The Digital Dispatch

From NOEBIE.net

Injustice

U.S. Incarceration Trends 1970 to 2014

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Vera Data Map

The Vera Institute of Peace has created a tool for examining and comparing incarceration data across the United States by county.

You may have already seen our data tool—Incarceration Trends—on jail and prison populations in every U.S. county. Right now, we’re expanding our efforts to make sure that everyone knows how many people are incarcerated in their backyards, so they can power the fight against mass incarceration.

They’re encouraging everyone to share this on Facebook.

I’m still learning my way around the tool, but the information about Kankakee County that I’ve been able to digest is troubling.

The Story of Matthew DeHart

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Cory Doctorow details the story of Matthew DeHart, a veteran from a multi-generational military/intelligence family, whose Tor server ran him afoul of our government.

DeHart once discovered an unencrypted folder of damning documents on his server, which quickly disappeared and was replaced with an encrypted folder of the same size, with the same name. The unencrypted docs detailed an FBI investigation into some very dirty CIA tricks, possibly involving the still-unsolved slew of anthrax-laced letters sent to Congress in 2001. Not long after, DeHart was spooked by a visit from the FBI to one of his contacts, and he destroyed all potentially compromising storage associated with his server. That’s when things got weird.

Read the Story: Hacktivist sees too much, FBI lock him up on child-porn charges, produce no evidence – Boing Boing

Baltimore Uprising

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Here are a few links that seem relevant to the current drama playing out in the streets of Baltimore.

The city has paid about $5.7 million since 2011 over lawsuits claiming that police officers brazenly beat up alleged suspects. One hidden cost: The perception that officers are violent can poison the relationship between residents and police.

Source: Undue force – Sun Investigates – The Baltimore Sun

When nonviolence is preached as an attempt to evade the repercussions of political brutality, it betrays itself. When nonviolence begins halfway through the war with the aggressor calling time out, it exposes itself as a ruse. When nonviolence is preached by the representatives of the state, while the state doles out heaps of violence to its citizens, it reveals itself to be a con.

Source: As Riots Follow Freddie Gray’s Death in Baltimore, Calls for Calm Ring Hollow – The Atlantic

We need to keep in mind people are suffering and dying around the U.S., and while we are thankful no one was injured at Camden Yards, there is a far bigger picture for poor Americans in Baltimore and everywhere who don’t have jobs and are losing economic civil and legal rights, and this makes inconvenience at a ballgame irrelevant in light of the needless suffering government is inflicting upon ordinary Americans.

Source: Orioles COO John Angelos offers eye-opening perspective on Baltimore protests | For The Win

Most of the media sensationalized the small amount of property damage that took place during demonstrations last weekend–while downplaying all evidence of the systemic racism and police violence that stirred this reaction.

Source: We have a right to be in the streets for Freddie | SocialistWorker.org

Twenty journalists and 40 police, academics, youth and experts came together in Chicago at Columbia College Chicago to discuss how to better cover stories of race, police and community.

Source: #RaceandPolice — Day 1, April 24 the morning discussions: police, race, bias and Ferguson coverage (with images, tweets) · Susys · Storify

Capital Punishment and the Brutality of U.S. Class Rule

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The latest abomination in a US death chamber took place on Tuesday night in Missouri when Cecil Clayton, 74, was injected and killed with a single dose of pentobarbital. The condemned inmate was executed despite overwhelming evidence of his intellectual disability.

Read More: Capital punishment and the brutality of class rule in America – World Socialist Web Site.

Record 346 Inmates Died in Florida Prisons in 2014

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From Shaun King at Daily KOS:

“In 2014, Florida recorded at least 346 deaths inside of their prison system, an all-time high for the state in spite of the fact that its overall prison population has hovered around 100,000 people for the five previous years. Hundreds of these deaths from 2014 and from previous years are now under investigation by the DOJ because of the almost unimaginable role law enforcement officers are playing in them.”

Be prepared for anger and sorrow if you read this.

Here’s the article: Record 346 inmates die, dozens of guards fired in Florida prisons.

Is This Just?

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Those of us who are comfortable – and by that, I mean we who live in a decent home, have enough to eat, have access to medical care when we need it, who can offer a good education to our children, who are kept relatively safe and have a sense of stability and continuity in our lives – are able to enjoy our comforts only because of a system that subjects millions of other people in our country and around the globe to violence, illness, poverty, hunger, insecurity and despair each and every day.

To acknowledge this is the beginning.