Civil Rights Archives - Page 148 of 151

Suit Filed Against Oakland Police Department For Crackdown on Occupy Demonstrators

By David GreenwaldNovember 15, 201110 comments

occupy

The ACLU of Northern California and the National Lawyers’ Guild filed a lawsuit Monday in federal court against the Oakland Police Department for what they are calling “its egregious constitutional violations against Occupy Oakland demonstrators.”

The lawsuit asks for an emergency temporary restraining order to stop police violence against political protesters. The restraining order is urgent because another police encounter with demonstrators is imminent, after the removal of the Occupy Oakland camp early this morning.

Sunday Commentary: The One Percent’s Enablers

By David GreenwaldNovember 6, 201166 comments

On Thursday night, the Vanguard had 285 people show up to our wildly successful event. Despite that showing, we had a massive amount of leftover food that we could not store. So my wife decided it was a good idea to donate it to those more needy than ourselves.

She posted on Facebook: “Just took 2 trays of delicious tortellini to Occupy folks so they could have a delicious lunch/dinner tomorrow.”

Commentary: Welcome to the Occupation

By David GreenwaldOctober 30, 201139 comments

“Welcome to the occupation. Here we stand and here we fight, all your fallen heroes. Held and dyed and skinned alive, listen to the Congress fire,” sang REM back in 1987 in words that probably resonate more today than then.

Truth be told, it is easy to dismiss movements that do not seem to make a lot of sense or have some sort of coherent message.

On a Personal Note: Simply Put, the Greatest Week of My Life

By David GreenwaldOctober 29, 201115 comments

I try not to put my personal life into the view of the community, though several people have suggested I do so to perhaps make things more personal, to allow this community to see what I am about, over and above the Vanguard, which is a creation that everyone who knows me, knows I take tremendous pride in.

I have lived a good life so far, and have had many moments of joy including the day I proposed to my wife, Cecilia, surprising her on Diamond Point in Mount Lassen State Park on June 30, 2001 and our spectacular wedding on Bastille Day 2002 in Pismo Beach.

Assemblymember Calls Crack Down on Medical Marijuana ‘Pure Thuggery’

By uptownstudiosOctober 27, 201129 comments

by Dan Aiello –

Following today’s press conference timed to coincide with the visit of President Barack Obama to San Francisco, the City’s Democrat Assemblymember Tom Ammiano says he’s “pretty pissed off about this unwarranted attack,” referring to the multitude of federal raids orchestrated by the Obama administration’s Department of Justice on California’s medical marijuana dispensaries, their landlords and patients.

The DOJ and federal prosecutors have said the raids are part of an effort to stop the proliferation of for-profit dispensaries and prescribe-for-pay doctor’s offices that have sprouted up in California communities that have no local regulations for dispensaries of medical marijuana.

Senator Leno Angered Over Federal Medical Marijuana Raids

By uptownstudiosOctober 24, 201117 comments

by Dan Aiello –

Federal prosecutors made good on threats they would begin to crackdown on California’s medical marijuana dispensaries throughout the state angering two state legislators who are calling on feds to meet with them in Sacramento.

The aggressiveness and scale of the federal law enforcement’s raids surprised many local authorities and frightened the state’s dispensary operators, growers, patients and advocates for medical marijuana use. The raids angered at least two state officials who saw the crackdown by the Department of Justice as an unwarranted infringement on the rights of the state and its citizens to govern the use and distribution of the drug.

Sunday Commentary: Ten Years After 9/11 – Analyzing the Toll On Freedom and Civil Society

By David GreenwaldSeptember 11, 201167 comments

My typical 9/11 column has focused not simply on the horrific attack on innocent Americans, but also on the US response to those attacks. I usually recount the horror I felt, now ten years ago, watching those towers come down, the fear I felt as I attempted to go about my day as though business were usual, and the despair I felt knowing that business would never be usual again.

If you had told me on that day that we would still be in Afghanistan and Iraq, in various stages of war, that the US would have drastically and perhaps permanently curtailed civil liberties, I am not sure how I would have reacted. Like many in this country, I reacted first with fear but then with concern more for US policies than for the dangers of another attack.

Wealth Gap Rises to Record Highs Between Racial Groups

By David GreenwaldJuly 27, 201114 comments

The Great Recession has had a disproportionate impact on the net worth of households depending on their race, according to a new extensive report from the Pew Research Center which analyzes newly-available government data from 2009.

They find that the “median wealth of white households is 20 times that of black households and 18 times that of Hispanic households.” Moreover, “These lopsided wealth ratios are the largest since the government began publishing such data a quarter century ago and roughly twice the size of the ratios that had prevailed between these three groups for the two decades prior to the Great Recession that ended in 2009.”

Rifkin Wants Doctors to Have Ability to Force Medicate Patients Without Due Process of Law

By David GreenwaldJuly 24, 201141 comments

James Pavle, executive director of the Treatment Advocacy Center in Arlington, Virginia, writes a pretty strong indictment regarding the issue of treatment for mental illness in The USA Today. He calls it the “criminalization of mental illness.”

Writes Mr. Pavle, “America has lost 90% of its psychiatric hospital beds since 1960, a shrinkage that has corresponded with the growth of the prison population. Instead of hospitalizing people with mental illness, many are jailed or imprisoned. By some estimates, 16% of inmates are suffering symptoms of severe mental illness.”

Effort Underway To Repeal SB 48 Teaching the Contributions of LGBTs in History Course

By David GreenwaldJuly 23, 201134 comments

The ink was barely dry on the Governor’s signature on SB 48 when a group of conservatives announced that has filed papers to put an initiative on the ballot to repeal the law that amends the education code to include social sciences instruction on the contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, as well as of people with disabilities and members of other cultural groups.

The effort to repeal the law is being led by the Pacific Justice Institute and an arm of Capitol Resource Institute.

Word To The Wise – Granny “Gate-Rape”

By David GreenwaldJuly 21, 201114 comments

By E. Roberts Musser –

Hearings on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. have been hurriedly convened, as public outcry has mounted over the latest Transportation Security Administration (TSA) outrage at a small Florida airport security checkpoint. A 95 year old woman, battling the final stages of leukemia, was given an extensive 45 minute pat down. What happened next is still somewhat in dispute, but does not reflect well on the TSA. According to the victim’s daughter, “My choices were to remove the Depends [adult diaper] or not have her clear security.” A spokesman for the TSA insists upon review of the incident their agents acted “professionally, and according to proper procedure and did not require this passenger to remove an adult diaper“.

However, the daughter is sticking to her story, persisting airport security advised they could not examine the contents of the soiled diaper. “They said they would have to be removed and I had to take her to the airport restroom outside of security to do that… Otherwise… they would have not released her to board the plane.” The TSA spokesperson conceded “…every person and item must be screened before entering the secure boarding area…” but further added, “TSA works with passengers to resolve security alarms in a respectful and sensitive manner“. You can view an enlightening MSNBC news clip on this latest appalling incident of “granny gate-rape” at: link.

UCD Experts Explain SB 48 and LGBT Contributions in History

By David GreenwaldJuly 19, 201177 comments

Last week many applauded and some lamented the decision by Governor Jerry Brown to sign what amounts to landmark legislation, to amend the education code to include social sciences instruction on the contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, as well as of people with disabilities and members of other cultural groups.

SB 48 is the FAIR (Fair, Accurate, Inclusive and Respectful) Education Act, authored by Senator Mark Leno. Supporters of the legislation claim that the bill ensures that the historical contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people and disabled individuals are accurately and fairly portrayed in instructional materials, by adding these groups to the existing list of under-represented cultural and ethnic groups already included in the state’s inclusionary education requirements.

Governor Signs Landmark Bill Mandating Inclusion of Gay Contributions in History

By David GreenwaldJuly 15, 201136 comments

Governor Jerry Brown on Wednesday signed the FAIR (Fair, Accurate, Inclusive and Respectful) Education Act, authored by Senator Mark Leno. Supporters of the legislation claim that the bill ensures that the historical contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people and disabled individuals are accurately and fairly portrayed in instructional materials, by adding these groups to the existing list of under-represented cultural and ethnic groups already included in the state’s inclusionary education requirements.

“History should be honest,” Governor Brown said in a written statement on Thursday. “This bill revises existing laws that prohibit discrimination in education and ensures that the important contributions of Americans from all backgrounds and walks of life are included in our history books. It represents an important step forward for our state, and I thank Senator Leno for his hard work on this historic legislation.”

Governor Brown to Decide Whether California Should Mandate Teaching About the Contributions of Gays

By David GreenwaldJuly 7, 2011116 comments

While California may be trailing other states in recognizing same-sex marriage, the state is poised to become the first state that would require public schools to include the contributions of gays and lesbians in social studies curriculum.

SB 48, dubbed the “FAIR (Fair, Accurate, Inclusive and Respectful) Education Act,” authored by Senator Mark Leno, would “amend the Education Code to include social sciences instruction on the contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people.”

Commentary: History’s Slow Arc Towards Marriage Equality

By David GreenwaldJune 27, 201138 comments

Reflecting again on the momentous occasion in New York shows us both how far we have come, and yet how far we have to go. Embroiled in this debate are deep divisions over the role of faith in Government, the separation of church and state, and over who gets to set the country’s morality.

In a way, this debate played out this weekend within my own extended family.

New York Beats California to Same-Sex Marriage… And the Budget… And Fiscal Stability…

By David GreenwaldJune 25, 201161 comments

Late last night, the New York State Senate narrowly passed the bill that will allow same-sex couples to wed. Four Republicans joined all but one Democrat, to pass the measure 33-29.

The New York Times reported on a key Senate Republican from Buffalo who had “had sought office promising to oppose same-sex marriage,” and “told his colleagues he had agonized for months before concluding he had been wrong.”

California Behind the Same-Sex Marriage Curve

By David GreenwaldJune 19, 201173 comments

This week in California the issue of same-sex marriage has re-surfaced, due to the ruling that Judge Vaughn Walker was not conflicted out due to his own sexual orientation.

Regardless, in 2008, the state voters narrowly passed a ban on same-sex marriage. However, that ban is now in question as a federal court has already ruled it unconstitutional. Emerging in the last couples of years, also, is opinion polling that shows an increasing number of California voters more and more inclined to support same-sex marriage.

Court Rules that Judge’s Sexual Orientation Does Not Disqualify From Ruling in Prop 8 Challenge

By David GreenwaldJune 15, 201184 comments

Can an openly gay judge rule on the constitutionality of a same sex marriage ban? That was the question that supporters of Proposition 8 posed before a federal court.

The court, in a 21-page opinion, denied the motion to vacate the judgment. The movers in the suit argued that Judge Walker should have been disqualified from presiding over this case based on “statutes require a federal judge to recuse if, inter alia, the judge has a substantial non-pecuniary interest in the case, or if there is some fact that brings the impartiality of the judge reasonably into question. If the judge does not recuse, a motion for disqualification may be made by a party.”

Unshackle Ombudsmen:

By David GreenwaldJune 10, 20116 comments

AB 40 ensures law enforcement will know about crime in long-term care facilities

By Assemblymember Mariko Yamada –

The California State Senate Office of Oversight and Outcomes recently exposed “deep flaws in California’s system for detecting and responding to elder abuse and neglect” in long-term care facilities in their report California’s Elder Abuse Investigators: Ombudsmen Shackled by Conflicting Laws and Duties. The report’s findings are verified by hearings I conducted as Chair of the Assembly Aging and Long-term Care Committee last August and in a joint hearing with the Assembly Committee on Public Safety in February. During these hearings, district attorneys, law enforcement, and the Attorney General’s Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud testified that the state has made a “de facto” choice to obscure the extent of criminal abuse and neglect in long-term care facilities by statutorily handcuffing dedicated, unpaid volunteers of the Office of the Long-term Care Ombudsman.

The “Long-term Care Ombudsman,” a federal program in every state, facilitates details of daily living for disabled or incapacitated residents of long-term care homes. Ombudsmen fulfill their duties under the protection of strict federal confidentiality guidelines established to protect the residents from potential retaliation from management.

Troubling Report on Government Surveillance

By David GreenwaldMay 10, 201174 comments

Use of National Security Letters Greatly Expanded under the Obama Administration –

In an editorial appearing this morning, the Sacramento Bee argues that “President Obama’s foreign policy looks like President Bush’s.”

Ross Douthat writes, “For those with eyes to see, the daylight between the foreign policies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama has been shrinking ever since the current president took the oath of office. But last week made it official: When the story of America’s post-9/11 wars is written, historians will be obliged to assess the two administrations together, and pass judgment on the Bush-Obama era.”

by Dan Aiello –

by Dan Aiello –

By E. Roberts Musser –

AB 40 ensures law enforcement will know about crime in long-term care facilities

Use of National Security Letters Greatly Expanded under the Obama Administration –

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