Hendersonville: October 22 Coalition protests police brutality

By Robert Brown

Hendersonville, North Carolina, Oct 21– The Hendersonville chapter of the October 22 Coalition led a demonstration here against police brutality. The call for the demonstration read, in part “Be out there to change the situation where police can brutalize people for being in the wrong neighborhood, speaking the wrong language, or being the wrong color. Be out there to change the situation where cops can murder someone for pulling out their wallet or their cell phone.”

The October 22 Coalition was formed after the first day of protest, intended to be a one-time event, produced such a large turnout that it was obvious that police violence had reached epidemic proportions, and that public outrage would support full time organizing around the issue. The Coalition has since published a record of more than two thousand men and women killed by law enforcement in its book Stolen Lives.

About twenty-five people participated in Saturday’s protest, more than twice the turnout of last April’s demonstration. Groups from Asheville, Lake Lure, and Greenville, SC were there, as well as a field organizer for the War Resisters League (WRL), on a tour of WNC. The Hendersonville event is one of many scheduled across the nation. Last year, 10,000 took to the streets to protest, and organizers expect that this year’s turnout will be far greater, following increased reports of police brutality.

Comments by protesters ranged from the immediate and personal (false arrest and imprisonment) to national policy issues (domestic militarism). Cathie Berrey, with the Direct Action Network, said that she and others in the network participated as a logical consequence of their organization’s stand against all repression, in which police misconduct and the prison-industrial complex had a clear place. Nisha, a resident of New York City on tour in the south as a field organizer for the War Resisters League, said that she was happy to be able to attend the yearly October 22 protest in Hendersonville, since ordinarily she would participate in the event in NYC. She said that the War Resisters League, which has its origins in opposition to international militarism, had included domestic militarism as an object of concern in light of its place in the general spectrum of violence, and she added that the WRL National Office encourages its local chapters to participate in events such as the October 22 annual protest. Lola LaFey, of Asheville’s Zim-Zam Eco-House, an organization whose primary interest is environmental, said that their group also has a human rights concern, and that that the police are clearly a “major armed threat” to citizens, who, she hoped, would collectively and non-violently educate each other to the danger, and resist. Efia Nwangaza, of the Greenville, SC, October 22 Coalition, came to Hendersonville from a successful demonstration in Greenville the previous day. Several members of the regional Green Party also attended.

According to demonstration organizer Sheila Olvera, passers-by were much more friendly and interested at this event than the previous one. One woman from Georgetown, SC, parked her car to talk with the demonstrators and pick up literature.

In closing the protest, the names of recent victims of police violence were read:

Rigoberto Olvera: Shot to death by Henderson County deputies, who falsified reports claiming he rammed their car. The State Bureau of Investigation report shows he was hit head on in his own lane of traffic.

Timothy Whaley: Shot to death by Sheriff’s deputies in Hendersonville after they received a call that he was suicidal.

Willie Eugene Simmons: Died after being pepper sprayed by four security officers in Winston-Salem after they had escorted him off the grounds at Baptist Medical Center and followed him to his hotel room.

Charles Diello: Shot to death in his home in Cherokee, NC, after his mother had called 911, reporting him as suicidal.

Eric Vanslot: Shot to death in Colorado after police mistook his cigarette lighter for a gun.

Walter Gay: Shot to death in Georgia by police who said the elderly man “showed them a butcher knife” while they were serving an eviction notice.

Christopher Jordan: Shot to death in Seneca, SC, when police tried to serve a warrant.

John Adams: Shot to death in his living room in Lebanon, Tennessee, when police raided the wrong house looking for drugs.

Malcolm Bruno: Shot to death by an off duty policeman in a suspected shoplifting attempt.

After the names were read and before the group disbanded, Efia Nwangaza, speaking for the living and dead victims of police violence, remarked that people gathered to protest official brutality are no longer single people looking for justice, but have become assets to one another in a growing, nationwide movement to bring a police state under control.

The October 22 Coalition can be reached at PO Box 2627, New York, NY, 10009; by phone, at 1-888-NO BRUTALITY; or on the web at http://www.unstoppable.com

Group claims government fails to enforce Endangered Species Act

Asheville, North Carolina, Oct. 19— An Asheville, NC-based environmental group has sued the US Fish and Wildlife Service to protect specific areas in Tennessee from logging and pollution, and the endangered species that live there.

The Southern Appalachian Biodiversity Project (SABP) accuses the federal agency of failing to follow the 1987 Endangered Species Act. The law includes provisions for setting up critical habitats for endangered animals and plants.

The lawsuit, filed Oct. 12 in US District Court, lists 16 impacted species - 14 freshwater mussels and two plants, Braun’s rock cress, and Eggert’s sunflower.

According to SABP attorney Marty Bergoffen, the threatened specimens live in the Cherokee National Forest or on land owned by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), mainly in East Tennessee.

A similar lawsuit filed by the group in North Carolina resulted in a settlement in which the Fish and Wildlife Service agreed to propose critical habitat for four species each within two years.

Bergoffen said the Fish and Wildlife Service has not pushed to enforce the Endangered Species Act because “they want to keep logging national forests and TVA wants to continue to pump out acid rain pollutants.”

“With critical habitat we’ll be able to slow that down,” Bergoffen said.

The US government has 60 days to answer the complaint.

“Without seeing it I can’t comment,” Cindy Dohner, a Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman in Atlanta, said Thursday.

Source: Associated Press

New developments in Wal-Mart proposals

By Sharon Martin and Adam Baylus

Asheville, North Carolina, Oct. 24-- At its October 24th meeting, City Council announced a Nov. 14 public hearing date for the proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter on Gerber Road, and the city attorney confirmed the mailing of the final notification to JDN Development of the Board of Adjustment’s Variance denial for the Sayles Bleacheries site-- seven weeks after the initial hearing.

Gerber Site

City Council set the public hearing for the Gerber Wal-Mart for Tuesday, November 14th at 5:00 pm in City Council Chambers. Brian Peterson’s proposal to hold the hearing at a larger venue in South Asheville was blocked by all other Council members since none seconded his motion.

Mayor Leni Sitnik opposed changing the location of the hearing because of precedent setting concerns. Council members Charles Worley and Ed Hay suggested that citizens can watch the hearing via live broadcast on cable channel 20. Vice Mayor Chuck Cloninger expressed concerns about inconveniencing staff members.

During the informal discussion and public comment section of the meeting, local community activists addressed the precedent set by Council members in August when they planned a tentative hearing for the Sayles Bleacheries site for 5:30 pm on September 19, the 3rd Tuesday of the month at the Stevens-Lee Center Gymnasium. The time and venue were chosen to accomodate this particular issue and the number of people anticipated to attend.

Sources suggest that the Mayor’s Office may be considering relocation of the Gerber Wal-Mart public hearing.

Sayles Site

City Attorney Bob Oast confirmed that written notification of the Board of Adjustment’s decision to deny JDN the requested variance for the Sayles Bleacheries site was sent on Monday, October 23.

The Board of Adjustment denied the request on September 5. The developer had four weeks to appeal this decision; however, this four-week period does not begin until JDN receives written notification of the denial.

When questioned about the seven-week delay, Oast indicated that is normal protocol.

Group warns of danger at Carolina nuke plants

Charlotte, Oct. 20 (ENS)— A nuclear watchdog group is urging the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to take immediate action to deal with the alleged dangers posed by four nuclear power plants. A new government study says reactors exceed the “acceptable risk” of failure.

The power plants in question are located in the vicinity of the Charlotte metropolitan area. Two of the plants, known as Catawba One and Two, are located near Clover, South Carolina. The other two facilities, known as McGuire One and Two, are located near Huntersville, North Carolina.

All four nuclear units are operated by the Duke Company, which provides electricity to some two million customers in a 22,000 square mile service area of the Carolinas.

The Nuclear Control Institute (NCI), a nuclear non-proliferation research and advocacy institution based in Washington DC, based its call for intervention this week on a new study released by the federal agency responsible for nuclear oversight in the United States, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

“The Commission should act immediately to reduce the threat to the hundreds of thousands of individuals living near these plants,” said Dr. Edwin Lyman, NCI’s director.

NCI also urged the NRC to reject plans by Charlotte based Duke Energy Corporation to use uranium and plutonium mixed oxide (MOX) fuel in its Catawba and McGuire ice condenser nuclear plants.

Dr. Lyman says additional safety problems with the use of MOX fuel in the Duke reactors would “make an already risky situation even worse” and, in the event of a severe accident, result in a dramatic rise in cancer deaths.

In March 1999, a consortium including Duke Energy was awarded a US Department of Energy contract to convert plutonium from dismantled US warheads into MOX fuel and irradiate it in the Catawba and McGuire nuclear reactors.

But much to the dismay of critics like the Control Institute, the Energy Department is pressing ahead with the MOX project, despite the NRC’s recent revelations of the potential for a catastrophic release of radioactive materials from the plants.