Showing posts with label de jure discrimination. Show all posts
Showing posts with label de jure discrimination. Show all posts

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Did de Blasio set back police reform by stalling meeting with city's District Attorneys ?

de Blasio finally agrees to meet with District Attorneys after seven months of stalling

The Brooklyn District Attorney won't prosecute low-level marijuana possession charges, but the other District Attorneys will, creating a conflict in the application of the law across the five boroughs

For seven months, City Hall refused to meet with New York City's five district attorneys, leaving the city's top municipal prosecutors to deal with arbitrary applications of the law. Police reform activists blame the mayor for on-going arrests for low-level marijuana possession that target Blacks 4.5 more times than Whites. Wasn't the mayor supposed to reform law enforcement by ending unfair policing tactics that specifically target minority communities ?

RELATED


By ignoring requests for meetings with District Attorneys, Mayor de Blasio has hampered law enforcement reform (Progress Queens)

NYC District Attorneys Finally Get Meeting With Mayor: Sources (WNBC Channel 4 News)

Mayor de Blasio defends 'broken windows' policing strategy after Eric Garner death (The New York Daily News)

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Quinnipiac University Poll, meet summer NYPD offensive and ''broken windows policing''

Mayor de Blasio's high poll approval ratings from minority communities will soon clash with the summer police offensive by controversial NYPD Commissioner William Bratton that targets communities of color.

Bill de Blasio Grumpy Face photo bill-de-blasio-grumpyexport_zpsaef16d0f.jpg

RELATED


William Bratton Putting Desk Officers on Streets in Neighborhoods of Color to Aggravate Tensions in Communities During Hot Summer Months (The New York Times)

A Tale of Two Cities : Racial Divide Over Bill de Blasio’s Support Widens : Political Poll shows Black voters support for mayor, for now (The New York Observer)

In last month's Quinnipiac University Poll, it was affirmed that Mayor de Blasio had lost support amongst a majority of White voters. How long will the mayor enjoy support from people of color as Commish Bratton releases the Kracken upon minority neighborhoods and the city's public housing developments ?

William Bratton photo william-bratton-blockhead-nypd-commissioner_zpsddb4d7cf.jpg

According to a Quinnipiac University Poll release in June, Mayor Bill de Blasio had lost support amongst White voters, but he still has the support of some minority groups. How long that support will last under the racist ''broken windows policing'' policies of NYPD Commissioner William Bratton will soon be revealed.

Commissioner Bratton is unleashing approximately 400 desk cops onto the city's "troubled police precincts" -- a euphemism for public housing developments and other minority neighborhoods -- in a policing crackdown that appears to be discriminatory based on income and race.

The new NYPD offensive, known in the department as “Summer All Out,” will last 90 days, and it follows the controversial, military-like "shock and awe" raids conducted at dawn one day several weeks ago targeting low-income residents, who live in public housing developments in Harlem.

Mayor de Blasio, Commissioner Bratton, and their public relations advisors, such as Dan Levitan, left, from the corrupt lobbying firm Berlin Rosen, are tone deaf to the concerns of minority communities. During the Harlem public housing raids, the police mobilized helicopters, officers in riot gear, and even counterterrorism officials, and the cops even hauled out all of their expensive police toys that they use to make themselves feel so strong and powerful, and, instead of targeting the suspects of interest, the police under Commissioner Bratton drew the entire residents of the public housing complexes of the General Ulysses S. Grant Houses and the Manhattanville Houses in Harlem into the dawn raid.

It's clear that the intent of the NYPD was to instill fear and terror into the residents, to make the major psychological impression that to round up suspects of interest the police will raid entire public housing developments using "militaristic invasions" to make communities of color more submissive to police in a perverse form of sociological behavior modification.

This was what the U.S. military meant by using "shock and awe" under former President George W. Bush in the illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003.

But the implications for Mayor de Blasio may be the same as they were for former President Bush. U.S. popularity plummeted when we are seen as the aggressor. As more and more voters become disenchanted with the duplicitous political machinations of Mayor de Blasio (witness the collapse of Long Island College Hospital on Mayor de Blasio's watch and the swift community sense of betrayal and anger that that engendered), and you have a open window into what the mayor will likely soon face, as the residents of low-income and minority neighborhoods have to put up with aggressive policing that targets the poor and people of color.

The mayor's last vestiges of political polling support amongst minorities will likely collapse before this summer is over. Already, the police are targeting low-income artists and performers, who put on shows in the subway system for tips. The unemployment rate for minority youths is stubbornley high, and the mayor has no alternative plan to give subway artists a legal and meaningful way to earn a living. These, and other violations of minority New Yorkers' civil rights, such as the right to be publicly accommodated on buses without fear of being brutalized or discriminated, are driving minority leaders and activists to question Mayor de Blasio's unbridled support for Commissioner Bratton's racist ''broken windows'' theory of policing. And if Interfaith Medical Center in Brooklyn closes this year, the political perceptions of more and more minority communities will turn decidedly anti-de Blasio.

Yesterday marked the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a legislative landmark that was meant to address the violent discrimination in the South. Perhaps the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice needs to look into the actions of the North, starting right here, with the NYPD. Commissioner Bratton's "broken widows" theory of policing is a form of de jure discrimination, and it must be dismantled. It can be done through the work of the Justice Department, or voters can vote Mayor de Blasio out of office after one term, after he loses critical voting support amongst minority voters as early as this summer, at the rate that he and his police commissioner are going.

Monday, May 12, 2014

Fifty years after Griswold v. Connecticut, NYPD to accommodate safer sex, but stops short of recognizing privacy rights to contraception [UPDATED]

2013-04-11 Protest against Christine Quinn - Condom Banner photo Image_zps30c06990.jpg

At a nighttime protest in Jackson Heights, Queens, last year, activists held up a banner with a giant drawing of condom locked in a police handcuff to represent the NYPD's criminalization of the use of contraception.

New York Police Department to stop criminalizing use of contraception -- in some cases

Advocates for sex workers and improved public health won a major concession from the New York Police Department's on-going oppression against citizens when police officials announced that they would stop seizing reproductive contraceptives, namely, condoms, as evidence of criminality in police crackdowns against sex workers.

Police announced the change in policy after years of demands from activists that the police were stigmatizing the use of condoms, so much so that health officials had long criticized the police practice as undermining their efforts to protect sex workers from disease. In fact, during the 15 years that former Council Speaker Christine Quinn was in public office, she was the city's most visible female and LGBT politician, and she never made any advancement on overturning the police criminalization of condoms. Indeed, under her incumbency, police biases against trans and gender non-conforming citizens extended the anti-condom dragnet against sex workers to include members of the LGBT community. In several media reports, LGBT New Yorkers attested to being harassed, arrested, and stigmatized by the police for innocently carrying contraception -- in direct violation of their privacy rights. What is more, many HIV/AIDS activists had long objected to the police's stigmatization of the use of condoms as flying in the face of advice from city health officials, who advocated their use for safer sex as a way to decrease the incidence of sexually-transmitted diseases and to prevent unwanted pregnancies. For years, if New Yorkers were caught carrying condoms, the prophylactics could be used as criminal evidence in sex worker prosecution cases -- even though the city's Department of Health distributed condoms to all New Yorkers to promote safer sex and greater public health.

In announcing their change in policy today, NYPD officials carved out a backdoor loophole to retain the right to use condoms as evidence in sex trafficking cases, however.

The nominal changes in NYPD condom policy, being spun under the guise as an advancement to public health, comes almost 50 years since the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in the landmark 1965 case of Griswold v. Connecticut that overturned a state law that had criminalized the use of contraception. In The New York Times article posted to their Web site, there was no mention by police as according any reasoning in the policy change to respect New Yorkers' right to privacy. Nor was it mentioned whether police would stop menacing LGBT New Yorkers as part of its new compromised policy. In respect of reproductive rights, it was never explained how police departments across the United States could opt out of compliance in the first place with the Griswold decision.

The partial backpedal on the condom policy is the NYPD's latest half-measure at reform since the election of Mayor Bill de Blasio. Mr. de Blasio campaigned to end the "stop-and-frisk era," but the mayor contradicted his campaign promise by making a regressive appointment of William Bratton as the city's new police commissioner. Commissioner Bratton has promised to continue to use the controversial police tacking known as stop-and-frisk, which has been ruled to be unconstitutional for its racist impact on the community. Mr. de Blasio also campaigned on the promise to stop the arrests of New Yorkers carrying small amounts of marijuana, but Commissioner Bratton's arrest rate for marijuana possession is actually up from the rate of his predecessor, Raymond Kelly. The NYPD has also promised to disband a controversial demographics unit, which targeted New York's Muslim community, but the police department continues to its practice of racial and religious profiling, and surveillance, of Muslims. As Mayor de Blasio tries to resolve many outstanding litigation cases against the police department over its killing of unarmed, innocent civilians and its policy of using brutality against New Yorkers, the de Blasio administration seems to be neglecting long outstanding cases of minority plaintiffs, such as the Central Park 5, further causing tensions over the new administration's insensitivity to the concerns of people long oppressed by the police. Since Mayor de Blasio supports Commissioner Bratton's "broken windows theory" of policing, the NYPD is expected to continue to target its aggressive policing tactics against the city's poor and people of color.

The government compromises its citizens' right to privacy in the new surveillance state, but what happens to citizens' other fundamental rights that are predicated on privacy ?

Meghan Newcomer, a brilliant future lawyer graduating this year from Fordham Law School, published a "Pelican Brief" of sorts last year in the Fordham Law Review entitled, "Can Condoms be Compelling ? Examining the State Interest in Confiscating Condoms from Suspected Sex Workers," about the criminal crackdown by police departments in New York City, Washington, DC, and Los Angeles against sex workers carrying condoms. In Ms. Newcomer's legal analysis, she examined the government's burden in proving it could violate the fundamental right to contraception, and she found that the government could not achieve a compelling state reason to do so. Ms. Newcomer expertly framed her legal reasoning around the constitutional privacy rights established under the landmark Griswold case and other related rulings and laws. After examining the law, Ms. Newcomer concluded in her article that :

Because the Supreme Court has identified a right for all individuals to be free from state interference in their choice of whether to use contraceptive devices, state actors confiscating condoms from suspected sex workers infringes on that constitutionally protected privacy right. The government’s lack of a compelling state interest in taking condoms, coupled with the failure to narrowly tailor the policy so as to involve the least restrictive infringement of the right, means that the conduct cannot survive strict scrutiny. For this reason, New York City, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles are enforcing unconstitutional policies and must stop confiscating condoms from suspected sex workers.

There are more issues that need review, which were not the focus of Ms. Newcomer's fascinating article in the Fordham Law Review. Since New York City officials, privacy rights advocates, and women's rights groups are not raising alarms about the privacy violations of the police department's condom policy, are citizens basically consenting to the government's gutting of the Griswold decision ?

In the time since the Supreme Court issued its ruling in the Griswold case, the impact of the court's decision has been unmistakable in expanding constitutional rights to privacy in subsequent jurisprudence. Prior to Griswold, there was no court case that found a privacy right guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution. After Griswold, the fundamental right to privacy was found from the court's interpretation of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Further landmark Supreme Court case decisions, such as Roe v. Wade, Bowers v. Hardwick, and Lawrence v. Texas, the latter which expanded Bowers by overturning its narrower interpretation, were made possible because of legal precedent that citizens' privacy was protected by the due process clause.

With police departments essentially given discretion to opt out of the law established by the Griswold decision, advocates for police reform are focused on the public health aspects of the dangerous condom policy. Meanwhile, silent are citizens, who appear to be consenting to the wholesale undermining of reproductive freedoms and LGBT civil rights, in addition to the right to privacy established by Griswold. As the government conducts mass warrantless surveillance of its citizens to the outrage of voters, the state doesn't have to go to great lengths to legally violate citizens' privacy rights if the state can first undermine the case law establishing citizens' fundamental rights to privacy. With crime rates so low, why are police departments targeting sex workers carrying condoms ? Perhaps it is to sufficiently restrict citizens' rights under the Griswold case in order to serve the government's "compelling interest" to conduct its unconstitutional surveillance activities. If the state can chip away at privacy rights just enough, it won't technically be violating its citizens' fundamental rights if the state can, ipso facto, succeed at gutting Griswold.

As the government wears down Griswold, where does that leave citizens' rights to an abortion under Roe and to further rights to privacy and substantive due process under the Fourteenth Amendment under Lawrence ? What about the long social movement to end discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity to which Lawrence helped to give critical mass ?

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Paid Gay Inc. Political Operatives Counsel White House To Remain Silent As Supremacist Laws Spread Across United States

Despite Spree of De Jure Discrimination, No Gay Inc. Group Calls on President Obama to Publicly Condemn Them

All these people who espouse that the president should remain silent while supremacist laws get passed across America remind me of when folks went around silencing critics when Germany was passing supremacist laws in its own country during the last century. There are some, who say we should not enfeeble President Barack Obama by making him take sides in the spread of anti-LGBT laws, that we need the president to remain a "man of iron," figuratively speaking, to guide the nation on more important issues. On Facebook, somebody posted, in part, on my wall, "The 2 Senators have already stated their views. Do you have doubt as to where the President stands ?"

Actually, I do have doubts about President Obama. He promised to sign the employment non-discrimination executive order referred to as ENDA, but six years into his administration, we are still waiting. But yet here come folks, who appear to be paid Gay Inc. political operatives, counseling us to keep on waiting, wait more, and I ask : wait for what ? Wait for how much longer ? What does President Obama stand for ? What does he believe in ?

Whenever other oppressive regimes in other nations are carrying out violent crackdows against freedoms and liberties, the Obama administration always seems to come to the rescue of the violent dictators, who are running their respective nations into the ground. Here he is, the highest elected leader of our nation, and yet he wants to stay silent as de jure discrimination spreads from one American state to another. The false counsel that some shameful LGBT operatives are giving the White House, to remain silent as Gov. Jan Brewer (R-Ariz.) considers S.B. 1062, legislation that would legalize LGBT discrimination, is a perfect example of that old adage : the chicken coop is guarded from the inside.

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Uganda To Sign Anti-Homosexuality Law ; Justifies Discrimination On Obama Silence On Arizona's Discrimination Bill

Ofwono Opondo, the Executive Director of the Uganda Media Centre and the Spokesperson of the Government of Uganda, authored a series of tweets, confirming the signing of Uganda's anti-homosexuality law today. Among his tweets was an attack on U.S. President Barack Obama for not speaking out to denounce the law allowing "businesses to deny services to gays on religious grounds."

While it seems that Mr. Opondo was trying to justify Uganda's sexual orientation discrimination on the GOP's sexual orientation discrimination in Arizona, Mr. Opondo does make a point : the Obama administration can't really denounce discrimination against the LGBT community in a foreign country if it does nothing to denounce similar discrimination right here at home.

The Obama administration hasn't done much to stand up against anti-LGBT human rights abuses around the world. President Obama hasn't been able to bring to a stop the violent anti-LGBT crackdown taking place in Russia, Uganda, or Nigeria. Here at home, LGBT activists are still waiting for President Obama to sign the employment non-discrimination executive order referred to as ENDA.

Monday, February 10, 2014

Rep. Joseph Crowley asks DOJ to release information regarding vindictive prosecution of Lt. Daniel Choi

New York Congressman presses Department of Justice to answer Freedom of Information Act request

U.S. Representative Joseph Crowley (D-NY) wrote a letter to the staff of the U.S. Department of Justice, requesting that the agency answer a Freedom of Information Act request submitted last year.

The FOIA request was submitted on 30 April 2013 to obtain information about the Department of Justice's policy of aggressively prosecuting activists. One activist in particular, Lt. Daniel Choi, who led the charge to over turn the military's discriminatory policy known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," was the target of a "vindictive prosecution," according to a court finding. A pattern of others being targeted for their activism shows that some federal prosecutors may be overreaching in a deliberate campaign to punish activists.

Lt. Choi's circumstances very visibly highlight questions about why the government chose to press federal charges against one of the nation's most visible LGBT civil rights activists. Lt. Choi's activism, sometimes involving direct action, was undertaken to end the military's discrimination against gays and lesbians in the U.S. Armed Forces. After the U.S. Congress acknowledged the harmful discrimination of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and repealed the policy, and after President Barack Obama signed the repeal into law, the government still prosecuted Lt. Choi as if he were a criminal, even though his activism was undertaken solely to advance social justice. Rep. Crowley's crucial letter to the Department of Justice comes as the FOIA request remains pending over nine months after its initial, formal filing. In December, the law firm of Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP filed an appeal in support of the FOIA request after it had become apparent that the Department of Justice had constructively denied the FOIA request by refusing to provide any response.

2014-02-10 Rep Joseph Crowley Letter to DOJ - Lt Dan Choi FOIA Request by Connaissable

Here is the appeal filed in December by Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP :

2013-12-06 Lt Daniel Choi FOIA Appeal - Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP - Flores Louis by Connaissable

And here is the original FOIA request, formally filed last April :

2013-04-30 Lt Daniel Choi DOJ FOIA Request Louis Flores by Connaissable

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Vladimir Putin Violent Anti-LGBT Crackdown Mockumentary Facebook Movie Going Viral

The parody video, styled on the recent spree of data-mining movies that Facebook has been pushing to promote its 10 year anniversary, shows dramatic images of anti-LGBT violence in Russia under its president, Vladimir Putin.

The video says that President Putin joined Facebook in 1975, an impossible feat, but not impossible if the Russian president is advancing propaganda. Interspersed with official-looking photographs, like of the Russian president signing decrees, are depictions of state-sponsored violence of LGBT Russians. Whereas authentic Facebook movies end with the iconic Facebook like button of the "thumbs up" facing upwards, the Putin parody video ends with the "like button" turned upside-down, expressing growing worldwide dissent on Russia's draconian enforcement of its anti-LGBT law.

This latest video adds to the growing digital backlash from LGBT and ally activists playing out on social media now during the Sochi Winter Olympics.

Thursday, January 30, 2014

What does dropping NYC stop-and-frisk appeal change about NYPD discrimination ?

From: Louis Flores
Subject: Stop-And-Frisk Appeal
Date: 30 janvier 2014 21:31:53 UTC-05:00
To: thecall@ny1.com

Before Bill de Blasio dropped the appeal today, he had said that stop-and-frisk was no longer a problem, because Bloomberg and Kelly had already lowered it. Dropping the appeal was good, but what really changed ?

Today's press conference overshadowed the nomination hearing of the new Department of Investigations chief, who said that the mayor will have an input in deciding who the new NYPD Inspector General will be. Also overshadowed today was a protest outside NYPD, calling for justice in the beating death of a Islan Nettles, a transgender woman of color.

The whole fight for NYPD reform began because we need independent oversight of the police. Dropping the appeal changes nothing, because it was already a fait accompli.

Bill de Blasio and Bill Bratton are already acting as if there will be no real police oversight, even as the community continues to demand justice for minorities.

Louis Flores
Jackson Heights

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Is it time for Greenlight Capital to short stock of Sochi Olympic Sponsors ?

Hedge funds can probably make a killing by shorting stock of Sochi Olympic Sponsors

The marketing setbacks facing Coca-Cola's karmically-doomed sponsorship of the Sochi Olympics seem to be the tip of the iceberg.

Last year, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg launched a highly-visible attack on super-sized sugary drinks, seeking to ban the sale of high-calorie drinks as a way to fight obesity and obesity-related maladies, like diabetes and heart disease. A court blocked Mayor Bloomberg's ban on large sugary-drinks, but Mayor Bloomberg's successor has vowed to fight to restore the ban. Efforts to improve its corporate image have also proved to be problematic for Coca-Cola after the corporation faced allegations that it was depleting ground water and contributing to pollution in India. Coca-Cola's role in creating water shortages in India have led some local authorities to suggest last week that they would take actions to demolish a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Uttar Pradesh.

Coca-Cola is still recovering from the shocking 2009 documentary exposé, The Coca-Cola Case, of its labour violations in Colombia, Guatemala, and Turkey.

Similarly, the damage that McDonald's is doing to its own reputation following it's own deadly silence on the violent Russian LGBT crackdown comes at a time when the world's largest hamburger chain is losing customer loyalty and is facing an embarrassing sales slump. "We've lost some of our customer relevance," CEO Don Thompson told Wall Street analysts during a conference call this week.

Separately, it's unclear how much the credit card issuer VISA stands to lose, if anything, from the recent spree of credit card fraud impacting several large American retailers.

Is it time for Greenlight Capital to create a bespoke basket of Olympic sponsor equities, and then short it ?

2014-01-27 at 21.44.49 Virtual Assistant Greenlight Capital Short Coca-Cola Stock Screen Shot photo 2014-01-27at214449VirtualAssistantGreenlightCapitalShortCoca-ColaStockScreenShot_zpsf71905ed.png

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Coca-Cola Social Media Gimmick Censors "Gay" But Not "Straight"

Enjoy Coke, as long as you're not "gay" ?

In a startling new development, the world's largest sugary-drinks maker Coca-Cola has censored its social media followers from using the word "gay" in the company's new social media gimmick -- but not the word "straight."

The normally proud Sochi Olympics sponsor, Coca-Cola is expressing shame to its social media followers if they try to type the word "gay" into a meme generator that lets users affix brief messages on a blank red Coca-Cola can, but one that still bears the trademark white swoosh, or wave. The censorship is evidenced by a capture video of a computer screen's movements posted to YouTube by a user named Kaleb Sutra.

Social media followers who type the word "gay" are met with the following response : “Oops. Let’s pretend you didn’t just type that," the same as if followers had just typed in curse words, like "dick," "pussy," or "bitch."

Coca-Cola's association of "gay" with profanity comes on the heels of the proud Sochi Olympics sponsor trying to disassociate itself from the doomed marketing gimmicks of McDonald's, which launched a karmically-challenged social media campaign on Twitter with the hashtag #CheersToSochi in the face of a violent, seemingly government-sponsored crackdown against LGBT Russians following the passage of an anti-gay propaganda law last year.

That the tinge of censorship has now befallen Coca-Cola's latest social media campaign reveals the adverse advertising conditions the large sugary-drinks maker must confront in connection with this year's controversial Winter Olympics, set to take place in Sochi, a southern Russian coastal resort town across the Black Sea from Turkey. Russia's anti-gay law has sparked global outrage ahead of the Olympics, and many foolish corporations like Coca-Cola, which blindly paid large sums of money to sponsor the Sochi Olympics, must now account to their customers for the sponsorship of the games in a nation that is violently cracking down against its very own LGBT citizens.

Since last summer, Coca-Cola had become the target of protests based on its sponsorship decision, and last week one LGBT activism group released a brilliant YouTube video, mocking Coca-Cola's morally bankrupt brand for having once sponsored multi-cultural dignity and respect but which now supports Russia's violent anti-LGBT crackdown.

No word yet on how Coca-Cola's own Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Ally (LGBTA) Business Resource Group, or its other Diversity Advisory Councils, are able to reconcile the corporation's controversial sponsorship of the Sochi Olympics.

Is it time for Greenlight Capital to short some stock ?

These latest marketing setbacks add to Coca-Cola's growing problems. Last year, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg launched a highly-visible attack on super-sized sugary drinks, seeking to ban the sale of high-calorie drinks as a way to fight obesity and obesity-related maladies, like diabetes and heart disease. A court blocked Mayor Bloomberg's ban on large sugary-drinks, but Mayor Bloomberg's successor has vowed to fight to restore the ban. Efforts to improve its corporate image have also proved to be problematic for Coca-Cola after the corporation faced allegations that it was depleting ground water and contributing to pollution in India. Coca-Cola's role in creating water shortages in India have led some local authorities to suggest last week that they would take actions to demolish a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Uttar Pradesh.

Coca-Cola is still recovering from the shocking 2009 documentary exposé, The Coca-Cola Case, of its labour violations in Colombia, Guatemala, and Turkey.

Similarly, the damage that McDonald's is doing to its own reputation following it's own deadly silence on the violent Russian LGBT crackdown comes at a time when the world's largest hamburger chain is losing customer loyalty and is facing an embarrassing sales slump. "We've lost some of our customer relevance," CEO Don Thompson told Wall Street analysts during a conference call this week.

Separately, it's unclear how much the credit card issuer VISA stands to lose, if anything, from the recent spree of credit card fraud impacting several large American retailers.

Is it time for Greenlight Capital to create a bespoke basket of Olympic sponsor equities, and then short it ?

2014-01-27 at 21.44.49 Virtual Assistant Greenlight Capital Short Coca-Cola Stock Screen Shot photo 2014-01-27at214449VirtualAssistantGreenlightCapitalShortCoca-ColaStockScreenShot_zpsf71905ed.png

Friday, January 24, 2014

New Activist Video Mocks Coca-Cola's "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" Over anti-LGBT Russian Sochi Olympics

LGBT activism group Queer Nation NY release protest video attacking Coca-Cola's sponsorship of the anti-LGBT Russian Sochi Olympics

The pop culture touchstone that was once Coca-Cola's advertising jingle, ''I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony)'' has been juxtaposed over snippets of video showing the violent anti-LGBT crackdown taking place right now in Vladamir Putin's Russia.

The irony of the disturbing images in this protest video is that this theme song originated from one of Coca-Cola's most effective advertising campaigns ever -- an advertising jingle, ''I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke (And Keep It Company),'' a little ditty of "hope and love sung by a multicultural collection of teenagers on the top of a hill" -- has been transformed to reveal how morally bankrupt Coca-Cola's brand really is.

If Coca-Cola cared about diversity and the respect and dignity that every person deserves, irrespective of how people may be "different," then Coca-Cola should fully address the violence now taking place in Russia since President Putin enacted legislation that bans the dissemination of so-called "gay propaganda."

Perhaps the LGBT community should begin protests outside of businesses that serve Coca-Cola and sing a new interpretation of "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke (And Keep It Company)," one whose lyrics more accurately reflect the disturbing images of violence and brutality in Queer Nation NY's new protest video.

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Queer Nation NY Protests Outside NBC's The Today Show Over Olympic Coverage And Silence On Russian LGBT Crackdown

Members of the LGBT direct action group, Queer Nation NY, protested at the exterior set used by NBC's The Today Show on Rockefeller Plaza. Activists unfurled a huge banner and heckled The Today Show co-host Matt Lauer over the network's controversial one-sided reportage of Russia in the time leading up to the Winter Olympics in Sotchi. LGBT protesters demand that the network fully report about the violent crackdown against Russian LGBT's ordered by the dictatorial leader, Vladamir Putin.

In a statement posted on Facebook, an online administration of Queer Nation NY communicated :

RELATED : Queer Nation NY protests against Russian LGBT discrimination enablers continue, this time at Carnegie Hall

Activists from around the world are questioning why the media and people in the media are refusing to acknowledge the human rights abuses taking place against LGBT's in Russia. Last year, the French pop superstar Mylène Farmer was in Russia when anti-LGBT violence broke out in Saint-Pétersbourg. Ms. Farmer, who enjoys a huge LGBT fan base, remained mum about each of the violent attack and the over-all crackdown that claims as victims her very own LGBT Russian fan base.

RELATED : London gay rights protest over Coca-Cola Sochi sponsorship

RELATED : If Mylène Farmer were a real gay icon, she would denounce the Russian government's violent crackdown against LGBT community

LGBT activists have also been targeting special NBC Olympics commentator Johnny Weir, the former figure skater. Mr. Weir has been using many media appearances to deny that the violent LGBT crackdown is taking place in Russia -- leading activists to label Mr. Weir as a "Putin apologist."

Monday, January 13, 2014

NYTimes Public Editor to People of Color : Drop Dead

Request to discuss concerns about the Bratton appointment to head the NYPD is denied.

Margaret Sullivan NYTimes Public Editor to People of Color - Drop Dead Bratton NYPD Stop-And-Frisk photo NYTimesPublicEditortoPOC-DropDead-WilliamBrattonNYPDConcernsStop-And-Frisk_zps407e21fc.jpg

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: nytimes, public
Date: Mon, Jan 13, 2014 at 4:20 PM
Subject: Re: Bill de Blasio // How’s He Doing ?
To: Louis Flores

Dear Mr. Flores,

Thanks so much for taking the time to write. While we very much appreciate your concern, and are keeping a close eye on early coverage of Mr. De Blasio's days at the helm, the volume of requests of this nature that we receive is simply too great for the public editor to honor each one. Given the seriousness of the issues that you bring up, there is certainly a possibility that they could help illuminate themes and issues that may well make a good subject for a future column. Thanks again for writing, and for caring about what's published in The Times. Feedback from readers like yourself is essential and I'll keep your email in mind when reading evaluations of Mr. De Blasio's tenure.

Best,
Jonah Bromwich
Office of the Public Editor
The New York Times

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Louis Flores
Date: Mon, Jan 13, 2014 at 4:07 PM
Subject: Bill de Blasio // How’s He Doing ?
To: public@nytimes.com

Dear Ms. Sullivan :

On the Web site today, The New York Times gave a brief assessment of Mayor de Blasio's administration, thus far :

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/13/new-york-today-hows-he-doing/

• Over all, Mr. Grynbaum said, things have gone relatively smoothly for the mayor – “with the notable exception of his pizza faux pas on Friday.” (Mr. de Blasio’s regular-guy image took a global hit when he ate pizza with a fork.)

How can this be a fair assessment ? Many activists have issues with the new mayor, not the least of which center around the appointment of William Bratton as NYPD commissioner ?

(I have my own serious questions regarding campaign finance and the role of lobbyists in the campaigns and transition, but I'm contacting you on behalf of some of my activist friends, who are more focused on police reform.)

Some of my activism friends have issues with the fact that their concerns are not being fairly represented in The NYTimes. Is it possible to have a phone call or to Skype with you, so we can share some of these concerns ?

In the past, I've protested outside The NYTimes when we thought there was a media bias in the paper. But this time now, I (personally) would like to see if we can have a more productive relationship if we started out with a discussion.

Please let me know if we could speak. If you agree, I'd like to invite a couple of activist friends to participate on my end, so that you can hear directly for the people.

Thank you kindly for your consideration.

Best regards,
-- Louis

Louis Flores
1 (646) 400-1168
lflores22@gmail.com

Friday, January 3, 2014

Stop-and-Frisk Mic Check and Speak Out Protest at Bill de Blasio Inauguration

Stop-and-Frisk Freedom Fighters demonstrate to oppose Bill Bratton's appointment as NYPD commish

Mic check and speak-out by Jose LaSalle. Mr. LaSalle is one of the city's most visible community organizers leading the charge to put pressure on Mayor Bill de Blasio to reconsider his appointment of William Bratton as NYPD commissioner.

Already, activists, including Mr. LaSalle, have led a series of demonstrations against the Bratton appointment, even before the mayor was sworn into office on Wednesday.

Sunday, December 15, 2013

India Section 377 Protest NYC #NoGoingBack #377DayOfRage

Protest in Union Square NYC Against Section 377 Indian Supreme Court Ruling

On December 11, 2013, the Supreme Court of India reinstated the British Raj era law known as Section 377, which criminalises homosexuality. This Judgment has inspired anger across different sections of society around the world. While the legal battle continues, it is important that we make our voices heard.

Activists organized protests in approximately 40 cities around the world on Sunday, December 15, 2013. This video depicts some of the activists, who gathered in Union Square in New York City, to denounce the Indian Supreme Court ruling as unfair, unjust, and discriminatory.

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Section 377 of Indian Penal Code Supreme Court Ruling Exposing Ignorance, Racism

India's Supreme Court Ruling Continues British Raj Era's LGBT Discrimination ; American Reaction Turns Ugly

Following today's controversial Indian Supreme Court's ruling to recriminalise homosexuality, the reaction on some American-based Web sites has revealed cultural and historical incompetencies by the West of the East.

Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalises homosexuality, was enacted in 1860 by the British Raj, the former colonial rulers of India. "Enacted" is a relative term, because the law was basically imposed on India the way British colonists imposed everything else on Indians. Because British rule lasted from 1858 to 1947, and the culture and values of modern India are still informed by the shadow of injustice and discrimination that marked British colonial rule, including lingering laws on India's books. Also note that the inception of the epoch of British Raj overlapped with British Victorian Era, a period of extremely conservative moral values.

When news broke about the Indian Supreme Court's ruling on Section 377, people with no knowledge of India's history instantly reached for charicatured generalisations of Indian culture based on stereotypes of IT tech support and call centers.

"India's Supreme Court rules Gay Sex illegal ... it's time to pull out of that shithole .. bring Tech Support back on-shore," wrote one prominent LGBT activist on Facebook.

On the popular LGBT blog named Joe My God, one commenter wrote, "we need to get a list of all companies using call centers based in india. and boycott indian restaurants. they use a lot of products coming straight from their homeland." (India Court Recriminalizes Homosexuality * Joe My God)

A Facebook follower of Joe Jervis, the author of the Joe My God blog, commented on Facebook that, "The tech companies and the Queen of England should weigh in on this." Never mind that there are companies in India other than "tech," and India endured a violent partition once it was liberated from British rule. Even though the Queen of England has no more power or authority over India's governance, this one comment had attracted four Facebook "likes."

Another commenter on the Joe My God blog wrote, "I wonder how many of the corporate sponsors of the Sochi Olympics have call centers in India?" While presumably the author of this comment was trying to find an intersectional-political pressure point between the violent crackdown against LGBT Russians and the Indian Supreme Court's disappointing ruling, it's notable that the commenter's focus was, again, a call center.

On another popular LGBT blog, Towleroad, the very first commenter posted this reaction to the Indian Supreme Court's ruling : "If you use a call center that is based in India then contact the company that subcontracts their call center to India and ask to use a non-Indian call-center." Another commenter on Towleroad posted, "Does anyone have a list of US companies who subcontract their helpdesks and call centers to India." (In Shocking Ruling, India's Supreme Court Restores Criminalisation of Gay Sex * Towleroad)

These harmful, divisive stereotypes contrast with an article posted by Cathy Kristofferson on OBlogDeeOBlogDa, where she wrote : "India is one of the many countries in the world still suffering with a left over British colonial penal code criminalizing homosexuality."

And the hurtful generalisations about India also ignore the very visible and organized opposition and protests taking place in India against the Supreme Court's "retrograde" ruling.

Another indication of uninformed reaction to the Indian Supreme Court's decision was that in the long string of organising, litigation, and politicking for LGBT civil rights right here at home, American LGBT's were dealt a major setback in 1986 with the SCOTUS decision in Bowers v. Hardwick, which upheld the constitutionality of anti-sodomy laws in the state of Georgia. It took 17 years before the SCOTUS overturned Bowers with the Lawrence v. Texas decision. During that time, were Indians calling for a boycott of McDonalds ?

Many prominent Indians are even denouncing their own Supreme Court's adversarial decision, including famous Bollywood actor Aamir Khan, but Americans, who are uninformed of Indian culture, would not know the full spectrum of debate taking place in India right now, sometimes highly conflicted. How can one have a meaningful debate to change the hearts and minds of people, to ask them to make room for equal rights for everybody, when one first resorts to unfairly categorizing Indians as a way to assign blame for a Supreme Court ruling that frustrates the march to equality ?

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Who is Richard Socarides ?

Neoliberal openly-gay attorney helped to enable "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy under Clinton administration

Richard Socarides is an LGBT political operative, who worked for the Clinton administration, authoring talking points to help defend President Clinton's discriminatory "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. He is also a trustee of the State University of New York (SUNY), being one of the trustees that have enabled Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Wall Street banker Stephen Berger to close Long Island College Hospital.

Richard Socarides, DADT, SUNY, Trustee Closing LICH, Medicaid Redesign Team, Neoliberalism photo Richard_Socarides_ABC_TOPLINE_ONE_101229_wg_zpsbe36446d.jpg

Socarides Same Sex Marriage Talking Points by Paul Schindler

If Mylène Farmer was a real gay icon, she would denounce the Russian government's violent crackdown against LGBT community

Mylène Farmer is one of the most successful French singers in recording history. She's a widely followed "gay icon" amongst the LGBT community around the world. Yet, she took her most recent tour to Russia, and, whilst there, she never denounced the Russian government's crackdown on LGBT civil rights.

One of her Russian fan clubs has expressed ambivalence about whether Mylène has any responsibility to her Russian LGBT fans, describing the plea by activists to hold the Russian government accountable for the violence and discrimination as "squabbles" of Mylène's LGBT fans.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Christina Gonzalez Arrested For Being Poor

Christina Gonzalez, the community activist who is running for New York City Council, seems to have been targeted for arrest once again by police yesterday. Here is a recent video of a campaign speech.

Ms. Gonzalez was arrested on Monday, September 24, 2013, for asking for a swipe into the subway system. The persons, who she asked, were police officers and subway employees. Here is a video showing NYPD officers putting Ms. Gonzalez into a police vehicle.

Ms. Gonzalez is a prolific activist with a long record of protesting brutality and other controversial police procedures, such as the unconstitutional policy known as stop-and-frisk. Because of her visibility and criticism, many in the community believe that she has been targeted by police and the justice system for retribution and hostility.

Correction : This post was updated to correct information about the dress and identity of the people whom Ms. Gonzalez approached for a fee subway swipe. The people were police officers and subway employees, not undercover police officers as initially reported.