andrew emett

Stop Corporations from Illegally Destroying a National Park

Originally published on August 29, 2014, at ForceChange.com

Target: Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, President of Indonesia

Goal: Prevent illegal gold mining and deforestation from demolishing a national park

Even though it is currently illegal to deforest national parks in Indonesia, corporations are overtly breaking the law by logging and gold mining on Borneo. These rapidly depleting forests are home to the endangered orangutans and proboscis monkeys. The Indonesian government needs to enforce the law and protect its rainforests from corporate greed.

Although the Indonesian government has chosen to impose a temporary moratorium on the deforestation of their country’s rainforests, corporations continue to illegally raze the ground at Borneo’s Tanjung Puting National Park. A palm oil company is tearing down trees in order to make room for new plantations, while gold mining corporations contaminate the environment. These companies must be punished for their violations and kept out of the national park.

Refusing to perform environmental impact assessments, the corporations are allegedly bribing local officials to acquire permits. Villagers protest the decimation of their land as endangered orangutan and proboscis monkey populations are under the threat of possible extinction. Hundreds of species of birds and trees are also at risk due to this blind avarice.

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Stop the Detention and Murder of Community Leaders

Originally published on August 28, 2014, at ForceChange.com

Target: Otto Perez Molina, President of Guatemala

Goal: End the extreme violence against environmental rights activists and their community leaders

While resisting the construction of local hydroelectric plants, two community leaders were arbitrarily arrested by the police. In retaliation, the community rose up in protest against their discriminatory detention. During the protest, three Mayan community leaders were shot and killed as police brutalized the activists. The Guatemalan government needs to investigate their deaths and punish any police officers responsible for these human rights abuses.

On August 15, law enforcement officials arrested community leaders, Rafael Chen and Carmen del Cid. Large crowds gathered in protest of their unlawful arrests. The police violently attacked the protesters and reportedly shot Sebastian Rax Caal, Luciano Can Cujub, and Oscar Chen Quej to death. At least 40 activists have been arrested with many others left injured.

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22 Puerto Rico Cops Plead Guilty to Corruption Charges

Originally published on August 27, 2014, at NationofChange.org

Twenty-two Puerto Rico Police Officers have pleaded guilty to multiple charges of robbery, extortion, civil rights violations, drug dealing, and obstruction of justice. Tainted by a pervasive history of abuse and corruption, the Puerto Rico police department operates with virtual impunity and a blatant disregard for the law. Separate investigations from the DOJ and ACLU confirm multiple reports of the police engaging in the unjustified use of excessive force, lethal force, and criminal activities.

On the evening of November 5, 2008, Lt. Erick Rivera Nazario and Officer Jimmy Rodriguez Vega confronted and killed 19-year-old Jose Luis Irizarry Perez. While Officer David Colon Martinez restrained Irizarry Perez, Lt. Rivera Nazario and Officer Rodriguez Vega beat the teenager to death with their batons. On March 8, 2013, Officer Rodriguez Vega pleaded guilty to one count of depriving Irizarry Perez of his civil rights by striking him with his police baton.

After failing to cover-up the unlawful killing, Officer David Colon Martinez pleaded guilty on August 22, 2014, to one count of making a false statement to the FBI and one count of perjury for lying to the federal grand jury that investigated the incident. Officer Miguel Negron Vazquez joined him in pleading guilty to making a false statement to the FBI.

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Demand an End to Government-Sponsored Human Rights Abuse

Originally published on August 27, 2014, at ForceChange.com

Target: Jose Eduardo dos Santos, President of Angola

Goal: Stop the human rights abuses committed by the police and other security forces in Angola

Government officials are allowing arbitrary arrests, torture, and unlawful killings of civilians by the police. Activists are arrested for attending protests even though their constitution protects the right to assemble. With a lack of due process, suspects often face potentially life-threatening prison conditions and corrupt corrections officers. The Angolan government must root out these criminal cops to prevent further abuses against their people.

According to the U.S. State Department, widespread government corruption is responsible for the proliferation of dirty cops patrolling the streets. Two police officers reportedly shot a man twice in the head for confronting them after they had severely beaten his friend. Police regularly arrest activists without charges and utilize excessive force in order to intimidate protesters. The murders of political opponents are rarely investigated, allowing many assassins to walk free.

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Whistleblower Reinstated After Radiation Leak at Nuclear Dump

Originally published on August 26, 2014, at NationofChange.org

Following an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) investigation, the U.S. Department of Labor ordered a government contractor to reinstate whistleblower Shelly Doss and pay $200,000 in back wages, attorney’s fees, and damages. The agency concluded government contractor Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) had wrongfully terminated Doss for reporting federal and state environmental violations at the nuclear cleanup site at Hanford, Washington.

Along the banks of the Colombia River lie a series of decommissioned nuclear reactors known as the Hanford site. Built during WWII as part of the Manhattan Project, the reactors produced plutonium for nuclear weapons. According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), creating plutonium produced massive amounts of nuclear byproducts that were not properly disposed of and unintentional spills of liquid waste have contaminated the site.

Two years after the last reactor ceased operation in 1987, the DOE, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Washington State Department of Ecology entered into a legally binding accord to clean up the toxic waste posing a risk to the local environment at Hanford. Notorious for ignoring evidence of leaking nuclear waste tanks and toxic exposure to their employees, DOE contractor WRPS fired Doss in 2011 for raising concerns about environmental safety and record-keeping violations to management and to government agencies.

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Protect Endangered Black Spider Monkeys

Originally published on August 24, 2014, at ForceChange.com

Target: Dilma Rousseff, President of Brazil

Goal: Create protected sanctuaries to prevent the rapid depopulation of black spider monkeys

Because black spider monkeys inhabit tropical and subtropical rainforests throughout South America, logging and deforestation are reducing their environment and endangering their species. Although they play a vital role in the survival of their ecosystem, these monkeys are dying out as their rainforests are destroyed. Brazil and other South American countries must lead the charge to save these creatures by designating protected areas to ensure the survival of the black spider monkeys and their rainforests.

The black spider monkey is key to the growth and survival of the tropical rainforests. By contributing to seed dispersal, the monkeys take active roles helping their ecosystem to nourish and thrive. Unsustainable deforestation counteracts seed dispersal by annihilating plant life and endangering the monkeys living within those habitations.

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Demand Justice for Assassinated Environmental Rights Activists

Originally published on August 24, 2014, at ForceChange.com

Target: Juan Manuel Santos, President of Colombia

Goal: Investigate the assassinations of environmental rights activists and provide justice to their families and friends

While defending communities affected by dam construction and mining projects in Colombia, two environmental rights activists have been gunned down for their work. The current members of their organization are under surveillance, experiencing break-ins, harassment, and death threats. The government of Colombia must investigate these murders and the current harassment before another environmental rights activist is killed.

Movimiento Rios Vivos (translated Living Rivers Movement) is an environmental organization dedicated to protecting communities from ecological damages caused by mining corporations and dam construction companies. While operating in Colombia, their members and leaders have been subjected to death threats, constant surveillance, persecution, and murder. Without properly investigating these crimes, law enforcement is allowing the violence to escalate against the environmentalists.

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Innocent Civilian Deaths Caused by Police Militarization

Originally published on August 23, 2014, at NationofChange.org

With the aggressive militarization of America’s police forces, innocent bystanders and family members often enter the crosshairs. For decades, federal programs have devised incentives for state and local police to utilize unnecessarily hostile weapons and battlefield tactics against civilians. Operating with a glaring lack of transparency and almost no public oversight, militarized police forces rarely find themselves accountable for their actions.

In a recent ACLU report titled War Comes Home: The Excessive Militarization of American Policing, the Senior Counsel with the ACLU’s Center for Justice, Kara Dansky wrote, “The ACLU found through the course of this investigation that the excessive militarism in policing, particularly through the use of paramilitary policing teams, escalates the risk of violence, threatens individual liberties, and unfairly impacts people of color.”

After filing public records requests with more than 255 law enforcement agencies, 114 of the agencies denied the ACLU’s request. While investigating excessive weapon stockpiles and police militarization, the ACLU found a disturbing trend in Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams being used beyond their original mandate. Previously, SWAT teams had only been deployed to handle hostage, sniper, or terrorist threats. Now, SWAT teams conduct drug busts, disperse protesters, and execute “no knock” search warrants in residential neighborhoods.

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Cops Arrested for Drug Trafficking and Transporting Dealers

Originally published on August 22, 2014, at NationofChange.org

In a New York federal court this week, former Sheriff’s Deputy Charles Fuller pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to aid and abet the possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. Deputy Fuller admitted to accepting protection money to transport a drug dealer along with suspected packages of cocaine while off-duty. Unbeknownst to Fuller, the drug dealer was an FBI confidential informant.

On February 19, the FBI informant paid Deputy Fuller $1,000 to safely transport him and 250 grams of cocaine from Albany to Warren County. After completing the trip, Fuller agreed to transport the drug dealer again on February 27. Fuller raised the price to $4,000 because the informant would be carrying a kilogram of cocaine this time.

Instead of using cocaine, the FBI gave the informant a kilogram of a white powder that looked similar to the drug. Since Fuller never inspected the packages, he had no idea that FBI agents were preparing to arrest him. They placed Fuller in custody and recovered the $5,000 in marked bills that their informant had paid him.

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Demand Justice for Prisoner Tortured by Law Enforcement Officials

Originally published on August 22, 2014, at ForceChange.com

Target: King Mohammed VI of Morocco

Goal: Investigate the security forces responsible for torturing prisoners

Moroccan authorities detained a man for twelve days and tortured him in order to extract a confession from him. According to Amnesty International, the security forces severely beat the prisoner, gave him electric shocks, and burned him with a cigarette. Although the Moroccan government is reluctant to investigate the perpetrators of these crimes, they must launch an investigation into those guilty of committing torture.

Ali Aarrass was arrested and tortured for twelve days until he gave law enforcement officials a false confession to end the constant pain and suffering. To force a confession out of Ali, the security forces engaged in such harsh interrogation techniques as suspending him from the ceiling, whipping him, beating the soles of his feet, waterboarding him, electrocuting his testicles using a car battery, and burning him with cigarettes.

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