Friday, January 29, 2016

No Human Rights in a Corporate Dictatorship

Today is the 409th day that Rev. Edward Pinkney of Benton Harbor, Michigan sits in prison doing felony time for a crime he did not commit. Rev. Pinkney was railroaded to jail with absolutely no evidence against him December 15, 2014, for 2 1/2 to 10 years. And, even though the town of Benton Harbor is 90% African-American, Rev. Pinkney was found guilty by an all-white jury, none of whom were from Benton Harbor, a jury that was instructed by both the judge and the prosecutor that evidence was not required for a guilty verdict. When Rev. Pinkney's lawyer raised that there were serious violations of the United States Constitution taking place in this case, the judge ignore them.

Judge Schrock's actions are reminiscent of the 1857 Dred Scott decision in which chief Supreme Court Justice Roger B. Taney declared that black people "had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.” Today, slave dictatorship has been replaced by corporate dictatorship spearheaded by the emergency manager system in Michigan. As Rev. Pinkney has stated over and over, "it is not about black and white, it is about the haves and the have-nots." The poisoning of the population of Flint, Michigan's, water is just the latest example that the poor have no rights that the corporations are bound to respect.

FREE REV. PINKNEY NOW!