Today's Stories

May 16, 2008

Stephen Soldz
Involuntary Drugging of Detainees

Jonathan Cook
Police Attack Al-Nakba March

Paul Craig Roberts
Lies of Aggression

Christopher Brauchli
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Pharmacy

James L. Secor
Olympic Torch China: the View from Shaoxing

May 15, 2008

Stan Cox
Big Brother Close Up

Jeff Halper
Rethinking Israel After 60 Years

Greg Moses
Living for the Children of Palestine

John Ross
Why Mexican Justice is a Euphemism

Ron Jacobs
Go to Work, Go to Jail

Binoy Kampmark
Indian Jailbirds: the Case of Binayak Sen

Eve Spangler
We Should Not Celebrate Dispossession

Martha Rosenberg
Meat Wars with South Korea

Website of the Day
Idaho Wolf Killers

May 14, 2008

Ismael Hossein-Zadeh
Oil Wars

Reza Fiyouzat
Torture, a Bully's Creed

Felice Pace
California Water Politics: Of Dams and Water Buffaloes

Hamdan A. Yousuf / Dania S. Ahmed
A Generation Defined by War

Robert Weitzel
Hillary's "Final Solution" to the Persian Problem

Ralph Nader
You're Either with the American People or the Big Auto Bosses

Dave Lindorff
Hillary, McCain and the Stupid Vote

Missy Comley Beattie
White Heaven: Hillary's W. Virginia Idyll

Neve Gordon
Israel as a Site of Struggle

Dr. Susan Block
A Washington Witch Hanging

Website of the Day
Hillary's Downfall

May 13, 2008

David Rosen
Sexual Terrorism: the Sadistic Side of Bush's War on Terror

Alan Farago
Nuclear Florida: Beachfront Reactors in an Age of Rising Sea Levels?

Saul Landau
The Crisis at Home

Saree Makdisi
Forget the Two-State Solution

Paul Craig Roberts
How Empires Fall

Andy Worthington
Gitmo's Suicide Bomber

Brother Bede Vincent
The Problem with Rev. Wright--There are Too Few Like Him

Linda Mamoun
Marketing Ethnic Cleansing

David Macaray
The Myth That Won't Die

Website of the Day
Burning the Future: Coal in America

May 12, 2008

St. Clair / Frank
The Pentagon's Toxic Legacy

Ziga Vodovnik
Rebels Against Tyranny: an Interview with Howard Zinn on Anarchism

Gary Leupp
Why All of Our Efforts Won't Stop an Attack on Iran

Frankln Lamb
Choufeit's Bloody Pentacost

Suzanne Baroud
The Ambition of Hillary Clinton

Martha Rosenberg
Farmer Ernie's Chamber of Horrors

Dave Zirin
The Boss's Boycott

Carl Finamore
I Ain't Gonna Work No More

Peter Morici
Recession Watch

Richard Rhames
The Third Way to Nowhere

Website of the Day
The Untold Story of Black New Orleans

May 10 / 11, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
Real Clear Numbers: 101,000 Casualties a Year

Franklin Lamb
Hezbollah Eases Up and Beirut Opens Its Shutters

Ciara Gilmartin
A Surge in Iraqi Detainees

Diane Farsetta
Inside a Nuclear Industry Soirée

Kent Paterson
Mother's Day in Ciudad Juarez

Alan Farago
The Social Engineers

Rannie Amiri
Beirut on the Brink

Patrick Irelan
Bolivia, Morales and the Red Ponchos

Robert Fantina
The Lexicon Legacy of George W. Bush

Nikolas Kozloff
El Salvador 2009: Another Feather in the Cap of Chavez?

George Ciccariello-Maher
The Yumare Massacre, 22 Years On

David Yearsley
Bacharach at 80

Ron Jacobs
Rosa Luxemburg's Shock Doctrine

John Holt
Can Yellowstone Survive?

David Michael Green
It's So Over

Ben Terrall
Dealing Sleep

Kim Nicolini
The Best Film of the Bush Era?

Jeffrey St. Clair
Booked Up

Poets' Basement
Gibbons, Orloski, Frisella, Gladstone-Gelman

May 9, 2008

Franklin Lamb
A Wild Day in Beirut

Andy Worthington
The Afghans of Gitmo

Benjamin Dangl
Polarizing Bolivia

Mark A. Huddle
Remembering Mildred Loving, an Unsung Hero of the Civil Rights Movement

David Macaray
Hollywood Gives SAG the Brush Off

Dave Lindorff
Team Clinton: Going Down Ugly

C.G. Estabrook
The Way We Live Now

Matt Kosko
McCain, Clinton, Obama and the Wages of Lesser-Evilism

Robert Weissman
Big Business is not the Solution to Global Poverty

Michael Dickinson
Jailing the Joint

Website of the Day
The Role of Third Parties in the U.S.A.

May 8, 2008

Sharon Smith
Rockefeller Family Fables

Saul Landau
The NATO Axiom

Laura Carlsen
A Primer on Plan Mexico

Binoy Kampmark
Food Riots are Coming to the U.S.

Kenneth Couesbouc
China's Paper Feet

Liaquat Ali Khan
Pakistan's Constitutional Shenanigans

Franklin Lamb
Blindsided, Hezbollah Mulls Its Response

Sen. Russ Feingold
Government in Secret

George Wuerthner
The Problems with Conservation Easements

Richard W. Behan
A Brief Exposé of a Fraudulent War

Adam Federman
Marching for Sean Bell

Website of the Day
State of the Air

May 7, 2008

Winslow T. Wheeler
Drowning in Dollars

Joanne Mariner
Torture After Dark

Col. Dan Smith
It's Lying and It's Murder: How KBR Electrocuted US Troops

Brian M. Downing
Reports From Foreign Provinces

Andy Worthington
Who are the Prisoners Released with Sami al-Haj?

John Stauber
Pentagon Propaganda Documents Go Online, But Will the Media Ever Report on Them?

Christopher Brauchli
Outsourcing Tax Collection

Nelson P. Valdés
Cinco de Mayo and Cinco de Agosto: Mexican History and Manufactured Identities

Rep. Keith Ellison
High Court Deals Blow to Voting Rights

Dan Bacher
Undam the Klamath, Mr. Buffett!

Website of the Day
Green Porno

May 6, 2008

Pam Martens
The Obama Bubble Agenda

Nikolas Kozloff
U.S. is Promoting Secession in Bolivia

Marjorie Cohn
Under U.S. Law Torture is Always Illegal

Ralph Nader
America's Pay-or-Die Health Care System

Yigal Bronner
Archaeologists for Hire

Brian Cloughley
No Laws for Bush America

Jacob Hornberger
Killing Enemies Without Trial

Walter Brasch
People Who Don't Need People

Paul Krassner
An Open Letter to Michael Moore

Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Running Mates from the Imaginary Plane

Website of the Day
Some People

May 5, 2008

Pam Martens
Obama's Money Cartel

Conn Hallinan
The Syrian Affair

Corey D. B. Walker
The End of Politics

Uri Avnery
Crusader Anxiety: Israel at 60

Dave Zirin
Refocusing Olympic Protest

Corporate Crime Reporter
Wiist's Crusade Against Corporations

Robert Jensen
The Selling and Shaping of Our Souls

Daniel White
What People Want to Hear About in Austin, Texas

Benjamin Dangl
May Day Raid on General Dynamics

Website of the Day
McCain's Pastor of Hate: "Starve. I Don't Care. Starve."

May 3 / 4, 2008

Alexander Cockburn
Has Rev. Wright Cost Obama the Presidency?

Nikolas Kozloff
The Shameful Failure of the Black Congressional Caucus

Diane Farsetta
What the Pentagon Pundits Were Selling on the Side

Tariq Ali
New Labour is Dead

Harry Browne
The USA's Other Island: Irish Leaders and the War on Terror

Wajahat Ali
Pakistan's New Daughter of Destiny? An Exclusive Interview with Fatima Bhutto

David Yearsley
A Challenge to Jeffrey Eugenides

Greg Moses
Salamat, Riad Hamad

William Blum
Rev. Wright, the CIA and the AIDS Thing

Robert Fantina
The Rhetoric of John McCain

Fred Gardner
The Greatest Story Never Told

Dave Lindorff
Blame It On Paraguay: The Bush Family's Bad Real Estate Deal

Seth Sandronsky
Standardizing Learning

Binoy Kampmark
Brown, Boris and the British Council Elections

Howard Lisnoff
The Lost First Amendment

Daniel Cassidy
Slanguage: Paddy Works on the Erie

Bill Moyers
Shrink-Wrapping the Theology of Rev. Wright

Jeffrey St. Clair
Booked Up

Poets' Basement
John Holt / Akbar Khan

Website of the Weekend
Ed Abbey, Patron Saint of the Walker's Rights Movement

May 2, 2008

Andrew Cockburn
Secret Bush "Finding" Widens Covert War on Iran

David Isenberg
The Return of Limited Nuclear War?

Vijay Prashad
Driven to Terror: the Case of the Lackawana Six

William Blum
Spies Without Borders

David Macaray
Shutting Down the West Coast Ports: the ILWU's May Day Strike

Rannie Amiri
Is Sadr City Becoming the Next Gaza?

William James Martin
The Carter Coup

Stephanie Westbrook
As Italy Lurches Rightward, a Ray of Hope from Vicenza

Linn Washington, Jr.
A Battle Over Murals in Parisian Ghettos

Anthony Papa
How the Byrne Fund Corrupts Cops and Destroys Lives

Website of the Day
The Serota Petition

May 1, 2008

Michael Hudson
The Fed Sinks the Dollar

Behzad Yaghmaian
Blaming the Yuan for the Deficit with China

Wajahat Ali
The Dark Knight: the Real Rise of Obama

Dedrick Muhammad
Senator Obama, Please Come to Your Senses

Cynthia McKinney
Police in America Can Kill Some People With Impunity

Corporate Crime Reporter
Farm Broadcaster Fired After Ripping Monsanto's Goon Squads

Manuel Garcia, Jr.
The Speech That Might Have Been

Reza Fiyouzat
Stop Obliterating Yourself!

Leigh Saavedra
Suspending the Federal Gas Tax

Tom Semioli
Hollywood Hypocrite: an Open Letter to Michael Moore

Website of the Day
Why Won't McCain Release His Medical Records?

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An Historic Verdict in Philly

The Price of Protecting Racist Cops

By LINN WASHINGTON, Jr.

What is the price of protecting racism in a police department?

For the City of Philadelphia, a federal jury recently set the price tag for protecting racist police at $10-million dollars.

This record setting jury award for a civil rights lawsuit against the City of Philadelphia ended an unusual trial involving three white former policemen suing the City for savage mistreatment by Police Department personnel for simply reporting racism and other misconduct.

The jury awarded Ray Carnation $2-million, William McKenna $3-million and Michael McKenna $5-million – a trio fired from the police jobs they loved. The McKenna brothers’ father served in Philadelphia’s Police Department.

“The jury sent a resounding message to the City and the Police Department that racism has no place in the Police Department,” said Brian T. Puricelli, the attorney for this trio.

“The jury’s verdict stated the City has no business covering up and going after people who complain about racism,” Puricelli said.

Trouble for former Philadelphia 25th Police District officers Carnation and the McKenna brothers began in the late 1990s when they objected to misconduct by fellow officers like fraudulently obtaining overtime-pay by falsely claiming involvement in arrests. This scheme enables payment for testifying in court while off-duty.

Ostracism against the trio escalated when they objected to a police sergeant referring to black officers as “critters” and “niggers.”

Police Department officials ignored complaints about this racist slur spewing sergeant from the trio, black officers and civil rights activists. Officials promoted this sergeant to his current rank of lieutenant.

The trio’s objections to misconduct violated the ‘Code of Silence’ among police – that unofficial creed that bars officers from revealing wrongdoing by fellow officers.

Cops in the 25th District put “graffiti on the walls of the bathroom” haranguing the trio as ‘snitches’ and ‘rats’ stated a federal appeals court ruling in this case.

Retaliation against the trio ranged from fellow white patrol officers refusing to provide backup to top Department officials sanctioning punishments against the trio.

The malicious campaign of retaliation also included the arrest and conviction of Bill McKenna’s wife on the specious charge of harassing a Deputy Police Commissioner when she appeared at this official’s home one night begging him to stop the police harassment of her husband.

McKenna’s wife, Cynthia, testified during the recent week-long federal trial that then Deputy Commissioner Thomas Nestel “grabbed me” as she attempted to leave his property as he ordered.

“He threw me against a brick wall, pulled my arms behind my back and handcuffed me.” Cynthia McKenna said.

Nestel charged Mrs. McKenna with disorderly conduct despite PPD policy at the time stating off-duty officers “will not take police action…in minor offenses such as disorderly conduct…”

Philadelphia prosecutors pressed the disorderly conduct and harassment charges Nestel filed.

While a judge dismissed the disorderly conduct charge against Mrs. McKenna, Nestel’s harassment charge produced her first ever conviction carrying a $100 fine and three months reporting probation.

“I was convicted and had to report to a probation officer,” Cynthia McKenna testified. “Drug dealers don’t have to report to probation officers.”

Ironically, this civil rights trial began hours before a TV news helicopter captured Philadelphia police viciously kicking and beating three suspects. This brutality incident topped national headlines…even meriting mention in a Jay Leno monologue.

One of the 25th District tormentors of Carnation and the McKenna brothers was an officer who’s cost Philadelphia’s City Hall over a million dollars in settlement costs for brutality lawsuits.

Evidence exposed during the trio’s trial graphically reveals that police misconduct from brutality to corruption continues roiling because police have confidence their Department supervisors will cover for them.

Then Philadelphia Police Commissioner John Timoney was among the Department officials berating the trio numerous times in public.

This trial revealed that rooting out police culture protecting brutality and other misconduct will be difficult because this protection reaches into the highest ranks of police and prosecutors.

Prosecutors pursued that harassment charge against Mrs. McKenna even though Pennsylvania’s crimes code defines harassment as “repeatedly” communicating with or following a person…circumstances that seemingly did not occur the night Mrs. McKenna went to Nestel’s house.

One of those ranking police supervisors the jury faulted for protecting racist officers played a prime-witness role for City attorneys during the trio’s trial.

This supervisor is a former Captain at the 25th, William Colarulo – now a ranking Chief Inspector with the Police Department.

A federal appeals court ruling nearly two years ago rejecting a legal attempt by Philadelphia City Hall attorneys to dismiss this civil rights suit critically references actions by then Capt Colarulo.

While discussing aspects of volatile events inside the 25th station house during February 1998, the appeals court ruling found strong evidence of “retaliatory animus” in Colarulo reportedly threatening to make Ray Carnation’s life a “living nightmare” if Carnation pursued a EEOC complaint against that sergeant for mistreating black officers.

Colarulo’s “message was clear – opposition to Maroney’s racial discrimination needed to stop, and Colarulo was going to make it stop by silencing these officers rather than by disciplining or removing Maroney,” the appeals court ruling stated.

Colarulo told the jury that racial slurs are “never permitted” and denied having any “meetings” with the trio or others like Philadelphia’s black police officers organization about issues regarding racism within the 25th District station.

Two days after Colarulo’s denials, the head of Philadelphia’s black officers organization – the Guardian Civic League – gave testimony contradicting Colarulo’s claims.

While Colarulo said he did not see any racism among officers under his then command, he did see numerous job-related infractions by this trio.

These infractions caused Colarulo to keep extensive files on the trio, files that subsequently produced a multi-day interview with Police Internal Affairs investigators against the trio that when reduced to paper spanned 71-pages.

One of the most disturbing aspects of this trial was it providing another example of Philadelphia City Hall’s willingness to spend money to protect ‘the system’ – a system populated by those who protect lawless behavior by law enforcers that costs ‘the system’ plenty.

Philadelphia officials spent $24.5-million on police misconduct lawsuits including brutality between late 2002 and January 2008.

Philadelphia officials spent $47.1-million on police misconduct lawsuits during eight of the nine years between 1988 and 1997.

A 1987 report from an investigative task force appointed by the then Police Commissioner term the Philadelphia Police Department “unaccountable.”

A Philadelphia Daily News editorial regarding that nationally televised beating and published the day before the jury’s verdict in the Carnation/McKenna trial referenced “the need for accountability” among Philadelphia police.  

Philadelphia’s City Solicitor brushed off the jury’s verdict as a disappointment – still asserting that City Hall continues “to believe that [the trio’s] claims” have no merit.

Police abuse persists from New York City to Los Angeles because officials fail to consistently crackdown on police misconduct.

Linn Washington Jr. is a columnist for The Philadelphia Tribune newspapers who has covered police abuse issues in that city for thirty-years.

 

 

 

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