Digest Post – 4/5/13

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By BitcoDavid

Well, our post-a-day streak was broken yesterday, but before you go thinking I dropped the ball, I want you to know I was busy drumming up some Supporter Contributions that will be going up this week.

Image courtesy of Pat Bliss

Image courtesy of Pat Bliss

In keeping with our editorial priority list, the first order of business in today’s digest post is a brief update on Felix’s case. From Pat Bliss:

Felix had a video interview by a
reporter from a major Florida newspaper, this week. His clemency
action is on track. He is now living in the Faith Dorm and is doing
quite well there.

I do wish I had a little more to report. Unfortunately, that’s all Ms. bliss sent. We have picked up a few new signatures on the petition site. This petition is still a necessary and powerful tool to help persuade Pam Bondi and the other members of Florida law enforcement – including Governor Scott, that Felix deserves the justice that has eluded him for the past 30+ years.

Attorney General Pam Bondi

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Please click the link – here – or on either of our sidebars, and sign this vital petition. Felix Garcia has served a lifetime in prison – a Deaf man – for a crime he has long since been proven not guilty of.

Again, here’s the link to our petition to grant Felix a full pardon.

***

In life – I believe – everybody searches for their own personal title fight. You go toe to toe with whoever or whatever comes along, but your end game is always that big fish. Everybody wants to bag the elephant. I use this to explain my ongoing love-hate relationship with the venerable Gray Lady – the New York Times. Now – I go to the Times for sources on posts, but there will come a day, when the Lady herself will not print a story without first checking DeafInPrison.com.

Anyway, directly from herself , comes this update on the Clements case.

But weeks after Mr. Clements’s killing, investigators are still trying
to sort out whether the death was in fact a gang-ordered hit or the act of a lone gunman whose years in solitary confinement may have nurtured paranoia and a hatred of prison officials.

One of the school's administrators - OJ Keller with the tools of the trade. Photo: White House Boys

OJ Keller holding his only two friends. Photo: White House Boys

They make mention of the fact that Clements was working on eliminating the use of solitary confinement in Colorado’s prison system – a fact that I find staggering in its irony. In every report I’ve read, Clements is described as a tireless reformer who has dedicated his career to making prison more humane for the inmates – the very opposite of a fire and brimstone – law and order type such as  O.J. Keller of the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys. An infamous, vicious torturer, and corrupt administrator.

In quoting James F. Austin, a consultant who worked with Clements in his efforts to improve Colorado’s prisons, the Times wrote, “This has just never happened before in the history of corrections,” Dr.
Austin said. “What would be the value of the gang doing that, except to
bring incredible heat both on and off the street?” He added that the gangs “like to do their thing without much attention,
especially with a director who is doing everything he could to make the
prison safer and more comfortable.” — NYT

But law enforcement officials said on Thursday that they could not rule out the possibility that Mr. Ebel — who died after he was wounded in a shootout and a chase with Texas police officers and sheriff’s deputies northwest of Dallas on March 21 — was acting on orders from the leaders of the 211 Crew.

A search is continuing for two members of the gang known to have had contact with Mr. Ebel recently, said Lt. Jeff Kramer, a spokesman for the El Paso County sheriff’s office in Colorado. He called the men, James Lohr, 47, and Thomas Guolee, 31, “persons of interest” but stopped short of saying they were suspects in the case. Both are also wanted on warrants for unrelated crimes, Lieutenant Kramer said, and are thought to be armed and dangerous.

Even in this great shot of the accident scene, no sign of a truck – or a trucker. Photo:NYT

And still, no word on the trucker whom Ebel t-boned in his 100mph escape attempt in Texas. A guy climbs into his rig one morning, and out of nowhere a psychopath driving what passes nowadays for a Cadillac, creams him. I’m just sayin’, it’d be nice to give him just one line, in the reams of coverage this story has gotten.

Here’s the story as covered by that other news source – the NYT.

***

 

Finally, a reminder that this coming Wednesday, H.E.A.R.D. will be hosting their public meeting at Gallaudet. Here’s the PDF embed.

 

[scribd id=134225985 key=key-16p9wy05mzl7240v0zev mode=scroll]

This event is listed on our Events Page, and here’s a link to the above embed.

BitcoDavid is a blogger and a blog site consultant. In former lives,
he was an audio engineer, a videographer, a teacher – even a cab
driver. He is an avid health and fitness enthusiast and a Pro/Am boxer.
He has spent years working with diet and exercise to combat obesity and
obesity related illness.

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