RSN: Protests Expected as Chicago Police Release Video of Officer Shooting Black Teen in the Back, Eve Ensler | Yazidi Activist Nadia Murad Speaks Out on the 'Holocaust' of Her People in Iraq,

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Eve Ensler | Yazidi Activist Nadia Murad Speaks Out on the 'Holocaust' of Her People in Iraq 
 
Eve Ensler, TIME 
Ensler writes: "Today is the two-year anniversary of the Sinjar Massacre in northern Iraq. On that date it is estimated that 10,000 Yazidis were killed or enslaved. In the recent Chilcot inquiry in Britain on the war in Iraq, intelligence reports show that ISIS 'was formed during the Iraq war of 2003 as the country and its institutions were dismantled and disenfranchised Iraqis were led to sectarianism.' This makes the West, particularly the U.S. and U.K., accountable for the crimes that have followed." 
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Protests Expected as Chicago Police Release Video of Officer Shooting Black Teen in the Back 
Dan Hinkel and Jeremy Gorner, Chicago Tribune 
Hinkel and Gorner write: "Videos from the fatal shooting of teenager Paul O'Neal by Chicago police show officers firing into a car that was being driven away from them and, later, officers handcuffing O'Neal as he lay wounded behind a home." 
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Israeli Company That Helped Build Gaza's Wall Says Wall Along US-Mexico Border Would Be Useless 
Zaid Jilani, The Intercept 
Jilani writes: "An Israel-based security company that provided intrusion detection technology for the barrier between Israel and the Gaza Strip has offered to help Donald Trump secure the U.S. border - but suggests that building an actual wall along every section of the border is not the way to go." 
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Rio Braces for Protests on Opening Day of Olympics
teleSUR 
Excerpt: "Three different anti-coup political fronts representing dozens of groups opposed to the government of Michel Temer announced Thursday that they will stage a united protest on the opening day of the 2016 Summer Olympic Games." 
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Microsoft Pitches Technology That Can Read Facial Expressions at Political Rallies 
Alex Emmons, The Intercept 
Emmons writes: "On the 21st floor of a high-rise hotel in Cleveland, in a room full of political operatives, Microsoft's Research Division was advertising a technology that could read each facial expression in a massive crowd, analyze the emotions, and report back in real time. 'You could use this at a Trump rally,' a sales representative told me." 
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Minorities Have Worse Mental Health Due to Racial Discrimination 
Cristina Silva, International Business Times 
Silva writes: "Racism is bad for ethnic minorities' mental health, new research has found. The study from academics at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom released Wednesday found repeated racial discrimination can result in poor mental and physical health." 
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Rio Has Not Seen the Environmental Benefits Olympic Organizers Promised 
Lisandra Paraguassu and Leonardo Goy, Reuters 
Excerpt: "Brazil's top government finance and spending regulator is expected to report in the coming months that Rio de Janeiro will receive almost none of the environmental benefits promised by organizers of the 2016 Olympic Games."
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RSN: 10 Reasons Why #DemExit Is Serious: Getting Rid of Debbie Wasserman Schultz Is Not Enough, Barrett Brown, Freedom of the Press, and the Failed Shield Law

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10 Reasons Why #DemExit Is Serious: Getting Rid of Debbie Wasserman Schultz Is Not Enough
 
Sophia A. McClennen, Salon 
McClennen writes: "Here are 10 reasons why the #DemExit movement has a valid reason to want nothing to do with the DNC. Having DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz resign is not enough for #DemExit supporters because their concerns run throughout the ranks of the DNC." 
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In Missouri, Ferguson Is Still Burning 
Maggie Severns, Politico 
Severns writes: "For many people in Missouri, especially the approximately 600,000 Republicans who expect to vote in the GOP primary Tuesday, the lesson of Ferguson is not that the police used too much force, it's that it used too little. Ferguson, to them, was an embarrassment: preventable chaos that tarnished the name of the otherwise orderly St. Louis suburbs." 
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Barrett Brown, Freedom of the Press, and the Failed Shield Law 
Ali Salaam, Mint Press News 
Salaam writes: "The American government has no interest in protecting press freedom. They just want to protect the press that serves the agenda of war and limit the political conversation to only the two parties. " 
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Three Chicago Officers Stripped of Duty After Teen Shot in Back 
teleSUR 
Excerpt: "Three Chicago police officers have been stripped of their law enforcement authority after shooting and killing a young Black man with a bullet to his back in an incident where 'departmental policies may have been violated,' police said Saturday." 
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Feminist Writer Jessica Valenti Quits Twitter After "Rape and Death Threat" Against 5-Year-Old Daughter 
Women in the World, The New York Times 
Excerpt: "Feminist author and columnist Jessica Valenti has announced she is taking a break from social media after waking up this week to 'a rape and death threat' to her young daughter. 'This morning I woke up to a rape and death threat directed at my 5-year-old daughter. That this is part of my work life is unacceptable,' Valenti wrote, in a series of tweets." 
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Opponents Target North Carolina Transgender Bathroom Law 
Colleen Jenkins, Reuters 
Jenkins writes: "North Carolina is the only state in the country to mandate that people use multiple-occupancy public restrooms and changing facilities that correspond with the sex on their birth certificate rather than their gender identity, placing it at the forefront of the latest civil rights frontier in America." 
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Kurt Vonnegut's 1988 Letter to the Future More Relevant Today Than Ever Before 
Kick Kennedy, EcoWatch 
Kennedy writes: "In 1988, my then Hyannis Port neighbor the late Kurt Vonnegut wrote a prescient letter to the Earth's planetary citizens of 2088 for Volkswagen's TIME magazine ad campaign. His seven points of advice are perhaps more relevant today than at any time in human history. We should keep this advice in mind this election year and adopt Vonnegut's recommendations while we still can." 
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RSN: Coal Companies' Secret Funding of Climate Science Denial Exposed, John Kiriakou | Clapper Backs Congress Down Again, Feinstein Helps

Please subscribe to and support Independent Media....it may be your only source for TRUTH! 

Reader Supported News | 14 April 16

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On Donations a Nice Start, and a Dead Stop

We were very gratified with the way the February funding drive began. With good response from small and large donors alike it appeared we would finish relatively quickly. Unfortunately we have stalled and now nothing is coming in. So far we received 220 donations for the month and served 481,635 readers in that same time period. Donate, it's painless and Reader Supported News grows stronger.

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John Kiriakou | Clapper Backs Congress Down Again, Feinstein Helps 
 
John Kiriakou, Reader Supported News 
Kiriakou writes: "Feinstein, who actually showed some courage when she took on CIA director John Brennan over the CIA spying on Senate staff members and over the Senate Torture Report, should be ashamed of herself. At least, she should be embarrassed that the DNI humiliated her by essentially telling her to go fly a kite." 
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Journalist Sentenced to 24 Months in Prison After Hacking-Related Conviction 
Cyrus Farivar, Ars Technica 
Farivar writes: "Keys was accused of handing over a username and password for former employer KTXL Fox 40's content management system (CMS) to members of Anonymous and instructing people there to 'fuck some shit up.' Ultimately, that December 2010 incident resulted in someone else using those credentials to alter a headline and sub-headline on a Los Angeles Times article. The changes lasted for 40 minutes before editors reversed them." 
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Black Lives Matter Shuts Down Chicago Expressway Over Police Killing of Teen 
Andrew V. Pestano, UPI 
Pestano writes: "Traffic on Chicago's Eisenhower Expressway was disrupted Tuesday night when a Black Lives Matter vigil held over the death of a 16-year-old boy turned into a march." 
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Bernie Sanders Stands With Verizon Workers on Strike 
Paola Chavez, Veronica Stracqualursi and Mary Alice Parks, ABC News 
Excerpt: "Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders joined nearly 40,000 Verizon workers who are on strike in New York City after the communications company and unions representing the workers failed to reach a labor agreement." 
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Senate Bill Would Force Companies Like Apple to Unlock iPhones Anytime a Judge Says So 
Jose Pagliery, CNN 
Pagliery writes: "The leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee, seeking to empower police nationwide, have unveiled a draft bill that would force companies like Apple to unlock iPhones anytime a judge says so." 
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Eva Golinger: I Believe There Is a Strong Possibility Chavez Was Assassinated 
teleSUR 
Excerpt: "I believe there is a very strong possibility that President Chavez was assassinated. There were notorious and documented assassination attempts against him throughout his presidency." 
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Coal Companies' Secret Funding of Climate Science Denial Exposed 
Elliott Negin, Union of Concerned Scientists 
Negin writse: "Peabody Energy - the nation's largest investor-owned coal company - declared bankruptcy Wednesday. Among the many consequences: the company's court-ordered disclosures are likely to yield hard evidence of Peabody's direct links to climate science denial." 
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Chicago's Cover Up of Police Execution! Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is WRONG!

Most police officers serve with pride and perform professionally. 
Let's not pretend they all do! 

Chicago has endorsed and supported police torture and killings. 
There is no way for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to pretend! 

In April, the Chicago Tribune revealed Van Dyke’s name and his history of civilian complaints—including several brutality complaints, one of which cost the city $500,000 in a civil lawsuit—none of which resulted in any disciplinary action. In May, Carol Marin reported that video from a security camera at a Burger King on the scene had apparently been deleted by police in the hours after the shooting.

“This case shows the operation of the code of silence in the Chicago Police Department,” said Futterman. “From the very start you have officers and detectives conspiring to cover up the story. The question is, why are they not being charged?”

Raw Video: Chicago Police dashcam video of Laquan McDonald shooting

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How Chicago Tried to Cover Up a Police Execution

Curtis Black, Chicago Reporter
Excerpt: "There are an average of 50 police shootings of civilians every year in Chicago, and no one is ever charged. Without the video of Laquan McDonald's shooting, his death would have been just one more of 50 such incidents, where the police blotter defines the narrative and nothing changes."
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t was just about a year ago that a city whistleblower came to journalist Jamie Kalven and attorney Craig Futterman out of concern that Laquan McDonald’s shooting a few weeks earlier “wasn’t being vigorously investigated,” as Kalven recalls. The source told them “that there was a video and that it was horrific,” he said.

Without that whistleblower—and without that video—it’s highly unlikely that Chicago Police officer Jason Van Dyke would be facing first-degree murder charges today.

“When it was first reported it was a typical police shooting story,” Kalven said, where police claim self-defense and announce an investigation, and “at that point the story disappears.” And, typically, a year or 18 months later, the Independent Police Review Authority confirms the self-defense claim, and “by then no one remembers the initial incident.”

“There are an average of 50 police shootings of civilians every year in Chicago, and no one is ever charged,” said Futterman. “Without the video, this would have been just one more of 50 such incidents, where the police blotter defines the narrative and nothing changes.”

Last December, Kalven and Futterman issued a statement revealing the existence of a dash-cam video and calling for its release.  Kalven tracked down a witness to the shooting, who said he and other witnesses had been “shooed away” from the scene with no statements or contact information taken.

In February, Kalven obtained a copy of McDonald’s autopsy, which contradicted the official story that McDonald had died of a single gunshot to the chest. In fact, he’d been shot 16 times—as Van Dyke unloaded his service revolver, execution style—while McDonald lay on the ground.

The next month, the City Council approved a $5 million settlement with McDonald’s family, whose attorneys had obtained the video. They said it showed McDonald walking away from police at the time of the shooting, contradicting the police story that he was threatening or had “lunged at” cops. The settlement included a provision keeping the video confidential.

“The real issue here is, this terrible thing happened, how did our governmental institutions respond?” Kalven said.  “And from everything we’ve learned, compulsively at every level, from the cops on the scene to the highest levels of government, they responded by circling the wagons and by fabricating a narrative that they knew was completely false.”  To him this response is “part of a systemic problem” and preserves “the underlying conditions that allow abuse and shield abuse.”

In April, the Chicago Tribune revealed Van Dyke’s name and his history of civilian complaints—including several brutality complaints, one of which cost the city $500,000 in a civil lawsuit—none of which resulted in any disciplinary action. In May, Carol Marin reported that video from a security camera at a Burger King on the scene had apparently been deleted by police in the hours after the shooting.

“This case shows the operation of the code of silence in the Chicago Police Department,” said Futterman. “From the very start you have officers and detectives conspiring to cover up the story. The question is, why are they not being charged?”

Van Dyke’s history “also shows what happens when the police department consistently chooses not to look at patterns of abuse complaints when investigating misconduct charges,” he adds. This failure “is one of the reasons an officer like Van Dyke has an opportunity to execute a 17-year-old kid.”

Rather than acknowledging the systemic failures, Mayor Rahm Emanuel is now trying to frame the issue as the action of one bad officer, as the Tribune reports.  “One individual needs to be held accountable,” he said Monday.

Kalven calls Emanuel’s “reframing” of the narrative “essentially false.” He points out that “everything we know now, the city knew from Day One. They had the officers on the scene. They knew there were witnesses. They had the autopsy, they had the video.... They maintained a false narrative about those events, and they did it for a year, when it could have been corrected almost immediately....They spent a year stonewalling any calls for transparency, any information about the case.”

He points to Cincinnati, where last summer a university officer was indicted for murder and video from his body camera was released within days following the shooting of an unarmed African-American man in a traffic stop.

“The policy in Cincinnati is that you should release within 24 hours unless there are compelling investigatory reasons to hold on longer,” said Kalven.  “The policy should be that the presumption is that this is public information and it is released as quickly as can reasonably be done, except in cases where there is a genuine and very specific investigatory need to withhold it.”

That’s not the same as waiting until an investigation is concluded. Friday’s ruling that the McDonald video must be released—and the absence of any affidavit from investigators about the need to withhold it—showed that “there was absolutely no legal or investigatory impediment to releasing this” long ago.

“This was an incredible test of leadership, a major challenge to [Emanuel’s] leadership,” Kalven said.  “Think how different the situation would be right now if the city had acknowledged the reality of what happened in the days or weeks after it happened. That would have built confidence.”

And instead of vague and politically self-serving calls for “healing,” it could have begun a real process of accountability of the kind necessary to start addressing the extreme alienation between police and wide segments of our communities.

Instead, with only Van Dyke indicted, it looks like he’s being sacrificed in order to protect the system that created him.

 http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/33685-how-chicago-tried-to-cover-up-a-police-execution

RSN: How Chicago Tried to Cover Up a Police Execution, The Facts About Terrorism, Israel Approves Plan to Evict Thousands of Palestinians for Jewish-Only Cities

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How Chicago Tried to Cover Up a Police Execution 
 
Curtis Black, Chicago Reporter 
Excerpt: "There are an average of 50 police shootings of civilians every year in Chicago, and no one is ever charged. Without the video of Laquan McDonald's shooting, his death would have been just one more of 50 such incidents, where the police blotter defines the narrative and nothing changes." 
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Minneapolis Police Arrest Three in Shooting of Black Lives Matter Protesters 
Libor Jany and David Chanen, Star Tribune 
Excerpt: "Hundreds marched peacefully to City Hall after Monday night's bloodshed in Minneapolis. Now three men are in custody after the attack on Black Lives Matter protesters." 
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Sanders Has Highest Approval in Senate 
Neetzan Zimmerman, The Hill 
Zimmerman writes: "Bernie Sanders is far and away the most popular senator among his own constituents, a new poll reveals." 
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The Man Beaten and Choked at a Donald Trump Rally Tells His Story 
Alice Ollstein, Think Progress 
Ollstein writes: "When activist Mercutio Southall Jr. was curled up on the ground getting kicked, punched, and choked by Donald Trump supporters at a campaign rally in Birmingham, Alabama, he thought, 'I can't die today. I have little kids.'" 
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The Facts About Terrorism 
John Cassidy, The New Yorker 
Cassidy writes: "Putting an end to terrorism, or even containing it, means treating the conditions that give rise to it." 
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Israel Approves Plan to Evict Thousands of Palestinians for Jewish-Only Cities 
teleSUR 
Excerpt: "The Israeli government has approved a plan to build Jewish-only communities in the Negev region displacing Israeli-Palestinian citizens from their villages."
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100% Renewable-Powered World 'Technically Feasible and Economically Viable' by 2030 
Michael Mathres, EcoWatch 
Mathres writes: "Many doubt the scientific, technical, and economic feasibility of achieving 100 percent renewable energy in a single country or even globally. But this vision has never been more realistic than now, according to the latest International Renewable Energy Agency report and a paper written by Stanford University." 
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RSN: Terror Politics, GOP Wants to Block $3 Billion Global Climate Aid, Donald Trump Is as American as the KKK

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Paul Krugman | Terror Politics

Paul Krugman, The New York Times
Krugman writes: "Conventional wisdom on the politics of terror seems to be faring just as badly as conventional wisdom on the politics of everything. Donald Trump went up, not down, in the polls after Paris."
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Chicago Police Officer to Face Murder Charges in Laquan McDonald Shooting
Bill Chappell, NPR
Chappell writes: "More than a year after prosecutors say Officer Jason Van Dyke shot and killed Laquan McDonald, 17, a first-degree murder charge has been filed against the officer."
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ore than a year after prosecutors say Officer Jason Van Dyke shot and killed Laquan McDonald, 17, a first-degree murder charge has been filed against the officer.

McDonald was shot 16 times in October of 2014. Police say he had refused to follow officers' instructions as he walked down a street with a knife, and that he had punctured several cars' tires. An attorney for McDonald's family says he had his back to the officers when he was shot.

"Van Dyke turned himself in to authorities this morning and is scheduled to appear in bond court today at noon," according to a statement from the office of Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez.

If convicted, Van Dyke could face a prison sentence of from 20 years to life.

Update at 2:30 p.m. ET: 'It Is Graphic, It Is Violent'

Noting that a federal investigation is ongoing, Alvarez says that while she had intended to announce the charges against Van Dyke alongside her federal colleagues, the recent court ruling that requires Chicago to release police video of McDonald's death "certainly moved up the timing" of her announcement. But she adds that she had determined her office's charges "weeks ago."

Calling the video everything that media stories about it have suggested, Alvarez said, "It is graphic, it is violent, it is chilling."

Alvarez says she knows that when the video is released, it will "tear at the heart" of many in Chicago – including McDonald's family.

She said she wants people in the city to know that Van Dyke "is being held accountable for his actions."

Update at 2:22 p.m. ET: Details Of The Shooting

When Van Dyke arrived at the scene that night in October, he was there "for less than 30 seconds before he started shooting," Alvarez says at a news conference Tuesday afternoon.

She added that 14-15 seconds passed from the first shot to "clear visual evidence of a final shot" – with McDonald lying on the ground for the bulk of that time.

Citing witnesses who said it seemed McDonald was focused on getting away from, rather than confronting, police, Alvarez says that he did not pose a threat of great bodily harm or death.

Our original post continues:

The Chicago Tribune says it's the first time one of the city's officers "has been charged with first-degree murder for an on-duty fatality in nearly 35 years."

The announcement comes as many in Chicago have been anxiously awaiting the court-ordered release of a dashcam video of the shooting, worried that it could spark unrest in the city.

Ahead of tomorrow's deadline for the footage to be released, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and other community leaders have been calling for calm, while activists are planning protests — including one demonstration that would block a major commercial street on Black Friday.

A recap of the shooting comes from member station WBEZ:

"Officer Jason Van Dyke, who is white, shot McDonald 16 times. He arrived at the scene after other officers had been following the African-American teen as he walked the streets carrying a knife and refusing to follow orders. An autopsy report showed that the hallucinogenic drug PCP was found in McDonald's system, according to the Associated Press. Van Dyke's attorney says the officer feared for his life."

WBEZ adds that Van Dyke, 37, who was put on administrative duty after the shooting, had not received voluntary crisis intervention training, which focuses on options other than force to resolve conflicts.

In April, Chicago's City Council approved a $5 million settlement with McDonald's family, which had not filed a lawsuit.

Emanuel says he hasn't seen the video — but as he called for calm, he also said that from what he has learned about the case, "What happened here is wrong. There is no justification and it's profoundly hideous, in my view."

The Chicago Sun-Times recently filled in some of the details about McDonald's life, relaying the story of a young boy who was twice taken out of his mother's care due to abuse allegations. The newspaper reports that he was a ward of the state when he was killed, and adds that "McDonald was particularly close to his grandmother, Goldie Hunter, and was in her care until she died last year. His daily life seemed to unravel after her death."

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/33675-chicago-police-officer-to-face-murder-charges-in-laquan-mcdonald-shooting

Donald Trump Is as American as the KKK
Kirsten West Savali, The Root
Savali writes: "If a mad scientist locked himself in a laboratory and threw racism, sexism, Islamophobia, xenophobia, imperialism, classism, elitism and delusions of grandeur into a boiling cauldron, the result would be Donald John Trump."
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ACLU Sues Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, Demands State Accept Syrian Refugees
Michael E. Miller, The Washington Post
Miller writes: "First came the war, with its bullets and bombs, so the young Syrian couple fled across the border into Jordan and became refugees. Then came four long, lean years of limbo as they struggled to find a new home for themselves and their baby boy."
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American Hunger-Related Healthcare Costs Exceeded $160 Billion in 2014, New Study
Elizabeth Grossman, In These Times
Grossman writes: "While the official end of the Great Recession is a full five years behind us, there are now nearly 12 million more Americans who lack enough resources to access adequate food than there were in 2007, a number that has only improved slightly since United States food insecurity peaked at over 21 percent in 2009."
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Chemical Weapon White Phosphorous 'Is Being Used in Raqqa Air Strikes' Against ISIS
Adam Withnall, The Independent
Withnall writes: "Chemical weapons are being used in air strikes against Isis in Raqqa, it has been reported. Activists on the ground in the Isis stronghold in Syria have reported the use of the banned substance white phosphorus."
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GOP Wants to Block $3 Billion Global Climate Aid
Timothy Cama, The Hill
Cama writes: "More than 100 House Republicans are joining dozens in the Senate pushing to block President Obama from giving billions of dollars to foreign countries for climate change aid."
READ MORE

RSN: Rubio Trumps Trump: Shut Down Any Place Muslims Gather to Be 'Inspired' - Not Just Mosques, After Budget Cuts, IRS Auditing the Super Rich Less Often, Chicago Braces for Release of Graphic Police Shooting Video

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Matt Taibbi | Thomas Friedman Takes on ISIS 
 
Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone 
Taibbi writes: "Thomas Friedman's 'Cabs, Camels or ISIS' column this week is either a brilliant self-parody, or a plant in the Times by the Pentagon to confuse the Islamic State." 
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Brussels on Highest Alert as Belgian Officials Warn of 'Serious and Imminent' Threat 
William Booth, Anthony Faiola and Emily Badger, The Washington Post 
Excerpt: "The government abruptly shut down the city's subway system, canceled sporting events and warned residents to avoid crowded places as Belgium placed the capital on maximum alert early Saturday, citing a 'serious and imminent' threat of attack." 
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Chicago Braces for Release of Graphic Police Shooting Video 
Fiona Ortiz, Reuters 
Ortiz writes: "Chicago city officials, police and community activists were carefully planning on Friday for release in the coming days of a video of an October 2014 fatal police shooting of a black teenager that is said to be graphic and disturbing." 
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Rubio Trumps Trump: Shut Down Any Place Muslims Gather to Be 'Inspired' - Not Just Mosques 
Kay Steiger, ThinkProgress 
Steiger writes, "Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) seems to be going further than even Republican frontrunner Donald Trump in advocating the crackdown of U.S. Muslims. He doesn't just want to consider shutting down mosques, as Trump says, but wants to shut down 'any place where radicals are being inspired.'" 
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After Budget Cuts, IRS Auditing the Super Rich Less Often 
Gregory Korte, USA TODAY 
Korte: "The Internal Revenue Service is re-evaluating its strategy for auditing high-income taxpayers after an inspector general's report found that it spent more resources on taxpayers making a little more than $200,000 than taxpayers making more than $5 million." 
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Michael Moore: I'll House Syrian Refugees 
Mark Hensch, The Hill 
Hensch writes: "Liberal director Michael Moore said Friday he is willing to shelter Syrian refugees at his Michigan residence. 'I look forward to welcoming Syrians to my home and I wholeheartedly encourage other Americans to do the same,' he wrote on his Facebook page." 
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Monsanto's Roundup: The Whole Toxic Enchilada 
Katherine Paul, Organic Consumers Association 
Paul writes: "Last week, while we waited for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to announce whether or not the agency will give Monsanto's Roundup a free pass by green lighting the use of glyphosate for another 15 years, the EPA's counterpart in Europe made its own big announcement." 
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RSN: 4 Ways to Beat the California Drought and Save the Colorado River, How the Flexible Economy Is Making Workers' Lives Hell

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THIS IS NOT A "FREE WEBSITE." HERE'S WHAT IT IS ... RSN is a project with a purpose. We are doing this to effect change. Every single person at this organization is dedicated to putting an end to the corruption that has become our country. We did not get here on a magic carpet, we took the bus. What we see lacking in America's forth estate today is moral honesty. You know when you come to RSN that you will get the straight story, and the backstory. Think it's not important? Watch any of the political analysis shows on TV. What in the world are they talking about? It's astounding, it's like they are all lobotomized, it's excruciating. Who is going to really challenge this nonsense? We do, every day. When you contribute, that's what you are contributing to. That's what you get for your money. If you hang out ... chip in. We love you. / Marc Ash - Founder, Reader Supported News

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Robert Reich | How the Flexible Economy Is Making Workers' Lives Hell

Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog
Reich writes: "These days it's not unusual for someone on the way to work to receive a text message from her employer saying she's not needed right then."
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Egypt's Former President Mohamed Morsi Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison
Jared Malsin, Guardian UK
Malsin writes: "Egypt's former president Mohamed Morsi has been sentenced to 20 years in prison over the killing of demonstrators outside his palace in 2012, the first verdict to be issued against the country's first freely elected leader."
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Chicago police detective Dante Servin. (photo: John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)

Judge Acquits Chicago Cop in Fatal Off-Duty Shooting, Sparking Anger

By Steve Schmadeke and Jeremy Gorner, Chicago Tribune

24 April 15

n a stunning, abrupt end to the first trial in years of a Chicago police officer for a fatal off-duty shooting, a Cook County judge acquitted the veteran cop Monday on a legal fine point, drawing outrage from the black victim's family and leaders in the African-American community.

Judge Dennis Porter ruled that prosecutors failed to prove that Dante Servin acted recklessly, saying that Illinois courts have consistently held that anytime an individual points a gun at an intended victim and shoots, it is an intentional act, not a reckless one. He all but said prosecutors should have charged Servin with murder, not involuntary manslaughter.

 

Servin cannot be retried on a murder charge because of double-jeopardy protections, according to his attorney, Darren O'Brien.

 

A chaotic scene erupted in the courtroom after the brother of the victim, Rekia Boyd, reacted to Servin's acquittal by standing and taking a few steps toward Servin, angrily shouting, "This (expletive) killed my sister." Family, supporters and sheriff's deputies quickly pulled Martinez Sutton from the courtoom amid shouts and cries over the ruling.

 

Later, as Servin walked from the Leighton Criminal Court Building with about a dozen off-duty Chicago cops flanking him, a crowd of about 40 exploded in anger, following him while yelling "(expletive) murderer" and "shame on you." Someone hurled what appeared to be a lunch bag at the officer as he walked toward a parking garage.

 

"He gets to walk out, he gets to go to his happy life — that's a slap in the face," Sutton, 32, said moments later as tears streamed down his face. "That's just telling me the police can just kill you, go through this little process, take a two- or three-year vacation and then get back on the force like nothing happened."

 

The trial marked a rare criminal prosecution of a Chicago police officer for a fatal shooting, the first trial in nearly two decades. The race of Boyd and the officer — he is white — never became an issue in the trial itself, but it still hung over the proceedings, coming amid a national outcry in recent months over the deaths of unarmed African-Americans at the hands of white police officers in Ferguson, Mo., New York City, Cleveland and elsewhere.

 

The head of the Illinois NAACP said Servin's acquittal will only exacerbate the contentious relationship between police and the African-American community.

 

"This statement — 'I was afraid for my life' — it's got to stop," George Mitchell said of the common justification by police, including Servin, involved in shootings. "It's got to stop now because otherwise what's going to end up happening is that police and the community are going to be at odds completely with each other. And there's no reason for that."

 

Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez issued a statement defending her decision to charge Servin with involuntary manslaughter, saying she was "extremely disappointed" with the judge's decision.

 

"The state's attorney's office brought charges in this case in good faith and only after a very careful legal analysis of the evidence as well as the specific circumstances of this crime," she said.

 

In charging Servin with involuntary manslaughter, prosecutors had alleged he acted recklessly in March 2012 when he fired five shots over his shoulder from inside his car in the direction of four people who had their backs to him in a dark West Side alley.

 

Servin's attorneys said he was in fear for his life after Antonio Cross, one of the four, pulled an object from his waistband, pointed it at Servin and ran toward his car. But police found only a cellphone.

 

Boyd, 22, was fatally shot in the back of the head, while other rounds grazed Cross' hand and hit a signpost. Only Cross was charged in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, but the misdemeanor aggravated assault charge was dropped in March 2013 — on the same day the city formally agreed to pay Boyd's estate $4.5 million to settle a wrongful-death lawsuit.

 

By November 2013, Alvarez charged Servin with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, reckless discharge of a weapon and reckless conduct — the first criminal charges against an off-duty Chicago cop since Gregory Becker was charged in the 1995 killing of a homeless man. A jury convicted Becker in 1997 of armed violence, involuntary manslaughter and official misconduct, and he was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

On Monday, moments before the defense was to put on its evidence on the fourth day of the bench trial, Judge Porter, a veteran of 27 years at the 26th and California courthouse, stunned the packed and tense courtroom by granting a directed verdict, a rarely granted motion.

 

Reading his seven-page ruling from the bench, the judge said there was no dispute that Servin had intended to kill Cross, but under the involuntary manslaughter law, prosecutors had to prove he acted recklessly in the legal sense of the word.

 

"It is easy to say, 'Of course the defendant was reckless. He intentionally shot in the direction of a group of people on the sidewalk. That is really dangerous … and in fact Rekia Boyd was killed. Case closed,' " Porter wrote. "It is easy to think that way, but it is wrong."

 

That's because Illinois law says that intentionally firing a gun at someone on the street "is an act that is so dangerous it is beyond reckless," Porter wrote. "It is intentional and the crime, if any there be, is first-degree murder."

 

Porter acknowledged that it was "perhaps even unfortunate" that neither side would have "closure" on whether Servin was justified in opening fire that night, but he said he had no choice under the law but to dismiss the charges.

 

Before he left the courthouse, Servin, 46, spoke to reporters, saying that he has always maintained that Boyd's death was a tragic accident and offered her family "my deepest sympathies."

 

"I need you to know that my family and I have also suffered greatly during the past three years, and we will continue to suffer," Servin said. "This is something that I will live with for the rest of my life. My job is to save lives and protect people, and from an early age I knew I would be a policeman. And that's why I became a policeman so this is a bigger tragedy."

 

"Any reasonable person, any police officer especially, would've reacted in the exact same manner that I reacted," he said. "And I'm glad to be alive. I saved my life that night. I'm glad that I'm not a police death statistic. Antonio Cross is a would-be cop killer, and that's all I have to say."

 

Bruce Mosbacher, a longtime criminal-defense attorney, defended the judge's legal reasoning as sound and faulted prosecutors for charging Servin with involuntary manslaughter, calling that a "curious" move that led to a "very distasteful result."

 

"They didn't charge what they had," said Mosbacher, who contended the office typically brings first-degree murder charges against those who kill by firing into a crowd. "They charged this as a compromise in an effort to help an otherwise good officer ... (and) in an effort to split the baby, they had a very unjust result."

 

Prosecutors usually charge involuntary manslaughter for accidental deaths such as shooting a family member while cleaning a gun or firing up in the air to celebrate New Year's Eve, he said.

 

Jonathan Jackson, national spokesman for the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, said he was shocked that the judge threw out the charges "on a technicality," but he said instead of deepening the divide between the police and the black community, he hopes the decision will help the two sides stay committed to ridding the streets of rogue cops.

 

"I think now's an opportunity for the mayor to say something if this is a young man to represent the Police Department that he controls," Jackson said. "I think it's an opportunity for the superintendent of police to come forward and say something if this is the person that represents the character that he wants to be a part of his Police Department.

 

While Servin still technically faces potential disciplinary action by the Independent Police Review Authority, Dean Angelo, president of the union representing Chicago police officers, said the process to return Servin to active duty would immediately begin. He has been on paid desk duty since he was charged.

 

"It's important that he try to get his life back together," Angelo said. "I don't know why it happened that way ... that the state's attorney's office decided to change Dante from victim to offender. It makes no sense to me."

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