Category Archives: Vintage

The Guy Who Filmed Eric Garner’s Death Is Still Fighting To Get Out of Jail

by AraceliHarney Posted on April 10, 2015

Mother Jones

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The Rev. Al Sharpton introduces Ramsey Orta at Eric Garner’s funeral in July 2014. Julia Xanthos/AP

It’s been a rough eight months for the man who shot the video of Eric Garner’s death. Since Garner was killed by a police officer’s chokehold on a Staten Island sidewalk last July, Ramsey Orta, the 23-year-old who filmed the scene, has been arrested twice and has spent the past two months in Rikers Island. According to his attorneys, Orta believes he has been targeted by New York police in retaliation for having shot the video, which became a flash point for the growing civil-rights movement against police brutality.

Orta also fears that jail officials will try to poison him. “He’s not eating the food that Rikers provides him,” one of his attorneys, William Aronin, says. “Instead, he’s surviving right now off of candy bars, chips, things he can get on the vending machine or the commissary. He’s hungry, he is not happy, and he is scared.”

More MoJo coverage on police shootings:


Exactly How Often Do Police Shoot Unarmed Black Men?


The Cop Who Choked Eric Garner to Death Won’t Have to Pay a Dime in Damages


Philadelphia Cops Shoot and Kill People at 6 Times the Rate of the NYPD


Here’s What Happens to Police Officers Who Shoot Unarmed Black Men


Congress Is Finally Going to Make Local Law Enforcement Report How Many People They Kill


Hereâ&#128;&#153;s the Data That Shows Cops Kill Black People at a Higher Rate Than White People

Last month, 19 other inmates at the jail filed a lawsuit alleging that they had fallen ill after being served meatloaf with blue-green pellets in it. They say the pellets were rat poison, a claim which New York City Department of Correction officials have dismissed. Orta has not eaten any food served at the jail since the incident, his attorneys say. Department of Correction officials were not immediately available to respond to requests for comment.

About two weeks after Garner’s death, Orta was arrested for allegedly passing a gun to a 17-year-old girl. He was sent to Rikers Island and was subsequently released. He was later arrested for allegedly selling drugs. His attorneys say it is likely Orta’s cases will go to trial. “We have to get him out of jail as soon as possible so that one, he’s safe, and two, he can prepare for his defense,” Aronin says.

On Thursday morning, Orta posted $16,250 bail with donations that he’d received on a crowdfunding website. His family has been trying to raise $100,000 for bail and legal fees, and over the past month more than 1,800 people have contributed more than $47,000.

“He should have been out today,” says Ken Perry, another of Orta’s lawyers. But the Staten Island district attorney’s office isn’t letting Orta leave just yet. The assistant district attorney prosecuting the case against Orta has requested a bail source hearing to “determine the funds being used did not come from an illegal or illicit source,” explains a spokesman from the DA’s office said. The bail source hearing is scheduled for this afternoon.

Orta’s attorneys say they have provided the district attorney’s office with an approximately 115-page packet with names and details about everyone who has donated to their client’s campaign. The packet also includes copies of the transfers from the crowdfunding website to Orta’s aunt, and from her to the bail bondsman. “Why are they keeping him in when it’s so patently obvious where this money came from?” Aronin asks.

Family members were upset by the news of the delay. “My heart is extremely heavy, these past two months have been pure hell for Ramsey,” his aunt, Lisa Mercado, wrote on his crowdthefunding page, which received a flood of donations this morning. “You are not alone, Ramsey,” one donor commented. “You did something brave for all Americans.”

In December, a Staten Island grand jury declined to indict NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo for his role in Garner’s death. In Orta’s video, Pantaleo can be seen wrestling Garner to the ground and wrapping an arm around his neck.

Orta has reportedly been arrested 27 times since 2009 for alleged offenses including drug possession, robbery, and fare evasion. His attorneys say the majority of the arrests have not led to charges, and that they believe Orta’s claims of being unfairly targeted are viable. “There’s something more going on than would normally be the case were this not Ramsey Orta,” Perry says. “There are things here that are not right.”

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The Guy Who Filmed Eric Garner’s Death Is Still Fighting To Get Out of Jail

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Here’s What Happened When I Asked Rand Paul an Inconvenient Question

by IslaBeattie Posted on April 10, 2015

Mother Jones

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I haven’t been surprised by Sen. Rand Paul’s presidential campaign launch, with the GOP senator from Kentucky winning more attention for his testy interactions with reporters than for his libertarian theology. These past few days, Paul had a tough time when journalists posed him the most predictable of questions: Can you explain your position on abortions? Why did you flip from opposing all US foreign aid to Israel and other nations to supporting such assistance? Do white Republican voters support criminal justice reform? He talked over one interviewer—and then accused her of talking over him—and he walked out of another interview.

This all reminded me of the time I tried to engage Paul about an important matter: what his father Ron Paul knew about a newsletter published under his name that included racist, anti-Semitic, and homophobic commentary. It was 2012, and Ron Paul was campaigning for president in the GOP primary in New Hampshire. Rand Paul, already a senator, was helping his old man and spinning for him after the debates. But Rand Paul had no spin for my questions about this newsletter. Nor did he have any answers. When I asked about the publication, he turned his back to me and refused to answer. It was a curious response. I’ve had politicians walk away without replying to a query. But I’ve never seen one pivot away and pretend I was invisible. It seemed a bit immature: I can’t seeeee you.

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Here’s What Happened When I Asked Rand Paul an Inconvenient Question

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Bonus Friday Cat Blogging – 10 April 2015

by GracieRBBN Posted on April 10, 2015

Mother Jones

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Quick health update: the stem cell collection went swimmingly this week. We now have loads and loads of fresh stem cells frozen and waiting for me when I go back for the final stage of chemotherapy. I got home yesterday, and at the moment I’m still fighting off some residual drowsiness from a week full of fairly powerful painkillers, but I’ve stopped taking them now and should be fine in a day or two. I hope.

The cats are fitting in nicely at my sister’s house. Last night they woke her up at 3 am to play, which is certainly a good sign. We have two pictures of the furballs this week. On the top is Hilbert, caught in the act of knocking over (1) Big Ben and (2) the Eiffel Tower from the top of a bookcase. On the bottom, both Hopper and Hilbert are staring intently at the front door even though nothing is there. But you never know. There might be something there any second. Best to keep ones eyes peeled, no?

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Bonus Friday Cat Blogging – 10 April 2015

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Hillary Clinton Is Focusing on the Middle Class—And That’s a Good Thing

by RLABrandie Posted on April 10, 2015

Mother Jones

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Matt Yglesias takes a look at an economic blueprint from the Center or American Progress and suggests it’s a useful proxy for Hillary Clinton’s upcoming presidential campaign:

In some ways, it defies stereotypes of the Clintons as standard-bearers for neoliberal centrism by endorsing fiscal stimulus and a strong pro-labor union agenda while downplaying the strong education-reform streak of the Obama administration. But it’s also notable for the Obama-era liberal ambitions it pushes aside. In the main recommendations for the United States, there’s no cap-and-trade or carbon tax in here, no public option for health care, and no effort to break up or shrink the largest banks. Nor is there an ambitious agenda to tackle poverty.

Instead, you get a multi-pronged push to boost middle-class incomes. After an extended period in which Democratic Party politics has been dominated by health care for the poor, environmental regulation, and internecine fights about Wall Street, Hillarynomics looks like back-to-basics middle-class populism. It should in many ways further infuriate Clinton’s left-wing intellectual critics — and then further infuriate them by turning out to be an agenda that makes the party’s voting base perfectly happy.

….The report is especially striking for its endorsement of labor market regulations not normally associated with the Summers wing of Democratic thinking….On the non-wage front, inclusive growth calls for paid (gender-neutral) parental leave, expanded Family and Medical Leave Act eligibility, and universal paid sick days and paid vacation days — all loosely under the banner of increasing women’s labor force participation. Clinton has, in the past, field-tested feminist frames as a means of selling big government.

None of this should come as a surprise. The Great Recession spawned a great deal of government help to the poor from the Obama administration but not a lot for the middle class, and politically the biggest problem Democrats now face is offering concrete programs for the middle class to compete with yet another round of tax cut proposals from the Republican field.

But the truth is that this helps the poor too, in the long run. Middle-class workers with stagnant incomes have become less and less willing to support more spending on the poor. That’s just human nature. But if Hillary can successfully get the economy into a higher gear and funnel some of that money to the middle class, eventually things will ease up and it will become easier to win support for higher benefits to the poor.

I don’t know if Hillary’s proposals will go far enough, but they’re the right thing to do. For the time being at least, Washington needs to focus on the middle class for a while.

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Hillary Clinton Is Focusing on the Middle Class—And That’s a Good Thing

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Elizabeth Warren Explains How Washington Corruption Protects the "Tender Fannies" of The Rich

by DebbiePemulwuy Posted on April 10, 2015

Mother Jones

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During a spot on the “Daily Show” Thursday night, Senator Elizabeth Warren broke down the ways in which big banks and large corporations have rigged Washington politicians in order to ensure “the tender fannies of the rich and the powerful are always carefully protected.”

“Powerful corporations, rich people, have figured out that if you can bend the government to help you just a little bit, it’s a tremendous payoff,” Warren told host Jon Stewart. “And if you can bend it to help you just a little bit more, and a little bit more, the playing field just gets more and more tilted, and the rich and the powerful just do better and better.”

The Massachusetts senator, whose appearance was tied to her book A Fighting Chance, went on to explain how both the steady circulation of money and the constant presence of lobbyists in Washington have worked together to create a culture in which such corruption is the norm. Watch below:

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Elizabeth Warren Explains How Washington Corruption Protects the "Tender Fannies" of The Rich

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Even If Walter Scott’s Family Wins in Court, the Cop Won’t Pay a Dime

by glasulmaramuresuluianunturi Posted on April 10, 2015

Mother Jones

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The family of Walter Scott, the man who died on Saturday after being shot eight times by North Charleston police officer Michael Slager, has decided to sue Slager, the city of North Charleston, and its police department. The civil lawsuit, which will seek damages for wrongful death and civil rights violations, follows murder charges already filed against the now-dismised officer.

Scott’s family is hardly the first to seek civil damages after a police killing. In recent months, relatives of Mike Brown, Tamir Rice, and Eric Garner have all pursued civil court claims, where success isn’t contingent on a criminal ruling against any police officer. But in the event that the Scott family wins a settlement, it’s highly unlikely that Slager himself will have to pay. As I reported in January:

Instead, taxpayers will shoulder the cost. Between 2006 and 2011, New York City paid out $348 million in settlements or judgments in cases pertaining to civil rights violations by police, according to a UCLA study published in June 2014. Those nearly 7,000 misconduct cases included allegations of excessive use of force, sexual assault, unreasonable searches, and false arrests. More than 99 percent of the payouts came from the city’s municipal budget, which has a line item dedicated to settlements and judgments each year. (The city did require police to pay a tiny fraction of the total damages, with officers personally contributing in less than 1 percent of the cases for a total of $114,000.)

This scenario is typical of police departments across the country, says the study’s author Joanna Schwartz, who analyzed records from 81 law enforcement agencies employing 20 percent of the nation’s approximately 765,000 police officers. (The NYPD, which is responsible for three-quarters of the cases in the study, employs just over 36,000 officers.) Out of the more than $735 million paid out by cities and counties for police misconduct between 2006 and 2011, government budgets paid more than 99 percent. Local laws indemnifying officers from responsibility for such damages vary, but “there is little variation in the outcome,” Schwartz wrote. “Officers almost never pay.”

Schwartz’s study did not include North Charleston or any other law enforcement agency in South Carolina. But if other jurisdictions serve as any indication, Slager likely won’t pay a dime, even if a jury finds him guilty of murdering Scott. Out of the 7,000 cases of police misconduct Schwartz studied, only 700 officers were convicted of a criminal charge. And only 40 officers ever contributed to a civil settlement out of their own pocket.

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Even If Walter Scott’s Family Wins in Court, the Cop Won’t Pay a Dime

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Hillary Clinton May Ruin Pundits’ Weekend, Announce Campaign Sunday

by RandellEbden Posted on April 10, 2015

Mother Jones

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Hillary Clinton is set to announce her run for president this Sunday, The Guardian, CNN, and other outlets are reporting. She reportedly plans to release a video with the news on Twitter and follow up with campaigns stops in Iowa.

If she secures the Democratic nomination, Clinton will become the first woman from either major party on the presidential ballot. For a deeper dive into the key players inside her campaign, read our inside look at the man tasked to guide her to the White House.

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Hillary Clinton May Ruin Pundits’ Weekend, Announce Campaign Sunday

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Jeb Bush’s Emails: Why Are So Many Key Episodes MIA?

by Gabriel11X Posted on April 10, 2015

Mother Jones

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When the New York Times revealed that Hillary Clinton used a private email address as secretary of state, GOP presidential candidate-in-waiting Jeb Bush pounced. “Transparency matters,” he tweeted, linking to the archive of his own emails that he had made public a month earlier.

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Jeb Bush’s Emails: Why Are So Many Key Episodes MIA?

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Fox News Host Sees No Racial Factor in South Carolina Killing

by CandiceKuefer Posted on April 9, 2015

Mother Jones

Fox News host Greg Gutfeld is not racist. How not racist is Greg Gutfeld? Very not racist! You’re a racist. (You’re a racist.) But Gutfield doesn’t even see race. What’s race? A race? Are we running a race? The word “race” for Greg Gutfeld only has one definition: a competition of speed.

White cop guns down unarmed black man in cold blood: a thing that happens unbelievably often in the United States. Almost always the cop gets to walk away scot-free. But this time the cop is actually charged with murder! Not because South Carolina is so evolved (haha), but because a video emerges that puts on display the undeniable reality of the cop’s crime.

The Fox News chyron even calls it straight: “Video shows white police officer shooting black man in back.” But apparently the Fox News chyron is less evolved than Fox News host Greg Gutfeld. Because Greg Gutfeld saw something else:

“I didn’t see a black man killed by a white cop. I saw a man shoot another man in the back.”

If Greg Gutfeld were at Wounded Knee, he’d say he didn’t see white soldiers massacring Native-Americans.

If he were at Stonewall, he’d say he didn’t see straight cops beating gay men.

And if he were in Pleasantville, he’d say he never saw color.

(via TPM)

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Fox News Host Sees No Racial Factor in South Carolina Killing

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Finally, a Candidate for People Who Think Jeb Bush Isn’t WASPy Enough

by TabathaMcVicars Posted on April 9, 2015

Mother Jones

Last week it was Ted Cruz. On Wednesday it was Rand Paul. And now, meet your newest presidential candidate: former Rhode Island Republican senator turned former Rhode Island Democratic governor Lincoln Chafee! Bet you didn’t see that one coming.

Rhode Island Public Radio reported the news this morning:

Chafee said the launch of his exploratory committee will be made via videos posted on his website, Chafee2016.com.

“Throughout my career, I exercised good judgment on a wide range of high-pressure decisions, decisions that require level-headedness and careful foresight,” said Chafee. “Often these decisions came in the face of political adversity. During the next weeks and months I look forward to sharing with you my thoughts about the future of our great country.”

Lincoln Chafee, of the Rhode Island Chafees, won’t be the next president, although he does enter the Democratic primary with strong name recognition among people who use “summer” as a verb. Chafee’s father, great-great grandfather, and great-great uncle all previously served as governor of the state. Lincoln ran for the family seat only after losing his spot in the Senate in 2006 to Sheldon Whitehouse (of the Rhode Island Whitehouses), whose father had roomed with Chafee’s father at some college in New Haven before entering the diplomatic corps (like his father before him).

But there is something worth highlighting in his announcement interview:

Chafee said his focus will be on building a strong middle class coupled with environmental stewardship. Chafee, who voted against former President George W. Bush’s Iraq War, noted that Mrs. Clinton voted for it. He said he aims to send a clear message that “unilateral military intervention has damaged American interests around the world.”

Did you catch that? It’s easy to forget now that she’s the email-destroying, dictator-courting villain of Benghazi, but there was a time when Hillary Clinton’s biggest weakness was something else entirely: Iraq. Clinton’s support for that war (and her inability to assuage its opponents) was the fuel for Sen. Barack Obama’s rise in the polls in 2007. Eight years later, the issue has been all but erased from the political debate.

Don’t bet on Chafee being the man who brings it back.

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Finally, a Candidate for People Who Think Jeb Bush Isn’t WASPy Enough

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