If you heard it said once, you'll hear it said again: DON'T MESS WITH TEXAS!
By Eddie Griffin
In the year that Barack Obama became the 44th President of the United States, we caught the wind of emancipation on his coattail, and lifted ourselves from the dregs of political oppression and economic tyranny, by pulling off one of the greatest upsets in Texas red history.
We voted out one of the good ole boys in the state Senate, by the name of Kim Brimer, a man who had represented our community in Austin for years, but whose face we had never seen. Against him, we sent a would-be giant killer, in the person of a sweet and meek city councilwoman named Wendy Davis.
After a bruising campaign fight and a marginal win in the 2008 elections, Wendy Davis took Senate District 10 like Grant took Vicksburg. Afterwards, she immediately became the butt of good ole boy jokes in the Texas Senate.
Gov. Rick Perry called Ms. Davis a “little girl”; and, after she forced the state legislature into overtime special session with her filibuster over education funding, Perry derided her as a pesky “showboat”.
The euphoria of liberation was jeopardized at birth. Almost immediately, the counterattack began, and culminated with a redistricting scheme that sliced and diced Wendy’s base of support until her district resembled a T-Bone pork chop, with all the minority districts carved out from around the bone, leaving her with nothing but the bone.
Wasn't this discriminatory gerrymandering? Didn't this scheme violate the 1964 Voting Rights Act?
Gov. Rick Perry and Texas AG Gregg Abbott literally wagged their fingers in our face and dared us to go to court.
There was a time when all seemed well, with the 2000 census recorded, political boundaries set, and electoral seats rightly apportioned, we would not have need for another redistricting plan until 2010. But then Majority Leader Tom DeLay concocted a mid-census redistricting plan.
In December 2005, the Washington Post reported, "Justice Department lawyers concluded that the landmark Texas congressional redistricting plan spearheaded by Rep. Tom DeLay violated the Voting Rights". (source)
Tom DeLay is now serving prison time, the ill-gotten gains from the 2003 plan were never rectified or corrected, nor could it have been possible after elected officials were seated in office.
It was against this backdrop and history that Wendy Davis was faced with the dilemma of taking the redistricting fight to court. In the meantime, it was apparent that the GOP strong arm tactic was not a simply aimed at running roughshod over SD 10, but a greater aspiration against President Barack Obama. In a state's rights shot across the bough, the Gov. Rick Perry threatened to secede from the Union, as if the slaves of Texas would sit idly by. Nevertheless, the ploy boosted Perry's national profile in his own run for presidency.
The pesky little girl from Senate District 10 was forced to fend for her turf and defend our voting right. Therefore, Wendy Davis filed suit. And in the irony of ignorance, the state Attorney General of Texas, Greg Abbott, used the same argument as before: Allow the state to use the legislature's map for the 2012 elections; and if anything is amiss, then it could be corrected later.
Not so, this time, said the district court.
Had the matter centered only on the newly drawn district, maybe the courts would have bought into the state's plan. But what happened to Senate District 10 was so stark and egregious that the court took the unprecedented initiative to overstep its legal bounds by redrawing the state map, to be favor minority communities, thus putting life back into our dead hopes.
Frantically, the governor and attorney general appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, in Perry v. Davis, more like Goliath v. Davis.
Surely, the U.S. Supreme Court would lay this issue to rest, and declare the Voting Rights Act of 1964 as unconstitutional. That is what the Texas AG would have hoped for. But SCOTUS chose not to tackle the constitutional issue, and remanded the case to the district court for reconsideration.
With the GOP primaries coming on, the Texas AG made a critical mistake. Getting a few minority organizations to sign off on a compromise was not going to wash with other minority groups, and the district courts was not buying it. Something had to give; otherwise, Texas would completely miss out on the GOP presidential primaries.
Like the big fish that bit off more than it could chew, the GOP had to spit out Senate District 10.
Davis: Deal to preserve her state Senate district is 'a tremendous victory'
Posted Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2012
BY AMAN BATHEJA
abatheja@star-telegram.com
State Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, claimed a major political and legal victory Wednesday in the battles over the state's political maps, and a federal judge told Texas officials to prepare for May 29 primary elections, weeks later than April 3, the current date.
The later date threatens to relegate Texas to an afterthought in the Republican presidential primaries. The state was once poised to play a decisive role in the GOP campaign.
When the Texas primaries are finally held, Davis will be running in the district boundaries that were in place when she ousted Republican Sen. Kim Brimer in 2008. State leaders agreed Wednesday to leave the district unchanged for the 2012 elections... (Complete Story)
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
ALERT: Texas AG push for Voter ID law for 2012 Election
& Texas Redistricting assails Voting Rights Act
A Media Watch Report by Eddie Griffin
The conspiracy to retain political power by voter suppression cannot be summed up in a sentence of two. It takes observation over an extended period of time to discern the pattern and gather the proof.
Prelude: The Texas Attorney General seems insistent and in a hurry to implement a series of voter suppression laws, including a voter ID law, before the general election in 2012.
Texas attorney general asks federal court to OK voter ID law, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, January 24, 2012
Attorney General Greg Abbott asked a federal court Monday to clear the way for the state's voter ID law to go into effect without waiting for a Justice Department decision on whether the law discriminates against minorities.
The Obama administration is hostile to laws such as the one passed last year in Texas that require would-be voters to show an approved photo identification card before getting a ballot, Abbott said.
Abbott filed suit in a Washington court against U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and the Justice Department...
"Texas should be allowed the same authority other states have to protect the integrity of elections," Abbott said. "To fast-track that authority, Texas is taking legal action in a D.C. court seeking approval of its voter identification law."
[NOT SO FAST, Cowboy]
Minority groups have complained that the law is intended to discourage voting among the poor and elderly, who are less likely to have a driver's license. In 1965 Congress created the Voting Rights Act, and the section requiring Texas to seek pre-clearance for new election laws, because Texas and other Southern states enforced laws designed to keep minorities from voting.
NOTE: Herein is one in a pattern of voting suppression laws sweeping the nation. The excuse for passing voter identification laws is based upon false fear that, somehow, undocumented immigrants would illegally participate in the elections.
It smells, but it sells. And many states have implemented a rash of new laws like those in Texas, requiring additional proof of citizenship, such as driver’s licenses or pictured IDs.
Also, cropping up are new redistricting lines that disenfranchise minority communities that cannot muster passage under the 1965 Civil Rights Voting Rights Act.
Texas Attorney General Gregg Abbott is asking the courts, in both cases, to allow Texas to implement its rules in the interim, in time for the 2012 primaries; and then, if there are violations, let the courts sort it out later. By then, later would be too late.
The logic of this thinking would be like asking the courts to permit the rape, and then sort out the damage later, after the election, after elected parties are seated.
WOULD THE COURTS ALLOW HISTORY TO REPEAT ITSELF?
So far, neither the federal district court, nor the U.S. Supreme Court, have allowed the legislature’s plan to go forward, unchallenged and unabated And, the third court in the district of Washington, D.C. only agreed to hear the controversy because there was obviously something wrong with the legislature’s map, as drawn.
This legal challenge is currently going into its sixth day of hearings, as of this writing.
WHERE DO WE STAND NOW? SCOTUS threw out both district court proposed map and that of the legislature. The State of Texas would have opted for the Court to allow its map to serve as interim for the 2012 elections. But as it stands, there are no maps, no established districts, and no set primary date. Everything is still up in the air.
HOW DID WE GET HERE? By gerrymandering, this minority-majority district was stolen by hook and crook, at the hand of former GOP House leader Tom DeLay, who conspired and illegally laundered corporate money from one hand to hand, to be used to gain a majority in the House seats in the U.S. Congress. He was later convicted and imprisoned, but the ill-gotten gain was never recovered, and our district never rectified.
[Enclosed are attachments to the full reference transcripts. Below is a summary.]
Posted Saturday, Nov. 27, 2010, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
"This is an abuse of power," Tom DeLay said Wednesday after an Austin jury found him guilty of politically inspired money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The former U.S. House majority leader and power broker from Sugar Land has maintained that the charges against him were politically motivated, and he vowed to continue fighting on appeal.
The verdict came more than five years after DeLay was indicted for his actions in helping the campaigns of seven Republicans running for the Texas House in 2002. Six of them were elected, helping the GOP achieve its first majority in that body since Reconstruction.
The Legislature, with DeLay's guidance, then pushed through a redistricting plan that helped Texas Republicans gain more seats in Congress.
Gerrymandering of voting districts for political advantage is wrong. It's distasteful. It's a deliberate distortion of the electoral process. But it is not illegal -- sadly, it's even expected as a way for the party in power to maintain or increase its power.
But the case against DeLay was not about redistricting. It was about money and the way he used money in the political process.
So when DeLay decried "the criminalization of politics" after the verdict came in, he was saying that it's wrong to accuse someone of a criminal act for doing something that's accepted in the world of politics.
NOTE: Translate “criminalization of politics” into a state’s right defense. In other words, though the gerrymandered districts were created by a crime, it could not be undone. Therefore, we had to live with the consequence. Even more, the State defends the ill-gotten gain in court.
In December 2005, the Washington Post reported, Justice Department lawyers concluded that the landmark Texas congressional redistricting plan spearheaded by Rep. Tom DeLay violated the Voting Rights Act, according to a previously undisclosed memo" uncovered by the newspaper. The document, endorsed by six Justice Department attorneys, said “the redistricting plan illegally diluted black and Hispanic voting power in two congressional districts.”
Posted Saturday, May 14, 2011, Fort Worth Star-Telegram Editorial
All it takes is a glance at the proposed redistricting map for the Texas Senate to know, especially as it pertains to Tarrant County, it is just plain wrong.
The 104,703 residents of southeast Fort Worth, Forest Hill and Everman, 78.2 percent of them black or Hispanic, would be pulled out of Sen. Wendy Davis' District 10 and moved to Sen. Brian Birdwell's 80.7 percent Anglo District 22, which extends south beyond Waco.
"What were they thinking?" jumps to mind. "How could they be so stupid? Isn't that a blatant violation of the Voting Rights Act, and won't the Justice Department or the courts throw this out immediately?"
But give it some time. Remember that the people who came up with this plan are definitely not stupid...
Anyone who watched the 2003 redistricting drama directed by then-U.S. House Majority Leader and now convicted felon Tom DeLay knows the people who do this sort of thing are both smart and crafty.
Republicans painted a target on Democrat Davis the moment she beat one of their valued insiders, 20-year legislator Kim Brimer, in the 2008 general election. Davis and everyone else who follows local politics knew that, this year, she would be hit with a redistricting blast that would make it very hard for her to win again.
That means separating her from the people who delivered the votes she needed to topple Brimer. And that would be the minority communities southeast of downtown and on the near north side.
NOTE: The minority communities southeast of downtown referenced above is us, the core community of U.S. District 33. It is the most focused upon district in the case that went before the Supreme Court and back to the District Court. It is this district that is the more likely to be successfully challenged against the state’s plan.
WHAT IS IMPORTANT about U.S. District 33? Property records dating back to the 1870s will show this area was owned and occupied by mostly African-Americans. It is the seat of the historic Colored Downtown area and just to the east was Cowanville, now Stop Six.
The north side portion of District 33 was occupied by Tejano Mexicans and Native Americans. In the 1870s, Fort Worth was still referred to a fort city, and many indigent people in the area and freedmen found refuge under the banner of federal Union troops.
But there has always been a reminisce of the Confederacy holding stronghold over minorities’ right to vote in the area, which was why blacks formed alliances with their brown, red, and white neighbors to elected representatives that best suited their collective interest. But increasingly dividing this political districts into smaller and smaller pieces, Tom DeLay succeeded into splitting the community into Five Easy Pieces scattered all over creation.
Posted Saturday, May 14, 2011, Fort Worth Star-Telegram Editorial
The new map shows the southeast's black neighborhoods going to Birdwell and the north side Hispanic areas going to District 12, represented by Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound. Davis is left with a district that is even more white and Republican.
"Partisan greed," she says of the plan, promising a court battle.
But it's not about her, she says. It's about "the human impact of the decisions being made." Fort Worth's minority neighborhoods "will no longer have the opportunity to elect someone who will be that voice for them."
She's right: It is all about the voters. And those minority neighborhoods would be swallowed up and outnumbered by rural Republicans.
The Voting Rights Act is harsh on discrimination by redistricting, but standards of proof are high, or at best hard to pin down.
Davis will have to show that minority groups in her district are large and geographically compact, that they are politically cohesive and vote as a bloc, and that Anglos vote in a bloc in numbers high enough that they usually defeat minorities.
Having only been elected in District 10 once, a narrow victory amid heavy turnout for Democrat Barack Obama's presidential bid, she has no history there to fall back on.
She'll have to show how a new, compact district could be drawn with new population numbers.
There's a long road ahead for this redistricting plan. It will be a difficult one for Davis, and whether she's right at first glance won't really matter once the court fight begins.
Posted Wednesday, Jan. 04, 2012
BY LINDA P. CAMPBELL
Texas' Republican leaders dislike the Voting Rights Act.
No revelation there.
Republicans also supposedly despise having unelected "activist" judges supersede the will of elected representatives.
Heard that broken record.
But if the state's lawyers could entice the Supreme Court to use Texas redistricting as a tool for smacking down Section 5 of the act before the 2012 elections?
Read more… http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/01/04/3635125/texas-redistricting-brief-argues.html
COMMENTARY by Eddie Griffin
The Texas AG Gregg Abbott is not satisfied having the state locked up in three difference sets of courts. Now he goes after U.S. AG Eric Holder in another federal court and a demand for rush-rush judgment.
There should be a warning sign in Austin for Governor Rick Perry and his Attorney General, something to the effect about biting off more than a state can chew.
First, no matter how much they hate the 1965 Voting Rights Act, by seeking compliance and approval through the D.C., rather than the U.S. Justice Department, the state de facto acknowledge the legality of the Act and the validity of its provisions. Therefore, Texas prohibited itself from going after the Act, insofar as it cannot amend it original complaint.
Second, the map will change, but by how much, we do not know. It will most certainly not be like the state legislature’s map. In this respect, the State will lose something. It must concede more political turf to the minority communities.
Third, it crunch time for elections in Texas, and the issue of maps and voter identification are still unresolved. No candidate can get on the ballot without a map. The more pressure to get these issues resolved the less time and patience for more debate. And, after all, with Texas being Red as Hell, who cares if we ever vote in 2012, if they kill District 33?
A Media Watch Report by Eddie Griffin
The conspiracy to retain political power by voter suppression cannot be summed up in a sentence of two. It takes observation over an extended period of time to discern the pattern and gather the proof.
Prelude: The Texas Attorney General seems insistent and in a hurry to implement a series of voter suppression laws, including a voter ID law, before the general election in 2012.
Texas attorney general asks federal court to OK voter ID law, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, January 24, 2012
Attorney General Greg Abbott asked a federal court Monday to clear the way for the state's voter ID law to go into effect without waiting for a Justice Department decision on whether the law discriminates against minorities.
The Obama administration is hostile to laws such as the one passed last year in Texas that require would-be voters to show an approved photo identification card before getting a ballot, Abbott said.
Abbott filed suit in a Washington court against U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and the Justice Department...
"Texas should be allowed the same authority other states have to protect the integrity of elections," Abbott said. "To fast-track that authority, Texas is taking legal action in a D.C. court seeking approval of its voter identification law."
[NOT SO FAST, Cowboy]
Minority groups have complained that the law is intended to discourage voting among the poor and elderly, who are less likely to have a driver's license. In 1965 Congress created the Voting Rights Act, and the section requiring Texas to seek pre-clearance for new election laws, because Texas and other Southern states enforced laws designed to keep minorities from voting.
NOTE: Herein is one in a pattern of voting suppression laws sweeping the nation. The excuse for passing voter identification laws is based upon false fear that, somehow, undocumented immigrants would illegally participate in the elections.
It smells, but it sells. And many states have implemented a rash of new laws like those in Texas, requiring additional proof of citizenship, such as driver’s licenses or pictured IDs.
Also, cropping up are new redistricting lines that disenfranchise minority communities that cannot muster passage under the 1965 Civil Rights Voting Rights Act.
Texas Attorney General Gregg Abbott is asking the courts, in both cases, to allow Texas to implement its rules in the interim, in time for the 2012 primaries; and then, if there are violations, let the courts sort it out later. By then, later would be too late.
The logic of this thinking would be like asking the courts to permit the rape, and then sort out the damage later, after the election, after elected parties are seated.
WOULD THE COURTS ALLOW HISTORY TO REPEAT ITSELF?
So far, neither the federal district court, nor the U.S. Supreme Court, have allowed the legislature’s plan to go forward, unchallenged and unabated And, the third court in the district of Washington, D.C. only agreed to hear the controversy because there was obviously something wrong with the legislature’s map, as drawn.
This legal challenge is currently going into its sixth day of hearings, as of this writing.
WHERE DO WE STAND NOW? SCOTUS threw out both district court proposed map and that of the legislature. The State of Texas would have opted for the Court to allow its map to serve as interim for the 2012 elections. But as it stands, there are no maps, no established districts, and no set primary date. Everything is still up in the air.
HOW DID WE GET HERE? By gerrymandering, this minority-majority district was stolen by hook and crook, at the hand of former GOP House leader Tom DeLay, who conspired and illegally laundered corporate money from one hand to hand, to be used to gain a majority in the House seats in the U.S. Congress. He was later convicted and imprisoned, but the ill-gotten gain was never recovered, and our district never rectified.
[Enclosed are attachments to the full reference transcripts. Below is a summary.]
Posted Saturday, Nov. 27, 2010, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
"This is an abuse of power," Tom DeLay said Wednesday after an Austin jury found him guilty of politically inspired money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The former U.S. House majority leader and power broker from Sugar Land has maintained that the charges against him were politically motivated, and he vowed to continue fighting on appeal.
The verdict came more than five years after DeLay was indicted for his actions in helping the campaigns of seven Republicans running for the Texas House in 2002. Six of them were elected, helping the GOP achieve its first majority in that body since Reconstruction.
The Legislature, with DeLay's guidance, then pushed through a redistricting plan that helped Texas Republicans gain more seats in Congress.
Gerrymandering of voting districts for political advantage is wrong. It's distasteful. It's a deliberate distortion of the electoral process. But it is not illegal -- sadly, it's even expected as a way for the party in power to maintain or increase its power.
But the case against DeLay was not about redistricting. It was about money and the way he used money in the political process.
So when DeLay decried "the criminalization of politics" after the verdict came in, he was saying that it's wrong to accuse someone of a criminal act for doing something that's accepted in the world of politics.
NOTE: Translate “criminalization of politics” into a state’s right defense. In other words, though the gerrymandered districts were created by a crime, it could not be undone. Therefore, we had to live with the consequence. Even more, the State defends the ill-gotten gain in court.
In December 2005, the Washington Post reported, Justice Department lawyers concluded that the landmark Texas congressional redistricting plan spearheaded by Rep. Tom DeLay violated the Voting Rights Act, according to a previously undisclosed memo" uncovered by the newspaper. The document, endorsed by six Justice Department attorneys, said “the redistricting plan illegally diluted black and Hispanic voting power in two congressional districts.”
Posted Saturday, May 14, 2011, Fort Worth Star-Telegram Editorial
All it takes is a glance at the proposed redistricting map for the Texas Senate to know, especially as it pertains to Tarrant County, it is just plain wrong.
The 104,703 residents of southeast Fort Worth, Forest Hill and Everman, 78.2 percent of them black or Hispanic, would be pulled out of Sen. Wendy Davis' District 10 and moved to Sen. Brian Birdwell's 80.7 percent Anglo District 22, which extends south beyond Waco.
"What were they thinking?" jumps to mind. "How could they be so stupid? Isn't that a blatant violation of the Voting Rights Act, and won't the Justice Department or the courts throw this out immediately?"
But give it some time. Remember that the people who came up with this plan are definitely not stupid...
Anyone who watched the 2003 redistricting drama directed by then-U.S. House Majority Leader and now convicted felon Tom DeLay knows the people who do this sort of thing are both smart and crafty.
Republicans painted a target on Democrat Davis the moment she beat one of their valued insiders, 20-year legislator Kim Brimer, in the 2008 general election. Davis and everyone else who follows local politics knew that, this year, she would be hit with a redistricting blast that would make it very hard for her to win again.
That means separating her from the people who delivered the votes she needed to topple Brimer. And that would be the minority communities southeast of downtown and on the near north side.
NOTE: The minority communities southeast of downtown referenced above is us, the core community of U.S. District 33. It is the most focused upon district in the case that went before the Supreme Court and back to the District Court. It is this district that is the more likely to be successfully challenged against the state’s plan.
WHAT IS IMPORTANT about U.S. District 33? Property records dating back to the 1870s will show this area was owned and occupied by mostly African-Americans. It is the seat of the historic Colored Downtown area and just to the east was Cowanville, now Stop Six.
The north side portion of District 33 was occupied by Tejano Mexicans and Native Americans. In the 1870s, Fort Worth was still referred to a fort city, and many indigent people in the area and freedmen found refuge under the banner of federal Union troops.
But there has always been a reminisce of the Confederacy holding stronghold over minorities’ right to vote in the area, which was why blacks formed alliances with their brown, red, and white neighbors to elected representatives that best suited their collective interest. But increasingly dividing this political districts into smaller and smaller pieces, Tom DeLay succeeded into splitting the community into Five Easy Pieces scattered all over creation.
Posted Saturday, May 14, 2011, Fort Worth Star-Telegram Editorial
The new map shows the southeast's black neighborhoods going to Birdwell and the north side Hispanic areas going to District 12, represented by Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound. Davis is left with a district that is even more white and Republican.
"Partisan greed," she says of the plan, promising a court battle.
But it's not about her, she says. It's about "the human impact of the decisions being made." Fort Worth's minority neighborhoods "will no longer have the opportunity to elect someone who will be that voice for them."
She's right: It is all about the voters. And those minority neighborhoods would be swallowed up and outnumbered by rural Republicans.
The Voting Rights Act is harsh on discrimination by redistricting, but standards of proof are high, or at best hard to pin down.
Davis will have to show that minority groups in her district are large and geographically compact, that they are politically cohesive and vote as a bloc, and that Anglos vote in a bloc in numbers high enough that they usually defeat minorities.
Having only been elected in District 10 once, a narrow victory amid heavy turnout for Democrat Barack Obama's presidential bid, she has no history there to fall back on.
She'll have to show how a new, compact district could be drawn with new population numbers.
There's a long road ahead for this redistricting plan. It will be a difficult one for Davis, and whether she's right at first glance won't really matter once the court fight begins.
Posted Wednesday, Jan. 04, 2012
BY LINDA P. CAMPBELL
Texas' Republican leaders dislike the Voting Rights Act.
No revelation there.
Republicans also supposedly despise having unelected "activist" judges supersede the will of elected representatives.
Heard that broken record.
But if the state's lawyers could entice the Supreme Court to use Texas redistricting as a tool for smacking down Section 5 of the act before the 2012 elections?
Read more… http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/01/04/3635125/texas-redistricting-brief-argues.html
COMMENTARY by Eddie Griffin
The Texas AG Gregg Abbott is not satisfied having the state locked up in three difference sets of courts. Now he goes after U.S. AG Eric Holder in another federal court and a demand for rush-rush judgment.
There should be a warning sign in Austin for Governor Rick Perry and his Attorney General, something to the effect about biting off more than a state can chew.
First, no matter how much they hate the 1965 Voting Rights Act, by seeking compliance and approval through the D.C., rather than the U.S. Justice Department, the state de facto acknowledge the legality of the Act and the validity of its provisions. Therefore, Texas prohibited itself from going after the Act, insofar as it cannot amend it original complaint.
Second, the map will change, but by how much, we do not know. It will most certainly not be like the state legislature’s map. In this respect, the State will lose something. It must concede more political turf to the minority communities.
Third, it crunch time for elections in Texas, and the issue of maps and voter identification are still unresolved. No candidate can get on the ballot without a map. The more pressure to get these issues resolved the less time and patience for more debate. And, after all, with Texas being Red as Hell, who cares if we ever vote in 2012, if they kill District 33?
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Black Women of Europe: Best of the Best
The First Story to catch a gleam in my eye was “Black Women in Europe™: Power List 2011 – A List of Our Own”.
WOW! I was awestruck by the list of accomplished black women in Europe, and the fact that they identify themselves as such, “Black Women in Europe”.
In an age where there is a paucity of black women role models, these are the cream of the crop.
These are tough acts to follow, Girls.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOSUNhMCJlM&feature=channel_video_title
RECOMMENDED: TO FWISD All Girls Academy
WOW! I was awestruck by the list of accomplished black women in Europe, and the fact that they identify themselves as such, “Black Women in Europe”.
In an age where there is a paucity of black women role models, these are the cream of the crop.
These are tough acts to follow, Girls.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOSUNhMCJlM&feature=channel_video_title
RECOMMENDED: TO FWISD All Girls Academy
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Eddie Griffin Defends Tatum against Star-Telegram Bias
Jill Labbe, Editorial Director of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, leaves a bad taste in my mouth by something she wrote in her editorial, “Scramble starts for new congressional seat” (November 26, 2011).
An unnecessarily bias commentary on the candidacy of Pastor Kyev Tatum for the newly redrawn U.S. District 33, Jill Labbe writes:
African-Americans do, which could be why the Rev. Kyev Tatum also is eyeing a run.
He doesn't have a prayer against Veasey or Hicks, but even being mentioned in the same breath gives the community activist legitimacy beyond the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
"We need someone in that district who is concerned about the issues of the neighborhood," Tatum told the Star-Telegram's PoliTex reporters Friday.
Note to Tatum: Neighborhood issues are the real estate of the City Council. Perhaps a run for one of those seats would be a better place to launch into the world of elected representation.
What does Jill Labbe imply? First of all, Tatum does have a prayer, at least from Eddie Griffin. He is a good brother and dear friend, a comrade with me in battle, and a man faithful in support and defense of our community and one who comes to aid in times of crisis. He has been a voice for the voiceless and has drawn public attention to many issues that would otherwise have gone uncovered.
Does Labbe imply that this grand Office of U.S. District 33 is too big for Tatum, that maybe he should first cut his political teeth at the City Council level?
How arrogant an assessment! It’s insulting!
Maybe Jill Labbe should begin with a Planet Earth perspective. What is U.S. District 33, but a minor piece in a bigger mosaic? Even more, District 33 is now our little piece of the rock. After all, it’s our 'hood. We have monolithic demographics (seen one, seen them all), a community of mutual common interests, 66% minority (thanks be, if the court decision stands). Again, I would say: This is our turf, our neighborhood.
How then can Labbe prejudge the internal workings of ‘hood politics? By demeaning and insulting Pastor Tatum, she demeans and insults all us hood rats. [I speak for Zip 76104]. Put the zip codes together, Labbe. The Election of 2012 will be a district-by-district dog fight, back to the White House.
District 33 is just a small piece of a bigger puzzle, a link in the chain of our access to real political power.
Historically, Zip code area 76104 (the Historical African-American district) and adjacent minority communities of similar demographics were carved up like a chicken, and divided among Republican-dominated districts. Thereby, they dominated and dictated our socio-economic future. It must be remembered that Zip 76104, once the world class Mecca of the African-America, is now the poorest district of all the districts, with the highest infant mortality rate, and the highest concentration of poverty and despair. Contrary to its outward appearance, however, it has one of the lowest crime rates, because of men on the ground like Pastor Kyev Tatum.
What we need is hope, not more politics as usual. We will take this district ourselves for ourselves, and determine our own destiny.
Therefore, I endorse the candidacy of Pastor Kyev Tatum because he is the most fitting piece in the big puzzle, in a grander scheme to reelect President Barack Obama.
District 33 is a passionate, enthusiastic, and energetic community that loves the incumbent President Barack Obama. And, quiet as it is kept, our ‘hood benefited somewhat from the Obama's Economic Stimulus Plan. [I know. Eat your hearts out.] But we would want more. We deserve more than the under-representation we have been receiving.
We would turn District 33 into a central command center for solving community problems.
In the meantime, Washington, D.C. can have its gridlock. But District 33 would become a gridlock buster, no thanks to Labbe.
And even so, as big as Washington, D.C. may seem to be, it is but a speck on Planet Earth. No matter what powers there be, are they not ordained from above?
Eddie Griffin, BASG
An unnecessarily bias commentary on the candidacy of Pastor Kyev Tatum for the newly redrawn U.S. District 33, Jill Labbe writes:
African-Americans do, which could be why the Rev. Kyev Tatum also is eyeing a run.
He doesn't have a prayer against Veasey or Hicks, but even being mentioned in the same breath gives the community activist legitimacy beyond the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
"We need someone in that district who is concerned about the issues of the neighborhood," Tatum told the Star-Telegram's PoliTex reporters Friday.
Note to Tatum: Neighborhood issues are the real estate of the City Council. Perhaps a run for one of those seats would be a better place to launch into the world of elected representation.
What does Jill Labbe imply? First of all, Tatum does have a prayer, at least from Eddie Griffin. He is a good brother and dear friend, a comrade with me in battle, and a man faithful in support and defense of our community and one who comes to aid in times of crisis. He has been a voice for the voiceless and has drawn public attention to many issues that would otherwise have gone uncovered.
Does Labbe imply that this grand Office of U.S. District 33 is too big for Tatum, that maybe he should first cut his political teeth at the City Council level?
How arrogant an assessment! It’s insulting!
Maybe Jill Labbe should begin with a Planet Earth perspective. What is U.S. District 33, but a minor piece in a bigger mosaic? Even more, District 33 is now our little piece of the rock. After all, it’s our 'hood. We have monolithic demographics (seen one, seen them all), a community of mutual common interests, 66% minority (thanks be, if the court decision stands). Again, I would say: This is our turf, our neighborhood.
How then can Labbe prejudge the internal workings of ‘hood politics? By demeaning and insulting Pastor Tatum, she demeans and insults all us hood rats. [I speak for Zip 76104]. Put the zip codes together, Labbe. The Election of 2012 will be a district-by-district dog fight, back to the White House.
District 33 is just a small piece of a bigger puzzle, a link in the chain of our access to real political power.
Historically, Zip code area 76104 (the Historical African-American district) and adjacent minority communities of similar demographics were carved up like a chicken, and divided among Republican-dominated districts. Thereby, they dominated and dictated our socio-economic future. It must be remembered that Zip 76104, once the world class Mecca of the African-America, is now the poorest district of all the districts, with the highest infant mortality rate, and the highest concentration of poverty and despair. Contrary to its outward appearance, however, it has one of the lowest crime rates, because of men on the ground like Pastor Kyev Tatum.
What we need is hope, not more politics as usual. We will take this district ourselves for ourselves, and determine our own destiny.
Therefore, I endorse the candidacy of Pastor Kyev Tatum because he is the most fitting piece in the big puzzle, in a grander scheme to reelect President Barack Obama.
District 33 is a passionate, enthusiastic, and energetic community that loves the incumbent President Barack Obama. And, quiet as it is kept, our ‘hood benefited somewhat from the Obama's Economic Stimulus Plan. [I know. Eat your hearts out.] But we would want more. We deserve more than the under-representation we have been receiving.
We would turn District 33 into a central command center for solving community problems.
In the meantime, Washington, D.C. can have its gridlock. But District 33 would become a gridlock buster, no thanks to Labbe.
And even so, as big as Washington, D.C. may seem to be, it is but a speck on Planet Earth. No matter what powers there be, are they not ordained from above?
Eddie Griffin, BASG
Friday, November 4, 2011
A Day of Peace
in concert with the international Blog Day for Peace
November 4, 2011
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men (Luke 2:14)
Today, we give glory to God for the creation of the Day. We pray that the blessings of Peace reside upon you and grace to all men. We wish you well.
Although some may be troubled by the current affairs of this world, there is still peace to be found, and it is the kind of peace that surpasses all understanding.
The passage in Psalm 34:14 says “Seek peace, and pursue it.”
But how can we pursue the illusive? Why does peace evade us so? Lest we forget, the psalmist said first, “Depart from evil, and do good.”
The greatest enemy of peace lies within. As the apostle James said: What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? (James 4:1 NIV)
It is hard to keep peace with others in the world, when we cannot find peace within ourselves. The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace (James 3:18). Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the Children of God (Matthew 5:9).
We must make peace in order to gain peace, first making peace with ourselves.
The quest for peace, on the other hand, does not leave us defenseless. We are not blinded by the stars of idealism as to believe that all is good and well among men. For we have seen man at his worst. But we are not troubled by the battles of life. We have One who fights our battle, and He is the Prince of Peace.
Beyond the veil of blue, the Conquer went forth riding on a White Horse. (Revelation 6:2) Victory is assured to those in his army who ride with him. They are arrayed in white.
The Lord fights our battle for us. He takes vengeance out of our hands and reserved it for Himself. Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord. (Romans 12:19)
Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. (Psalm 24:8)
Who is the Prince of Peace?
Lest we forget the Star of the East, lest we forget that Bright and Morning Star, let us be reminded this season: For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6
Though men may search the whole world over for peace, they cannot find this illusive state outside the Prince of Peace who gives us the peace beyond human understanding.
November 4, 2011
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men (Luke 2:14)
Today, we give glory to God for the creation of the Day. We pray that the blessings of Peace reside upon you and grace to all men. We wish you well.
Although some may be troubled by the current affairs of this world, there is still peace to be found, and it is the kind of peace that surpasses all understanding.
The passage in Psalm 34:14 says “Seek peace, and pursue it.”
But how can we pursue the illusive? Why does peace evade us so? Lest we forget, the psalmist said first, “Depart from evil, and do good.”
The greatest enemy of peace lies within. As the apostle James said: What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? (James 4:1 NIV)
It is hard to keep peace with others in the world, when we cannot find peace within ourselves. The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace (James 3:18). Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the Children of God (Matthew 5:9).
We must make peace in order to gain peace, first making peace with ourselves.
The quest for peace, on the other hand, does not leave us defenseless. We are not blinded by the stars of idealism as to believe that all is good and well among men. For we have seen man at his worst. But we are not troubled by the battles of life. We have One who fights our battle, and He is the Prince of Peace.
Beyond the veil of blue, the Conquer went forth riding on a White Horse. (Revelation 6:2) Victory is assured to those in his army who ride with him. They are arrayed in white.
The Lord fights our battle for us. He takes vengeance out of our hands and reserved it for Himself. Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord. (Romans 12:19)
Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. (Psalm 24:8)
Who is the Prince of Peace?
Lest we forget the Star of the East, lest we forget that Bright and Morning Star, let us be reminded this season: For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6
Though men may search the whole world over for peace, they cannot find this illusive state outside the Prince of Peace who gives us the peace beyond human understanding.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
The Trouble Signs of Mass Incarceration
By Eddie Griffin
An October 26, 2011 Star-Telegram editorial reads: “Signs of trouble were apparent at a Hood County juvenile detention facility before the death of a 14-year-old detainee this month.”
The story of what happened to young Jordan Adams, a middle school student who died in his cell at the Granbury Regional Juvenile Justice Center, is symptomatic of the problems with for-profit private detention facilitates for underage offenders.
The editorial speculates “perhaps because too many local and state officials see the for-profit juvenile centers in Texas as a positive economic alternative to government-run institutions for troubled youths.” Notwithstanding, the article points out the repugnancy of transferring juvenile detainees from the State, by adjudication in a court of law, into the hands of private for-profit contractors, and how easily then that the State abdicates its legal obligations and responsibilities to house, feed, and care for these young offenders who were committed to their oversight. Privateers not so bound by law to the same standard of care.
That the trouble signs at the Granbury facilities should have been apparent is an understatement compared to all the previous complaints of youth-on-youth assaults, supervisory neglect and physical and sexual abuse, and which came on the heels of a 2007 investigation that revealed widespread corruption, brutal practices, and sexual exploitation of young inmates throughout Texas Youth Commission (TYC) facilities.
After extensive investigations, resignation of the entire TYC board, and prosecution of several officials, the public was then assured by members of the Texas legislature that these abuses and neglect would not happen again. At the same time, we began a long and arduous task of trying to keep our children out of these facilities, and free those who deserved to be free, setting up a reentry support system to help reintegrate former offenders back into society.
Nonetheless, our social objective runs counter to the profit motives of the Prison Industrial Complex, which relies on bed occupancy in detention facilities. Corporations like the GEO Group and Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) promote prison-building, enter into facility management contracts with state and national government, and supply detention staff by locals. The illusion is job-creation and community enrichment.
A former CCA officer wrote: "I work as a correctional officer at the Corrections Corporation of America in Winnfield, Louisiana and I have an interview with GEO Group Inc for a correctional officer in Jena Louisiana. I was wondering what prison do you think is better to work for? Corrections Corporation is low tech understaffed and pays a dollar above minimum wage and GEO pays $11.27 hr."
Correctional officers for private corporations are underpaid and overworked. Even more, to further squeeze profits out of their contracts, they skimp on the cost and care. It is no wonder, therefore, that the Granbury facility has recorded some 250 complaints and 133 cases of juvenile suicide attempts.
In an earlier Star-Telegram report, Hood County juvenile center, originally designed as a public-private partnership that would not cost taxpayers any money, had problems from the start. A coalition that included the county and a detention management corporation built the $6.5 million facility through the sale of tax-exempt certificates of participation (bonds). In a convoluted scheme, the management group was to lease the facility back to the county, then rent the place to operate a juvenile detention center that would pay off the bonds… The private corporation floundered almost immediately when the daily census was far less than the 78 juveniles it needed to be "profitable." The county took over the operation for a while and then closed the facility because it was too costly, resulting in a downgrade of the county's bond rating by Standard & Poor's.
Such is the fate of communities who bank on prison populations and corporations that depend on filling prison bed space. Many Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) facilities are scrambling for detainees in order to make their operations solvent. The negligence found at Granbury is repeated all over again at other for-profit detention facilities.
These problems cannot be fixed so long as profits are squeezed out of facility operations. The promise of jobs and commercial traffic into little prison towns are tenuous, because there are no guarantees in prison population growth projection, and mass incarceration is not a societal aim. Therefore, prisons must decline with deceasing headcount and bed occupancy. There simply is no profit in it.
Realizing that prison-building is a bad investment in our quest toward a healthy, law-abiding society, we see this trend as a losing proposition, whereupon the State must bit the bullet assigned to it by law, to assume the cost, responsibilities, and liabilities for neglect, abuse, and death of inmates placed in its care.
An October 26, 2011 Star-Telegram editorial reads: “Signs of trouble were apparent at a Hood County juvenile detention facility before the death of a 14-year-old detainee this month.”
The story of what happened to young Jordan Adams, a middle school student who died in his cell at the Granbury Regional Juvenile Justice Center, is symptomatic of the problems with for-profit private detention facilitates for underage offenders.
The editorial speculates “perhaps because too many local and state officials see the for-profit juvenile centers in Texas as a positive economic alternative to government-run institutions for troubled youths.” Notwithstanding, the article points out the repugnancy of transferring juvenile detainees from the State, by adjudication in a court of law, into the hands of private for-profit contractors, and how easily then that the State abdicates its legal obligations and responsibilities to house, feed, and care for these young offenders who were committed to their oversight. Privateers not so bound by law to the same standard of care.
That the trouble signs at the Granbury facilities should have been apparent is an understatement compared to all the previous complaints of youth-on-youth assaults, supervisory neglect and physical and sexual abuse, and which came on the heels of a 2007 investigation that revealed widespread corruption, brutal practices, and sexual exploitation of young inmates throughout Texas Youth Commission (TYC) facilities.
After extensive investigations, resignation of the entire TYC board, and prosecution of several officials, the public was then assured by members of the Texas legislature that these abuses and neglect would not happen again. At the same time, we began a long and arduous task of trying to keep our children out of these facilities, and free those who deserved to be free, setting up a reentry support system to help reintegrate former offenders back into society.
Nonetheless, our social objective runs counter to the profit motives of the Prison Industrial Complex, which relies on bed occupancy in detention facilities. Corporations like the GEO Group and Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) promote prison-building, enter into facility management contracts with state and national government, and supply detention staff by locals. The illusion is job-creation and community enrichment.
A former CCA officer wrote: "I work as a correctional officer at the Corrections Corporation of America in Winnfield, Louisiana and I have an interview with GEO Group Inc for a correctional officer in Jena Louisiana. I was wondering what prison do you think is better to work for? Corrections Corporation is low tech understaffed and pays a dollar above minimum wage and GEO pays $11.27 hr."
Correctional officers for private corporations are underpaid and overworked. Even more, to further squeeze profits out of their contracts, they skimp on the cost and care. It is no wonder, therefore, that the Granbury facility has recorded some 250 complaints and 133 cases of juvenile suicide attempts.
In an earlier Star-Telegram report, Hood County juvenile center, originally designed as a public-private partnership that would not cost taxpayers any money, had problems from the start. A coalition that included the county and a detention management corporation built the $6.5 million facility through the sale of tax-exempt certificates of participation (bonds). In a convoluted scheme, the management group was to lease the facility back to the county, then rent the place to operate a juvenile detention center that would pay off the bonds… The private corporation floundered almost immediately when the daily census was far less than the 78 juveniles it needed to be "profitable." The county took over the operation for a while and then closed the facility because it was too costly, resulting in a downgrade of the county's bond rating by Standard & Poor's.
Such is the fate of communities who bank on prison populations and corporations that depend on filling prison bed space. Many Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) facilities are scrambling for detainees in order to make their operations solvent. The negligence found at Granbury is repeated all over again at other for-profit detention facilities.
These problems cannot be fixed so long as profits are squeezed out of facility operations. The promise of jobs and commercial traffic into little prison towns are tenuous, because there are no guarantees in prison population growth projection, and mass incarceration is not a societal aim. Therefore, prisons must decline with deceasing headcount and bed occupancy. There simply is no profit in it.
Realizing that prison-building is a bad investment in our quest toward a healthy, law-abiding society, we see this trend as a losing proposition, whereupon the State must bit the bullet assigned to it by law, to assume the cost, responsibilities, and liabilities for neglect, abuse, and death of inmates placed in its care.
Friday, August 12, 2011
Kids For Cash Juvenile Judge Sentence to 28 Years
Mass Incarceration: Naïve Juveniles go into Court looking for Justice and Mercy, while Judge looks for Kickbacks for sending them to prison
Former Luzerne County Juvenile Court Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. was sentence to 28 years in prison for his part in the “Kids For Cash” kickback scandal. A second juvenile judge, Michael Conahan, pleaded guilty last year and awaits sentencing. The two were accused of taking more than $2.8 million in bribes from the builder of the PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care detention centers and extorting hundreds of thousands of dollars from the facilities' co-owner.
According to accusations, Ciavarella “filled the beds of the private lockups with children as young as 10, many of them first-time offenders convicted of petty theft and other minor crimes.”
“The defendant argues he didn’t sell juveniles retail. We agree with that. He was selling them wholesale,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Zubrod, maintaining that the jury found Ciavarella guilty of a racketeering conspiracy for being part of a scheme to extract cash from the construction and operation of the two for-profit centers.
As a result of the corruption case, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court tossed about 4,000 convictions issued by Ciavarella between 2003 and 2008, saying he violated the constitutional rights of the juveniles, including the right to legal counsel and the right to intelligently enter a plea.
Fellow former Judges Conahan and Michael T. Toole both pleaded guilty to criminal charges last year as investigators untangled a web of corruption. A number of other public officials were caught in the probe as well, including the county's court administrator, the clerk of courts and a member of the juvenile probation services office.
While The Legal had previously reported that sources had tied Conahan to mobsters, following Ciavarella's trial Zubrod said that the investigation into Conahan and Ciavarella's activities "sprang from" a probe of reputed mobster William "Billy" D'Elia.
The case of the juvenile court judge accused of trading kids for cash has garnered national and international press coverage, spawned an ongoing corruption probe that has led to more than 30 arrests and spurred the state Supreme Court to dismiss thousands of Ciavarella's court rulings.
COMMENTARY by Eddie Griffin
Some people may see this case as an aberration and isolated, one-of-a-kind, corruption case that could only happen in Pennsylvania. What people overlook is who is the real beneficiary in the scheme, the ones receiving the bribes and kickbacks, or the one paying them?
The Prison Industrial Complex feeds on incarceration. The more prison beds occupied the more profits for the corporations that build and manage facilities.
Where paying bribes and kickbacks to juvenile justice officials may not be the normal way of doing business, they are instrumental in “get tough” policies, “zero tolerance” and longer prison sentence advocacy.
The irony in the above case is that it began with an investigation into mobster activities. There is an ominous sense of danger for those involved. Once graft is accepted from mobsters, the next bribe cannot be rejected. And so, the corrupt scheme builds upon itself, until there is a steady stream of juveniles going into prison, for little or no offense, as some investigations revealed.
Child Rights advocates cannot stop the pipeline other than warn juveniles to stay out of the juvenile justice system. Any other intervention, such as revealing the truth behind the corruption, can lead to terminal consequences.
So for now, all we can say is: Keep You Hand Out of the Lion’s Mouth.
Former Luzerne County Juvenile Court Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. was sentence to 28 years in prison for his part in the “Kids For Cash” kickback scandal. A second juvenile judge, Michael Conahan, pleaded guilty last year and awaits sentencing. The two were accused of taking more than $2.8 million in bribes from the builder of the PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care detention centers and extorting hundreds of thousands of dollars from the facilities' co-owner.
According to accusations, Ciavarella “filled the beds of the private lockups with children as young as 10, many of them first-time offenders convicted of petty theft and other minor crimes.”
“The defendant argues he didn’t sell juveniles retail. We agree with that. He was selling them wholesale,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Zubrod, maintaining that the jury found Ciavarella guilty of a racketeering conspiracy for being part of a scheme to extract cash from the construction and operation of the two for-profit centers.
As a result of the corruption case, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court tossed about 4,000 convictions issued by Ciavarella between 2003 and 2008, saying he violated the constitutional rights of the juveniles, including the right to legal counsel and the right to intelligently enter a plea.
Fellow former Judges Conahan and Michael T. Toole both pleaded guilty to criminal charges last year as investigators untangled a web of corruption. A number of other public officials were caught in the probe as well, including the county's court administrator, the clerk of courts and a member of the juvenile probation services office.
While The Legal had previously reported that sources had tied Conahan to mobsters, following Ciavarella's trial Zubrod said that the investigation into Conahan and Ciavarella's activities "sprang from" a probe of reputed mobster William "Billy" D'Elia.
The case of the juvenile court judge accused of trading kids for cash has garnered national and international press coverage, spawned an ongoing corruption probe that has led to more than 30 arrests and spurred the state Supreme Court to dismiss thousands of Ciavarella's court rulings.
COMMENTARY by Eddie Griffin
Some people may see this case as an aberration and isolated, one-of-a-kind, corruption case that could only happen in Pennsylvania. What people overlook is who is the real beneficiary in the scheme, the ones receiving the bribes and kickbacks, or the one paying them?
The Prison Industrial Complex feeds on incarceration. The more prison beds occupied the more profits for the corporations that build and manage facilities.
Where paying bribes and kickbacks to juvenile justice officials may not be the normal way of doing business, they are instrumental in “get tough” policies, “zero tolerance” and longer prison sentence advocacy.
The irony in the above case is that it began with an investigation into mobster activities. There is an ominous sense of danger for those involved. Once graft is accepted from mobsters, the next bribe cannot be rejected. And so, the corrupt scheme builds upon itself, until there is a steady stream of juveniles going into prison, for little or no offense, as some investigations revealed.
Child Rights advocates cannot stop the pipeline other than warn juveniles to stay out of the juvenile justice system. Any other intervention, such as revealing the truth behind the corruption, can lead to terminal consequences.
So for now, all we can say is: Keep You Hand Out of the Lion’s Mouth.
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