CNN reports that the Biden administration is considering adding cluster bombs to the mass of weapons it is pouring into Ukraine. The production and use of cluster bombs is prohibited under international law.

The $858-billion National Defense Authorization Act passed by the House of Representatives includes billions for weapons for Ukraine and Taiwan, reports Defense News. “The U.S. Army is seeking a ‘dramatic’ ramp up in monthly production of weapons and munitions for Ukraine,” another report adds.

According to CNN, “Ukrainian officials and lawmakers have in recent months urged the Biden administration and members of Congress to provide the Ukrainian military with cluster munition warheads …

“Top U.S. officials have publicly stated that they plan to give the Ukrainians as much support as they need to give them an upper hand at the negotiating table with Russia, should it come to that. But Western military equipment is not infinite, and as stockpiles of warheads dwindle, the Ukrainians have made plain to the U.S. that it could use the cluster munitions currently gathering dust in storage.

“For Ukraine, cluster munitions could address two major issues: the need for more ammunition for the artillery and rocket systems the U.S. and others have provided, and a way of closing Russia’s numerical superiority in artillery. The Biden administration has not taken the option off the table.”

In a report on “9 weapons banned from modern warfare,” Blake Stilwell says: “A cluster bomb releases a number of projectiles on impact to injure or damage personnel and vehicles. The 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions banned these for two reasons. First, they have wide area effects and are unable to distinguish between civilians and combatants. Second, cluster munitions leave behind large numbers of dangerous unexploded ordnance.”

Crime has played a dominant role in Haiti since the Taíno and Arawakan people were decimated by Spanish and French colonialists, and its earliest workers were kidnapped from their homes in Africa and exploited with unimaginable violence. 

When those early workers freed themselves from bondage, they were forced to pay France reparations — a looting and impoverishing of Haiti’s economy. Can it be today that they are still being punished for the first revolution led by Toussaint L’ouverture in 1804, the world’s first Black republic guaranteeing the rights and freedoms for all Black people?

The Haitian Lavalas Movement overthrew the U.S./French puppet dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier in 1990 with the popular election of Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Aristide was ousted from Haiti by a CIA-backed coup d’etat in 1991 and then again in 2004. The Fanmi Lavalas Party has been denied an electoral role in Haiti ever since.

Today, the U.S. political administration speculates on the exploitation of an extremely low-wage workforce as well as Haiti’s strategic location in the Caribbean.  

In 2021, President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated. Ariel Henry, a suspect in the assassination, is now Haiti’s acting president, with U.S. support.

The global conditions of inflation, food and fuel shortages caused by the U.S./NATO war drive are taking a toll on the poorest countries like Haiti. New cases of cholera, first introduced by the U.N. intervention following the 2010 earthquake, have reemerged in Haiti along with a crisis in potable water.

A deepening crisis is sweeping Haiti. The racist mainstream U.S. media reports unimaginable violence of gang wars and drug trafficking. Their unsympathetic reports are designed to justify one more intervention by the governments of the U.S., Canada and France in the sovereign nation of Haiti. On Oct. 15, the United States submitted a draft resolution to the U.N. Security Council calling for the “immediate deployment of a multinational rapid reaction force” to Haiti. Haiti is the most intervened-in country in the hemisphere. Each previous invasion and intervention has destabilized the economy and left people stranded on the edge of survival.

Haitians want to secure their own country

In Haiti, anti-government protests are sweeping the country. There are reports that the “gangs” most targeted by the White House are actually those struggling to liberate their country. The newspaper Haïti Liberté, in conjunction with Uncaptured Media, has released a documentary: “Another Vision: Inside Haiti’s Uprising.” Haïti Liberté says that “the film plumbs the origins, actors, and tactics of a multi-faceted demonization campaign against Jimmy Cherizier, the FRG-9 and its allies.”

In Washington, D.C., and in other U.S. cities, Haitians and their supporters are holding protests to demand that the Biden administration end its support for the regime of Ariel Henry. Protesters demand that Haitian sovereignty be respected, that there be no intervention. Haitians are the only ones who can solve their crisis and determine their own future. The U.S. and Canada have already announced the dispatch of military aircraft to carry weapons for the country’s security services, Resumen reported Oct. 24.

Sanctions

Demands for self-determination coming from almost every social sector of Haiti may have temporarily stalled the imperialist intervention. But it has not paused the sinister machinations of the U.S. Treasury or FBI.

Brian Nelson, Undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, issued a hypocritical statement stressing U.S. “commitment to act against those who encourage drug trafficking, allow corruption and seek to profit from the social-economic crisis that is facing the country.” Nelson’s ridiculously transparent statement cannot hide the source of weapons, drugs, and corruption in one of the world’s poorest countries.

The Nov.15 issue of Haiti Progress reported that the U.S. and Canada have jointly placed sanctions on Haitian politicians and the business sector, as well as suspected gang leaders. On Oct. 21, the U.N. passed a resolution establishing specific sanctions, most notably on Jimmy Cherizier, the FRG-9, and all who give them support. It is widely recognized that sanctions, however specifically targeted, are intended to deny critical support to the whole population and force them to accept foreign domination.

Further, the FBI is bringing criminal charges against alleged gang leaders in Haiti, using the kidnapping in 2021 of 16 U.S. missionaries in Port-au-Prince as their excuse. In addition to the indictments for the kidnapping, the U.S. Department of Justice has announced charges against the leaders of other gangs. According to Christopher Wray, director of the FBI: “These charges are a reminder of the bureau’s ability to reach criminal actors overseas.” In so saying, Wray is asserting the U.S. intention to police the world.

Once again, Haitians are being punished for struggling to liberate their country. They suffer an inflation rate of 33%, and 4.7 million people are suffering from food insecurity, according to data from the United Nations World Food Program.

What Haiti needs is solidarity – food and fuel – and support for their liberation struggle. NOT sanctions and criminalization.

Este fin de semana se conmemora la Declaración Universal de los Derechos Humanos que la Asamblea General de las Naciones Unidas proclamó en París en el 1948. Desde entonces, ha servido de guía para la implementación de políticas que garanticen la justicia y la dignidad del ser humano.

Sin embargo, en una colonia, estos derechos no existen. La colonización de por sí, la pertenencia de un país por otro más fuerte, que dispone del territorio y sus habitantes para satisfacer solo a sus intereses, es un crimen a nivel internacional.

Pero incluso, si nos detenemos en algunos de los 30 artículos de la Declaración, salta a la vista el atropello que los EUA comete contra el pueblo boricua.

El más significativo y que conlleva la naturaleza de todos los demás crímenes, es el del Artículo 15 que dice que “Toda persona tiene derecho a una nacionalidad”. Y aquí se nos ha negado el derecho inalienable a tener la ciudadanía puertorriqueña.

Y los gobiernos criollos han sido unos meros garantes de los intereses gringos que defienden con uñas y dientes las corporaciones foráneas en contra de los intereses del propio pueblo que juraron defender cuando llegaron al poder. En estos momentos el ejemplo más claro es la defensa de la privatizadora de energía, Luma Energy, que fue impuesta por EUA, a pesar del terrible e incompetente servicio, que además es más caro y que a causado muertes y un enorme sufrimiento al pueblo.

Así que tanto EUA, como el gobierno puertorriqueño que lo asiste, son culpables de muchos crímenes bajo los artículos 3 y 5 de los DDHH que hablan del derecho a la vida, a la libertad y a la seguridad y prohíben los tratos crueles, inhumanos y degradantes.

Sólo la descolonización con independencia absoluta, será el camino hacia una vida digna y justa en PR.

Desde Puerto Rico, para Radio Clarín en Colombia, les habló Berta Joubert-Ceci.

Dec. 7 — Hundreds came to New York City’s Grand Central Terminal to protest President Joe Biden’s strikebreaking against 115,000 railroad workers. Many commuters were sympathetic and took leaflets.

Union members and their supporters marched through the vast Grand Central Terminal, which, because of cutbacks, doesn’t have any intercity passenger trains anymore.

Airplane pilots from Southwest Airlines came to the rally in their uniforms. Airline unions are also included under the Railway Labor Act of 1926. Laborers, Electricians, Nurses, Teachers, Teamsters, and Transit Workers were among the other unions represented.

The rally was initiated by the December 12th Movement and co-sponsored by Teamsters Local 808, Amazon Labor Union, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, Workers Assembly Against Racism, and Struggle-La Lucha newspaper.

Omowale Clay of the December 12th Movement opened the rally. He denounced President Biden and Congress for imposing an agreement on workers.

Chris Silvera, Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 808, denounced the century-old Railway Labor Act that makes it virtually impossible for railroad and airline workers to strike. Every worker should have sick days, said Silvera, referring to one of the demands of railroad unions.

Charles Jenkins is president of the New York chapter of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) and an officer in Transport Workers Union Local 100. He reminded everyone of the 2005 transit workers’ strike in New York City. Jenkins denounced New York State’s Taylor Law which makes it illegal for government employees to strike.

A representative from the Amazon Labor Union spoke, as did members of the Workers Assembly Against Racism and the New York-New Jersey Cuba Sí Coalition.

Steve Millies, a retired Amtrak worker, spoke for Struggle-La Lucha newspaper. He said that Joe Biden represented the Du Pont dynasty and the Mastercard loan sharks as a U.S. senator from Delaware.

Millies pointed to a loss of 90% of all railroad jobs since 1947, with over 1.3 million jobs destroyed. Instead of getting jobs at the CSX yard in Hamlet, North Carolina, workers were hired instead at a chicken parts sweatshop where 25 were killed in a 1991 fire.

Dec. 7 was a particularly complicated day in Peru. In a few hours, the ultra-right partially achieved its goal: to overthrow the government of Pedro Castillo and open the way to a new scenario in national life, in which it can preserve its privileges and recover its positions of power, in some way questioned by the regime established as of July 28 last year.

After a few hours of tension, Dina Boluarte, the Vice President of the Republic, was installed as head of State and called for the “unity of all Peruvians.”

This outcome was somewhat unexpected. And it was precipitated because Castillo himself made what could be called a leap into the void. Without coordinating with anyone, without seeking the support of the social and mass organizations, without the support of the Armed Forces or of the political collectives with progressive and advanced positions, he decided to establish an Emergency Government, dissolving the other branches of government.

This surprised the citizens and the popular movement as a whole and was responded to by the most reactionary sectors of national life.

The Congress of the Republic, which was to discuss today the vacancy of the Presidency of the Republic, for which it could not count on the 87 votes required, saw its task made easier. In the new scenario, 101 congressmen joined the vacancy proposal, with only 6 votes against and 9 abstentions.

There was a possibility that the reaction would pressure Dina Boluarte to resign as Vice President, in which case the power would immediately pass to the President of Congress, former General José Williams Zapata. This pressure did not exist, and in the afternoon, the first woman to be sworn in as President of the Republic was sworn in.

Dina Boluarte has made a call for “national unity,” understood as the sum of all the political forces acting in the Peruvian scenario. We will see what will be the composition of her first Ministerial Cabinet.

For the time being, the Peruvian ultra-right has sung victory.  It is aware that it has managed to get rid of a president it detested and wanted to overthrow since the beginning of his administration.  However, it has not been able to fully impose itself. Although Dina Boluarte is not a “militant of the left,” she cannot be compared to Jannine Añez, the Bolivian who replaced Evo Morales in La Paz.

It is not foreseeable, however, that she will follow Castillo’s path nor that she will engage in any popular battle. She will try to “ride the wave” until 2026, trying not to be devoured by the Mafia on the prowl.

From this accumulation of circumstances, some lessons can be deduced. Let’s see:

Castillo represented a Popular, Democratic, and Progressive Government. He could not be considered, by the way, either leftist, revolutionary or socialist. It was not indispensable for the Left to support him in terms of personal adhesion but to help him in his administration for the fulfillment of his Unity Program, subscribed by all the forces of the popular movement, which would give him victory in June 2021.

He led a weak, precarious, and largely inconsistent government. In truth, he did not manage to govern because, from the first day, he was harassed by an intense campaign of hatred unleashed against him by the traditional oligarchic nuclei. He never counted on the real collaboration of the left — which he sought very little — and he surrounded himself with a group of very questionable “advisers” who finally became evident for their ineptitude and corruption. By their actions, he was severely compromised.

Randomly, Castillo reacted belatedly to the enemy’s campaign. In doing so, he opted for the path of “direct dealings” between himself and the populations of the interior of the country, ignoring the natural links created by the popular movement itself. Moreover, his “collaborators” acted outside the masses because they did not come from the heart of the people either.

That is why he could not realize the real situation nor perceive his political isolation. He thought that by relying on people who could “scare” his enemies, he could neutralize them, and that did not happen.

In this way, it was confirmed that it is not possible to lead a process of change without forging the unity of the popular movement, without organizing the masses and politicizing them. Nor turning our backs on their struggles.

The future of the country is at risk. In the interior, there will undoubtedly be mobilizations in support of the deposed President. Their fear of them was what induced their reaction not to assume power directly but to accept Dina Boluarte as a “mediator,” but she has neither a Party nor an organized force to back her up. It is foreseeable that she will have even greater difficulties than Castillo in the perspective.

It is foreseeable that the new administration will register negative changes.  The media, which claimed to be on the verge of bankruptcy for not receiving subsidies from the State, will obtain juicy compensations. But both will not change their attitude. They will continue their struggle against the people so that greater difficulties are foreseen in the future.

In terms of foreign policy, this will also be felt. A “cooling” of ties with some sister countries is foreseeable, especially Mexico, Venezuela, Nicaragua, or even Cuba, because the ultra-right will continue its campaign against them.

In other words, the battle of the Peruvians will be harder and more difficult, but it will have to be faced.

Source: Resumen Latinonamericano

Honduran Vice Minister of Foreign Relations Gerardo Torres was introduced by a teacher, Lucy Pagoada — Coordinator of D19: Libre Party USA-Canada and Costa Rica, which is coordinated in Honduras by former President Manuel Zelaya — at a full house in the People’s Forum in New York on Dec. 6. Following is a summary of his remarks, addressed to the enthusiastic gathering of Hondurans and their supporters.

Honduras did not have regular elections for 13 years. After the government of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was overthrown by a military coup d’etat in 2009. Xiomara Castro Zelaya, the first lady, went to the streets and became the leader of a revolutionary process that put an end to one of the most violent, weaponized dictatorships in Latin America.

The regime was violent and, at the same time, one of the largest drug cartels in Central America. In November 2021, despite the years of brutal repression and murder, the Honduran people defeated the Juan Orlando Hernández regime by electing President Xiomara Castro, making her the first female president of Honduras.

Immediately after the inauguration of President Castro, the U.S. extradited Hernandez for drug trafficking and money laundering. Obviously, the U.S. had not just discovered that Hernández was running a drug cartel. If the Hondurans did not have an election victory, that cartel would still be flourishing.

Why did they have to wait for a political and electoral defeat to bring down the cartel? Why did it last 12 years? Why were the heroic Hondurans — who struggled for their country, its natural resources, for control of the Honduran military forces — condemned and murdered? Would they allow this criminal organization to take over the country and enrich themselves under their extremely violent rule?

A couple of years ago, the U.S. government may have asked themselves, what do we do with this country that has been historically the most conservative and obedient to the U.S.? It is a country that the U.S. used as a base for attacks on revolutions in Guatemala, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. This country, with valuable resources, has been one of the most important U.S. military bases in the region.

They saw that Hondurans were trying to create a new constitution. They were trying to establish relations in Latin America with countries like Brazil and Venezuela. They didn’t accept the “free trade,” policies that were robbing their resources and destroying the environment. So the U.S. said do we let this socialist, leftist movement get into power, or do we stop them by allowing a drug cartel to take over Honduras?

Why, when they are willing to do so much to stop progressive movements from gaining power — why is it still possible that elections can be won in Venezuela, Uruguay, Brazil, Colombia, and Chile? [Cheers] Why are progressive elections taking place in Honduras and Mexico despite years of brutal repression?

[Torres said that he was visiting New York as Libre Party International Secretary, Director of the Political Education Institutes to take part in The New International 1974 -2024 Economic Order (NEIO). This meeting is called to analyze the possibility of creating alternative economic models. He said the discussion is opening now because many countries are moving away from the destructive capitalist, neo-liberal economic model.]

When Fidel Castro and Berta Cáceres and other fighters, intellectuals (the majority of whom came from underdeveloped countries) told us that if you continued to extract natural resources to expand industry and exploit people, to reduce them just to merchandise with no wages or jobs, the consequences is that our way of life will be destroyed. If we don’t resist the greed of the small minority of capitalists, all will be lost.

If we want to participate in the transformation of our society, we have responsibilities. First of all, we have to organize in our communities. Second, we have to understand our environment, have critical thinking to see the truth behind what we are being told, and to be able to grasp reality. The third is to have the imagination to see a different way of moving forward. We need to rethink economics, culture, social relationships, couples, children, neighbors, and friends. That is revolutionary ideology, and in Latin America, that is an anti-capitalist, anti-neo-liberal model that is winning elections. Now it has the responsibility to change things.

We are most focused on the way wealth is produced and distributed. Wealth in Honduras has always been concentrated among a rare few. It has been based on extracting resources and also on the monoculture of agriculture, bananas, and sugar. In our country, a small group of powerful businesses benefits from their relationship to the government.

The Venezuelan government of President Nicolas Maduro is currently creating an International Commission Against Corruption and Impunity at the U.N. Within the next two years, it plans to bring this body from the international community to Honduras with the goal of ending corruption.

Changes under the Castro government

Until now, Honduran people have only had electric light if they can pay for it. It is expensive. President Castro’s government is guaranteeing access to electricity and other forms of energy to all Hondurans.

In another area, Castro is planning new development that will come from the communities. The process may be slower, but it is the only way economic growth will be democratic. In the past, development was concentrated in small isolated areas with enormous capacities for production.

We are a social-political movement that focuses on human rights. We organized our party in the streets, protesting against the coup, calling ourselves the resistance. We are the resistance. President Xiomara Castro has stood up to the police forces, to the military forces. One of her main goals is to promise that there will never be another coup, that the police and military will never again be used to torture, criminalize and murder the Honduran people who protest.

We are reestablishing connections with the international community. With the support of this community, the government is investigating incidents carried on by the coup, such as the disappearance of Garifuna leaders and hate crimes like the murder of transsexual woman Vicky Hernadez on the same day as the coup in 2009.

The electoral victories in Latin America are only part of a much larger struggle. While each country is making its own way, we see the alliance with each of these progressive movements as a base of support for our own development.

Save the Date: Saturday, December 17, 2022

Community Film Screening – “Mumia: Long Distance Revolutionary”

Talk given at “Pushback Against Empire,” a holiday party and fundraiser for CovertAction Magazine in New York City on Dec. 1. CovertAction, founded by CIA whistleblower Phillip Agee in 1978, is one of the few publications that has published information exposing the U.S. proxy war in Ukraine, including John Parker’s eyewitness reports from Donbass for Struggle-La Lucha.

If you like horror stories, here’s one for you. It’s the 2022 National Defense Strategy document from the U.S. secretary of defense. This document was blessed by President Biden, who is quoted in the introduction.

Right out of the gate, it calls China, Russia, Iran, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea threats to U.S. national security. And this threat must be met by making NATO even more powerful and nuclear-capable, especially surrounding Russia.

But in terms of priorities, China is the number one target. This will be done, the document declares, by provoking altercations in the Indo-Pacific region using Japan, South Korea, Australia, and any Southeast Asian countries Washington can recruit to launch a war from the South China Sea to the East China Sea. This week there was a very serious altercation in the South China Sea between the U.S. and China due to U.S. war games there. 

As if that’s not enough, the document says the U.S. should begin training and arming Taiwan in asymmetrical warfare (or guerrilla war) against China. So get your tax dollars ready to fund another war costing, this time, hundreds of billions of dollars. And unfortunately, we may have to counter an anti-war movement in the U.S. that will probably blame China when that country is forced to respond to the provocations and threats to its security and sovereignty. That’s what happened with Russia.

What should we learn from this document and the Rand Corporation strategy published three years ago planning the provocations against Russia? It didn’t matter what Russia did – the imperialists had a plan of action that was determined to cause war by any means, regardless of Russia’s actions.

Ukraine’s Nazi problem

While investigating the war in Ukraine in the Donbass region last May, I visited a tuberculosis hospital in Krymskoye that had been retrofitted for war by the Ukrainian military. They were forced to leave a week or so prior by the Lugansk People’s Militia and Russian soldiers.

I observed the 122mm shells used by Kiev to make Swiss cheese of the houses just a mile away in Solkinyki. These shells were also used to target the families I interviewed to the north in Rubizhne, in a shelter that had housed 350 people fleeing the Ukrainian military assault on their apartment buildings.

Although the loud noise I heard often from the continued shelling by Ukrainian forces was disturbing, the people in that shelter told me they felt much safer than before now that the Russian troops were protecting them and providing water, food, and other essentials for survival.

I should mention that at that tuberculosis hospital, there was a giant swastika painted on the wall, and next to it, the sonnenrad, a symbol appropriated by the Nazis in World War II and used today by the Ukrainian Azov Battalion.

When some people say that Ukraine’s Nazi problem is “minor,” they callously ignore the 10 Black people killed at the Tops Supermarket in Buffalo, New York, by an 18-year-old white supremacist. He was wearing the emblem of the Azov Battalion – the same sonnenrad I saw on the wall in Krymskoye. 

This youth said he was inspired by New Zealander Brenton Tarrant, who killed 51 Muslims in a mosque. In his manifesto, Tarrant wrote that he was in direct contact with the Azov Battalion and was planning to go to Ukraine for military training.

In 2019, Time Magazine interviewed a former FBI agent who admitted that 17,000 white supremacists had gone to Ukraine for military training. Azov and its partners have used some of the billions of dollars Ukraine has received in funding and training from the U.S. since 2014 to build a very successful social media presence aimed at alienated youth. 

Erasing people of Donbass

Playing into the narrative of Russia as invader can only be done by disappearing the over 6 million people in the Donbass region, targeted for more than eight years by a military openly led by neo-Nazis. By Feb. 22 of this year, the bombing of the region had increased 20-fold in seven days to 1,400 bombings per day. Kiev amassed 150,000 troops on the border, preparing for a genocidal massacre. 

This is why, on Feb. 23, the Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics formally requested Russia’s protection. 

If you want to know what imperialism really looks like, consider this: According to the United Nations Development Program, the U.S. freeze on Afghanistan’s assets is causing the starvation of 1 million children. With a snap of his fingers, Biden could stop that today – but he won’t. There you have real imperialist power, real evil.

Without challenging the main justifications for this war, we are simply allowing lies to take hold, which will, at worst, garner popular support for U.S. imperialist strategies and, at best, encourage resignation and apathy.

That’s why CovertAction Magazine is an invaluable resource: It challenges those primary lies fueling the U.S. proxy war against Russia and China.

It’s that whole truth that will ultimately inspire our working class into action. And any effective peace movement must be made up overwhelmingly by our multinational working class and people’s movements fighting racism, for union rights and tenant rights, for LGBTQ2S and women’s rights, for the right of self-determination of Haitian, Palestinian, Indigenous, Black, and Brown peoples. 

All these components are necessary for a peace movement to have any real power because these are the forces most targeted by U.S. imperialism domestically and internationally. It’s these forces that have the most to gain by stopping imperialist wars that steal the resources necessary for the survival of their children. And these are the forces whose exploitation this economic beast depends upon for survival.

Therefore, they contain real potential power.

As a news source dedicated to the truths relevant to the struggles of our class and for countering the barrage of misinformation by the Pentagon and its corporate tools, CovertAction Magazine continues the proud legacy of CovertAction Quarterly. It’s an indispensable resource that must be supported by our movement and our class. So give generously, as if World War III were right around the corner – because so is the solution if we build it.

Milwaukee, Dec. 6 — After over five months of struggle, the Waukesha Sheriff’s Department, which led the investigation into Brieon Green’s death at Milwaukee County Jail, concluded their investigation and handed the related materials to Milwaukee County’s District Attorney John Chisholm. On December 1, DA Chisholm invited Green’s family and their legal team to review footage and files from the investigation.

Alan Chavoya, outreach chair of the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, was also asked by Green’s family to join them at the DA’s office to review the footage. After the meeting, a press conference was held to discuss some of the findings.

The footage reviewed at the meeting was from a security camera inside Milwaukee County Jail, which was pointed in the direction of the holding cell where Green was placed. Less than half an hour after entering the cell, Green proceeded to use the metal cord from the telephone inside the cell to begin strangling himself. Approximately 10 seconds after Green begins to do so, a correctional officer (CO) walks by the cell, supposedly conducting a routine wellness check. The footage shows the CO simply walking by the cell, slightly turning his head in the direction of the cell. The CO spent less than a second doing this wellness check on Green. It would take another 37 minutes for a second officer to conduct the next wellness check and seek medical attention for Green. At this point, Green had passed.

Speaking at the press conference after reviewing the footage, Green’s aunt Monique Brewer said, “This was the day we’ve been waiting for, and we just wanted to know what happened. In the midst of this happening, it could have been prevented.”

Had the CO taken even a few seconds to pause and look into Green’s cell, he may have been able to save his life. Tying it into the family’s demand for transparency, Chavoya demanded the public release of all footage and the name of the CO.

From January to August, there have been four deaths inside Milwaukee County Jail. The Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office has repeated the line that they are doing the best they can but are unable to provide adequate care due to staffing issues. As Chavoya said, “This isn’t a staffing issue. Once the second CO finds Brieon and calls for assistance, you can see a swarm of about 20 COs surround the cell. They were there, but they’re just not doing their job.”

We now know how Green died, but there are many lingering questions. Green’s family plans on reviewing the rest of the footage and documents related to the case. Furthermore, the family, together with the Milwaukee Alliance and the Justice for Brieon Green Coalition, are demanding the following:

— Fire and charge the correctional officer who failed to provide Brieon Green with lifesaving care.

— All footage related to Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office misconduct to be released within 48 hours, and the names of officers involved released within 24 hours.

— Sheriff Denita Ball to immediately meet with the family of Brieon Green to discuss policy changes that will eliminate deaths in detention.

Source: FightBack! News

Statement on the Death of Abbey Lynn Steele
By Tribal & Community Organizations and Concerned Individuals

On Friday, December 2, 2022, 20-year-old Abbey Lynn Steele of Rapid City, South Dakota, died at Monument Hospital after arriving unconscious and not breathing from the Pennington County Jail on November 16th. The Native community of Rapid City is grief-stricken and outraged by Abbey’s untimely death and the circumstances surrounding it. Abbey had given birth via emergency surgery merely 5 days before her violent arrest, detention, and hospitalization. Her death under the watch and authority of major institutions in Rapid City is an affront to common decency and basic human dignity. Abbey Steele should be alive today. Two children are now without their mother and have lost the opportunity to know her. Our community demands justice for Abbey and her family.

Abbey was arrested, on an outstanding warrant, by a Rapid City Police Department officer who had arrested her 3 times previously. Video footage shows this police officer chasing and forcing a distraught Abbey into handcuffs while she was postpartum, post-surgery, and highly medically vulnerable. The jail and police would not respond to Abbey Lynn Steele’s mother’s questions as to her whereabouts and did not disclose her being admitted to the hospital or that she was not only unconscious but not breathing. Abbey’s mother, Amy Steele, next called the hospital directly in a desperate attempt to find her daughter. The hospital disclosed that Abbey was a patient in their care and on a ventilator.

The ongoing violation of human, treaty, civil, and statutory rights of the Oceti Sakowin and other Indigenous Peoples in this city and in this state, has resulted in the death of a 20-year-old woman, Abbey Lynn Steele. We are demanding an immediate response around the failures of the justice
and medical systems here in Rapid City that are implicated in Abbey’s demise. These system failures are rooted in racial animus, white supremacy, and a pattern of practices aimed against Native Americans living in Pennington County, South Dakota. Right now, the family is unable to bury their daughter, sister, and mother as her body has not been released by the authorities.

The inconsistency in information is highly suspect. Given the historical mistreatment, discrimination, and grossly negligent behavior towards Indigenous Peoples by Pennington County, we have no reason to trust any narrative coming from institutions that continue to violate our people. We have reasons to believe that the administrators of the Pennington County Jail and adjacent agencies are likely to coordinate manipulation of the public to shift blame and escape accountability; Abbey Lynn Steele died while in their care and custody.

Indigenous Peoples, especially our women, do not enter into these situations or systems alone; they will always have relatives standing with them and behind them. We collectively demand, in support of the Steele family: Immediate release of Abbey back to her family. There are constitutionally protected Lakota religious and spiritual beliefs that must be respected.

An independent investigation and autopsy by expert parties outside of South Dakota must be funded.

Release of video and detail to the family regarding Abbey’s detention. They have a right to know what took place in her final hours of consciousness.

Develop a protocol for notifying family members and support systems when loved ones are transferred from the jail to the hospital. We now have multiple accounts of community members being transferred unconscious, from the jail to the hospital, because of injuries sustained within the jail without any notification to their families. Community members who are unable to contact their support systems during such a time should not be alone; their loved ones should not be in the dark regarding their location and health status.

Expunge or provide amnesty for non-violent warrants and re-direct warrant processes towards safer practices. Warrants create a dangerous situation for vulnerable people because of the tremendous violence that takes place at the time of arrest. Cities like Denver have deployed healthcare professionals for certain populations and situations, instead of law enforcement. Protocols like this would have preserved Abbey’s life. Develop specific protocol about how law enforcement and correction officers engage with those who may be pregnant, post-partum, and otherwise medically vulnerable. Announce this protocol publicly and provide regular public reports on how it was followed. Require attendance of all Pennington County law enforcement, hospital and jail staff at training on de-escalation and implicit bias.

The public is encouraged to come forward if they have similar stories.

Signed,

Organizations:

Wotakuye Mutual Aid aka Meals for Relatives COVID-19 Community Response
He Sapa Birth Circle
He Sapa Voters Initiative
COUP Council
International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
Oyatekin Chante Wastepi
Native Lives Matter
Missing Indigenous Sisters Tools Initiative (MISTI)
Mothers Against Meth Alliance (MAMA)
Rise in Love Foundation
Florida Rising
Wičounčage Woasniya
Oyuhpe Tokala
Justice Empowerment Network (JEN)
Wowapi Luta, Oceti Sakowin Territory
Lakota Visions Jewelry Inc.
International Indigenous Youth Council – Oglala Lakota chapter
People of the Confluence
Women with Bows
Two Spirit Nation
West River Tenants United
Wiconi Waste Resistance Farm
Sovereign Sisters
Sacred Activism

Individuals:

Rakefet Leah Gruetze, Rapid City, SD
Lilias Jarding, Rapid City, SD
Michaela Madrid, Spearfish, SD
Cynthia Robertson, Rapid City, SD
Monica Apple, Oglala Lakota/Yankton, Rapid City, SD
Sharon McCoy, Dixie, WA
Valeria Primeaux, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Julia Fike, Sisseton, SD
Lori Afraid of Lightning, Rapid City, SD
Laura Walsh, Fairview, MI
Roxie Bolnick, North Carolina
Lyndsay Dudd, Battle Creek, MI
Sarah Stout, Hill City, SD
Sarah Amiotte, Oglala Lakota, Rapid City, SD
Raine Little, Oglala Lakota, Oglala, SD
Trey Fields, Oglala Lakota, Jacksonville, FL
Julie Richards, Oglala Lakota, Pine Ridge, SD
Vandee Crane, Tesuque, NM
Glenebah Tulley, Navajo, Sioux Falls, SD
Raina Loafer, Rosebud Sioux, Rapid City, SD
Joyce Wheeler, Oglala Lakota, Rapid City, SD
Hermis Earle Tail, Oyupe Oglala, Manderson, SD
Thony Medicine Eagle-Schweigman, Oglala Lakota, Rapid City, SD
Ramona Herrington, Oglala Lakota, Rapid City, SD
Lisa Ricci, Minneapolis, MN
Teresa Estes, Kul Wicasa Lower Brule, SD
Dawn Young, Sicangu Lakota, Rosebud, SD
Kehala Diserly, Spirit Lake Dakota, Rapid City, SD
Natalie Stites Means, Cheyenne River Lakota, Rapid City, SD
Cheryl Angel, Rapid City, SD
Jean Roach, Rapid City, SD
Pandora Traversie, Cheyenne River Lakota, Pipestone, MN
Monica R Deschon, Fort Peck, MT
Miskooquwezance Means, Rapid City, SD
Kathryn McKibben, Dine/Quapaw, Reno NV
Taylor Casey Wade, Oglala Lakota, Rapid City, SD
Hermus Bettelyoun, Oglala Lakota, Rapid City, SD
Anne Reddy, Oglala Lakota, Rapid City, SD
Carly Black Bull, Oglala Lakota
Kimberlynn Floren, Sioux Falls, SD
Gloria Eastman, Sicangu Lakota, Rapid City, SD
Mitchell Zephier, Lower Brule, Rapid City, SD
Jacquelynn White Hat, Sicangu, Rapid City, SD
Hollis Neck, Rapid City, SD
Deborah Jihon, Pueblo Isleta, NM
Eleanor Ferguson, Oglala Lakota, Kyle, SD
Lona Knight, Dupree, SD
Elijiah Steele, MHA, Rapid City, SD
Cassandra Little Owl, Crow, Crow Agency, MT
Iliana Wood, Sicangu, Rosebud, SD
Arlene Hopkins, Oglala Lakota
Anna Montes, Oglala Lakota, Rapid City, SD
Theresa Lange, Oglala Lakota, Rapid City SD
Stardust Red Bow, Oglala Lakota, Rapid City SD
Lori Laiwa Thomas, Pomo, Hopland, CA
Allison Renville, Dakotas For America, Sissseton, SD
Zintkala Mahpiya Win Blackowl, sicangu lakota Brave Heart Dakota Womens Warrior Society, Oceti
Sakowin Treaty Territory
Karissa Loewen, Rapid City, SD
Shannon Emry, MD
Erica Moore, UCTP, Awarwakan Taino, Brookings, SD
Mary Haan, Rapid City, SD
Angel Flying Hawk, Oglala Lakota, Rapid City, SD
Tria Blue Wakpa, Los Angeles, CA
Linda Kramer, Borderlands Education and Spiritual Center, Hill City, SD
Jessica Hubner, Rapid City, SD
Carla Jones, Sicangu Lakota, Greenfield, WI
Heather Wood, Oglala Lakota citizen, Mniluzahan Otunwahe – Rapid City, SD
Jaminn Andreas Hubner, Rapid City, SD
Danae Mckee, Suttons Bay, MI
Mashugashon Camp, Ponca/Lakota/hopi, New Town, SD
Walaa Alqaisiya, Columbia University, Rapid City, SD
Michelle Tyon, Oglala Lakota, Wiconi Waste Resistance Farm, Porcupine, SD
Renee M Chacon, Wmxn from the mountain, Denver, CO