Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Court Appointed Attys: Anybody Can Do Their Job

If you are still using court appointed attorneys, I will be happy to provide you with those same services for nothing. This will include all of the following: ignoring all your phone calls and letters, ignoring family members badgering you to plead quilty to a crime you never commited, working to collaborate with prosecutors and judges against your best interest and, if you are in jail, postponing your court date over and over again until you plead quilty.

The Berrien county court appointed attorneys should be independent from political influence. However, in Berrien county the court appointed attorneys, prosecutors and judges are on the same team with the very same goal: convicting innocent poor people.
Over and over again we have seen the court appointed attorney not interviewing the client until the actual court appearance and then while actually in the courtroom! They seldom call or supeona witnsses for trial.

These court appointed attorneys are never supervised or systematically reviewed for quality and efficiency as mandated by national and locally applied standards--not in Berrien County.

Berrien County, MI is in constitutional chaos as the police, prosecutors, politicians and judges are using the machinery of government to execorably grind away at the those rights and liberties gauranteed to all Americans under the constitution and the Bill of Rights. In Berrien County agencies of the state will often arrest without warrant, spy without legal authority, imprison without charge and even kill without just cause or reason.

We urge our readers to take the Benton Harbor struggle into YOUR community and bring your community into Benton Harbor. In this way we can begin building a broader awareness of what is at stake for everyone of us. Today they are coming for the poor and oppressed in Benton Harbor. Tomorrow they will be coming for you in the very same way: by denying your rights as American citizens. Hold the line. Stop them in Benton Harbor and take a step towards justice and a fair shake for us all.

Rev. Edward Pinkney
269-925-0001 anytime

Monday, August 21, 2006

I was just taking a walk...

**Please forward - the world must know

I received a phone call from a young woman, Keisha Nicole Terry, and filed a complaint at the police station after hearing what happened to her at the hands of Benton Harbor Township police officers at 10pm, Monday, August 14, 2006:

"Both officers harrassed, degraded, and intimidated me with threats to make me afraid. The officers attacked my self-esteem as a woman. Officer Skinner kicked me several times and caused my legs to swell, then he pushed me in the chest and begin touching me in places a male should not touch without my permission. Then Officer McKenize began to illegally search me by patting me down and putting his hand under my shirt, then taking his hand and putting it in my pants, under my pant legs. He told me to take my ass across the street after the illegal search. Officer McKenize was waiting for me while Officer Skinner was belittling me. I told both police officers that they can't search me, being a female, unless there was a serious need to search me or if they feel like I was a threat to them. This was not the case in this circumstance - there was no crime. [Due to the laws and procedures of Michigan, a male officer of any kind can't search any female without a female officer being present.] I was not endangering myself or others. I was walking down the street and was attacked by two white police officers. Then Officer Skinner told me to sit on the hood of his hot car. I replied by saying that the hood was hot, it was too hot for me to sit on. He told me to put my face on the hood of the car. I refused. He kicked me again about three times which caused me pain and suffering as well as mental and emotional pain.

My friend and myself both asked them what we did wrong. Officer McKenize stated, "this is what happens when you live in Benton Harbor or Benton Township."

This kind of law enforcement behavior towards BH residents has been going on for decades, and has been on the upswing in the last four months or so. WHEN WILL IT STOP? WHEN WILL GOV. GRANHOLM INTERVENE? We know that these officers don't display brutality without orders from Chief Mingo. How high do the orders come from? Whirlpool most likely. Human rights mean nothing to one of America's greediest corporations - - 70% of the world's appliance market is their's, yet they must own Benton Harbor. (For the record, Officer Collins is one of the worst and everyone knows it.)

We must stop the police brutality in Benton Harbor and Benton Township, Michigan. Police are paid to serve and protect, not to serve and harass. When will it stop? When will we say, enough is enough? We better start keeping our mind on our freedom and our freedom on our mind.

Rev. Edward Pinkney
269-925-0001
banco9342@sbcglobal.net
bhbanco.blogspot.com
BANCO, 1940 Union St., Benton Harbor, MI 49022
(legal fees being accepted and very much needed for my Sept.19 frame-up trial)

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

How the Government Manipulated the War on Drugs to Create a Slave Prison Market

By Rev. Edward Pinkney

Beware, poor Blacks, Hispanics, whites -- and all the have-nots. Each of you out there better start keeping your mind on your freedom and your freedom on your mind. UNICOR is the proud symbol of a government owned corporation for the prison industry with 100 or more factories operating inside Federal prisons. The CEO of UNICOR and Congress get cheap labor from 23 cents to $1.15 per hour from factory working inmates. Are they from South Africa? No! from Cuba? No! from Mexico? No! The inmates come from poor communities scattered across this nation. When translated, this means that a whole lot of poor Blacks, Hispanics, and whites, the have-nots, are in serious trouble, in life-threatening danger.

Inmates are one of this country's greatest assets. With the average Federal inmate serving time related to drug offices, inmates are becoming one of the government's most precious "drug law commodities." What makes this so scandalous is that it was orchestrated and systematically brought into existence through our nation's so-called "war on drugs," or what is actually, the Feds' counterfeit fake drug war.

In addition, minorities are 76% of the prison population while 79.5% of the government's judicial and Bureau of Prisons staff (judges, prosecutors, agents, counselors, nurses and prison guards,) are white. Is there any doubt that this is a clear-cut manifestation of institutionalized racism? How can they justify this?

Contrary to popular belief, the true agenda of the "war on drugs" was never to stop nor significantly curtail the large flow of illegal drugs entering the United States (which it failed to accomplish). Instead,the main objectives of the "war on drugs" were to:

1. Boost UNICOR profits by maximizing its inmate labor.
2. Create a large and long term viable job market for the primary benefit of American capitalists.
3. Achieve these objectives at the primary and immediate expense of America's poor population: Blacks, Hispanics, and poor whites.

All three of these politically tyrannical goals have been successfully accomplished. The State and Federal UNICOR prison industry is booming. Prison population has risen more than 1500% between 1981 and 2006.

With this in mind, you should now have a clear understanding as to the true reason behind our nation's long running and seemingly incurable illegal drug problem. Poor Blacks, Hispanics, whites and all you have-nots better start keeping your mind on your freedom and freedom on your mind.

This article originated in the People's Tribune
PO Box 3524, Chicago, IL 60654, 773-486-3551, info@peoplestribune.org.
Feel free to reproduce unless marked as copyrighted.
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