Arizona crime rates released (2000-2010)

I find it interesting that the rates of violent crime in Arizona have been increasing so dramatically in the past two years. Since 2009, though, the rates of felons being sent to prison for violent crimes actually dropped.  Sounds to me like either the prosecutors and judiciary have gone soft on rapists and murderers, or - more likely - the cops are just too busy raiding worksites and chasing immigrants to pay attention to solving the crimes that really matter here...that might explain the MCSO's poor performance in recent years in this respect (their murders are down, but how's their clearance rate these days?).

-------------from the AZ Republic------------

Arizona eclipses U.S. in 10-year crime dip, analysis says

by Bob Ortega - Oct. 12, 2011 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

Despite recent increases in the rates of murder and rape, over the past 10 years, Arizona's reported crime rate has dropped by nearly a third, according to a new analysis of FBI crime data released Tuesday by the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission.

The 32.4 percent decrease in reported crime easily outpaced the 18.9 percent nationwide drop over the same time period. The biggest single driver of Arizona's decline was a 60 percent drop in the rate of motor-vehicle thefts from 2000 to 2010.

Although the rates of most reported crimes fell more sharply than the national average over the decade, Arizona's rate for each of the seven types of crime in the FBI index remains above the national median.

The crimes tracked include four categories of violent crime (murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault) and three property crimes (burglary, larceny theft and motor-vehicle theft).

The analysis shows that, recently, Arizona's rates of murder, rape and aggravated assault have increased.

Arizona's rate of rape, after falling for four straight years, shot up 31.9 percent from 2008 to last year. That jump led the rate to climb by 10.4 percent over the decade, even as the national rate fell by 14.1 percent.

The justice-commission report does not attribute the rise to any particular cause. But that jump in reported rapes doesn't necessarily mean there has actually been an increase in rapes, said Dean Kilpatrick, director of the National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center, in Charleston, S.C.

Because rape is so underreported - fewer than one in five victims contacts the police, he said - a successful program to encourage victims to step forward may increase the percentage of rapes that are reported, whether the actual number of rapes is rising, falling or flat.

"If you have good rape-crisis centers, if the police are seen as giving victims a fair shake, better counseling and advocacy, you may get an increase in reporting because victims feel they'll be treated well," he said.

The Phoenix Police Department can't say why the rate is up, said Sgt. Trent Crump, a spokesman. But, he said, in recent years, the department has worked hard to improve cooperation among police, prosecutors, rape counselors and victims advocates.

"We have a forensic-nursing program now to make the examinations less stressful for victims, and we're doing everything we can do to create an environment in which victims feel comfortable coming forward," he said.

Myra Ferell-Womochil, director of community-based services for the Northland Family Help Center in Flagstaff, said the Flagstaff police also have worked hard to educate officers on how to handle sexual-assault cases.

She said education programs run across the state by Arizona's Department of Health Services that teach about consent, healthy relationships and rape prevention may be helping. And, because alcohol use is often a factor, her center has worked with bar owners to educate staff on making bars safer.

The sex-assault statutes in Arizona and most other states don't track precisely with the FBI's definition of rape as "the carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will," said Phil Stevenson, the director of the commission's Statistical Analysis Center.

The FBI includes attempted rape using force or the threat of force but doesn't include sex assaults on males, statutory rape or other sex offenses. The FBI is reviewing its definition of rape and will consider changes to it this fall, according to the bureau's Criminal Justice Information Service.

Crump said that in up to 75 percent of the sexual-assault cases in Phoenix, the victim and assailant know each other. "We don't want people to automatically assume these are stranger attacks," he said. "We don't currently have a serial rapist hitting an area."

Arizona's murder rate over the 10 years fell 12.7 percent. But from 2009 to 2010, the rate increased 18.5 percent. At 6.4 murders per 100,000 people last year, Arizona's rate remained one-third higher than the national rate of 4.8 per 100,000.

Crump noted that the 2009 murder rate of five per 100,000 residents was the lowest in more than 20 years. Even the 2010 rate is lower than any year from 2000 to 2007.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said that, in his jurisdiction, murders and rapes are both down so far this year compared with this point last year, with eight murders in 2011 compared with 26 up to this point in 2010.

"We had a lot of our murders in the desert. One reason in our area we're not getting so many murders is the drop in illegal immigration," he said.

The rates of aggravated assaults and robberies both fell by roughly a quarter over the decade, giving Arizona an overall drop in the rate of violent crime of more than 23 percent.

From 2009 to 2010, the rate of aggravated assaults rose 4.5 percent. Property crimes fell more sharply - 33.3 percent - led by a 30.2 percent drop in larceny theft, which includes shoplifting, pickpocketing and the theft of bicycles, and the dramatic plunge in motor-vehicle theft.

The drop in vehicle crime can be credited to a decade-old change in how the state tackled that crime, said Brian Salata, executive director of the Arizona Automobile Theft Authority. Previously, few thieves were aggressively prosecuted.

"All we were doing was knocking off low-level players and not really solving the problem," Salata said.

In 2002, Arizona's vehicle-theft rate was nearly 2 1/2 times the national average. Counties agreed to assign specially trained prosecutors to deal with vehicle-theft cases, and they began pushing harder for thieves to roll over against others in their organizations to get plea bargains, Salata said.

That made it easier to cripple theft rings and criminal cartels, he said. By requiring anyone reporting a vehicle theft to sign a sworn affidavit, cities and counties slashed cases of insurance fraud. Improvements in vehicle security also helped.

While Arizona's vehicle-theft rate was still 40.9 percent higher than the national median last year, Salata said the rate is continuing to drop this year.

The Love Police AZ: Chalking the Police 2011

Sometimes you need just need to step back and listen when the people have something to say - especially the youth.

This awesome video was composed and put up on YouTube by thelovepolicearizona.

Thanks for sharing it with the rest of us...

Betrayed by Exceptional Means: The MCSO and the public trust.

 Speaking of the public trust: Former MCSO detention officer Kevin Gerster has an appearance in court WEDS morning, MAY 18, and then his trial starts next week. Meet me at the Central Courthouse at 7:30am MAY 18 with signs and chalk, if you're up and interested. We could use some support.

Back to the main story: The MCSO has got to be the most incompetent or corrupt Sheriff's office in the entire country. These people need to be prosecuted. Start at the top, too, with good old Arpaio - is he really that dumb and blind? If so, he should be removed from office due to mental defects that prevent him from functioning responsibly or consistently.

This problem of not clearing serious violent crimes has been on-going, placing the community at real risk while Arpaio spends all his time and heavy equipment chasing down unarmed, undocumented people instead (because the feds will pay to jail them by the head, whewreas we have to pay to incarcerate our real criminal citizens ourselves...see why immigration enforcement should be left to the Feds, not petty little vindictive men?

Tell me that isn't a racist agenda that trumps the priorities of assuring public safety; the evidence is pretty clear that Arpaio doesn't - and never has - understand his fundamental duties to the people as the County Sheriff. Unfortunately, the sheep who keep voting for him also don't have the least bit of a clue as to what he does or should do, since they get all their leadership and bright ideas about punishment from him.

I'd be curious how many of the exceptionally cleared cases pertain to poor, mentally ill victims who are unable to independently advocate for their rights and keep the pressure on the cops to investigate and prosecute their abusers. Having the voice of a victim in their ear tends to make prosecutors take their jobs a little more seriously than if the victim was a prisoner or just another jane doe prostitute, whom no one seems inclined to demand justice for...

At least both MCSO officers  Alan Keesee and Kevin Gerster are being charged with aggravated assault for brutalizing helpless prisoners, though - and several phoenix PD officers are facing investigations and/or prosecution for excessive force and corruption, as well as murder.

The following piece touches on a number of issues about the prisons of late, but it only scratches the surface. I can assure you this much - If I "misappropriated" nearly $100million out of my employers bank account that was dedicated to a specific cause (like inmate programs at tent city), I'd be under investigation for embezzlement, not carelessness. This is real bullshit - that man's badge should not entitle him to steal from all of us like this.

-----------from ABC15.com---------------

MCSO Speaks out about ignored sex crimes. 

By: Christina Boomer

ABC-15.com

PHOENIX - The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office is speaking out after an ABC15 investigation revealed their office failed to investigate hundreds of sex crime cases, many involving children.

In a statement to ABC15, MCSO concedes that investigators “re-opened over 500 sex crime cases dating back to 2005.”

The statement goes on to say, “Over of the course of the [special victims unit] audit, over 400 cases were found to be lacking in investigative efforts," and “no personnel associated with this case has been held accountable or disciplined.”

The statement also references the following:

"The current status of the IA investigation into MCSO’s SVU is in the “Findings” stage.” All personnel associated with the case have been interviewed and the case is being reviewed for all possible policy violations. If and when any policy violations for employees are “Sustained” in this case, appropriate action will be taken."

Read the full statement
 
INTERNAL AFFAIRS INVESTIGATION

An internal affairs investigation was opened after the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office received a complaint in 2008 from the city of El Mirage about dozens of child sex crimes cases that had been assigned to the MCSO special victims unit.

Prior to October of 2007, El Mirage contracted with MCSO to handle its sex crimes cases.
The complaint from El Mirage stated that 43 of the 51 cases "had not been worked at all, or had minimal follow up conducted," even though "many of the cases had known suspects" and "more than 90% of the cases had workable leads."

Most of the cases involved small children and young teens.

A Pinal County Sheriff’s Office investigation into MCSO uncovered that Chief Deputy David Hendershott shut down the special victims unit internal affairs investigation in the spring of 2009.

WHO IS SERGEANT SEAGRAVES?

Documents state the internal affairs investigation was stopped because the woman leading the unit, Sgt. Kim Seagraves, was a key witness for MCSO in two other trials and Hendershott feared the internal affairs investigation would make Seagraves appear incompetent.

“Hendershott did not want negative information about Seagraves becoming an issue … Let’s not smear her while the office is potentially going to get litigated," the documents read.
The internal affairs investigation into MCSO’s SVU was reopened in September of 2010 after Hendershott was placed on administrative leave.

The lead investigator for MCSO did identify Seagraves as the principal lead into “whether there had been misconduct, negligence or incompetence” when it came to the sex crimes unit.
One employee described the SVU as a “rat’s nest” and stated that Seagraves had “dropped the ball.”

CLEARING THE CASES BY 'EXCEPTIONAL MEANS'

“The 32 cases you shared with me, many of them involved young children, teenagers, who either they, or their parents, made reports and nothing was ever done," said criminologist Cassia Spohn. "Presumably there are individuals who have committed heinous crimes and have not been brought to justice.”

Spohn is a professor at ASU’s Criminology and Criminal Justice Department who is currently researching how law enforcement clears sexual assault cases.

“I think the most egregious fact is that it seems clear that the Sheriff's department simply did not take these cases seriously, they did not do an investigation. It’s not that they didn't do a thorough investigation, it appears that they did not investigate these crimes at all and that to me is a miscarriage of justice.”

We showed her the documents, including a paragraph where an employee tells a Pinal County Sheriff’s Office investigator that Sgt. Seagraves lessened her case load by clearing the cases by "exceptional means".

"Many of the cases were just exceptionally cleared, and she just went ahead and signed off on them and certainly, what she did is she lessened the case load down to something that was at least acceptable to Captain Whitney. And therein lies the problem," Spohn said. "Apparently, many of the cases that were cleared or exceptionally cleared, were the ones that needed to be worked and just hadn’t been worked ... she sent out the directive and the email is pretty clear that, if the cases can’t be worked, you know, let’s clear them up, let’s inactive them, at least at this point and time, if there’s no more leads to follow up on.”

Law enforcement can clear or close a case in two ways: by arrest or by exceptional means.
The FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program outlines the four specific criteria needed to justify using an “exceptional clearance” of a case.

MCSO spokeswoman Lisa Allen told me that MCSO does follow the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting guidelines.

She said whether or not Seagraves, or any other MCSO employee, ignored those guidelines is something that is the subject of the current Internal Affairs investigation into the Special Victims Unit.

The four criteria needed to clear a case by exceptional means include gathering enough evidence to charge someone, but there has to be a major reason why they can't arrest the person.

Spohn explained, “The police have to have an identified suspect, they need to know where the suspect is so they can go and get the suspect to arrest him, there has to be sufficient evidence to support making an arrest, filing charges, and turning the suspect over to the court for prosecution, but there has to be something beyond the control of law enforcement that precludes them from making an arrest.”

Common examples include situations where the suspect has died, cannot be extradited from another jurisdiction or is in jail for something else.

“It would be something that is not used with any degree of frequency,” explained Spohn. “The important point to emphasize is that in order to exceptionally clear a case the police must conduct a thorough investigation. That’s very clear in the uniform crime handbook. It actually says if after a thorough investigation, if a law enforcement agency determines that an arrest cannot be made for the reasons that are specified in the handbook, then they can exceptionally clear the case.”

One employee told investigators that Seagraves used the exceptional clearance to simply “lessen the case load” for her unit.

He also stated that, "many of the cases that were exceptionally cleared were the ones that needed to be worked and just hadn't been worked."

Spohn told us, “If in fact the head of the Special Victims Unit ordered detectives to exceptionally clear cases that had not been investigated, that clearly was an abuse of power.”

On Monday morning, FBI spokesman Bill Carter told me they group "cleared by arrest" in the same category as "cleared by exception".

“Because the assumption is that most of those cases are going to be arrests and that exceptional clearances are just going to be, exceptional,” explained Spohn.

Spohn said that means Seagraves’ actions would make it appear as if they’ve solved many of the cases they never even investigated.

“I think they have an obligation to the victims and their families to investigate these crimes. These are serious crimes. Children, teenagers, women have been harmed by these crimes and the individuals who committed these crimes have not been brought to justice and that's not the way the system ought to work.”

Spohn also said of the specific cases we showed her, “clearly these suspects should have been arrested. They were identified and they either admitted the crime or there was probable cause they committed the crime, the police should have made an arrest. They should have cleared the case by arrest and not by exceptional means.”

SEAGRAVES PRAISED AND PROMOTED

Sgt. Seagraves was promoted to Lieutenant in 2008.

In March of 2008, Seagraves married Terry Young who at the time was Deputy Chief of Internal Affairs.

The ABC15 Investigators obtained her personnel file.

Seagraves was never disciplined for how she managed MCSO’s Special Victims Unit. In fact, she received glowing recommendations for her work.

This includes the time period of April 2007 to April of 2008 when she was head of the SVU.

Her bosses said that, "Sergeant Seagraves does an outstanding job multi-tasking."

The evaluation stated that “her work product as well as the supervision of her subordinates is very thorough and complete…” and that “her performance is nothing but highly commendable.”

In the spring of 2009, around the time when Hendershott closed the internal affairs investigation that had singled Seagraves out as an investigative lead into the mismanagement of the Special Victims Unit, Seagraves received the “Chief’s Award for Outstanding Service.”

VICTIM ADVOCATE SADDENED AND DISAPPOINTED

“What is the accountability when sex crimes cases are ignored?" asked Elizabeth Ditlevson of the Arizona Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

She also read through the documents and said she was both saddened and disappointed.

“A thought for the detectives is to remember why they do this work; to protect the public.”

MCSO former Chief Deputy David Hendershott closed the Internal Affairs investigation into their Special Victims Unit in the spring of 2009.

It was re-opened in September 2010 after he was placed on administrative leave.

It’s been eight months and according to their written statement, they are still reviewing the matter.

MCSO said Seagraves cannot comment due to that investigation.

Allen told me they are looking into how many arrests were made after they reopened hundreds of cases for further review.

The Sheriff declined an on-camera interview request.

Ditlevson said, “I think one of the big questions is where are the victims, where are the perpetrators, what is happening and what's going to be done to try and resolve this problem at this point? I think another question I have is what is MCSO going to do, to change in their system so this doesn't happen again?”

They are the same questions we will continue to ask of MCSO.

Kevin Gerster's Arraignment

UPDATE (10/21/11):
Gerster's Sentencing

I made it down to the Maricopa County Courthouse this morning where Kevin Gerster was arraigned. The courtroom was late opening up, though, and there were 67 people on the morning's docket - the first half of whom were in custody and appearing from jail via video-camera. It was interesting to see that the only defendant not being represented by a public defender of some kind was Gerster - who is being very well-represented, no doubt, by David Cantor.

Before court commenced, the prosecuting attorney asked if any victims were present. None stepped forward, so I got up and introduced myself as representing the interests of families of people with serious mental illness, explaining that I was there to observe Gerster's indictment. I don't know if she was aware of my communication with Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery or not, but she seemed somewhat annoyed with that, saying "it is what it is," then turned back to her table, effectively dismissing me.

Gerster entered the courtroom when I did, along with 3 companions - one of whom looked like he could be his brother. While hanging out in the lobby before the doors opened, Gerster looked relaxed, chatting and even laughing aloud with his lawyer. All I could think of was him assaulting those two mentally impaired, physically restrained prisoners for what appeared to be no reason but sadistic pleasure, and how much I wanted to see that guy sweating this out in chains and stripes with a court-appointed attorney, instead. That's not very abolitionist of me, I must confess, but honest.

As court commenced and Commissioner Lynch began to work his way through the prisoners in the order they were listed, I thought I was in for another hour or so, and ran out to drop more change in my meter. Big mistake. Needless to say, by the time I made it back through security and up to the 8th floor of the East Court House, Gerster was done and gone. No surprise, I guess - since his attorney was there only for him, my bet is that the judge called him up soon after I stepped out so Cantor could make it to his next appearance.

Privilege has its perks.

Fortunately KPHO was paying attention. Gerster plead "not guilty" to all charges and it was probably over in less than 2 minutes. He isn't due in court again until his pretrial conference on February 10 at 8:15am.

I'll post any updates here, but there likely won't be much more news on him unless the MCAO decides to drop one or more charges. I've decided to place a widget near the top of this page, too, with upcoming court dates of interest - a lot of cops here are criminals, it seems. This could drag on for a year before there's any trial or resolution, so I'll take more responsibility for organizing people to attend hearings.


William Hughes, one of Gerster's victims, is better-represented now, by the way - I believe through the Homeless Legal Assistance Project, where Craig Logdson mentors law students, and Ian Fischer is also somehow affiliated with. They appear to have sprung him even though he's facing a Rule 11 competency hearing in January. I don't know his current circumstances, but at least the kid won't spend Christmas in Joe Arpaio's cold, abusive jail. Frankly, I think his judge should just throw the charges out now and let him get on with his life; that guy has already endured enough.


No news on when/if William's other assailant, Alan Keesee, will be prosecuted. Millions of people have probably viewed that video by now, but as far as I know they're still "investigating" - and he's still on "paid administrative leave" (i.e. extended vacation).

MCSO Abuse of Vulnerable Adults and the Rule of Law

UPDATE (10/20/11):
Gerster's Sentencing


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


Montgomery's Follow-up Here
(9/11/2011)

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

That law being Arizona Revised Statute 13-3623, which is supposed to protect children and vulnerable adults from abuse...

William Franklin Hughes III

I did a little research on MCSO detention officers Gerster's and Keesee's victim, William Franklin Hughes III. He was arrested on a couple of different occasions in October for things like criminal damage, disorderly conduct, and indecent exposure. He had only one other prior, according to court records - a charge for possession of marijuana two years ago, for which he did probation.

This is the mugshot of a "vulnerable adult,"
one who wasn't even yet found competent to stand trial

Looking at William's mugshot (directly above), it actually appears he may have been roughed up during one of those recent arrests, but the big smile on his face - and the judges' November 9 order that he have a Rule 11 (competency) hearing - suggests that he is indeed mentally impaired. His attorney appears to have tried to get him released from jail that same day - just before the assault - but the judge denied the motion.


In any event, William was a pre-trial detainee, not a criminal serving a jail sentence, for those of you to whom that matters. He was a nuisance, perhaps, but there's no evidence he posed a real threat to anyone except himself. I suspect that the only reason the judge kept him in jail was because she thought he would be safe there, and might otherwise get in trouble again back out on the street.


Too bad no one with the power to do so decided to protect him in a psychiatric hospital instead.

Some of the news accounts I've read of Gerster and Keesee's assault on William suggest that just before Gerster jumped up on the table and stepped on his neck, the other officers had bent him over the table preparing to remove his handcuffs. Whether or not that was the case, Gerster clearly assaulted a prisoner who was not only restrained but also subdued.

It was also reported that Gerster assaulted William a third time, slamming his head up against the wall out of the view of cameras once he got him into his cell. That left the poor kid not only traumatized but also bruised and bleeding. Even so, the jail staff didn't see fit to get him any medical attention. The guys who were holding William as Gerster repeatedly assaulted him - with the help of Keesee - didn't even try to protect him.


I keep looking at his photos and wondering if they weren't giving him such a hard time because he was smiling or laughing at them. That's just what a lot of mentally disabled people do.

This is an abuser's mugshot...

The excuses Arpaio's new right-hand man, Jerry Sheridan, makes for why they didn't already nail Gerster for breaking another mentally ill prisoner's jaw in June are pathetic: if that was an officer who was assaulted, they would have arrested him within 24 hours - and neither William nor the couple that Gerster's friend attacked (with his help) would have ended up getting hurt by him.


As I see it, that guy's responsible for 3 counts of assault against William, one against Michael Flores (who was naked in 4-point restraints when Gerster attacked him), and conspiracy to to do great bodily harm to his buddy's ex-wife and the former prisoner she was dating (what did he think that guy was going to do with the address he illegally provided him with? Deliver flowers?). Those are all violent crimes - which sure makes him look like a repeat offender. I don't know how it is that he's out on bond in less than 24 hours, when William apparently didn't even have that option and he didn't hurt a soul.


What turns my stomach the most is that both Gerster and Keesee were responsible for taking care of mentally impaired prisoners - and you know these weren't the only times they abused them, by how casual and public they were about it. It seems like it was just a fluke that they got reported. The fact that they seemed to think they could get away with it indefinitely, even though they had to know they were on candid camera, is pretty disturbing.


Looking at how often staff in the MCSO jails have outright killed prisoners and faced no criminal consequences explains a lot, though. Arizona's big, bad tough-on-crime politicians are always saying that we need to "make an example of criminals", or everyone else with think they can get away with it too. Where were they when the Maricopa County Attorney decided not to prosecute anyone from the Arizona Department of Corrections for Marcia Powell's death?

And where were our representatives and public officials for all of Arpaio's victims of abuse and neglect? I don't recall them demanding that anyone be held accountable for Charles Agster, Scott Norberg, Juan Mendoza Farias, the unborn child of Michelle McCollum, Jose Rodriguez, Steve Cervantes, Jefferson Davis McGee, Eric Vogel, Matthew Creamer, Lance Hawthorne, Clint Yarborough, Kevin Holschlag, Brian Crenshaw...the list goes on and on. What could possibly be taking the feds so long, anyway?


Maybe I missed something, but in all those stories about the MCSO jails I haven't found one case of someone being held criminally responsible for their abuse or neglect. They murder people in there and get a pass every time. Yet if one of us gets shoved into a police horse during a protest, we're charged with assaulting an officer (even if it was a cop who did the pushing). If the banner we carry bumps someone with a badge and a gun in the midst of a panicking crowd, we face ten years in prison for accosting a public servant with a "deadly weapon" (ironically, that all really happened at an anti-Arpaio demonstration).


And where are those tough-on-crime, big-on-victims'-rights lawmakers and enforcers now, for all those sick, troubled, and despairing prisoners being abused in the custody of the MCSO? Too many of them are busy defending Arpaio's kind of "justice" instead of protecting his victims. Read some of those stories, and tell me how anyone with any ethical foundation at all can justify Arpaio's rule of law. I'm a citizen of this state, a tax-payer, a part of the public that the MCSO is sworn to protect and defend, and I can't help but wonder: what if my brother was in their hands? What if it was me?


What a sad thing it is to fear that someone I love is more likely to get hurt by the police in this state than by almost anyone else they encounter on the street.


It angers me that after all those tragedies - horrible traumas and deaths in his care - Arpaio still makes his devaluation of his prisoners' lives and welfare a point of pride. It's no wonder Flores and William Hughes were assaulted while fully restrained. The "tough" leadership at the MCSO provides a model for officers like Gerster and Keesee to emulate. Tough indeed: only bullies and cowards gang up on and brutalize people in chains, then pat each other on the back for being such brave and noble public servants. Those men are criminals of the worst kind - the kind empowered by the public's trust.


Most disturbing of all is that sadists like Joe Arpaio constantly get re-elected here, despite their long history of abusing both their power and the people. That tells me there's a real soul-sickness in this place that runs deeper than the state government and the MCSO.


Arizona law - if we are indeed abiding by the almighty "rule of law" in this state - provides extra protection for mentally disabled adults from abuse, yet it doesn't appear as if anyone has the intention of invoking it to protect the people getting brutalized the most. I think those who care about vulnerable adults need to ask Mr. Montgomery at the Maricopa County Attorney's Office why Kevin Gerster and Alan Keesee aren't being prosecuted for class 2 felonies (dangerous offenses). While you're at it, ask why those officers who were present and failed to protect their mentally ill prisoners from abuse aren't being prosecuted for class 6 felonies (also dangerous offenses) - under the statute below.


For those of you who missed the elections, "Bill Montgomery was elected Maricopa County Attorney in 2010 on a pledge to fight crime, honor victims’ rights, and protect and strengthen our community." He was supported wholeheartedly by Joe Arpaio, but let's hold him to the letter of the MCAO creed to "ensure justice for all", anyway. He might just come through for us. If not, then I think we should head for the U.S. District Attorney's office and demand that they charge our rogue local lawmen for federal civil rights violations in criminal court. Otherwise, this abuse won't ever end...

“The power that accompanies a police officer’s badge does not give the officer the right to violate the civil rights of those in his or her custody. The Justice Department will aggressively prosecute any officer who abuses their power and violates the public trust in this way."

Thomas E. Perez
Assistant Attorney General, Civil Rights Division

(on the November 2010 sentencing of former Baltimore officer Gregory Mussmacher to five years in federal prison for assaulting a prisoner)

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

Arizona Revised Statutes

13-3623. Child or vulnerable adult abuse; emotional abuse; classification; exceptions; definitions

A. Under circumstances likely to produce death or serious physical injury, any person who causes a child or vulnerable adult to suffer physical injury or, having the care or custody of a child or vulnerable adult, who causes or permits the person or health of the child or vulnerable adult to be injured or who causes or permits a child or vulnerable adult to be placed in a situation where the person or health of the child or vulnerable adult is endangered is guilty of an offense as follows:
1. If done intentionally or knowingly, the offense is a class 2 felony and if the victim is under fifteen years of age it is punishable pursuant to section 13-705.
2. If done recklessly, the offense is a class 3 felony.
3. If done with criminal negligence, the offense is a class 4 felony.
B. Under circumstances other than those likely to produce death or serious physical injury to a child or vulnerable adult, any person who causes a child or vulnerable adult to suffer physical injury or abuse or, having the care or custody of a child or vulnerable adult, who causes or permits the person or health of the child or vulnerable adult to be injured or who causes or permits a child or vulnerable adult to be placed in a situation where the person or health of the child or vulnerable adult is endangered is guilty of an offense as follows:
1. If done intentionally or knowingly, the offense is a class 4 felony.
2. If done recklessly, the offense is a class 5 felony.
3. If done with criminal negligence, the offense is a class 6 felony.
C. For the purposes of subsections A and B of this section, the terms endangered and abuse include but are not limited to circumstances in which a child or vulnerable adult is permitted to enter or remain in any structure or vehicle in which volatile, toxic or flammable chemicals are found or equipment is possessed by any person for the purpose of manufacturing a dangerous drug in violation of section 13-3407, subsection A, paragraph 3 or 4. Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, a violation committed under the circumstances described in this subsection does not require that a person have care or custody of the child or vulnerable adult.
D. A person who intentionally or knowingly engages in emotional abuse of a vulnerable adult who is a patient or resident in any setting in which health care, health-related services or assistance with one or more of the activities of daily living is provided or, having the care or custody of a vulnerable adult, who intentionally or knowingly subjects or permits the vulnerable adult to be subjected to emotional abuse is guilty of a class 6 felony.
E. This section does not apply to:
1. A health care provider as defined in section 36-3201 who permits a patient to die or the patient's condition to deteriorate by not providing health care if that patient refuses that care directly or indirectly through a health care directive as defined in section 36-3201, through a surrogate pursuant to section 36-3231 or through a court appointed guardian as provided for in title 14, chapter 5, article 3.
2. A vulnerable adult who is being furnished spiritual treatment through prayer alone and who would not otherwise be considered to be abused, neglected or endangered if medical treatment were being furnished.
F. For the purposes of this section:
1. "Abuse", when used in reference to a child, means abuse as defined in section 8-201, except for those acts in the definition that are declared unlawful by another statute of this title and, when used in reference to a vulnerable adult, means:
(a) Intentional infliction of physical harm.
(b) Injury caused by criminally negligent acts or omissions.
(c) Unlawful imprisonment, as described in section 13-1303.
(d) Sexual abuse or sexual assault.
2. "Child" means an individual who is under eighteen years of age.
3. "Emotional abuse" means a pattern of ridiculing or demeaning a vulnerable adult, making derogatory remarks to a vulnerable adult, verbally harassing a vulnerable adult or threatening to inflict physical or emotional harm on a vulnerable adult.
4. "Physical injury" means the impairment of physical condition and includes any skin bruising, pressure sores, bleeding, failure to thrive, malnutrition, dehydration, burns, fracture of any bone, subdural hematoma, soft tissue swelling, injury to any internal organ or any physical condition that imperils health or welfare.
5. "Serious physical injury" means physical injury that creates a reasonable risk of death or that causes serious or permanent disfigurement, serious impairment of health or loss or protracted impairment of the function of any bodily organ or limb.
6. "Vulnerable adult" means an individual who is eighteen years of age or older and who is unable to protect himself from abuse, neglect or exploitation by others because of a mental or physical impairment.

MCSO: Prisoner Civil Rights Complaints.

The guy quoted below (in bold red) about how "seriously" the MCSO takes these assaults on prisoners is presumably Jerry Sheridan, the Chief Custody Officer for the Maricopa County's jails. Let me just remind folks that when the MCSO convened their grand press conference Monday to release the video and announce Gerster's arrest, Sheridan seemed to explain his officers' conduct by saying that the victim of Gerster's first recorded assault (the mentally ill guy strapped down in 4-point restraints who got his jaw broken) "was probably mouthing off."

I don't think that was part of the planned press release - that's just what comes out of those guys naturally whenever they open their mouths. I hope all the MCSO's victims catch that and make a point of putting these administrators - and Arpaio - on their federal civil rights' complaints, since they've created a climate in which "mouthing off" at guards justifies violent retaliation against helpless, mentally disabled prisoners.

If you've been a victim of the MCSO while in their custody, here's the form you need to fill out to make a civil rights complaint, with instructions (here and here are a couple of jailhouse layer guides, too). If you're still in custody, don't let that stop you - the courts will be accommodating. Just make sure that you read the directions carefully and follow them. A lot of otherwise sound cases get thrown out because people don't follow the right format, name the right defendants, or go through the internal grievance process available to them.

Also, below is contact info for the folks at the Department of Justice to contact in support of a CRIPA Investigation (Civil Rights for Institutionalized Persons), if you have evidence of a pattern/practice of abuse/neglect of prisoners in any law enforcement agency's custody. I believe they're already on to Arpaio and his Klan at the jails (at least the ACLU has been working it) - give them more evidence anyway. And please feed them stuff about the state prisons - or email me and I'll send it on its way.

Since these big tough men who are supposed to be defending our constitution and safety will no doubt be whining to the press that the Obama administration is just picking on them because of politics, let local media know why you filed a civil rights complaint or contacted the DOJ, that you're ordinary people from Arizona, not politicians from Washington, and that it's all about them violating human rights and abusing the public trust. If they ever really practiced what they preached, they'd suck it up and take responsibility for their own behavior.

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

US Department of Justice

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
toll-free at (877) 218-5228

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

Chief

Jonathan M. Smith

And this is the Judge who ordered Arpaio to get it together and clean up the jails. Let him know if he's doing his job or not:

HONORABLE NEIL V. WAKE
United States District Court
Sandra Day O’Connor U.S. Courthouse, Suite 524
401 West Washington Street, SPC 52
Phoenix, AZ 85003
Phone: (602) 322-7640

No more appeals, Arpaio!

http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/10/14/31060.htm

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

Accused Detention Officer Resigns from Job

Fox News Updated: Thursday, 02 Dec 2010, 7:23 PM MST

PHOENIX - The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office said Thursday that detention officer Kevin Gerster resigned on Wednesday following his arrest earlier in the week on aggravated assault charges.

A jail surveillance video shows the former Arizona detention officer stepping on the neck of an inmate who was restrained and bent over a table.

The video shows the inmate, William Hughes, handcuffed behind his back, bent over a table, and surrounded by three officers. Gerster walks up to the men, gets on the table and steps on Hughes' neck.

The video of the assault also shows the officer later punching Hughes in the back of the head four times and kicking him in the leg once. Investigators also said they believe he slammed Hughes' head up against a wall in his jail cell, although there is no video evidence of that.

Sheridan said Hughes did not require medical treatment and didn't have any apparent neck injuries, although he had some bruising and a cut on his forehead, which investigators believe happened in his jail cell.

Gerster posted a $36,000 secured appearance bond Tuesday after he was booked into jail on aggravated assault charges stemming from Hughes' assault and from a June incident, which was uncovered during the recent investigation.

In a June video also released to the media, Gerster is shown punching inmate Michael Flores in the jaw.

Gerster also faces charges of accessing criminal history and one count of computer tampering. The sheriff's office said Gerster looked up the address of an ex-inmate for his friend, whose ex-wife was dating the inmate and who allegedly assaulted the two with a box cutter after getting the address from Gerster.

Another officer, Alan Keesee, who is shown in the November video slamming Hughes' head against the table, was not arrested, but the sheriff's office recommended he also be charged with aggravated assault.

Sheridan said the sheriff's office decided to release the video to the public because he and Sheriff Joe Arpaio "took it very seriously."

"We were upset with the actions of both these officers and we quickly initiated a criminal investigation," he said.

MCSO Brutality and Sunbelt Justice: getting what we "deserve"?

Maricopa County Sheriff's Office detention officer Kevin Gerster, seen in video in the previous post assaulting already-restrained mentally ill prisoners made his $36,000 bond and is out of jail already.

Bet he didn't get cuffed, shackled, bagged and beaten by our beloved defenders of public trust and safety during his brief stay. His jaw probably wasn't broken by some thug with a badge while he was in 4-point restraints in the jail's psychiatric wing. I doubt anyone will be sending an armed intruder to his home to slice up him and his loved ones, either. He's actually pretty fortunate that most of us don't endorse his brand of "justice", and that the cyber-bullies who applauded him following the news articles about his crimes are all just as cowardly as he is.

Gerster's next court appearance is (Rescheduled for an unknown time and place - check for court records on both him and Keesee here, once they're posted, or call the criminal court office at 602-506-8575 if you don't find anything). Anyone who cares about real justice should be there to make sure that not only the cops, but also the courts and prosecutors are held accountable, too.

No word yet on when his colleague, officer Alan Keesee, will be arrested and arraigned. It does not appear as if any of the officers who witnessed the assaults and did nothing (or even those who helped restrain the victims) are being charged. Nor is any of the MCSO leadership, of course.

During his press conference about Gerster's arrest Arpaio seems to justify that conduct by stating "being a detention officer is a difficult job". The Lower Buckeye Jail's chief of custody, Jerry Sheridan, goes on to attribute the assault of the most recent victim to him "mouthing off". I don't believe there's ever a case in which violence is justified by mere insult - especially coming from a mentally ill person already bound in chains - but for some reason law enforcement officers seem particularly inclined to think it does.

The Maricopa County Sheriff Office's history of human rights' abuses suggests that Officer Gerster's disposition to repeatedly assault helpless people was fostered by his boss and the workplace culture Arpaio has cultivated there. Savagery and criminal misconduct by law enforcement agents of the MCSO is a well-established pattern and practice - one which this state's deluded electorate sadly seems to embrace.

For those of you who missed it, the PHX New Times did a thorough investigation in 2007 of how the MCSO treats prisoners: Inhumanity Has a Price. Read it and weep. I did. As of the time that article was written, the Maricopa County jails - under Arpaio - had already killed 11 prisoners in as many years as a direct result of violating their constitutional rights. For all you right-to-lifers who think the jails just house rapists and murderers who "deserve whatever they get": the death toll included the unborn child of a woman who hadn't even been convicted of anything yet.

By contrast, according to the MCSO website page dedicated to their fallen officers, "In the Line of Duty", since 1994 two officers died in car accidents and one died by gunshot. To hear the rhetoric that keeps justifying the massive build up of weaponry, the round-ups of "criminal aliens", and the brutality they display towards all those dangerous characters they throw in the local lock-up, you'd think the deputies were being slaughtered out there. According to the Goldwater Institute, Arpaio and his crew aren't even going after the real bad guys, though. It's actually the rest of the public that's in danger of getting killed by the MCSO.

Sunbelt Justice in the title of this post, by the way, is a reference to a very worthwhile read about crime and punishment in Arizona. Pick it up before the next legislative session, and recommend it to State Senator Ron Gould, the new chair of the AZ Senate Judiciary Committee. He has a lot to learn.

Again, if you care at all about the abuses of power occurring here, show up for Kevin Gerster's next hearing, stay tuned for Alan Keesee's, and show the rest of this community that at least some of us won't stand for it.

Dear Governor Brewer: Please deport prisoner Tripati.

The email below came to me this week from the family of Mr. Tripati, a prisoner I've been corresponding with for the past number of months. I've tried direct advocacy on some of these issues with the ADC to no avail. It troubles me greatly to receive this, and I don't know what else to do but write to the rest of you about it, hoping someone else has some ideas of how to help.

I'd be worried by this news anyway, but Anant hasn't answered the last few notes I sent him. I thought they threw him back in the hole for threatening to publish what he has on them (that was the last thing he wrote to me about) - or that maybe they were intercepting our mail or keeping him from writing to me anymore because I was giving them a hard time (his family is buried in debt and he's penniless in prison, but the ADC insisted to the courts that he has money, so he lost his indigent status - all I asked corporate counsel for was to investigate Mrs. Tripati's claim that her husband is indeed indigent, and that she is now disabled and can't work. I was blown off.).

Really, not only have I kept this stuff out of my blogs since January, but I was also very civil to both Director Ryan and his attorney, considering that his family has reason to believe that the ADC is deliberately trying to kill him. They have no reason to think they aren't, anyway, given all they've put the guy through. I thought that particular accusation was extreme, myself (and not productive) - why kill him when they can just bury him in that place? I'm not so sure about that anymore, though - nor do I think torture is much less criminal than murder, especially when dragged out in confinement year after year.

I think Anant may have earned a bit of ire from some of those people by being such a vexatious litigant, but the ADC has done some pretty horrid things to him (and a lot of other folks - very little of what I've heard him allege is unique). The only way to make prisons stop hurting people sometimes is to sue them yourself because no one else will - Anant has done so on numerous occasions. I've heard from other sources that the ADC routinely steals and destroys prisoner's evidence against them (including responses to grievances) so they can't successfully challenge them in court. And health care is atrocious; everyone who's had to use it that I've spoken to agrees. So, I have a hard time having sympathy for the dear old ADC.

According to Anant, ADC employees also destroyed evidence he needed to prove that he's innocent of the crimes he was originally sent to prison for 17 years or so ago. He got 52 years (4 consecutive sentences out of one trial) for some bail bond scheme or something that he took to trial and lost - that's more than most rapists and murders get, and he was convicted of non-violent crimes. That just seems wrong; it's clearly vindictive. It might as well have been life without parole - he'll die in that place if he can't get exonerated or pardoned or even thrown out of the country (Anant's a UK citizen who was so harshly sentenced at such extraordinary expense to the citizens of this great state for accusing the prosecution and judge of racism and corruption).

Anant Tripati

Even if Anant was guilty, 17 years is long enough - why can't we just deport him before his sentence is up? Why keep shelling out $25,000/year on him after all this time (oh, a lot more than that, once you add up the medical and legal stuff)? Send him back to Fiji - make the UK support him in his infirmity and old age. Just seven months ago the governor and legislature couldn't wait to get rid of illegal aliens crowding the prisons - so they ordered the ADC to turn hundreds of them over to ICE before their sentences were up, as long as they were in on non-violent crimes - there was special legislation for that purpose. No other prisoners were released early - not even the sick and dying citizens we have locked away (it was to save money and get rid of Mexican nationals, not to demonstrate mercy or compassion. God forbid we show any of that in Arizona).

Gene Greeley's claim that Anant's prison medical record has been lost is literally unbelievable, especially coming from him (he's the health services administrator at ASPC-Tucson, I believe). Every time I hear that man's name it's in the context of a prisoner being neglected, abused, or lied to (feel free to contact me if you have something good to say about his treatment of prisoners or families, though, and I'll mention it). I think Greeley knows exactly where those records are - his memo to Anant confirming that they were lost lost sarcastically asks him to let him know if he has any idea where they could be (Anant sent the note to me, and I've seen Greeley's signature before). What was the point of making that remark if not to mock him? Prisoners aren't even allowed to see their own medical records, much less handle them. If Anant can't walk out of there with all the effort he's put into being exonerated, how is his medical record supposed to just walk out of there, if not without the assistance of Mr. Greeley and his loyal henchmen?

Mrs. Tripati and her daughter have appealed to the Governor's office more than once in the past year about Anant's medical care, his dietary needs, and the ADC's retaliatory treatment of him. Ryan is Brewer's top cop, though, hand-picked for the job, groomed by years of working for Stewart (here) and the Bush administration (supervising Iraqi prisons): I don't think she's about to can him over a criminal alien's medical needs. We can't even get health care out of her for all the children in this state, much less the sickest prisoners. I doubt Brewer even reads these letters - I suspect her office sends everything from Anant's family straight over to Ryan's office with a note saying "deal with it," so they stop bugging her.

You folks keep right on bugging her. Hold her responsible. I will too - as will my comrade Brian at Operation-Nation, I'm sure (check out his blog - he has a great piece this week on the MCSO being taken over by the feds because of the Arpaio investigation). The governor won't want to help, but she won't get away anymore with quietly ignoring them until Anant dies (or she gets voted out of office). She certainly can't claim ignorance now that another letter is public: and I have a bigger audience than I did six months ago (including the DOJ). If her staff doesn't tell her what's going on, this is going to turn around and bite her before election day -and she won't even see it coming.

So, heads up, Governor Brewer: here we are. You might want to read what Mr. Tripati's daughter has to say; his wife is probably too ill from the stress and trauma of his deterioration and prolonged incarceration (as well as all of his ancillary expenses) to keep knocking on your door herself. At the very least, you should tell the ADC that man's family reports that they are impoverished and to re-evaluate their assertion that he isn't indigent: Ryan must know that his department's claim on that account is BS. That's just downright dirty pool. They're trying to keep him out of court, but I don't know if he can even buy stamps, much less pay for special dietary and medical supplies and MD co-pays if he's not afforded indigent status.

Mr. Tripati is not just Charles Ryan's prisoner, Governor Brewer: he's yours. His family is your prisoner too, so long as they aren't free to get help for him; they can't even pay an attorney anymore to fight for his medical treatment - which appears to be part of the ADC's agenda. Please take responsibility for assuring his safety and welfare as long as he is in your care and respond to his family's desperate appeal to you for help. You could do anything from order that he be evaluated by proper specialists, to setting in motion a pardon and deportation. We will all be awaiting your reply.

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

From: Aradhna Tripati
Date: Mon, Jul 5, 2010 at 5:28 AM
Subject: Matter Requiring Immediate Attention
To: Jan Brewer

Dear Governor Brewer,

On July 3, 2010 at approximately 6:15 am, my father Anant Kumar Tripati (ADOC 102081) collapsed. Specifically, he could not speak and had slurred speech. He could not stretch his arms and open his fist as his fingers were twisted. His color changed and he was sweating. Timely actions by nurses, including providing him with oxygen, reduced damage. These symptoms, according to medical experts we consulted by telephone in Cambridge, could indicate mild stroke. However, this could not be confirmed because of the absence of further examinations by appropriate specialists including a neurological specialist.

On July 1, 2010, my father was informed he may have kidney problems which according to experts may be due to not having regular meals and meals of poor quality. He has been in an ongoing dispute with prison staff who have repeatedly lost his medical records, prevented him from receiving appropriate medical treatment, and refused to maintain a medically prescribed diet.

It is clear that my father is in poor health and these health problems are being severely exacerbated by a failure by ADOC prison staff to provide consistent medical care. Indeed he appears to have been targeted by vindictive actions to deliberately withold a his medically ordered special diet due to a dispute with Officer Gene Greeley.

Due to his ill health, it is clear that he is in danger of loosing his life if not provided with an adequate medical treatment and diet. His family do intend to hold ADOC liable for these failures in the event of any avoidable fatality, and have extensive documentary evidence detailing the withdrawal of his medically prescribed special diet and the refusal of the prison to restore it over the past year.

I ask you to simply investigate fully the actions of prison staff and to ensure that this inmate receives appropriate care. It hardly seems constructive for the AZDOC to refuse to take this seriously, as they have done in response to past complaints, both from the point of view of providing basic medical care to inmates but also for unnecessarily exposing itself to criminal liability. Given his poor state of health, I also request that you consider releasing him to his family on compassionate grounds so that we can take care of him.

Regards,

Aradhna Tripati

Napolitano Sandwich. Thursday, MAR 25, ASU.

FREE THE POLITICAL PRISONERS!!

Celebrate the Abolition of the Transatlantic Slave trade. Let our People Go.

I have a few words for Director Napolitano about the condition she left things in here - as well as what she's been up to lately - but so does everyone else, so I may just watch the Left and the Right protest her together Thursday night.

I'll be wearing black and a bright bandanna if I'm there. That's my show of support for the indigenous and "anglomigrant" anarchists and anti-authoritarians rising up from the desert in resistance to racial profiling, police brutality, mass incarceration, for-profit detention, and all the other attendant evils of imperialism here in the Land of the Free...

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

Community to protest
cooperation between Janet Napolitano and Sheriff Joe Arpaio!

When: 6:30pm Thursday March 25th, 2010

Where: Arizona State University (Tempe Campus)

50 E Gammage Pk Tempe Az

What:

People from around the valley will gather to demonstrate and protest against Janet Napolitano and her continuing cooperation with the abuses of Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Not only has the Obama administration failed to come through with the promised of immigration reform, but Napolitano and the Administration have Deported/Detained/Separated more families then the previous Bush Administration.

This Thursday, March 25th at ASU’s Tempe campus the community will take the opportunity to let Janet Napolitano and the Obama administration know that they disagree with their policies and the continuing cooperation with Arpaio’s civil and human rights violations in Maricopa County.

Janet Napolitano knows all about Sheriff Joe Arpaio and what he continues to do. She knows of the investigations and the congressional hearings, yet she continues to allow and aid Sheriff Joe Arpaio to constantly attack our communities.

STOP COOPERATION BETWEEN ICE AND MCSO NOW!

Arizona Republican Tax Shift Shuffle

(From Friday, Feb 12 - just moved this up so it greets everyone Monday morning, instead of the nonsense from Pearce. It may bounce around a few more times. Anyway, I expect to see you all at the legislature. Don't let them vote in those tax cuts for the rich without lodging your protests...) 

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

The real story here is not just the sales tax hike everyone is talking about (which disproportionately hits the poor, working and middle classes) - it's the tax cuts for business and the rich that are to follow. 

I think the media obscures the stark reality - here's the vision our GOP state leadership has for us:

They want to make higher education less affordable for more middle and working class Arizona families at a time when we need it the most; 

Instead of reducing all the social, economic, and human costs of crime and punishment, they plan on filling at least 5,000 more prison beds in the state in the next couple of years (which towns are competing with each other to host, in order to have such wonderful jobs without college degrees); 

They're going to slash vital resources to people (again) living on the edge (inevitably pushing some into $22,000+/year room and board - at our grandkids' expense - at the AZ Department of Corrections); and 


They'll keep screwing the teachers over (for resisting them to begin with) - making those "difficult choices" to save the state from this "budget crisis" (caused by the greed of the wealthy few - like them - not by the poverty or crimes of the many. Remember?). 

In the process, with a sleight of hand, they'll shift the tax burden even further off of those profiting from our labor or incarceration - encouraging more of their kind to move here on our dime, requiring more of us to supply them with low-wage labor for their service sector. The only belts the Governor and Legislature have been tightening are the ones around our necks. Their own are stuffed with money - and guns. Let's just ask them to "walk all over us, please".


Is Arizona really going to go for this? Are the cops and firemen still on board with all that? You guys are union - aren't you? Doesn't that mean anything here? Most people in this state have surrendered, it seems. You're catching on to what's really happening, aren't you?

I know they didn't get to every last one of you.


You should at least wonder what's in store for your kids here, if this is really still the direction we're going. I frankly think the folks following Pearce's wagon train are going to run off a cliff before November - first they have to shake good old Sheriff Joe loose, though. That still gives them a lot of time to do some damage, so I think we need to intensify resistance now, rather than later. This budget deal they made is going to get signed into law this week - next Monday at the latest. 

I think this strategy the Republicans are employing across the country - with their budget "crises" and hysteria about health care reform driving us all into ruin -  is shock and awe, or disaster capitalism - something like that. Someone's coined the term to describe it already. They're trying to ram as much garbage down our throats at once while we're still stunned from the last round of cuts and anti-working class legislation. They dragged us off to war, raided all the cupboards and hoarded all the goods, then blamed Medicaid recipients and people who wanted All-day K for being the cause of revenue shortfalls (see how that sounds compared to framing it as a "budget deficit"? Defining the problem and prescribing a solution is pretty tied up in the language we use, which the media plays a big part of manipulating, and we so seldom cue into). 

Now they're trying to take their tax cuts out of our elderly and disabled (though we oddly submit to paying for them to live and die in prison); they're all like bullies on the playground. With guns. The AEA shouldn't be deluded into thinking that they've already been hit hard enough - they're going to make sure you're finished off by the end of this legislative session, which you will be if you don't get back on your feet and resist this tax burden shift - this is all landing right on you and your kids.


Good for Senator Davis. Not a single Democrat should support this tax shift. Not a single one - I'm sure they understand what it's all about - a few have tried to articulate it. But enough will vote for it to make up for the libertarian resisters, because they've already made their deals, selling out one set of constituents for another - trying to do the most for the common good. And they'll answer us by wringing their hands about being powerless against the Right all the while. 

We'll always be outgunned and too poor, but it doesn't mean we should give up the fight. Progress may take generations to see, but depends on our persistence and commitment. This IS The Revolution. It's happening here and now, and is on-going, as the global struggle for justice and liberation have always been. 


As for our resources these days - all this blogging is pretty much free - free for me to do, and for the public to use. That's the awesome thing about all these new Prison Watches going up around the country (sorry, I haven't kept up my links, but will update them soon with new states). Me and my friends aren't an organization or registered charity, and don't have to deal with donations or anything; we count up our change every couple of months, basically. The biggest expenses I have with my three blogs are the P.O. box, postage to prisoners, and an occasional ink cartridge and paper. I'd be on-line and printing stuff anyway, so it's hardly anything out of my pocket - I could probably do this with ten or fifteen dollars a  month. 

And it's not all on me - when I get sick I can take time off. Anyone else can help author and edit the sites themselves - from anywhere in the world, really - as long as they can access a computer and the internet. It takes time and research - and being on good list-serves - but we don't have to sit around and wait for someone else (someone with "authority") to tell us they're fixing the problem, after who-knows-how-many-more people have died...

This is the easiest program to learn. Just remember if you take it on, once it's out there, it's almost impossible to shake loose from being Googled with something you said or wrote; you don't want to cringe when you come across it again. I do sometimes. It's also evidence that will undoubtedly be used against you, if you really cause a fuss, so be sure that what you write is something you're willing to answer for. Freedom of Speech only goes as far as they let it. It may cost you a lot.

Anyway, from what I've seen, it's about to get worse before it gets better for prisoners and outlaws, so if you're out there thinking that you have some state prisons of your own to watch - or maybe you want to see what's happening with elderly prisoners, or those across the country seeking compassionate release or hospice care - drop any of us prison watchers (here or at the Prison Reform Community Center) a line. I'm still buried in both email and snail mail right now, but be patient - I'm working my way through. I'll be back up to speed in a couple of weeks.

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

Ariz. Senate Backs Vote On Sales Tax Hike

KPHO.com
POSTED: 5:18 pm MST February 2, 2010
(Excerpt from AP Story)

..."The public are not getting the message that we are going to (both) raise their taxes and cut services," said Sen. Debbie McCune Davis, a Phoenix Democrat who voted against the referral.

The legislation's fate is in question in the House, where majority Republicans and minority Democrats can't even agree on what process to use for their budget work.House Appropriations Chairman John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, said many GOP representatives are reluctant to vote for the sales-tax referral before the Senate votes on a House-passed tax and jobs bill. It would provide immediate business tax breaks for creating new jobs and future general tax cuts. Meanwhile, many House Democrats say the sales-tax referral wouldn't do enough to protect services and that its passage may only serve to provide money for Republican-pushed tax cuts.

According to Secretary of State Ken Bennett, the Legislature has until Feb. 16 to authorize the proposed May 19 special election.Because lawmakers have been debating Brewer's sales tax proposal for nearly a year, the current budget already includes $8 million to pay for holding the election. Legislators first considered a sales-tax referral last summer, falling just short of sending the issue first raised by Brewer last March to a fall special election ballot. Minority Democrats balked at that version because it would have been accompanied by long-term tax cuts sought by majority Republicans. Democrats later balked at a subsequent Republican push to also ask voters to relax voter-approved spending mandates...."