Racist speech leads to clashes outside Wallingford library

State police in riot gear pepper spray protesters
at a speech by white supremacist Matt Hale.

By Joe Miksch and Christa Lee Rock

Wallingford, Conneticut, Mar. 11-- Hundreds of furious protesters clashed with police and followers of white supremacist Matt Hale Saturday at his controversial appearance at Wallingford library.

The day was marked by vicious hate speech and sporadic violence that left one anti-Hale protester bleeding from the lip by a blow from a Plexiglas police shield.

One protester was arrested inside the library, while another was treated for respiratory problems after police pepper sprayed her during a tension-filled standoff.

Police used force after the protesters, who came from as far away as Boston and New York, tried to rush into the library.

“A cop turned his shield and jammed me in the face,” said Tim Campbell as he wiped the blood from his upper lip following the chaos after Hale’s speech.

Hale is leader of the World Church of the Creator, an East Peoria, Illinois-based organization whose Web site proclaims it “the fastest growing White racist and anti-Semitic organization in the world.” He appeared in Wallingford, along with about 60 supporters, at the invitation of a group calling itself Connecticut Matt Hale supporters.

Protesters outnumbered Hale’s supporters by a six-to-one ratio. A female protester, a student at Southern Connecticut State University, was treated by paramedics after an asthma attack, prompted by breathing pepper spray. Volunteer emergency medical technicians experienced in aiding protesters helped others with eyewash and other medical aid.

Police sprayed at least 20 other protesters after Hale’s speech, when the majority of the violence — mostly a confrontation between protesters and police — occurred. The crowd dispersed around 5:30 pm, more than 90 minutes after Hale’s speech ended and he and his supporters had left.

The violence built slowly. Around noon, four Hale supporters were stationed in front of the library waiting for the rear doors to open as planned at 1:30 for Hale’s scheduled appearance at 2pm.

“Most of them (minorities) don’t work or pay taxes, but when they stand up for what they believe in it’s called racial pride and when we do it it’s called racism,” said Mark Hartney, a landscaper who drove from New Haven to see Hale speak. “They should do like we do if they want to be treated equal.” At about 1:30 Hale arrived, and few protesters were there to greet him as he was quickly whisked into the library by several Wallingford police wearing full riot gear.

Shortly thereafter, a phalanx of mostly young protesters marched down the driveway to the library’s rear parking lot. Many wore bandanas tied around their faces, an apparent sign they were expecting a confrontation with pepper spray wielding police.

“A lot of the people came dressed for a battle,” said Mayor William W. Dickinson.

As the protesters walked, they chanted, “Racist, sexist, anti-gay. Matt Hale go away.” For a short time, Hale’s supporters stood and watched.

Then the two sides met, pressed face-to-face, shouting and pointing fingers at one another. Several Hale supporters flashed stiff-armed Nazi salutes and the protesters responded with peace signs. A hat torn from a Hale supporter’s head was set on fire by a protester and thrown back toward the pro-Hale side of the crush of people. Protesters periodically lobbed snowballs at police and Hale supporters.

As verbal salvos were fired and sporadic physical scuffles broke out, more than 10 police officers wearing helmets and body armor stood between the crowd and the library’s rear entrance, trying to control entry to the library’s community room.

Protesters, the last to be admitted, tried to circumvent the police line of about 25 police officers and one dog by jumping a railing and rushing toward the door. They were repelled by pepper spray and police shields.

Inside, as Hale waited to speak, the Rev. George Turner of First Calvary Baptist Church in New Haven said “I think that in the year 2001, to find out that people still think like this is sickening.”

Inside the library, the Rev. Boise Kimber of First Calvary Baptist led his group and several younger protesters in chants of “go home,” disrupting Hale’s speech. Hale was still able to preach his opinion that the white race is superior to blacks and Jews.

One man was arrested during the speech. Police charged Andrew Rothman, 20, of Montclair, NJ, with disorderly conduct. He was released Saturday on $500 bail.

After Hale concluded his talk, Wallingford police escorted him out — but about 250 protestors monitoring the library issued a rallying cry and raced down to the library’s back entrance to greet Hale supporters as they departed. Protesters formed a line to thwart Hale’s departure.

When Hale’s car nudged its way through, protesters turned their anger on his supporters, forming a small cluster in the back lot. What resulted was a small rumble of about 20 protesters and their Hale opponents.

State police quickly formed lines between the two as stunned protesters called out, “This is what Democracy looks like.”

Under police protection, Hale sympathizers began to disperse, and protesters turned their wrath on the state police, about 60 of whom were called to the scene, officials said. Police used pepper spray to force protesters to leave the lot.

Although Wallingford had to increase its Saturday afternoon staff from six to 47 — in addition to the state police support — Lt. Thomas J. Curran called the event “a huge success” with “no injuries” and only one arrest.

“Certainly more were in attendance than we thought, but we were in preparations all week,” Curran said. “There was no problem controlling the crowd, and no contact with the crowd.”

Mumia Abu-Jamal fires counsel

New York, New York, Mar. 11-- In a move to send shock waves throughout progressive circles, Death Row journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal has filed a petition in the US District Court for Pennsylvania’s Eastern District to remove his attorneys, Leonard Weinglass and Dan Williams as counsels for his case.

At issue, says Jamal, is the fact that Attorney Dan Williams has written a book about this internationally recognized case without his permission or review. Charging this is a “conflict of interest” Abu-Jamal has petitioned the court to grant him Pro Se status -- to allow him to serve as his own attorney.

In papers sent to the US District Court last Friday, Abu-Jamal, who has been on Pennsylvania’s death row since 1982, asked the Court to grant his motions for counsel withdrawal and pro se appointment, and for an extension of “sufficient time to acquire and hire counsel.”

The papers further state that “on Saturday, February 24th, 2001, via Federal Express, the Petitioner (Jamal) learned definitively that Mr. Williams was in the late processes of publishing a book on the case -- purported to be “an inside account.”

Supporting his argument, Abu-Jamal cites “rule 1.8d of the rules of Professional Conduct” which, in part, speaks about “prohibited transactions” among which, the papers state, is a “prohibition against making or negotiating a literary agreement based substantially on information acquired by way of a lawyers’ representation.”

In 1982, Mumia Abu-Jamal was convicted in shooting death of a Philadelphia police officer after a trial that by many standards was rife with prosecutorial misconduct. During that trial, Abu-Jamal was denied the right to self-representation and was, instead, given a court appointed lawyer, who, by his own admission, was unprepared and unable to handle such a complicated case. In addition, during his 1995 Post Conviction Relief Appeal hearing, witnesses came forward testifying they were coerced and intimidated to alter their testimony. At present, Abu-Jamal has a Petition for habeas corpus before Federal District Court Judge William Yohn -- which, if approved, could grant him a new trial.

Reached late this afternoon, Attorney Leonard Weinglass told WBAI News he had no comment except to say, “the important thing is that Mumia must be free and this injustice must be corrected.”

“I remain available,” said Weinglass. “to do whatever I can.”

In his supporting brief, Abu-Jamal argued “it is a long-standing principle of law that where a conflict of interest exists between a client and counsel, the right to effective assistance of counsel is seriously impaired.”

In the meantime, as his supporters await his official statement, Mumia Abu-Jamal awaits word from the US District Court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Source: WBAI News

Bush appoints counter-insurgency experts

On March 6 US President George W. Bush officially nominated retired career diplomat John Negroponte to be the next US ambassador to the United Nations (UN). Although the post will no longer carry cabinet rank, as it did under President Bill Clinton, Bush said that Negroponte, who has served as ambassador to Honduras, Mexico and the Philippines, will be a “key member” of the administration’s foreign policy team. The appointment will have to be confirmed by the Senate.

Human rights activists strongly oppose the appointment, which was first reported in mid-February. Negroponte was ambassador to Honduras from 1981 to 1985 while the US was using the country as a base for rightwing Contra rebels seeking to overthrow the leftist Nicaraguan government of the time. During Negroponte’s tenure, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) trained and equipped a unit of the Honduran army, Battalion 316, which kidnapped, tortured and executed hundreds of suspected subversives, according to a four-part series the Baltimore Sun published in 1995. The Sun writes that its investigation “found that the CIA and the US embassy knew of numerous abuses yet continued to support Battalion 316, collaborate with its leaders and keep the full truth from getting into the embassy’s annual human rights report to Washington.”

“Ambassador Negroponte knew all about the human rights violations, and he did nothing to stop them,” Honduran human rights commissioner Leo Valladares told the Sun.

Bush is reportedly planning another controversial appointment: Cuban-American Otto Reich is expected to replace Peter Romero as assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere. During the mid-1980s Reich headed the US government’s Office of Public Diplomacy, which carried out “prohibited, covert propaganda activities” on behalf of the Contras, according to a US comptroller general’s report in 1987. The activities included ghostwriting under false pretenses op-ed pieces for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post to support the US-backed war against Nicaragua.

Reich left the office in 1986, serving as ambassador to Venezuela until 1989. For the last six years, Reich has been a lobbyist, making more than $600,000 from the Bacardi-Martini liquor company. He had a role in the writing of the 1996 Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act (“Helms-Burton”), which tightens the US trade embargo against Cuba in ways that could help Bacardi sue foreign competitors that do business in Cuba.

The first head of Battalion 316, retired Gen. Luis Alonso Discua Elvir, returned to Honduras on March 4. Discua left the US on February 28 when the US government let his diplomatic visa expire. Discua was officially serving as alternate Honduran representative to the UN, but the US cancelled the visa on the grounds that he wasn’t living in New York, where the UN’s headquarters are located. Discua, who may face illegal enrichment charges in Honduras, told reporters on March 6 that Battalion 316, which he headed from January 25 to March 30 in 1983, was not involved in human rights violations but was formed to participate in a planned invasion of Nicaragua.

Two other Honduran former armed forces chiefs, who preceded Discua in the post, are also under investigation for corruption: generals Arnulfo Cantarero López and Humberto Regalado Hernández.

Source: Weekly News Update on the Americas: wnu@igc.org

Bush’s nomination of energy industry lobbyist draws fire

By M.E. Sprengelmeyer

Washington, DC, Mar. 11— President Bush has angered environmentalists by nominating a prominent coal and energy industry lobbyist to be Interior Secretary Gale Norton’s deputy.

Bush announced that he plans to nominate J. Steven Griles, a principal in the lobbying firm National Environmental Strategies, as deputy interior secretary.

During the Reagan administration, Griles served as Assistant Secretary for Lands and Minerals Management, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Land and Water, and Deputy Director of the Office of Surface Mining.

In recent years, Griles has worked in the private sector, lobbying for a host of industry causes, including the National Mining Association and Occidental Petroleum, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which compiles public data on lobbyists.

Some of his other clients include: the Coalbed Methane Ad Hoc Committee, Aluminum Association, Edison Electric Institute, Energy Corp. of America, Horsehead Resource Development Corp., Integrated Waste Services Association, Pennsylvania Power & Light, Reilly Industries and Tempico.

“This is not a conservation-oriented selection,” said David Alberswerth, who handles land-management issues for The Wilderness Society.

“They’ve obviously made the decision that they want a person who will aggressively support the oil, gas and coal industries on public lands,” Alberswerth said. “It would certainly make those industries delighted.”

Like Norton, a former Colorado attorney general, Griles could face a confirmation battle as environmentalists question his ties to industries.

That doesn’t faze the 53-year-old Virginia resident, who already is repeating Norton’s call for balance in managing national resources.

“We can and we must protect our environment,” he said. “We can have mineral extractions in the appropriate place at the appropriate time. But first and foremost, we have to do it in a wise manner and be conscious of the environmental issues.

“The one thing we want to do is work in a manner that all the stakeholders ... have a fair hearing and their positions are well-known,” Griles said. “We can do this in a bipartisan, environmentally sound manner.” Environmentalists aren’t so optimistic.

“It seems the Department of Interior is shaping up as an agent of resource exploitation instead of resource protection,” said Lisa Wade Raasch, spokeswoman for the League of Conservation Voters. “These industries contributed significantly to Bush’s election. It seems like now they’re getting a return on their investment.”

Source: Denver Rocky Mt. News

Industry “hired gun” up for key post

Washington, DC, Mar. 12-- The man nominated to be the Bush administration’s regulatory gatekeeper is a prominent, industry-backed academic who is hostile to basic health, safety and environmental standards, according to the watchdog organization Public Citizen.

The appointment of John Graham to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) would give industry a back door to the White House and enable it to step up its campaign to dismantle basic consumer protections under the pretense of applying “sound science,” according to a report by Public Citizen.

The report details how the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis, which Graham runs, has been funded by industry groups that fight enforcement of health, safety and environmental safeguards. The report also outlines the regulatory rollback crusade Graham has embarked on in recent years to dismantle these standards. Graham, whose work is heavily funded by chemical companies and industrial interests, has been tapped to head the OIRA within the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB). His appointment is subject to congressional confirmation.

The OMB is expected to play as critical a regulatory role in the Bush II administration as it did during the Reagan and Bush I administrations. During the Reagan-Bush I years, political appointees within OMB were given broad discretion to review and block new standards created by federal agencies, often at the direct request of chemical companies, polluters and manufacturers.

“The president has nominated someone intent on eradicating basic government safeguards to head the very office charged with overseeing them,” Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook said. “The public may never have heard of John Graham, but he could dramatically affect the quality of the air they breathe, the wholesomeness of the food they eat and the safety of the cars they drive. This is an obscure but powerful office. [The Senate’s confirmation of Mr. Graham] would have profound and troubling implications. Rather than being a fair-minded assessor, Graham would continue to conspire with the chemical polluters, the tobacco industry, automakers, the oil and gas industries and others to stop the issuance of safety protections. The Senate must delve into the many conflicts he would bring to the job and reject this nomination,” added Claybrook.

A primary function of OIRA is to review regulatory analyses and calculations produced by federal agencies. It can use them to slow or stall new rules unfavorable to corporate interests. Virtually all significant new rules must be reviewed by this office. These include agency actions on industrial chemicals, fuel economy standards, air and water pollution levels, and virtually every other issue that is critical to human and environmental health.

Graham has devoted years to discrediting government regulators and shooting down safety standards using pseudo-science, Public Citizen’s report says.

“A person with such disdain for public priorities should not be given a last-ditch veto over the will of the public,” Claybrook said. “Installing an industry-funded flack in such a crucial position would harm the public for generations.”

Source: Common Dreams: www.commondreams.org

US government sued over failure to disclose trade documents

By Danielle Knight

Washington, Mar. 7 (IPS)— As concerns increase over a proposed trade agreement for the Americas, an environmental law organization here has filed suit against the US government to force it to disclose recent trade proposals concerning the accord that would reduce trade barriers throughout the hemisphere.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in US District Court, seeks to push the US Trade Representative (USTR)to disclose written proposals it made to other governments concerning the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) agreement, which seeks to economically integrate the hemisphere’s 34 nations.

Previous attempts by the Center for International Environmental Law to get the government to release the documents were denied by the trade agency.

“To hide what it is doing from concerned citizens is shameful for a government that considers itself the world’s model for democracy,’’ says Stephen Porter, senior attorney with the Center for International Environmental Law.

Environmental organizations have been closely following the negotiations surrounding the hemispheric trade agreement.

Dubbed the “little WTO’’ and the “bigger and meaner NAFTA’’, the FTAA could further weaken the ability of governments to pass and maintain conservation and public health laws, says Porter. “The USTR is negotiating binding rules that could affect the ability of the United States to protect the environment and human health,’’ he says.

Environmental groups worry that the new trade agreement will contain provisions present in the NAFTA agreement known as Chapter 11, which were designed to ensure a corporation’s investment would not be expropriated.

Critics charge that the provision has become a strategic offensive weapon against environmental, public safety and health laws.

Because the US government had not made the details of the international negotiations public, in July 2000 environmentalists tried to use the US Freedom of Information Act to force the agency to disclose documents it provided to other countries during meetings last year.

While the USTR admitted the existence of the documents, it refused to make them public, claiming they were protected by an exemption in the Freedom of Information Act for communications between and within government agencies.

But Porter argues that the documents do not qualify for the exemption because it disclosed the records to foreign governments participating in the treaty negotiations.

“The USTR is willing to give these documents to 33 foreign nations, but not the US public,’’ he says.

The trade agency did not return requests for comment on the lawsuit. Martin Wagner, director of international programs at Earthjustice, an environmental law organization based in California, says it is important to know what governments are negotiating now because many of the important decisions happen early in the process.

“If citizens are kept in the dark until negotiations are completed, they will never be able to provide useful advice concerning rules that would directly affect their lives and health,’’ he says.

One thousand women prisoners raped by corrections officers in America

By Eun-Kyung Kim

Washington, DC, Mar. 6— Many states fail to protect female inmates from sexual abuse, according to an Amnesty International report Tuesday that says some laws are so weak a prisoner can be held responsible for her attacker’s behavior.

The human rights organization used its report to draw attention to problems affecting an increasing segment of the prison population.

“What we’ve shown here is that it’s a systemic problem,’’ not just a “few bad apples’’ in the correctional system, said William Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International USA.

In its report, the group examined laws in each state and the District of Columbia that deal with charges of sexual misconduct by guards and other prison workers. It found that some states consider only certain types of sexual assault as criminal, while other states apply their laws to the actions of correction officers and not other prison employees like kitchen staff or medical workers. Other laws specifically apply to state facilities, and not lower-level county jails, from where most cases of abuse are reported, the report found.

More than 1,000 cases of abuse were reported over the last three years, according to the organization. It believes hundreds more go unreported, mainly out of fear of retaliation.

“The mistreatment of prisoners in this society — even women prisoners — is treated less seriously because there is among some people a bias that people in prison deserve what they get,’’ Schulz said.

Society should care because the women in prison are mothers to about 200,000 children under 18, he said. Many of those inmates were abused sexually early in their lives, and placing them in a system where they are continually abused limits their ability to “reintegrate themselves into society and serve as satisfactory mothers,’’ Schulz said.

Amnesty International examined state laws and surveyed attorneys general and departments of correction to compile its reports. The group also searched media reports, interviewed activists and reviewed lawsuits.

The most widely publicized finding in the report concerns a South Carolina prison chief who was fired after two guards were charged with letting inmates have sex at the governor’s residence.

Among other findings in the report:
• A sheriff’s deputy in California was fired for letting female inmates out of their electronic shackles in exchange for sex.
• An inmate at a California prison received “an abusive pelvic exam’’ from the prison’s doctor. When the woman asked to stop the exam, the doctor refused, saying, “No one told you to come to prison.”
• A Massachusetts corrections officer was charged with two counts of providing gifts in exchange for sex.

Amnesty International urged state legislatures to toughen existing laws against sexual misconduct and encouraged the government to begin taking statistics on such crimes. It wants all sexual contact between inmates and correctional staff be considered abusive and criminalized under the law. It also seeks to prevent any inmate from being held criminally liable for sexual contact with guards.

The group’s report also examined state laws dealing with pregnant inmates. It found that 18 states and the District of Columbia allow women to be restrained during labor. At least 33 states and the District allow restraints during the transport to a hospital.

Source: The Associated Press

ELF claims responsibility for smashing Old Navy windows

Huntington, Long Island, New York, Mar. 7— The Earth Liberation Front (ELF) has officially claimed responsibility for smashing over eight 10x10 insulated plate glass windows and one neon sign at the Old Navy Outlet Center in downtown Huntington, Long Island on Mar. 5, 2001.

A communique sent by the ELF stated, “This action served as a protest to Old Navy’s owners, the Fisher family’s involvement in the clear-cutting of old growth forest in the Northwest. These actions will continue until the Fisher family pulls economic support from the lumber industry, regardless of whether with the Pacific Lumber Company or otherwise.”

The Fisher family, which owns the Gap, Banana Republic, and Old Navy, recently purchased 235,000 acres of Mendicino County redwood forest in northern California. The Fisher’s logging company, Mendicino Redwood Company, plans to clear-cut large sections of land within this purchase. The company is also spraying Garlon, an herbicide related to Agent Orange, to eliminate ground vegetation. Garlon induces vomiting and weakness in humans and is known to severely disorient juvenile Coho salmon.

The communique continued, “Old Navy, Gap, Banana Republic care not for the species that call these forests home, care not for the animals that comprise their leather products, and care not for their garment workers underpaid, exploited and enslaved in overseas sweatshops.”

The communique finished by stating, “As more and more minds continue to be exposed to the true nature of their greed, fewer and fewer will sit idly by, and the cries of the earth will not fall upon deaf ears. We will not stop. Love, The Elves.”

Source: North American Earth Liberation Front Press Office: www.earthliberationfront.com

Cops muscle minorities most often, survey says

By Karen Gullo

Washington, DC, Mar. 12— Blacks and Latinos were twice as likely as whites to report the use of force in encounters with police, said a report that also showed black drivers were more likely than whites to be stopped, searched, handcuffed or ticketed.

Two percent of blacks and Latinos who had face-to-face encounters with police in 1999 reported force or threatened force, compared to just under 1 percent among whites, the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics reported Sunday.

The new Justice Department report said that while the 1999 survey of “contacts” between the public and police shows that black drivers are stopped more often than whites, that “is not necessarily evidence of racial profiling.”

A little over 12 percent of black drivers were pulled over in 1999, compared to 10.4 percent of whites and 8.8 percent of Latinos.

Black and Latino drivers were twice as likely to be physically searched or have their vehicles searched and were more frequently ticketed than whites.

Overall, the study showed that 15 percent of US citizens had encounters with police and force was involved in about 1 percent of those cases.

The survey involved more than 80,000 people and was carried out during the last six months of 1999.

Source: Associated Press

GOP convention activist acquitted

By Michael Rubinkam

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Mar. 12— A prominent AIDS activist accused of leading destructive protests during last summer’s Republican National Convention was acquitted Monday of the most serious charges against her.

Jurors found Kate Sorensen innocent on charges of riot, risking a catastrophe and conspiracy. She was convicted of a misdemeanor count of criminal mischief and promised to appeal.

“In this trial, not one officer connected me to any criminal mischief. There is nothing that points to me doing anything (illegal),” Sorensen said outside court.

The prosecution disagreed: “The jury ... sent a clear message that there is a big difference between exercising one’s First Amendment rights and criminal activity,” said Cathie Abookire, a spokeswoman in the district attorney’s office.

The misdemeanor carries a maximum of five years in jail, but defense attorney Lawrence Krasner said Sorensen, 38, would likely receive probation at her sentencing May 2.

Prosecutors alleged Sorensen, a member of the AIDS activist group ACT-UP, used her cellular telephone to direct 700 to 800 protesters on a sometimes-destructive path through the center of Philadelphia on Aug. 1.

Nearly 400 demonstrators were arrested after they blocked streets and confronted police during the July 31-Aug. 3 convention. Fifteen police officers were injured and more than 20 city vehicles damaged.

The arrests resulted in only about a dozen convictions. About 20 cases remain on the docket.

Source: Associated Press