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I Am Kalief Browder

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By Branden Miles / OtherWords

The day before I started high school, my father took me up to the park around the corner from our house to have “the talk.”

It’s the talk black families had when Trayvon Martin was shot and killed in Florida. It’s the talk we had when Michael Brown was shot and killedin Missouri. It’s the talk we had when Tamir Rice was shot and killed in Ohio. And it’s the talk we had when Sandra Bland was found dead in a jail cell following a traffic stop in Texas.

If you’re a black teen, it’s a talk about how to survive.   [Read more…]

The FBI’s iPhone Emergency: Crying Wolf to Beat the Fourth Amendment

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The Federal Bureau of Investigation persuaded a judge to order Apple to create a workaround for iPhone security restrictions preventing them from trying unlimited PIN codes to crack into the phone used by one of San Bernadino terrorists.

Apple has said ‘no way’ and likely intends to appeal the order. The FBI and Department of Justice, with the Obama administration’s “full” support, say they are “not asking Apple to redesign its product or to create a new backdoor to their products,” but rather are seeking entry “to this one device.”

What the government’s not saying is that the process of gaining entry to this device once possessed by a TERRORIST (are you afraid yet?) provides a precedent amounting to unlocking all secure phones. They’re banking on judges and the public not grasping the scope of what is going on here. And it turns out they’ve been looking for a way to make this happen for quite some time.   [Read more…]

Two Los Angeles Cops Charged With Raping Multiple Women Over Years

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Veterans of the force allegedly targeted victims who were most unlikely to report or be believed.

By Kali Holloway / AlterNet

According to a statement released yesterday by Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey, some of the assaults took place in the officers’ patrol car, and nearly all of the alleged assaults were carried out while the cops were on duty.

James Nichols, a 15-year veteran of the force, and Luis Valenzuela, on the force for 18 years, face multiple charges, including “forcible rape, rape under color of authority, oral copulation under color of authority and oral copulation by force.” Valenzuela is also being charged with assault with a firearm for pointing a gun at one of the women.

The four alleged victims, who range in age from 19 to 34, all told investigators similar stories of sexual assault by the officers. Citing information contained in the arrest warrant, the Los Angeles Times reports the women, often after being threatened with jail, were taken by car to desolate areas where they were forced to perform sex acts on one officer while the other “kept watch.”   [Read more…]

ACLU, 26 Groups Call on Department of Justice to Investigate San Diego Police Department

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The ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties, along with 26 civil rights, social service organizations, and law firms today asked the Federal government for an investigation into the SDPD’s use of force when encountering people living with mental illness.

An inquiry by the ACLU, following the police shooting of a mentally ill man holding a pen, and the district attorney’s decision not to press charges against the officer, revealed what they believe was a disturbing pattern and practice of improperly handling incidents with people with mental illness or who are experiencing a mental health crisis by SDPD personnel.

The series of incidents detailed in the ACLU letter to the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division point to a questionable use of lethal force, in numerous incidents, which appear to have been unnecessarily escalated with tragic results.   [Read more…]

America Was Great at One Time?

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Making America great again
sure sounds like something worth doing.
But the word “again,”
implies that America must have been
great somewhere along the line –
and when I run the feasibility of that
through my long-active mind,
having not been deaf or blind
in my time,
a couple of questions come to mind,
on the fly.   [Read more…]

Justice Scalia’s Passing Portends a Bitter Partisan Showdown

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Apparently, the GOP thinks that Black Presidents only get 3/5ths of a term

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia moved on to his final judgment day over the weekend. The nation’s conservatives skipped past mourning mode for a man who’d immeasurably helped their causes and went directly to saber rattling.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, en route to his annual visit to the US Virgin Islands, wasted no time in letting it be known that President Obama shouldn’t waste his time trying to pick a replacement.

“The American people‎ should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice,” McConnell said in a statement. “Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new President.”   [Read more…]

Dump Dumanis: A Quest for Justice in San Diego

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I don’t expect a massive crowd at the Hall of Justice in downtown San Diego on Friday afternoon, but symbolism will be large, non-the-less.

Activists motivated by the apparent injustice involved in the officer-involved shooting death of Fridoon Nehad, an unarmed Afghan refugee whose life was shattered following imprisonment by the Taliban, will stage an event calling for a sustained campaign to “Dump” County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis.

This rally and press conference should be seen as the local manifestation of nationwide dissatisfaction with the criminal justice system. Organizers are calling for the DA to be indicted, saying Dumanis has “abused her power, withheld evidence, misled the media, persecuted innocents under the guise of a “gang injunction” and failed her public responsibilities related to the unjustified killing of Fridoon Nehad.”

[Don’t forget! Friday’s Starting Line includes the Weekly Progressive Calendar]   [Read more…]

The Face of Homelessness in San Diego

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I met a homeless woman at a coffee shop in downtown San Diego. She had emailed me to correct a few points in a previous article I had written about the homeless. Her name is Jingles, not her real name, of course. That’s the name she goes by downtown. She’s tough, savvy, intelligent, resourceful, wise to the ways of the street. She is 55 years old with several health related problems and three small dogs. One of them is 20 years old and won’t be with her much longer. The three dogs prevent her from being taken in by a shelter, but she won’t give them up, and I don’t blame her. They are the best friends she has.

Her cell phone is her lifeline to the outside world and is what lets her know what’s going on out there. That’s how she was able to read the San Diego Free Press and then email me. It’s also a lifeline to 911 in case of a heart attack or other severe medical problems. Several of her cell phones have been stolen; then she has to start all over again spending money she doesn’t have.

She suffers from a variety of ailments including fibromyalgia, arthritis, manic depression, COPD, anxiety disorders and PTSD from living on the streets. She had a heart attack three years ago. She gets General Relief (GR). She has three GR workers who deal with various aspects of her case.   [Read more…]

Local Politics Gets Interesting: Block Drops Out, Castellanos Gets Scorned, and Saldaña Makes It Official

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As January draws to a close, political campaigns in San Diego are beginning to take shape.

San Diego’s Marty Block took to the state senate floor on Thursday to announce his decision not to run for re-election, clearing the way for Assemblywoman Toni Atkins to take his seat.

City Attorney candidate Rafael Castellano’s run of local club support came to an end last night when the influential Democrats for Equality failed to endorse any candidate, following a forum where a past lawsuit for sexual harassment emerged as an issue.

And, as expected, former Assemblywoman Lori Saldaña made her challenge to incumbent Mayor Kevin Faulconer official yesterday at a press conference in Old Town.

[Don’t forget! Friday’s Starting Line includes the Weekly Progressive Calendar]   [Read more…]

Mayor Piñata Swings from the Ceiling. Again.

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Not long ago former mayor Bob Filner dialed up Voice of San Diego, purportedly to opine on the local homeless veterans situation. The subsequent interview covered a wide variety of topics but was mostly short on substance and long on defensiveness.

Filner still doesn’t get that regardless of whether it was as was mayor or street sweeper, his behavior was wrong. While acknowledging he’d given his political enemies “the ammunition,” the former mayor remains in denial about his actions. (And, yes, it is simultaneously true our city was denied the benefit of a progressive agenda.)

This week we learned one possible reason why Filner had emerged from the shadows of his newly adopted Los Angeles. His former chief of staff Lee Burdick is making the rounds, pushing a soon to be released book: “Bob Filner’s Monster, The Unraveling of an American Mayor and What We Can Learn from It.”   [Read more…]

Trump Nixes Fox Debate, Looks to General Election

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As much as I hate to do it, I’m gonna give The Donald the notice he so desperately craves today. The GOP’s leading candidate said “no” to the voice of republicanism’s Thursday night showcase of presidential candidates. A popular point of view following his decision to pull out of the Fox debate has been this could be the end of Donald Trump’s candidacy.

I beg to disagree.

This decision not to play nice with Fox News represents, in my opinion, a shift in strategy for Trump. He’s decided getting the Republican nomination is a done deal and is turning his focus to the general election.   [Read more…]

Grand Jury Clears Planned Parenthood, Indicts Fake Tape Activists Instead

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District Attorney: “We must go where the evidence leads us”

By Common Dreams Staff

A grand jury in Texas, which was created to investigate Planned Parenthood’s Houston affiliate following the August 2014 release of an undercover video taken inside the clinic, cleared Planned Parenthood of any wrongdoing on Monday, and, instead indicted the anti-abortion activists who made the video.

Two secret videographers were indicted: David Daleiden, founder of the ‘Center for Medical Progress,’ was indicted on a felony charge of tampering with a governmental record and a misdemeanor count related to purchasing human organs. And activist Sandra Merritt was indicted on a charge of tampering with a governmental record.

In a statement, the Harris County district attorney, Devon Anderson, said Monday: “We were called upon to investigate allegations of criminal conduct by Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast,” Ms. Anderson said. “As I stated at the outset of this investigation, we must go where the evidence leads us. All the evidence uncovered in the course of this investigation was presented to the grand jury. I respect their decision on this difficult case.”   [Read more…]

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