Brad Will, a network of activists demanding accountability for the murder of our friend, U.S. journalist Brad Will, is calling for your important human rights assistance in the case of the man unjustly accused of the crime. Meanwhile, the off-duty police who were shown on video to be Brad's true assassins are still on the job.

Juan Manuel was released from the Ixcotel prison on the 18th of February after spending 16 months unjustly accused of murdering the North American journalist, Bradley Roland Will on Oct. 27th 2006. For quite some time, Juan Manuel and his family have received threats and intimidation. While in prison he was often threatened and told, “Remember, you have a wife and three kids”. The threats and intimidations continue today which make it important to take action in order to live in peace and freedom. This is why we are demanding the physical and psychological protection of Juan Manuel Martínez Moreno and his wife, children, brothers, sisters, and parents.

Please contact: sample email, info and full contact info in English, en español

Law enforcement's latest move at the Minnesota State Capitol is to try and slide SF3163 / HF3651 through the noise. Quietly introduced as "law enforcement data from other states classification" just days ago by Sen. Mee Moua (DFL-St. Paul) and Rep. John Lesch (DFL-St.Paul Attys Office), the short bill would allow state law enforcement authorities to release virtually anything without any oversight to other states, and compartmentalize what they receive from other states under their external data classifications!

This is another "tip of the iceberg" for the federal fusion center agenda, along with extending new social control/surveillance measures like nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting platforms, which Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek has been hawking. [Part II: A ton of SAR-related docs]

On Friday, March 12, members of the Tarek Mehanna Support Committee attempted for the second time to meet with a representative of the Massachusetts US Attorney's office. Again we were told to fill out a complaint form--there was no one at the office who could speak to us. We asked whether it was the explicit policy of the new US Attorney not to meet with concerned members of the public. The "Administrative Specialist" insisted that this was not the policy of the office, but couldn't explain why our calls, faxes and our formal complaint remained unanswered.

Friday at Minneapolis City Hall, Tim Dolan was reappointed as Chief of the Minneapolis Police Department by an 8-5 vote over widespread community opposition. Dolan’s original appointment in 2006 was approved 12-1, and since then his department has overseen the repression of dissent before and after the 2008 RNC; multiple police killings of people of color including Fong Lee; several expensive settlements resulting from false arrests, taser use, and police brutality; the Metro Gang Strike Force scandal; and a culture of disrespect for the law as it applies to police and for the human rights of Minneapolis residents.

The reappointment has also stirred controversy over the last month amongst the Civilian Review Authority (CRA), a somewhat powerless but sometimes pesky body whose chair, Don Bellfield, has stifled criticism of the MPD and cancelled a statute-mandated meeting after a recent public hearing on Dolan. Below: Roundup of the Vote Friday and Related Coverage

CRA Report Critical of Dolan: shows discipline in only 12% of sustained complaints | Previous Coverage: Video: CUAPB Press Conference Regarding Dolan | Court Orders CRA Chair to Follow Law | Dolan’s Reappointment, the CRA, and the Out of Control MPD | TC Daily Planet: Reappointment Sparks Controversy at CRA
 

I was driven smack in the middle of the snow ball fight, on 14 street and U. People of all walks of life and ages were having a ball, divided ad-hoc across U street, throwing snow balls at each other and laughing. later, I got to the internet and was shocked at the news that a cop drew out his gun. In the police investigation report of this incident, Kris Bowman with the Fraternal Order of Police stated: "they were anarchists not citizens at the scene that had clubs that had shields and they threatened the detective and he drew his weapon as a result. He did not wave his gun at anyone."

[Tuesday] morning, over a dozen supporters from Minneapolis and the Quad Cities joined Scott DeMuth, indicted for conspiracy under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA), in the Federal Courthouse in Davenport for his arraignment for the new indictment that was issued last week. There was also a hearing on numerous discovery-related motions for his upcoming trial. Scott’s attorney, Michael Deutsch, argued that the prosecution has failed to produce the discovery that the defense is entitled to under the rules. Judge Shields took the arguments under advisement and is expected to issue a ruling within the next few days.

Related: Feldman moved to Muscatine County ... | ... And then to Dubuque County, IA | Updates from the Scott/Carrie Support Committee | Events: Political Repression and State Violence with Dhoruba Bin Wahad | Star Tribune: Stuck Three Months in Iowa Jail For Refusing To Testify

A few thoughts on last week’s G20 appeal hearings

Last week, I was in Pittsburgh again to deal with my appeal on my summary offense conviction of “disorderly conduct”. At this time, there were also a few other appeal hearings from other G20 arrestees for similar offenses. So on March 1st, I went into a hearing of four other G20 Arrestees to get an idea of how the summary appeal process works in Pennsylvania. There were three students and one non-student – all of whom were either arrested on the evening of September 25th near the University of Pittsburgh or the day earlier at Lawrenceville during the un-permitted march.

While none of these appeals had anything with the “failure to disperse” charge, the testimony that the Commonwealth gave focused on the Long-Range Acoustic Device (aka the sound cannon/LRAD), the location of LRADs, alleged dispersal orders, and generally alleged “anti-police” rally that evening. Sgt. O’Neil from the Pittsburgh PD stated that their intelligence indicated that a “anti-police rally” was taking place in Schenley Plaza and that they deployed the LRAD to disperse people from this area.
 

On Monday afternoon, Deborah Thomas, who lives at 906 W. Vine St., received a phone call from the City of Champaign. The woman on the phone identified herself as “Susan” from the City Attorney’s office. They wanted to visit her house the following day on March 2 at 3:30 p.m. with Police Chief R.T. Finney. It was at Deborah’s home that Kiwane Carrington was fatally shot after Chief Finney and officer Daniel Norbits arrived there on October 9, 2009. Running between classes at Parkland, Deborah did not get the chance to ask why they wanted to visit, but told them they could come by.

Soon after, Deborah called me to say that Finney would be visiting and asked for someone else to be there. I called Melodye Rosales and the two of us went to her home shortly before 3:30 p.m.

Chief Finney and the two attorneys came in an unmarked black SUV with tinted windows. They drove up and down Vine St. twice before parking at the Icehouse bar around the corner. They walked around a fence and behind a house to get to 906 W. Vine St.

CHICAGO – Federal Judge Wayne R. Andersen issued an historic ruling today allowing a suit charging former Defense Secretary with authorizing torture. Rumsfeld asked the court to dismiss the case because he is a high-placed governmental official and argued that he was immune from suit even for allegations of torture. Mr. Rumsfeld also argued that due to his position, the Constitution permitted him to order interrogation techniques that are widely considered by human rights experts to be torture. The Court rejected both of Mr. Rumsfeld's arguments and held that high-placed placed cabinet officials can be held personally liable if they authorize the use of torture. While many previous civil suit attempts to prosecute Bush-era cabinet officials for authorizing torture have failed, the suit brought by Chicago-based Loevy and Loevy Attorneys at Law, Donald Vance and Nathan Ertel v. Donald Rumsfeld, United States of America and Unidentified Agents, will now proceed to discovery and a trial. More

Five years after the Animal Liberation Front raids the University of Iowa, the government launches a prosecution that is a fraud on its face | From Voice of the Voiceless

In late-2004, morning workers arrived at the Spence Laboratories to find $450,000 in damage to equipment and 401 animals missing. Graffiti left at the scene read "Science Not Sadism" and "Free The Animals". In a long communique, the Animal Liberation Front (A.L.F.) took credit.

Just before the 5-year statute of limitations was to expire (most federal crimes have an SoL of 5 years), two Minneapolis activists were subpoenaed to testify to a grand jury in Davenport, IA. It soon became clear the grand jury was investigating the University of Iowa A.L.F. raid. Both were jailed after refusing to testify. Soon after, one of the two - Scott DeMuth - was indicted for Animal Enterprise Terrorism.

Related: Jail & Mail Update on Carrie Feldman, Imprisoned Grand Jury Resister

"We don't want a Guantanamo in the Nation's Capital" said Johnny Barnes, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of the National Capital Area, before a packed audience during yesterday's community dialogue at the University of the District of Columbia on the "Secure Communities" program. The controversial program, recently implemented by the Metropolitan Police Department without community consultation, runs the fingerprints of everyone arrested in the District of Columbia through the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) database.

As movements for Abolition and Civil Rights worked to end the institutions of slavery, lynching and legalized segregation, new and more indirect mechanisms have emerged for perpetuating systemic racism and its economic underpinnings...The prison industrial complex is the current manifestation of the legal legacy of the racialized transformations of plantations into prisons, of Slave Codes into Black Codes, of lynching into state-sponsored executions.

National Guard intelligence analysts fuse to metro police departments; Lobby for warrantless wiretaps in St. Paul

A source revealed a new move in the profitable world of government tracking goodiez: Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek lost out on nearly half a million dollars to buy a very secret advanced cell phone tracking kit called "KingFish" manufactured by Harris Corporation, when the Hennepin County Board deemed it expensive and possibly unconstitutional; he doesn't want to talk about it, the Star Tribune reported recently. However, he is apparently now going to get some kind of secret grant from the Feds to get KingFish anyway, probably paid via DHS or DOJ grant programs (much as Edina got a silly $182K police battletank). Will the Hennepin County Board be able to obtain the truth at today's meeting?

Also a couple proposals including the "Kelsey Smith" bill (HF2639/SF2470) are going through the Legislature to let the police instantaneously locate cell phones without warrants, under the excuse of abduction emergencies, although this bill's language is frighteningly unrestricted... READ MORE

Is Reform Possible in the New Orleans Police Department?

On February 4, 2010, Councilmember Mendelson held a hearing on Bill 18—63, the Residential Tranquility Act of 2009, aka the "Mask Prohibition Act of 2009" (pdf), making it illegal to wear a mask at a protest, due to frequent animal rights protesters demonstrating at individual DC resident's homes. Councilperson Cheh is a sponsor of this bill.

Read More | Voices of Washington, Masked Choral Group Video | Wearing a Mask Is Not Illegal (pdf)