N.Y. cops seize workers' cars, step up `drug squads'
The New York City administration has put into effect two
new "anticrime" measures that are bad news for working
people. The new "zero tolerance drinking and driving
initiative" that went into effect February 22 gives cops the
authority to seize the car of anyone they stop for allegedly
driving drunk. The only way to get the vehicle back is to be
found innocent in a trial. Even that might not be enough.
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said, "Let's say somebody is
acquitted, and... there is just not quite enough evidence
beyond a reasonable doubt [to prove guilt]. That might be a
situation in which the car would still be forfeited." He
proposed that a person acquitted on criminal charges could be
charged in a civil suit, with a lower burden of proof needed
for conviction, a form of double jeopardy. Their car would
remain impounded. One of the first people to lose their car
was an immigrant from Poland who supposedly had a blood
alcohol level of just 0.01 above the legal limit. His job and
immigration status may be jeopardized as a result.
Meanwhile, 600 cops around the city are being reassigned to special "war on drugs" squads, patrolling Black, Latino, and other working-class communities from East Harlem to Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Half the police will be on the beat in uniform, while undercover cops try to set people up for drug busts. It was four cops from one of these kinds of squads who killed Amadou Diallo, a young West African worker, in February in a barrage of 41 shots.
U.S. incarceration rates soar
According to a U.S. Justice Department report, there are
more than 1.8 million people behind bars in the United States
today - a record high within the country and the highest
incarceration rate of all the imperialist countries. And the
figures continue to rise. From 1990 to 1998, state prison
populations have grown more than 60 percent. Since 1980 the
number has more than tripled.
Tougher sentencing regulations adopted over the past half decade have meant longer jail terms, with ever-lessening chances for parole or appeal. The number of paroles granted to eligible prisoners fell from an already low 37 percent in 1990 to 31 percent in 1996. The average inmate spends more time in jail today than a decade ago. Prisoners who are Black, on average, spend 26 months in prison compared with 24 months for whites.
New prisons are being completed at rate of one per week, and prisons are 20 percent over capacity on average. Inmates are being assaulted by guards, such as Thomas Pizzuto in New York who was beaten to death in January while serving 90 days on traffic violations. Corcoran state prison in California was exposed last summer for staging gladiator-style bouts between prisoners, and then using lethal force to break up the fight.
2,000 students in Lebanon protest Tel Aviv land grab
Chanting, "We are all for our nation!" 2,000 students from
universities across Lebanon stormed Arnoun February 26. The
southern Lebanese village was seized by Israeli soldiers
February 17. Students defied warning signs of mines, posted
by Tel Aviv, and marched on Arnoun carrying Lebanese flags
and metal cutters to bring down the barbed wire fence Israeli
troops had erected. Troops fired shots to try to disperse the
students, but they remained for several hours. "Let the whole
world know that Arnoun is Lebanese, the whole south is
Lebanese," said Ghassan Daou, one of the first students into
the village.
The Zionist forces annexed Arnoun, claiming it was a guerrilla stronghold that threatened the "security" of Israel. The land grab was reportedly the first since 1985. Tel Aviv occupies a hunk of southern Lebanon with 1,500 Israeli troops and 2,500 allied Lebanese militiamen.
Seoul releases political prisoners
Woo Yong Gak - a political prisoner in south Korea for 41
years - and 16 others were released February 25 in a
publicity maneuver by Kim Dae Jung, the south Korean
president. Woo, a partisan of the struggle to unify Korea,
was nabbed by Seoul in 1958. Unbroken by years of solitary
confinement, deprivation, and torture during his time behind
bars, Woo refused to sign a previously required "law-abiding
oath," which would include agreeing to Seoul's laws barring
expressions of support for the Democratic People's Republic
of Korea (DPRK). Woo said he hoped to continue work toward
forging a single Korea. About 30 protesters outside the
prison where Woo was held demanded the release of all
political prisoners. The DPRK government has requested that
the prisoners be given the right to return to the north. Kim
says Seoul will only consider a prisoners exchange.
E. Timorese demand sovereignty
Thousands of supporters of East Timorese independence
marched in a political funeral through the capital, Dili,
February 25, carrying the bodies of two activists gunned down
the day before by anti-independence, armed paramilitary
forces. Some protesters held machetes and other weapons.
Indonesian president B.J. Habibi said in January he was considering granting independence to East Timor, which has been occupied by Indonesian troops since 1975. At the same time, however, the regime has pumped money to the paramilitary units that oppose independence.
Nicaragua: 340 to study in Cuba
Some 340 students from Nicaragua departed for Cuba
February 27 to study medicine on scholarships from the Cuban
government. All the students come from peasant backgrounds
and have promised to return to their towns and villages as
doctors. Cuba made the offer last December to the Nicaraguan,
Honduran, Guatemalan, and Salvadoran governments as part of a
program to combat the effects of Hurricane Mitch.
Inmates in Puerto Rico rebel
Several dozen inmates at the privately run Bayamón
Juvenile Detention Center outside San Juan, Puerto Rico, took
over two of the four prison buildings at 2:45 a.m. February
23. They demanded an end to overcrowding, better food, and
medical care. The youths took seven guards hostage. Later
that evening the prisoners surrendered after prison officials
promised to move some inmates and hear their demands. Cops
tried to claim the prison rebellion was actually started by
gang rivalries.
BRIAN TAYLOR