Sustained!: October 2011

Thursday, October 27, 2011

What You Say Can Be Used....

By Eric J. Davis

When can an elected official quietly go to Hawaii on the tax payer's dime (only to have most of the county find out about it), face getting indicted by a Harris County grand jury, and be called to testify during a DWI trial to repeat unflattering statements made against one of her most powerful supporters all in the same week?..... Only when you feel so comfortable in your office that time spent there feels like time spent drinking tea in your living room.

This week, Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos has come under fire for issues surrounding mobile breath alcohol testing vans (BAT Vans). Certainly the District Attorney's own suspicious activities have set the District Attorney's Office ablaze with concern and worry. And it is proof that politicians who are too comfortable in their positions in office are usually reckless and lazy in their positions on policy. And I am proud to say that SUSTAINED!'s own Jackie Carpenter, while fighting for her client who is charged in the DWI trial, has added fuel to the fire.

Apparently, a whistle blower who had a hand in maintaining breath testing equipment and who was working for the Houston Police Department (HPD); reported that the results from BAT Vans were unreliable and sometimes false. She ended up leaving her employment with HPD and working for a vender of Harris County. After this came to light and she made more statements publicly, the County terminated that company's contract. Witnesses testified before a grand jury on the issue and Assistant District Attorneys were expelled from the room by the grand jury. While it began to look more and more like the DAs office might be a target of a grand jury probe; Pat Lykos went on television and made statements about BAT Van testing, indicating that she did not trust HPD's handling of the situation. (Click on her photo to see the video).

Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos gave an interview
wherein she questioned the reliability of BAT Van results.

Enter Attorney Jackie Carpenter.... Her client is charged with a DWI with a breath test from a BAT Van. Carpenter argued "How could the DA sanction a prosecution in a case where she has publicly opined that the evidence is unreliable...." Carpenter issued a subpoena for Pat Lykos to offer this testimony to the jury and the Judge has ordered her to appear. Of course, had Lykos been in town, this may not have been much of an issue. But her assistants had to explain to the Judge that she was unavailable because she was at a seminar in Hawaii. The Judge said she had to appear or a video/audio of her statements would be admitted.

After nearly three years with Lykos at the helm, the District Attorney's Office is taking on water. When Lykos first took office, she had many bold ideas that were applauded by everyone. She was not afraid to start new, progressive policies that changed things that needed to be changed. For example, her leadership in changing law enforcement's policy and practice regarding crack pipe residue cases was brave. And her creation of the DIVERT program which allowed some well screened defendants in DWI cases to avoid convictions on their records, showed political skill in dealing with aggressive pro-law enforcement organizations like Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD) and forged the creation of a lasting program. But recently, Lykos has not been hitting them out of the park in the policy arena. It seems like she hasn't even been swinging. This is crunch time.... It is time for her to put down that cup of tea (or that Mai Tai in Hawaii) and step back up to the policy plate and start swinging for the fence.

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Trayvon Martin was shot and killed in Florida by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer. Martin was returning from a store buying some green tea and skittles. Trayvon Martin was wearing a hooded and was, by all accounts, minding his own business. Zimmerman shot Martin and alleged self-defense. His death was tragic. But to make matters worse, when officers sought to arrest Zimmerman and charge him with manslaughter, a prosecutor stepped in and blocked the charges. Upset by the disregard for this young man's life, people accross the nation took to the streets and protested. The lack of charges sparked discussion and activism from school yards all the way to houses of congress. Trayvon Martin's death increased awareness of our present state, much like Emmitt Till's death and the injustice that followed it increased awareness in the 1950s. People's objections to the status quo and the good ole boy's network were SUSTAINED! when Zimmerman's case was taken over by a new prosecutor and charges were filed.

The Gavel Goes Down on the 1%: Occupy This!

Protestors took to the Streets in New York, occupying Wall Street to protest corporate greed and corruption. The original protest began on September 17, 2011, and since then other protests have been held in 70 major cities and over 600 communities in the U.S. Many of these protest are still on-going. Here in the City of Houston, protestors are staging rallies nearly every week. Internationally, other protest have modeled themselves after Occupy Wall Street, in over 900 cities worldwide. These protests have been growing. We are witnessing the beginnings of a social movement. With their goals yet undefined, but steadily becoming more defined; the gavel goes down on the "Occupy" Movement's objections to the explotation of the 99% by the 1%. It will only be a matter of time until the energies of the protestors are transferred to other vehicles: like voter registration drives and engaging in other activities to increase social awareness.

The Gavel Goes Down: Police Officers Committing Crimes

In many places police officers commit crimes with impunity. But on March 31, 2011, a federal judge in New Orleans sentenced a former New Orleans police officer to 25 years in prison for his role in the shooting death of a man and the burning of his body after Hurricane Katrina.

David Warren was convicted in December of shooting 31-year-old Henry Glover without justification outside a strip mall less than a week after the storm hit in August 2005.

Sentencing is scheduled later for former officer Gregory McRae, who burned Glover's body in a car near a police station.

A jury also convicted former Lt. Travis McCabe of writing a false report on the shooting. His sentencing is on hold while his lawyers seek a new trial. But the Gavel Goes Down on Police getting away with Police Abuse. Twenty-five years may seem a little light for murder (The feds do not have parole and he will serve at least 20 years), but it certainly is a start.

The Gavel Goes Down: Oppression and Genocide in Sudan

Sudan may be headed for a split, with Northern Sudan and Southern Sudan forming two independent nations. Southern Sudanese election officials posted early results Sunday, January 16, 2011, indicating that perhaps more than 95 percent of voters in this regional capital voted to secede from Sudan. The referendum, held last week, was the capstone of decades of civil war in Sudan, which pitted Christian and animist rebels in the south against Arab rulers in northern Sudan. All indications show the weeklong referendum passing.

While the results are the first concrete steps for the south to secede from the rest of Sudan and become its own country, the final vote tally is not scheduled to be announced until Feb. 14. And true independence would not come before July 9, when an U.S.-backed peace agreement between the north and the south expires. It was signed in 2005. Still, many issues need to be ironed out, including citizenship rights, oil sharing and the future of the contested and volatile Abyei region, which was supposed to hold its own referendum on whether to join the south or the north but never did. But, the Gavel Goes Down on the world's objections to the attempted genocide that occurred in Sudan that resulted in the indictment of Sudan's president by the International Criminal Court.

In Washington, President Barack Obama congratulated the south on holding a peaceful, orderly referendum, calling it an "inspiration." But he also warned against breaking the peace agreement timetable.

The Gavel Goes Down: Ignoring the impact of Slavery on American History

After more than eight years of street demonstrations, arguments, haggling and missed deadlines; after extensive public debate about the impact of slavery on life in the United States and on the life and moral character of George Washington; after countless news articles and TV programs, the site marking the intertwined lives of presidents and slaves opened to the public on December 15, 2010 on Philadelphia's Independence Mall. "President's House: Freedom and Slavery in Making a New Nation" chronicles the story of race and power at the heart of our nation's birth. President George Washington owned some 300 slaves. His ownership of these slaves brought him status and power, which positioned him for the presidency. Despite Washington's signing of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1793, many slaves owned by him struggled and obtained freedom. The exhibit is the fruit of the struggled of the Black community in Philadelphia. It is an acknowledgment that Black people were part of America and contributed to it from the beginning. The exhibit tells the story of the inhabitants of the first Executive Mansion: George Washington and John Adams and the nine enslaved Africans held there by President Washington during his two terms in office. It is a stark objection to the white-washing of American history.

The Gavel Goes Down: 55 Years After Rosa Said No

The Gavel Goes Down: Eliminating the Kibera

The Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya has long been known as "the largest slum in Africa." This assertion has been recently challenged and many observers now believe that Kibera is the second largest slum in Africa. In September of 2009, the government of Kenya began clearing the Kibera to -rehouse all of the Nairobi's slum residents. Kenya plans to move all of the residents within the next nine years to communities that will include schools, markets and other facilities. Through the use of U.N. funding, funds from other relief efforts, and its own resources; the Kenyan government is spearheading the project. I (Eric J. Davis) visited the Kibera in 2006 and had the opportunity to spend time with some of the residents. Due to my ethnicity and the fact that we were accompanied by some Kibera residents, we were able to blend in and pass for locals. The resilance of the people was amazing. It was a small city where the people appeared to govern themselves well. The Kibera was safer than many major American cities. Nevertheless, the effects of poverty were apparent. There were no schools, no clean water, no sewage and no hospitals. Should the resettlement survive legal challenge (some slum lords are claiming ownership of the land and are taking the government to court - people pay rent to live in the slums), this African nation will take a big step towards eliminating poverty in its borders. Kenya is proof that African nations can govern themselves. The gavel goes down on Kenya's objections to poverty.