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Between the Lines
"Between the Lines" is a national, half-hour program that provides a platform for individuals and spokespersons from progressive organizations generally ignored or marginalized by the mainstream media.
“The troubling thing about Ferguson is that we get focused on young black men – and no question that young black men are a group that is targeted. But there are people of color; brown folk suffer under abuse because of immigration and other issues, black women suffer, poor people suffer. So we have to be about building that movement.”
– Interview with Kevin Alexander Gray, author and activist, on the “Ferguson October,” “Weekend of Resistance” protests.
‘Ferguson October’ Civil Disobedience Protests Target Police Violence in Communities of Color Nationwide
Interview with Kevin Alexander Gray, writer and activist, conducted by Scott Harris
Two months after the August day that Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old African-American was shot to death by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, a “Weekend of Resistance” was launched to focus public attention on the urgent need to address police violence in communities of color. The rallies, marches, and civil disobedience actions – known as “Ferguson October” – drew thousands of activists locally and from around the nation. Just two days before the protests were scheduled to get underway, another 18-year-old African American, Vonderrit Myers was shot and killed by an off-duty police officer in St. Louis. Police say that Myers shot at the officer first, but his family members maintain he was unarmed.
The protesters staged actions in both Ferguson and St. Louis at multiple sites that included police headquarters, City Hall, a political fundraiser, a university campus and a Walmart store. Religious and union leaders were among the activists who demanded the arrest and prosecution of Darren Wilson, the police officer who shot Michael Brown. Professor Cornel West, a well-known activist and author who participated in a civil disobedience action modeled on the Moral Monday movement, was arrested with 49 others at the Ferguson Police Department.
At an interfaith rally the night before, young activists expressed frustration at the tepid protest tactics practiced by their elders, maintaining that more militant action was needed to confront police violence and the lack of accountability. “Missouri is the new Mississippi,” said Tef Poe, a young St. Louis hip-hop artist and Hands Up United organizer. Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with activist and author Kevin Alexander Gray, co-editor of the new book, “Killing Trayvons: An Anthology of American Violence.” Here, Gray assesses the most recent round of protests in Missouri – and the growing movement to confront police violence nationwide.
To read more of Kevin Alexander Gray’s writings, visit http://thenewliberator.wordpress.com.
Related Links:
- Interview with Kevin Alexander Gray, conducted by Scott Harris, Counterpoint, Oct. 13, 2014 (18:51)
- Hands Up United at handsupunited.org, group organizing ‘Ferguson October’ actions
- “Protesters stage sit-in at St. Louis University,” St. Louis Today, Oct. 13, 2014
- “Cornel West Arrested in Ferguson,” Huffington Post, Oct. 13, 2014
- “Protesters’ unity collapses as tensions rise,” MSNBC, Oct. 12,
- “Killing Trayvons,” CounterPunch.org
- “On Leak Prosecutions, Obama Takes it to 11. (Or Should We Say 526?” ACLU
- “James Risen is not going to let the US fear-mongering machine win in secret,” The Guardian, Oct. 15, 2014
- “New York Times Reporter James Risen Finds ‘Crazy Is The New Normal’ In War On Terror,” Huffington Post, Oct. 14, 2014
- “Speed Read: James Risen Indicts The War On Terror’s Costly Follies,” The Daily Beast, Oct. 14, 2014
- “Hands Up! Don’t Shoot!”: Gesture, Choreography and Protest in Ferguson,” The Feminist Wire, October 2014
- “Interfaith gathering calling for end to police violence brings hundreds to arena,” St. Louis Today, Oct. 12, 2014
Report on Abuse of Adolescent Inmates in New York Draws Attention to Juvenile Justice System Crisis
Posted Oct. 15, 2014
Interview with Josh Rovner, state advocacy associate with the Sentencing Project, conducted by Melinda Tuhus
In August, the U.S. attorney for Manhattan, Preet Bharara, issued a report charging that the New York City Department of Correction had systematically violated the civil rights of young male prisoners, 16 to 18 years old, held at Rikers Island, by failing to protect them from the rampant use of unnecessary and excessive force by abusive correction officers.The report described a “deep-seated culture of violence” against youthful inmates at the jail complex, perpetrated by guards who operated with little fear of punishment. It singled out for blame a “powerful code of silence” among the Rikers Island prison staff, along with a virtually useless system for investigating charges against guards made by inmates. The report found that the result was a “staggering” number of injuries among adolescent inmates.
U.S. attorney Bharara warned that if the city did not work cooperatively to develop new policies and procedures, the Justice Department could file a federal lawsuit asking a judge to order the imposition of remedies. On the date the report was issued, Aug. 4, Bharara gave the city 49 days to respond to the investigation’s findings. Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Josh Rovner, state advocacy associate with The Sentencing Project, who talks about the investigation and the larger problem of criminally charging teenagers as adults and taking a hard line on minor offenses.
JOSH ROVNER: I would say that many of the problems at Rikers are larger than any one site. The federal investigation revealed things that shocked the conscience, but one would have to be blind to think that those abuses are unique to the three buildings that the (project) happened to investigate. They didn’t even look at the girls’ prisons. We can talk about what they did find. They found a deep-seated culture of violence. That’s not the prisoners; that’s the guards, and those guards had little fear of being punished.
BETWEEN THE LINES: New York is one of only two states that treat 16-year-olds as adults in the criminal justice system. What impact do you think that may have had on the level of violence directed against them?
JOSH ROVNER: New York state is one of just two states to treat everyone over 16 as an adult. North Carolina is the other. And I think it’s important to get this exactly correct. New York state says if you’re accused of a crime at 16, you’re an adult. But you’re still a teenager when you apply for a driver’s license, if you want to get married or buy alcohol or cigarettes. When it comes to the justice system, they’re willing to make an exception; 16-year-olds are occasionally adults in NYS. All the science disagrees with this view; adolescent brains are still developing. Even teenagers who do make mistakes though, do have a capacity for reform. Teenagers are not little adults.
BETWEEN THE LINES: Until a few years ago, Connecticut also considered 16- and 17-year-olds adults in the criminal justice system. Do you have any comparative data on New York and Connecticut since the change?
JOSH ROVNER: Connecticut did raise the age back in 2007. They passed a law, and that went into effect on New Year’s Day, 2010. Connecticut joined the mainstream on that, and did their crime go up? No! Juvenile arrest rates in Connecticut fell from 22,000 in 2008 to 13,000 in 2011 – that’s the last year for which there’s data, and that’s a 41 percent drop. Let’s compare that to NYS: 2008, there were 102,000 arrests; 2011, 120,000 arrests of juveniles; that’s an 18 percent increase. Being tough on crime doesn’t work. These are federal counts, and they count juveniles as being 10 to 17 years old, 17 inclusive, so whether the state is treating juveniles as juveniles, they’re still counted under the federal data.
BETWEEN THE LINES: So the U.S. attorney’s office issued a report, and the New York Times also did an expose on the issue…
JOSH ROVNER: I think what is so awful about this study is that we discovered that the data that was available is completely inadequate. The teenagers were afraid to report what was happening. The New York Times in their additional study found that corrections officials had sanitized the data – that’s a polite way of saying they lied, that the abuses and fights and beatings were even worse. The teenagers don’t report the abuse for fear of retribution. So the data that we have is incomplete. The federal report issued 80 recommendations; I think the most important is removing teenagers entirely from Rikers; that system is broken for juveniles.
BETWEEN THE LINES: Josh Rovner, does the government report suggest where these teens should be held?
JOSH ROVNER: They ought to be in community-based programs closer to home. The New Yorker had this remarkable piece about Kalief Browder, 16 years old. He was being investigated for stealing a backpack; the police said he stole it; Kalief said he didn’t. This is what we have courts for. And he sat at Rikers Island for three years because of the backlog of cases. The question of whether we need to be locking up low-level offenders in the first place is a key question.
BETWEEN THE LINES: What other of the 86 recommendations do you think are the most important?
JOSH ROVNER: You know, they also recommended taking teenagers out of solitary confinement, which is something that all the adolescent development experts would agree with as well. Mayor DiBlasio announced in fact they are going to end solitary confinement for teenagers there, as of Dec. 31. When the announcement was made, there were 51 teenagers in solitary confinement at Rikers. Kids can be put into solitary confinement for things like horseplay, talking back and having more clothing than they’re entitled to. It was something that was being completely abused. One thing I find very interesting in all of this is that the mayor’s office has said that this change to solitary confinement was not in response to this report. I’m really wondering when it is that the mayor is going to respond to this report. There was a deadline of late September; we are now about two weeks past that deadline. Has anyone been fired, disciplined, reassigned? The mayor’s office hasn’t said so, and even worse, the warden and deputy warden of the facility have been promoted. It’s an outrage. When you have a broken system and you’re looking at that many recommendations, there’s a lot to be done. It really starts with moving kids out of the facility and not locking up low-level offenders in the first place.
Find more information on The Sentencing Project at sentencingproject.org.
Related Links:
- “U.S. Inquiry Finds a ‘Culture of Violence’ Against Teenage Inmates at Rikers Island,” New York Times, Aug. 4, 2014
- “Investigation of the New York City Department of Correction Jails on Rikers Island,” New York Times, Aug. 4, 2014
- “Rikers Officials Are Torturing Children, City Council Members Say,” Gothamist, Oct. 8, 2014
- “Stolen backpack accusation sends high school student to jail for three years without a trial,” New Yorker magazine, Oct. 6, 2014
- “Brutal Treatment of Kids at Rikers Island Jail ‘Inspired by Lord of the Flies,’ Says DOJ,” Alternet, Aug. 5, 2014
U.S. Government’s Prosecution of Investigative Reporter James Risen Threatens Freedom of the Press
Posted Oct. 15, 2014
Interview with Norman Solomon, author and activist, conducted by Scott Harris
For more than six years, New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter and author James Risen has been the target of federal prosecutors for his refusal to disclose his sources. The Department of Justice has ordered Risen to testify against one of his alleged sources, former CIA agent Jeffrey Sterling, who it is believed provided the journalist with confidential information regarding a failed CIA operation to sabotage Iran’s nuclear weapons program, which was published in Risen’s 2006 book, “State of War.” Thus far, Risen has refused to cooperate with prosecutors and identify his source, stating that he would rather go to jail than give up everything he believes in.An article published on the front page of the Nation magazine on Oct. 8 titled, “The Government War Against Reporter James Risen,” examines the Obama administration’s pattern of retaliating against independent journalists and whistle-blowers, which the authors say undermines freedom of the press, an essential foundation for a healthy democracy. The article written by RootsAction.org co-founder Norman Solomon and Marcy Wheeler asserts that the prosecution of Risen and Sterling is designed to conceal controversial and embarrassing aspects of U.S. foreign policy from the American people – and intimidate future government whistle-blowers and journalists who would tell their stories.
During six years of the Obama administration, whistle-blower investigations opened under the 1917 Espionage Act is more than double the number of those conducted in all previous presidential administrations combined. In recent months, more than 100,000 people have signed a petition demanding that the federal government stop its prosecution of James Risen. Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Norman Soloman, a former California congressional candidate, author and activist, who talks about why he believes the prosecution of James Risen constitutes a threat to all journalists and press freedom.
Norman Solomon is also the author of “War Made Easy, How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning us to Death.” Read more of Norman Solomon’s columns at normonsolomon.com.
Related Links:
- Interview with Norman Soloman, conducted by Scott Harris, Counterpoint, Oct. 13, 2014 (14:42)
- Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press at rcfp.org
- Committee to Protect Journalists at cpj.org
- “The Government War Against Reporter James Risen,” The Nation, Oct. 8, 2014
- Press conference with James Risen and his supporters (Video) at C-SPAN, Aug. 14, 2014
- “On Leak Prosecutions, Obama Takes it to 11. (Or Should We Say 526?” ACLU
- “James Risen is not going to let the US fear-mongering machine win in secret,” The Guardian, Oct. 15, 2014
- “New York Times Reporter James Risen Finds ‘Crazy Is The New Normal’ In War On Terror,” Huffington Post, Oct. 14, 2014
- “Speed Read: James Risen Indicts The War On Terror’s Costly Follies,” The Daily Beast, Oct. 14, 2014
- “James Risen prepared to ‘Pay Any Price’ to Report on ‘War on Terror(ism)’ Amid Crackdown on Whistleblowers,” (extended interview) Democracy Now!, Oct. 14, 2014
- “Press Freedom Groups Rally For Journalist James Risen, Who Faces Jail Time for Refusing to Reveal Sources,” Between The Lines, Aug. 20, 2014
- “Free press groups petition Attorney General on behalf of journalist James Risen,” Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press, Aug. 14, 2014
- “We Support James Risen Because We Support a Free Press,” Roots Action, Aug. 14, 2014
- “An Assault from Obama’s Escalating War on Journalism,” Roots Action, May 29, 2014
- “Press freedom groups file petition to halt legal action against N.Y. Times reporter,” McClatchy, Aug. 14, 2014
- “Iran serious about nuclear deal, says senior Israeli intelligence official,” IntelNews, June 11, 2014
- “James Risen To Journalists: ‘Surrender Or Fight’ Against Government,” Huffington Post, Nov. 28, 2013
- “House Approves Amendment To Protect Journalists From Revealing Sources,” Huffington Post, May 30, 2014
- “National security reporter honored by first-amendment group,” Boston Globe, Feb. 8, 2014
This week’s summary of under-reported news
Compiled by Bob Nixon
- Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta is the world’s first head of state to appear before the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Kenyatta, who was indicted two years ago for his role in post-election violence in 2007, was elected in 2013. He recently appeared before a “status conference” where prosecutors claimed the Kenyan government was withholding evidence in the war crimes case. (“Why are Kenyan leaders at The Hague,” BBC, Oct. 8, 2014; “Prosecutors ‘failed’ to make case against Kenya’s president,” Reuters, Oct. 8, 2014; “Why Kenya’s president came to the International Criminal Court—and that’s a problem for the ICC,” Washington Post blog, Oct. 8, 2014)
- Back in 2010, gay rights activists in the conservative state of Utah expected a decades-long fight to legalize same-sex marriage. Instead, gay marriage is now the law of the land in Utah and many other socially conservative states after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear appeals of gay marriage rulings made by lower courts from the governors of Utah, Oklahoma, Indiana, Virginia and Wisconsin. (“Utah same-sex marriage campaigners savor success in mission impossible,” The Guardian, Oct. 8, 2014; “Gay marriage advocates hail extraordinary victory after Supreme Court declines to hear appeals,” utah-same-sex-marriage-campaigners-mission-improbable, Guardian, Oct. 6, 2014; “Supreme Court gives tacit win to gay marriage,” New York Times, Oct. 6, 2014)
- After running unsuccessfully for mayor in 2013, former city councilor Dan Samuels, now seeking election to the Minneapolis school board, has attracted large donations from education reform groups backed by billionaires and hedge fund managers. (“Why are Teach for America and a California billionaire investing in a Minnesota school board race?” In These Times, Oct. 7, 2014)
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