Rallying Against RICO
Around 70 people marched through downtown Rochester yesterday, July 20th, to call for an end to RICO charges against 24 local residents (background Members of the so-called "Wolf Pack" Gang Proclaiming Innocence, RICO LAWS? PROVE IT!!. Organized by Activists Against Racism Movement (AARM), the march started at the Federal Building, wound through the city and ended with a rally at the city/county jail. Powerful and energetic, the march sent a message that community safety will come when people unite together to fight for justice not by longer prison sentences or harsher policing.
Rochester Freedom School Students Learning Earthen Architecture
The Freedom School, located at 630 N. Goodman St., is working to provide education that's centered in it's community and meaningful to urban youth. As part of the summar camp program, students are learning to build houses using earthen achitecture, called Eco-domes.
Right now, students are building a 2-person emergency shelter, which are set up in disaster areas. Later the students will work to build a full-sized house using the same process. I talked with George Moses, the director of the Freedom School, about the project, it's goals and the larger vision of the Freedom School. The Freedom School is part of the larger Freedom School project of the Children's Defense Fund.
Oppression Continues in the Courtroom and in the Media: Tyquan Rivera's pretrial hearing
Rochester Indymedia has resolved to witness Tyquan Rivera's pretrial hearings and trial, first-hand, after observing an ongoing pattern of sloppy and inaccurate reporting of the case by the local corporate media. With the help of a journalist from Boston Indymedia, who was also present on July 1st in Judge Joseph Valentino's courtroom for his rulings, Rochester Indymedia began to notice other disturbingly oppressive patterns developing in Rivera's case, enacted both in the courtroom and in the ongoing corporate media coverage.
Additional Information: A Child in Chains: A reportback from Tyquan Rivera's pretrial hearing | Media Review of Last Month's Pretrial Hearing | Digging for Truth in the Tyquan Rivera Case | Let’s Not Retreat into Cocoons of Expedient Simplicity and Pretentiousness
Related: AARM Holds Second Event on the Media and Racism | Racism and the Media Community Discussion a Success | Facts about Juvenile Injustice | Activists Against Racism Movement
Rochester IMC Newspaper #4
The fourth edition of the Rochester IMC newspaper has hit the streets! Get yourself a copy, or better yet get 10 copies and distribute them to your friends. You can find the IMC paper at the Anti-War Storefront at 658 Monroe Avenue, or at various locations around town. The paper is anti-copyright: please make many copies!
Military Coup in Honduras
On Sunday, June 28th, a military in Honduras removed the democratically elected president Manuel Zelaya from office. Zelaya was placed into military custody and immediately flown out of the country to Costa Rica.
Since then, Honduras has been in a state of military rule. President Zelaya attempted to re-enter the country on Sunday, July 5th by flying into the Tegucigalpa Airport, but was prevented by the military blocking the landing strips. Over 100,000 people rallied to support President Zelaya and greet him when he entered the country. They were met by Honduran soldiers who fired machine guns into the crowd, as well as tear gas and other "less-lethal" weapons. 19-year-old Obed Murillo was killed at the scene.
Rochester Rallies for Single Payer Health Care
Seventy Rochester citizens and activists gathered in the rain at Washington Square park today shouting slogans like “Human need not corporate greed†and “No bills for pills.†They were there to show their support for HR 676, a bill in the US Congress that would provide universal, single-payer health care to all citizens. We already have such a system in place for people over 65 called Medicare. HR 676 would lower that 65 year age threshold to age zero. Rochester Rep Eric Massa (D-29) is a co-sponsor of HR 676, but Rochester's senior Rep Louise Slaughter (D-28) is opposed to it. The purpose of today's action was to get the influential Democrat to change her vote and sign on to 676.
Additional Information: "Medicare for ALL!" Single Payer Health Care Speak-Out Reportback | Silenced but not Silent! Leading advocates of single payer health care — "Medicare for All" —blacked out by corporate media
Related: Veteran Turned Away from Slaughter's Office After Health Care Rally
Community Building and Networking
On Sunday, June 28th two entities—Activists Against Racism Movement and Down In the Dirt Productions—pooled their ideas, time, and resources to create a venue to unite local community members with one another and with grassroots organizations, local political candidates, and small businesses in the Greater Rochester area. From progressive Democrats to radical students, performance artists to published authors, STD educators to crime preventers, the wealth of collective expertise shared at the Main St. Armory was rich indeed.
An indymedia correspondent was able to catch up with some of the organizers and participants of the day's event to discuss the importance of building strong communities.
Interview with Media Critic Jeff Cohen
In the interview, Jeff Cohen speaks about the increasing importance and influence of independent media, his views about the corporate media model and issues that need the public’s attention.
Video: Watch the interview!
War Resisting US Soldier Needs Support: Report from Fort Drum
Specialist Trevor Loope, 23, of Austin TX, served 15 months in Afghan combat with the 3d Brigade of the 10th Mountain Division. Upon returning to Ft. Drum in 2007 he was unable to obtain adequate treatment for mental health issues. This caused him to leave the base in search of effective treatment. Dr. David Ogren, a clinical psychologist from Houston, TX with fifteen years experience treating victims of mental trauma, spent hours examining and testing Specialist Trevor Loope. Dr. Ogren’s report concludes that Trevor suffers "from a severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and a Severe Depression."
Trevor Loope might be facing a court-martial proceeding on July 1. Or maybe the proceeding will be delayed. Or maybe (we hope) the charges against him will be dropped and he will be a favorable, non-punitive administrative separation –in effect acknowledging his PTSD and severe depression, and the failure of the military to provide the treatment that he requested upon his return from his combat tour in Afghanistan
Watch the Interview: We support Trevor Loope -Interviews after sanity board 6-18-09
Additional Information: Press Conference: Spc. Trevor Loope appears before sanity board at Ft. Drum 6-18-09 | Sanity Board for Soldier at Ft Drum is Challenged by GI Rights Group | Tompkins County Against War & Occupation
A Child in Chains: A reportback from Tyquan Rivera's pretrial hearing
Recently, members of Rochester Indymedia sat in on the latest iteration of Tyquan Rivera's court case. We were moved to witness this process first-hand because of the disturbing imbalance in the corporate media coverage of the proceedings we'd seen thus far. According to an eyewitness present at the time, the alleged shooting of the police officer by Rivera was precipitated by police brutality—an un-provoked beating that officers inflicted on Rivera and others, just prior to the shooting. This information, well known in Rivera's community, has only been reported in one media outlet, a morning radio program. We found the experience of watching the court proceedings in Rivera's case to be a strange brew of truth being lost between the lines of the prosecution’s witness testimonies mixed up with absurdly dysfunctional, if not incompetent, corporate media behavior. We'd like to share some of our observations that day with our Indymedia readers.
June 11, 2009—Tyquan Rivera was in Judge Joseph Valentino’s Supreme Court for a pretrial hearing regarding testimony from witnesses who saw Rivera near the scene of the shooting of Rochester police officer Anthony DiPonzio on January 31, 2009, or knew him before the shooting. Rivera, 15-years-old, was charged earlier this year with attempted murder in the second degree and assault in the first degree. If convicted, Rivera could be imprisoned for up to 10 years. By virtue of being 14-years-old when the shooting occurred, he was spared being sentenced as an adult. District Attorney Mike Green was arguing the case for the state; Defense Attorney Culver Barr was present to represent Rivera.
Additional Information: Digging for Truth in the Tyquan Rivera Case | Let’s Not Retreat into Cocoons of Expedient Simplicity and Pretentiousness
Related: AARM Holds Second Event on the Media and Racism | Racism and the Media Community Discussion a Success | Facts about Juvenile Injustice