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Exclusive: Mumia Abu Jamal Speaks to Democracy Now From Death
Row
"Factory of Misery and Child Abuse": Van Jones
on Child Prisons in California
Environmnetal Racism & Dirty Skies
Former Hostages Held in Iraq Speak About Their Captors &
the U.S. Occupation
Exclusive: Mumia Abu Jamal Speaks to Democracy Now
From Death Row
55 Years Ago this week Pacfica's first station KPFA first
took to the airwaves in Berekely in order to give voice to
the voiceless. Today we go to inside the prison walls to speak
with the often censored death row journalist Mumia Abu Jamal.
We spoke with him by phone from the San Francisco office of
the Prison Radio Project. [includes
rush transcript]
This week marks the 55th anniversary of the Pacifica Radio
Network. And it all began just a short distance from where
we are broadcasting today in San Francisco, California. Last
night in Berkeley, the home of Pacifica Radio, hundreds of
people gathered for an event to mark the occasion. Democracy
Now! is here broadcasting from the Bay area, where we have
just kicked off a 70 city tour to mark the release of our
new book "The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily
Politicians, War Profiteers and the Media That Love Them."
Over the coming weeks, Democracy Now! will be broadcasting
from cities and communities across the country, highlighting
independent media outlets and community media. To kick off
today's program, we turn to a story Democracy Now! has covered
extensively over the years and that is the case of Death Row
prisoner Mumia Abu Jamal.
Abu Jamal has been on death row for 20 years after being
convicted in 1982 of killing Philadelphia police officer Daniel
Faulkner. A journalist, Black Panther, MOVE member, and outspoken
critic of police brutality, racism and the death penalty,
Mumia Abu Jamal has repeatedly proclaimed his innocence.
In addition to being the home of Pacifica Radio, California's
Bay area is also home to the Prison Radio Project, which for
years has served as the primary way Mumia Abu Jamal has gotten
his voice to the outside world. The group regularly records
his dispatches and distributes them to radio stations across
the country. Since 1996, Mumia Abu Jamal's commentaries have
aired regularly on Democracy Now! His latest book has just
been released. It is called "We Want Freedom: A Life
in the Black Panther Party," which is part autobiography,
part historical analysis.
Well, shortly after we got into town here in San Francisco,
we stopped by the Prison Radio Project and while we were there,
Mumia called in from death row in Pennsylvania. We were able
to speak with him for only 15 minutes, when the phone line
cut off.
"Factory of Misery and Child Abuse": Van
Jones on Child Prisons in California
The head of the Ella Baker Center in Oakland speaks about
new evidence that juvenile detentions are being beaten inside
state facility.
From death row in Pennsylvania, we move to the prison system
here in California. But not the adult prison system, rather,
the institutions here known as the California Youth Authority.
Human rights activists call the CYA system a "factory
of misery and child abuse." Recent reports on the CYA
have revealed rampant sexual assault, alarming suicide rates,
children held in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day.
All of this, while the state of California characterizes the
CYA as a place where troubled kids are sent to encourage them
to become upstanding adults.
Well, a campaign to shut down these child prisons is gaining
momentum here in California. The Ella Baker Center for Human
Rights recently announced a state-wide day of action called
"Stop the Tragedies, Stop the Abuse." On April 28,
a series of candlelight vigils will be held across California
to remember two teenagers who were both found hanged in the
cell they shared in a CYA prison.
California State Senator Gloria Romero recently released
a video of California Youth Authority guards beating two boys
inside the prison. The video shows the guards beating the
boys long after the boys stop offering even meager resistance.
- Van Jones, lawyer and organizer and founder of the Ella
Baker Center
for Human Rights, which challenges human rights abuses
within the U.S. criminal justice system, including programs
like Books Not Bars and New York City PoliceWatch.
Environmnetal Racism & Dirty Skies
The Enivronment Protection Agency reported Thursday that
nearly one in five counties across the country suffers from
unacceptable levels of smog. We go to Fresno where the air
was determined to be the worst and examine the impact of environental
racism.
The Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday that nearly
one in five counties across the United States has unacceptable
levels of ground-level ozone, a major ingredient in smog.
That means that over half the U.S. population, or about 159
million people, is breathing unhealthy air. This week, the
EPA set tougher smog standards which put 474 counties nationwide
in violation of the air quality rules.
These regions now must curtail pollution of smog-causing
ozone to bring the air into compliance under the more stringent
standards. But in some cases, compliance deadlines have been
extended and regions will now have anywhere from three years
to as many as 17 years to do it.
Take California as an example. Though the state has some
of the toughest air pollution requirements, Los Angeles and
nearby counties were found to have the worst air. But three
California regions -- Riverside County, San Joaquin Valley
and Sacramento -- now have all the way until 2013 to curtail
ozone pollution.
Critics say the new EPA rules mean air in some counties will
now stay dirtier longer.
- Rey Leon, policy analyst for environmental health issues
at the new office of the Latino
Issues Forum in the San Joaquin Valley. He is also the
founder of La Raza Unida Foundation, a youth leadership
support group.
Former Hostages Held in Iraq Speak About Their Captors
& the U.S. Occupation
Six international activists were released Thursday after
being held hostage for 24 hours by members of the Iraqi resistance.
We get a report from Aaron Glantz in Baghdad.
The state of siege continues in the Iraqi city of Fallujah.
Medical officials in the city said today that some 15 Iraqis
were killed by US forces, while 20 more were wounded. Hundreds
of people continue to flee Fallujah on a daily basis. But
there are reports that the US is only allowing women and children
to leave. Last Friday, the Pentagon announced what it called
a unilateral ceasefire, but the killings have gone on unabated.
US snipers occupy positions throughout the city and Arab satellite
channels have been broadcasting images of many women and children
killed and wounded by the US military. Hospital officials
in Fallujah are contradicting Pentagon reports on a daily
basis about who is paying the price in Fallujah. The military
has said that 95% of those killed are men of fighting age.
But the doctors in the hospitals are painting a very different
picture. Some estimates put the number of Iraqi dead in the
city as high as 1,200. Meanwhile, 6 International activists
who were held prisoner in Fallujah were just released. And
as Free Speech Radio News correspondent Aaron Glantz reports
from Baghdad, they had harsh words for the American occupation.
- Aaron Glantz,
Free Speech Radio News. Report filed from Baghdad.
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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