Bantu (Dion Dawson) has been incarcerated 19 years for a crime he is absolutely Innocent of. He was convicted on the false testimony of a man named Eddie James Smith who was initially accused as the perpetrator of the crime, arrested, but became the star witness for the prosecution as he framed Bantu in order to escape accountability for his actions. Three years after his conviction, a man came forward with an eye-witness account as to what truly took place the night in question. His eye-witness account exonerates Bantu, laying the blame instead at the feet of prosecution witness, Eddie Smith, as a co-conspirator to the murder Bantu stands wrongly convicted of. The State's response to this new evidence was egregious and should shock the conscience of members of a civilized society. It found Bantu: "....could not sit on the potentially exculpatory evidence presented in the affidavit...as a form of security or a get out of jail card." These are the words of Richard Lynch, General Counsel for the County of Wayne representing Third Judicial Circuit Court Judge Daniel P. Ryan, in a civil suit brought by Dion "Bantu" Dawson for the suppression of evidence of his innocence. In attoney Richard Lynch's words, Bantu should not be able to use evidence of his "Innocence" as "a get out of jail card." The question the public should be asking in light of this most ridiculous position is, "why not?" For what other reason would a man wrongfully convicted use evidence of his Innocence but to get out of jail? Kenneth H. Karam, the attorney Bantu seeks to raise funds to hire said about the matter: "it appears that the court is attempting to utilize the court rules against the interest of justice." The concealment of evidence of Bantu's innocence reeks of injustice, a reckless disregard for the truth and the principles of justice, and an indifference to innocence. Bantu was also subjected to terror tactics by Detroit Police Homicide Officers Moises Jimenez and Kurtis Staples, who slapped Bantu in the face and pulled a gun and knife on him as a means to induce fear and extract a confession, while also depriving him of his constitutional rights to a lawyer and to remain silent, forcing Bantu to sign a statement he did not write or read. While these assertions may sound shocking and even suprising to the public, the truth is, these types of illegal tactics are not new and have historically been used by law enforcement to secure convictons. In a 2019 interview with The Detroit News, former Detroit Police Officer and Detroit television news journalist, and now director of Seeking Justice, an organization advocating for wrongfully convicted persons, Bill Proctor dropped a bombshell when exposing the Detroit Police Department when sharing "In many instances, it was the abuse of prisoners that lead to confessions. The police was beating people, not letting them use the bathroom, and locking them in dark closets until they confessed - whether they did the crime or not." Bantu volunteered, asking the trial judge to administer a polygraph examine (lie detector test) to prove he was tortured by Detroit Police Officers and never confessed to any crime. We know now, after uncovering documents following a Freedom of Information Act request from the Detroit Police Department, the officers effectively shut down any possibility of Bantu being afforded a lie detector test because they knew what they had done; that Bantu was telling truth about having been assaulted with hands and weapons, denied his constitutional rights despite attempting to assert them, and forced to sign a false confession. But the law on the issue is favorable to Bantu, as the federal Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals found "the willingness of a person accused of wrongdoing to submit to such a test might be relevant to the question of innocence." And according to the New York Innocence Project, about 30% of people who were exonerated by DNA evidence had made a false confession. The core question of any criminal matter shall be, "What is the truth!", and a fair search for it is why courts and lawyers suppose to exist. Whenever the truth of a possibility of innocence is demonstrated, considering our criminal justice system is an imperfect one, that evidence should reviewed on it's merits to ascertain whether an innocent man has indeed been wrongfully convicted. For this reason, for this trial judge and his attorney to deliberately close the doors on truth and innocence, a type of concealment of truth and innocence, the reaction from the public MUST be outrage. This is why Bantu needs your help. Former Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court, Elizabeth A. Weaver said in her book Judicial Deceit: Tyranny & Unnecessary Secrecy at the Michigan Supreme Court, "Designate those as unfaithful stewards who have seen the danger and yet have given no warning." Bantu needs your help to put the justice system in the State of Michigan on notice that [we] have seen the danger, and will not be silent in the face of injustice. Let your warning be heard by signing this petition in support of Justice For Bantu, and by donating whatever you can to his campaign for justice. For a full viewing of Bantu's case and documentary evidence of his innocence, log onto: www.justiceforbantu.com To donate to this cause and read current statistics on innocent people wrongfully convicted of crimes they never committed, log onto: GoFundme.com @ JusticeForBantu Also donate @ Pay Pal.com/Deon Dawson @ JusticeForBantu Follow Bantu on Social Media: *Twitter @JusticeForBantu *Instagram @ JusticeForBantu Please share these links with your friends and family.

SIGNED BY Ann Wright - Col. U.S. Army (Retired), resigned U.S. State Department official in Afghanistan and member of the CODEPINK anti-drone war delegation to Pakistan in 2012. Matthew Hoh - Former U.S. Marine officer and resigned U.S. State Department official in Afghanistan. Kathy Kelly – Peace activist who has made 30 trips to Afghanistan and Co-coordinator BanKillerDrones.org. Brian Terrell – Peace activist who has made multiple trips to Afghanistan and board member of BanKillerDrones.org Medea Benjamin – Co-founder of CODEPINK, organizer of the anti-drone war protest delegation to Pakistan in 2012. Leah Bolger - Commander, U.S. Navy (Retired) , President, World Beyond War and a member of the CODEPINK anti-drone war protest delegation to Pakistan in 2012. Chelsea Faria – Board member, BanKillerDrones.org and a member of the CODEPINK anti-drone war delegation to Pakistan in 2012. Judy Bello – Upstate (NY) Drone Action and a member of the CODEPINK anti-drone war delegation to Pakistan in 2012. Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Prize Winner, 1976 and visitor to Afghanistan in 2012. David Swanson – Executive Director, World BEYOND War. The Rev. Dr. Emma Jordan-Simpson – Executive Director, Fellowship of Reconciliation (USA). Garett Reppenhagen, Executive Director, Veterans For Peace. Richard A. Falk, Professor Emeritus of International Law, Princeton University. Joe Lombardo, Coordinator, United National Antiwar Coalition. Phyllis Bennis – Institute for Policy Studies. Dr. Christine Schweitzer, Federation for Social Defence (Germany). Chris Cole, Director, Drone Wars UK. Debra Sweet – Director, World Can’t Wait. Susan Schnall – President, Veterans for Peace, New York City chapter, Veterans for Peace national board member. Maurice Carney - Friends of the Congo. Nada Khader - Executive Director, WESPAC Foundation, Westchester County, NY. Frank Brodhead – Coordinator, Concerned Families of Westchester (NY). Jack Gilroy – Veterans for Peace, Upstate (NY) Drone Action. Robert M. Smith – Brandywine Peace Community, Philadelphia, PA. Peace Action of Broome County, NY. Veterans for Peace of Broome County, NY. Friends of Franz & Ben. Ed Kinane and Ann Tiffany – Upstate (NY) Drone Action. Malachy Kilbride – Peace organizer. Janice Sevre-Duszynska – Baltimore Nonviolence Center. Susan H. Smith – Fellowship of Reconciliation (USA). Joy First – Peace organizer. Max Obuszewski – Baltimore Nonviolence Center and Baltimore Peace Action. Nick Mottern – Co-coordinator, BanKillerDrones.org SOURCES 1. >> https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2021/06/now-over-horizon-protection-afghanistan-will-fly-existing-hubs-acting-air-force-secretary-says/174595/ >> https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Transcripts/Transcript/Article/2665540/pentagon-press-secretary-john-f-kirby-holds-a-press-briefing/ 2. >> https://www.c-span.org/video/?512340-1/defense-department-fiscal-year-2022-budget-request&live= >> https://tolonews.com/afghanistan-172830 4. >> https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/09/us/politics/afghanistan-airstrikes-us-troop-withdrawal.html 5. >> https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/06/us/politics/cia-afghanistan-pakistan.html >> https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/03/us/politics/biden-drones.html >> https://bankillerdrones.org/dangers/https:/bankillerdrones.org/dangers/ 6. >> https://www.iadllaw.org/files/BOMBING OF AFGHANISTAN IS ILLEGAL AND MUST BE STOPPED by Marjorie Cohn.pdf 7. >> https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N21/037/72/PDF/N2103772.pdf?OpenElement 8. >> https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/06/21/afghanistan-pakistan-imran-khan-peace-security-cooperation-us/ >> https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/557714-biden-and-nato-must-face-the-consequences-of-americas-withdrawal 9. >> https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/11/turkeys-troops-should-leave-afghanistan-under-2020-deal-taliban >> https://military.wikia.org/wiki/Hamid_Karzai_International_Airport

This isn't about Assange, this is about a misbehaving government. When the government is caught doing bad things the first response is to attempt to discredit the person who exposed those acts. It's the government and its representatives that need to be charged, not the whistleblower -- but you already know that, you just don't want to be reprimanded. We need to have oversight of our government and we need to be thankful for those that show our government acting at their worst; that means the last thing we want to do is try to scare those that want to attest to the government’s behavior. Finally, Julian is not an American citizen and you have no jurisdiction over him to have him imprisoned or to charge him with any crimes.

Automation is reducing the number of available jobs for U.S. workers. If this trend continues, unemployment will increase and skilled labor will become a commodities and the United States won’t be competitive in the world market economy.

Emanuel has a long record of being extremely undiplomatic, abrasive and contemptuous of humane values. His record as mayor of Chicago, where his administration oversaw the coverup of the horrific police shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, is especially troubling. Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) tweeted after news of Emanuel's selection broke: "Rewarding Rahm Emanuel's cover up of Laquan McDonald's murder with an ambassadorship is not an act that reflects a value of or respect for Black lives.” Top diplomatic posts should only go to individuals with ethics, integrity, and diplomatic skills. Emanuel possesses none of those qualifications.

Hassan Mushaima, a political activist, founder of the Movement for Freedom and Democracy and a well-known voice critical of King Hamad, has been arrested for his involvement in peaceful protests of the Bahreini Arab Spring. Hassan, an elderly man with cancer, is serving a life sentence in Jau Prison. He was officially arrested on charges of attempting to subvert the government. Dozens of human rights defenders and protesters have been arrested along with him, and are now serving an unjust sentence, deprived of contact with their families and forced to wear chains on their feet if they claim their right to access appropriate medical care. Hassan's arrest, a clear attempt to silence him, makes it all the more necessary and urgent to investigate his case and secure his release.

In February 2021, President Joe Biden’s aides launched a formal review of the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay. We ask that this process be sped up to close a shameful historical chapter marked by torture, sexual abuse, cruel and unusual punishment -- all of which have tainted U.S. standing at home and abroad. Funding commitments in the American Rescue Plan would solidify the closure of the facility. Reuters reported: “Aides involved in internal discussions are considering an executive action to be signed by Biden in coming weeks or months, signaling a new effort to remove what human rights advocates have called a stain on America’s global image.” Asked whether Biden would shut the high-security prison located at the Guantanamo Naval Station by the time his presidency ends, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters: “That certainly is our goal and our intention.”

For decades, both female and male survivors of sexual assault in the military have had their allegations disbelieved and dismissed by their superiors in their chain of command. In addition, many survivors who have made reports of assault have been bullied and threatened by their perpetrators without intervention by the chain of command. Women service members have especially been brutalized. Most victims do not report the violence out of a well-based fear of retaliation. Many military careers have ended because of the failure of the chain of command to take allegations seriously and to properly investigate and punish those responsible. The U.S. Army culture is incapable of effectively handling allegations of sexual assault and too often the chain of command prevents proper adjudication of such serious charges. After the Navy's Tailhook sexual assault scandal two decades ago, the Navy Investigative Service (NIS) was changed into the Naval Criminal Investigative Service with a civilian director and the entire investigative structure civilianized. That Navy civilian structure stands in stark contrast to Army Criminal Investigative Division (CID), which is led by military police officers who are not criminal investigators. Army CID is also distinct from the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, which is not totally civilianized but does have investigative agents leading the organization. The Provost Marshal General of the U.S. Army General Donna Martin said CID has not had “significant structural change” in 20 years, “and yet we have had significant, quadrupling cases of sexual assault.” It is critical that the Army has professional civilian investigators to investigate military sexual assault charges and take the investigations out of the hands of those in the military chain of command of the perpetrators. Veterans For Peace https://www.veteransforpeace.org/ Service Women's Action Network https://www.servicewomen.org/ Austin orders new steps to curb sexual assault while panel studies the problem https://bit.ly/2Qf4ExT Should the military continue to be allowed to police itself on sexual assault? Retired general and Pentagon weigh in. https://bit.ly/3tA0Qpi Spc. Vanessa Guillen case could be Army CID’s ‘Tailhook scandal’ https://bit.ly/3bWp4nR Remove Prosecution of Sexual Assault from Military Chain of Command https://bit.ly/3r1RxNj

Jeff Bezos is the Rockefeller of our time and Amazon is Standard Oil's equivalent in the digital age. Amazon needs to be broken into 34 smaller pieces very similar to how Standard Oil was treated nearly 100 years ago. It needs to be regulated on how it treats employees and its entire workforce. (“NY AG sues Amazon over treatment of warehouse workers” | TechCrunch.) New York State Attorney General Letitia James' office has launched a lawsuit against Amazon for how the corporation has treated its workers during the pandemic. Amazon needs to be regulated in terms of how it treats its partners and vendors. (“Amazon bullies partners and vendors, says antitrust subcommittee” | cnbc.com.) The House Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust violations issued a report saying that Amazon unfairly treats its business partners. The monopoly that Amazon enjoys reaches beyond one or two industry sectors. From books and online publishing to Internet commerce and its Amazon Web Services cloud computing, all of its business operations need to be closely scrutinized and regulated. The Federal Trade Commission has been investigating Amazon and other big tech firms for unfair anti-competitive practices. Amazon's market dominance in each of the industries where it operates is a death sentence for new ventures and startups. Please sign this petition and share with your social networks!

Please sign this letter which we will forward so President Biden sees a spike of opposition to the U.S. nuclear weapons posture. March 1 is the anniversary of the 20Mton H-bomb test known as "Bravo" that made human guinea pigs out of the people of Rongelap downwind from the Bikini Atoll in 1954 and also sparked the Japanese antinuclear movement because a Japanese fishing vessel was likewise caught directly in the fallout. We want to communicate our grave concerns about the nuclear posture of the United States. As a nuclear armed state, every overt and covert military operation overseen by the United States is backed up by its first-strike capable nuclear arsenal, making them potential violations of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and other international agreements.

1. Our bloated military budget is larger than the NEXT 10 countries together and is only supporting the already wealthy Military-Industrial-Banking complex. 2. This money is critical to supporting the ongoing wars, civilian deaths and casualties around the world and is creating hatred and violence. Did you know American soldiers were killed in Africa recently? 3. By law, the Pentagon is supposed to provide Congress with a yearly audit. They have broken the law annually and TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS are missing - over $21,000,000,000,000 as of the last investigation. 4. The Military is the largest single source of pollution and planetary degradation. No global plan to end our environmental crisis can succeed without dealing with this. 5. Either we are spending our money on Life or Death. As a so called ethical culture of religious and moral values how can we sanction killing people, all in defenceless 3rd world countries, who have not attacked us? If you condemn abortion but not our endless wars you are at best a hypocrite. 5. Did you know virtually every conflict since 1945 was triggered or promoted by the United States? Is this the country you want to be associated with? 6. Curtailing military spending will decrease our historic budget deficits.

It is imperative that we pursue peace and global cooperation in the face of climate catastrophe and human suffering from multiple U.S. wars, occupations and drone attacks. Flournoy, a Pentagon advisor in the Clinton and Obama administrations, calls for the US to send more military equipment to Saudi Arabia to police the Middle East while the US pivots to Asia to ramp up a Cold War with China. In her essay, “How to Prevent a War with Asia,” Flournoy claims the way to prevent a nuclear confrontation with China is for the U.S. to increase military spending on cyber warfare, artificial intelligence and drones, as well as troop deployments to the South China Sea to conduct roving war games near two nuclear powers, China and North Korea. This is a prescription for tremendous human suffering. Flournoy supported the surge in Afghanistan, regime change in Syria and the disastrous military intervention in Libya. She sits on the Board of Booz Hamilton, a consultancy for military contractors and during her 2013-2016 tenure with Boston Consulting expanded military contracts from $1.6-$32 million dollars (American Prospect). It is a fundamental conflict of interest to choose a Secretary of Defense so closely tied to war profiteers. We need a Secretary of Defense, untethered to the weapons industry, who will embrace diplomacy and reject a new arms race with China. One possible candidate is Thomas Countryman, Board Chair, Arms Control Association, former United States Assistant secretary of State for International Security and Adviser to Diplomacy Works. Thank you.