Marcia Powell: No Human Involved? Appeal to Rick Romley.

For many years, official police reports identified murdered prostitutes with the phrase
"No human involved."

From the Sex Worker Outreach Project (SWOP) Tucson memorial last December,
marking the 2009 International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers.

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

Dear Friends of Marcia Powell:

I went to the Maricopa County Attorney's office yesterday and requested an appointment with Rick Romley to discuss the prosecution of those responsible for Marcia's death. I was deflected by a detective who knew next to nothing about the case, and sent me off to tell the state to do a better investigation for them, suggesting that they can still file charges later. I wasn't satisfied with that, but wasn't about to fight the guy to Romley's door - he was pretty big and wore a gun.

So, after visiting AZ Attorney General Goddard's office to be sure they can't do anything (they denied any jurisdiction, deferring to the MCA), I came home and wrote this letter. I hand-delivered it to Romley's office this morning.

Admittedly, I probably should have tried this before chalking up the MCA's sidewalks last week and posting my art, but I guess I needed to get it out of my system in order to articulate myself. I think this is the right thing to do, though I can't help but feel like I'm betraying some of my abolitionist principles by arguing for criminal prosecution. If anyone has any ideas about what transformative justice might look like in this community for the guards who killed Marcia Powell, let me know. I just don't want to empower or embolden them - or any other officer - to hurt prisoners again.

Anyway, this may end what I had left of secrets or a private life, but the truth about why I could have ended up in that cage myself seemed important to tell. I'm not entirely proud of all the decisions I've made in my life, but Arundhati Roy's closing quote is on my letterhead precisely because I believe we should never have to be ashamed to tell our stories. If we cower in silence and fear, then how else will others be free to tell theirs? We must assert that - whatever else we may be called - we are humans involved if we are to challenge the stigma that allows women like Marcia to be so readily discounted and ignored.

- Peg

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September 8, 2010

Richard M. Romley
Maricopa County Attorney
301 West Jefferson St.
Phoenix, AZ 85003

Dear Mr. Romley,

My name is Peggy Plews; I’m a friend of Marcia Powell’s. We didn’t actually meet before she died, but I immediately identified with her life story. As an alcoholic, drug-addicted, manic depressive, troublemaking survivor of childhood abuse and sexual assault, I was thrown out and dropped out of high school, sold myself for a high on more than one occasion, and ended up institutionalized before I was 20.

I was fortunate enough to end up in AA at that time, or I would have soon been criminalized like Marcia, if I even survived much longer. My recovery over the years has been a challenge; since the 2001 death of my little brother and the suicide of a man I loved, my mood disorder has been severe enough that I’ve had several episodes of relapse and extended periods of disability. Some of the medications I’ve been on have made me gravely ill. As an alternative, I went a year without meds, and even tried electroconvulsive shock therapy. Neither strategy was very effective; the latter caused lasting damage to my memory and cognitive abilities.

By the time of Marcia’s death, however, I’d been regaining my functioning for a couple of years, and was enrolled at ASU, 3 credits away from earning my degree in Justice Studies. Most of my academic inquiry around that time was in the history of slavery, women’s resistance to oppression, social movements in America, and the evolution of the contemporary prison industrial complex. By the time my Winter 2009 semester concluded, I was an avowed - albeit an imperfect - prison abolitionist, and just beginning to cast my gaze around my own community again. Hence my intensely personal reaction when I learned of Marcia‘s death.

Not quite sure how to cope with the grief and powerlessness I felt, I began to blog as one vehicle for both public education and advocacy. Needing to find others who shared my interests and concerns about our jails and prisons, I also organized with some of the community members I met at memorial services in the weeks that followed Marcia’s death to explore ways we could make a positive difference in how prisoners are treated and regarded, and in how the criminal justice system here works. We came to call ourselves the “Friends of Marcia Powell”, which is a much broader, looser network now that includes everyone from young Phoenix anarchists to international prison watchers to leaders in the movement for the wrongfully convicted to Republicans with kids in Arizona prisons. Of all of us, though, I am the one who could have most easily been Marcia Powell.

I still can be, in fact. I am regarded by some, I’m sure (particularly those at the AZ Department of Corrections) as a public nuisance; certainly as a dogged critic of state policies and people in power. I suspect I have not endeared myself to anyone but left wing radicals and outlaws, and - given my personal history - I’d be pretty vulnerable to malicious prosecution by any of my adversaries’ good buddies, as I understand Mr. Montgomery is.

I could also just as easily relapse or lose my mind and get arrested and prosecuted for a real crime. Once in prison, given my politics, I’d be in trouble all the time - and sure to be punished outside of policy guidelines from time to time. So, I have a vested interest in the outcome of your investigation and - hopefully - prosecutions: I don’t want those people to have power over my life after what they’ve done to Marcia.

Given that the constitutional rights we infer on crime victims in this state don’t apply to people who - like Marcia - are victimized while “in custody for an offense”, it’s no wonder that prisoners of the state and county alike are so often brutalized and neglected. Prisoners and ex-felons have fewer rights and protections than animals, while perpetrators of violent crimes against them are given far more benefit of the doubt by your office than the rest of us would be. Failing to prosecute anyone for the death of Marcia Powell will certainly facilitate justifications for prisoner abuse in the future by brutal, cruel, and careless people in uniform who think they will be immune to criminal sanctions. It also further erodes the public’s trust that “justice” in America is for all, not just for the privileged few.

As I suspect you know, people like Thomas, Arpaio, and Pearce have also done grave damage to the integrity and credibility of Arizona’s criminal justice system, and consequently, to the ability of many people to have any faith in law makers or enforcers anymore. Not prosecuting those responsible for the death of Marcia Powell just reaffirms that the lives of the most disenfranchised and vulnerable among us here are truly disposable in the eyes of the law - which earns only my disgust and contempt. That is where some of the rage directed at police by youth during the Anti-Arpaio march comes from - it’s a deep fracture that can’t be healed by punishing them - it needs to be addressed at the source.

In the meantime, those individuals already identified in an internal investigation as being criminally negligent in Marcia’s death are minimizing the harm they did and fighting to get their jobs back, some returning to the same prison yard with the same duties and powers they had when they killed her. That speaks volumes about the justice system to those prisoners who witnessed their incompetence or cruelty that day, and will now be subjected to it themselves again.

In light of that development, how is a prisoner who is raped ever supposed to have confidence that her complaint will be taken seriously, and that her assailant will be prosecuted instead of returned to a position of power over her? Why would any of those women have any confidence at all that the Maricopa County Attorney’s office makes a good faith effort to protect victims and seek justice, if the only people they see you punish are the poor and powerless or political enemies? As you should know, as many as 80% of women in prison have themselves been victims of crime already - and many will be again.

For these reasons I came by your office today in an attempt to schedule an appointment to meet with you, to personally implore you to take another look at Marcia’s case. Your office is prosecuting all sorts of people on less evidence, or with more contradictory testimony, than that which has been collected thus far in this case. You are threatening several Friends of Marcia Powell’s with prosecution as violent criminals - with prison time, if they don’t plead out - for their antagonism of police at the January Anti-Arpaio rally. What does it say to those young people - and their entire community - if you then won’t charge ADC officers for their role in Marcia’s death? She was far more helpless a victim than armed police on horseback or in riot gear. She suffered horribly due to those officers’ neglect; her body even had second degree burns on it from the sun. None of the Arpaio 5 hurt anyone like that, nor would they. You have the wrong dangerous criminals in your sights.

Please bring charges against those officers who are most implicated and let them put on their defense - what have you lost if some prove their innocence? You will have at least shown that human lives like Marcia’s matter as much as fallen K-9 dogs. You will help set a higher standard of expectations for the conduct of corrections and law enforcement officers in regards to their treatment of prisoners. And before you leave your post, you will teach this community to expect more from the county attorney’s office than we’ve been able to expect for years. Given who will be taking your place, that’s a vital, powerful tool for the people to have, lest we all become victims of that office again.

I can be contacted at the number and email above if you are willing to meet; I have a couple of other issues I‘d like to discuss, too. I’d very much like your help crafting a bill and lobbying the legislature to strengthen the rights of Arizona prisoners to be protected from neglect and abuse; you have credibility that my friends and I lack due to your reputation in law enforcement. We plan to make “Marcia’s Law” a visible issue this fall, such that it gets raised on the campaign trail and is in the forefront of everyone’s minds by the time the legislature reconvenes. If it is not initiated now, while the incident is still fresh in the community’s collective heart and mind, it will never be realized.

Thank you for your time and attention to this matter. I hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,


Margaret Jean Plews

--
"Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness, and our ability to tell our own stories..."

- Arundhati Roy

Catching up to a corrupt cop: Joe Arpaio.

This is a little more encouraging; I came across this Friday after my last tirade. Interesting how he can victimize us and our communities without real consequence - even if we die as a result of his negligence or spite - but if he goes after the wrong person in power, he just might get indicted for some sort of crime.

I guess you have to admit that Romley really stepped up to challenge those guys. He should be allowed to be a write in candidate in November. I didn't realize how big the risk was that he took on Thomas and Arpaio until he lost that primary. Bill Montgomery's place on the ballot was paid for with dirty money and intimidation by a criminal syndicate operating within the Republican Party, and when the rank and file finally see the evil ends these men have in mind, I do believe they'll want to drop the candidates they sold them in a second. In the meantime, I do believe Romley's going to keep cleaning house - I sure hope he is, anyway.

It's a disappointment that MCSO deputies haven't already begun to walk off the job en masse in protest of Arpaio's continued leadership there. That tells me that both complicity and terror are widespread - no one's been untouched if none of them are talking to the press. Hopefully some of them have already stepped up to talk to the FBI and DOJ, though, and have been told to lie low until an indictment comes.

The Maricopa County Sheriff is a corrupt, fascist thug, and every additional day he remains armed and in charge, Joe Arpaio hurts people - harassing and arresting and incarcerating us does profound violence to individuals and communities - we've all been violated by this man. We better see some charges dropped and convictions thrown out once Arpaio is arrested - people shouldn't have to keep sitting in jail waiting for a successful prosecution - that could take years. The DOJ needs to get an indictment and arrest him this week so we can start cleaning up the mess. Shackle him and Andrew Thomas together in court - they're in bed with eachother anyway.

-------------from the Daily Beast (good news site)---------------

Crackdown on a Renegade Sheriff

by Terry Greene Sterling

September 3, 2010 | 10:26pm

Sheriff Joe Arpaio (Joshua Lott / Getty Images)

The federal civil-rights case against notorious Arizona lawman Joe Arpaio may not be his biggest legal headache.

Terry Greene Sterling on the abuse-of-power probe that could end his career.

Arizona’s notorious “Sheriff Joe” Arpaio was sued by the U.S. Department of Justice Thursday for not cooperating in a 17-month racial-profiling probe stemming from his immigration raids. But that isn’t the only potentially career-ending battle the lawman is having with the feds these days.

A separate Justice probe—one largely overshadowed by the racial-profiling investigation, and little-noticed outside of Arizona—could lead to the sheriff’s indictment for violating the civil rights of political foes by launching well-publicized but ultimately unsuccessful criminal investigations and, in some cases, fruitless indictments, of his perceived enemies. If indicted and found guilty of a felony, the man branded “America’s Toughest Sheriff” by the press—infamous for parading inmates in pink underwear and introducing voluntary chain gangs—could be removed from office under Arizona law.

A federal grand jury in Phoenix began investigating allegations of abuses of power in the offices of Arpaio and his political sidekick, former County Attorney Andrew Thomas, several months ago.

The feds’ investigation was bolstered in late August by a court-ordered release of grand jury documents, spearheaded by acting Maricopa County Attorney Richard Romley. The 61-year-old Vietnam veteran and moderate Republican has for years been Arpaio’s nemesis, and he handed over the released records to the feds.

The records show that a Maricopa County grand jury in March chose to “end the inquiry” of a conservative Republican county supervisor, a judge, and other county officials who had opposed Arpaio and Thomas. Nevertheless, Romley reported, Thomas’ office shopped around for out-of-county prosecutors to take the case, and Arpaio’s chief deputy threatened to release “incriminating evidence” on a foe after the grand jury’s vote to end the inquiry. (Thomas says Romley is lying and Eric Dowell, who was referred to The Daily Beast by a sheriff’s spokesman for comment, did not return a phone call.)

“It is hard to know what will happen, but there could be an indictment of a number of individuals involved in this case,” says Paul Charlton, a former U.S. attorney who represented Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon—one of those who spoke out against Arpaio, only to become the target of a criminal investigation that went nowhere. Charlton also represents a county supervisor facing a criminal indictment that’s been halted pending a state bar investigation of Thomas.

There’s “something very Nixonian” about Arpaio and Thomas, who were tremendously popular for their stand on “a single monolithic issue—immigration” and yet were driven by “arrogance and a sense of impunity” to seek revenge on political foes, Charlton says.

“There could be an indictment of a number of individuals involved in this case,” says former U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton.

Legal scholars and lawyers say the feds have to show a pattern of abuse of power, and the grand jury documents add to the pattern. There was “nothing to the allegations” and that’s why the grand jury ended the inquiry, says Lee Stein, a former assistant U.S. attorney who represented Gary Donahoe, a county judge who ruled against Arpaio and Thomas in a case and was subsequently indicted and charged with bribery, hindering prosecution, and obstructing a criminal investigation. (The charges were later dismissed.)

Romley contended in August that Arpaio and Thomas engaged in “improper, unethical, and corrupt” behavior, and added that “it may be judges and elected officials who are targeted today, but tomorrow it could be any of us.” Romley himself was the next target—of pre-primary TV ads and mailed flyers depicting Romley as “too risky for Arizona families” and a “dangerous” foe of Sheriff Joe’s immigration enforcement policies. Those ads may have resulted in Romley’s loss of the Republican primary for county attorney to an Arpaio ally, Bill Montgomery.

The ads, which cost about $400,000, were bankrolled by Arpaio’s 2012 reelection committee, which has amassed more than $1 million in campaign contributions from donors across the country. The TV ads were deemed legal by a deputy county attorney, but the flyers were not. A legal battle looms. “We’ll fight it tooth and nail,” says Chad Willems, who is managing Arpaio’s campaign for reelection to a sixth term as sheriff in 2012. Romley, who had served as county attorney from 1980 to 2004, has long clashed with Arpaio, first over jail conditions and over zealous searches, then over immigration enforcement policies.

He was appointed interim county attorney in April to replace Thomas, who had stepped down in what turned out to be a failed bid to win the Republican primary for attorney general.

Arpaio, who became a national celebrity with publicity stunts that include bunking convicted inmates in outdoor “Tent City” jails, forcing them to wear pink skivvies, initiating a voluntary chain gang, and raiding heavily Latino neighborhoods in the Phoenix area, might also be declining in popularity. Once seen as the most viable Republican candidate for governor, his popularity in Arizona has waned even as he strengthened his populist illegal-immigration-fighting persona outside of Arizona. In the federal lawsuit filed Thursday, the Justice Department says the sheriff and his employer, Maricopa County, failed to cooperate in a 17-month civil-rights investigation “of alleged national origin discrimination” in “police practices and jail operations.” In that suit, the Justice Department seeks court-ordered access to Arpaio’s employees, jails, and relevant documents to investigate alleged racial profiling and other violations of the 1964 Civil Rights Act related to the sheriff’s immigration-enforcement.

Arpaio portrayed himself as the victim of federal harassment in a press release put out Thursday afternoon. “The Obama administration intended to sue us all along, no matter what we did to try to avert it,” Sheriff Joe wrote. “Washington isn't playing fair and it's time Americans everywhere wake up and see this administration for what it really is.” At a press conference Thursday, the sheriff said the Justice Department had “no proof” that “alleged racial profiling” occurred in the streets of Phoenix. The sheriff’s former chief deputy, state Sen. Russell Pearce, who has spearheaded Arizona’s increasingly harsh immigration laws that the sheriff has enthusiastically enforced, stood by his side and called the suit a “witch hunt.”

Given the nature of the abuse-of-power allegations in the other investigation of Arpaio, it was an interesting choice of words.

Conditions of confinement: Sheriff Joe's jail is our responsibility, too.

The following is a revised and somewhat more radical version of my post earlier today. Sorry for any redundancy to those who get this in their email or by feed. - Peg

Amnesty International poster: Write a letter, save a life.

For those who missed Stephen Lemons' review of Shaun Attwood's new book, "Hard Time: A Brit in America's Toughest Jail", it's worth the read. I'd post it here but I've already packed in too much for the night. It is, of course, about the Maricopa County Hell they call a jail. Hit Shaun's blog, "Jon's Jail Journal" too, if you haven't already. He posts letters from prisoners there, and is a good friend to many who would otherwise have no audible voice.

As for the conditions of confinement in our jails and prisons: I don't understand why the Department of Justice hasn't held Arpaio criminally responsible for his abuse of so many people over the years - from medical negligence to conspiracies to deprive us of our civil rights. Their failure to do so thus far is akin to the feds' consent for every harm he's done under his tenure, and complicity with every additional prisoner he neglects or kills. I'm really starting to worry that they plan to make some kind of closed door deal with him, then pack their bags and walk away.

The Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act covers prisoners precisely because the People so often end up needing protection from the sadistic cruelty of those wielding power in our name, and few in America are more disenfranchised and vulnerable than those disposed of in jails and prisons - citizens and "aliens" alike. They include our elderly, our poor, our sick, troubled youth, our mentally ill, our developmentally disabled - all those people we once institutionalized elsewhere (and have thrown out into the streets) are thrown into the stew.

Of course, the more vocal idiots in our community argue after every article about prisoner abuse or suicide that because they are in a jail or prison they deserve whatever they get, whatever that may be. Just because those readers like to stone prostitutes, though, doesn't mean they are themselves without sin. Nor do they represent all of us. Those people are twisted bullies hiding behind fake identities looking for someone to kick who's already down. They've probably commented on this blog of Stephen's, in fact.

That's a tangent I can't stop from exploring in this context. The media shouldn't give such people the platform on which to celebrate brutalization, suicide, and murder, including among prisoners, in the first place. That's not supporting freedom of speech - it's just intimidating the voices of reason and humanity into silence. Giving hateful people our shared public space empowers them to use shame to perpetrate cruelty, and it perpetuates the stigma felt by prisoners' families who read "good riddance" from the community after their loved ones die. They screen such things out of printed "letters to the editor"; why not moderate their public forums? Only abusive and rich people seem to get amplified when they speak - the rest of us get censored, even if we head the nightly news.

Frankly, most of "free" Arizona should be locked up, looking at the multitude of laws that require jail or prison for those who break them - and at how unbelievably easy it is to put someone away, especially in this state. We are just privileged or very lucky if we've escaped such a fate so far. Those who think they will never be prosecuted because they really aren't "criminals" need to check out the Arizona Justice Project. There are all sorts of innocent people behind bars.

Once in a while the law reaches out and touches us where we never thought it would - and since it's not a common occurrence in our white, middle class communities, we are sure that there is just a deviant in our midst, or it is a fluke of the justice system that will work itself out. Dad's in an accident while on painkillers following surgery and goes to prison because he had an old DUI. Presumably he will get treatment in prison, but he's already been sober for 5 years - instead he just loses time from his kids' lives and his ability to support his family. The neighbor is arrested for embezzling to save the house from foreclosure and her kids from homelessness - losing everything and everyone in the process. We pay over $20,000 a year to incarcerate her for five years - and God knows how much to put the kids in foster care - while her banker gets a bonus from the taxpayer bailout.  

I hope everyone out there finds those images as disturbing as I do. It happens all the time.

As for the wrongfully-accused: Americans don't really presume innocence, which is why Joe's jail was allowed to get so bad. We recoil from the accused as soon as they hit the news because the possibility that agents of the almighty law might be corrupt or wrong threatens our sense of social order. We sacrifice Innocence like she's the designated virgin just to maintain the illusion that the guilty among us are eventually caught, and that those who are caught are always guilty. 

People who are innocent tend to believe that the truth will prevail, and if it doesn't they end up being punished worse than the real criminals who make a deal. Real-life case in point: Courtney Bisbee, the school nurse accused of touching a 14-year old liar and branded as a child molester, was a feather in the cap of the detective who arrested her and the prosecutor who got the conviction. To assure that the rest of us got our taste of blood, the judge slammed her with 11 years for fighting it out in court instead of taking a plea bargain that would have had her back home with her child by now.

Stephen Lemons even investigated Courtney's case and advocated on her behalf (here and here, too), but no one wants to hear the new evidence that would exonerate her because it implicates incompetence - or worse. For law enforcement's ego and our sense of order, she's been in prison for at least 6 years now. Maybe Romley is the man who will have the courage to help set her free - we'll see. He was the Maricopa County Attorney when she was originally prosecuted, so if he steps up to the plate and looks at it in a new light, I'll be impressed. Andrew Thomas was too much of a political coward.

In these ways the brutality of our courts, Joe's jail, and Ryan's prisons hits home. It's not a freakish thing for families to be ripped apart by "justice" in poor and minority communities - it's all too common. The legal system works exactly as it's designed to there, oppressing resistance to white supremacy and defiance of the rules of capitalism at every turn. Justice is the sheep's clothing that America dons to promote the interests of the few, and the myth that we are a model of democracy is what blinds us - and Her - to the deceit. 

But Justice is not supposed to prey on the rest of us "ordinary Americans"- it is supposed to protect us. It only seems to be when we fall from grace ourselves (or get falsely accused and imprisoned) that we begin to see the system for what it is. We get inside and see people doomed to spend the rest of their lives in prison for charges as petty as fraud, while murderers walk away with money in their pocket after 15 or 20 years. Looking around, we also realize that the majority of the people behind bars are not a public safety threat - most are public nuisances, eyesores, "sinners" and surplus laborers who legislators thought would be better hidden away. Those still claiming their innocence are all too often out-maneuvered by the state in legal proceedings, and seldom have the luxury of an attorney to help them once appeals are exhausted. 


Look closely and you'll see that America's prisons and jails have, by and large, replaced our mental hospitals, poorhouses, and plantations. And they are major money-making machines for those in power, as long as they skimp on human rights and basic needs like food and health care. That's why the prisoners who would expose them are discredited, discounted, and silenced in every way possible.

Never mind that the desperate and vulnerable are being relegated and abandoned in these hellholes to sociopaths who will rape and torture them for the fun of it, or even kill them just to score a new gang tattoo. To the private and public prison industries alike, each new body is just an addition to their growing empire - they have no interest in anyone's innocence or special circumstances, and no reason to help prevent or reduce the effects of crime in our communities. 

Despite lamenting about the high recidivism rate (usually as an excuse to be better funded and more brutal), jails and prisons are just as well-paid for recycling the people they chewed up once already. Buying the industry's line of BS, a terrorized public decides that parole officers and prosecutors are always professional and responsible and work in a functional system, so it must be the criminal's own fault for getting put back in - he should have learned his lesson the first time. Our perceptions are too often shaped by the expectation that what we pay nearly 10% of our state budget for includes some effort at "rehabilitation" (hence the AZ Department of Corrections' designation as such, not the "Department of Confinement"). The criminal justice system isn't rehabilitating anyone - they're spending our money lobbying the governor and legislature to pass more laws and assure more prison sentences for less serious crimes than ever.

The prison industrial complex as a whole (of which Sheriff Joe is actually just a small part) cultivates the rest of us to feel exploited and victimized, though, so that we seem defenseless and helpless without them. Then they glorify themselves as our protectors (though they usually arrive after the crime, not in time to prevent it), and we willingly pay them some other kid's lunch money to keep it up. It's a racket. Actually reducing crime and making us all more safe would just cut into their power and profit margins.  

Anyone who believes such a system really upholds justice or promotes the public good is delusional or has been duped. Law enforcement is an integral part of the fascist decimation of our rights, not the power protecting them. We - the People - are the only power that will protect liberty and justice for the future, but only if we have our eyes wide open and are ready to risk jail, prison, defamation, and even execution in the process. If we are not, then we have surrendered that which is most important in life for nothing more than illusion. We are on a leash, instead of in a cage. At least some prisoners, with their integrity intact, mange to remain free.

The DOJ is grossly negligent for failing to act aggressively under CRIPA against the MCSO, and therefore shares the blame for emboldening our greedy, bigoted, fear-mongering lawmakers and enforcers to continue to imprison, injure, and kill those of us whose nationality or skin color or gender or politics or religion they hate. But we are also responsible for letting this go on so long without holding either the feds or Arpaio accountable ourselves. So, here are the names and contact info for the people at the DOJ who should be investigating the real public enemies - and taking action - under CRIPA, regardless of what else they're doing. Please call or write on behalf of those fighting  a losing battle to defend their lives. Don't wait for your loved one to end up in trouble: he or she may be the next prisoner of the MCSO or Arizona Department of Corrections to die.

So could you or I.

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

DOJ - Special Litigation Section

Mailing Address

Special Litigation Section

950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, PHB
Washington, D.C. 20530
For FEDEX: 601 D Street, NW, Washington, DC 20004

Telephone Number
(202) 514-0195
toll-free at (877) 218-5228

Fax Numbers
(202) 514-0212
(202) 514-6273

---

Acting Chief
Judy Preston
(202) 514-6258
Principal Deputy Chief
Tammie Gregg
(202) 616-2009
Deputy Chiefs
Julie Abbate (Acting)
(202) 353-4637
Mary Bohan (Acting)
(202) 616-2325
Luis Saucedo (Acting)
(202) 353-0299

Racism Kills: Hate crime charge in Phoenix.

This is what Arizona looks like these days. So many of these kinds of crimes go undocumented, for political reasons...

From Stephen Lemons' Feathered Bastard blog this week at the Phoenix New Times:

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

Rick Romley Seeks Hate Crime Enhancement for White-on-Brown Shooting in South Phoenix

By Stephen Lemons
Wednesday, Jun. 16 2010 @ 9:26AM

The Maricopa County Attorney's Office has confirmed that prosecutors will seek a hate crime enhancement against Gary Kelley in the May 6 shooting death of Juan Varela in a South Phoenix neighborhood.

Kelley, an Anglo, is currently charged with second degree murder in the slaying of his Hispanic neighbor. According to the Phoenix Police Department's report on the incident, Kelley, 50, allegedly told the 44-year-old Varela, "You fucking wetback! Go back to Mexico!" before fatally shooting him in the chin with a .38 revolver.

MCAO spokesperson Jaime Brennan stated that County Attorney Rick Romley "has filed the hate crime aggravating circumstance allegation" in the killing. Brennan added that the sentencing enhancement "allows prosecutors to argue for the maximum sentence, which would be 22 years in this case."

Varela's family was angered that Phoenix police did not refer to the killing as a bias crime from jump. Initially, the Phoenix PD played down the possibility that the Varela murder was a hate crime, characterizing it more as the result of a dispute between neighbors.

Yet, there were some complicating factors. The Varela family and Kelley knew each other, and Kelley's other Latino neighbors actually described him to me as a "good guy" when I visited the block Kelley and Varela lived on shortly after the shooting.

However, the Phoenix PD's report described a drunken and disturbed Kelley, who morosely told one officer after his arrest that, "I love all people; white, black, or Hispanic and I am not racist in any way."

The Varela family has stated previously that they believe that Arizona's post-SB 1070 climate was a factor in the murder.

Phoenix radio host Carlos Galindo, who has been acting as a spokesman for the family, told me today that the family is heartened by the hate crime enhancement, though they would like to see Kelley's charges bumped up to first-degree murder.

"We had to struggle to make sure the investigation took the right direction," said Galindo. "We met with Rick Romley and [Phoenix Mayor] Phil Gordon, and they were very supportive. Hopefully, this will send a message nationally, and deter those that might attack people because of their ethnicity."

Galindo said the family would be holding a press conference shortly to address the change in prosecutors' stance toward the crime and the alleged perpetrator.