Military Resistance:
thomasfbarton@earthlink.net
5.17.13
Print it out: color best. Pass it on.
Military Resistance 11E11
[Thanks to SSG N (ret’d) who sent this in. She writes: “There’s this place in Utah, see . .
“]
AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS
Two U.S. Soldiers And Four U.S.
Mercenaries Killed By Kabul Car Bomb
A destroyed US military vehicle at the site of attack in Kabul on May 16, 2013 that
targeted a U.S. military convoy. AFP PHOTO/ Massoud HOSSAINI
5.16.13 By Atia Abawi and Fazal Ahad, NBC News & Agence France-Presse
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Six Americans were among at least 15 people killed when a
bomber targeted a convoy carrying foreign troops in Kabul on Thursday, NATO sources
and local officials said.
The American victims included two soldiers and four civilian contractors, the NATO
source added.
One U.S. military sports utility vehicle was completely destroyed in the blast and
surrounding streets were quickly cordoned off as US troops arrived at the scene.
About 40 people were injured in the powerful blast, which took place at around 8 a.m.
local time (11.30 p.m. ET Wednesday).
“I was at home when I heard a terrible explosion and our whole building shook,” Mustafa,
a witness, told AFP.
“All our windows are shattered.
“I rushed outside to bring my little brothers and sisters from school. I saw five or six
people covered in blood who were being taken away in police vehicles.”
“Some of the bodies are badly damaged and can’t be identified.”
Kabul police spokesman Hashmatullah Stanikzai said the attacker detonated a Toyota
Corolla.
Hizb-i-Islami, an insurgent group which is allied with the Taliban, claimed responsibility
for the attack.
Our comrades carried out this attack,” Zubair Sediqi, the Hezb-i-Islami spokesman, told
AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location.
“Ten foreigners were killed and two of their vehicles were destroyed.”
Hezb-i-Islami, led by former prime minister and mujahideen leader Gulbuddin
Hekmatyar, is a militant group active mainly in the east of the country rather than in the
Taliban hotbeds of the south.
Helicopters buzzed over Kabul’s diplomatic area after the attack and sirens whined.
Parker Marine Killed In Action In
Afghanistan
Cpl. David M. Sonka (Photo provided by MARSOC Public Affairs )
SSgt. Eric D. Christian (MARSOC Public Affairs)
05/06/2013 By Ryan Parker, The Denver Post
A 23-year-old Marine from Parker — and the Military Working Dog that was trying to
save him — were killed during a combat operation in Afghanistan’s Farah province
Saturday, Major Jeff Landis of the Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command
told The Denver Post on Monday.
Cpl. David Sonka and his dog, Flex, were killed during an alleged insider attack, the
Marine Corps Times reported Monday.
Staff Sgt. Eric Christian, 39, of Warwick, N.Y., also was killed, Landis said.
The two Marines were assigned to 2nd Marine Special Operations Battalion, Camp
Lejeune, N.C., Landis said. Their deaths remain under investigation.
Sonka is the second Colorado serviceman killed in two days. Air Force Capt. Mark T.
Voss of Colorado Springs was among three killed when a refueling tanker crashed
Friday in Kyrgyzstan.
Sonka was born in Aurora. He joined the Marines in August 2008 and graduated from
recruit training in November 2008, Landis said.
During his service, Sonka received numerous personal decorations, including a Navy
and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal and a
Combat Action Ribbon, Landis said.
Sonka attended military police school, and, once finished, began courses to become a
Military Working Dog handler, officials said.
Assigned to the III Marine Expeditionary Force K9 Section of the Marine Corps Air
Ground Combat Center in California from July 2009 to March 2012, Sonka was deployed
for Operation Enduring Freedom, Landis said.
Sonka was then assigned to Marine Special Operations Combat Support Battalion,
Marine Special Operations Support Group at Camp Lejeune, N.C., where he completed
special operations and canine course training.
From there, Sonka attached to 2nd Marine Special Operations Battalion as a MultiPurpose Canine Handler. Calls to the Sonka family were not returned.
MILITARY NEWS
Army Sex Abuse Official Accused Of
Sexually Abusing Females In His Unit
And Running Prostitution Ring On
Base:
“Allegations That The Sergeant Was
Involved In ‘Abusive Sexual Contact,
Pandering, Assault And Maltreatment Of
Subordinates’”
[Thanks to Mark Shapiro, Military Resistance Organization, who sent this in.]
16 May 13 By Richard Sisk, Military.com [Excerpts]
For the second time this month, a uniformed military official whose job was to prevent
sex abuse has come under investigation for a sex crime.
Agents from the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division were looking into allegations that
an Army sergeant first class at Fort Hood, Texas, sexually abused females in his unit
and ran a prostitution ring on the base, Pentagon officials said Tuesday night.
Officials said that the soldier, who was not identified, had been assigned as an Equal
Opportunity Adviser and Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention
(SHARP) program coordinator at Fort Hood with the Army’s III Corps when the
allegations surfaced.
No charges have yet been filed, but the sergeant was “immediately suspended from all
duties by the chain of command once the allegations were brought to the command’s
attention,” the Defence Department said in a statement.
The CID investigation was looking into allegations that the sergeant was involved in
“abusive sexual contact, pandering, assault and maltreatment of subordinates” in his
oversight of a unit of about 800 soldiers.
The allegations against the sergeant surfaced a week after Lt. Col. Jeffrey Krusinski,
branch chief of the Air Force’s Sexual Assault and Prevention Office, was arrested and
charged by Arlington County, Va., police for allegedly being drunk and groping a woman
in a parking lot near a strip club one mile from the Pentagon.
Krusinski has been charged with sexual battery, and a hearing on his criminal case has
been set for July.
The charges against Krusinski rocked the Air Force, which was already dealing with
numerous courts-martial stemming from the alleged abuse of female recruits at Lackland
Air Force Base, Texas. Two Air Force three-star generals have also overturned two
convictions on sexual assault charges
The Defence Department issued a report estimating that as many as 26,000
servicemembers may have been sexually assaulted last year, based on survey results.
Of those, fewer than 3,400 reported the incident, and nearly 800 of them received
medical treatment and counselling but declined to file formal complaints against their
alleged attackers.
Rep. Howard McKeon, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said
the allegations against the Fort Hood sergeant, following on the Krusinski arrest, had
“deeply shaken” his confidence in the military’s ability to deal with sexual assault within
its ranks.
“I have a granddaughter in the U.S. Army,” McKeon said in a statement.
“We can prepare them to face the enemy abroad. But we cannot, nor will not, tolerate an
enemy within. I will not be satisfied with any response to this crime that fails to hold both
the perpetrator and the chain of command responsible.”
Elderly Veteran Dies In Court
Fighting Wells Fargo Wrongful
Foreclosure:
“Wells Fargo Mistakenly Held Him
Liable For His Neighbor’s Property
Taxes, Doubled His Mortgage
Payments, Declared His Loan In
Default And Sold His Hermosa Beach
Condominium”
“Delassus Valiantly Continued To Fight
The Best He Could Until His Body Gave
Up”
“On December 19, 2012, as he was sitting in the back of the courtroom, at about
the same time the Bank was saying that its actions ‘didn’t matter,’ Larry collapsed,
and within minutes, died. Wells Fargo and its agents should be held accountable
for their negligent wrongful and malicious actions.”
A retired Navy veteran on disability, Delassus suffered from a blood disorder
called Budd-Chiari syndrome, and would not have been in court were it not for
Wells Fargo’s insistence that he appear, the complaint states.
May 14, 2013 By Matt Reynolds, Alternet
An elderly man “succumbed to the pressure” of losing his home to Wells Fargo
and died at a court hearing fighting the bank’s wrongful foreclosure, his estate
claims in court.
The administrator of the estate of Larry Delassus sued Wells Fargo, Wachovia Bank,
First American Corp. and others in Superior Court, for wrongful death, elder abuse,
breach of contract and other charges.
Delassus died at 62 of heart disease after Wells Fargo mistakenly held him liable for his
neighbor’s property taxes, doubled his mortgage payments, declared his loan in default
and sold his Hermosa Beach condominium, according to the complaint.
“Larry Delassus tried everything to save his home,” the complaint states.
“He told the Bank that they were mistaken; they said no. He contacted the bank seeking
information, and was told one thing and then another, and oftentimes, no information at
all. He enlisted his friend and neighbor to help him, but the bank refused to recognize
him as Larry’s representative, despite his numerous applications and appeals.
“Whatever Larry needed, Wells Fargo created some excuse not to help him.
“At the very end, with his home being sold by the Bank and resold by the purchaser
within months for nearly twice what he paid, Larry Delassus, now living in a boarding
home, was still fighting for what he and many Americans believe is right by going to
court.
“Wells Fargo, with its virtually unlimited resources, filed a series of procedural
motions in its defense, needlessly forcing an ailing Larry to appear in court.
“Delassus valiantly continued to fight the best he could until his body gave up.
“On December 19, 2012, as he was sitting in the back of the courtroom, at about the
same time the Bank was saying that its actions ‘didn’t matter,’ Larry collapsed, and
within minutes, died. Wells Fargo and its agents should be held accountable for their
negligent wrongful and malicious actions.”
A retired Navy veteran on disability, Delassus suffered from a blood disorder called
Budd-Chiari syndrome, and would not have been in court were it not for Wells Fargo’s
insistence that he appear, the complaint states.
He died within minutes of collapsing in the courtroom.
“This is a case about greed and one man’s fight for justice in the face of overwhelming
odds,” the complaint states.
Blaming Delassus’s death on the bank’s “haste for an endless stream of profits,” the
estate claims that he “succumbed to the pressure of fighting Wells Fargo and the
heartbreak of losing his home and died after falling gravely ill.”
Delassus’s estate administrator, Deborah Popovich, says in the complaint that
almost one-third of the millions of people who have faced foreclosure since the
housing market crashed did so because of “bank errors and banned practices.
“While the instant case represents just one example of many reflecting the results
of these bank ‘errors’ and practices, the consequences in this case are especially
tragic,” Popovich says.
She says Delassus “lived a quiet and happy life,” and always paid his mortgage and
property taxes on time.
But in early 2009, Wells Fargo falsely claimed he owed $13,361.90 in back taxes
when it was actually the owner of a nearby condo that owed the money, Popovich
says.
But Wells Fargo, falsely claiming Delassus owed the money, nearly doubled his
mortgage payment -- a mistake it could have rectified by verifying his property’s
tax identification number with the county, the estate says.
Delassus told Wells Fargo he could not afford the higher payments and the bank
foreclosed -- even after the county treasurer had confirmed that his property taxes
were current and paid, the complaint states.
Popovich seeks restitution, costs, civil penalties and punitive damages for the estate.
She is represented by Anthony Trujillo of Trujillo & Winnick of Hermosa Beach.
Wells Fargo bought Wachovia in late 2008, during the nationwide housing meltdown.
MILITARY RESISTANCE BY EMAIL
If you wish to receive Military Resistance immediately and
directly, send request to contact@militaryproject.org. There is
no subscription charge.
FORWARD OBSERVATIONS
“At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. Oh had
I the ability, and could reach the nation’s ear, I would, pour out a fiery stream of
biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke.
“For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder.
“We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.”
“The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they
oppose.”
Frederick Douglass, 1852
The Social-Democrats ideal should not be the trade union secretary, but the
tribune of the people who is able to react to every manifestation of tyranny and
oppression no matter where it appears no matter what stratum or class of the
people it affects; who is able to generalize all these manifestations and produce a
single picture of police violence and capitalist exploitation; who is able to take
advantage of every event, however small, in order to set forth before all his
socialist convictions and his democratic demands, in order to clarify for all and
everyone the world-historic significance of the struggle for the emancipation of
the proletariat.”
-- V. I. Lenin; What Is To Be Done
Opinion:
“Can You Honestly Call Me An Expert —
Or The Chief Of Sexual Assault
Prevention & Response — If I Haven’t
Sexually Assaulted Anyone Myself?”
Lt. Col. Jeffrey Krusinski,
The following is an opinion piece written by Lt. Col. Jeffrey Krusinski, the Chief of the Air
Force office of Sexual Assault & Prevention.
15 May 2013 by Dirk Diggler, The Duffle Blog
Look, guys, I know this looks bad. But there’s a perfectly logical explanation for all this.
You see, I’m just as committed to eliminating sexual assault as you are.
That’s why I had to go downtown to the Crystal City Strip…erm…Restaurant to do some
first-hand research.
If you really think about it, how am I supposed to stop the problem with sexual assault if I
don’t have first-hand experience in the matter?
Can you honestly call me an expert — or the Chief of Sexual Assault Prevention &
Response — if I haven’t sexually assaulted anyone myself?
I’m glad you’re seeing it my way. I’ve got subordinates that look up to me, you know.
Clearly I don’t have a history of sexual assault stretching back years … so I had to see
for myself what the fuss was all about.
Did you know that 89 percent of sexual assaults involve alcohol? So naturally, I made
sure to get nice and loaded first.
I realized that one of the key contributing factors to sexual assault is a work environment
which objectifies women. I’m happy to report we don’t have a work environment like that
in the U.S. Air Force — after all, I led the task force to confiscate all that workplace porn
a few months ago.
When we did the confiscations, we had to think, ‘is it pornography or is it not
pornography?’ It was a complicated question, until I came up with a simple litmus test —
does looking at it help me masturbate?
Most of that porn did wind up in my own personal stash, but let’s not split hairs here. The
point is, I kept it out of the wrong hands.
Anyway, I went down to the local gentlemen’s club to see what real objectification of
women looked like.
After a thorough investigation, I thought I’d see what things looked like on the other side
of the fence at Freddie’s Beach Bar and Restaurant.
So when I was out in the parking lot, I approached a woman and decided to chat her up.
I’m all for telling the Air Force story. So, I decided to sing a few bars of the Air Force
anthem…
“At ‘er boys, give ‘er the gun!”
I don’t know what came over me … because as soon as I uttered those words, I felt this
incredible urge to grab her tits.
But it wasn’t just that. I think I slapped her ass at least once.
After all, I was gathering crucial scientific data on sexual assault. You understand that,
don’t you?
The real problem here is that she actually hit me — in the face!
Can you believe that?
She actually assaulted a researcher with the government of the United States.
Needless to say, I’ll be pressing charges.
STUCK ON STUPID
FBI Surrounds House Of Saudi Student
After Sightings Of Him With Pressure
Cooker Pot - Only To Discover He Was
Cooking Rice
12 May 2013 By Martin Jay, Daily Mail
A Saudi student living in Michigan was questioned in his home by FBI agents after
neighbours saw him carrying a pressure cooker and called the police.
Talal al Rouki had been cooking a traditional Saudi Arabian rice dish called kabsah and
was carrying it to a friend’s house.
According to reports in a Saudi newspaper on Friday, the FBI are increasingly vigilant
about ‘pressure cooker’ home-made bombs after the Boston bombers used one to make
an explosive.
The Saudi journal, Oukaz reported on the story of the Saudi student who had FBI agents
come to his home, following a tip-off from neighbours that he was seen moving about
with a pressure cooker bomb.
While armed agents surrounded his apartment block, other agents, asked a ‘nervous’ Mr
al Rouki if they could come in to question him.
‘They asked me about my major, when I arrived in the US and what I do in my spare
time’ he told the Saudi newspaper.
Officers said that two days earlier that a woman had seen him walking out of his
apartment carrying the pressure cooker pot, which was described as ‘bullet coloured’.
The young student showed them his pressure cooker and explained to them he used to
make a rice dish.
An FBI agent said: ‘You need to be more careful moving around with such things, Sir’
Mr al Rouki has become a focus of attention now in the Saudi press.
According to reports in a Saudi newspaper, the FBI are increasingly vigilant about
‘pressure cooker’ home-made bombs and have a keen eye on Arabs who reside in the
US.
TROOPS INVITED:
Comments, arguments, articles, and letters from service men
and women, and veterans, are especially welcome. Write to Box
126, 2576 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10025-5657 or email
contact@militaryproject.org: Name, I.D., withheld unless you
request publication. Same address to unsubscribe.
OCCUPATION PALESTINE
Among The Ruins Of Lifta,
Memory Of The Nakba Persists:
“Despite The 65 Years That Have
Passed From The Last Time He Woke
Up In His House, Yacoub Odeh Never
Lost His Sense Of Belonging”
“He Carries With Him Many Documents
Proving Palestinian Ownership Of The
Land, One Of Which Dates Back To The
Ottoman Empire”
Lifta village, occupied Palestine
May 14, 2013 By Fatima Masri, The Palestine Monitor. Photos by Eugene Peress
Standing within the boundaries of the holy city, Lifta is one of the 68 villages
surrounding Jerusalem that were ethnically cleansed during the Israeli systematic
attack in 1948.
Unlike the others, it is the only Arab village that has not been destroyed since.
Israel confiscated the village land under the Absentee Property law in 1950, despite
recognition by the Fourth Geneva Convention of the right of refugees to be repatriated.
Some of its inhabitants found shelter a few hundred meters away, certain of soon being
able to return to their former homes, while others fled to the West Bank and are now
unable to visit their village due to the severe restrictions on Palestinian movement
imposed by the Israeli government.
Last year, the Israel Land Authority (ILA) issued a tender for a construction plan
for 212 luxury housing units on the Lifta site. The Jerusalem District Court for
technical reasons rejected the measure, but the plan is still on stand-by.
One of the former inhabitants of Lifta is Yacoub Odeh, born in 1940 and among the last
holders of the oral history of the village.
When not working at the Land & Housing Research Centre in Jerusalem, Odeh
organises guided tours, bringing Lifta back to life for a couple of hours with memories of
the bread baked in the tabboun, the taste of za’tar and fresh olive oil and the smell of
homemade ka’ak.
Odeh recounts how the members of the community lived, how they shared food and
water and helped one another cultivate their lands. He describes his village as jennah,
or “paradise” but goes on to acknowledge, “As Arabs say, paradise without people is
nothing.”
Due to its strategic position, Lifta was one of the first villages attacked by the Israeli
forces in 1948, the year remembered by Palestinians as the Nakba, the catastrophe.
Odeh was only 8 years old at that time, but his memories of that day are still vivid. When
he heard the shooting, he was at home with his mother, who hid him and his siblings
under a table.
One of the men of the village used his truck to drive the children to Ramallah, away from
the conflict. “One moment we had everything, we were happy, and the moment after we
were beggars,” Odeh remembers.
During the tours, he carries with him many documents proving Palestinian ownership of
the land, one of which dates back to the Ottoman Empire.
“Unfortunately,” he argues, “this is not a matter of law, but of law of force.”
The slope leading into the village, referred to as al-’oqbah, the obstacle, is still as steep
as it was in the past, but the view has changed dramatically.
Lifta appears as an island lost in time, encircled by the Begin highway on one side and
the construction yard of the light train from Jaffa to Tel Aviv on the other.
Each house was built by its owner out of limestone using Lifta’s own rocky soil, its
beauty being a unique evidence of the bygone prosperity of the village.
Israelis subsequently put holes into the roofs of the village’s structures to prevent
Palestinian resettlement and giving visible proof of the daunting history of the
Israeli occupation.
The centre of the social life of Lifta before 1948 was the main square, the saha. Here,
the villagers sat under a mulberry tree and shared the memories of their fathers, danced
the dabka under the moonlight, or listened to the rawi, the storyteller.
“If you ask any man from Lifta, what is the saha? He will remember all the stories that
happened here. ‘You remember when ‘Ali married and…?’”
Odeh’s voice fades away as his mind goes back in time.
Around him, teenage settlers shout as they play in the village’s old well, situated in the
centre of the square, now used by Israelis as a pool. An old Jewish man in a long tunic
joins them and, raising his hands to the sky, starts chanting in praise of Israel.
Entombed in Lifta’s ruins is the meaning of the Nakba.
This place tells the story of the conflict in terms of the strive for memory and collective
identity which both Israeli and Palestinians are conducting, thus making the siege of a
piece of land not a mere matter of space and resources, but a way to impose one’s own
memory and concurrent narrative.
What the inhabitants of Lifta have lost during the Nakba is not a clod of earth, but
the community that lived on it and its identity.
Despite the 65 years that have passed from the last time he woke up in his house,
Yacoub Odeh never lost his sense of belonging.
“I am from Lifta. These are the things that shape my life. This is my life. The day
I will forgive and forget is the day in which I will be able to go back home.”
Hearing Odeh speaking of forgiveness is especially startling when he admits having
been incarcerated in Israeli prison for 17 years because of his involvement in the
struggle against the occupation.
Today most of the structures are used by illicit lovers and drug abusers, something the
former inhabitants of Lifta try to prevent by building fences around their abandoned
properties.
“What importance do these stones have for the Israelis when they can sell the land and
make one thousand dollars from it?” asks Odeh heatedly.
“But these stones mean something to me, they tell the story of my life.”
He points in the direction of the house where he, his father and his grandfather were
born, describing its architecture as if it was still standing before his eyes.
Groups of activists, both Palestinian and Israeli, are fighting daily to preserve Lifta from
the threat of destruction launched by the bulldozers as well as by natural elements.
What Lifta needs is to be preserved as part of a collective memory which unites both
communities.
Reconstruction on this historical site would further widen the rift between
Palestinians and Israelis and deny the Palestinians not only the right of return, but
the right to remember.
“No one has the right to cancel the other,” says Odeh.
“There is enough place for all of us, we can live together, but not under
occupation.”
[To check out what life is like under a murderous military occupation commanded
by foreign terrorists, go to: www.rafahtoday.org The occupied nation is Palestine.
The foreign terrorists call themselves “Israeli.”]
Military Resistance In PDF Format?
If you prefer PDF to Word format, email: contact@militaryproject.org
DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK
[Thanks to Phil G, who sent this in.]
CLASS WAR REPORTS
[Thanks to David McReynolds for posting]
Euro Crisis Mires Continent In
Longest Slump Since The War:
“No Recovery In Sight For A Broad
Swath Of The Continent”
May 15, 2013 By MARCUS WALKER in Berlin and BRIAN BLACKSTONE in Frankfurt,
Wall Street Journal [Excerpt]
The euro-zone debt crisis has mutated into Europe’s longest slump of the postwar era,
with no recovery in sight for a broad swath of the continent.
Continuing government austerity, banks that can’t or won’t lend and heavy household
debts are weighing on many countries. Weak business surveys are challenging official
predictions, including from the European Central Bank, that growth will return this year.
The euro zone’s output of goods and services, or gross domestic product, fell in the first
three months of the year at an annualized rate of 0.9%, data out Wednesday showed.
That was the sixth-straight quarter of a recession that began in late 2011, and puts the
region in contrast with other recovering economies. U.S. GDP grew at a 2.5% pace in
the first quarter, and early Thursday, Japan said its GDP jumped 3.5% in the quarter.
U.K. output rose last quarter as well.
Depression-like conditions in Southern Europe, combined with slowing global growth,
are dragging down the core economies: Germany is barely growing and France is
steadily contracting.
The 17-nation euro zone, which accounts for 17% of world GDP, remains the weakest
link in the global economy, mired well below its level of economic activity before the
2008 financial crisis. Social strains, political paralysis and rising debt burdens are
reigniting doubts about its economic future.
“The ECB’s recurrent predictions of an imminent recovery are the triumph of hope over
wisdom,” said Willem Buiter, chief economist at Citigroup Inc. Euro-zone countries will
face a mix of recession and tepid recovery for “two or three more years,” he said.
Though the recession that followed the crash of Lehman Brothers was deeper, the
current contraction in Europe has lasted longer.
A Huge Victory For Our Side:
Los Angeles Ends Cruel, Stupid
Policy Of Kicking Students Out Of
School For “Refusing To Take Off A
Hat, Turn Off A Cellphone, Failing To
Wear A School Uniform” “Failing To
Bring Material To Class” “Not
Coming To Class Prepared” “Not
Doing What You’re Told”
“Now We’ll Have A Better Chance To
Stay In School And Become Something,”
Said Luis Quintero, 14”
San Fernando Valley Sun
“It’s a big victory in support of young people to stay in school and also in terms of
human rights for students, especially Latino and african american students who
were punished the most by the suspensions,” Criollo said.
May 14, 2013 By Teresa Watanabe, Los Angeles Times & 16 May 2013 Written by
Diana Martinez & Alex Garcia, San Fernando Valley Sun [Excerpts]
In ground-breaking action, the Los Angeles Unified school board voted Tuesday to ban
suspensions of defiant students, directing officials to use alternative disciplinary
practices instead.
The packed board room erupted in cheers after the 5-2 vote to approve the proposal,
which made L.A.
Unified the first school district in the state to ban defiance as grounds for suspension.
The action comes amid mounting national concern that removing students from school is
imperiling their academic achievement and disproportionately harming minority students,
particularly African Americans.
“Now we’ll have a better chance to stay in school and become something,” said Luis
Quintero, 14, a student at Augustus Hawkins High School in South Los Angeles.
He attended the board meeting, along with dozens of other students and community
activists who have been pushing the proposal by board members Monica Garcia and
Nury Martinez.
The action marks a decisive step back from “zero tolerance” policies that swept
the nation after the Columbine school shooting in Colorado more than a decade
ago.
But as harsh school discipline policies took hold, studies in Texas and elsewhere
found that suspensions did not lead to better behavior but were linked to poor
academic achievement and run-ins with law enforcement.
Additionally, African Americans are disproportionately affected — accounting for
26% of those suspended in L.A. Unified in 2010-11 although they made up 9% of
the student population.
The proposal would ban suspensions of students for “willful defiance,” an offense
criticized as a subjective catch-all for such behavior as refusing to take off a hat,
turn off a cellphone or failing to wear a school uniform.
The offense accounted for 48% of 710,000 suspensions issued in California in 2011-12,
prompting state and local efforts to restrict its use in disciplinary actions.
Disruptive students could still be removed from the classroom but they would no longer
be sent home. Instead, school officials would be required to keep students on campus
and hold them accountable through alternatives shown to be more effective.
Those practices include positive behavior incentives, which have reduced office
discipline referrals by up to 50% in 13,000 schools using them nationwide,
according to Fix School Discipline, an initiative of the Public Counsel Law Center
of Los Angeles.
Another practice that focuses on conflict resolution through repairing the harm
done, known as restorative justice, helped one Contra Costa high school reduce
suspensions by half last year over the previous year.
Critics, however, object to restrictions on their disciplinary authority. District
administrators and teachers have raised questions about whether they will be given the
training and time to use the alternative practices.
The proposal was backed by Supt. John Deasy and several nonprofits and community
organizations.
It marked the latest effort by L.A. Unified to reform school discipline, following a 2007
board directive to establish the positive behavior incentive program in all schools and a
heightened effort by Deasy to monitor suspension data.
The district has reduced the number of instructional days lost to suspensions — to
26,286 in 2011-12 from 74,765 in 2006-07. But African Americans still are excessively
affected.
Deasy told the board that students still will be suspended for violence, drugs, fights and
other behavior that threatens others.
But he said keeping students out of school for failing to bring material to class
and other lesser acts considered defiant could push them out of school and into
possible trouble.
“We want to be part of graduating, not incarcerating,” students, he said.
Under the old policy, “willfull defiance” could be defined as: talking back to a teacher, not
coming to class prepared, cursing at a teacher, not taking off a cap in class and not
doing what you’re told.
Students organized to campaign for the change flooded the front of the board’s meeting
room. Representing the students was Ezinne Nwankwo, a senior at Cleveland high
school in Reseda addressed the board before the final vote was taken.
Nwankwo said she considered the heavy police presence not one offering
protection but creating an environment of “pre-prisoning” at schools like
Cleveland high and across L.A. County.
Nwankwo has been involved as a youth organizer with the Community rights
Campaign that works with african american and Latino students.
“This vote is an important first step in our effort to ensure that every student has an
opportunity to thrive,” said Kafid.
Manuel Criollo, organizer with the Labor Community strategy Center, a community
organization that is part of the coalition that rallied in support of the measure, called the
decision “a big victory.”
“It’s a big victory in support of young people to stay in school and also in terms of human
rights for students, especially Latino and african american students who were punished
the most by the suspensions,” Criollo said.
Criollo said that the impact of such a change are already visible at Maclay Middle
school in Pacoima and at Garfield high school in East Los Angeles, two schools
that had administrators who supported less punitive forms of discipline.
“At Garfield high school, their absences have gone down and their suspensions
have gone from 700 to 0 and their testing scores have gone up,” said Criollo.
Similarly, he said, at Maclay Middle school, where there is more “positive behavior
support” of students, and an increase in parent participation.
DO YOU HAVE A FRIEND OR RELATIVE IN THE
MILITARY?
Forward Military Resistance along, or send us the email address if you
wish and we’ll send it regularly with your best wishes. Whether in
Afghanistan or at a base in the USA, this is extra important for your service
friend, too often cut off from access to encouraging news of growing
resistance to injustices, inside the armed services and at home. Send
email requests to address up top or write to: Military Resistance, Box 126,
2576 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10025-5657.
Hundreds Of Workers At Milwaukee FastFood Restaurants And Retail Stores
Walked Off The Job To Demand Fair
Wages And The Right To Organize
Photo by Raise Up MKE
May 15, 2013 The Progressive
On Wednesday, hundreds of workers at Milwaukee fast-food restaurants and retail
stores walked off the job to demand fair wages and the right to organize.
“We are incredibly excited about the turnout today,” said Jennifer Epps-Addison,
economic justice director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin, who estimated that there were
about 500 people at a Burger King on 51st and Capitol in Milwaukee, where five workers
walked off the job,
Calling for $15 an hour and the right to form a union without fear of reprisal from their
bosses, workers at McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Simply Fashion and Taco Bell in
Milwaukee joined their fellow workers who have walked off the job in Detroit, New York
City, Chicago and St. Louis in recent weeks.
“We’re on strike because we’re tired of struggling just to survive,” Kenneth Mack, a
McDonald’s employee said in a statement released by a coalition the Milwaukee
Workers Organizing Committee, an independent union of low-wage workers.
“There is no reason why I should go to work every day and not make enough to take
care of myself and my daughter.”
“Workers in Milwaukee have been inspired, especially by what we saw in Detroit last
week,” said Epps-Addison.
“That helped us decide we wanted to go out on strike.
“We’ve been following what’s going on with low-wage workers across the country using
Twitter and FaceBook, which has been great because we’ve been able to find out what’s
happening in real time and adjust our plans.”
Low-wage jobs, which account for the majority of jobs added during the recent economic
recovery nationwide, don’t pay enough so that workers can hope to build a reasonable
life, the strikers point out.
“We believe $15 an hour is not just a livable wage but a fair wage for the work that
they’re doing,” added Epps-Addison.
The “Raise Up MKE” campaign is a coalition effort by community, labor, and faith-based
groups.
Goals include a union drive, a campaign to raise the state’s minimum wage, and
informing taxpayers about millions of dollars in subsidies to employers who pay poverty
wages.
“In the 1960s, Milwaukee workers turned dangerous, low-paying factory jobs into good
union careers,” the group’s press release on today’s strike points out.
“Unfortunately, those jobs are gone and aren’t coming back. Just like our parents and
grandparents, we must demand that big corporations stop padding their profits by paying
poverty wages.
“We’re striking because we still believe in a Milwaukee where anyone who is willing work
hard, can earn enough to support their family.”
The Milwaukee workers will return to work tomorrow. “We hope every employer in our
city will follow the law and not retaliate against them,” said Epps-Addison.
FREE TO ACTIVE DUTY:
A Vietnam Veteran Describes The
Strategy And Tactics Used By Troops To
Stop An Imperial War
SOLDIERS IN REVOLT: DAVID CORTRIGHT
[CIVILIANS: $16 INCLUDING POSTAGE
BUY ONE FOR A FRIEND/RELATIVE IN THE SERVICE.
CHECKS, MONEY ORDERS PAYABLE TO: THE MILITARY
PROJECT]
Requests from active duty or
orders from civilians to:
Military Resistance
Box 126
2576 Broadway
New York, N.Y.
10025-5657
Military Resistance Looks Even Better Printed Out
Military Resistance/GI Special are archived at website
http://www.militaryproject.org . The following have chosen to post issues; there
may be others: http://williambowles.info/military-resistance-archives/;
news@uruknet.info; http://www.scribd.com/
Military Resistance distributes and posts to our website copyrighted material the use of which has not always been
specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in an effort to advance
understanding of the invasion and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. We believe this constitutes a “fair use” of any
such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law since it is being distributed without
charge or profit for educational purposes to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included
information for educational purposes, in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107. Military Resistance has no
affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor is Military Resistance endorsed or sponsored by
the originators. This attributed work is provided a non-profit basis to facilitate understanding, research,
education, and the advancement of human rights and social justice. Go to: law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml for
more information. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’,
you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
If printed out, a copy of this newsletter is your personal property and cannot
legally be confiscated from you. “Possession of unauthorized material may not
be prohibited.” DoD Directive 1325.6 Section 3.5.1.2.