APD chief’s actions toward
councilman demonstrate need
for independent review board
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An anti-capitalist
resolution on the FTAA

To the indigenous pueblos and all communities in resistance in Mexico, Mesoamerica, and South America:

To the people in resistance in North America:

To the national and international press:

We are a group of anti-capitalists from around the east, south, and mid-west regions of the land occupied by the United States government.  We are women, men, gender queers, straight, queer, parents, children, young, old, people of color, white, privileged, underprivileged.  From June 6-8, 2003 we met to discuss our response and resistance to the upcoming Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) ministerial slated to take place November 20-21, 2003.  As a result of our collective discussion, we declare:

We stand with all those in resistance to government and corporate powers that control, dominate and occupy our lives, resources and lands.

We reject the Free Trade Area of the Americas because it will: diminish biodiversity and ecological integrity, exploit people across the world — women, children and people of color in particular — decrease workers’ rights, safety and the right to organize, limit mobility of immigrants while allowing capital to move more freely, threaten the existence and autonomy of indigenous communities, and undermine the self-determination of all communities.

We reject the privatization schemes for water, health care and other essential public services.

We reject the militarization of all nations, which plays an inherent and essential role in maintaining a capitalist order.  We also reject wars between nations that serve to cement that order.

We reject police violence and repression in our communities and attacks on civil liberties in the United States.

We reject the Plan Pueblo Panamá (PPP) and any corporate centered development projects that do not consider the needs and desires of the communities they affect.

We declare ourselves in solidarity with those who protest the upcoming World Trade Organization (WTO) meetings in Cancún, México.

We will vigorously mobilize to shut down the FTAA ministerial meetings in Miami, November 2003.

We are confident in our struggle — the CEOs and the government officials who do their bidding are few, we are 6,000,000,000.

We issue this declaration to inspire effective resistance to global capitalism just as we are inspired by the many faces of resistance in Latin America and Mexico to create a world with dignity for all people.

The communities of autonomy and joy emerging from our struggles are not bound by state or country lines, and in Miami we will cultivate this spirit throughout the Americas — for all our sakes!

The Louisville Consulta

June 8, 2003

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APD chief’s actions toward
councilman demonstrate need
for independent review board

Editors, Asheville Global Report,

Just hours before Police Chief Will Annarino appeared at the May 29 Support Our Police meeting to condemn a citizens’ police review board as unnecessary, his own actions in the [Asheville City Councilmember Brian] Peterson situation demonstrated why Asheville so badly needs such a review process. By bringing to the local newspaper and TV stations unsolicited insinuations — not convictions, not proof, but insinuations — that Councilman Brian Peterson picked up a prostitute Tuesday night, Chief Annarino abused his official responsibilities, violated his department’s own policy rules, and needlessly involved the Asheville Police Dept. in dirty politics. He also proved why City Council can never serve as a substitute for an independent review board, as some Councilmen are claiming it could. When the Chief of Police and City Manager (the chief’s sole superior, who himself leaked the allegations to other Councilmembers) can threaten to expose any member of Council’s dirty laundry and potentially destroy their re-election chances — as they have just done to Peterson — how would any Councilmember dare to question or criticize these officials? Chief Annarino’s action violates Asheville Police Dept.’s “Policy No. 1231 (Media Relations): Procedure 2.E.”, as published in the Asheville Police Dept. Policy Manual. The policy reads as follows:

“No unsolicited information releases are to be made by a member of the department.” The only exception to this rule noted “would be an event which would require immediate public notification such as an emergency evacuation of an area where electronic media would be of assistance.” If any rank-and-file member of APD had so brazenly violated this policy, he or she would be subjected to departmental discipline. In contrast to their boss’s actions, however, the officers on patrol who stopped the Councilman and cited him for driving on an expired license appear (judging by media accounts) to have been doing their professional duty without political bias.

If Councilman Peterson were to follow the existing process and file a complaint about Chief Annarino’s action with APD’s internal affairs office, should Asheville citizens be expected to believe that the officer in charge of investigating the complaint would be able fairly and objectively to investigate his own boss? Are we to suppose that the Chief — who currently has sole responsibility for issuing findings of fact following an internal-affairs investigation — would find himself guilty?

To lift Asheville’s police department above city politics, we need independent citizens’ oversight. No official with as much power over the lives of both citizens and rank-and-file officers as the Chief of Police should be able to misuse police powers for political ends with impunity.

For more information, contact Karen Van Eman at 258-1082.

Asheville Justice Watch

Asheville, North Carolina