Tag Archives: protest

Spectra opens Valdosta office next to Industrial Authority, scene of 2011 anti-biomass protests

VP of Stakeholder Outreach Susan Waller doesn’t want visitors at Spectra’s new office in Valdosta. Which is in the same building as the Industrial Authority, which also didn’t really want some visitors it got during the biomass controversy.

Matthew Woody wrote for the VDT yesterday, Sabal Trail opens Valdosta office,

Susan Waller, vice president of stakeholder outreach and sustainability said, “That is our right-of-way office. It has about 30 right-of-way agents, survey crews, our files and documents, and a few meeting rooms.”

The office houses agents for three counties and will be open in Valdosta for approximately five years, Waller said.

Sabal Trail has eight offices along the pipeline’s route, she said.

“These are not really the facilities for residents to drop by to express concerns because all of the agents will be in and out of the office constantly; however, they could call and make an appointment.”

The VDT didn’t mention that Continue reading →

Drive Away CCA Today!

Today at 5PM, help Drive Away CCA! Join the motorcade from the private prison site to honk at Valdosta City Hall and march at the Industrial Authority office.

I’ll be on Chris Beckham’s show on WVGA 105.9 FM this morning at 7:30 AM to talk about it.
Update: audio of the interview.
Update 2: Here’s video of the interview.

Here’s the case against a private prison: Continue reading →

Faith groups urge state governors not to sell prisons to CCA

From Quakers to Catholics,
“Our organizations advocate for a criminal justice system that brings healing for victims of crime, restoration for those who commit crimes, and to maintain public safety.”
religious groups oppose privatization of prisons. Here is the text of a letter many of them sent to all 50 state governors, joining the ACLU in opposing CCA’s recent offer to 48 states to buy their prisons.

You can help drive away CCA, 5PM this Tuesday, March 6th. Or sign the petition to the Industrial Authority to reject the private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia.

-jsq

March 1, 2012

Dear Governor:

We the undersigned faith organizations represent different traditions from across the religious and political spectrum. Our organizations advocate for a criminal justice system that brings healing for victims of crime, restoration for those who commit crimes, and to maintain public safety.

We write in reference to a letter you recently received from Harley Lappin, Chief Corrections Officer at Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), announcing the Corrections Investment Initiative – the corporation’s plan to spend up to $250 million buying prisons from state, local, and federal government entities, and then managing the facilities. The letter from Mr. Lappin states that CCA is only interested in buying prisons if the state selling the prison agrees to pay CCA to operate the prison for 20 years — at minimum. Mr. Lappin further notes that any prison to be sold must have at least 1,000 beds, and that the state must agree to keep the prison at least 90% full during the length of the contract.

The undersigned faith organizations urge you to decline this dangerous and costly invitation. CCA’s initiative would be costly

Continue reading →

Motorcade against CCA, 5PM Tuesday March 6th

Do you want to live in a prison colony? Help us say, CCA Go Away!

Join us 5PM Tuesday March 6th 2012 at the private prison site (Dasher-Johnson Road off US 84 at Inner Perimeter) for a motorcade by Valdosta City Hall to the Industrial Authority offices: for education and against the private prison.

When:5PM (rush hour) Tuesday March 6th
How:Cars, trucks, motorcycles, and bicycles
Who:Everybody is invited
What:Oppose the Private Prison
From:Proposed Private Prison Site
US 84 @ Inner Perimeter Road
(Staging on Dasher-Johnson Road next to US 84)
By way of:Valdosta City Hall
Valdosta City Council Work Session
Honk to say No CCA!
To:Industrial Authority Office
2110 N. Patterson Street
(Patterson at Park Avenue)
Bring a sign: No Private Prisons!
Contact: noprivateprisons@gmail.com
Winn Roberson, 229-630-2339, winnroberson@bellsouth.net
John S. Quarterman, 229-242-0102, politics@quarterman.org



on the web


View Larger Map


Petition

Winn Roberson read the newspaper Friday (February 24th) and realized the prison site was down the street from him, so the news finally sunk in. This motorcade was his idea to drive the point across to the Industrial Authority: we don’t want a private prison!

John S. Quarterman lives about as far away from the prison site as you can get in Lowndes County, but realizes it will affect everybody for many counties around. So let’s say CCA Go Away!

-jsq

PS: If you can’t come, you can still sign the petition to the Industrial Authority, or write a letter to the editor, or…

CUNY’s idea of a public meeting

City University of New York’s trustees were holding a public meeting, and some of the public, namely CUNY students, attempted to attend. CUNY police and NYPD staged a welcome for them:
Carlos Pazmino, 21, a City College student who helped organize the protest, said that after students began opening doors to the auditorium where the CUNY trustees were to hold a public hearing at 5 p.m., CUNY police officers surrounded the entrances and pushed back, using their batons, and that when students formed a line to push past, the officers began hitting the students with the batons.

“I saw two people knocked down by cops,” Mr. Pazmino said. “They were arrested and one guy’s head was bleeding.”

That’s in a NYTimes story by Alice Speri and Anna M. Phillips, CUNY Students Protesting Tuition Increase Clash With Police. Interesting title considering that the content says that the public went to a public meeting and were violently attacked by police.

And that’s the cleaned up version: Continue reading →

Mic check stops a police riot at UC Davis

By now you’ve probably seen the video of UC Davis police pepper spraying peaceful protesters who were simply sitting on the gorund. But have you seen what happened next? Police were forming up with weapons raised surrounded on three sides by protesters, when someone yelled “Mic check!” Follow this link. Or, if you want to see it starting with the pepper spraying:

The one with the two pepper spray cans appears to be the same police lieutenant who pepper sprayed the protesters. As the protesters say through the human microphone that they are willing to let the police just walk away, even after the police had assaulted them with pepper spray, that same lieutenant motions to the police, who lower their weapons and back away.

Here’s the police version of the incident: Continue reading →

Atlanta police use 5 to 1 odds to arrest peaceful protesters in middle of night

CBS News wrote 26 October 2011 “Occupy Atlanta” camp cleared, dozens arrested,
With helicopters hovering overhead, police moved into a downtown Atlanta park and arrested around 50 Occupy Wall Street protesters who had been encamped there for about two weeks early Wednesday….

Organizers had instructed participants to be peaceful if arrests came, and most were. Many gathered in the center of the park, locking arms, and sang “We Shall Overcome,” until police led them out, one-by-one to waiting buses. Some were dragged out while others left on foot, handcuffed with plastic ties.

Police included SWAT teams in riot gear, dozens of officers on motorcycles and several on horseback. By about 1:30 a.m. Wednesday the park was mostly cleared of protesters….

Hundreds of others stood on Atlanta’s famous Peachtree Street, booing police. They shouted “Shame!” and “Who do you protect? Who do you serve?”

And according to Occupy Atlanta this morning: Continue reading →

WALB on protesters and Gov. Deal at VSU

Jade Bulecza wrote for WALB today, Protesters approach governor on Troy Davis
South Georgia death penalty opponents took their protest to the governor while he was in Valdosta.

Governor Deal was in Valdosta to tour VSU’s nursing college but death penalty opponents confronted him about the upcoming execution of cop killer Troy Davis.

A small group of demonstrators gathered a VSU to plead for clemency for Troy Davis.

“We hope he uses his influence to the pardons and parole board to get out get rid of this execution,” said Deandre Jones, the president of the VSU’s NAACP college chapter.

Protesters approached the governor as he left the university center.

“The committee has followed the legal process and has gone through the appellate court,” said Deal.

Davis’ execution is set for Wednesday for killing an off duty Savannah police officer in 1989.

Student protesters greet GA Gov. Nathan Deal @ VSU 16 Sep 2011

Possibly the last thing Gov. Nathan Deal expected to find at Valdosta State University greeted him: student protesters!

Their main question was about the impending Sept. 21st execution of Troy Anthony Davis, about whom Amnesty International says there is too much doubt.


Student protesters greet Governor Nathan Deal at Valdosta State University, 16 Sep 2011.
Pictures by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

The press had already noticed: Continue reading →