Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.
Robert had been a regular guest on our Between The Lines and Counterpoint radio shows -- and many other progressive outlets across the U.S. over four decades.
His penetrating analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international conflicts will be sorely missed, and not easily replaced. His son Nat Parry writes a tribute to his father: Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews.
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Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris
Promoting Enduring Peace presented its Gandhi Peace Award jointly to renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader and BDS founder Omar Barghouti on April 23, 2017.
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who helped make our 25th anniversary with Jeremy Scahill a success!
For those who missed the event, or were there and really wanted to fully absorb its import, here it is in video
Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 1 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.
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"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.
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Listen to the full interview (30:33) with Jeremy Scahill, an award-winning investigative journalist with the Nation Magazine, correspondent for Democracy Now! and author of the bestselling book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," about America's outsourcing of its military. In an exclusive interview with Counterpoint's Scott Harris on Sept. 16, 2013, Scahill talks about his latest book, "Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield," also made into a documentary film under the same title, and was nominated Dec. 5, 2013 for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category.
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Interview with Diane Polan, defense attorney, conducted by Melinda Tuhus
A very unusual event unfolded in Superior Court in New Haven, Conn., over the past couple of weeks. A man took his case to trial rather than plea bargain the charges against him, and on April 12 a judge declared a mistrial after the jury said they couldn't convict the defendant because the police in the case had also broken the law. Since 98 percent of court cases are settled by plea bargaining, with no trial, the case of Jewu Richardson stands out. The case resulted from a routine traffic stop in 2011, when Richardson, who is African American, fled the scene and led police on a chase across town. He was shot in the chest by one officer and almost killed. Police then charged him with assault on an officer, a charge carrying a penalty of 30 years in prison.
Richardson admits to some motor vehicle violations, but says he was determined to fight the assault and attempted assault charges because he maintains his innocence. With solid community support, he was able to hire a private attorney, Diane Polan, who has decades of experience in police abuse cases. She was able to show that the police officers involved not only violated the city's standing policy of not pursuing individuals in their cruisers unless a serious crime has been committed, they also ignored three commands from a supervisor to end the car chase.
Due to the judge declaring a mistrial, Richardson avoided conviction on any of the 10 charges against him. Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Diane Polan, Richardson's attorney, who explains why, in her view, a mistrial was even more significant than an acquittal.
DIANE POLAN: Ninety-eight percent of criminal cases are resolved through plea bargains, and very few cases go to trial. I think the reason this case went to trial is that Mr. Richardson was shot in the chest and could have died, and it just didn't sit right with him to plead guilty and accept a jail sentence.
BETWEEN THE LINES: Jewu Richardson told me he felt like the police charged him with assault because they shot him, to cover for having used excessive force.
DIANE POLAN: Well, yes, in my experience, certainly doing plaintiff civil rights litigation, when people are injured by the police, they're almost always charged with assault on a police officer, so that the police can be pro-active and not just be defending an excessive force claim. But to me what was most extraordinary about this case is that two members of the jury who were African American ultimately concluded they could not convict Mr. Richardson of any of the ten charges, even though there was certainly evidence to support some of the motor vehicle charges, because they believed – as they said in a note – that the police broke the law. And the police broke the law by ignoring the written pursuit policy of the New Haven Police Department, and by ignoring their supervisor's direct orders to terminate the pursuit, which he gave three different times. I think that was very significant to at least the two members of the jury who refused to convict. In my view, the police pursuit is what caused everything else to happen. Mr. Richardson did drive away from a motor vehicle stop, and he doesn't deny that he did that, but they weren't supposed to pursue him for a broken headlight. And it's the police pursuit that endangered his life, their lives, and the lives of all the innocent civilians, particularly people living in a densely populated section of New Haven.
BETWEEN THE LINES: There's a concept called jury nullification, and it sounds like that's what happened in this case. Can you explain what that is and when that can be used?
DIANE POLAN: Jury nullification is a term for what happens when juries are unwilling to convict somebody not withstanding some of the evidence. It's not something they're instructed that they're allowed to do, but as people of conscience, they do it sometimes. And in my case, the whole jury didn't do that, but two people who are African American – which I think is very significant to this – said, "We can't convict this guy, because the police broke the law." It's not an argument I made with respect to the minor charges, but I certainly made that argument with respect to the charges of assault on an officer and attempted assault on an officer charge.
BETWEEN THE LINES: You said the fact that the jurors who refused to convict Richardson are African American and that's very significant. How so?
DIANE POLAN: I think this is really a good example of how race really does still matter in this country, and it matters because of the different ways that people in majority white communities and people in majority brown communities experience the police presence in their communities, and it's very different. These jurors were selected after extensive voir dire questioning by both sides; neither of them had a chip on their shoulder; neither of them hated the police; they were both people who indicated through all of their answers that they could be fair, and they were accepted by both the prosecution and the defense. So, there's nothing wrong with these jurors; there's nothing wrong with the selection process. I think what happened is, after hearing all the evidence in the case, and hearing about how the police ignored the supervisor's order to terminate the pursuit; how the police violated their own training in the actions they took at the gas station. These jurors – whose own life experiences are as African American people – they could not convict him. And I think that's very significant, that race still matters.
BETWEEN THE LINES: You've said that this mistrial might be more important than an outright acquittal. Probably not to the defendant, but why do you think so?
DIANE POLAN: Well, I think this is so significant because of what it shows about the different impact of this type of testimony on white and non-white jurors. In my experience as a criminal defense lawyer, black jurors are not soft on crime; quite the opposite. They want criminals out of their community; they are often the victims of crime. This is not about solidarity between black jurors and criminal defendants. This has to do with the way in which the police abuse people of color in their own communities, which those people are aware of. That's what this case is about, and I think that message is so important.
BETWEEN THE LINES: Jewu Richardson goes back to court May 8. What's your guess about whether the state will move to re-try him?
DIANE POLAN: You know, I'm going to talk to the prosecutor either on May 8 or before that, and try to talk to him about why it's not a good use of resources to retry this case. Hopefully, I'll be successful, but I can't promise that.
Find articles detailing the circumstances in this unusual case by visiting the New Haven Independent news site at newhavenindependent.org and Justice for Jewu's website at justiceforjewu.com.
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