Oakland

Rep. Maxine Waters’ Delegation Visits Haiti to Investigate Reports of Terrorism

Published

6 years ago

May 2, 2019

Amid news of continuing atrocities against the civilian population, Congresswoman Maxine Waters and a delegation of activists – including actor and producer Danny Glover and Oakland civil rights attorney Walter Riley – visited Haiti last week on a mission to investigate conditions on the ground in the country and report back to the American public about a Human Rights emergency that remains underreported in the mainstream media.

According to a report in the Miami Herald, “In recent months, gangs have been terrorizing the population, accused of massacring and raping poor Haitians and turning parts of the country (including the La Saline neighborhood of Port-au-Prince into no-go zones.”

As late as last week, there were reports that terrorist groups in La Saline set fire to homes. Hundreds of people have been killed recently in targeted killings.

“When we learned about houses being burned down, and the killings that took place, we were appalled and shocked. We listened directly to some of the relatives of victims and victims tell us about that,” said Waters during a press conference at the Toussaint Louverture International Airport prior to leaving Haiti last Wednesday evening, the Miami Herald reported.

Besides Rep. Waters (CA-43), Glover and attorney Riley, the delegation included social Justice activist Pierre Labossiere, human rights lawyer Brian Concannon and radio journalist Margaret Prescod. Prescod filed filmed reports from the “no go zones”.

Following a massacre in La Saline last November, a group of 104 members of the House of Representatives called on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last month to conduct an independent investigation of the extrajudicial killings allegations of human-rights violations by the Haitian National Police Force; U.S. taxpayers dollars should not go to human rights violators.

“We have eyewitness reports and other evidence that these are not gangs, a name that implies that they are independent of the government. These terrorists, in fact, are part of militias that have been hired to terrorize people and are associated with the Haitian Police Department,” said Riley. “It is a policy of the Haitian government and backed by the U.S. government,” he said.

“The attacks on people in La Saline started as retaliation to demonstrations calling for Pres. Jovenel Moïse to resign over stolen billions of Petro Caribe money from Venezuela and systemic corruption in failed governance,” he said. “We have testimony of witnesses in the area and from human rights organizations about the brutality, the crimes against humanity.”

Among the atrocities, rape, people have been burned alive, dismembered and fed to pigs, said Riley.

Protesters across Haiti vowed to continue their fight for government accountability even in the face of the brutality, he said. “They have a proud sense of their history.”

Ken Epstein

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Related Topics:Danny Glover Maxine Waters walter riley

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Activism

Oakland Post: Week of October 30 – November 5, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of October 30 – November 5, 2024

Published

22 hours ago

November 1, 2024

Oakland Post

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Activism

Minister King X, Civil Rights Group Sue California Prisons Over Right to Protest

Oakland – Minister King X, a prison ‘artivist,’ and a civil rights group will hold a press conference at 11:30 a.m. on Sept. 27 at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) headquarters at 1515 S St. in Sacramento, CA. Sept. 20, 2024, Minister King, a community organizer with California Prison Focus, and the group All of Us Or None (AOUON) filed a lawsuit against the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and top state government officials.

Published

4 days ago

October 29, 2024

Oakland Post

Minister King X

Special to The Post

Sept. 20, 2024, Minister King, a community organizer with California Prison Focus, and the group All of Us Or None (AOUON) filed a lawsuit against the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and top state government officials.

The lawsuit challenges Minister King’s unlawful arrest on Aug. 9, 2021, during “Black August,” for allegedly violating Penal Code section 4571, which criminalizes people with felony convictions standing near prison facilities.

Minister King was arrested and imprisoned by plainclothes CDCR officers after a July 2021 protest calling for the release of political prisoner Ruchell “Cinque” Magee.

The charges were dropped without a hearing, but Minister King and AOUON allege in their complaint that the arrest was retaliation for his activism and a violation of his First Amendment rights.

According to Medium, Minister King X Pyeface of Kage Universal is a rapper, producer, and ‘artivist’ from Oakland who spent six years in federal prison and 18 years in California State Prison, where he was the youngest new African organizer during the 2011 to 2013 California Prisoners Hunger Strike.

CDCR’s report for Minister King’s arrest describes King, and many other activists, public figures, and organizations, as “Black Identity Extremists” and “Black Supremacist Extremists.”

These racist terms were used to label organizations such as Black Lives Matter as terrorist organizations and their use was abandoned by the FBI in 2019.

The lawsuit seeks to prevent CDCR from using Penal Code 4571 to target formerly incarcerated individuals for exercising their rights.

The press conference on Friday will discuss the constitutional issues associated with PC 4571, which prohibits an individual who has previously been convicted of a felony and incarcerated in a California state prison from being present on the grounds of carceral facilities or anywhere adjacent to those grounds without the consent of the warden or sheriff.

Additionally, 4571 prohibits these individuals from being anywhere other individuals in state custody may be, and anywhere adjacent to those in custody individuals without consent.

King and AOUON have alleged in their complaint that the statute violates the First Amendment rights of formerly incarcerated individuals and is overly broad and vague.

“In the depths of Pelican Bay State Prison, and other correctional facilities across the United States, a forgotten population of elderly incarcerated individuals awaits redemption. They are not the ‘worst of the worst,’ violent predators or Black Identity Extremists,” says Minister King X. “Rather, they are a unique class of individuals who possess the wisdom, experience, and desire to promote peace and reconciliation. I am advocating for and on behalf of these elders and the rights of all other prisoners.”

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Arts and Culture

Faces Around the Bay: Blanche Richardson

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson came to the Sydney Goldstein Theatre on Sept. 10 to participate in an event hosted by City Arts and Lectures and Marcus Books to celebrate the publication of her memoir, Lovely One.

Published

4 days ago

October 29, 2024

Oakland Post