Disorderly conduct arrests faulted by NYC's Picture the Homeless

They're tired of being targeted, ticketed, jailed and fined under the banner of New York City's Disorderly Conduct statute, and they're doing something about it-- launching a civil rights campaign..

Members of Picture the Homeless, a grassroots organization founded and led by homeless people, last week held a civil rights summit with other community groups to discuss how this "overly broad and ill-defined law"  is used as a way of making money for the city.  Meanwhile, the lives of people who can least afford it are disrupted as they accumulate arrest records and default warrants if they can't pay the $150 fine.

PTH members talk about their experiences and why they're involved in this campaign on video.  It's not a slick production but bear with it and you will hear real people, obviously weary, who haven't had it easy, stand up for themselves and each other.

The Indypendent has coverage of this forum, at at PTH's blog, the administrator says, "We appreciate the Center for Constitutional Rights for hosting -- and much appreciate the participation of George Bethos of NYC AIDS Housing Network / VOCAL NY Users Union, Lalit Clarkson of Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, and the courageous Juanita Young of the October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality and Parents Against Police Brutality.  Within PTH, we thank Maria and Salaam for running the show, and Carlos for his always-blazing poetry."
 Photo: Picture the Homeless members

What role for police in keeping the peace?

Last night I was driving back from a Jobs with Justice meeting in Northampton, coming down Rt. 91, and going about 60 miles an hour in a 65 mile an hour zone. I noticed a car travelling quite close behind me for nearly a mile. Finally the car pulled into the left-hand lane to pass, but instead of passing, it exactly paced me. After a few seconds I risked a glance to the left and saw that it was a Massachusetts State Police cruiser. After my glance the cruiser dropped back and melded into into other traffic.

What the heck was that about? I wondered. The cruiser was behind me long enough to run my plates, which clearly came back clean; so why the side by side pacing? I have a lot of bumper stickers, but nothing mean or threatening , and no "Stop Police Brutality" stickers (I'm dumb but I'm not that dumb). Boredom? Intimidation? Just doing his job? (But wasn't his job done after my plates came back clean?)

Yesterday I had lunch with Betty Agin from the Health Disparities Project-- just checking in with each other. I gave her a copy of some notes an Arise member had given me from a meeting about how to stop youth violence because I knew youth violence had been the topic of her most recent forum.

I admit I haven't had a high level of enthusiasm for recent community efforts to end youth violence. I've seen many similar efforts through the years in Springfield and the impetus of the projects usually fades away, leaving little change. It's tough, I know: good strategies have to come out of identification of root causes, and that's so discouraging, it's easy to despair or to come up with strategies that are eight or nine steps away from the root cause.

But even with that as a given, I asked Betty why, if group organizers want people to use the police more to report the potential or actual crime, changing police attitudes toward the public never comes up as a strategy? How do we regain that "The police are your friends" mentality?

This summer I wrote about a 15 year old kid. Delano Walker, who backed away from police right into the path of a car which crushed him to death-- turns out he had a knife on him that he shouldn't have had and didn't want the police to find it. I never did hear any more about this, but it was a tragic and traumatic situation for all involved.

Of course half of the fear and suspicion people have for the police have nothing to do with the police at all; it's about what happens when people get entangled in a criminal justice system that can't tell a molehill from a mountain-- maybe I shouldn't say "can't" but instead "won't", not when there's money to be made and paranoia to be milked.

This March an Indiana grandmother bought two boxes of cold medicine containing pseudoephedrine in a one week period and found herself arrested (at her home, and then handcuffed) and convicted for violating Indiana law 35-48-4-14.7, which restricts the sale of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, or PSE, products to no more than 3.0 grams within any seven-day period. Don't Tase Me, Bro. The same site reports that a Michigan woman who was willing to wait with neighborhood kids at the morning school bus stop if their parents had already left for work was threatened with fines and jail time for running an unauthorized day care.

This morning CNN reported on a Connecticut blogger who was arrested in 2007 after taking a picture of the Connecticut governor in a parade. Turns out he was being followed closely by one of the 72 Homeland Security fusion centers because he had criticized the governor, was politically active, and had been arrested for civil disobedience. (Jeez, all those things apply to me, too!) It's not up on CNN's website yet, but you can read the whole story at The 40 Year Plan.

I think it's time for a refresher course in the Bill of Rights .

Photo from Mark Sardella's photostream at Flickr.

Sinead's Hand

Check out MarriageEquality.

Troy Davis, Jason Vassell: keep on fighting!

60,000 signatures were presented to the Savannah District Attorney on the same day that the U.S. Supreme Court decided to delay reviewing Troy Davis' appeal for a new trial until at least this fall. Davis has spent 18 years on death row after he was convicted of killing a police officer in Savannah. There was never any physical evidence, and most of the witnesses have recanted, but somehow, innocence stands distinct from justice in cases like this.

Closer to home, the next hearing for former UMASS student Jason Vassell, on trial for defending himself against an assault by two white non-students, won't take place until later this summer and will be before the Mass Supreme Judicial Court. The court will be making a decision about Jason's attorneys' Motion for Discovery, requesting the past five years' of all cases in Hampshire county involving interracial assaults and other violent hate crimes. It also included a request for case files regarding another example of selective prosecution that had odd similarities to Jason's case. The trial judge had ruled in favor of the discovery, but the D.A. appealed to the SJC. You can find out more at Justice for Jason.

"Don't ask, don't tell"-- Obama continues to disappoint

b"Syracuse, NY -- Lt. Dan Choi vowed Tuesday evening to fight to stay in the military after an Army board in Syracuse recommended he be the first person discharged from the New York National Guard for violating the "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

A four-officer panel meeting at Hancock Air Base notified Choi at about 5 p.m. that it would recommend he be discharged because he has publicly said he is gay.

The recommendation now goes to Lt. Gen. Thomas Miller of the First Army Division, and Gen. Craig McKinley, the chief of the National Guard Bureau, who will make the final decision.

"Today was a setback for me," Choi said at a 6:10 p.m. news conference. "I got in trouble for saying three words. 'I am gay.'"

But he said he refuses to lie about being involved in a relationship with another man. Choi said the relationship has made him a better person, a better Christian and a better officer.

Choi, an Arabic-speaking officer who served for 15 months in Iraq as a member of Fort Drum's 10th Mountain Division before joining a New York National Guard unit based in Manhattan, said he would appeal to the higher-ranking officers to stay in the National Guard.

There is no deadline for a final decision in Choi's case." Read more at Syracuse.com.

Yesterday, at a speech commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots, Pres. Obama said, "We've been in office six months now. I suspect that by the time this administration is over, I think you guys will have pretty good feelings about the Obama administration."

Wait a minute-- assuming he anticipates winning a second term, does that mean eight years from now?

You can sign a petition to President Obama with the following text: "President Obama, The time has come to end discrimination in our armed forces. We, the undersigned, ask you to stop the discharge of Lt. Dan Choi and any other soldier as a result of the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy. We ask that you uphold your pledge and push Congress to quickly put a bill on your desk to repeal 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell.'"

Photo courtesy Lt. Choi from the Syracuse Post-Standard.

The mice say, "Please don't hurt me!"

The Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology announced today that it has added the gene for human speech to a strain of mice and has successfully bred them. Live Science.

No, the mice haven't started speaking back to the researchers yet, but apparently it has changed the way mice communicate with each other.

The purpose of the experiments is to understand the roots of human speech and language.

Even as avowedly pro-technology as I am, what I feel right now is almost entirely negative-- sad, horrified, angry. I won't try (couldn't be able) to sort out the range of ethical issues to which my feelings attach at this moment.

If animals could communicate with humans, would we treat them differently? Or would we learn to ignore them, and would the world then be filled with their hopeless cries?

Pound dogs facing the death chamber: "Please, I'll be a good boy, I promise, I promise!"
Deer after being shot: "Why? Why did you do it? And what will become of my daughter?"
Cattle on their way to the slaughterhouse: "No, I don't want to die!! Please, please!!

Photo from Sergey Yeliseev's photostream at Flickr.

170,000 stops, 6 arrests, zero convictions?

I don't understand what's going on with civil rights in the U.K. Civil libertarians in the U.S. still have a lot to criticize; although I want to think things are getting better, I have a few examples that will have you shaking your head....but the U.K. seems headed off the deep end.

Section 44 of the Terrorism Act in the U.K. has allowed London Metropolitan Police to stop and search people every three minutes-- that's `70,000 stops last year, with an arrest rate resulting from those stops of a whole 65 people-- and no convictions to which any public official can point. BBC.

People who attend anti-war rallies in the U.K. are finding themselves stopped and questioned because of a new system to tracking license plate numbers through a going-national CCTV surveillance system. BoingBoing.

At least some U.K. school kids are standing up for their rights to not be surveilled. when CCTV cameras were hooked up in Davenant Foundation School, students staged a three week walk-out. BoingBoing.

Back in the U.S.A., although this may seem less serious, apparently law enforcement personnel in Massachusetts have been using the Criminal Offender Record Information system (CORI) to look up personal information on Matt Damon, James Taylor, and Patriot and Celtics stars. CORI records are only supposed to be accessed by trained personnel for specific purposes. Other flaws in the CORI system (though surely not all) were identified in a state audit. Boston Globe.

In Baltimore, a couple who were the victims of a mistaken "No Knock" warrant have found themselves facing a $50 trash ticket for the door that police destroyed when they broke it down!! (Wrong address.) The victims are trying to get the city to pay for replacing the door. Don't Tase Me, Bro.

And check out Photography Is Not a Crime for some astounding examples of officials thinking they have some power they don't have, and then enforcing laws that don't exist. Example: an Akron, Ohio man had his cellphone confiscated and then the video on it deleted by a police officer because he was recoding the rescue of a five year old from a revolving door. He'd been planning to sell the video to a local TV station.

Photo from Publik15's photostream at Flickr.

Is giving water to the homeless illegal?

John Ross, San Diego's "Water Man," is friends with most of the police but he didn't know the two officers he claims assaulted him on March 15.

Ross was doing what he's done every day for the last few years-- handing out bottled of water to homeless people.

In a claim filed Tuesday by John "David" Ross, 74, the so-called "Water Man" said an unidentified officer grabbed his head, twisted his arm and threw him to the ground while he was passing out water to the homeless at K and 15th streets the morning of March 15, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

Similar claims were also filed by Marvin Britton, 59, and Myron Hill, 41. The men claim the officer became violent when they questioned why he ordered a crowd receiving water to disperse. They are seeking damages in excess of $25,000.

The department, Police Chief William Lansdowne, the City Council and two unidentified officers are also named in the claim, which is a precursor to a lawsuit. San Diego 6.

Photo from Briebanokski's photostream at Flickr.

St. Petersburg homeless stand up for themselves

St. Petersburg city officials got themselves a bit of a bad reputation last year when they ordered cops to cut up the tents of the homeless while destroying a homeless encampment. Since then, the city has passed a number of ordinances which make life difficult for homeless people, including the amount of personal belongings people can have beside them when sleeping out.

Now, six homeless people and a group of advocacy organizations are suing the City of St. Petersburg.

"What has been happening in St. Petersburg over the past couple years is one of the worst examples nationally of widespread abuse of homeless persons' civil and human rights," said Tulin Ozdeger, civil rights director for the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, one of three organizations representing the city's homeless. The Southern Legal Counsel and Florida Institutional Legal Services have also sided with the homeless.
The lawsuit, filed in Tampa, claims the city's ordinances violate various constitutional protections, including freedom from cruel and unusual punishment, freedom from unreasonable searches and free speech.
Ozdeger said the ordinances also fail to provide sufficient guidance for police officers, which encourages arbitrary enforcement.
"We feel that we have a very strong case," she said. Tampa Bay.

Photo from OB Rag.

Mass. bill would limit sexual freedom for seniors, disabled

Remember the stories (all too true, unfortunately) about parents charged with child pornography after the submitted photos of their naked babies doing funny/cute things to their local film processor?

Well, Grandma and Grandpa may be next!

A bill submitted by Rep. Kathi-Anne Reinstein, D-Suffolk, meant to protect the mentally incompetent, will make it a crime punishable by up to ten years in prison to take a nude picture of a person over sixty or a disabled person. The bill is written so broadly that a 60 year old husband taking a picture of his 60 year old wife could be prosecuted.

Part of the bill states that people over age 60 and people with disabilities who have been declared mentally incompetent cannot give consent to erotic photographs, any more than a minor can give consent. But other parts of the bill only use the term "elders and persons with a disability," without referencing mental competence or consent.

As a result, said University of California-Los Angeles law professor Eugene Volokh, the bill could be interpreted as banning competent, consenting couples with disabilities from taking nude photographs of each other, or lovers over age 60 from making saucy pictures of themselves.

"If the law was limited to [the mentally incompetent], I wouldn't be mocking it," he said, adding, "let me be more academic: I wouldn't be condemning it as I have been." Boston Globe.

Photo of Kathi-Anne Reinstein from the mass.gov website

Not paranoia after all...NSA has been listening in...

This week the New York Times reported-- on Tax Day, how fitting-- that apparently the National Security Agency and other intelligence agencies have been "overcollecting" the emails, phone calls and other private information of U.S. citizens-- but they say they've stopped and won't do it anymore. That makes me feel a whole lot better.

Is it better to know than just suspect? Reminds me that in the early days of the Iraq war, the listserve that my organization operates for Western Mass. progressives to share organizing news was openly infiltrated by a Springfield police officer. Officer Phil joined the listserve under his own name. We had quite a bit of discussion about his presence-- should we allow it, or remove him?-- but figured that at least we knew he was there. He was already our unchosen liason with the police department when it came to demonstrations against the war-- he'd call us to ask if we planned civil disobedience and assure us it was OK if we were planning to be arrested, that was our right-- but just wanted to know how many police officers we had on hand. Of course, we did any organizing that related to civil disobedience off-list, as we figured Bush and his cronies were already monitoring us.

We did, eventually, remove Officer Phil, for passing on information he got on the list about a civil disobedience action in another state-- not that we believed the action was not already infiltrated, but simply because his actions were a violation of the same standards to which we held everyone else on the listserve . However, because the list had open membership, and anyone could join (and stay a member, unless posting racist, homophobic, right-wing, etc. rants), I assume he simply rejoined under another name.

Anyone who thinks that listserves, blogs and other internet-posted information are not monitored is kidding himself. We should have no expectation of privacy. Monitoring mail, phone calls and email, however, are a different story. Yet it happened under Bush and I'm sure it will continue to happen under Obama.

Want to communicate a secret without being overheard? Go stand in an open field and keep your fingers crossed. I suspect the overhead satellites are learning to read lips.

Two dead dogs: the complete story of a SWAT raid gone wrong

Probably most people have heard about the SWAT raid last July of a mayor's home in Berwyn Heights, Maryland that led to the death of two dogs-- but no arrests, and no evidence other than the box of marijuana the SWAT Team brought with them.

April Witt of the Washington Post has a minute by minute account of the botched raid and its devastating impact on the mayor, his wife and his wife's mother. Read it at your peril if you want to keep your blood pressure under control.

The victims in this raid were white and one was an elected official, so their case received considerably more attention-- not than it deserved-- but than those of people of color or those lower on the socio-economic ladder.

SWAT Teams used to be used only in very special circumstances where violence could be expected, but have become more and more commonplace.

Last week, a SWAT Team raided a fraternity at Washington State University because of reports of underage drinking. Yes, you read that right. J.D. Tuccille of the Boston Examiner covers this raid and some other SWAT raids that never should have happened.

Photo from the Washington Post.

Protest Gentrification, Stop the Anti-Panhandling Ordinance 285-53

The following is a post from the Northampton, MA-based group Poverty is Not a Crime.

Host:	Poverty Is Not a Crime
Type:	Causes - Protest
Network:	Global

Time and Place

Date:	Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Time:	4:15pm - 6:00pm
Location:	exact congregation location TBD

The Anti-Panhandling Ordinance Is Just the Beginning!
Stop the Business Improvement District!
End Rascist and Classist Gentrification!
Community Resources, Now!
True Economic Development: For People, Not Profit!

Ordinance 285-53 would restrict “aggressive solicitation” and ban solicitation in much of downtown Northampton through severe restrictions on zone. Originally directed only against panhandling, the word "panhandling" was replaced with "solicitation" in a plastic response to one of our demonstrations to make it seem less classist. Anyone who violates this ordinance will face a fine ranging from $50-$300. Since most panhandlers are obviously unable to pay these fines, they will face incarceration, which entails jail time and future exclusion from shelter opportunities and social programs.

This ordinance is part of a larger program by city officials and select business owners (most are on our side) to gentrify Northampton. Gentrification is the process of whitening and making the area "more upscale" by violently displacing the poor into slums, ghettos, and jails. The reason they want to do this is to make the area look "cleaner" and bring in more tourists. This involves of forcibly removing panhandlers (we know the police isn't after the Salvation Army) from public spaces through the use of force--such as the threat of incarceration or forced treatment this ordinance suggests. Another agent of this gentrification is the proposed Business Improvement District (BID) that outlines this ordinance in its program of twisted 'economic development." The BID also seeks to increase police patrols and hire "city ambassadors"--which exist many other cities across the US as a team of off-duty cops who help tourists get directions while "cleansing" the street of anyone whose race or class isn't quite right. It should also be noted that two of the members of the Downtown Steering Committee that came up with and pushes the BID--Suzanne Beck and Dan Yocuzzo--are the two biggest proponents of the ordinance. It should also be noted that 3 out of the 4 people who spoke in favor the ordinance at the last City Council meeting are also members of the Downtown Steering Committee.

the Business Improvement District Plan:
http://northamptondowntown.com/pdf/NohoBID_OperationsPlan.pdf

Rascism: "the potential customers of the BID are...mostly white" - page 22, under the section "Target Customers"
Classism & business control of gov't: "the City of Northampton will participate in the BID as a member...includ[ing] participation in panhandling intervention efforts and ordinances" - page 9

Another agent of gentrification is the "All Roads Lead Home" plan to "end homelessness" that Mayor Higgins, as well as other area mayors, signed onto. This program approaches ending homelessness entirely from the perspective of profit, and featured only one homeless person on its forming committee.

"All Roads Lead Home":
http://www.northamptonma.gov/gsuniverse/httpRoot/mayor/uploads/listWidget/5979/All%20Roads%20Lead%20Home.pdf

On page 26, this plan talks about "host towns" for low income housing to raise property values...meaning that the housing these city governments are building are not based on where the homeless actually are and what helps them, but instead based on moving them out of town. Seeing as the motivation and direction of this proposal is making money, this housing will most likely be slums and ghettos.

City Council does not have the authority to pass this ordinance or the BID! It is not their choice. The people must unite, and declare our demands: stop the anti-panhandling ordinance, stop the BID, and community resources (adequate food, shelter for human beings not profit, and social services) NOW!

Why I'm voting for Barack Obama

In spite of our history of Republican governors, Massachusetts is one of those states that can always be counted on to vote Democratic in the national elections. That has freed up many of us up to "vote our consciences" without fear of jinxing the Democratic candidate, but has also sometimes had an enervating effect on progressives using the electoral system to organize. I did see that start to change during the Deval Patrick campaign. The opportunity to have a Black governor was too good for many to pass up.

Through the years I've mostly voted Democratic, but I can't say I've been a great Democrat-- haven't joined ward committees and have rarely worked on a campaign. One exception was the Jesse Jackson campaign of 1984. I was inspired by the Jackson of 1984. By volunteering for his campaign, I was taken under the wing of some of Springfield's most dedicated and political African-American leaders-- then State Rep. Ray Jordan, E. Henry Twiggs, Candace Lopes, to name a few-- and the contacts I made there have lasted 25 years. I also learned the basic skills of looking up numbers in reverse directories, phonebanking, door to door work and stand-outs. I know that the Internet has added to a campaign organizer's toolbox, but still, nothing beats the basics. I wish some of my progressive friends could bring themselves to roll up their sleeves and labor with the on-the-ground Democrats.

Twenty-five years later I am far less likely to be idealistic about any candidate because the options for a political platform in the United States are very narrow and defined by the parameters of capitalism and Christianity. Unlike most other democracies, we have two major parties only, and while I agree there's a difference between them, it's the difference between one and three on a scale of ten. I will never forget sitting in a homeless shelter lunchroom watching Bill Clinton be inaugurated on the TV, when all of us expected him to include ending homelessness in his address, and the slow slumping of shoulders when homeless people were ignored yet again.

I am a faithful voter, however, because of what every organizer knows: Use what you've got to get what you need.

Within this framework, the candidacy of Barack Obama is so extraordinary that for months it barely seemed real to me. If truth be told, I still find it difficult to believe that the U.S. is ready to elect a Black man to the Presidency. but I'm starting to think I'm wrong. I want to be proud of my country. If Barack is elected, it'll be one of those too-rare moments when we can say to each other, Well, I guess the struggle is worth it after all.

So here's my short list of reasons I'm voting for Barack Obama.

Save the environment, save the world. I won't need to worry about policy decisions that make things worse and can expect some positive movement. (Nuclear energy and clean coal be damned.)

Jobs, jobs, jobs. I'm tired of seeing people work and struggle to get by . I'm tired of seeing young people grow up not knowing the value of work. My first jobs out of high school were in factories, making things, and relatively speaking, they were still probably the best-paying jobs I've ever had. Moving toward energy independence could almost be like a national jobs program.

Peace and civil rights. I'm not a pacifist (maybe in my next life) but I believe war should be such a last resort as to make it nearly impossible. I doubt Barack Obama will find it necessary to start any new wars and he'll help us get out of the ones we're in.

So I'm off to the polls then home for a long night in front of the TV with my sister and her husband and a six-pack of beer (sorry, Sarah Palin). Michaelann the organizer is voting Obama.

(BTW, it's time for Blogger to stop underlining Barack Obama as if it's a misspelled word!)

Springfield Police: how to win friends and influence people

Many Western Mass. residents will have heard about the wild ride of a U-HAUL truck involved in a robbery through Springfield's North End last night. Springfield police chased down Efrain Rodriguez, 42, when he fled the truck after leading police up Main, down Chestnut, and all around the side streets. The Republican covered the story this morning.

Here's a piece of the story you won't be hearing about anyplace but here.

My nephew Steve (the one who helped me break the story about Wendy's closings around the region) is now working at Taco Bell's. My nephew was closing and got out of work about 3 am. He'd already decided to stay overnight at his best friend Josh's place. Josh lives in the North End, is Puerto Rican, and has been a family friend for a number of years.

Josh met Steve halfway so he wouldn't have to walk the whole distance alone (still shorter than going home would have been). While walking, they became aware of the U-HAUL careening through the neighborhood with the police following close behind. By the time they got to Josh's house, the U-HAUL was parked across the street, the driver had fled, and a police car was pulled over to the curb.

"Hey, did you catch the guy yet?" Josh called out to the officers in the cruiser. One officer responded.

"Who are you? Get over here!"

Josh and Steve started walking toward the cruiser. Josh was carrying two pebbles in his hand that he'd been playing with as they walked and he dropped them to the ground as the two of them approached.

"He dropped something!" the officer said. He grabbed Josh and threw him up against the cruiser hard. "What did you drop?"

"Just two little stones!" Josh said. He was frisked by the cop, then Steve was frisked (although not manhandled) and they were both put into the back of the cruiser. The two officers went over the ground with flashlights but of course didn't find anything.

For the next hour Josh and Steve went on a wild ride with the police.

"They were going through red lights, speeding around the corner, and we were just sliding all over the place in the back seat," Josh told me. Steve still had his cell phone and was trying to work up the nerve to use it to call his mom and dad.

"What are you going to do with us?" Josh asked the officers.

"Execute you," one of the cops said, making a joke, although it didn't feel very funny to Josh and Steve.

After about 45 minutes the officers got a call on the radio that the U-HAUL's driver had been captured. A few minutes after that one of the officers turned to Josh and Steve.

"What should we do with you?" he said.

"Just drop us back where you found us," Josh said.

"What are you going to do if we drop you off?"

"Go home and go to bed," Josh said.

So the officers dropped them off.

I guess the officers were right to suspect them initially, but they were wrong to manhandle Josh and they were wrong to keep the young men in the cruiser as they continued to chase a potentially dangerous individual.

Most of all, they were wrong to to add to the layers of suspicion that too many young men already feel about the Springfield police.

One million names now on Terrorist Watch List

One million names now on Terrorist Watch List-- but don't worry, that's really only 400,000 people, according to a spokesman for the Terrorist Screening Center.

Want to find out if you're on the Terrorist Watch List? You can't.

The TSC cannot reveal whether a particular person is in the TSDB. The TSDB remains an effective tool in the government’s counterterrorism efforts because its contents are not disclosed. If TSC revealed who was in the TSDB, terrorist organizations would be able to circumvent the purpose of the terrorist watchlist by determining in advance which of their members are likely to be questioned or detained. Federal Bureau of Investigation Terrorist Screening Center.

Want to get off? It took an Act of Congress to get Nelson Mandela off the list. You can go to the Homeland Security Traveler Redress Inquiry Program and file a complaint. or you can call...and call...and call...and have each call be treated as if it's the first.

Even top security clearance isn't enough to keep you off the list, as a recent Department of Justice official found out recently. See Wired for more.

How many years will it take to undo the damage this Administration has done?

June 2004	158,374
May 2005	287,982
June 2006	515,906
May 2007	754,960

I'm gonna miss Dunkin Donuts

So Dunkin' Donuts pulled an ad featuring Rachel Ray because someone thought a scarf she was wearing was a kaffiyah, a scarf traditionally worn by Palestinian men, and started an uproar about it. It wasn't, it was just a black and white scarf, but that doesn't matter. On the basis of some right wing idiot's attack, and the potential for loss of revenue, Dunkin' Donuts actually apologized for the ad.

What an excellent, self-serving job Bush and his cronies have done in exacerbating anti-Arab and anti-Muslim prejudice. Yeah, OK, it was Saudi Arabians who blew up the World Trade Center and attacked the Pentagon but it was white Christians with ties to the militia movement that were responsible for the Oklahoma City bombing. Are all Christians bombers? Are all Palestinians terrorists? I'm just so sick of it.

I like Dunkin' Donuts. I used to work at the one in Springfield's X back in the mid-seventies, long before there was such a thing as a drive-thru. We used to make our own donuts in the back of the store and grind our own coffee. I used to challenge myself to provide good service and to remember how the regulars liked their coffee; if I got it right, I'd usually get a tip. (I always did like the challenge of waitressing, even though most of the places I worked were owned by sexist pigs who didn't know their asses from their elbows.)

I suppose I've kept a fondness for Dunkin' Donuts ever since, especially because I've thought of it as a local success story, started in the mid-fifties by a local guy from Worcester, Massachusetts. Somehow in the ensuing 30 years it's become a truly multinational corporation, with nearly 6,000 stores in the U.S. and 2,000 internationally. I just didn't notice.

Two or three days a week, I swing through the Dunkin' Donuts on upper State St. I've gotten used to the proverbial "Hon" from the invisible woman or man who takes my order through the speaker; whenever I can, I leave the change from a dollar as a tip. Most times, I'm impressed with the employees' efficiency and friendliness.

I'm going to miss them. But I won't go back to Dunkin' Donuts until the company undoes its idiocy and apologizes-- not just to the Arab community, but to all of us.

My organization, Arise for Social Justice, talked about this at our board meeting last night (among 20 other things!) Only about half of us had heard about the controversy, and seeing as we're generally a well-informed crew, I'm going to assume that the same is true for the general public. News like this seems to sink fast into the morass of presidential campaign coverage. We're going to pick a day and a store and do some informational leafletting next week.

Act Now to Stop War and Racism (A.N.S.W.E.R.) has a letter you can send to Dunkin' Donutes at its website here.

Chelan Brown/ Three days of no blogging

Feels very strange, now, to go three days without posting-- three unusual days, Boston once, trip to the vets twice, not good news on the dog front, plus work, a meeting at Arise, and lots of emotionally charged contact with lots of people. I did get garden plants and I did (with my nephew's help) get four wheelbarrows of earth from my old garden to my new garden so I'll do some planting this weekend, rain or not.

In ways I can't completely explain, I've found myself deeply upset about the current controversy with State Rep candidate Chelan Brown ever since the news broke on Wednesday that her campaign website had (at that time) large chunks of text taken from state rep candidates from around the country!

I say the news broke and yet actually the first tip came from a poster on MassLive who recognized a graphic on Chelan's website as a picture of the state of Washington.. (her website had only been up since Sunday, but it was the first many of us knew of it.) Within two hours, other MassLive posters had researched text and found much of it not original . Fellow bloggers Bill Dusty, Heather Brandon and Greg Saulman at LocalBuzz have done an excellent job of following up on this story, but in a nutshell, by Thursday the website was down and replaced by a wait page that said: The site: Elect Chelan Brown for State Representative has been pulled due to unauthorized tempering. We will be back online soon!

Thursday afternoon, Chelan and her supporters held a press conference on City Hall steps. Chelan announced that someone had tampered with her website to make it appear she had plagiarized other websites. She also said that she hasn't filed any complaints yet because the Springfield police are too busy. Peter Goonan, Springfield Republican.

I must say that my heart sunk. If someone hacked into Chelan's site in an effort to discredit her, then it is absolutely essential that there be an investigation and that the truth come out. We simply can't afford to let the cynicism in this city deepen any further.

A poster on MassLive tonight said that Chelan is a forgiving person and that's why she's not pursuing a complaint. She can be forgiving all she wants, but we need the truth. If, for example, someone working against her hacked into her site, we need to know that to put doubts to rest. Another scenario: if someone on her campaign designed the website and borrowed text that seemed to represent what he/she thinks Chelan stands for, it was a terrible mistake, and Chelan could announce it as an unauthorized mistake and move on from there. But her solutions provides no answers to anybody, does us a disservice, and won't satisfy anybody except Chelan's core circle. In the most pragmatic terms, it is not a winning strategy.

For local readers, I want to say here that I decided some months ago that I was going to work on State Rep Ben Swan's re-election campaign. I lived in Ben's district for thirty years and had many opportunities to work with him. I had my cross moments with him last year when I wanted more help from him in pushing ward representation through the Legislature, but overall I couldn't be more satisfied. I also respect his long history as a civil rights activist. Again, another poster on MassLive pointed out all the connections between Ben Swan, his relatives and in-laws who work in various agencies, and funding he has helped secure for them and others . As I've written before about others, I don't think that is a bad thing per se-- it shows a whole family committed to public service-- but it does bear extra scrutiny on the part of the public and extra meticulousness on the part of the public official.

I didn't decide to support Ben because I dislike his opponents, Lorenzo Gaines and Chelan Brown. I've seen them both as up and coming Afican-American young people with the potential to contribute a great deal to Springfield. But Ben has incredible experience and if he has the energy and will to run again, then I support him. (I also think that for two young people who have never held elected office, starting at state rep is more the kind of thing you do to build recognition than to win. I'd prefer to see both of them prove their ability to serve in a smaller venue first.)

Lorenzo I don't know well yet but Chelan I've known since she first ran for mayor at 19. I wrote a story about her-- I think it was for the Advocate-- and passed out some of her literature. My organization, Arise for Social Justice, brought her in to some of our early work, including planning a major criminal justice conference and being a plaintiff in our first ward representation lawsuit. We promoted and supported her boycott of Eastfield Mall after she was arrested there for refusing to leave a food court. I admit it was a disappointment that after she started her own organization, AWAKE, she didn't follow up on other chances for our organizations to work together. But at no time have I ever wished her less than well.

I will say again: we in this city, even in our most cynical and despairing moments, do want to believe in change, do want to believe we can have leaders with integrity. (Otherwise we wouldn't be fooled so many times!) We deserve answers and I think the Chelan Brown campaign should do everything possible to make sure we get them.

Florida man ticketed for wearing a speedo - good thing he wasn't naked!

Don't Tase Me Bro! (rapidly becoming one of my favorite blogs) reported yesterday that a Florida man was ticketed by a Lee County deputy sheriff for wearing a speedo on Bonita Beach. The man had been coming to the beach for years without problems. Good thing he wasn't nude or he probably would have been arrested.

Every state in the union has laws against indecent exposure (quite rightly) but few of those laws make a distinction between indecent exposure and public nudity, and even where not expressly forbidden, states allow local cities and towns to make their own laws.

Massachusetts laws in their entirety read as follows:

CHAPTER 272. CRIMES AGAINST CHASTITY, MORALITY, DECENCY AND GOOD ORDER

Chapter 272: Section 16 Open and gross lewdness and lascivious behavior

Section 16. A man or woman, married or unmarried, who is guilty of open and gross lewdness and lascivious behavior, shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for not more than three years or in jail for not more than two years or by a fine of not more than three hundred dollars.

Chapter 272: Section 53 Penalty for certain offenses

Section 53. Common night walkers, common street walkers, both male and female, common railers and brawlers, persons who with offensive and disorderly acts or language accost or annoy persons of the opposite sex, lewd, wanton and lascivious persons in speech or behavior, idle and disorderly persons, disturbers of the peace, keepers of noisy and disorderly houses, and persons guilty of indecent exposure may be punished by imprisonment in a jail or house of correction for not more than six months, or by a fine of not more than two hundred dollars, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

Maybe it'll be a while before public nudity, but what about TopFreedom?

Every summer I head to the National Seashore at Cape Cod and every summer, at least once, I am struck with the unfairness of not being able to take the top of my bathing suit off.. Whatever "look the other way" attitude that may have existed in the 60's and 70's has long since faded away. Last year, in fact, rangers issued more citations for public nudity than ever before, even employing ambush tactics by leaping from behind dunes (yikes!) and at least once citing a person who had called a warning to another, topless woman that a ranger was approaching.

Three Canadian provinces-- British Columbia, Manitoba and Ontario-- have explicit laws allowing women to go topfree, as do some states and municipalities. You might get away with going topfree on the California coast and in Maine, New York, Ohio and Texas, as well as Boulder, Colorado and South Beach, Miami Beach, Florida.
However, you can be arrested for disturbing the peace.

Many European countries, of course, as well as Australia, have a high tolerance for female toplessness on beachs and in parks and public swimming pools.

The Topfree Equal Rights Association is a Canadian organization promoting legal changes to allow women to go topfree without arrest.

Just about any woman who has breastfed a child knows how utterly ridiculous laws against going topfree really are. Some women have been arrested for breastfeeding in public, or kicked off airplanes, or made to leave malls and restaurants.

If you haven't thought about this issue much, think about it. What would it take for you to be comfortable with topfree women at beaches and parks? .

Mistaken order of hard lemonade cases state to remove 7 year old boy

Boing Boing turned me on to a great site today called Don't Tase Me, Bro!-- a blog on the state of civil liberties and personal freedom.

Today's post is the story of a University of Michigan professor who took his 7 year old son to a baseball game and bought him a lemonade-- a Mike's hard lemonade, as it turns out. Dad had never heard of it and didn't know there was alcohol in it. A security guard saw it and turned him in to Child Protective Services, who promtly took possession of his son. Check it out.