Homeless Youth - This Week at Arise

Kei'shairra is an amazing young woman who walked into Arise earlier this summer and has now organized a youth committee.  She's also been doing summer activities for the kids at a local park, including some kids from a homeless family we helped get into shelter.

Yesterday she returned from the park with a young man, we'll call him Neal-- homeless, gay, Puerto Rican, very hot and very down in the dumps.

There are a couple of programs that take in youth under the age of 18, but Neal, unfortunately, turned 18 a few months ago.  Still, I called around to see if anyone could make an exception, and lucked out-- the Gandara Center had just opened a new program for homeless youth eighteen to twenty-four!  They found a temporary foster situation for him and when he came to visit today, he was in a much better place.

Unfortunately, the next young person-- a woman--  who came to us was twenty-five.  Miguel King, our former Senior Aide who we found a way to hire when we had to hire him or else lose him, helped her think through job training and housing options.  There was no immediate fix for her except the Worthington shelter, but fortunately, they had space.

Earlier this week the employer of a young woman who had been living in her van with her dog and her cat called us-- the woman was at the end of her rope.  Could we help?  Dakin Humane Society used to have a program that could board animals of homeless people until they could get back on their feet, so I called them, but that program has ended-- lack of funding. One of our members was able to take them in for a while, while the woman figures things out.

It was quieter on the homeless family front.  Liz met with a couple of families facing homelessness and helped to prepare them for applying for shelter to DHCD.  Meanwhile the Go Fund Me page that Joanne Ehret set up for us-- to have a little slush fund to place homeless families in a motel overnight when necessary-- inches toward its $1,000 goal.  Please contribute if you can.

Aaron McBryar, our STEPC intern from UMass, is almost finished with updating our Food Pantry Guide and Homeless Singles Survival Guide, and we'll be passing them out this week wherever people are most likely to need them.

Arise and Springfield No One Leaves folks also met to talk about the major housing action we are planning for September 22nd.  Both of our organizations are members of  Right to the City/Homes for All, which is coordinating a National Day of Action for Renters' Rights.  Stay tuned!

This could be a big week for the Environmental Justice work we're doing.  Health Commissioner Site Assignment Hearing-- that is, have we provided enough evidence to convince her, as we convinced the Public Health Council, that the threat to public health and our environment from Palmer Renewable Energy's proposed plant requires a hearing?  And the Conservation Law Foundation will be in Springfield on August 3 for oral arguments on their/our challenge to the issuance of an air permit for the incinerator.   

Helen Caulton-Harris says she'll decide this week if the biomass incinerator we've been fighting for eight years deserves to have a

I found out this week that Pat Sullivan, head of Parks, Recreation and Facilities for the City of Springfield, has gone ahead and posted Fish Advisory signs ahead of the city council taking up our ordinance (proposed through the Green Committee).  Most people don't know that freshwater fish in Massachusetts are contaminated with enough mercury that women of childbearing age and children under twelve years of age should NOT eat them. (Really, should anybody?)

Our organizers Lisa Torres and Jesse Lederman met this week with Steve Bryant, President and CEO of Columbia Gas, to continue negotiations around sealing the "super emitters" of gas leaks in Springfield and around the state.  Climate Action Now has taken this up as one of its major campaigns. 

Not last and far from least, those of us who helped to organize the Black Lives Matter/#FedUp413 rally against police shootings on July 11 are meeting this week to plan a large community meeting.

So much more I could tell you about from last week....Want to get involved in organizing for social justice?  Call Arise, 734-4948 or email us at Ariseforsocialjustice@gmail.com.

Mass Parole Board Immediately Release Donald Perry Please Sign Petition

Please follow the link below. Consider signing this important and powerful petition. Let the Massachusetts Parole Board know that men like Donald Perry are vital to our community.
This may be one of the most important petitions you endorse this year. Please let your voice be heard. Please circulate this urgent demand to all of your concerned friends and contacts.





Peace,

http://www.change.org/petitions/massachusetts-parole-board-immediately-release-donald-perry

Police brutality: Jeffrey Asher finally on trial-- and don't forget Michael Ververis!

Ellen, Holly and Dan dashed off to Chicopee District Court for the first day of former Springfield  police officer Jeffrey Asher's trial yesterday.  He's charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon against Melvin Jones.

Getting police accountability in Springfield is a battle many activists, including Arise and the NAACP, have been working on for years.  Last year Ward Four City Councilor E. Henry Twiggs held public hearings in an attempt to change the form of police oversight to a police commission or a civilian review board, only to be stymied by the terms of Police Commissioner Fitchett's contract.

Last year, Michael Ververis was beaten by the Springfield police but of course at the moment, all of the charges are against Michael.  this Monday, Arise members will gather at 8:45 am. at Springfield District Court for a short solidarity stand-out, and at 9 am., we'll watch the motions to dismiss that Michael's lawyer, Luke Ryan, has filed.  Turn up and support Michael!  Here's his website, Justice for Michael.

  Following  are some of Holly's observations and a link to Buffy Spencer's coverage for the Republican.

so, i was there for the tail end of the questioning of the woman who released the cell phone video tape...dan said she had been in sheer panic prior to testifying - though she did it.  i think it went ok.  then melvin jones came (after a court break).  the da's attorney went through all of her questions to him.  then for the defense....that lawyer (older white man, whose name i do not know)....was just like a gross lawyer would be trying to win his case.  went through every single solitary past crime (one by one, and unfortunately there were many) of melvin's. then focused a lot on melvin's attempting to run, and his "not remembering" things (because his head was bashed in) - and the lawyer kept on with, the questions like --- so, you don't remember kicking at the officer?"  so, you don't remember attempting to grab at the officer.."  etc....then there were a ton of objections and calling of the lawyers to the judges bench (which i don't know enough of the law to know what it was all about), and then lunch break- at which time dan and i had to leave.  melvin continued thereafter. 

it was, though, the truest display of the racist prison industrial complex so much in front of us - an all white jury (of melvin's 'peers'); all white lawyers- on both sides, from the DA's office to the defense; white judge; and then the all white press surrounding them all.  yikes is about all one can say...

dan and i are going to hold signs at 8:30 am tomorrow if anyone wants to join us.

London riots: can't happen here?

 Today an African-American man came into the office with his family.  He had just been walking by and saw our sign in the window: "Please sign our petition for police accountability' and that's why he came in. 

He said, "Yeah, I just got arrested for being Black in Springfield."
What happened?" I said.
"I was downtown with my family," he said, "and I saw a cruiser pulling somebody over.  So, just being nosy, I went over to see what was going on.  The cop said, 'Move along' but i guess I didn't move fast enough because the next thing I knew, I was up against the cruiser and in handcuffs."
"What did they charge you with?"
"Disturbing the peace."
"And what happened when you went to court?"
"I had to pay an $80 fine-- for being Black in Springfield."


Watch this video, and observe the contempt with which the BBC interviewer treats the man she is interviewing about the London riots.

Trial of men accused of illegal filming inside Franklin County Jail begins in Greenfield

Published: Monday, July 18, 2011, 10:44 AM Updated: Monday, July 18, 2011, 11:14 AM

By Conor Berry, The Republican The Republican

Staff photo by Conor BerryA large group of supporters were on hand Monday at the Franklin County Courthouse, where Pete Eyre and Adam Mueller are on trial in Greenfield District Court for an incident last summer at the Franklin County Jail & House of Correction. Eyre and Mueller, founders of the police watchdog organization Cop Block, are accused of illegally filming their encounter with law enforcement officials inside the county jail on July 1, 2010. The pair were arrested by Greenfield police after they alleged failed to comply with officers' request to stop filming at the jail. On Monday, several dozen supporters flocked to the Greenfield courthouse to offer their support to the duo and to protest what they view as an unnecessary and illegal arrest.

GREENFIELD -- Jury selection got under way Monday morning in the trial of two New Hampshire men accused of illegally filming their encounter with law enforcement officials at the Franklin County Jail & House of Correction last summer.
Pete Eyre and Adam Mueller, founder of the "pro-police accountability" organization Cop Block -- which advocates filming or photographing police and posting those images online -- were arrested July 1, 2010, outside the Greenfield jail when they refused to stop filming on the premises.
The men, who had gone to the facility to bail out two friends being held on drug and weapons charges, claim there were no signs indicating they could not film at the jail. They continued to record the encounter against officers' orders, leading to their arrest by Greenfield police.
On Monday morning, Eyre and Mueller and about 50 supporters gathered outside the Franklin County Courthouse with placards protesting police tactics that they believe tread on their natural freedoms. Eyre and Mueller, both of New Hampshire, are so-called voluntaryists who adhere to the principles of a stateless society based on natural law, not a formal system of rules and regulations with law enforcers such as police and other agents of the state.
As of 10 a.m., the legal proceeding had not resulted in any conflagrations in or outside the courthouse. At a previous court appearance, supporters of Eyre and Mueller caused a minor disturbance at the conclusion of that proceeding, prompting extra securitty at Monday's trial.

Staff photo by Conor BerryPete Eyre and Adam Mueller's Mobile Anti-Resistance Vehicle, or MARV, was parked outside the Franklin County Courthouse on Monday. The men are on trial in Greenfield District Court for an incident stemming from an encounter with law enforcement officials at the Franklin County Jail & House of Correction last July. The pair, founding members of the police watchdog organization Cop Block, were arrested after they allegedly refused to stop filming at the county jail. Despite their legal woes, Eyre and Mueller are conducting a "Liberty on Tour" mission this summer to promote their anti-government, libertarian-leaning views. The men are so-called voluntaryists, who believe that submission to government rules and regulations should be entirely voluntary and that the principles of natural law should prevail.

In an effort to control the crowd and avoid any disruptions, court guards sealed off a wing abutting the Superior Court courtroom, where the trial is taking place even though it is a District Court case.
Picking a jury can take hours or even days, depending on the nature of a case and how much media exposure it has received. In Eyre and Mueller's case, the duo launched a media blitz in advance of Monday's trial, though the effectiveness of that campaign remains unclear. There were no TV stations evident at the courthouse complex, and only a handful of print-media reporters were covering the trial.
Any chance of reaching a last-minute plea deal with the defendants before the trial apparently was off the table; Mueller was wearing a T-shirt inside the courtroom that made it plainly clear that a plea was not an acceptable option.
District Court Judge William F. Mazanec is presiding over the trial, which could last a few days.
The men appear to be representing themselves, though an attorney was present on Monday and several times during pretrial motions stood to whisper in their ears.
Eyre and Mueller's black-and-gold "Liberty on Tour" mobile home was parked outside the courthouse. Despite their current legal woes, the men are touring the nation this summer to espouse their views on a voluntary society and their message of publicly challenging law enforcement officials by filming and photographing them and placing those images online.