Because we see a lot of homeless people and veterans that are suffering from mental illness and they are not getting the adequate care. We see young men and women in and out of prison for nonviolent offenses.

On Wednesday, December 21, 2016, a prisoner at the Texas Clements Unit, Kevin "Rashid" Johnson, was gassed in his cell while handcuffed from behind. A letter written by Mr. Johnson to a supporter, dated December 22, 2016, reported that his gassing was “all retaliation for my involvement in exposing the foul abuses here." Kevin “Rashid” Johnson is a well-known scholar and prison activist who has dedicated his efforts to exposing the civil and environmental injustices behind bars. His most recent letter also reads: “I'm in a gas-covered cell now. The law requires that they decontaminate a prisoner and his cell anytime they spray gas on him/her. They refused in my case. My sheets and bedding are covered in bright orange gas, underwear too, as is the cell wall." According to the supporter who received Rashid’s letter, she could smell the toxic gas as soon as she opened the envelope. The vicious treatment of Mr. Johnson is part of a clear pattern. There is evidently a culture among prison staff that encourages such sadistic behavior. What they have done and continue to do -- both to Mr. Johnson and to thousands of other victims -- constitutes a clear violation of basic human rights. A signed statement from prison guard Britta Townsend corroborates that Mr. Johnson was confined to a gassed cell that was not decontaminated and forced to sleep with sheets covered with the bright orange gas. According to Mr. Johnson, Ms. Townsend now fears that she will be targeted by her peers and higher ranking officers.

On Wednesday, December 21, 2016, a black mother, Ms. Jacqueline Craig, called the police in Fort Worth, Texas, after learning that an adult, white neighbor had choked her 7-year-old son for allegedly littering on the sidewalk. The unnamed police officer who arrived at the scene talked to all the parties involved, including the accused neighbor, who did not deny the assault. The police officer ignored the assault entirely to focus on the accusation of littering. Like the slogan "Make America Great Again," the cop's loaded question used coded, racist language and assumptions about black parenting to blame Ms. Craig for what happened to her child. “Well why don’t you teach your son not to litter?” he asked Craig. He proceeded to violently arrest Craig and her two under-aged daughters, all of which was filmed and posted online. In response to the incident, the Fort Worth Police Chief Joel Fitzgerald was quoted saying “I can’t call it racist. The officer was rude. There’s a difference between rude and racism.” However, the facts of this case suggest otherwise: a white man accused of the felonious act of assaulting a child was allowed to walk free while his black victims were arrested for daring to assert their humanity and rights. If the victims had been white and the assailant black, the outcome of this case would almost certainly have been completely different. Chief Fitzgerald ’s knee-jerk denial of the police officer’s racism, which itself is racist, has also led him to miss the magnitude of the criminal assault perpetrated against an entire family by a member of his force. Ms. Craig and her daughters did not merely suffer rude behavior; they were the victims of a violent and traumatic attack at the hands of a police officer at a moment when they were vulnerable and were asking for help. When the mother stood up to the man who assaulted her 7-year-old son, the police criminalized her parenting, excused the man who engaged in corporal violence against her child, arrested her and her two daughters violently, and threatened them with a stun gun. The outrageous Fort Worth incident is a microcosm of contemporary police racism in the 21st century United States. It shows the extent to which racist police contempt 1. dehumanizes and threatens the lives of black children and their families 2. prevents police from deploying reason as they carry out elementary duties 3. animates violent police responses to people of color 4. hinders accurate assessments of reality by their other officers With Donald Trump preparing to take office, we have seen numerous incidents in which people have asserted a right to be racist. This climate needs to change. The Black Lives Matter Movement and its most progressive proposals to demilitarize and demobilize the police are crucial. One place to start is with the demand for accountability when an egregious example of racism and police brutality is caught on film. The video: http://bit.ly/2ieWOzm Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/12/22/a-black-mother-told-police-a-white-man-assaulted-her-child-they-arrested-her-instead/?postshare=9641482457249082&tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.f5c8cc7eff92

POLLUTION TO LAND AND THE WATER IS NOT WANTED ON INDIAN LAND........THEY CANNOT GET ANYTHING TO GROW WITH OIL SOAKED LAND....NOR IS POLLUTED WATER SAFE TO DRINK.....

San Diego can easily solve unsanitary and unhealthy conditions by taking action with a compassionate heart and existing budgets now. Here's how: * Provide bathrooms = SANISETTE works!! PIT STOP works!! (No cost to city; paid by advertising $) * Provide showers = LAVA MAE works!! (Non profit) * Provide laundry facilities = PORTA KLEEN works!! (GSA Contract Holder) Taking action now meets the immediate needs of the homeless and provides San Diego with image enhancement which money alone cannot buy. Tourist dollars will increase as a result. Please take action NOW, as the need is GREAT!

The Founding Fathers created the Electoral College to safeguard America against an unqualified candidate for president. That is why they, not the public, decide who will be president. Who could have known that this ancient anachronism would suddenly be available to save America? According to even Republican leaders and virtually of all America’s newspapers, Trump is not qualified to serve as President. Most Electors are legally allowed to vote their conscience for Clinton, the popular vote winner. There are hundreds of reasons to do so. One reason not discussed is that Trump’s creditors will now be able to more easily recover their money, and this could lead to him being deposed or in trial for most of his term, unqualified due to absence. Another is because Trump will continue to own his unknown foreign assets, the Dept. of Justice will be forced to assign permanent teams of investigators to determine how each foreign policy action or “pronouncement” might procure or pay for a Trump business bribe or "deal." Republicans cannot complain if the Electors vote for Clinton. They have fought for decades to preserve the Electoral College because it rigs the election in their favor when they lose the popular vote, now and in 2000, too. The Electors can start a public dialog to educate America about their Constitutional Duties. Then, they can elect the qualified candidate. Electors: Do Your Duty! Vote for Clinton, the popular vote winner!

“The mission of the Office of Independent Review (OIR) is to strengthen community trust in the Fresno Police Department by providing neutral, third-party review of police policies, procedures, strategies and internal investigations. The OIR works independently of the Fresno Police Department and provides the City’s leaders and the public with objective analysis of policing data, actions and outcomes” (from the City of Fresno’s website: http://www.fresno.gov/Government/CityManager/IndependentReview/default.htm). As concerned members of the Fresno community, we recognize the vital role police officers play in providing safety within our communities and the importance of cultivating trust with those they serve. Indeed, the motto of the Fresno PD is “Safety, Service and Trust.” Transparency and accountability are critical to the establishment of that trust, and the existence of the OIR ensures a systematic process of objective, third-party review of all complaints filed by citizens and all internal affairs investigations, including quarterly reports with recommendations on findings to increase thoroughness, compliance, quality and accuracy. Currently, the Fresno City OIR has been led by Richard Rasmussen, who was hired in September 2012, having just retired after serving 21+ years with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The Second and Third Quarter Reports of 2016 issued by the Fresno OIR are based on data provided by Fresno PD and reveal that African Americans and Hispanics are subject to more “Field Interviews” and “Traffic Stops” than their respective proportions in the population would predict. For example, although African Americans constitute only 7.7% of the population of the City of Fresno, they represent 13.2% of the traffic stops and 24.4% of the field interviews by Fresno PD--a statistically significant difference. The irony is that the same Fresno PD statistics reveal that only 3.03% and 2.42% of the Field Interviews of African Americans and Hispanics, respectively, result in arrest/detention, compared to 4.11% of the Field Interviews of whites (a statistically significant difference). Consequently, the recent OIR reports provide recommendations on how Fresno PD might build greater trust with the population served. Our most pressing issue must be to PROTECT our existing Office of Independent Review. The existence of the OIR is threatened by both 2016 mayoral candidates (Henry Perea and Lee Brand), neither of whom has expressed a long-term commitment to the OIR. Henry Perea “favors making the police auditor local, … does not support giving the position investigative and subpoena powers and also does not support any sort of community advisory board. He says there already are enough investigative layers as is” (Ellis, “Summer pushes new issues to forefront of Fresno mayor’s race,” The Fresno Bee). Lee Brand also believes the auditor should be local but that it would be too difficult to expand its investigative power. Instead, Brand would consider a Community Advisory Board (CAB), without mentioning how the CAB would be constituted and what “power” it would have. The community would like to not only keep but STRENGTHEN the powers of the OIR to include the ability to subpoena witnesses. In Salt Lake City, for example, they have an Independent Investigator and a Civilian Review Board (not just “Advisory”). The Investigator conducts a side-by-side investigation with the Internal Affairs Unit of the Police Department (as opposed to “after” the IA investigation currently in place in Fresno). The Investigator participates in all interviews, has access to all evidence, and may compel witnesses to be interviewed. Once the Investigator has finished the investigation, it is presented to the Civilian Review Board which deliberates and sends a recommendation to the Police Chief regarding whether or not the complaint should be sustained, along with any other recommendations. The Police Chief has complete and final authority over all disciplinary decisions but is required to take the recommendations of the Police Civilian Review Board into consideration. Fresno’s OIR has made recommendations in department policies and procedures that have been critical in reducing the number of officer involved shootings (OIS), increasing the use of de-escalation tactics, and requiring the use body cameras. It is because of the OIR that the public is able to get access to hard-to-obtain information such as racial data on police field interviews, traffic stops, and detentions (Hess, “Role of Fresno’s Police Auditor Questioned,” Valley Public Radio). Prior to Mr. Rasmussen’s arrival, more than two dozen lawsuits alleging excessive force and police misconduct by Fresno PD were winding their way through federal court. The price of fighting these legal battles, not to mention the payouts resulting from either settlements or findings against Fresno PD, cost us taxpayers millions of dollars. According to KMPH-KFRE.COM media reports, about 180 lawsuits were filed against the Fresno Police Department between 1997 and 2009, and the city paid out about $5.7 million in settlements and judgments, $2.8 million of which were specifically for civil rights violations. Since the re-institution of the OIR under Rick Rasmussen in September 2012, there have been no payouts resulting from any complaint to date (any recent payouts were from complaints filed prior to September 2012). The presence of the OIR seems can help build public trust and also save the city money.

Barbara Lee has a high reputation of speaking truth to power. We ask her to stand on that ground and speak again on some major issues coming up in the next administration.

The Concern: Unfortunately, many of our service members were subjected to enormous government cutbacks and left the field much earlier than retirement and several of them were given pink slips. Many military families have ended up devastated with the unexpected loss of employment mixed with a declining economy. The government is continuing to make significant cutbacks to our military forcing more service members back into the workforce after being out of the regular workforce for years, even decades in some cases. Quite a few service men and women have incredible abilities and many have so much to offer any job. That being said, our vets struggle to find the employment they need every single day. The Answer: If we put enough pressure on businesses and the government to form an employment program to help our vets get back into the workforce right away, we can help save more of some of our country’s finest from living in poverty. Join us! Together we can help our vets get the job they need today! We want to see our military vets have more access to employment too.

Eliminate the possibility of any government, foreign or domestic to manipulate our right of a fair and just vote. Local governments assign police to overlook the safety of construction sites of roadways and utilities. Surely, for the one doy of voting, they can overlook polling stations and security.

Americans arrested abroad are offered little support by the US government which has a mandate to protect the rights of its citizens, which rights include international protections. No financial, medical, legal or nutritional support is provided to American citizens by it's government, leaving the citizen on his/her own at a critically vulnerable time. Other European governments provide their citizens with food, clothing, medical care, nutritional support, regular counselor visits and other assistance including repatriation assistance. The US government will provide nothing except repatriation assistance and and even that is only a loan. As a leader of the free world we should raise the standards on how we allow Americans incarcerated abroad to be treated. especially in nations which do not meet the minimum international standards for detention. An American in prison abroad gets a maximum of 2 visits per year by its embassy and this also is insufficient. Visits at least quarterly should be the minimum standard and is consistent with the standards provided by other western nations. Americans may be starved or suffer malnutrition without the help of the US Embassy. Persons incarcerated abroad may have no friends or relatives willing or able to go to the country and/or provide support.for the destitute. By signing this petition, you are helping the most vulnerable citizens in a crisis situation, being locked up abroad without any help, food, clothing or protection from the legal apparatus of a foreign country.

At SCI-Mahanoy, prisoners are allowed only three small cups of clean water throughout to day to drink with meals. This is about one-eighth of the daily water intake recommended by health professionals. This water crisis is a hazard to the health and safety of all Pennsylvania prisoners. It is particularly dangerous for those prisoners living with already existing, untreated health problems. More than 6,000 prisoners in the state have been diagnosed with Hepatitis C, yet have been refused treatment by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. Please call: John Wetzel Department of Corrections Secretary 717-728-4109 Tom Wolfe Governor of Pennsylvania 717-787-2500 ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (EPA) 800-438-2474 Talking Points • There are reports of visibly brown, smelly water that is undrinkable at SCI-Mahanoy and SCI-Frackville. • This water crisis is a hazard to the health and safety of all PA prisoners. Requests • IMMEDIATELY investigate these reports. • Give all prisoners a daily supply of bottled water immediately for drinking. • Give prisoners access to clean water for showering and personal use.