ICE-OPR special agent investigating former ICE-OI's peers in Yuma, AZ - Conflict of Interest?

“Few are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rare commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence; yet is one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world that yields most painfully to change. Each time a person stands up for an idea, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.” - Robert Kennedy

Yuma, Arizona - On September 3, 2008, I learned that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) special agent Paul Erickson and his partner were conducting an internal affairs investigation at the ICE’s Office of Investigation (OI), Yuma, Arizona. OPR Agent Erickson is assigned to ICE-OPR at El Centro, CA. I assume that OPR top managers decided to assign an OPR agent from outside of the State of Arizona to conduct an “impartial and unbiased integrity investigation” at the ICE’s Yuma office. However, I may be wrong with my assumption and OPR’s HQ is fully aware of the conflict of interest. In my previous Narco News reports I have reported that allegations of misconduct against ICE’s OI management officials were often “brushed under the carpet” by Arizona-based OPR agents.

By Brenda Norrell

SELLS, Ariz. -- A Tohono O'odham district official ordered Mike Wilson, Tohono O'odham, to remove his life saving water tanks in the Baboquivari District, near the US/Mexico border on Saturday. Baboquivari District Chairwoman Veronica Harvey ordered Wilson to halt and banned for life a group of visiting seminary students.

Portland Street Medics sent this update on the attacks on street medics and journalists; one Portland Street Medic remains in jail

Update - Portland Street Medics Arrested at the Republican National Convention
by street.medix@portland-or.net

Wednesday, Sep. 3rd, 2008
In between explosions of concussion grenades and teargas clouds in Minneapolis-St. Paul, volunteer Street Medics from all over the country who have assembled there are continuing to provide much needed first aid and medical care to injured and frightened people everywhere in the city where lawful and peaceful assemblies, passersby, journalists and bystanders are getting attacked indiscriminately and without provocation by Police, National Guard and teams of unidentified Federal Agencies without badges or numbers.

Police use of unnecessary force reframes public discussion away from critical analysis of the way things are run now, Legba Carrefour reports (republished on Douglas Rushkoff's blog). As part of this there has been an apparent targeting of media and support groups. Carrefour writes that police set up:

By Brenda Norrell

In Denver, at the Democratic National Convention, the Portland Street Medics were my heroes. They served as volunteers, working late into the night and sometimes did not even come back home at night. We all stayed in the same home in Denver. Some slept on couches, others in a tent outside. Now, these medics who sacrificed so much in the service of mankind to treat the injured have been arrested. Please help if you can with bail money.

Organizers of direct-action protests for the Republican National Convention have been under a campaign of detainments, arrests, and other harrassment. Following are a list of news sources for direct from the field reporting.

There are several fundamental constitutional issues that are being played out on the streets of Minneapolis and Saint Paul in these days before the scheduled convening of the Republican National Convention. They include the free speech rights of the delegate as well as the rights of those who wish to "petition their government for redress of grievances."

DENVER -- If you relied on the mainstream media for coverage of this week's Democratic National Convention, you probably visualized everyone clicking their heels together and entering the land of OZ.
While the mainstream media and politicians were cloistered together, the people were in the streets, voicing disgust over the Bush regime, which decimated civil liberties and turned the Earth into the corporate profiteers' commodity. At the same time, the Iraq war continued with the mainstream media complicit in the genocide of women and children in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Under the proposal, police allied with drug traffickers would face the death penalty

The Mexican daily El Universal recently obtained an executive summary of a 600-page proposal drafted by Mexican generals that, if adopted, would create a National Police force “with military discipline” that would replace the Army in President Felipe Calderón’s war on drugs and organized crime. The proposal, reportedly delivered to Mexican Secretary of Defense Guillermo Galván in mid-August, also calls for Congress to change the constitution to allow the death penalty for police officers who are found to be in league with drug traffickers. The death penalty, which hasn’t been used in decades in Mexico, was formally outlawed by President Vicente Fox in 2005.

Update: Denver police pepper spray and beat activists

From Colorado Legal Eagles
info@coloradolegaleagles.org

For photos and more informaton, see:
http://www.coloradolegaleagles.org/

 DENVER -- Glenn Spagnuolo, one of the main organizers of Recreate 68, was interviewed on Peter Boyles on KHOW radio Tuesday morning about the pepper bullet incident on Monday. You can listen to the full interviews here:

http://www.khow.com/pages/boyles.html

Glenn said that the incident last night started around 5:30pm, whenheavily-armed police in SWAT gear began making random sweeps through Civic Center Park, harassing people sitting in the grass by poking them with nightsticks and telling them to get up and leave. Glenn complained several times to the protester's police liaison, and the police would stop the harassment, just to start it again a few minutes later. He said that happened about 4 or 5 times.

Update: Denver police stage bizarre behavior

by Brenda Norrell

Photo: An Aurora, Colorado, police officer draws his weapon on peaceful marchers, calling for freedom for political prisoners at the federal courthouse in Denver on Monday. Photo Brenda Norrell

DENVER -- It was an incredible morning in the streets of Denver, with the voices of the people spilling out through this city during the Political Prisoners March and Rally. It was clear that there is another divide underway, those who are in the Democratic National Convention with their expense accounts and those in the streets, lending powerful voices to define the future. With most US citizens in a state of post traumatic stress syndrome, the brave faced off with Denver police and marched through the streets this morning. What began as a small crowd near the Civic Center grew as hundreds joined the march through the heart of the city to the federal courthouse.

This is a bit off track for me, posting blog style. But I couldn’t resist weighing in on the latest flap in the pres race, when it turned to home ownership.

You see, I admit to being a homeowner — family and all. And my property taxes are, well, a pain in the posterior of my existence. But I pay them willingly (or they would take my house) in the belief, naively so, maybe, that the schools, city and county services they help to fund are important to fostering a better community.

Two things that tick me off on that front are fraud, waste and abuse on the part of the government entities collecting the taxes; and folks who find ways to skimp or otherwise cheat out paying their fair share. I don’t think I’m alone in that inclination.

By Brenda Norrell

Dakota women were arrested on Saturday, August 16, 2008 during a counter genocide protest. Dakotas from the Yellow Medicine Dakota Community, with their allies, countered the Upper Sioux Agency State Park's program. The genocide celebration was part of the Sesquicentennial of the state of Minnesota, portraying the 1858 1st Regiment.

Chris Mato Nunpa, retired Dakota professor, said, "My daughter, Waziyata Win, and my grand-daughter, Winuna were arrested. Fortunately, they both were released later in the day.

US/Mexico border wall increases risk to lives of Tohono O'odham during monsoon flash floods

Flash floods damage businesses and government offices in Arizona and Mexico after Homeland Security flaunts federal laws and builds border wall

By Brenda Norrell

LUKEVILLE, Ariz. - The risk to the lives of Tohono O'odham and other residents living on the Arizona and Sonora border due to monsoon flash floods has increased because of a newly constructed border wall. Homeland Security flaunted federal laws and the laws of nature to build the border wall in 2008.

In a report made public this week, the National Park Service details the ecological and infrastructure damage in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument caused by flood obstruction and debris accumulation along recently constructed portions of the border wall. Tohono O'odham and others reside in the area on both sides of the international border.

Finally, I can say thank you U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for showing that our U.S. government’s national security critical infrastructure is as weak as a "Samson without his hair."

Nevertheless, these two raids were nothing but a “show” to justify ICE’s immigration enforcement initiatives. I reviewed some of the news video clips from the Asheville, NC raid, and the ICE spokesperson, along with his peers looked rather non-enthusiastic, frustrated and bored. I know that feeling because it is exactly the way I used to feel in 1982 when we were conducting immigration employment raids in San Francisco, CA.

FISH-IN: In the tradition of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, the Lakotah Republic will exercise its fishing rights

By Brenda Norrell

The Republic of Lakotah announced that Lakotah guaranteed their fishing rights under the 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty will exercise those fishing rights on August 25, 2008.

In a letter to South Dakota Attorney General Larry Long, the Lakotah Republic reminded the official that, "all members of the tribes to the 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty have the right to fish within the 1851 Treaty territory, which includes all of South Dakota from the east bank of the Missouri River."