Hypocrisy in the world today.

[Esai]

I'd also like to point that although I dont agree with death, I feel for palestine.Pistol, if the US fucked over red and brown people a little more obviously I'd think youd support homeboys down to lose their lives to end the establishment that fucks them over, wouldnt you.You know why brown people did dirt during the riot, out of desperation and anger for the environment and poverty around them.I mean,I know cops are people and I met a few cool cops, but Ive also experienced enough shit from them not to be too distraught when a cop gets smoked. If you looked at the situation lots of these people are in, you might understand them a little more. I guess what I mean is that we need to look at this issue completely, why is "terrorism" fostered.Its cuz theres pockets of extreme poverty and desperation, these are the places suicide bombers are born.Why do they do that shit? Desperation and a feeling that exploding themselves and others will move the agenda they believe in further to victory. These people feel like they are not being treated justly and recieving their peice of the pie. I dont agree with the extreme of either side, but I know there's some foul shit goin on keeping billions starving while a tiny few reap enormous riches.If yall want to stay satisfied cuz you get some crumbs like some semblance of monetary stability stay some brainwashed suckers.

[Remi Martin]

actually, in the Palestine news paper signitures of citizens are printed every day underneath a statement condoning a end to violence against Israel. I dont in anyway agree with what the suicide bombers are doing. But look at the situation, if you grew up in your homeland that was occupied, with out plumbing and electricity and your family and freinds had fallen victim to the Israeli Defense Force and your surrouned by no viable options and consumed with anger and hoplessness that is a natural reaction to said enviroment. Would you really have that much of a problem identifying with a group that inflicts suffering similar to your own on the modern nation that supress's you? Isreal has bulldozed homes for years upon years. To me, if someone came in and bulldozed my home, belive I would prolly get pretty irrational and pissed off. Needless to say the intifada was fought originally with rocks and molotov cocktails against tanks and guns.

I dont see how the United States can sit idily and condone what is being done to the innocent civilians. And the kicker is, we the people are paying for it and have been paying for it since the 60s. This started due to us being a little concerned that the USSR was supporting Egypt with arms sales. Israel gets about 2 billion dollars a year from us.

[Guest KING BLING]

Originally posted by GLASS*ETCH

Regardless of the politics, the people living in third world conditions on their native indiginous land is the Palestiniens. The civilian population was forced to become refugees and the refugees were massacered in the thousands in Lebanon during the 80s. The Palestinien civilians live in third world conditions on their native land. The Palestinien civilians are subjected to invasion and curfew by enforcement of death in their native lands. All at the hands of a goverment we support.

and btw...in regards to the massacare of hundreds if not thousands of Palestininien refugees, it was committed by Lebanese militiamen who were let in to the camps by none other than Ariel Sharon.

 

Thank you for saying what everyone here should know before entering a discussion about the middle east, the fact that most don't says everything about our education system and media. But its hopeless really, look at how many people here take the stance "you gotta be a dumb mutha fucker to be a suicide bomber... fucking 'tards." If ANY of us had the heart to die for what we beleived in we would doing something bigger than arguing on the internet...Sharon represents the "Osama Bin Ladin" of Palestinian culture and America supports him...

[Remi Martin]

Also, I feel that the Israeli civilians are held hostage by a goverment that is violently stubborn and hard headed, non proactive twoards effective moderate negotiations and all around violent. Its beyond me how we are supporting a nation whose leader was singlehandedly responsible for the slaughter of innocent refugees. Ariel Sharon whom is respected and liked by George W. ALLOWED THE MASSACRE OF HUNDREDS IF NOT THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE. People, men women and children-driven from their homelands were killed for no reason other than their nationality and religion. Sounds a bit familiar.

[Remi Martin]

Israel Attacks Hebron Headquarters

Thu Jun 27,11:39 PM ET

By SUSAN SEVAREID, Associated Press Writer

 

JERUSALEM (AP) - Israeli helicopters fired missiles Thursday at wanted men holed up in a fortress-like Palestinian Authority ( news - web sites) compound in the West Bank city of Hebron, as Palestinian officials fumed at a string of threats and condemnations from President Bush ( news - web sites).

 

 

 

Palestinians called Bush's threat to deny future aid and his unwillingness to rule out military action against Yasser Arafat ( news - web sites) rash and dangerous. Holding up funds will jeopardize the reforms Bush demands, they said.

 

"Delaying aid from the international community would also delay the reforms that we already have started within most of our organizations and sectors, in particular in education and the health system," West Bank security ( news - external web site) chief Jibril Rajoub said.

 

In addition, lumping Arafat with the likes of the Afghan leadership that protected terror mastermind Osama bin Laden ( news - web sites) is "dangerous," Rajoub said. "The Palestinian Authority is not the Taliban movement."

 

Smoke rose Thursday from the back of the Palestinian Authority complex in Hebron after the missile strike. Israeli forces had been targeting the building with machine-gun fire for three days and warned they would overrun it if those inside refused to come out.

 

Israel also admitted for the second time in a week its forces "acted improperly" in firing on Palestinians violating a curfew. Three children in the West Bank town of Qalqiliya were wounded, including a 9-year-old in critical condition with brain damage.

 

Palestinian witnesses and security officials said tanks fired after a curfew break arranged with Israeli authorities to allow high school students to take final exams. Apparently after seeing the students on the streets, others headed out to the market, Palestinians said.

 

Soldiers opened fire on the children, the military said. Civil administration spokesman Maj. Peter Lerner confirmed the intention was to lift the curfew for students.

 

On June 21, the army said its forces erred in killing four Palestinians, including three children, after a rumor spread the curfew had been briefly lifted.

 

In Jerusalem, police said Thursday that two Jewish settlers, arrested on suspicion of involvement in a rampage in a West Bank village that left a Palestinian dead, have been released without being charged.

 

A number of settlers went through the Palestinian village of Hawara on June 21, firing rifles randomly, witnesses said, after the funerals of five Israelis killed by a Palestinian infiltrator at the settlement of Itamar a day before.

 

Meanwhile, Palestinians fumed over Bush's latest remarks.

 

Bush's plan for bringing peace to the region, laid out Monday, centered on a call for new Palestinian leaders "not compromised by terror." Since then, Bush has also threatened to deny U.S. aid to the Palestinians and refused to rule out military action against Arafat.

 

Such talk left Arafat's aides angrily accusing Bush of being rash, bending to Israeli interests and worsening the situation.

 

"It's enough for the Palestinians to face an (Israeli) army armed with all the American weapons," said Cabinet Secretary Ahmed Abdel Rahman. "If President Bush meant to do what he said, this will be a rash act that will cause a lot of harm in the region."

 

Rajoub said rebuilding security institutions left near ruin after Israel's six-week military campaign, which ended in May, will cost $20 million alone. "When we talk about the Palestinian security apparatus, we are talking about a completely destroyed security system that needs equipment, training and facilities," he said.

 

The Palestinians outlined sweeping changes for financial, judicial and security branches this week following calls from Bush, Palestinians, Israelis and the international community for an overhaul of the Palestinian Authority.

 

On Thursday, Arafat signed the necessary orders for combining and reducing the number of security branches and placing them under Interior Ministry control.

 

Israeli Defense Ministry spokesman Yarden Vatikay played down Bush's refusal to rule out the use of U.S. military force.

 

"I don't think anyone is seriously talking about a military option," Vatikay said. "I think that he (Bush) understands very well that the leadership of the Palestinian Authority is touched with terror from head to toe."

 

In Hebron, Israeli military officials have said 150 people inside the Palestinian government compound have surrendered, including at least 20 top fugitives, during short breaks in the Israeli siege of the building. About 40 people, including at least 15 wanted men, remained inside Thursday, the officials said.

 

Hebron is one of seven main West Bank population centers to come under the tight grip of the Israeli military after two suicide bombings last week in Jerusalem killed 26 Israelis. At least 700,000 Palestinians are confined to their homes while Israeli forces search for weapons and carry out arrest sweeps.

 

"We know that a few wanted persons are inside and we intend to apprehend them," army spokesman Brig. Gen. Ron Kitrey told Israel Army Radio. "We prefer to do it without a battle, but if it proves necessary, there will be one."

 

Israel is considering expelling the families of West Bank suicide bombers to the Gaza Strip ( news - web sites) to discourage others from carrying out such attacks, the Justice Ministry said Thursday.

 

Since Palestinian-Israeli violence erupted in September 2000, 251 Israelis have been killed in 71 suicide bomb attacks. In the past, the Israeli army has bulldozed the homes of Palestinian suicide bombers.

[Remi Martin]

If we go back to 1992 and examine the precipitating factor of the riot, economics actually played a small role influencing the revolt. Yes, there was a recession in Los Angeles and around the country, unemployment was at an all time high, high levels of poverty probably exacerbated the riots that took place, but the critical events and underlying factors to the revolt were the beating of Rodney King in 1991, the probation sentence handed down on Sun Ja Doo, a Korean store clerk that shot Latasha Harlins, a 15 year old black girl, in the back of the head after a dispute over orange juice, and the acquittal of the four LAPD officers. In the Sun Ja Doo incident the jury came back with a second-degree murder conviction, but Judge Joyce Karlin, a white woman, did the unheard of when she sentenced Doo to five years probation. This is what I believe paved the way for the worst urban riot in contemporary history and the fact that over 50% of the damaged or destroyed property was Korean owned was no accident, and is the reason why many characterize this event as an uprising or a revolt. Although many of the images captured certainly show those acting as opportunists taking advantage of an unfortuate situation, at the same time there was an organized attack against Korean establishments within South LA and outside of the black community along Vermont and Western Avenues, north of the black community. Relations between blacks and Koreans in Los Angeles have often been full of tension and there is housing evidence that suggests that those tensions are still present in 2002.

 

The critical factors that influenced the events of April 29, 1992 all took place within the criminal justice sector of society with the police department central to the events. This is were we must look to address the question of a potential third Los Angeles riot. Chief Daryl Gates was held accountable for the type of relationship that was created between the police and minority communities in South LA and his response to the first day of the riot was considered dismal. Also let us not forget history, when in 1965 people took to the streets of Los Angeles in protest the day following alleged police abuses after the arrest of a Marquette Frye on 116th Street and Avalon. Chief William Parker was also highly criticized for the sharp divide that was created between the black community and the militaristic police, and resentment towards the police grew worse every year since Parker took over as Chief in 1950 up until the violence erupted in 1965. One indication of the increasing tension between the police and the community was the number of complaints that blacks filed between 1950 and 1965. Parker claimed no responsibility during a commission and when asked what sparked the riot he replied "someone threw a rock, and like monkeys in a zoo, they all started throwing rocks."

 

All of the seven race riots of 1964 were also sparked by an incident of police misconduct. The Otto Kerner Commission of 1968 stated that police actions led to outbreaks in half of the cases studied and those that believe that another revolt will take place will need to examine law enforcement and the criminal justice system. If the LAPD of LASD engage in any inappropriate activity such as excessive force or unlawful officer involved shootings, an outbreak of violence is definitely possible. Let us not forget what happened in Cincinnati in April 2001 when the shooting death of Timothy Thomas, 19, whose death touched off three days of riots. Cincinnati police officer Steven Roach was later found not guilty of negligent homicide in the shooting, but these are the types of events that will determine if Los Angeles will see part three. Under Bernard Parks inappropriate activity from the rank and file was highly unlikely with the disciplinary system that he had in place, but the actions of the next police chief may determine if what happened in 1965 and 1992 will occur again

[Guest sneak]

the suicide bombers must really believe in their cause if they die for it. in a way i have to respect that, but in a way, i think that they need to sort themselvers out.

[Remi Martin]

L.A.'s Dirty War on Gangs

 

A trail of corruption leads to some of the city's toughest cops

 

By Andrew Murr

Newsweek, October 11, 1999

 

The July 1996 raid on a gang-infested apartment building looked like just another skirmish between police and L.A.'s many street gangs. The address was Shatto Place, in a neighborhood of Latino immigrants west of downtown. The target was the notorious 18th Street Gang, now L.A.'s biggest gang and one of its most violent. The raiders were all members of an elite anti-gang unit from the LAPD's Rampart Division. During a wild chase up the stairwells and through the hallways of the apartment house, the cops killed one gang member and wounded another. A departmental investigation found nothing wrong and the shootings got little play in the local news media took part in the Shatto Place raid, has been telling LAPD investigators about police brutality, perjury, planted evidence, drug corruption and attempted murder within the Rampart Division and its anti-gang unit, known as CRASH (Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums). His charges have cast what Mayor Richard Riordan calls a "dark shadow" over the entire police department, which is still struggling to recover from the Rodney King and O. J. Simpson debacles. The scandal has touched off the biggest internal investigation in decades and led the FBI to start looking for civil-rights violations. So far, 12 Rampart cops have been fired or relieved from duty and investigators are reviewing hundreds of past cases for signs of police misconduct. LAPD Chief Bernard Parks says much of Perez's story is credible, and he concedes that other officers may go down.

The scandal broke after Perez, himself a former Rampart CRASH cop, was caught stealing eight pounds of cocaine from police evidence lockers. After pleading guilty in September, he bargained for a lighter sentence by telling an appalling story of attempted murder and a "throwdown"ps to make a shooting legally justifiable. Perez said he and his partner, Officer Nino Durden, shot an unarmed 18th Street Gang member named Javier Ovando, then planted a semiautomatic rifle on the unconscious suspect and claimed that Ovando had tried to shoot them during a stakeout. (Durden was suspended; his lawyer refused to comment.) Their testimony helped get Ovando, in a wheelchair for life because of the shooting, a 23-year sentence for assault. Now Ovando has been freed from prison. Last week lawyers working on behalf of his baby daughter filed notice of a $20 million suit against the city, Perez and other cops.

 

The Shatto Place raid could be another throwdown incident. Although the LAPD's own report showed that police fired all the shots, the cops who staged the raid claimed the gangbangers were armed. Two pistols were found on the scene, and investigators are trying to determine whether they were planted. The suspect who survived, Jose Perez, initially denied having a gun but later pleaded guilty to assault, which was tantamount to admitting that one of the guns was his. Perez now says he pleaded guilty to avoid a long prison sentence and that he had no gun during the raid. Through attorney Jorge Gonzalez Perez, he told NEWSWEEK that one of the cops turned him over as he lay wounded and said with a smirk: "Too bad you're going to die, motherf---er." Two officers involved in the Shatto Place shooting have been relieved of duty and a third was fired on unrelated charges.

 

LAPD insiders say the Rampart Division has more than its share of problem cops and that CRASH was known for ultra-aggressive tactics. "They behaved like a gang themselves," says defense lawyer Dennis Chang, who represents some members of the 18th Street Gang. One case began on Feb. 26, 1998, when Rampart Officer Brian Hewitt brought alleged gang member Ismael Jimenez in for questioning. Jimenez told NEWSWEEK that Hewitt "slammed my head against the wall... and punched me in my chest" until he spat bloody vomit on the floor. An internal investigation found Hewitt culpable in the incident and he was fired last June. (Hewitt is appealing, and his attorney denies he ever struck Jimenez.)

[Remi Martin]

Welcome to California Prisons.Com where you will find current information regarding the California Prison State the largest in the United States. There are currently over 30 state prisons with more that half of them built in the last 11 years. California also has more people on death row that any other state

[Remi Martin]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Gang Injunctions & Civil Abatement in Los Angeles

A gang injunction in Los Angeles is when the City Attorney's Office with approval from a judge issues a restraining order against specific gang members of a particular gang. With information gathered from police officers and the public, the judge will grant a restraining order against identified members of a gang, in essence suing them. In the lawsuit, the actual gang members are mentioned, and they are forbidden to engage in a host of activities, some of which are already illegal such as selling drugs, vandalizing property and possessing weapons. Other activities that they are restricted from doing have included congregating in groups, being out after a particular time, being in possession of a pager or a cellular telephone, or riding bicycles. Each gang injunction must define a geographic area where these activities are restricted.

 

Los Angeles first started experiencing with gang injunctions in the early 1980s in Pomona, West Covina, and E. LA, but the injunction against the Play Boy Gangster Crips in 1987 is when these civil abatement strategies first gained national attention. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) challenged the constitutionality of the injunctions and city attorney James Hahn was forced to modify his lawsuit. Since then, several injunctions have been implemented in LA County including in Inglewood against the Crenshaw Mafia Bloods, in Los Angeles against 18th Street and the Harpys, and in Norwalk against the Orange Street Locos to name a few. There have been just over 30 injunctions in LA County. The ACLU has continued to take the position that gang injunctions violate civil rights and in a report published in 1997 the ACLU has claimed that they are not that effective in abating crime.

 

The popularity of the injunctions have seen places such as San Diego and San Jose, California, San Antonio, Texas, and Chicago, Illinois to adopted similar strategies against their gangs. Although the California Supreme Court ruled that the city of San Jose may implement gang injunctions when it overturned a 1995 appellate court decision in the ACLU case, People v. Acuna, because of the vague language of Chicago's 1992 anti gang ordinance, the US Supreme Court ruled in 1999 that it was unconstitutional and challenged individual freedoms (see Chicago v. Morales). In the San Diego injunction, the California appeals court stated that gang members can keep their pagers and cited that restricting pagers for any purpose violates ones freedom of speech.

[Remi Martin]

Snoop Doggy Dogg

The other day I was looking at an old picture from back when I used to play Pop Warner football. And, like, of twenty-eight homies on the team, twelve are dead, seven are in the penitentiary, three are smoked out, and only me and Warren G. are successful. I love my homies, but damn, I don't want to stay down there with y'all.

 

— Snoop Doggy Dogg

 

CALVIN BROADUS acquired his nickname because of his resemblance to that popular Peanuts character Snoopy the Dog. His father said that Snoop "had a lot of hair on his head as a baby and looked like a little dog." His parents split up when he was still a boy; he lived with his mother and two half-brothers, and spent his free time rapping with a friend, Warren Griffin, who would later find fame as rapper Warren G. Snoop was a good student and athlete in high school--several basketball programs recruited him--but he fell in with the L.A. Crips gang, started selling drugs, and wound up in jail soon after he graduated high school. Snoop claims that fellow inmates told him to get his life together because he had talent.

 

Over the next three years, Snoop bounced in and out of prison, but he eventually decided to devote himself to rap. His buddy Warren G. gave Snoop his first break. Warren played Snoop's tape for his brother, who just happened to be the grandfather of rap, Dr. Dre. Dre loved Snoop's tape, and put him on the soundtrack of the film Deep Cover and on his 1992 album The Chronic. This album went on to become one of the top-selling rap albums in history, and Dre and Snoop scored a megahit with "Nuthin' But a 'G' Thang," with the chorus, "Bow wow wow, yippee yo yippee yay." By this time, Snoop's reputation as a rapper was so great that his first solo record, Doggystyle, released in 1993, spawned several hit singles, including "Gin and Juice," "Doggy Dogg World," and "Who Am I (What's My Name)." He was voted best rapper by Rolling Stone readers and critics in their annual poll, and he won an MTV award for best rap video with "Doggy Dogg World."

 

In the midst of all this success, Snoop was arrested and charged with the murder of Philip Woldermariam, a rival gang member, who was gunned down on August 25, 1993, in a drive-by shooting in L.A. Snoop and his bodyguard, McKinley Lee, were both charged in the murder. Ironically, right around the time the charges hit, Snoop released a single and a long-form video entitled, "Murder Was the Case." Snoop and Lee were both found not guilty of murder.

 

Snoop's 1996 release, Tha Doggfather, showed that his scrape with the law did little to tone down his gangsta cockiness

[Remi Martin]

Rampart Report Is a Year Overdue

LAPD: Chief, seeking a new term, is behind on a promised second document. An official blames the complexity of the investigation.

By SCOTT GLOVER and MATT LAIT

TIMES STAFF WRITERS

 

March 30 2002

 

Shortly after the Rampart corruption scandal came to light in 1999, Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard C. Parks promised to get to the bottom of the department's troubles and publicly explain what went wrong in two comprehensive reports.

 

The chief issued the first report two years ago, documenting the administrative and managerial failures of the LAPD that police officials believe contributed to the misconduct in Rampart. But the second report, which is supposed to reveal "the exact nature and disposition of each allegation," has yet to be written.

 

Parks initially said the second report would be completed by early last year. Department officials now say that document is still weeks, if not longer, away from completion. It has been delayed, they said, because the corruption investigation has dragged on longer than expected, involving hundreds of allegations and making it more difficult to chronicle them all. One effect of that delay is that the report, now more than a year overdue, probably will not be made public until after the city Police Commission decides whether to give Parks a second term as chief.

 

He is scheduled to appear before the commission Monday to discuss his reappointment. The author of the second report stressed, however, that the delays in producing it are not related to Parks' bid for another term, but rather are the result of difficulties in gathering large volumes of material and working with other agencies.

 

Police commissioners have said that they will evaluate Parks, in part, on his handling of the Rampart scandal. The documents related to the department's response to the scandal are available to the commission even though the final report is not complete.

 

Although Parks won initial praise for trying to uncover the scandal, many critics have complained that the chief failed to make good on his pledge to investigate corruption wherever it led in the department.

 

"If Parks had intentionally planned to cover up Rampart, I don't think he could have done a better job," said USC professor Erwin Chemerinsky, who has studied the LAPD and who, working for the city's police union, produced his own report on the corruption.

 

The LAPD's investigation, according to Chemerinsky and other department observers, minimized the scope of police wrongdoing. Once completed, the second report could help prove whether that criticism is valid.

 

"A report like this is long overdue. It's essential," said Gary Wigodsky, an alternate public defender. "The LAPD is sitting on a mountain of evidence that corroborates these [corruption] allegations."

 

Known in the LAPD vernacular as an "after-action report," the second document is supposed to account for every allegation of criminal or administrative misconduct that arose from the Rampart probe.

 

That would mean that police officials would have disclosed for the first time what detectives found in the course of their 2 1/2-year investigation. Much of the investigation was spurred by the admissions and allegations of former LAPD Officer Rafael Perez, who agreed to cooperate with authorities in exchange for a lighter sentence for stealing cocaine.

 

In dozens of interviews, Perez described what he said was an out-of-control group of anti-gang officers who routinely planted evidence, lied in police reports, committed perjury, beat gang members and covered up unjustified shootings.

 

Beyond Perez's accusations, LAPD investigators uncovered other allegations of police misconduct.

 

Cmdr. Daniel Koenig, who is responsible for drafting the after-action report, said the document will be comprehensive.

 

"The chief committed to [issuing the report], and that commitment will be met," he said. "People have a right to know what the hell happened."

 

Koenig said he has been receiving information for the report from various department officials, adding that he hopes that the document can be released as soon as mid-April. However, he cautioned that it could take longer to write and edit the report.

 

After-action reports are undertaken by the LAPD after serious episodes. In recent years, for instance, such reports have been produced after the 2000 Democratic National Convention and after the bloody 1997 North Hollywood shootout.

 

One widely publicized after-action report came after an investigation into the taped allegations of former Det. Mark Fuhrman, who told an aspiring screenwriter tales of police brutality and discrimination.

 

That report, also written by Koenig, concluded that Fuhrman exaggerated or lied about his claims of brutality, but was telling the truth when he spoke of institutional harassment of women.

 

A number of new policies and practices were recommended after the Fuhrman report.

 

First Report Led to Call for Change

 

Policy revisions also were recommended after the LAPD's first report on the Rampart scandal. The so-called Board of Inquiry report addressed mostly the administrative and managerial failures of the department.

 

For instance, the Board of Inquiry concluded that corrupt officers took advantage of lax department supervision to carry out criminal acts.

 

The breakdowns included failures to check the backgrounds of police recruits, to monitor police officer misconduct and to supervise officers in the field.

 

One section of the Rampart after-action report, Koenig said, will assess whether the reforms recommended in the Board of Inquiry report have been implemented and, if so, how they are working.

[Remi Martin]

February 29, 2000, Tuesday, Home Edition

 

SECTION: Part A; Page 1; Metro Desk

 

LENGTH: 1277 words

 

HEADLINE: FBI PRESSURED INS TO AID L.A. POLICE ANTI-GANG EFFORT;

RAMPART: U.S. ATTORNEY'S OFFICE AND AGENTS OPPOSED HELPING DEPORT 18TH STREET GANG MEMBERS. INVOLVEMENT IN LOCAL SCANDAL MAY INCREASE PUSH FOR OUTSIDE PROBE.

 

BYLINE: ANNE-MARIE O'CONNOR, TIMES STAFF WRITER

 

 

BODY:

Immigration and Naturalization Service agents ordered to deport immigrants detained by anti-gang officers in the Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart Division told investigators the assignment was "rammed down our throats" over the objections of the U.S. attorney's office after pressure from the FBI, according to federal documents.

 

The 27 INS agents, who were interviewed for an internal immigration service report, create a composite picture of an unpopular program launched by overzealous INS managers over the objections of agents in the INS' own Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force--known by the acronym OCDETF. They said they repeatedly told John McAllister, the INS assistant district director for investigations, that their involvement in the program did not conform to their congressional mandate to combat large-scale drug trafficking. LAPD's cooperation in the effort may have violated a special city order that restricts police inquiries into residents' immigration status.

 

Moreover, the task force coordinator, John Del George, raised moral objections to its operations, saying that "only a very small portion of those arrested were actually hard-core gang members." According to the report, Del George "recalled interviewing one 'gang member' who was actually an assistant manager at McDonald's, was married, had kids, and had been out of 'gang' life for years."

 

INS agents have told The Times that their task force was responsible for deporting more than 160 illegal immigrants in 1997 and 1998 and for prosecuting about 40 more for illegal reentry after deportation, a felony.

 

In 1997, according to the INS report, the FBI was eager to obtain as much help as possible from immigration authorities in curbing the activities of the 18th Street gang, which then was extremely active in the LAPD's Rampart Division. INS' own Violent Gang Task Force had begun deporting 18th Street members in 1994. But, by 1997, "the FBI had amassed considerable historical evidence on the 18th Street Gang and had in place surveillance," according to the INS correspondence.

 

As a result of that investment the bureau, according to the report, repeatedly demanded help from INS agents, "on the pretense of making an OCDETF case out of an FBI investigation of gang members with no drug or organized crime connection." Assistant U.S. Atty. John Gordon agreed, according to the INS report, that the FBI request did not meet congressional guidelines.

 

Ultimately, however, INS supervisors ignored both Gordon and their own agents and agreed to the FBI's request.

 

FBI's Role May Raise Questions

 

The FBI's role in securing the deportations of Rampart residents may raise questions about the bureau's participation in LAPD's investigation of the unfolding scandal that LAPD Chief Bernard C. Parks announced last week. At the very least, it seems certain to attract the interest of those already calling for an independent outside probe of the department.

 

FBI spokesmen declined repeated requests for comment, and a spokeswoman for the INS' western region said she could not react because she had not seen the documents. A Times report on collaboration between the INS and LAPD last week triggered in INS internal audit of whether its officers participated in any LAPD abuses of immigrants' rights that went unreported.

 

Two INS units--the Violent Gang Task Force and the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force--cooperated with the FBI, LAPD's CRASH unit and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in the suppression of the 18th Street gang, according to government documents.

 

Theoretically, agents of the INS Violent Gang Task Force were supposed to arrest suspected gang members and turn their cases over to the organized crime group, but in reality, government documents show, there was direct communication between INS agents and LAPD officers in the Rampart Division.

 

In a May 1998 report, an OCDETF agent writes that LAPD Rampart CRASH Officer Michael Buchanan--one of the officers relieved of duty in the ongoing scandal--"spoke with me about Marvin Rodriguez, AKA Sleepy"--a suspected 18th Street gang member on May 1.

 

"I explained to him that I had prior contact with Rodriguez in 1995 and I knew he had been deported," the INS agent wrote. "I explained to Buchanan that Rodriguez was in the United States in violation of the law."

 

The next day, Buchanan called the INS agent to tell him he had detained Rodriguez, and "I told him I would meet him at the LAPD station," the agent wrote.

 

At the station, the INS agent detained Rodriguez and another gang member, Jose Gudiel Brenes--also an illegal immigrant--noting that "Buchanan states that they had seen Rodriguez in the street with Gudiel near 4th and Rampart."

 

Controversy Angers Officer

 

Such arrangements led INS' Del George to tell interviewers compiling the report that immigration agents "were relegated to the position of cleanup. He said another unit, the INS Violent Gang Task Force would make arrests, usually in the evening, and the next morning the OCDETF agents were ordered to process these individuals and develop prosecutions."

 

"Mr. Del George said there was a gang out there, consisting of mostly juveniles, who were involved with extortion-type things, but this did not constitute an OCDETF type case," the report said.

 

One Rampart CRASH officer, who did not wish to be identified, said it annoyed him that the collaboration between Rampart CRASH officers and the INS had touched off controversy. The officer said that in 1997 and 1998 cooperation was so routine that he once watched an INS agent in the CRASH office do a laptop search on a detainee's immigration status.

 

The officer said the city's Special Order 40, which states that "officers shall not initiate police action with the objective of discovering the alien status of a person"--is too vague and open-ended to restrict anti-gang officers much.

 

"If deportation is the only tool available, we'll use it," the officer said.

 

The INS documents also quote from an interview with a supervisory special agent, Danny Hudson, who said that the task force "was given the mission to work with the LAPD CRASH anti-gang Unit, to handle all immigration matters concerning the apprehension of 18th Street gang personnel."

 

According to the interviewer, Hudson "said this was a political move that came from Mayor Richard Riordan's office."

 

However, Kelly Martin, Riordan's chief of staff, said she was unaware of any involvement by the Riordan administration in the Rampart deportations.

 

"This never happened that I knew of," Martin said. "I think sometimes people wrongly attribute motives to the mayor's office."

 

Martin said the Riordan administration was well aware of the LAPD's so-called Special Order 40, which strictly limits the Police Department's role in handling suspects who are in the country illegally. Neither Riordan nor his aides have ever urged any change in that policy, Martin said.

 

"We've never touched Special Order 40," she said.

 

Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office, said the office has prosecuted "somewhere in the area of three or four dozen" 18th Street gang members or associates for illegal reentry after deportation since 1997.

 

"Whether or not this was part of any formal initiative I can't determine right now," Mrozek said. "We've got a whole new administration and no one among the new people has any recollection."

 

 

 

*

 

Times staff writer Jim Newton contributed to this story.

 

 

 

*

 

INS AGENTS SUE LAPD

 

Two INS agents have sued the Police Department, alleging that they were falsely arrested

[Remi Martin]

Did you know that more than 5,900 youthful offenders are housed in state correctional facilities throughout California? Those youths, committed by the juvenile and criminal courts to the California Department of the Youth Authority (CYA), are sent here for treatment and training. The CYA is the largest youth corrections agency in the nation, with some 5,900 young men and women in institutions and camps, and approximately 4,300 more on parole.

[Remi Martin]

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April 1st: US Supreme court agrees to take California 3-strike cases

On April 1st, the US Supreme Court agreed to take two California Three Strike cases. The court decided to take the Andrade case (who received 50 years to life for stealing video tapes in two separate incidents) and another case called Ewing v. California (Gary Ewing received 25 years to life for stealing 3 golf clubs from a pro shop at an El Segundo golf course). By taking the Ewing case, the court appears to also be taking on the issue of clarifying which prisoners might have or not have the ability to continue the appeal or habeas corpus process for their 3-strike cases. The cases will not be heard until next fall.

 

California State Attorney General Bill Lockyer (Democrat) has taken on the option of fighting these 3-strike cases when he had within his powers the ability to let the Federal 9th Circuit opinions remain as law within California. FACTS hopes voters will remember Lockyer's stance on this issue in the future as a person who upholds the opinion that shoplifters can get 25 years to life--definitely an unjust and unreasonable position. As Nietzsche said "Distrust all men in whom the impulse to punish is powerful."

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

March 12th: AB1790 passes Assembly Public Safety Committee

Assembly Bill 1790 authored by Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg passed the Assembly Public Safety Committee on the morning of March 12th. AB1790 proposes to put on the public ballot the proposition to amend the 3-strikes law so it can only be used for violent and serious offenses. The outcome of the vote was as follows:

 

MOTION: Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on Appropriations. (AYES 4. NOES 2.) (PASS)

 

AYES ****Washington Cedillo Goldberg Keeley

NOES ****La Suer Dickerson

ABSENT, ABSTAINING, OR NOT VOTING Diaz

[Remi Martin]

Feb. 7th: Fed. 9th Circuit says two more 3-strike cases are "cruel and unusual punishment"

On Feb. 7th the Federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals announced the opinion of Brown v. Mayle and stated that in the cases of Richard Napoleon Brown and Earnest Bray, Jr. the 25 year-to-life sentences each had received for petty thefts were considered cruel and unusual punishment because they were indistinguishable from the precedent making opinion in Andrade v. Attorney General of the State of California. Once again the court said that this does not invalidate the 3-strikes law in general, but only in these particular cases.

 

Bray's third strike conviction was from an attempt to steal three video tapes from a music and video store in Long Beach and Brown's third strike conviction was from an attempt to shoplift a steering wheel alarm from a Walgreens store. The 9th Circuit focused on the fact that the offense of petty theft would only be a misdemeanor if this were a first offense. In both cases, Bray and Brown had committed prior robberies but the court said it was irrelevant whether the priors were "violent" or "non-violent" because to distinguish them as such would cause problems with Double Jeopardy.

 

 

Once again, FACTS is in agreement with the 9th Circuit and it appears to demonstrate that ALL third strike "petty theft" cases are unconstitutional; but FACTS also warns people to not get their hopes too high as the U.S. Supreme Court, which has a majority of conservatives, could reverse the opinion.

Click here to obtain the opinion and go to 2/7/02 and Brown v. Mayle.

 

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Jan. 22nd: LA Times Editorial in favor of amending 3-strikes law

On January 22, 2002, the Los Angeles Times Editorial section had a section titled "Make Three Strikes Matter." The final two paragraphs of the editorial are as follows:

 

The proposed measure, by Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg (D-Los Angeles), would limit the stiffest penalties to criminals whose third-strike offense was a serious or violent crime, as is the law in several other states. At the same time, a group called Citizens Against Violent Crime announced they will begin gathering signatures to qualify for the November ballot an initiative similar to Goldberg's AB 1790.

 

Recent polls indicate that a majority of Californians not only approve of these proposed changes but thought the 1994 law already distinguished between serious or violent crimes and petty offenses. This measure is not about being soft on crime. It's about being smart.

 

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Jan. 21st: FACTS marches in King Parade in Los Angeles

 

Once again, FACTS joined the Martin Luther King Parade in Los Angeles by marching with the October 22nd Coaltion. It was a nice sunny day, and there were thousands of people lining the sides of the streets.

 

For a look at last year's parade, please click here.

 

 

 

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Jan. 15th: Possible initiatives for 2002 and 2004 announced

 

 

Based on the results of a poll paid for by Families to Amend California's Three Strikes (FACTS) and Citizens Against Violent Crime (CAVC) that showed over 60% of California voters would vote for changes in the current 3-strikes law, CAVC and Assemblymember Jackie Goldberg had press conferences on January 15th announcing their plans to try to amend the 3-strikes law.

CAVC announced that they are currently putting forth an initiative drive to amend the 3-strikes law by gathering 419,260 valid signatures by June 10, 2002 so the electorate can vote on the issue in November of 2002. And, Jackie Goldberg (D-Los Angeles) has said she is putting forward legislation (AB1790) to amend the 3-strikes law. The difference between past legislative efforts to amend the law and the current effort is that Goldberg's bill will need only a majority vote by the legislators, but then require the signature of the Governor, and the majority of the electorate in the election primary of March 2004.

CAVC's initiative is identical to the initiative that they put forward in 2000 and basically requires that all strikes be violent and serious (details will be forthcoming). Jackie Goldberg's legislative proposal also would limit the 3-strikes law to violent and serious felonies (details slightly different from CAVC but also forthcoming). Both bills would be retroactive in their application requiring the 3-strikers who have already been sentenced for non-violent and nonserious offenses to be brought back to court and resentenced

[Remi Martin]

California: The Land Of Prisons

by Anthony Lewis

of The New York Times News Service

SAN DIEGO -- California, land of the possible. So it used to be: the state where optimism was policy and the policy worked. Not today.

 

Two Republican governors 50 years apart define the change. Earl Warren was an optimist whose political method was to appeal to the best in human nature. He himself had risen from poverty by way of the University of California and he worked to make that kind of opportunity available to all Californians. He was a tough prosecutor before he was governor, but he also sought to reduce crime by easing social inequalities.

 

Pete Wilson first made his political mark as a progressive mayor of San Diego. As governor, he has increasingly turned to the politics of division, appealing to the anger of voters on such issues as immigration and affirmative action. His three-strikes law is making California the world capital of incarceration.

 

Education was a key aspect of California's spectacular growth in the decades after World War II. Warren built large numbers of schools, enough to keep up with the rapid rise in the state's population. The rich sent their children to public schools. Today, California is near the bottom of state school rankings by average number of pupils per teacher. Private schools are booming.

 

Higher education was also a priority of Warren and his successor, Democrat Pat Brown. The many campuses of the University of California and California State University made up the best public system in the country. And it was all virtually free.

 

In the last five years, fees have quadrupled in the state system, so it is no longer the same ladder of upward mobility. Despite the higher costs to students the university is pinched for funds because state support has been limited.

 

The growth industry in California is prisons. As recently as 15 years ago the state spent six times as much on higher education as on prisons. Last year the prison budget was larger - and the disparity is going to grow.

 

It now takes about 10 percent of the state budget to operate the prisons. According to a study by the Rand Corp., it will be 18 percent six years from now. Given mandatory spending for other things under state budget rules, that will leave just l percent for the universities.

 

Seventeen new prisons have been built in the last 15 years. Fifteen more will be needed by the year 2000, to house among others the flood of inmates serving 25 years to life under the three strikes law. The construction cost will be around $5 billion.

 

You could not have a starker statement of a society's outlook than the figures for education and prisons in California.

 

A study by the California Higher Education Policy Center, published last year by the Public Agenda Foundation, quoted a California businessman.

 

"In the 1950s and 60s," he said, "California had the greatest educational system that had ever existed on the face of the Earth. Today I will pay more tuition for my child to go to third grade in private school than I paid for college and law school combined. I personally don't care because I am rich. I got a chance to be rich because education was available at virtually no cost. But what about the family that is situated today the way mine was? You create a lack of promise that has widespread implications."

 

The downgrading of education is dangerous for a reason beyond the effect on class divisions. Education is the crucial element for success in the new world economy. For California to fall behind the Asian states that make education a priority is to blight its future.

 

What happens in California, it used to be said, is a preview of what will happen to all of America. We have to hope that that is no longer true.

[Remi Martin]

Portland schools face more cuts in staff

By Betsy Hammond

of The Oregonian staff

 

The interim superintendent tells the board that the Portland district needs to have 50 teachers retire voluntarily

Portland schools need to cut at least 50 teaching positions this month to balance the district's budget, interim superintendent Diana Snowden announced Thursday.

 

Unless 50 teachers retire voluntarily when second semester begins this month, the district will have to lay off even more teachers, Snowden said.

 

The district just figured out that it is substantially overspending its income, she said. Enrollment dropped by 800 students this fall and has kept falling, and that means less state aid. But teacher positions haven't dropped accordingly.

 

Compounding the problem, she said, enrollment in special education programs -- including expensive one-on-one teaching -- has risen.

 

To balance the budget, class sizes at most schools will have to increase for second semester, she said. Other cuts will be made, too, but cutting teacher positions is unavoidable, she told stunned school board members.

 

"This is the first heads-up we're giving parents of a probably dramatic change that could happen in their child's classroom this month," school board member Donna Jordan said.

 

The proposed teacher cuts come after two years of eliminating teacher positions.

 

The district cut 300 teaching and counseling positions before the 1996-97 school year and 79 positions this school year.

 

To patch this year's budget, the district used $7 million of state money allocated for next year and relied on a $2.5 million bailout from the city. The district is now projecting a gap of about $20 million to maintain current services next school year.

 

To plug the budget hole just discovered this week, Snowden recommended deferring about $2.6 million in physical plant costs, and she said some temporary job vacancies and some unexpectedly low health benefit costs could save another $2.8 million.

 

She recommended cutting each department's nonsalary spending by 6 percent and plans to cut six positions from the district's central office.

 

But if the district were to stay with its current course, it would end up overspending its income by $7.6 million, Snowden said. So it needs to shave at least $1 million in teacher costs, she said.

 

The best way to accomplish that, Snowden said, would be for veteran teachers who were planning to retire in February then work until June on short-term contracts instead to agree to leave for good this month. About 200 Portland educators are expected to take advantage of a one-time boost in state retirement benefits.

 

Forced layoffs, because they would strike lower paid teachers, would require cutting roughly twice as many teachers and would create far more disruption for students, Snowden said.

 

Richard Garrett, the president of the Portland Association of Teachers, said the union plans to scrutinize district spending to make sure cuts are needed and to seek alternatives to cutting teachers. He said it was too soon to know how the union would respond to Snowden's request that it help her encourage retiring teachers to leave now.

 

Snowden said she expects the district will have to pay at least a small incentive to ensure the voluntary retirements.

 

The district has about 80 more teachers than called for by the pupil-teacher ratios in the school board's original budget of $335.5 million for this year.

 

Snowden, who came aboard Dec. 1 after being recruited from the private sector, said she regrets that the overspending was just detected. She said the miscalculation has renewed her intent to secure a new computer system to handle district finances by the start of the next fiscal year, July 1.

 

The current computer system is "archaic," she said. Getting monthly reports on expenditures vs. budget projections is virtually impossible, she said. But she assured school board members that they will get such reports from now on.

 

Snowden said she had been pressing for a reading of the district's financial health ever since she took over from Superintendent Jack Bierwirth. But she said the out-of-date computers and an ever-changing level of state aid prevented a clear picture until this week. The district's new chief financial officer crunched the numbers; that job had gone vacant for a year.

[Remi Martin]

Oregon Services Plundered For Drug War

 

 

 

The news articles linked to this page illustrate how the war on marijuana users has led to Oregon's crisis in funding for education, aid to families with children, parks, public health and public safety, drug treatment and other vital services. In recent years local and state governments have always found more money for prisons, police and other armaments for the war on cannabis consumers. Tax revenues have increased steadily for more than a decade, yet somehow budgets for social programs get cut year after year.

 

 

Anyone who does the math quickly realizes that trying to lock up the 7.8 percent of the population over age 12 who use illegal drugs will bankrupt the taxpayers long before it bankrupts the illicit-drug market. The refusal of public officials and most mass media to discuss the issues honestly or to acknowledge the facts that they themselves have made politically unpopular, or to apply the principles of cost-benefit analysis to the war on cannabis consumers, should induce Oregon voters to endorse such reform measures as the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, which would generate hundreds of millions of dollars every year for public services.

[Remi Martin]

.

[Guest ArtvandaL]

hey whats up? why dont you keep the discussion on Palestine?

How dare the people say that Palestinians put themselves in the position they are! They didnt.

They are under occupation, military occupation is no fukin joke. Of all you, only GLASS ETCH can PROBABLY relate to what it is to have your whole country, every single person of your race (yeah, its racism) being treated like shit, abandoned by the world, innefective leadership, israeli soldiers running around like they fukin own the place, which sadly they do, and the soldiers are just following orders ( like Nazis) to go walk into Palestinian cities with DOZENS of TANKS, for security... FOR SECURITY?!?!?

That is the biggest most disgusting defense to come back in an argument on how the Israelis treat Palestinians. And its all over T.V.!! at least in america .

 

Then they wonder why Palestinians are mad... theyre not mad, theyre oppresed, depressed, frustrated, hopeless, broke, and now the poorer ones like in the JENIN refugee camp (a refugee camp is a shithole, and no one person on earth should live that way in this modern world) are even homeless, livin in tents, the whole family. hungry and looking up at the mountain... what do they see??? a settlement!

you guys dont have a clue what a "settlement" really is do you ?

 

Sorry to cut yall off, I'll continue later

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

peace...

 

 

please

[Remi Martin]

in comparison, the people most severely affected by the three strikes law and most affected with poverty are either native to the lands of Cali.,ie Mexicans and Native Americans, and African Americans who were stolen from their native lands and used to build this country to what it is. All three peoples have been handed severe injustices to which repirations are yet to be made.

remember, the topic was the world.

 

And I dont see how Arafat should step down. He was elected democratically. Sharon, like i typed before, was responsible for the massacre of refugees in Lebanon. So basically bush acted like he did shit, but aint making israel withdraw at all, and is making all the civilians responsible for the actions of a few and continuing the support for a army that shoots innnocent children with no repurcussions other than having to admit they made an error. In part I fault the Israeli people for not taking a more direct approach twoards peace. However overthrowing the goverment is easier said than done.

Ill be back with more later.

[Remi Martin]

biblical shit

 

fires, floods, nile virus in 27 states and a huge aids epidemic

the 911 attacks...

is it just me, or in the words of egon from ghost busters, were on some 'biblical shit'

[Esai]

Wow that was some interesting ass stuff etcho, hit me up at my address to converse dog, I aint heard from ya in a while.

To be honest, a lot of the shit went down in the riots cuz of pent up anger towards the establishment hands down, and this was a direct result of economic marginalization of blacks and latinos.Sure the whole king/soon ja do shit was the sparks, but there were 20 tons of social stress in LA's slums to add.I actually took part in the riot, although I lived in Eastlos at the time,me and my cuzins went down there and got some stuff, it was pretty scary( I was 12). but I know how fucked up things are down here, and how they fuck with many a person.2pac said it good"In LA every nigga got a little thug in em" cuz down here things are so stacked up against you(if youre brown or black) that youre almost forced to do dirt to keep your head above water. I also spent some time in CYA as a youth, its some money makin bullshit, a nice junior camp in the prison industrial complex.

[Remi Martin]

I remember when the riots popped off, it was right before my freind was murdered. My suspended sentence for graff was eqaul to what the murderer recieved for time in cya. Bullshit. You peep that shit on how the UC system and public schools was top of the nation thirty years ago, and basically all that money has been put in to prisons now. Some bullshit tactics. Not to mention thats outright warfare on minoritys. Over 30 prisons with the highest incarceration rate for nonviolent offenders world wide, thats some scary shit, not to mention we get ripped of for 40 billion by the presidents homeys, that dumb mofo cant get his act straight, aint done shit right and wasn't even elected by the voting majority. Cali gets fucked by the inside and the outside. Prison is the industry that replaced the educational institutions available to all. Now if you got no money you basically gotta hustle and risk prison, except if your second generation well off, read mostly white, and can afford the outrageous tuition costs, that public school doesnt even prepare to handle. thats warfare- by the goverment on the citizens.

[Esai]

Yeah but Ive come to the dilemma of a viable option.I mean what canwe do that would change this and maybe work towards some viable solution? I dont know, I mean this bulshit is basically downloaded into our brains via school, and its backwards styles of thinking(thats why so many schools dont know what the fuck critical thinking is). I was thinking of a way to talk to gangmembers to gather them up in LA and try to find a way to find a resolution so they help their hoods(a la black and chicano empowerment movements in the 60's before cointelpro) i mean the destruction of the panthers in LA created a social vacuum that birthed the crips and eventually the bloods. But sometimes it seems envious.Ive seen Cali from the gutter and the penthouse, its some ruthless injustice type shit. Every day I drive through 2 totally different worlds and it aint even west/east LA , its just in the fucken sanfernando valley alone! (pacoima- granada hills) A few months back I started off my week in a LA county dorm naked(just after a riot) and at the end of the week I was shaking hands and meeting the mayor and all these big politicos, crazy ass shit. I took a coworker to her boyfriend house in some rich ass part of LA I didnt even know existed,I mean mansions all up by midcity(3rd and la brea) so fucken nice, these same numbered streets go to my side od town and look like shit,tore up roads like mexico.It disgusts me.Somehow they kept this white(or to be less racist) wealthy conservative pocket of luxury all up in a giant brown police state, crazy ass shit seeing rich spoiledUSC kids in a 4runner talkin about how they blew a few grand on weed and booz in a week next to a hardworking paisa dad dividing up change to feed his kids. How do you not expext a revolt of somekind by those on the losing side of the battle? Same with the world.This is not a racist comment on an individual level, but Im sick to my stomach upon viewing western(white) civilization's havoc on the world and how it effects me in my face everyday.

[Remi Martin]

I see what your saying. Fortunatley I am not afflicted with the blinding power of american greed. It beyond me how the majority of the people in this state are so blind to its ills that they as the majority have the resources to solve. I feel that the only recourse is what you are talking about, getting the gangs to stop the violence and harness the power that is being expelled in waste and let the rest of Cali know whats really going on. Documentrys from the real side, commercials documenting what racist actions continue to happen. All of it.

When I was locked up, not only was I locked up with crack and meth dealers, g's, and crazys..but half the kids i went to a priveleged junior high with, who i saw after i got out in fresh new cars their parents got them as a consolation prize. Cause they got wrapped up for check fraud, and growing weed. I dont understand how the focus of education has drifted so far. The fact that prisons are the near number one state priority next to freeways is a out right disgusting. And on top of that we get robbed by affiliates of the white house. A effective public conciousness campiagn might work, far easier thought of than accomplished, but it needs to happen. So much is wrong with California when the resources dictate otherwise. The costs for prisons and jails and youth authority camps far exceed those of effective education in any spectrum. Again, its beyond me how those can be so blind to what goes on next to them. Its absurd and ignorant and driven by the american dream of greed. Kind of makes me want to hollar at rockstars for money to advertise. To promote social ideals and fuel political candidates. Cause unfortunatley its their game we have to play, buts its the concious genuine people that can win.

[Bar Fly]

How can george bush seriously expect an elected leader(arafat)to step

down?it just goes to show the arrogance of the american government.

If arafat was to say that bush wasnt doing a good job,and should step

down,could you imagine the reaction?laughter,or a "how dare they"

Why would the american reaction be laughter?because the bush regeime doesnt see the palestinians as equals.

Doesnt deposing an elected government fly in the face of everything it

(USA)supposivly stands for?Of course so!it annoys me how the american

government has a set of rules for the world,and another set for

itself.(which it can change at anytime)

American governments have a long history of bullying,harrasing

and intimidating any small government which wont be its lap dog.

our prime minister(australian)was there recently and all he did was

kiss georges ass the whole time.

what really gets me is that in australia,heaps of people go around

wearing tops with USA or some american cities name on them,i

feel like going up to them and saying"oh ..how did you enjoy the

states?"just because i know they havent been there and for some

warped reason they think being american is cool!

Im not saying that the AMERICAN PEOPLE are bad,i just deplore the

americanisation of the world,and the apathy and acceptance most

australians have for this.Its like australians cant be fucked thinking

about it,so they let the adoring Australian government just hold americas tailcoats and be allies to a global bully,where ever that may

lead.

our government just follows yours and doesnt think

scary.

[•nakone•]

fuck um.. i have a head ache

[Remi Martin]

a forty ounce for breakfast should get me through the day....