mnemosyne

b. medusa 10 December 2007 8:07:35 am

today is International Human Rights day. so let’s begin shall we…

EDIT: just found this after completing the post:

Seven Year Old Alexis Goggins Shot Six Times Protecting Her Mother

A 7-year-old-girl is being hailed as an “angel from heaven” and a hero for jumping in front of an enraged gunman, who pumped six bullets into the child as she used her body as a shield to save her mother’s life.

Alexis Goggins, a first-grader at Campbell Elementary School, is in stable condition at Children’s Hospital in Detroit recovering from gunshot wounds to the eye, left temple, chin, cheek, chest and right arm.

“She is an angel from heaven,” said Aisha Ford, a family friend for 15 years who also was caught up in the evening of terror.

The girl’s mother, Selietha Parker, 30, was shot in the left side of her head and her bicep by a former boyfriend, who police said was trying to kill Parker. The gunman was disarmed by police and arrested at the scene of the shooting, a Detroit gas station. Police identified him as Calvin Tillie, 29, a four-time convicted felon whom Parker had dated for six months.
[...]
Ford said she dialed 911 on her cell phone as she walked into the station.“The first operator clicked off and I dialed again and told that operator a guy with a gun was holding me hostage with a mother and baby and threatening to kill us. I told her the name of the gas station and then she said they didn’t have a unit to send.”Ford said she paid for $5 of gas and slowly returned to the vehicle, stalling for time as she handed Tillie the change. She said she kept stopping and starting the pump, hoping the police would show up.“I told him I needed more gas and took money out of my purse and went back into the station,” she said. The attendant, Mohammad Alghazali, 30, said he noticed Ford was crying and she told him what was happening. He called 911 as he heard shots coming from the vehicle.
[…]
Alghazali said a police car on a street nearby arrived in less than a minute after his call.

an update on her condition can be read here. a fund has been set up for Alexis, checks should be made out to the Alexis Goggins Hero Fund & sent to the following address:

Campbell Elementary School
c/o Alexis Goggins Hero Fund
2301 E Alexandrine St
Detroit, MI 48207

for information, call (313) 494-2052

ADDITIONAL INFO (courtesy of all about race): Alexis is a special needs child, due to a massive stroke she suffered as an infant. she walks with a limp & has a weak left eye. her right eye was just removed.

Alexis, who walks with a limp, slipped momentarily on the icy sidewalk and as she helped the girl up, she saw the man and recognized him as Tillie. He was holding a gun.
[...]
Before Tillie could fire again, Alexis jumped over the seat between her mother and the gunman and begged him not to shoot her mother.

The police report said Tillie “without hesitation” pumped six shots into the child.

G*TD*MN M*THAF*CKIN SORRY *SS PIECE OF SH*T!!!!!

(i don’t usually bleep myself here, but i don’t want to be excessively disrespectful to my readers. all 2 of them.)

also contact the msm & ask them why they’ve ignored this story.

CNN
Phone: 404-827-1500

Fox News Channel
Phone: 212-301-3000

ABC News
Phone: 212-456-7777

CBS News
Phone: 212-975-4321

NBC
Phone: 212-664-4444

MSNBC
Phone: 201-583-5000

Newsweek
Phone: 212-445-4000

Associated Press
Phone: 212-621-1500

Reuters
Phone: 646-223-4000

United Press International
Phone: 202 -898-8000

i don’t have to tell you why this is a human rights (as well as police brutality) issue do i?

i can’t believe i missed this story until now. much respect & gratitude to Sylvia, Nez, Carmen D., Ann & all other bloggers covering this.

• activism , assholes , capitalism run amok , community , disability , domestic abuse , feminism , gender , history , imperialism , infrastructure , networking , oppression , organizing , police brutality , politricks , poverty , privilege , racism , rape , sexism , violence , war , war is a racket
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b. medusa 25 November 2007 9:52:16 pm

of 16 days of activism against gender violence (see sidebar logo), running from Nov 25 – Dec 10. this year’s 16 day campaign theme is “Demanding Implentation, Challenging Obstacles: End Violence Against Women.” today (Nov 25) is The International Day Against Violence Against Women.

other important days include:

Nov 29 – International Women Human Rights Defenders Day
Dec 1 – World Aids Day
Dec 10 – International Human Rights Day

finally the Carnival Against Violence Against Women is being held @ Black Looks. deadline for submissions is Dec 6. please head over there for more info (additional info & links on the 16 day campaign can be found there also).

• 16 days , activism , feminism , gender , oppression , sexism , violence
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b. medusa 12 November 2007 7:29:54 pm

posted the day after because we vets are so easily forgotten. how many times have you seen “Support Our Vets”?

UPDATE: Military demands return of bonus pay from wounded vets (h/t to pudgyindian)

Wounded Vet Told To Pay Back Bonus
Partially-Blinded In Iraq, GI Billed For Army Signing Bonus; Pentagon Admits Mistake

Veterans more likely to be homeless

WASHINGTON (CNN) — More than 25 percent of the homeless population in the United States are military veterans, although they represent 11 percent of the civilian adult population, according to a new report.

On any given night last year, nearly 196,000 veterans slept on the street, in a shelter or in transitional housing, the study by the Homelessness Research Institute found.

“Veterans make up a disproportionate share of homeless people,” the report said. “This is true despite the fact that veterans are better educated, more likely to be employed and have a lower poverty rate than the general population.”

[...]

Veterans such as Jason Kelley find themselves in a Catch-22, not able to find a job because of the lack of an apartment, and not being able to get an apartment because of not having a job, The Associated Press reported.

“The only training I have is infantry training, and there’s not really a need for that in the civilian world,” the AP quoted Kelley as saying in a phone interview. In addition, he has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, he told the AP. Kelley served in Iraq with the Wisconsin National Guard, the news agency said.

full article (h/t to ABB)

Military Sexual Trauma

Roughly one in seven of America’s active duty military soldiers is a woman, but a NOW investigation found that sexual assault and rape is widespread. One study of National Guard and Reserve forces found that almost one in four women had been assaulted or raped. Last year alone, almost 3,000 soldiers reported sexual assault and rape by other soldiers.

In one of the only national television broadcasts of the issue, NOW features women who speak out for the first time about what happened. One woman recounts her ordeal of rape by her superior officer. Many more don’t report the incidents for fear of how it will affect their careers. The shocking phenomenon has a label: military sexual trauma, or MST. NOW meets women courageously battling to overcome their MST, bringing light to an issue that’s putting the Army in shame.

read the transcript
watch the video

Veteran Dies After VA Refuses Treatment For Days

Since Walter Reed is considered the military’s premier medical facility, many are now questioning the condition of military and veteran facilities around the country.

Today we look at the story of a 58-year-old Vietnam veteran named Willie Dougherty. He died in October after suffering two pelvic fractures. His family says he died because he was refused treatment.

full transcript

Monsanto’s Agent Orange: The Persistent Ghost from the Vietnam War
Meryl Nass, MD

From 1962 to 1970, the US military sprayed 72 million liters of
herbicides, mostly Agent Orange, in Vietnam. Over one million
Vietnamese were exposed to the spraying, as well as over 100,000
Americans and allied troops. Dr. James Clary, a scientist at the
Chemical Weapons Branch, Eglin Air Force Base, who designed the
herbicide spray tank and wrote a 1979 report on Operation Ranch Hand
(the name of the spraying program), told Senator Daschle in 1988,

“When we (military scientists) initiated the herbicide program in the
1960s, we were aware of the potential for damage due to dioxin
contamination in the herbicide. We were even aware that the ‘military’
formulation had a higher dioxin concentration than the ‘civilian’
version due to the lower cost and speed of manufacture. However,
because the material was to be used on the ‘enemy,’ none of us were
overly concerned. We never considered a scenario in which our own
personnel would become contaminated with the herbicide.”

quoted by Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, 1990
[...]
By 1983, 9170 veterans had filed claims for disabilities that they
said were caused by Agent Orange. The VA denied compensation to 7709,
saying that a facial rash was the only disease associated with
exposure.

Congress passed the Veterans’ Dioxin and Radiation Exposure
Compensation Standards Act of 1984 in response. It required the VA to
appoint a ‘Veterans’ Advisory Committee on Environmental Hazards’ to
review the literature on dioxin and submit recommendations to the head
of the VA.

According to Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, “The VA.directly contradicted its
own established practice, promulgating instead the more stringent
requirement that compensation depends on establishing a cause and
effect relationship,” improperly denying the bulk of the claims.

full article

fast forward to DU

Military may ease standards for recruits
By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – Faced with higher recruiting goals, the Pentagon is quietly looking for ways to make it easier for people with minor criminal records to join the military, The Associated Press has learned.

The review, in its early stages, comes as the number of Army recruits needing waivers for bad behavior — such as trying drugs, stealing, carrying weapons on school grounds and fighting (hate crimes? – b. medusa ¹) — rose from 15 percent in 2006 to 18 percent this year. And it reflects the services’ growing use of criminal, health and other waivers to build their ranks.

Overall, about three in every 10 recruits must get a waiver, according to Pentagon statistics obtained by AP, and about two-thirds of those approved in recent years have been for criminal behavior. Some recruits must get more than one waiver to cover things ranging from any criminal record, to health problems such as asthma or flat feet, to low aptitude scores — and even for some tattoos (spider webs? swastikas? – b. medusa ²).

full article

^{1, 2}Hate Groups Are Infiltrating the Military, Group Asserts

• counter-recruitment , fta , imperialism , militarism , oppression , poverty , rape , veteran mistreatment , violence , war , war is a racket
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b. medusa 4 November 2007 1:36:16 am

this shit frickin annoys and/or sickens me:

• infantilizing women

Why is is blogging for justice the same thing as “protecting our women”? Who do black women belong to in this case? Why do we assume that the person/people doing the protecting aren’t rapists themselves? Why is the answer to a rape culture to “protect” women rather than changing a rape culture?
[...]
And why are Megan Williams and the Dunbar Village victim the only survivors of sexual violence being talked about in this campaign??? Does violence against black women not count when it is black lesbian women being violated and imprisoned for protecting themselves?

some of the same questions/trepidations i’ve had. bfp articulates them beautifully.

• victim blaming

• Why did Megan Williams go out with this white guy, let him beat her, and then go back for more, only to be taken hostage by him and his family? Didn’t she know that one of these people had been convicted of killing his own mother or something? (via vox ex machina)

• women enabling or engaging in patriarchial boyshit isn’t bad enuf, some of them have to take it to the level of excusing rape?

now that fuckin infuriates me. it also hurts me.

vox has the best comeback i’ve seen yet:

It doesn’t matter what her IQ is. It doesn’t matter that she had a previous relationship with her tormenters. It doesn’t matter if a woman is a single mom, unemployed, a sex worker, walking alone after dark, or “dressed like a slut.” (or what some refer to as “groupies”, or “golddiggers”; where did you get those fucking terms from anyway? – b. medusa)

Believing any woman “deserves” to be abused, assaulted, raped, tortured, or murdered because she is “stupid” or “should have known better” or “was asking for it” is reprehensible.

• assumptions , gender , rape , sexism , violence
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b. medusa 4 November 2007 1:32:39 am

“they always tell you what they’re gonna do before they do it.”

a thought that has been shared more than once by some of my friends & i. not necessarily while we were passing joints either. they being the conspiratorial they. or them, take your pick. sounds delusionally paranoid doesn’t it? but its a thought that runs through my head when i watch or read more or less far-fetched fiction (terminator, matrix, universal soldier, etc). then i console my paranoid ideas with the thought, “nah, even they couldn’t be that
stupid.”

then i see shit like this:

…Leading the field is the USA, of course, with 5,000 robots deployed in Iraq alone, everything from a nine-pound Dragon Runner, a “throwbot” that can be tossed over a wall, out a three-story window or up a flight of stairs, to the Special Weapons Observation Remote Reconnaissance Direct Action System (SWORDS), armed with an M249 rifle. All these systems are still controlled by a human, but that will soon change. Noel Sharkey wrote recently in The Guardian:

[F]ully autonomous robots that make their own decisions about lethality are high on the US military agenda. The US National Research Council advises “aggressively exploiting the considerable warfighting benefits offered by autonomous vehicles.” They are cheap to manufacture, require less personnel and, according to the navy, perform better in complex missions. One battlefield soldier could start a large-scale robot attack in the air and on the ground.

This is dangerous new territory for warfare, yet there are no new ethical codes or guidelines in place. I have worked in artificial intelligence for decades, and the idea of a robot making decisions about human termination is terrifying.

The Pentagon is taking its cue from a 1995 dystopian movie, Screamers, which features a fighting robot called Autonomous Mobile Sword…

Robot Nation by Linh Dinh
Dissident Voice/ November 3rd, 2007

delusionally paranoid, eh?

• assholes , militarism , violence , war , weaponization
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b. medusa 29 October 2007 2:01:43 pm

Charity accused of smuggling minors

The French ambassador to Chad has said that six charity workers will be held accountable for trying to fly 103 children to France illegally from the Chad-Darfur border.

Bruno Foucher visited the orphanage on Sunday in Abeche where the children stayed before the French charity Arche de Zoe (Zoe’s Ark) last Thursday put them on a plane to Paris.

The children were allegedly being removed from Chad to be adopted by families in France who had paid up to $8,600 per child to the organisation.

full story here

after having a look around a few national news sites & my favorites in the blogosphere, i realized this story was probably off the radar. not surprising, since i just saw this yesterday on CCTV:

• Chad president vows tough punishment over kidnapped children

other sources:

• Chad angry at ‘child smuggling’
• Prison ‘likely’ in Chad child row

• global south , information , kidnapping , media , oppression , poverty , violence , war
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b. medusa 20 October 2007 2:19:18 pm

everywhere you can see the pink ribbons signifying that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month (rightfully so). but did you know that October is also Domestic Violence Awareness Month? don’t feel bad, neither did i until i visited the Document the Silence blog (via Anxious Black Woman). wearing red on the 31st is in response to violence (of all kinds) directed towards women of color.

We are responding to:

• The brutal and inhumane rape, torture, and kidnapping of Megan Williams in Logan, West Virginia who was held by six assailants for a month.
• Rape survivors in the Dunbar Housing Projects in West Palm Beach, Florida one of whom was forced to perform sexual acts on her own child.
• A 13 year old native American girl was beaten by two white women and has since been harassed by several men yelling “white power” outside of her home.
• Seven black lesbian girls attempted to stop an attacker and were latter charged with aggravated assault and are facing up to 11 year prison sentences.

sadly, this list isn’t even the tip of the iceberg. violence against women begins early, brownfemipower recently posted an [unfortunately] long list of institutional violence against girls.

did you wear black on 9/20? will you wear black on O22? have you worn a pink ribbon this month? wear red on Oct 31 (visit the Document the Silence blog for more info).

• activism , gender , sexism , violence , woc
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b. medusa 29 September 2007 2:54:38 pm

this link was too important to wait for a collation of other sightings because:

I think it’s so important to put out there, as somebody took a real risk to get it out to the world, you know? – brownfemipower
Violence in Burma (updated since 9/26, w/ additional info in the comments)

additional sightings will be added later.

Later (10/1):

Security Guards’ Confrontation With Students Prompts Protest
Security Guard Acted Violent, Uttered Epithets, Student Says

POSTED: 11:05 pm PDT September 27, 2007
UPDATED: 11:57 am PDT September 28, 2007

PALMDALE, Calif. — Parents and students at Knight High School protested Friday morning because of an incident in which three teenagers and a mother were arrested last Thursday after alercations with security guards, prompting an investigation into the guards’ behavior.

The altercations were videotaped by students at a birthday celebration during the school’s lunch hour. At some point, birthday cake was tossed around and landed on the floor, sparking a series of events.

A female student who is shown on the video being held down by a guard said she had dropped cake and bent down to clean it up. She said when the security guard told her to clean up part of the mess that had been overlooked, a verbal altercation erupted — and quickly turned physical.

The security guard grabbed her by the arm as she headed out, the student said. She said the security guard was overzealous in twisting her arms and, despite her pleas, he broke her wrist, which was later put into a cast.

“He grabbed me by my arm and put my arm behind my back and pulled it up until it hurt,” said student Pleajhai Mervin. “Then, he slammed me on the table.”

The security guard called her a “nappy-head,” Mervin said.

full story @ KNBC site (includes image & video links). Call to Action @ ProfBlackWoman.

• activism , imperialism , militarism , oppression , violence
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b. medusa 20 September 2007 4:45:23 pm

like every other site i have visited online regarding this story, i am disgusted, sickened, horrified. paralyzed into silence even for more than a few days by the horror of it (but sadly not shocked or surprised). since first encountering the initial story via Black Amazon & Vox ex Machina, the Anxious Black Woman has also weighed in on the DV aspect & the release of the victim’s name w/ some extremely thoughtful commentary . Black & Missing provides comprehensive coverage of the case. Elle, phd & Prof Black Woman bring us the news of the latest outrage of this case.

Vox ex Machina has several posts documenting hate crimes:

• the College Racism Roundup
• Hate Crimes on the Rise
• Hate Crime, Sex Crime

thanks to Tom @ Automatic Preference, i found the very comprehensive & detailed summary of the Jena 6 case over @ Black & Missing. She details what has been going on, who has documented the case up to this point, what strategies have been employed, who’s doing what, what folx can do to help, & provides links. all this in addition to her usual mission of documenting missing poc & making sure the missing receive the attention they deserve.

if you aren’t in Jena today (20 Sep), hopefully you have signed up & are participating in the Virtual March, wearing black, sporting an armband or @ the very least passing the word on. hat tip to Yobachi @ Blackperspectives.net for the word that Mychal Bell is still sitting in jail & heads up on the virtual march.

for those who’ve been shocked by what happened in Jena, here are a couple of perspectives on why some of us aren’t:

• Do You Understand Where You Are? (hat tip to BA)
• The Jena Six: An American Tragedy and a Shameful Reality

two very informative posts on hate crime in general (XP’s), and from up close & personal (Zuky). both posts are cited in Vox ex Machina’s post on Hate Crimes on the Rise (linked above)

finally, getting away from hate crime for a moment (or am i?), i’m sure you heard about the unnecessary use of force @ u of fl (student tasered @ event where john kerry was present). less known about is the beat down Lennox Yearwood got @ the capitol (the man will be on crutches for weeks), & like Cindy Sheehan i’d like to know why so many “fellow activists” silently stood by & watched while it was happening. i think i know, but i’d like to hear someone try to explain it w/o sounding totally fuckin’ lame. especially those who’ve wondered why the antiwar movement is so “white”.

• activism , hate crime , jena 6 , networking , oppression , organizing , rape , violence
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b. medusa 12 August 2007 11:59:55 am

just in case anyone thought mistreatment of vets was a fairly recent phenomena:

The Bonus Army

In 1924, a grateful Congress voted to give a bonus to World War I veterans – $1.25 for each day served overseas, $1.00 for each day served in the States. The catch was that payment would not be made until 1945. However, by 1932 the nation had slipped into the dark days of the Depression and the unemployed veterans wanted their money immediately.

In May of that year, some 15,000 veterans, many unemployed and destitute, descended on Washington, D.C. to demand immediate payment of their bonus. They proclaimed themselves the Bonus Expeditionary Force but the public dubbed them the “Bonus Army.” Raising ramshackle camps at various places around the city, they waited.

[...]

on July 28, Attorney General Mitchell ordered the evacuation of the veterans from all government property, Entrusted with the job, the Washington police met with resistance, shots were fired and two marchers killed. Learning of the shooting at lunch, President Hoover ordered the army to clear out the veterans. Infantry and cavalry supported by six tanks were dispatched with Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur in command. Major Dwight D. Eisenhower served as his liaison with Washington police and Major George Patton led the cavalry.

[...]

The veterans, assuming the military display was in their honor, cheered. Suddenly Patton’s troopers turned and charged. “Shame, Shame” the spectators cried. Soldiers with fixed bayonets followed, hurling tear gas into the crowd.

excerpted from “The Bonus Army” EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (2000).

read the full article

• activism , counter-recruitment , fta , history , oppression , poverty , violence , war is a racket
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