CRIME AFTER CRIME| Documentary (Video)

Filmed over the course of six years, “Crime After Crime” follows the dramatic legal battle to free Debbie Peagler, a survivor of domestic violence who spent more than 26 years in prison.

In 1983, Debbie Peagler was sentenced to life in prison for first-degree murder, despite many factors indicating that she should not have been charged with the crime in the first place. But Debbie’s case is not one of mistaken identity or a matter of simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Instead, Debbie was a victim of domestic violence who had tried to escape her abuser many times, even turning to police (who were of little help). When two men who Debbie had asked to protect her killed her abuser, she was charged with first-degree murder and threatened with the death penalty.

To avoid that sentence, Debbie entered a guilty plea so that she would “only” be sentenced to life in prison, and not the death penalty. With only a slim chance at being released on parole, Debbie never thought she would see her two daughters outside of prison again – until a new law offered a ray of hope. Two decades after her incarceration began, California became the first state to allow domestic violence cases like Debbie’s to be reopened.

Two land use attorneys (Joshua Safran and Nadia Costa) decided to take on her case pro bono. They soon uncovered a trail of prosecutorial misconduct that began with Debbie’s arrest and continue to the present day. Their discoveries sent Debbie’s case into the headlines and launched a movement that not only advocated for her own freedom, but also raised a banner for battered women and the wrongfully imprisoned around the globe.

Over 80% of the 120,000 women in U.S. prisons are victims of rape, incest or other forms of abuse. Yet, California remains the only state that allows incarcerated victims of abuse to petition for their freedom. But now similar laws are now brewing in five states including New York, where it looks poised to pass.

Directed by Yoav Potash

Synopsis by Sidney Hillman Foundation

CRIME AFTER CRIME  (Website)
 
 

 

Anaheim Police Brutality Sparks Outrage After 2 Latinos Shot Dead and Demonstrators Attacked | Democracy Now!

Police in the California city of Anaheim are facing allegations of murder and brutality after fatally shooting two Latino men over the weekend and firing rubber bullets at crowds of protestors. On 21 July 2012, Anaheim police shot and killed 24-year-old Manuel Diaz after he reportedly ran away from a group of officers who confronted him in the street. Diaz was unarmed. Hours after his death, a chaotic scene broke out when police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at a crowd of local residents protesting the shooting.

Another Latino resident, Joel Acevedo, was shot dead by police the following day. Police say Acevedo was suspected in a car robbery, but the circumstances around his death remain unconfirmed. We discuss the situation in Anaheim with Gustavo Arellano, editor of the alternative newspaper, OC Weekly; and Teresa Smith, who has worked with families to call for police accountability in Anaheim since 2009, when officers shot and killed her son Cesar Cruz, a 35-year-old father of five. “Given the fact that this is the eighth officer-involved shooting within one year in the city of Anaheim … the community’s going to be very upset,” Arellano says. “There’s a lot of angry residents, and rightfully so.”

 

California Death Penalty Ban Qualifies for November Ballot -By Maura Dolan| L.A. Times

California is set for a major debate on the death penalty following qualification Monday of a November ballot measure that would replace capital punishment with a life term without possibility of parole.

If passed, the measure would make California the 18th state in the nation without a death penalty. During the last five years, four states have replaced the death penalty and Connecticut is soon to follow.

Growing numbers of conservatives in California have joined the effort to repeal the state’s capital punishment law, expressing frustration with its price tag and the rarity of executions. California has executed 13 inmates in 23 years, and prisoners are far more likely to die of old age on death row than by the executioner’s needle.

November’s ballot measure would commute the sentences of more than 700 people on death row to life without possibility of parole, a term that would then become the state’s most severe form of criminal punishment.

Most death row inmates would be returned to the general prison population and be expected to work. Their earnings would go to crime victims.

Worth noting: A ban on the death penalty is expected to save the state billions of dollars in the future. A recent study estimates that California has spent over $4 billion dollars on capital punishment since the death penalty was reinstated in 1978.

Excerpt, read: California Death Penalty Ban Qualifies for November Ballot -By Maura Dolan| L.A. Times

Related: California Thirsty for Blood | RT News (Video)

California Cost Study 2011 | Death Penalty Information Center

SAFE California Act (Website)

Methods of Execution : Death Row, The Final 24 Hours | Discovery Channel (Video)

 

Congressman King’s Radicalization Hearings Unfairly Target Entire Muslim-American Community –By Rep. Michael Honda (D-Calif)|The Hill

Rep. Mike Honda III (D-Calif) criticizes Rep. Peter King (R-NY) for attempting to hold anti-Muslim radicalization hearings and isolating the entire Muslim-American community (Photo courtesy of AACI.org)

Who would have thought that my early childhood experience in a Japanese-American internment camp during World War II would offer such useful insight 65 years later in determining the direction America is headed? In reflecting on Thursday’s hearings on Muslim Americans – planned by Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) – I feel like a mirror is being held up to my life, giving value to lessons learned as a child.

Make no mistake. Growing up in internment camp Amache in Colorado was no joy ride – just look at the pictures. We were treated like cattle in those camps. Never mind the fact that we were born in America. Never mind the fact that we were patriotic Americans and law-abiding citizens. Never mind the fact that we were constructively contributing to the American economy. Despite all this, hundreds of thousands of Americans suddenly became the enemy at the height of the war, with no cause, no crime and no constitutional protection.

We look back now, as a nation, and we know this was the wrong reaction. We look back now and know that this was a result of “race prejudice, war hysteria and a failure of political leadership.” We look back now and know that an entire ethnicity was said to be, and ultimately considered, the enemy. We know that internment occurred because few in Washington were brave enough to say “no.”

We know all this, and yet our country is now, within my lifetime, repeating the same mistakes from our past. The interned 4-year-old in me is crying out for a course correction so that we do not do to others what we did unjustly to countless Japanese-Americans.

This time, instead of creating an ethnic enemy, Congressman King is creating a religious enemy. Because of prejudice, war hysteria and a failure of Republican leadership, King is targeting the entire Muslim-American community. Similar to my experience, they are become increasingly marginalized and isolated by our policies.

Never mind the fact that many were born in America and have no allegiance to their ancestors’ native homeland. Never mind the fact that they are patriotic Americans and law-abiding citizens. Never mind the fact that they are constructively contributing to the American economy. Irrespective of all this, millions of Americans have become the new enemy, with no cause and no crime.

There is no question that a congressional hearing, which targets an entire religion, is morally and strategically wrong-headed. First, it is un-American. This is not the America that I know and have helped build as a life-long public servant. The America that I know has always provided refuge for those fleeing persecution, from early settlers to recent refugees. The America that I know, furthermore, does not hate and discriminate base on race, religion or creed.

Second, it is counterproductive. Congressman King is undermining his own objective. In hosting these hearings, King, as chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, has declared, erroneously, that the Muslim-American community does not partner actively enough with law-enforcement officials to prevent potential acts of violence. Despite the offensive and fallacious nature of King’s concern, given extensive evidence that contradicts his claim, the Homeland Security chairman’s strategy makes future partnerships unpalatable.

In one fell swoop of his discriminatory brush, King, in his apparent attempt to root out radicalization, marginalizes an entire American minority group, making enemies of them all. To add insult to injury, King has quipped (again, speciously) that America has too many mosques and that extremists run 80 percent of them. We can only hope that Rep. King does not completely undermine all the goodwill established across this country between Muslim Americans and law enforcement officials. You can be certain that few will want to work with King going forward.

Don’t get me wrong. I support the Homeland Security Committee examining “radicalization” in this country, provided it is a comprehensive review, not a discriminatory one that targets only one subgroup of America. I support the committee examining “violent extremism” in this country, including an examination of militias and the 30,000-plus gun-related deaths occurring each year. I support a committee chair that is keen to keep our homeland secure.

This is not the case with King. These hearings do little to keep our country secure and do plenty to increase prejudice, discrimination and hate. I thought we learned a lesson or two from my internment camp experience in Colorado. I hope I am not proven wrong.

 

Reprint: Congressman King’s Radicalization Hearings Unfairly Target Entire Muslim-American Community –By Rep. Michael Honda (D-Calif) | The Hill

Related:Imam Rauf Speaks About Muslim Radicals Hearing –Hosted by Robert Siegel | NPR

 

We Were Here, The AIDS Years in San Francisco | David Weissman & Bill Weber

Filmmakers David Weissman and Bill Weber co-directed the 2001 documentary, The Cockettes, chronicling San Francisco’s legendary theater troupe of hippies and drag queens, 1969 – 1972.  We Were Here revisits San Francisco a decade later, as its flourishing gay community is hit with an unimaginable disaster.

We Were Here is the first documentary to take a deep and reflective look back at the arrival and impact of AIDS in San Francisco. It explores how the City’s inhabitants were affected by, and how they responded to, that calamitous epidemic.

Though a San Francisco-based story, We Were Here extends beyond San Francisco and beyond AIDS itself. It speaks to our capacity as individuals to rise to the occasion, and to the incredible power of a community coming together with love, compassion, and determination.

Produced and directed by David Weissman

Editor/ co-director Bill Weber

 

L.A. Prison Using Experimental, Controversial ‘Pain Ray’ to Keep Inmates in Line – By Clay Dillow | POPSCI

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Senior Deputy David Judge aims the Assault Intervention Device (AID) with a toggle during a demonstration at the Pitchess Detention Center's North County Correction Facility. / Photo: Michael Owen Baker

Inmates bringing the ruckus at Pitchess Detention Center in California will find that deputies there can bring the pain. Working as the test-bed for a National Institute of Justice experiment, the prison is testing Raytheon’s Assault Intervention Device, a seven-and-a-half-foot-tall device that focuses an invisible energy ray on misbehaving inmates, causing a serious heating sensation that should bring said bad behavior to a halt.

The device, which will be mounted high on the wall in a dormitory housing some 65 prisoners, does no damage but it’s ray penetrates the skin about 1/64th of an inch over an area about the size of a CD, causing a sensation that’s been equated to opening an extremely hot oven. The pain stops when the target gets out of the way of the beam. It is controlled remotely via a joystick and a camera mounted on the ray itself. Deputies at Pitchess think it should help break up fights between inmates and keep deputies from having to hurl themselves into harm’s way when inmates get unruly.

The device is being evaluated for a period of six months by the National Institute of Justice for use in jails nationwide to curb inmate violence, and it was installed at no cost to the Sheriff’s Department.

Excerpt, read more: L.A. Prison Using Experimental, Controversial ‘Pain Ray’ to Keep Inmates in Line – By Clay Dillow | POPSCI

Authorities at Castaic Jail Poised to Use Assault Intervention Device – By C.J. Lin | Daily News