Leid Stories – 01.05.16

Cops Gone Wild; Justice Gives Deep Cover
Developments in Chicago and South Carolina bring into sharp focus the national crisis of police killings of unarmed people. Overwhelmingly they have been, and tend to be, people of color, statistics show, and were killed, or are likely to be killed, by white officers who rarely are successfully prosecuted for their crimes. Leid Stories explains how the judicial system provides deep cover to rogue cops and why efforts at “reform” simply won’t touch the matter of criminal complicity by prosecutors and even judges in aiding and abetting injustice.

Norman Pollack – Obama, Interventionist: Study of a War Criminal

War criminals are not born, they are made, or rather make themselves through the experience of having an inner motif of self-promotion directed to cultivating, and thus bringing themselves to the attention of, those possessing wealth and power. No subtlety here, no shame of wanting recognition; instead, merely an active fantasy life of grand leadership as a presumed visionary entitled …

A Just Cause – Abuse & Corruption within the Bureau of Prisons – 10.04.15

The host Cliff Stewart, Lisa Stewart and Lamont Banks speak with our guest Bernard B. Kerik, former Police Commissioner of the City of New York. Mr. Kerik has a unique and one-of-a kind perspective into the U.S. criminal justice and prison systems, prompting him to become an advocate for criminal justice and prison reform in America.

Leid Stories – 09.16.15

The Ferguson Commission Report: An Exercise in Futility?
CNN Takes Its Turn As Carnival Barker At Two-Ring Circus
The Ferguson Commission—a 16-member blue-ribbon panel appointed last November by Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon to look into underlying causes of the rebellion that enveloped the city three months earlier, after the police shooting of Michael Brown—concluded its task two days ago with a 198-page report.
Titled “Forward Through Ferguson: A Path Toward Racial Equity,” the report makes 169 recommendations in four areas it identified as requiring urgent attention— the law-enforcement/criminal-justice system, issues uniquely related to local youth, economic development, and entrenched racism.
Our guest, Al Gerhardstein, a Cincinnati-based civil-rights attorney with a long history of successfully litigating police-brutality cases and forcing court-ordered reforms in the criminal-justice system, discusses the Ferguson Commission’s report.
CNN takes its turn tonight as carnival barker at the two-ring circus it’s calling a presidential debate. Leid Stories in a commentary explains how CNN is merely filling its role as one of “The 3 M’s” in this political season.

Private Prison Corporations Stand With Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton has called, tepidly, for an end to mass incarceration, in vague terms, without policy details: “There is something profoundly wrong when African-American men are far more likely to be stopped by the police and charged with crimes and given longer prison terms than their white counterparts,” Clinton said. “There is something wrong when trust between law enforcement and …

Paul Craig Roberts – America: A Land Where Justice Is Absent

America’s First Black President is a traitor to his race and also to justice. Obama has permitted the corrupt US Department of Justice (sic), over which he wields authority, to overturn the ruling of a US Federal Court of Appeals that prisoners sentenced illegally to longer terms than the law permits must be released once the legal portion of their …

KIRA LERNER – Bernie Sanders To Introduce Legislation Abolishing Private Prisons When Congress Reconvenes

Vermont Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said Tuesday that he will introduce legislation to abolish private prisons, one piece of his comprehensive racial justice reform package that has won praise from Black Lives Matter activists. “When Congress reconvenes in September, I will be introducing legislation which takes corporations out of profiteering from running jails,” the independent senator said at a campaign …

Senate Bill May Kick 200,000 Off Social Security If They Have Arrest Warrant By Steven Rosenfeld

The large transportation funding bill moving through the Senate would end Social Security benefits for 200,000 people who have an outstanding felony arrest warrant—but have never been convicted by a court, or have a warrant for violating probation or parole, according to disability rights advocates tracking the legislation. The proposal, which surfaced late Tuesday, is at odds with recent Republican statements [3] on …

23 Cents an Hour? The Perfectly Legal Slavery Happening in Modern-Day America By Terrell Jermaine Starr

If you thought slavery was outlawed in America, you would be wrong. The 13th amendment to the Constitution states that [3] “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” In plain language, that means slavery in America can still …