~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

TAKE ACTION: Here are some of the most pressing fights


Earthjustice

Dear Friends—

President Trump came to power on radical promises to attack environmental protections. But in his first 15 months, Earthjustice has won seven major victories against his administration, upholding everything from limits on the amount of methane that gas operators can pump into their neighbors’ air to lifesaving protections from the most dangerous chemicals on the market.Earthjustice and our team of more than 150 lawyers are locked in more than 85 legal battles to protect clean air, clean water, public lands and endangered wildlife from the Trump administration’s environmental actions, with many more in the works.

But we can’t win these alone your voice is a major part of our strategy. Just last week, 40,858 Earthjustice supporters filled federal books with comments against rolling back our only national climate policy. The record will never show that these attacks on our environment and communities went on unopposed. We need to keep fighting back. Here are some of the most pressing fights in which we need your voice to speak up with ours:
Coal ash waste. (Nenad Zivkovic/Shutterstock)
Don’t let dirty industry pollute our waters and communities with toxic coal ash
Hundreds of coal power plants burn close to a billion tons of coal every year, and the toxic byproduct—coal ash—that ends up in our air and water supply has been linked to cancer, heart disease, stroke and brain damage.
TAKE ACTION
Scott Pruitt is not fit to lead the EPA. (Chris Jordon-Bloch)
Scott Pruitt is unfit to lead the EPA
By recklessly rolling back critical health protections, refusing to ban dangerous pesticides proven to put children at risk, and trying to gut protections from toxic coal ash, Pruitt is undermining the mission of the EPA.
TAKE ACTION
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (Hillebrand/USFWS)
Defend the Arctic Refuge from oil drilling
In late April, the Trump administration began a process that would put the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on the auction block for oil and gas leasing, opening the door for the fossil fuel industry to turn this iconic wilderness into an oilfield.
TAKE ACTION
Valero Refinery fire, Benicia California (CalEPA)
Protect communities from chemical disasters
Tell the EPA to stop putting people in harm’s way. We need protections from chemical disasters now, before more people die because of the agency’s failure to follow the Clean Air Act and to fulfill its mission to protect public health and safety.
TAKE ACTION

Stay involved and be the first to get Earthjustice news and the first to fight back against attacks on our environment. Text EARTHJUSTICE to 52886 to join our text list.

Sincerely,
Kyle Da Silva
Digital Advocacy Associate
~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Stop racist threats of violence at Walmart ~Van Riper said to him, “if it was up to me, I’d put that rope around your neck.”


Stop racist threats of violence at Walmart

Dear Walmart Home Office,
The members of OUR Walmart Civil Rights are outraged at the behavior of Art Van Riper, a manager from Home Office. It is unacceptable that after making documented racist threats of physical violence that Mr Van Riper is still employed by Walmart. We demand the immediate termination of Mr Van Riper and the reinstatement of all associates who were dismissed from the Richmond, CA store remodeling crew.

Why is this important?

Markeith Washington was working on the overnight remodeling crew at the Richmond, CA Walmart Store which was supervised by Art Van Riper. Van Riper was notorious among associates for screaming insults, calling the crew “a bunch of lazy ass workers.”

During one night of work in September of 2012 while Markeith was tying a rope around his own waist to aid in moving a heavy counter, Van Riper said to him, “if it was up to me, I’d put that rope around your neck.” Shocked at this hateful comment, Markeith simply responded, “That’s not right.”

Markeith and his fellow remodel crew associates were understandably outraged by Van Riper’s threat. They bravely joined together to demand discipline for Van Riper and respect on the job by taking actions including talking to management, sending a letter to Walmart and even participating in a work stoppage strike.

More than two years after threatening to lynch Markeith, Art Van Riper still has a job with Walmart. Associates who stood up to Van Riper’s unacceptable conduct have been fired and none rehired by Walmart.

In early December, an administrative law judge ruled that Walmart illegally disciplined workers who went on strike because of Van Riper’s behavior.

It is unacceptable that Walmart, the country’s largest employer of Black people, would conduct an investigation into this incident and continue to employ Art Van Riper. By refusing to take action–even in the face of a judge’s ruling– Walmart is complicit in Art Van Riper invoking the traumatic, racist violence of lynching.

Walmart must set a precedent that this type of behavior from management is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Walmart must fire Art Van Riper, rehire all the associates who protested the incident and put human resources practices in place to ensure racist threats of violence never again happen in a store.

As Demario Hammond, one of Markeith’s coworkers who witnessed Van Riper’s verbal attack and was disciplined for fighting back, puts it, “We grew up learning from our mistakes, but only because when we did something wrong our parents would check us. Managers like Art continue to work at Walmart, and will continue treating associates with disrespect unless Walmart’s upper management or Home Office does something about it. His behavior deserves consequences.”

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Demand that President Judge Shiela Woods-Skipper end the unjust use of detainers in Philadelphia immediately.


Meek Mill is free but thousands of other people still sit in Philadelphia jails being held on detainers, with no court date or opportunity to post bail. 

Demand President Judge Shiela Woods-Skipper end the use of detainers in Philadelphia. 

TAKE ACTION

–Meek Mill is finally free!

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ordered his immediate release yesterday–this is huge, but there are still thousands of other Black people that should be freed with him.1 Let’s get all our people out.

Meek’s case has been so important, not only because it calls out the injustice that he’s experiencing within the criminal justice system, but it has allowed us to shine a light on the unjust experiences of so many others. Today there are thousands of other Philadelphians who are sitting in jail on probation detainers, waiting for their day in court, and not even offered the option to post bail for their release. In Philly, over 50 percent of people in city jails are being held without a hearing on probation detainers.2 

Sign the petition: The Philadelphia Court of Commons Pleas must stop the use of detainers to hold people in jail before they even get a chance to see a judge.

Detainers allow probation officers to jail people due to alleged probation or parole violations, without a judge even hearing the case. People who are in jail on detainers have no option of pretrial release. This means if you’re on probation or parole and miss a meeting with your probation or parole officer, or for something as minor as a traffic violation, your probation or parole office could put you in jail on a detainer. You could spend months in jail, waiting for a backed up system to process the papers necessary to schedule your court date.2 The use of detainers is illegal and Judge Shiela Woods-Skipper has the power to stop this practice.3

This is not what justice looks like. The use of detainers keeps people in jail for months at a time without even giving them a day in court.

Detainers are used as a way to unjustly keep our people locked up–join us in demanding that Philadelphia immediately end the use of detainers.

Philadelphia already has the second highest rate of incarceration in the U.S. and half of the people sitting in jail are there because of probation or parole violations. Detainers are being used to keep people in jail with absolutely no access to justice and often people wait in jail for their court date for longer than what their sentence could potentially be. However, there is hope–by simply ending the use of detainers in Philadelphia the jail population could significantly decrease. Philadelphia’s criminal justice system has been feeling our pressure in demanding for Meek Mill to be free, and today they listened to us and Meek will be able to go home. We must keep the pressure on until all our people are home–we were able to free Meek and we can free so many more!

Meek Mill has been on probation since he was 19 years old–his entire adult life. Even after spending time in prison as a teenager, when he was released he was placed on probation. Meek is now 30 years old and has been sentenced to two to four years in prison by a biased judge seeking to punish him for insignificant violations of his probation–one was even as petty as riding a dirt bike in New York City to film a scene for a music video.4

Meek Mill’s case has generated a lot of conversation about the trap of the probation and parole system–and how it keeps so many Black people living under the supervision of the criminal justice system for years. Jay-Z stopped one of his concerts to talk about the injustice Meek is experiencing, he then wrote a New York Times op-ed about this, Colin Kapernick has spoken out for Meek, and his case is even getting covered on daytime television shows like the Wendy Williams show.4 What’s even better than getting so much public attention about Meek’s case is that the conversation has moved past just Meek and is inclusive of broader issues within the criminal justice system, like the unjust use of detainers illegally trapping so many in jail.

Demand that President Judge Shiela Woods-Skipper end the unjust use of detainers in Philadelphia immediately.

Until justice is real,

–Clarise, Rashad, Scott,  Arisha, Kristen, Anay, Marena, and the rest of the Color Of Change team

References:

1.“Meek Mill to be released from Prison,” CBS News, 24 April 2018

2. “How minor probation violations can lead to major jail time,” The Atlantic, 9 June 2017

3. “Top public defender says ‘automatic detainers’ are illegal, swelling Philly jail population,” whyy.org, 27 March 2018

4. “Jay-Z: The criminal justice system stalks Black people like Meek Mill,” The New York Times, 17 November 2017

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