Chris Hedges's Blog, page 280

Island Leader’s Plea From the Deep: Save the Oceans

DESROCHES ISLAND, Seychelles—In a striking speech delivered from deep below the ocean’s surface, the Seychelles president on Sunday made a global plea for stronger protection of the “beating blue heart of our planet.”

President Danny Faure’s call for action, the first-ever live speech from an underwater submersible, came from one of the many island nations threatened by global warming.

He spoke during a visit to an ambitious British-led science expedition exploring the Indian Ocean depths. Oceans cover over two-thirds of the world’s surface but remain, for the most part, uncharted. We have better maps of Mars than we do of the ocean floor, Faure said.

“This issue is bigger than all of us, and we cannot wait for the next generation to solve it. We are running out of excuses to not take action, and running out of time,” the president said from a manned submersible 400 feet (121 meters) below the waves, on the seabed off the outer islands of the African nation.

Wearing a Seychelles T-shirt and shorts, the president told The Associated Press after his speech that the experience was “so, so cool. What biodiversity.” It made him more determined than ever to speak out for marine protection, he said. “We just need to do what needs to be done. The scientists have spoken.”

The oceans’ role in regulating climate and the threats they face are underestimated by many, even though as Faure pointed out they generate “half of the oxygen we breathe.” Scientific missions are crucial in taking stock of underwater ecosystems’ health.

Small island nations are among the most vulnerable to sea level rise caused by climate change, and some have found creative ways to express their concerns. Faure’s speech came a decade after members of the Maldives’ Cabinet donned scuba gear and used hand signals at an underwater meeting highlighting global warming’s threat to the lowest-lying nation on earth.

Land erosion, dying coral reefs and the increased frequency of extreme weather events threaten such countries’ existence.

During the expedition, marine scientists from the University of Oxford have surveyed underwater life, mapped large areas of the sea floor and gone deep with manned submersibles and underwater drones.

Little is known about the watery world below depths of 30 meters, the limit to which a normal scuba diver can go. Operating down to 500 meters, the scientists were the first to explore areas of great diversity where sunlight weakens and the deep ocean begins.

By the end of the mission, researchers expect to have conducted over 300 deployments, collected around 1,400 samples and 16 terabytes of data and surveyed about 30 square kilometers (11.5 sq. miles) of seabed using high-resolution multi-beam sonar equipment.

The data will be used to help the Seychelles expand its policy of protecting almost a third of its national waters by 2020. The initiative is important for the country’s “blue economy,” an attempt to balance development needs with those of the environment.

“From this depth, I can see the incredible wildlife that needs our protection, and the consequences of damaging this huge ecosystem that has existed for millennia,” Faure said in his speech. “Over the years, we have created these problems. We can solve them.”

Currently, only about 5% of the world’s oceans are protected. Countries have agreed to increase the area to 10% by 2020. But experts and environmental campaigners say between 30% and 50% of the oceans outside nations’ territorial waters should get protected status to ensure marine biodiversity.

Researchers hope their findings also will inform ongoing United Nations talks aimed at forging the first high seas conservation treaty, scheduled to conclude this year.

Environmental groups argue an international treaty is urgently needed because climate change, overfishing and efforts to mine the seabed for precious minerals are putting unsustainable pressure on marine life that could have devastating consequences for creatures on land as well.

Oceans will be one of the seven main themes of this year’s U.N. climate summit in Chile in December.

While scientists with the Nekton mission are nearing the end of their expedition, much of their work is just beginning. In the next few months, researchers at Oxford will analyze the samples and video surveys and put them together with environmental data.

“When we pull them together we can understand not just what we see in the areas that we’ve visited but what we might expect in other regions in the Seychelles,” said Lucy Woodall, the mission’s chief scientist.

This is the first of a half-dozen regions the mission plans to explore before the end of 2022, when scientists will present their research at a summit on the state of the Indian Ocean. Billions of people live along the ocean’s shores in Africa and Asia.

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Associated Press writer Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed.

Julian Assange and the Criminalization of Journalism

After living under a grant of asylum in London’s Ecuadorian embassy for nearly seven years, WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange was forcibly ejected and arrested by British police on April 11. Ecuador’s president, Lenin Moreno, accused Assange of “repeated violations to international conventions and daily-life protocols.” After an anonymous source revealed the “INA Papers,” a dossier that implicated Moreno in money laundering and contained personal photos of his family, WikiLeaks tweeted about it but denied any connection to the hacking.

Rafael Correa, who was president of Ecuador until 2017, had granted Assange asylum in 2012 to protect him from extradition to the United States to answer for WikiLeaks’s publication of evidence of U.S. war crimes. Ecuador’s foreign minister at the time, Ricardo Patino, said that without this protection, Assange could suffer “political persecution” or extradition to the U.S. where he might face the death penalty.

In 2010, WikiLeaks published classified documentation of U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan, which Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning had provided. It included the “Collateral Murder Video” that showed U.S. soldiers in an Army helicopter gunship kill 12 unarmed civilians walking down a street in Baghdad.

Sweden investigated Assange in fall 2010 for allegations of sexual assault. Assange was living in Britain at the time. Sweden issued an extradition warrant so Assange could face questioning about the investigation in Sweden. Assange fought extradition but lost in Britain’s Supreme Court in June 2012. He sought and received refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

In spite of pressure from the British government, in August 2012, Correa granted asylum to Assange, who has remained in the Ecuadorian embassy ever since. Sweden dropped its investigation of Assange in 2017.

The Trump Administration Indicts Assange

Assange’s arrest comes thanks to the Trump administration’s decision to pursue WikiLeaks. The Obama administration refrained from indicting Assange for fear of establishing “a precedent that could chill investigative reporting about national security matters by treating it as a crime,” according to Charlie Savage of The NewYork Times. Obama’s government had difficulty distinguishing between what WikiLeaks did and what traditional news media organizations like the Times “do in soliciting and publishing information they obtain that the government wants to keep secret,” Savage wrote. News organizations, including the Times, published articles that drew on documents WikiLeaks had published in 2010, including “logs of significant combat events in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.”

But the Trump administration decided to come after Assange. In 2017, then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo said, “WikiLeaks walks like a hostile intelligence service and talks like a hostile intelligence service.”

An indictment filed on March 6, 2018, in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia charges Assange under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. It alleges he was part of a conspiracy to access a computer without authorization in order to obtain classified information that “could be used to the injury of the United States.” Assange faces five years in prison if convicted.

Assange’s April 11 arrest was based on two grounds: failure to appear on a British warrant in 2012, and a warrant of extradition to face indictment in the United States. After his arrest, Assange was taken before a British judge and pleaded not guilty to failing to surrender to the court in 2012. District Judge Michael Snow convicted Assange, who now faces 12 months in prison in the U.K. for that offense. This is unrelated to the charges Assange would face in the United States.The indictment says Manning provided WikiLeaks with 90,000 “war-related significant activity reports” about Afghanistan, 400,000 about Iraq, 800 Guantánamo detainee “assessment briefs” and 250,000 U.S. State Department cables. WikiLeaks published the vast majority in 2010 and 2011. The indictment alleges Assange helped Manning attempt to crack a password to make it harder to identify Manning as the source of the classified information.

U.K. Should Deny Extradition of Assange to the U.S.

Meanwhile, Assange vows to fight extradition to the United States. Under the 2003 extradition treaty between the U.S. and the U.K., the U.K. can deny extradition if the offense sought is punishable by death. The U.S. Justice Department is apparently planning to file new charges against Assange, in addition to those listed in the 2018 indictment. But under the 2003 treaty, the United States cannot charge Assange with violation of the Espionage Act, because it carries the death penalty.

Moreover, the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment forbids extradition to a country where there are substantial grounds to believe the person would be in danger of being tortured.

The danger of torture in the U.S. is real. During the first 11 months of Manning’s incarceration in 2010, she was held in solitary confinement and subjected to humiliating forced nudity during daily inspection. The former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture called Manning’s treatment cruel, inhuman and degrading, possibly rising to the level of torture.

There is thus good reason to believe Assange might be subjected to such illegal treatment if he were extradited to the United States.

A few days before Assange’s removal from the embassy and arrest, Nils Metzer, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, warned that extradition to the U.S. “could expose him to a real risk of serious violations of his human rights, including his freedom of expression, his right to a fair trial and the prohibition of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

Assange’s Indictment Will Chill Freedom of the Press

Assange’s prosecution is unprecedented.

“The Justice Department has never charged journalists with violating the law for doing their jobs,” Savage wrote.

“Reporting on leaked materials, including reporting on classified information, is an essential role of American journalism,” the Electronic Frontier Foundation said in a statement.

The ACLU’s Ben Wizner cautioned that prosecuting Assange “would set an especially dangerous precedent for U.S. journalists, who routinely violate foreign secrecy laws to deliver information vital to the public’s interest.” He added that “while there is no First Amendment right to crack a government password, this indictment characterizes as ‘part of’ a criminal conspiracy the routine and protected activities journalists often engage in as part of their daily jobs, such as encouraging a source to provide more information.”

Kristinn Hrafnsson, editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, responded to Assange’s indictment, saying, “This is journalism. It’s called ‘conspiracy.’ It’s conspiracy to commit journalism.”

Reporters Without Borders, an organization that protects freedom of the press, called on the U.K. to oppose extradition of Assange. It would “set a dangerous precedent for journalists, whistleblowers, and other journalistic sources that the U.S. may wish to pursue in the future.”

The 2003 treaty between the U.S. and the U.K. prohibits extradition if the request is “politically motivated.” That limitation is certainly at play here: Trump administration has made a political decision to single out WikiLeaks and make it an example. The administration wishes to send a message to other press organizations that they publish material critical of U.S. policy at their peril.

The U.K. must deny the extradition of Assange to the United States.

Violent Storms Sweep the South: 8 Dead, Dozens Injured

Powerful storms swept across the South on Sunday after unleashing suspected tornadoes and flooding that killed at least eight people, injured dozens and flattened much of a Texas town. Three children were among the dead.

Nearly 90,000 customers were without electricity in Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Georgia as of midday Sunday, according to www.poweroutage.us as the severe weather left a trail of destruction.

Two children were killed on a back road in East Texas when a pine tree fell onto the car in which they were riding in a severe thunderstorm Saturday near Pollok, about 150 miles (241 kilometers) southeast of Dallas.

The tree “flattened the car like a pancake,” said Capt. Alton Lenderman of the Angelina County Sheriff’s Office. The children, ages 8 and 3, were dead at the scene, while both parents, who were in the front seat, escaped injury, he said.

At least one person was killed and about two dozen others were injured after a suspected tornado struck the Caddo Mounds State Historic Site in East Texas during a Native American cultural event in Alto, about 130 miles (209 kilometers) southeast of Dallas. Cherokee County Judge Chris Davis said the fatality that was reported was of a woman who died of her critical injuries.

In neighboring Houston County, the sheriff’s office said one person was killed in Weches, 6 miles southwest of Caddo Mound.

There was widespread damage in Alto, a town of about 1,200, and the school district canceled classes until its buildings can be deemed safe.

A tornado flattened much of the south side of Franklin, Texas, overturning mobile homes and damaging other residences, said Robertson County Sheriff Gerald Yezak. Franklin is about 125 miles (200 kilometers) south of Dallas.

The weather service said preliminary information showed an EF-3 tornado touched down with winds of 140 mph (225.3 kph).

It destroyed 55 homes, a church, four businesses, a duplex, and part of the local housing authority building, authorities said. Two people were hospitalized for injuries that were not thought to be life-threatening, while others were treated at the scene, Yezak said. Some people had to be extricated from damaged dwellings.

Heavy rains and storms raked Mississippi into the night Saturday as the storms moved east.

Roy Ratliff, 95, died after a tree crashed onto his trailer in northeastern Mississippi, Monroe County Road Manager Sonny Clay said at a news conference, adding that a tornado had struck. Nineteen residents were taken to hospitals, including two in critical condition. A tornado was reported in the area 140 miles (225 kilometers) southeast of Memphis, Tennessee, at the time.

In Hamilton, Mississippi, 72-year-old Robert Scott said he had been sleeping in his recliner late Saturday when he was awakened and found himself in his yard after a tornado ripped most of his home off its foundation.

His 71-year-old wife, Linda, was in a different part of the house and also survived, he said. They found each other while crawling through the remnants of the house they have lived in since 1972.

“We’re living, and God has blessed us,” Scott, a retired manager for a grocery store meat department, said Sunday as neighbors helped him salvage his belongings.

National Weather Service meteorologist John Moore said a possible twister touched down in the Vicksburg, Mississippi, area. No injuries were reported, but officials reported damage to several businesses and vehicles.

The storm damaged a roof of a hotel in New Albany, Mississippi, and Mississippi State University’s 21,000 students huddled in basements and hallways as a tornado neared the campus in Starkville.

University spokesman Sid Salter said some debris, possibly carried by the tornado, was found on campus, but no injuries were reported and no buildings were damaged. Trees were toppled and minor damage was reported in residential areas east of the campus.

The large storm system also caused flash floods in Louisiana, where two deaths were reported.

Authorities said 13-year-old Sebastian Omar Martinez drowned in a drainage canal after flash flooding struck Bawcomville, near Monroe, said Deputy Glenn Springfield of the Ouachita Parish Sheriff’s Department. Separately, one person died when a car was submerged in floodwaters in Calhoun, also near Monroe.

As the storm moved into Alabama, a possible tornado knocked out power and damaged mobile homes in Troy, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Montgomery.

Near the Birmingham suburb of Hueytown, a county employee died after being struck by a vehicle while he was helping clear away trees about 2:15 a.m. Sunday, said Capt. David Agee of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. The man, whose name was not immediately released, died after being taken to a hospital.

The forecast of severe weather forced officials at the Masters in Augusta, Georgia, to start the final round of the tournament early on Sunday in order to finish in midafternoon before it began raining.

Why Aren’t Top Democrats Coming to Ilhan Omar’s Defense?

Nancy Pelosi’s response to Donald Trump’s tweet lying about Ilhan Omar and maliciously twisting her words to make her seem virtually an al-Qaeda sympathizer was so anodyne that Pelosi didn’t even mention Omar’s name.

The leadership of the Democratic Party is not coming to the defense of Rep. Omar because Ilhan Omar is a liberal. And let me tell you, the leadership of the Democratic Party has kept liberals twisting in the wind since forever.

Gallup polling shows that only about half of Democrats identify as “liberal,” whereas 36 percent say they are “moderate,” and 13 percent actually say they are “conservative.”

Democrats, however, usually cannot win elections without independents, since only 31% of Americans say they are Democrats, whereas 42% are independents. And 45% of independents say they are moderate, while 28% say they are conservative, and only 22 percent are liberal.

The Democratic Party leadership has Mondale syndrome. They still think it is dangerous for the party to have an out and out liberal as its face and they are still afraid of Reagan Republicans.

Both Democratic presidents during the past 40 years were centrists, which is one reason the country has in its policies and its judicial rulings ratcheted so far to the right. The Republicans are often captured by the far right, a witches brew of petulant plutocracy and lower middle class white grievance. They pass laws reducing taxes on the superwealthy, making them more superwealthy, and gutting environmental and consumer protections, and taking services and aid away from the person in the street. They then defend these far right wing laws and measures while they are in the minority, keeping enough seats in the Senate to block any Left counter-legislation, or using the GOP president’s veto. Since even when they get in, the Democrats are only centrists, they don’t even try very hard to shift things left. So US politics is like a crab walking, always as much to the right as forward.

The Democratic leadership believes that a centrist Clinton or Obama is the best we can do, and running one might occasionally allow the Dems to take the White House or a chamber of Congress.

They are happy to have the 26% of votes belonging to liberal voters. But they hold that that isn’t a national program. They need the moderates, and even conservatives (as I remember, 10% of the votes for Obama in 2008 were conservative, and on many issues they weren’t wrong to vote for Obama.)

What the Democratic leadership does not realize is that politics in the swing states– Michigan, Ohio, Florida, etc.– has gone sideways. Bernie Sanders could almost certainly win them all against Trump. A milquetoast centrist probably cannot. Dems can take California, New York and Massachusetts for granted. But they cannot take the Rust Belt for granted, and the Rust Belt is tired of politics as usual.

The Republicans are attempting to tag the Democratic Party as the party of Muslims and to imply that it makes the party unpatriotic and anti-Semitic. The prominence of Ilhan Omar and her searing leftwing critiques of the miserable status quo are seen by Trump and Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell as an opportunity to Mondale-ize the Democrats.

I think both the Democratic leadership and the GOP are wrong, and that they are misreading 2016. Americans are tired of the forever wars, tired of plutocracy, tired of not being able to make ends meet, tired of not having affordable health insurance. That is the real message of 2016 and 2018. These issues grip them beyond the liberal, moderate and conservative labels. McConnell is alleged now to be urging Republicans to run on their own rather than tying themselves to Trump, smelling blood in the water.

If the Democratic leadership were smart, they’d come out vocally in Omar’s defense and do a photo op with her at one of her events for the working class or for the 9/11 first responders. She cares about those people, she is from poverty and displacement. She is authentic. The Democratic leadership is tied to corporations and big banks and big money. If they run on that, as they did in 2016, Trump will have them for lunch.

 

China’s Auto Show Highlights Electric Ambitions

BEIJING — This year’s Shanghai auto show highlights the global industry’s race to make electric cars Chinese drivers want to buy as Beijing winds down subsidies that promoted sales.

Communist leaders are shifting the burden to automakers by imposing mandatory sales targets for electrics, adding to financial pressure on them amid a painful sales slump. Chinese purchases of pure-electric and hybrid sedans and SUVs soared 60% last year to 1.3 million — half the global total — but overall auto sales shrank 4.1% to 23.7 million.

Buyers of electrics were lured with subsidies of up to 50,000 yuan ($7,400) per car, but that support was cut by half in January and ends next year.

“Competition is getting more fierce,” said industry analyst Paul Gong of UBS.

Communist leaders have been promoting electrics for 15 years in hopes of cleaning smog-choked Chinese cities and gaining an early lead in a promising industry.

General Motors, Volkswagen, Nissan and other global majors are developing models to suit Chinese tastes. They have money and technology, but local rivals have experience: brands including BYD Auto and BAIC Group have been selling low-priced electrics for a decade.

At the Shanghai show, which opens to the public Saturday, automakers plan to display dozens of electrics, from luxury SUVs to micro-compacts priced under $10,000. They aim to compete with gasoline-powered models on performance, cost and looks.

By the end of next year, “it will be very difficult for a customer to decide against an electric car,” said the CEO of Volkswagen AG, Herbert Diess.

“The cars will offer roominess, space, fast charging,” Diess said during a January visit to Beijing. “They will look exciting.”

Automakers are looking to China, their biggest global market, to drive revenue growth at a time when U.S. and European demand is flat or declining. That gives them an incentive to cooperate with Beijing’s campaign to promote electrics.

This week, General Motors Co. is unveiling the first all-electric model in Buick’s China-only Velite range, which includes a hybrid based on the Chevrolet Volt. VW will display a concept SUV as part of plans to launch 50 electric models by 2025.

Nissan Motor Co. and its Chinese partner will display the Sylphy Zero Emission, an all-electric model designed for China that went on sale in August. BYD Auto will display an all-electric sedan with an advertised range of 400 kilometers (250 miles) on one charge.

Pressure to shift to electrics is “more an opportunity than a threat” to Chinese automakers, said UBS’s Gong.

Latecomers to gasoline-powered vehicles, Chinese brands account for just 10% of global sales, mostly in low price tiers, Gong said. But they account for 50% of electric sales worldwide.

“In the EV world, Chinese companies started earlier and reacted faster,” said Gong.

The ruling Communist Party has spent billions of dollars on research grants and incentives to buyers. State-owned power companies have blanketed China with 730,000 charging stations, a vastly larger network than any other country.

Meanwhile, automakers are struggling to revive sales of traditional SUVS, minivans and sedans that fell last year for the first time in three decades.

A tariff war with Washington and weakening economic growth made jittery consumers reluctant to commit to big purchases. That skid worsened this year. First-quarter sales shrank 13.7% from a year earlier.

Despite that, people in the industry say Chinese sales could top 30 million vehicles a year by 2025.

Ford relaunched its China operation this year after 2018 sales plunged 37%. The company blamed an aging product lineup.

Global brands are linking up with Chinese partners with experience at low-cost production.

Ford has an electric venture with Zotye Auto. GM and its Chinese partners plan 10 electric models by next year. Mercedes Benz launched the Denza brand with BYD. VW’s electric joint venture, SOL, started selling an SUV last year.

Under the new system, automakers must earn credits for sales of electrics equal to at least 10% of purchases this year and 12% in 2020. Automakers that fall short can buy credits from competitors that exceed their targets.

Regulators say targets will rise later.

An electric’s sticker price in China still is higher than a gasoline model. But charging and maintenance cost less. Industry analysts say owners who drive at least 16,000 kilometers (10,000 miles) a year save money in the long run.

China’s biggest SUV brand, Great Wall Motors, has responded to the sale quotas by launching an electric brand, Ola. Its R1 compact, while looks like a toy beside Great Wall’s hulking SUVs, went on sale in December priced as low as 59,800 yuan ($8,950) after the subsidy.

In a move to spur competition, Beijing lifted ownership restrictions on electric automakers last year.

Tesla Ltd. responded by announcing plans to build its first factory outside the United States in Shanghai.

Official ambitions clash with the Chinese public’s love of bulky SUVs, seen as the safest option on crowded, bumpy streets. But sentiments are shifting.

A UBS survey found 71% of Chinese buyers are willing to try an electric, up from 58% a year ago. The rate for the United States and Europe was below 20%.

“Customer willingness is always higher in China,” said Gong.

2 Children Dead, Several People Hurt in Strong Texas Storms

DALLAS—Two children were killed and about a dozen people were injured in Texas Saturday after powerful storms spawned at least one suspected tornado and damaged several homes, authorities said.

The Angelina County Sheriff’s Office said an 8-year-old and a 3-year-old died when strong winds toppled a tree onto the back of their family’s car in Lufkin while it was in motion. Capt. Alton Lenderman said the parents, who were in the front seats, were not injured.

Lufkin is about 115 miles (185 kilometers) northeast of Houston. Additional information was not immediately available.

In Central Texas, Robertson County Sheriff Gerald Yezak told The Associated Press a suspected tornado hit the small city of Franklin, overturning mobile homes and damaging other residences. Franklin is located about 125 miles (200 kilometers) south of Dallas.

Two people were hospitalized for injuries not thought to be life-threatening, while others were treated at the scene for minor injuries, Yezak said. Some people had to be extricated from their homes.

National Weather Service meteorologist Monique Sellers said they’ve received reports of downed trees, as well as damage to buildings and a transmission tower.

The storms are part of a large system moving through the southern United States, knocking out power to thousands and causing some flash flooding. The weather service said the system is expected to shift to the Ohio Valley and the Southeast on Sunday.

Meteorologist John Moore said a possible twister touched down Saturday in the Vicksburg, Mississippi, area. No injuries have been reported, but officials said several businesses and vehicles were damaged.

Winds of up to 60 mph (96.56 kph) were reported in Cherokee County, Texas, damaging two homes in Alto but not injuring anyone. Alto is situated about 140 miles (225 kilometers) north of Houston.

Trump Sanctuary City Idea Could Help Migrants Stay in U.S.

PHOENIX—An idea floated by President Donald Trump to send immigrants from the border to “sanctuary cities” to exact revenge on Democratic foes could end up doing the migrants a favor by placing them in locations that make it easier to put down roots and stay in the country.

The plan would put thousands of immigrants in cities that are not only welcoming to them, but also more likely to rebuff federal officials carrying out deportation orders. Many of these locations have more resources to help immigrants make their legal cases to stay in the United States than smaller cities, with some of the nation’s biggest immigration advocacy groups based in places like San Francisco, New York City and Chicago. The downside for the immigrants would be a high cost of living in the cities.

The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University announced this week that an analysis found that immigrants in sanctuary cities such as New York and Los Angeles are 20% less likely to be arrested out in the community than in cities without such policies.

“With immigrants being less likely to commit crimes than the U.S. born population, and with sanctuary jurisdictions being safer and more productive than non-sanctuary jurisdictions, the data damns this proposal as a politically motivated stunt that seeks to play politics with peoples’ lives,” said George Gascon, district attorney for San Francisco.

Trump has grown increasingly frustrated over the situation at the border, where tens of thousands of immigrant families are crossing each month, many to claim asylum. His administration has attempted several efforts to stop the flow and he recently shook up the top ranks of the Department of Homeland Security.

The idea to ship immigrants to Democratic strongholds was considered twice in recent months, but the White House and Department of Homeland Security said the plan had been rejected. But Trump said Friday he was still considering the idea.

“Due to the fact that Democrats are unwilling to change our very dangerous immigration laws, we are indeed, as reported, giving strong considerations to placing Illegal Immigrants in Sanctuary Cities only,” Trump tweeted. He added that, “The Radical Left always seems to have an Open Borders, Open Arms policy – so this should make them very happy!”

Wilson Romero is an immigrant from Honduras who chose to settle in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Romero, 27, was separated from his daughter, now 7, by federal authorities at the U.S. border at El Paso, Texas, last year and jailed for three months before being released and making his way to live with his mother in San Jose, California. There he was reunited with his daughter, who attends public kindergarten.

Romero says he goes about daily errands in public without worry of discrimination. His daughter has made friends and has playdates with the children of Mexican American families. It’s a far cry from his hometown in the violence-plagued outskirts of San Pedro Sula, Honduras, that he fled after his brother-in-law was killed.

To him, the biggest problem with being in the Bay Area is the high cost of living. The former textile factory worker relies on his mother’s income from waitressing for food and clothing, and he’s started thinking about asking legal permission to move to North Carolina, where an uncle resides and says it’s cheaper to live and work.

“To tell the truth, it’s a little tight now, financially speaking,” said Romero, a former textile factory worker, who said he doesn’t know of any charities that may be willing to help.

The plan discussed by Trump would also have financial, logistical and legal issues.

The transportation of immigrants who are arrested at the border to large and faraway cities would be burdensome and costly at a time when Immigration and Customs Enforcement is already stretched thin, having released over 125,000 immigrants into the country pending their immigration court since Dec. 21. They are currently being released mainly in border states.

Flights chartered by ICE cost about $7,785 per flight hour, according to the agency, and require multiple staffers, including an in-flight medical professional. The agency also uses commercial flights. Doing longer transports would increase liability for the agency, especially considering that many of the immigrants in its care are families with young children.

And despite the consideration given to releasing the immigrants on the streets to sanctuary cities, the Trump administration actually has plenty of jail space to detain families. As of April 11, the nation’s three facilities to detain immigrant families were nowhere near capacity, including a Pennsylvania facility housing only nine immigrants.

It’s also unclear how long the immigrants would stay in these cities because they are required to provide an address to federal authorities—typically of a family member—as a condition of their release.

“It’s illogical,” said Angela Chan, policy director and senior attorney with the San Francisco-based Asian Law Caucus. “It’s just alarming that they are spending so much effort and so much time to engage in political theater.”

The Trump administration has long pushed back against cities with sanctuary policies, which generally prohibit local authorities to cooperate with federal immigration police, often by refusing to hold people arrested on local charges past their release date at the request of immigration officers. Over 100 local governments around the country have adopted a variety of these policies.

“New York City will always be the ultimate city of immigrants—the president’s empty threats won’t change that,” New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio said in a statement.

But Trump seemed ready to step up his fight with the cities, vowing to “give them an unlimited supply” of immigrants from the border.

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Associated Press writer Karen Matthews contributed to this report.

Thousands Rally in Serbia Against Populist Leader Vucic

BELGRADE, Serbia—Thousands in Serbia protested again Saturday against populist President Aleksandar Vucic as riot police deployed inside the country’s parliament, saying they wanted to prevent the opposition from storming the building.

The protest in central Belgrade in front of the parliament building — the biggest so far in 19 straight weeks — came after months of anti-government demonstrations accusing Vucic of being autocratic and demanding that his government allow more democracy, media freedoms and free elections in the Balkan nation.

Opposition leaders, ranging from the far-left to right-wing, said authorities sought to prevent their supporters from coming to Belgrade for the rally Saturday. Police denied the accusations.

Speakers called for a prolonged struggle against Vucic’s government and demanded that the European Union stops what they called its support for his rule. Although staunchly pro-Russian, Vucic has claimed he wants to take Serbia into the EU.

Opposition leaders said they want to speak with the government about democratic changes, including free media and free elections, adding that if Vucic refuses, they will gather again in Belgrade next Saturday.

Vucic’s conservative party members, meanwhile, barricaded themselves inside the Belgrade parliament building and in local city councils throughout Serbia on Saturday, claiming they wanted to prevent the forceful takeover of power by “fascists and thugs.”

Tensions have mounted all week as pro-government media and officials alleged that the opposition wanted to storm state institutions and take power by force. Those comments came despite the fact that the weekly anti-government protests have been largely peaceful.

Vucic, who denies accusations that he’s an autocrat, said Saturday’s protest “will achieve nothing” and added that any troublemakers “will be removed” from the streets.

The anti-government protests started after masked thugs beat up an opposition politician last November.

Late Serbian hard-line leader Slobodan Milosevic was ousted from power in 2000 after protesters stormed the parliament in Belgrade. Vucic was his close associate then.

Vucic plans to bring his supporters to Belgrade next Friday to counter the rising revolt against his rule.

 

Sudan Army Removes Leader, Rejects Ousted President’s Extradition

CAIRO—The Sudanese military on Friday swiftly replaced the country’s transitional leader linked to the Darfur genocide after street rallies against him and said that it wouldn’t hand over ousted President Omar al-Bashir to the International Criminal Court, where he faces charges of crimes against humanity.

Thousands of jubilant protesters celebrated in the streets after Defense Minister Gen. Awad ibn Ouf, who was named de facto leader after overthrowing al-Bashir on Thursday, announced he was stepping down as transitional leader. He named a reputable army general as his successor.

Ibn Ouf said he would be replaced by Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, general inspector of the armed forces, as head of the transitional council, which will rule the country for two years until elections.

“I am confident he will steer the ship to safe shores,” he said of Burhan, adding he was stepping aside to “preserve unity” of the armed forces.

Burhan was one of the generals who reached out to protesters at the week-long encampment near the military headquarters, meeting with them face to face, and listening to their views.

Chants rang out across the sit-in where tens of thousands have been rallying in front of the military headquarters to protest the military takeover of power after al-Bashir’s ouster. “Revolutionaries, we will continue our path,” the protesters shouted as they danced and clapped.

Earlier Friday, another top general, Omar Zein Abedeen said that the 75-year-old al-Bashir would not be extradited to the International Criminal Court, based in The Hague, Netherlands, saying doing so would be “an ugly mark on Sudan.”

“Even rebels carrying weapons, we don’t extradite them,” he told reporters at a news conference in Khartoum.

Zein Abedeen said Sudanese courts would hold al-Bashir “accountable,” but did not specify what charges he could be prosecuted on. After his arrest, the military denounced him and his government for corruption, maladministration and “lack of justice.”

The developments point to the sensitivity of the Darfur conflict for the military that arrested al-Bashir after four months of deadly street demonstration against his 30-year rule.

The protesters rejected ibn Ouf’s leadership because he was head of military intelligence during the brutal campaign to suppress the Darfur insurgency in the 2000s. The United States has imposed sanctions on him since 2007, saying he armed and directed pro-government militias known as the Janjaweed, accused of widespread atrocities against civilians and rapes during the conflict.

The move also underscores the limits on the reach of the International Criminal Court. On Friday, ICC judges rejected a request by the court’s prosecutor to open an investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity in Afghanistan and alleged crimes by U.S. forces there, in part because the U.S., Afghan government and Taliban are not expected to cooperate.

In the Darfur conflict, rebels among the territory’s ethnic Central African community launched an insurgency in 2003, complaining of discrimination and oppression by the Arab-dominated Khartoum government. The government responded with a scorched earth assault of aerial bombings and unleashed the Janjaweed. Up to 300,000 people were killed and 2.7 million driven from their homes.

Along with al-Bashir, the ICC has indicted two other senior figures in his regime — Abdel-Rahim Muhammad Hussein, who was interior and defense minister during much of the conflict, and Ahmed Haroun, a senior security chief at the time who last month was named by al-Bashir to run the ruling National Congress Party.

Both were among those reported by the Sudanese media to have been arrested Thursday in a sweep by the military against al-Bashir’s inner circle. Zein Abedeen confirmed the media reports Friday without specifying the two men.

An ICC spokesman declined to comment on al-Bashir’s case. On Thursday, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch urged the Sudanese military to hand over the ousted leader. “Victims of the gravest crimes in Darfur should not have to wait any longer for justice,” said Jehanne Henry, associate director at Human Rights Watch.

Meanwhile, Zein Abedeen sought to reassure protesters who, while celebrating al-Bashir’s removal, oppose the military’s seizure of power. After ousting the president, the military announced it would rule the country for two years through a transitional council. It also suspended the constitution, dissolved the government, declared a three-month state of emergency and imposed a night-time curfew.

Protest organizers have vowed not to end their street action until a civilian transitional council is formed, saying rule by military commanders who for years were al-Bashir loyalists is just an extension of his regime.

The curfew and state of emergency have raised fears the military could eventually disperse the sit-in by force. But at least initially, it appears to be trying to persuade protest organizers to end the campaign.

Speaking at a news conference aired live on state TV and flanked by other uniformed officers, Zein Abedeen insisted the army has no ambition to hold the reins of power for long.

“If within a month, Sudan became able to run itself without chaos, we are ready to leave even after a month. The maximum is two years,” he said. He said the military would only appoint the defense and interior ministers in any transitional government and would not interfere.

“This was not a coup,” but a “tool of change,” he said. “We came … to guide the country forward.”

But protest organizers rejected the military’s assurances, calling them “deception and farce.”

The Sudanese Professionals Association, which has spearheaded the four months of demonstrations against al-Bashir, said the “coup leaders … are not eligible to bring change,” and repeated demands for the “immediate handover of power to a civilian transitional government.”

At the sit-in, the mood was festive. Some protesters brought in mattresses, fans and even air conditioners, while others swept the streets to keep them clean, signaling they intend to stay long-term. As thousands of Muslim worshippers lined up in the street to hold prayers, Christians among the protesters held blankets over them to shade them from the sun in a show of solidarity.

There were also signs of cracks among al-Bashir’s former loyalists. On Friday, the commander of Sudan’s feared Rapid Support Force, a paramilitary force, expressed support for the protesters, saying the forces will not “accept any solutions rejected by the Sudanese people” and called for dialogue so Sudan would “avoid slipping into chaos.”

___

Associated Press writer Sarah el-Deeb in Beirut contributed to this report.

Creating a Crucial Path Forward After Prison

Susan Burton, the co-author of “Becoming Ms. Burton: From Prison to Recovery to Leading the Fight for Incarcerated Women,” says she never stood a chance in today’s America. Her childhood was marked with abuse and racism, and the inexplicable death of her 5-year-old son—hit in a crosswalk by a car driven by a police detective who was never charged in the incident—drove her to alcoholism, which ultimately led to her incarceration.

Her tragic story reflects certain realities for those with similar backgrounds. As Truthdig Editor in Chief Robert Scheer recounts in a conversation about Burton’s book, which is based on her life story, “42 percent of African American children under 6 live in poverty. Black women represent 40 percent of prostitutes, 55 percent of those arrested, 85 of those incarcerated.”

However, it was when the harsh truths of life after prison without any support became unbearably apparent that Burton says she was able to see a path forward for herself and incredibly, for others in her position. 

“No one came to my aid,” Burton says in the latest installment of Scheer Intelligence. “And when you read the book, I reach a point where I realize every system had failed me, from the family system to the school system to the social service system network to the judicial system. And I felt like I failed me, too.” 

Burton decided to become that helping hand for others that she had so desperately needed. She started the organization A New Way of Life, through which she established safe houses in California that help previously incarcerated women start over. Now Burton has used her experiences to develop safe-house network training that she’s taking to Illinois and Virginia, and even abroad to Uganda.

“We have single-family homes, seven of them, five in Los Angeles, two in Long Beach,” explains Burton. “And women come there, they live there, they make it their home; it’s a real simple concept to me. We welcome them, we support them with transportation, clothing, food. They get employed, they go back to school, they pitch in, they make a home, they create a whole safety network within that home. I’m really grateful and thankful that I can do the work that I do, supporting women coming home, and holding up A New Way of Life as a model for this country.”

Listen to their full conversation about the inhumane conditions black women and other people of color face both inside and outside our broken penitentiary system. You can also read a transcript of the interview below the media player and find past episodes of “Scheer Intelligence” here.

RS: Hi, this is Robert Scheer with another edition of Scheer Intelligence, where the intelligence comes from my guests. And it’s coming from Susan Burton, the coauthor of “Becoming Ms. Burton: From Prison to Recovery to Leading the Fight for Incarcerated Women.” And not to take anything away from Cari Lynn, a distinguished writer who I first heard talk about the book, but it’s really your story. And it’s a book everyone should read. Michelle Alexander, the famous writer, “The New Jim Crow,” recommends it as the most important book; I would certainly second that, for two reasons. And then I’ll throw it over to you. A, it’s depressingly honest and realistic about what’s going on with the prison population, particularly of incarcerated women and the lack of facilities and care about what happens to them when they get out, and so forth. And yet it’s an optimistic book, because you have really provided some critically important answers. And at the beginning you said it’s not a depressing story, so tell me why.

SB: It’s a hard story. It’s hard to read and understand what we do to people, children, in the world, and how as a child I had to work through so much violence, so much abuse, so much hardship, hurt and pain. You know, as a little girl, I had to pick up the skill of navigating society’s illnesses, society’s isms, you know, from racism to classism to racism. And I don’t even know that I’m in this world dealing with all of this, and then I deal with sick people who hurt children, and I just begin to learn to navigate it all. And I should have been playing with dolls and feeling safe and going through cycles of development, but that wasn’t the case. So the beginning of the book is a hard eye-opener, the first half of the book. The second half of the book is when I begin to heal, and I learn to stand up for myself, and stand with other women who have had similar childhood experiences and adult experiences, that the way in which we learned to cope with this had us incarcerated.

RS: You know, the book has very interesting construction. Because it’s a moving story, most poignantly the death of your child at the age of 5 by, what, an L.A. police car racing through South Central on some kind of call? No real apology, no support, no effort to help you with that. So the story is compelling and poignant, but what got me were the statistics at the top of each chapter.

SB: Yes.

RS: And they go directly to what you were just saying. One of them is that 42 percent of African American children under 6 live in poverty. Black women represent 40 percent of prostitutes, 55 percent of those arrested, 85 of those incarcerated. Sixty percent of the women in prison have been sexually assaulted before they’re 18. What got me in your book—because one of the big arguments is the way people excuse our indifference to people who run into trouble, particularly if they’re black or brown. You know, we say well, we’ve done so much for them—that’s the big rationalization. But what you hit is the severe dislocation, to basically the African American population more than any other, after the loss of good jobs after World War II. You know, it’s interesting, we forget so much. I once interviewed Willie Brown, who became the big head of the legislature, the mayor of San Francisco.

SB: Yes.

RS: And he came from Minneola, Texas. And he described something that, I don’t know if it’s in your writing or Michelle Alexander’s introduction to your book, but learning to lower his eyes in the presence of a white woman.

SB: My father never looked across at white people. He never had an eye glance. Like, you know, I’m looking straight across in your eyes; he never did that. And he always referred to white people as “Mr. Charlie.”

RS: The reason I’m bringing that up, I interviewed Willie Brown—

SB: Yes.

RS: Did a big profile for him for the L.A. Times. And some people on the staff, they were down on him, you know. Willie Brown, he wore fancy clothes, he was a successful politician.

SB: Yeah.

RS: I think he was a pretty good politician, basically. But what got me in that interview, he talked about growing up in Minneola, Texas. He would be with his father, and when they’re walking down the sidewalk—and maybe there was a drop down into the street—his father would have to get down into the street to let white teenagers pass.

SB: Yes.

RS: And the reality of segregation, its impact on the black community, both in the North and in the South—I mean, Tom Bradley, who was our mayor here, another person—he told me he had to use the Green Book to figure out hotels he could stay at, even in California.

SB: You know, when you talk about walking past someone, it brings me to today. When I’m in the jails in L.A. County, as the sheriffs and free-world people walk down a hallway, if there are women who are in prison there that’s walking toward us, they’ll have to stop and turn to the wall, and look at the wall until we pass. And it’s the same treatment that we did to people in the South. To say, you can’t look at us. You are excluded from passing us in the street. In this case, you can’t pass us in the hallway. We pass you while you’re standing still. And it has an effect on the people’s feeling of inferiority and isolation, and it has a psychological effect. What they did, and what they do. I once questioned it, and the deputy told me it was about security, but I didn’t see how it was about security; we were still in the hallways together.

RS: You know, one big message from your book–and the book I really recommend, “Becoming Ms. Burton: From Prison to Recovery to Leading the Fight for Incarcerated Women.” I’ve done some interviews in prison, most recently with Kevin Cooper on death row at San Quentin. And the dehumanization of that population, the whole notion of throwaway people—they’ve had their chance, they’re useless, we don’t really believe much in rehabilitation. Your whole point of your book is these women get out—and you discovered yourself after 15 years of being run through this system. After having been sexually, basically raped as a young person by a white man in the neighborhood that you were selling, what, Girl Scout cookies to. Horrible experiences, and yet you’re treated not as someone who has mental problems, social maladjustment problems, lack of education, any of the normal things you would do for your own nephew, your own relatives—no. They’re no-account people, they’re throwaway. That’s how we regard the 2.3 million people in our, in the nation, the world’s largest imprisoned population. What your book does, it cuts through that and it demands that we see that these are full human beings who are victims, originally. I mean, no one could read your story without regarding you as a victim.

SB: I never had a chance. This wasn’t my second chance. Just the fact that I was able to hold on to my sanity, to myself, through all of what I went through, is just a testament. And when I was given an opportunity, when someone did reach out and help me, then I was able to pull myself up and make a stand. And that’s what I do at A New Way of Life Reentry Project. I help women who have never had a chance to get an opportunity to begin to know their value, know their worth, to begin to be willing and able to fight for their life, to fight for the right to be the best that they can be. And to date, we have helped over a thousand women come back into the community. We’ve reunited 300 children with their moms. You know, my son’s death just sent me into a world of darkness. The pain of losing him, the fact that the police department never even acknowledged one of their detectives killed my son—it was all so painful. And my body just could not, could not hold any more pain. And so I drank. I drank to drown the grief. I drank to drown the pain. And that led to substance use. The War on Drugs was in full, full range in my community, and there could have been, and there should have been help for me. The police department should have reached out and gave me help, but they didn’t. I’m sure the detective was able to go to counseling, was able to get paid time off.

RS: He killed your son driving too fast in, what, response to a call or something?

SB: Yeah. I don’t—I never did get any of the real facts. I found out his name by reading a story in the L.A. Times. There was no contact, no—so I don’t know. And that, too—that, too was painful.

RS: We hear a lot about victims’ rights and everything, you can’t let this person out of jail, you can’t rehabilitate. But you start—you start as a real victim here, the death of your son. And no one thought about your victim rights. You were expendable. And this is not in the Deep South. This is in Los Angeles, with probably an enlightened, liberal, democratic mayor, City Council, the whole deal.

SB: No one came to my aid. And when you read the book, I reach a point where I realize every system had failed me, from the family system to the school system to the social service system network, to the judicial system. And I felt like I failed me, too. Being able to go to Santa Monica and go into recovery, and see the difference—how people were treated with drug addictions in Santa Monica versus South L.A., was a real wake-up call for me. And that’s what prompted me to start a new way of life.

RS: We should mention, you did start a new way of life, but that’s also the name of the organization—

SB: The organization, yes.

RS: —that now for decades has helped people who were actually just dumped on the street, put out of jail, prison, given what, a box or something—

SB: Yeah.

RS: I mean, you should describe what you stepped into when you realized you had help, because you found one of the rare places—it was actually privately set up, and so forth, and it meant all the difference to you. And then part of coming out of a successful program, you wanted to give back, and you were shocked to see how little was available. And I want you to address one other thing. We have a lot of discussion about right to life, and should you have abortion, should you have children. It’s a big, dramatic, wedge issue. I always felt the real issue is, do you really care about the lives you’re saving, the unborn—do you really care about them? And you describe the fight of these women, at a prison, to get their children back, and the role that your organization plays in helping them win their children back. We got a lot of defense of motherhood and childbearing and right to life, and then it breaks down with, oh yeah, but they’re the wrong people to have children, or they’re no good, or what have you. Maybe you could talk a little bit about the actual work that you do there.

SB: Many times when women are incarcerated, by the time they’re released they’ve lost all rights to their children. So going and being incarcerated could be a death sentence to their motherhood. Those women who have maintained their right for reunification, we support them to get their children back, we support them to find jobs, we support them to go back to school, and we support them to become good mothers to their children. Not saying that because they were incarcerated, that they were a bad mother. They were in maybe the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe their poverty caused them to commit certain crimes in order to just live. People are in those types of situations, and they have to make those types of calls on a daily basis. But we support them to become better citizens, good moms, and to reunite with their children. So we have an attorney on staff to help them walk through the process of meeting the requirements of the Department of Children and Family Services. You know, a woman coming out of prison, in order for her to get her children back, she has to attend so many different classes that it’s like having a full-time job. And without help and support, she’s unable to do that. The systems, the Department of Children and Family systems that are in place, the social workers there are, caseloads are overloaded; they can’t always make the appointments on time; they can’t always carry through. And we have an attorney who helps that woman to be able to document what’s happening and to comply with all the requirements of the court in order to get her children back. And we have homes; we have homes that children can live in with their parents until the mom can get further on her feet and move out independently. And this takes place when a woman is literally dropped off, released from prison, she gets off a bus downtown, Skid Row, she has no I.D., she has no Social Security card, she’s just been literally sent through a sentence that is basic to torture. And she gets off the bus, and she’s trying to make her way, and there’s nothing for her. Over and over again, that was my experience. That’s why the work I do at A New Way of Life is so important. And people think that it’s really hard and complicated, but what is it to have a home? We have single-family homes, seven of them; five in Los Angeles, two in Long Beach. And women come there, they live there, they make it their home; it’s a real simple concept to me. We welcome them, we support them with transportation, clothing, food. They get employed, they go back to school, they pitch in, they make a home, they create a whole safety network within that home. I’m really grateful and thankful that I can do the work that I do, supporting women coming home, and holding up A New Way of Life as a model for this country. And I’ve actually developed a training, a safe-house network training, that I am beginning to train people all over the country. And, I can say, all over the world. We actually have supported the opening of a house in Kampala, Uganda; they’ve opened a house, just last week was the opening of a house there. And we have our model expanding into Chicago and Virginia. And I think that what I do here is unique and special. It’s a grassroots, community effort. And I want to spread and give as much information as I can that women all over the nation will have a place to land after they are released from incarceration, a place to belong, and a place to rebuild their lives. A place that they can find a new way of life and be willing to fight for their right to be the best that they can be.

RS: [omission for station break] When we took the break here, we were just talking about—you can do something about it. OK. Now I’m sitting here thinking, I’ve heard this all my life. And I’m not a kid anymore; I’m going to be 83 years old in a couple of weeks. And every once in a while when I was working for the L.A. Times, wherever I’ve been, I run into people, they do a good job, they’re really making a difference, and you know what? The people who have power, the people who can really fund it, who can really do something about it, they don’t want to use the model. And I want to say, I heard about your program originally with the greatest enthusiasm from Frank Gehry, who is probably the world’s most famous architect. And I thought, yeah, you know, but I’ve heard that before. But you’ve done it now, and you’ve done it—my big question to you, you’ve been honored; you’ve been, I don’t know, I forget all the honors. You’re a fellow of the Open Society Foundations, and you’re one of the most admired people, et cetera, et cetera. Why—why isn’t this a national program? Why isn’t it government funded? Why don’t they say, hey, something works here—we can do something, we don’t have to have these people get out of prison or jail and just be sitting there forlorn on some street corner where people want to get them in trouble, or they’re going to get in trouble. Where’s the mayor? Where’s the police board? Where are all these folks?

SB: You know, I can ponder and spend time saying, you know, why isn’t someone doing this and why isn’t someone doing that. But you know, there are things that I can do, and that’s what I do. Gov. [Gavin] Newsom, before he won the election, he came and spent about two and a half, three hours with us. And I don’t know if that visit is going to move him to a certain direction, but you know, he came and visited us and spent time with us. Sometimes what we get is time, people’s time and interest. You know, there’s a chapter in the book that I talk about the experience of having funding coming from government, law enforcement, and having to terminate that contract because it was harmful to the mission.

RS: Spell that out, because I’ve read that, but other people haven’t. That’s an important point you make there.

SB: Well, I had a contract that promoted law enforcement coming into our houses as if we were breaking the law. Pulling guns on us, standing the women up against the wall with their hands up. And you know, there’s a YouTube video called “Compliance Checks.” And you’ll see me arguing with LAPD about the way they treated women in their home, in the homes at A New Way of Life. And the policeman says to me, if I don’t want to play the game, don’t take the money. In other words, they were paying me to be a part of the harassment and the oppression and the suppression of the women who [are] coming home trying to change their lives and make better lives.

RS: But this wasn’t their money, this is our money.

SB: This is our money. But this is what they said. And so you know, I wrote them a letter and told them I would no longer contract with them. And I terminated the contract. So these are some of the challenges that, you know, small, community-based organizations have to deal with when entering into those contracts.

RS: Let me ask you a question, because you’ve been on the inside, starting as a very young person after being sexually attacked by—you know, I mean, just an incredible story. It’s one adversity after another. Then you come out and you spend decades providing a real model for the nation, and maybe other countries, for how to do rehabilitation, how to save people, how to help mothers get back with their children. And you’re doing it primarily in a community, the deep blue state of California, community of Los Angeles, prides itself on being the model for the world now, in a country that has the largest prison population—

SB: Yes.

RS: —that thinks it’s the champion of freedom. And what I want to ask you is precisely about your connection with power.

SB: So I traveled with Frank Gehry, Yale architecture school, Chris Stone from the Open Society Foundations, students in the architecture department and Impact Justice. We went to Norway, we went to Sweden, and we looked at what they do over there in those countries. And I came back—I mean, it was amazing, astonishing, the way they treat people with value. And the whole goal of the prisons there is rehabilitation. It’s not punishment. Our goal in the United States is punishment. And I came back from there clearly understanding that we could do something different if it was the political will, if it was the people’s will. That this isn’t, you know, rocket science, treating people with dignity. There are no throwaway people. We all matter. Our lives matter. And there, in their prison system, you can see that. You can tell that. One of the guards there, the head guard, he said, one day—

RS: This is in Norway?

SB: This is in Norway. The guard said, “One day this man is going to be released. And he might be my neighbor. And if he’s my neighbor, I want him to be a good neighbor. So my job here is to support the rehabilitation of all the people in the prison.” When people leave the prison there, they leave with a job, they leave with a house. We have it so backwards. Ninety-five percent of the 2.3 million people in the prison-industrial complex in the U.S. is going to be released one day. And we want the people coming into our communities to be contributing members. We want them, I want them to be good citizens. So at A New Way of Life, we support that. You know, after they’ve been released. But we could be doing much better in our prison system.

RS: You know, it’s interesting. Everybody always thinks, well, it’s sad, but I can’t do anything about it because these are not problems that can be dealt with in a serious and resolved way. This is where I—

SB: There are things that we all can do. We can invest and support nonprofits that are doing the work. People can support A New Way of Life. They can write letters to their legislatures, their senators, their congresspeople. They can tell them that they want the prison system to be more about rehabilitation. They can talk about reinvesting money in communities. We pay $75,000 a year to incarcerate one person. And they come home, and we don’t invest anything on the back end. That’s just ridiculous. We could be doing so much more, we could have higher education, rehabilitation programs, training programs while people are incarcerated. I mean, while I was incarcerated, I wanted to go to beauty school; I was assigned to fire camp. I was put into a job after the fire camp training that paid me eight cents an hour. And if I didn’t go to that job, I’d have to stay a day longer in prison. I just want the listener to think about that. Eight cents an hour, and if I don’t go to work, mowing lawns, sweeping the compound, then I’m incarcerated a day longer. We talk about a forced labor pool, we talk about slavery in the 21st century. It’s outrageous.

RS: Well, that’s a good takeaway. Because sometimes people listen to these podcasts and they say, yeah, well, it’s a corrupt world, and you know, nothing you can do about it. And you read this book, “Becoming Ms. Burton: From Prison to Recovery to Leading the Fight for Incarcerated Women.” And it’s done, by the way, I should give her credit, Cari Lynn–

SB: Cari Lynn is a great writer, she really helped to assemble my words.

RS: Yeah, a great writer, and she’s the one who introduced me to this book. So I think the lesson of “Becoming Ms. Burton,” is this is a how-to book. It’s a how-to book to develop an alternative to the prison-industrial complex where you lock up people, then you put ‘em out on the street, they get in trouble right away, and boom, you’re back in the prison and it’s another $75,000 a year you got to pay. So I want to thank you, Susan Burton. And this has been another edition of Scheer Intelligence. My producer who got me to do this, I must say, and educated me about it, is Joshua Scheer. And our engineers here at KCRW are Mario Diaz and Kat Yore. And we’ll be back next week with another edition of Scheer Intelligence.