Newsbites and Updates ...
Oakland Bombing: The most recent appellate decision reinstated the claim that the OPD conspired with the FBI in connection with the "investigation" of the 1990 attempted assassination of Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney by car bomb in Oakland.
The next hearing is scheduled for 1:30 pm, December 10 in the Oakland Federal courtroom of Judge Claudia Wilken. It's possible that a trial date will finally be set at that time. Contact the MEC at 707/468-1660 for updates (court dates often rescheduled).
SB 78 - DWB: State Senator Kevin Murray's bill to require all police agencies in California to keep statistical records relating to their traffic stops and searches was passed by both houses of the legislature for the second straight year. Pete Wilson vetoed it last year, and the Gray One trashed it last month (drawing considerable editorial condemnation from newspapers around the State). In fact (according to the ACLU of Northern California), that makes these two "the only state governors to veto state legislation aimed at documenting the scope of racial profiling".
Thirty-four California jurisdictions have instituted voluntary programs to collect relevant information. The CHP agreed to collect some data - but exactly what data is not clear to our sources yet.
The Razor Wire Curtain: Probably anticipating adverse public reaction to the news of staged rapes and murders at Corcoran and malign neglect of prisoners' serious medical needs around the State prison system, the "Department of Corrections" decided in 1995 to institute radical limitations on access to prisoners by the press. Requests for prisoner interviews take months to schedule, are no longer private, and reporters are not allowed to tape them (and can't talk at all with some classes of prisoners).
Assemblywoman Carole Migden proposed AB 1440 this year which would have restored to the press access which existed before the Wilson administration blocked it. It passed 28-7 in the Senate, and 69-7 in the Assembly. Even the prison guards' union supported it!
But Gov. Gray Davis vetoed it.
Greensweep Update: The California Bureau of Land Management was given an extension of time for their Final Guidelines for Law Enforcement During Marijuana Eradication Operations. Instead of the original deadline of June 1999, the guidelines must now be published by December 9, 1999. CLMP has no idea whether any of the comments generated at the public hearing in January of this year
will be included in the final guidelines.
CLMP Annual Meeting Notice: CLMP is holding its Annual Meeting on Friday, December 10, 1999, at 7:00 p.m. at the Vet's Hall in Garberville. The business portion of the meeting will include reports on CLMP's projects this past year and an update on CLMP's latest changes.
Also during the business meeting, CLMP will be electing a new board of directors for 1999-2000. If you are interested in serving CLMP by being a board member, please call the office at 707/923-4646 as soon as possible and let us know.
We hope you'll join us for this highly informative event. Refreshments will be served. Call for more information.
Webb On the Web: Gary Webb's report, mentioned earlier in this newsletter, will be linked to CLMP's website this Fall!
This Just In ... Maine has become the seventh state to pass a ballot initiative into law for the use of medical marijuana!
We're Telling It Like It Is...
If you like getting our newsletter, listening to our radio shows and attending our annual public forum, then help us to continue being able to do this. If you're glad that there is a CLMP hotline for people to call, and feel it's important to document abuses and bring these issues to the attention of the public and our political representatives, then please help us.
The past couple of years CLMP was fortunate to receive grant money to help with the financial costs of our work. We are now at a bit of a crossroads, and how much we are able to do will be much more dependent on the donations and fundraising help we get from our individual supporters. So if you want the Civil Liberties Monitoring Project to continue doing what we do, we need you to help us survive.
And Finally...
CLMP is still being supported in part this year (1999) by a grant received in 1997 from the Greenville Foundation. Special thanks to Humboldt Netlink for their generous contribution of free web hosting. Thanks to all who helped with our forum in October.
P.S. Is there anyone out there interested and able to scan documents for our website?? Call and let us know. Thanks.
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