Shreya Mandal

I love this poet. Check him out. . .

New America Media, Commmentary, Earl Ofari Hutchinson, Posted: Aug 20, 2007

When Newark Mayor Cory Booker learned that the alleged shooters in the execution killing of three black college students were illegal immigrants, he did the responsible thing.

He did not finger point a porous border and lax law enforcement for allegedly letting so many supposed violent prone illegal immigrants slip into the country as the cause of the killings. Booker said, and did, the right thing as a responsible public official, and in this case a black elected official, who did not want to arouse public passions any more than they already were over the murders. He certainly did not want to inflame the fragile tensions between black and Latinos any more than they already are.

But others have not exercised the same restraint. Some black talk show hosts and black writers have burned up Internet sites, and sent of floods of emails (this writer got several) with outlandish and reckless charges that the killings were part of a concerted plot by Latino gangs to target African-Americans for murder and mayhem.

Leading immigration reform foes from Center for Immigration Studies to Bill O’Reilly also claimed that state and federal officials are so fear being branded racist that they have turned a blind eye to waves of illegal immigrants who supposedly have unleashed a violent crime wave across the country.

Criminalizing Immigrants Makes Them Easier to Deport

New America Media, Commentary, Paromita Shah, Posted: Aug 10, 2007

Editor’s Note: The current spate of immigration raids and harsh ordinances did not come out of the blue but is the fruition of the careful build-up of an immigration law enforcement infrastructure for over a decade. Paromita Shah is associate director of the National Immigration Project (NIP) of the National Lawyers Guild. NIP is a member of Detention Watch Network, a national coalition working to reform the U.S. immigration detention system. IMMIGRATION MATTERS regularly features the views of the nation's leading immigrant rights advocates.

Immigration reform is dead – at least for the time being – but more raids, detentions and deportations continue.

But we also face a new emerging “deportation” strategy – one from local and state governments that seek to pass laws that essentially “deport” immigrants from the towns and the states in which they live.

The concept is simple: pass laws that make the lives of immigrants so miserable that they will be forced to leave, turning them into internal deportees in the United States.

According to the Washington Post, state and local governments have filed over 1,000 such bills. While most empower local police to act as immigration agents, a significant number obstruct immigrants' ability to obtain jobs, use necessary medical services, send children to public schools, find housing, get driver's licenses and receive many other government services. For example, the notorious Hazelton town ordinance required tenants obtain an occupancy permit from the city before renting a unit. One had to prove lawful residence or citizenship to get the permit. The town imposed hefty fines, $1,000, for violation of the ordinance.

This issue comes up in my line of work quite often and it raises some important questions regarding both individual and community accountability. I don't feel that rap artists are to blame on this one. In my view they are just pointing out the realities of the situation and artistically reflecting that a real threat to individual life exists if one decides to come forward with information. I say, don't kill the messengers. In my mind a more important question comes up: how can our government practically implement ways to ensure safety and security if one decides to come forward with information?

To Snitch, or Not To Snitch

NAM, Commentary, Earl Ofari Hutchinson , Posted: Aug 09, 2007

Editor’s Note: Black on black murder rates are off the charts, capped by the recent killing of three students in New Jersey, but there are few witnesses willing to testify. The lack of witnesses helps increase the spiral of violence in poor black neighborhoods, notes NAM editor Earl Ofari Hutchinson. Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His new book, The Latino Challenge to Black America: Towards a Conversation between African-Americans and Hispanics (Middle Passage Press and Hispanic Economics New York), published in English and Spanish, will be out in October.

A few days after veteran black reporter and editor Chauncey Bailey was gunned down on the streets of Oakland, Calif., Oakland City Councilmember Desley Brooks made a heartfelt and impassioned plea for anyone who knew anything about a killing in the city to come forth. She wasn’t talking about the murder of Bailey. A 19-year-old reportedly confessed to that. She was talking about the more than half-dozen killings that occurred in the days immediately after the Bailey killing. The victims were black and the assailants almost certainly were also black.

Denied Medication, AIDS Patient Dies in Custody;

Victor Arellano's Fellow Detainees Staged a Protest Over His Treatment

By Sandra Hernandez

Daily Journal Staff Writer

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 9, 2007 - The handful of prescription drugs Victor Arellano took each morning kept him alive.

But Arellano, in the throes of full-blown AIDS, was denied that medicine when immigration officials locked him up at the San Pedro detention center, other detainees said.

Two months later Arellano, 23, died in custody - too weak to walk to the bathroom alone, but shackled to a hospital bed.

Arellano's family and his fellow detainees said the detention center's staff denied him his critical medication despite repeated requests.

"He called me two weeks before he died and told me he was afraid," said Arellano's mother, Olga. "He kept telling me how frustrated he felt because he wanted to see a doctor. He asked for his medicine but no one listened to him."

Victor came to the United States from Mexico as a child. A transgender person, he was known as Victoria Arellano to his fellow detainees, who routinely referred to him as her.

"She was so sick that if you tried to move her she would scream," said Walter Ayala, another detainee, recalling her final two weeks.

Arellano spent most days in a bunk bed, complaining of debilitating headaches, back pain, nausea and stomach cramps, Ayala said.

US to probe death of immigration detainee
Sister says police refused medicine for Milford man

By Milton J. Valencia, Globe Staff | August 9, 2007

A Brazilian national arrested Tuesday afternoon on a deportation warrant in Rhode Island died shortly after he was taken into federal custody, outraging family members who said authorities ignored their warnings that he had epilepsy and needed to take his medication daily.

Edmar Alves Araujo, 34, of Milford, called his sister to say he had been detained by local police after a traffic stop. Irene Araujo said she immediately brought his medication, Gardenal, to Woonsocket police headquarters, where he was being held, only to be turned away by officers who refused to accept it.

"I told them he needed the medication, and I told them he had seizure problems," Irene Araujo said yesterday. "He can't skip a day without medication."

According to Irene Araujo's account, authorities told her that if her brother had a medical condition, he could inform them himself. She said that officers then ignored her repeated pleas that it was urgent.

"They didn't give me a chance to show them or nothing," she said. "They didn't say anything."

A spokeswoman for the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency confirmed yesterday that Edmar Araujo died Tuesday while in federal custody. But she declined to comment on the family's assertion that authorities were warned of Araujo's epilepsy and his need for Gardenal, a phenobarbital-based drug that helps control seizures in epileptics.

2007 International Drug Policy Reform Conference

The International Drug Policy Reform Conference is the world's principal gathering of people who believe the war on drugs is doing more harm than good. No better opportunity exists to learn about drug policy and to strategize and mobilize for reform.

The 2007 International Drug Policy Reform Conference will address a wide range of policy, legal, political and scientific issues including:
Drug Sentencing Reform
Treatment
Drug Testing
Race and the Drug War
Marijuana
HIV, Hep C and Overdose Prevention
International Developments
Drug Education
Entheogens-Science, Spirituality and Law
Alternatives to Prohibition
Pragmatic Steps for Ending the Drug War

This year's conference will be held at the Astor Crowne Plaza in the legendary French Quarter in New Orleans, Louisiana. For a conference brochure and registration details, go to www.drugpolicy.org

Why New Orleans?

Old world ambiance, hot jazz, cool eats and sizzling night life... The Astor Crowne Plaza is within walking distance of many of the landmarks of New Orleans' worldwide appeal: courtyards and iron-laced balconies, famous restaurants and galleries, Bourbon Street, the mighty Mississippi River and legendary Jackson Square.

New Orleans also presents us with the opportunity of “Working Toward a New Bottom Line” – our conference theme. We can’t convene in this location without engaging the tragic conditions both the city and the state of Louisiana. Hurricane Katrina laid bare an array of problems, many of which are exacerbated by drug war policies. Meanwhile, the state of Louisiana comes close to leading the nation in the rate at which it incarcerates people for drug law violations. But such excesses also create opportunities for reform. Drug policy reform has always been particularly challenging in the South, but we aim to use the International Drug Policy Reform Conference to build momentum for meaningful change – both in New Orleans and more broadly.

Yesterday, as I sat in the lobby of the Elizabeth Detention Center waiting to testify at a hearing, I learned about the violent incident that took place in Virginia. A small flat-screen television hangs on a wall in the detention center’s lobby. I sat there for almost six hours, each hour getting more and more agitated at the cell phone and video coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings. Normally in these situations, I get up and turn the television off. But I was in a situation where I could not get away from the images bombarded at me. CNN shot the ongoing campus scenes throughout the whole day, reiterating over and over again that this was the biggest shooting ever to take place in American history. At first while I listened to the news reporters, I masked my fears, needing to act like I was in control, that everything was okay, and that I was strong enough to stomach the events they televised.

I distracted myself from the flat-screen television and tried to focus on preparing for my testimony. But as the hours went by, officers at the detention center passed by me, shouting out the latest death toll. First 21, then 22, then 29, then 31, then 32, and finally 33. It was impossible to tune out. I felt my mind and my heart drift back to when I was 16 years-old, when I was also on campus during a college shooting rampage. That was almost 15 years ago.

At various times yesterday, CNN provided history and statistical information of previous school shootings like Columbine and The University of Texas massacres. I waited for them to list my alma mater. But one school they didn't list was a small early undergraduate program called Simon's Rock College, tucked away in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. This is where a college campus shooting occurred on December 14, 1992, the first shooting to occur in the United States in the 1990s.

A growing number of women of color are seeking alternative mental health services to help cope with stress and other recurrent struggles in their lives more effectively. Many of these women are now utilizing hypnotherapy, breathwork, and reiki as means of effective therapeutic intervention minus psychiatric labels and medications.

One of them is "Maya," a 36 year-old African American woman. Among many things, Maya is a single mom of two pre-teens, and a lawyer. In the past, Maya sought treatment from a psychiatrist and was diagnosed with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). She had been an incest survivor since age 8 and experienced recurrent nightmares, flashbacks, and anxiety attacks. Maya also had difficulty maintaining relationships with men as a result of her childhood trauma. Years of intensive talk therapy and anti-anxiety medication led Maya to see very little improvement in her recovery, until a friend recommended that she try hypnotherapy.

Maya says, "At first, I was skeptical about hypnosis and what it could do for me. But I was frustrated. I felt like I was hitting a wall with my therapist and that she didn't really understand where I was coming from. This had been the eighth therapist I had been to, and I was beginning to feel like talking about my symptoms and my past was beating a dead horse. When was I going to get over it? I just wanted to feel better and stop the panic attacks. . . "