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Indybay Feature

Justice in San Francisco? KPFA's Steve Zeltzer on Ed Lee and Ross Mirkarimi

by Steve Zeltzer/KPFA/Ann Garrison-Web
KPFA labor reporter Steve Zeltzer included these remarks on San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee's suspension of elected Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, contrasting it to Lee's tolerance of labor abuse, election abuse, and abuse of office by city insiders who backed his rise from City Administrator to Mayor.
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San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and suspended San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi
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Steve Zeltzer, "Workweek Radio" contributor to KPFA's weekly Project Censored
For Steve Zeltzer's full Workweek Radio report, and the rest of the June 1, 2012 Project Censored Show: http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/81086.
Thank you, Steve Zeltzer, for your excellent as usual commentaries on the Friday Morning Mix program, heard around 8:30 a.m. The reporting on the crucifixion of Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, whose mother was Russian Jewish and father was Iranian Moslem, must be in every Friday's report as it is the local politics over which we have the greatest impact, and the fascism perpetrated by Nazi USA around the world starts right here at home, in the workingclass communities, and especially in the prison concentration camp system.

We are now in the evidence phase of this multi-million dollar waste of our tax dollars. Dennis Herrera, the Democratic City Attorney, has promised to introduce prison officials to tell us taxpayers how pristine the sheriff's department officials must be and it appears they will be among the first witnesses heard on June 19 at 5 p.m. at City Hall, Room 263. Exhibit A to impeach all prison and police witnesses must be the Complaint filed in US District Court, Northern District of California, Oakland, Ruiz v. Brown, Action No. 4:09-cv-05796-CW which may be read at the plaintiff attorney's website, Center for Constitutional Rights, at
http://ccrjustice.org/files/5-31-12%20Ruiz%20Amended%20Complaint.pdf

This Complaint must be made part of the record that will go to the Board of Supervisors and the defense attorneys must extract sufficient data to fit in a paragraph read out loud. The 8x10 square feet of concrete, about the size of a bathroom, with no window and metal door with a slit for food, should certainly be in that paragraph, as well as the denial of decent and adquate food, the denial of medical care, the denial of daily contact visits, daily phone calls, education, job training for decent paying jobs, the fact that Pelican Bay is hundreds of miles from the county of origin of all of the concentration camp victims at this prison and its remoteness means that there are very few TV and radio channels and visits are rare, the obvious racism with 85% of the victims being Latino, and most of the rest African American in a state where 37% of the people are Latino and 6% are African American, the fact that people sit in these hellholes, which are often sweltering hot or freezing cold, not for a few minutes, not for a few days, but for years and decades, should all be stated out loud thereby putting it on the record and broadcasting it to the audience and the press.

The defense attorneys must also be reminded to ask every single Election Fraud Mayor Ed Lee's prosecution witness how much they were paid directly and whether or not the City paid their plane and hotel bills so that we have some accounting of how much we, the San Francisco taxpayers, are having stolen from us for this destruction of our right to vote to benefit the real estate profiteers who support foreclosures and evictions, which is what this is all about.

Since this is not an actual court trial where a Memo of Costs is filed at the end, the only way we can get a good estimate of the costs is by having the defense attorneys ask the recipients of our tax dollars, the City's witnesses, and putting it on the record, all going to the Board of Supervisors who approve our budget annually.

We also need to hear Sheriff Mirkarimi on the Morning Mix discuss the racism in the San Francisco prison system, and how the programs he has in mind will end this nightmare and save us money. He has stated that 60% of the City jail's prisoners are African American, yet the City's population is only 6% African-American. The same discrepancy is probably also with the Latino prisoner population, which among the City's general population is 15%. The City's general population is also about 50% Asian American and 33% white, European descent. It is his rehabilitation programs that will win him the widest support.
by Laborer in San Francisco
Thanks Steve for speaking the truth about San Francisco's politicians ignoring unfair labor practices in the workplace. Please continue your good work in exposing racism and unfair labor practices in the workplace. Your good work speaks volumes and you are really appreciated in the community.
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