Bishop Eddie Long Persecuted by New World Order Media

(14 paragraphs, 8 links, 2 photos)   BISHOP EDDIE LONG, of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, was sued by several young men alleging sexual misconduct.  The fact that mainstream media divulged the lawsuits against Bishop Long proves one thing:  Bishop Long is not in the New World Order. If he were, the lawsuits against him would have been censored just like the lawsuits against The (Johnnie) Cochran Firm are censored (Google "Cochran Firm Fraud").  It is likely that Bishop Long's lawsuits were disclosed in order to lessen the weight of the bishop's support for certain political candidates. The fact that allegations were made, lawsuits were filed, and the news was reported does not necessarily indicate guilt.  Newsworthiness about such lawsuits is determined not on the merits of the case, but because of how noteworthy the defendants are. Bishop Long is no more famous than The (Johnnie) Cochran Firm is, but lawsuits against The Cochran Firm are protected from public disclosure, and attempts by individuals to divulge the information online are also censored by illegal cyberstalking.

Consider the initial news source about the lawsuits against Bishop Long:  FOX News.  After FOX broke the story on September 21 about the lawsuits against Bishop Long, other media had to also report.  FOX News and other media continue commercials for The Cochran Firm, but refuse to report that The Cochran Firm was sued repeatedly for defrauding the firm's minority clients to protect murderous police from wrongful death lawsuits.  Since the media protects some public figures from exposure when sued and exposes others, it would behoove people to understand the motivation for exposing Bishop Long's legal woes to the public.  Last night as FOX News reported developments in the Long case, the reporter stated that Bishop Long had made a $5,000 contribution to Roy Barnes' campaign to be Georgia's next governor.  What did that have to do with the young men's allegations against Bishop Long?  Nothing.  But it may have had everything to do with why FOX News reported the lawsuits against Bishop Long while it and other media companies censor news about lawsuits against The Cochran Firm.  Please note the following information:

1.    When my family sued The Cochran Firm in 2005 for pretending (under contract) to represent us in a wrongful death legal action against Memphis Shelby County Jail after my brother's secret arrest and murder there in 2003, mainstream media refused to report that suit was filed.  The Cochran Firm actually withheld all legal action regarding my brother's murder in order to let the Tennessee statute of limitations pass without my family filing suit timely for the wrongful death of Larry Neal, a mentally and physically handicapped black man - http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/  - Larry Neal's murder was kept out of the news, and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) knowingly accepted fraudulent reports from Shelby County Jail that omitted Larry's death.  Many War on Terror detainees were essentially kidnapped, abused and killed in America's Gitmo and Guantanamo prisons during that time period, but conspirators do not want it revealed that a harmless, handicapped American was similarly treated. For more than seven years, the DOJ has refused to release any arrest or incarceration records or investigate Larry Neal's secret arrest and death because that would necessitate criminal charges against his murderers and officials who became accessories after the fact.

2.    When the Atlanta office of The Cochran Firm lied in Georgia Superior Court in 2005 and denied The Cochran Firm has any Georgia offices, which negated all of the firm's advertising for the office at 127 Peachtree Street in Atlanta, the media refused to report it.

3.    When Georgia Superior Court Judge Wendy Shoob dismissed the Neals vs. The Cochran Firm lawsuit in May 2006 (over five months after the legal deadline for the judge to grant The Cochran Firm's Motion to Dismiss), the order stated that our lawsuit was served wrong because there is no Cochran Firm office in Georgia.  The Cochran Firm is open and operating every day under that identity, receives mail under that identity, advertises itself as being The Cochran Firm in phone books, on Internet, and television commercials, and through lawyer referral services, but the media refused to report the firm denied having a Georgia office in Georgia Superior Court and that it denied having a Tennessee office in United States District Court (USDC).  The firm's perjury is allowed in court and shielded by the media.  The lawsuits the media hides for The Cochran Firm include suit by the Neals, the Jacksons, Ms. Martinez, and its former attorneys, Bolton and Chapham-Holley.  I am sure there are more clients and former employers who sued the firm for fraud, because defrauding people is habitual with The Firm.

4.    When the Neals sued The Cochran Firm under the diversity rule in United States District Court for fraud, breach of contract, and deliberate malpractice to protect police who killed Larry Neal, the media kept the damaging information from the public in order that The Cochran Firm could continue to defraud bereaved black families and other minority clients who sue police departments or New World Order companies that The Cochran Firm has agreed to protect.  USDC Judge Batten ruled in February 2009 that The Cochran Firm did not cause the Neals to lose the opportunity to sue Shelby County Jail although the firm (a) entered into a contract to be Larry's wrongful death attorneys under a secret conflict of interest, (b) then held the wrongful death case secretly inactive while Tennessee's statute of limitations ran, but (c) lied to the family about legal work that was not actually being done until it was too late to sue Shelby County Jail.  This should have been a jury decision, but the lawsuit was again roadblocked from going before a jury.  When the injustice system wants control over the outcome of civil and criminal cases, they are prevented from going before a jury.  That is why condemned man Troy Davis' murder case was not re-tried before a jury, and it is why Georgia passed a new law in 2006 stating that if police officers claim self defense when they kill citizens (and most of them do), those cases can skip going to jury trial, even if the officers are indicted by a grand jury for murder.  The Constitutional right to trial by jury is being eliminated like many other civil rights Americans hold dear. 
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5.    Mainstream media also censors reports that The Cochran Firm withheld filing lawsuit against the City of Atlanta regarding the 2006 police murder of Kathryn Johnston, the 92-year-old woman who died in the nation's worst no-knock warrant case.  Johnston's survivors had a two-year statute of limitations to file suit for the elder's murder-by-police.  The Cochran Firm held a televised press conference and lied to its client (Johnston's niece, Sarah Dozier) and to the entire world when lead attorney Hezekiah Sistrunk falsely claimed that a lawsuit demanding $18 million had been filed on November 21, 2007.  The truth is that no lawsuit was ever filed and served to defendants regarding Dozier vs. City of Atlanta.  In January 2008, The Cochran Firm pretended to remove the lawsuit (that Sistrunk falsely claimed he electronically filed) to United States District Court (USDC).  Judge Wendy Shoob's father, Judge Marvin Shoob, presided.  However, Sistrunk could not "remove" a lawsuit to federal court that was never filed in any court and served to defendants.  Georgia State Court found no evidence that the Dozier lawsuit had ever been filed when the records were searched in August 2010.  Every legal professional on the case knew the documents Sistrunk filed with USDC were fraudulent since State Court conducted an exhaustive search of computer records and determined that no Dozier lawsuit was filed in that court.  In August 2010, Kathryn Johnston's niece accepted Atlanta's offer to settle the (nonexistent) lawsuit for just $4.9 million, meaning that Sarah Dozier's attorneys worked against Kathryn Johnston's estate to save the City of Atlanta $13.1 million. The Cochran Firm's fraud against Johnston's survivors is censored in mainstream news, just as The Cochran Firm's fraud against the Neal family after Larry Neal was murdered following weeks of secret arrest in Memphis is censored.  This is undoubtedly a bigger news story than the lawsuits against Bishop Long, because it implies a conspiracy between Atlanta City attorneys, The Cochran Firm, and federal court to defraud Kathryn Johnston's family. I asked for the civil action number for the Dozier case in its court of origin at City of Atlanta Attorneys office, and did not receive one.  Then I checked in person and demanded re-checks at Georgia State Court and Georgia Superior Court.  Clerks confirmed that no Dozier lawsuit was filed (Telisha Blackshear in State Court and Al Clark in Superior Court.)  More illegal acts may have been done to cover the conspiracy since I met with clerks of court in August.  The media refuses to report that Kathryn Johnston's family was defrauded by The Cochran Firm to save its real client, the government.  They also defraud Latinos and Native Americans - http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/cochran-firm-defrauds-native-american.html

See more information about The Cochran Firm fraud and its protection by the media at this blog - http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/

JOURNALISTIC DUTY OR POLITICAL ATTACK?   The censored lawsuits against The Cochran Firm prove that the national media blitz regarding Bishop Long is not driven by the public's right to know.  The media's refusal to report lawsuits against NEW OWNERS of The Cochran Firm makes it clear that news is censored at will, and what media owners give coverage has nothing to do with protecting the public interest.  The same media that hounds Bishop Long refuses to report to consumers of legal services that The Cochran Firm was declared by Superior Court to be nonexistent in Georgia in 2006 and that the firm lied about filing a lawsuit for Kathryn Johnston's family.  Media censorship helps The Cochran Firm continue defrauding minority clients - something it does repeatedly, according to former Cochran Firm attorney Shawn Chapman Holley during her interview on NPR, available online at this link:  www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12171473   (If cyberstalkers render the link dysfunctional, Google "Shawn Holley NPR Cochran Firm" to hear the attorney's interview.)

Why does the media censor lawsuits against The Cochran Firm but gleefully report the young men's lawsuits against Bishop Long?  The answer is evident:  Media owners are committed to protecting the credibility of The Cochran Firm but seek to destroy the Bishop Long's credibility.  The timing for the lawsuits and negative press are opportune to reduce Bishop Long's influence on the 2010 elections.  New Birth Missionary Baptist Church is a mega church with over 25,000 regular members, and millions of other people listen to Bishop Long's messages through regular television and radio broadcasts. The bishop is wealthy in his own right and has no need to sell-out to gain wealth, power, or fame.  Obviously, Bishop Long has the potential for significant political influence which can be marginalized by scandal - right in time for Georgia's gubernatorial election and national congressional elections.

While no one can assess Bishop Long's guilt or innocence regarding the allegations put forth in the lawsuits he faces without more information, I congratulate New Birth for having a leader who is obviously not in the New World Order.  Many other public figures are, including attorneys, elected officials, religious and community leaders. See evidence in this article at the link provided:    New World Order Nullifies Constitutional Rights for Neal Family  http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/1019414  - Many crimes have been committed and continue to be done to prevent disclosure of the fact that The Cochran Firm's mission is to defraud its minority clients nationwide, particularly after police violence, to reduce or eliminate government payouts to victims and survivors.  I notified Bishop Long's attorney at Gillens Withers & Lake, LLC what Bishop Long must do to immediately stop being hounded by the media.  Bishop Long need only ask the New World Orderlies in the media why they censor news about lawsuits against The Cochran Firm, and reporters would run from Bishop Long faster than dogs fleeing a dogcatcher. The New World Order media bosses will insist that reporters pack up their news vans and exit fast if Bishop Longs says three words:  "COCHRAN FIRM FRAUD." 

MEDIA COVER-UP - When I corresponded for hours with Wall Street Journal about The Cochran Firm Fraud via email a few years ago, the next day I found that all of my emails to and from that media had been deleted from my Yahoo email box.  Cyberdogs did not know I had already saved the conversations on disc, which I share.  I am careful to save and share video proof of cybercensorship, pictures of people who stalk me, and proof that media companies and many officials are aware of the terrorism against my family for asking "What happened to Larry Neal?"  I was also interviewed by a public broadcasting reporter several times over a two-week period.  She planned a documentary about Larry's secret jailhouse death and The Cochran Firm fraud, but her editors would not allow disclosure. Cox Enterprises is dedicated to censoring news about The Cochran Firm fraud against minorities.  Cox, which owns Atlanta Journal Constitution and WGA-Channel 2,  ignored a federal subpoena and release The Cochran Firm's advertising records during the Neals vs. The Cochran Firm lawsuit in federal court. Furthermore, USDC Judge Batten refused to grant plaintiffs' Motion to Compel Cox to release The Cochran Firm's Atlanta office's advertising records.  Those records prove that while The Cochran Firm was in court denying it had any Georgia or Tennessee law offices, legal services at those offices was being advertised prolifically to millions of people.  In fact, The Cochran Firm's Atlanta office was simultaneously pretending to defend Kathryn Johnston's family in the same federal courthouse during that period.  The effort to expose The Cochran Firm fraud online takes courage, persistence, and money.  I am stalked in person and online, censored, and my home computers and telephone are attacked continuously to hide The Cochran Firm's frauds against its minority clients. For instance, when I log into my Yahoo email box, the email box immediately shuts down (error code #2 or #7) to prevent my communicating with the hundreds of African American and prisoner activist Yahoo Groups I joined. Neither the police nor the federal government will investigate the crimes against my First Amendment rights, Larry Neal's secret murder, or The Cochran Firm fraud against the Neals, Kathryn Johnston's family, and other clients of that Cointelpro law firm (Google "Mary Neal 911" for my worst stalking event, when police ignored my family's 911 call).

The Cochran Firm fraud makes one wonder what else the media censors for New World Orderlies across the country.  If Bishop Long was willing to participate in the plot against minority people and the working class in America, mainstream media would have refused to report that he faces lawsuits, just as they hide lawsuits against The Cochran Firm.  Because I realize media bosses wish to discredit Bishop Long during election time in order to reduce the impact of his support for certain candidates, I will be sure to vote on November 2, and hope you will, also.   

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Justice is a fascinating subject.  Let us resist returning to the horrors of the 1960's and 70's when riots were common after police murders because justice could not be found in court for black people.  Government officials should resist using unethical lawyers at The Cochran Firm to reduce or eliminate payouts to victims and survivors of police violence.  It is unfair to honest law officers and betrays the ongoing sacrifices of our military who risk life and limb to uphold the Constitution.  Liberty and justice for ALL has never been a reality, but everyone who loves America and embraces righteousness has a duty to see that equal justice remains our nation's ideal.  FreeSpeakBlog is used to expose many problems in the justice system, report censored and under-reported news, and notify the public about people who need support and circumstances that need improvement.  For more articles on urgent, current justice issues from a laywoman's viewpoint, please see the handy index of articles at FreeSpeakBlog's left margin.  Share a link to any of my articles by using the AddThis feature, which is also in the upper left margin at the blog, or republish them in their entirety on your website.  I appreciate help overcoming censorship surrounding the secret arrest and murder of my mentally, physically handicapped brother and exposing problems experienced by other victims in the justice system.  Follow me on Twitter, where I am Koffietime, and I will follow you back!  http://twitter.com/koffietime

Mary Neal
Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill (advocacy group to help the least of these, His brethren)
http://www.Care2.com/c2c/group/AIMI
Mary Neal's Google Profile
http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/censorship-alert-mary-neals-google.html

Mary Neal pickets Georgia Superior Court for wrongly dismissing her lawsuit against The (Johnnie) Cochran Firm, preventing the family's allegations of deliberate malpractice and fraud from proceeding to jury trial.  Mary also picketed the racist, hypocritical media at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church on Sunday, September 26, 2010, to show thousands of New Birth members how the New World Order media censors lawsuits it wants to hide, such as lawsuits against The Cochran Firm, while exploiting lawsuits against Bishop Long and New Birth.  Bishop Long can find more than FIVE SMOOTH STONES in this article.  It is a virtual rock garden.

Traitors Against Civil Rights Exposed - 1960's and Now

(11 paragraphs, 16 links - Please read all before opening links or use your back arrow to return to this blog.)      According to an email I received today, an unsettling asterisk must be added to the legacy of Ernest C. Withers (pictured below), one of the most celebrated photographers of the civil rights era: Withers was a paid F.B.I. informer.

The report said, "On Sunday, The Commercial Appeal in Memphis published the results of a two-year investigation that showed Mr. Withers, who died in 2007 at age 85, had collaborated closely with two F.B.I. agents in the 1960s to keep tabs on the civil rights movement. It was an astonishing revelation about a former police officer nicknamed the Original Civil Rights Photographer, whose previous claim to fame had been the trust he engendered among high-ranking civil rights leaders, including Dr. King."

I responded:     Thanks for the news about civil rights photographer and traitor Ernest Withers. Over a decade ago when I worked was a legal assistant for social secutity attorneys, some senior citizens sought administrative hearings because the Social Security Administration had failed to include their income as civil rights movement spies when determining the amount of their retirement benefits. Traitors were not ashamed that they marched with Dr.King and attended planning meetings with freedom fighters in order to report SCLC and NAACP plans to the FBI.  Informants are sometimes called "citizens police," and thousands are being hired today. (Google the term).

There are many traitors of the civil rights movement and today's continuing struggle for equal justice for ALL. Many community and religious leaders were more interested in uplifting the "downtrodden" when the term applied to them. I recently discovered that the family of Kathryn Johnston, the 92-year-old Atlanta black woman who police killed in a home invasion in 2006, was defrauded by black and white attorneys in The (Johnnie) Cochran Firm working on behalf of a city government that is largely headed by blacks. The Cochran Firm pretended to electronically file a lawsuit on behalf of Kathryn Johnston's survivors with an $18 million demand.  When the news reported that the lawsuit regarding Kathryn Johnston's murder had been settled in August 2010 for just $4.9 million, I went to the Atlanta Attorneys Office and asked for the civil action number for the lawsuit.  I planned to review the lawsuit and see what reason there was to settle for less than one-third of the demand in a city where any jury would be likely to grant the entire amount demanded in the elder's murder, if not more.  I was not given the civil action number for the lawsuit.  I then asked what court the suit was filed in, since I had never seen any news reports about the matter that included that information.  I was told it was filed in the "courthouse across the street."  I then went to the courthouse across the street where Georgia Superior Court and Fulton County State Court of Georgia are.  Clerks and supervisors did a thorough search of their records and neither could find any record of Dozier vs. City of Atlanta on file.  I insisted that the case had to be on file in one of those courts because the City Attorneys office said it was.  They got more people to check in State Court and in Georgia Superior Court, but there was no record of Dozier available.  I returned to the City Attorneys Office and told them that clerks of court said no Dozier case had been filed in either court.  I was then given a yellow sticky with a civil action number for Dozier vs. City of Atlanta in United States District Court 1:08cv0007-MHS.   I went to the federal court to review the file and saw that the case was supposedly "removed" to federal court after having been efiled on 11/21/10 in a lower court.  I went back to the lower courts and demanded that they re-check their records.  According to Telisha Blackshear, State Court had absolutely no record of being the original court for the Dozier filing, and according to Al Clark, Fulton County Superior Court  does not even accept efiled complaints.  Cochran Firm attorneys held televised press conferences telling the world it had filed a civil action suit for Sarah Dozier on behalf of Kathryn Johnston's estate, but they lied.  The law firm actually worked behind its clients' backs to leave them no alternative but to accept Atlanta's recent offer of $4.9 million to settle the case (40% of which will go to the devious attorneys). No lawsuit for Kathryn Johnston's murder was actually filed in any court, but the devious Cochran Firm filed fraudulent documents making that affirmation in federal court in January 2008.  [Nov. 2010 Note:  Attorneys who checked United States District Court docket on 1:08cv0007-MHS immediately after I published this information in August 2010 should look again.  Court clerks who searched for the Dozier case they could not find in August should look again.  I believe things will be different now.]

I anticipated the fraud against Kathryn Johnston's family because The Cochran Firm also pretended under contract to work as wrongful death attorneys for my family after the secret arrest and wrongful death of Larry Neal, my mentally, physically handicapped brother who died in Shelby County Jail in 2003. http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/  - Hopefully, the unethical lawyers will not find another Georgia judge to say The Cochran Firm is ineligible to be sued in Georgia because the law firm has no Georgia offices (that is what happened when my elderly mother and I sued The Cochran Firm for defrauding our family to protect the jail where Larry died).

Apparently, not much has changed regarding blacks receiving equal protection under the law in the United States.  That is why Georgia Superior Court pronounced The Cochran Firm "nonexistent to be sued" by the Neal family in 2006.  On the family's second try in federal court, United State District Court Judge Batten ruled in 2009 that The Cochran Firm holding Larry Neal's wrongful death action against Shelby County Jail secretly inactive until there was insufficient time remaining on Tennessee's statute of limitations to sue for his murder was not the reason why the family did not sue the jail (not a typo).  Neither lawsuit against the law firm that defrauds minorities to protect government assets after police murders was allowed to proceed to jury.  Unfortunately, minority citizens' civil rights are no more protected in and by the federal government in the 21st century under a largely black administration than when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X fought for justice over four decades ago.  If this were not the sad truth, then certainly the United States Department of Justice under Attorney General Holder would not refuse to answer the Neals' Freedom of Information Act requests about Larry Neal's covered-up jailhouse murder, and his sister, yours truly, would not be censored to prevent her from reporting this and other injustices against disenfranchised persons of all races, as can be clearly seen in the videos in my article:  SIX VIDEOS PROVE CENSORSHIP AGAINST MARY NEAL.  It contains videos that should be in my YouTube channel at jkempp703, but I noticed some time ago that some are missing.  Search for that title is not responding at Google today.  the article should be in this FreeSpeakBlog at this link:  http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/four-mary-neal-censorship-videos.html    Care2 Link to videos:  http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/1487753  - Unfortunately, just as Dr. King experienced, COINTELPRO-like interference against the truth about minority rights is censored, and today's discrimination still has black participants like Ernest C. Withers.

The apparent enmity against justice for blacks in the 21st century is disappointing.  Fraudulent documents by Dozier's lead attorney, Hezekiah Sistrunk, and other plaintiffs' lawyers were allowed to pass in federal court although they were obviously frauds to all legal professionals involved.  I have exposed the crime to Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and Kathryn Johnston's former congressman, Rep. John Lewis, Atlanta police, other officials, and initiated communication with Kathryn Johnston's survivors.  They should sue The Cochran Firm for the $13.1 million shortfall the law firm's fraud cost them.  Clients across America who think they have a lawsuit by The Cochran Firm, especially minorities, should immediately verify with the perspective courts where such lawsuits were supposedly filed.  That is particularly important for civil actions that have government entities as adverse parties. 

Read more about black-on-black crime that is not confined to the ghettos in this article:

TREATED WORSE THAN DOGS: COCHRAN FIRM CLIENTS
http://hubpages.com/hub/Treated-Worse-Than-Dogs-Cochran-Firm-Clients

It is unwise to believe that people are interested in liberty and justice for ALL just because of their race, political party, or past exploits in the field of human rights.  Enemies of justice rely on such gullibility.

For the New York Times article on Withers, see "Civil Rights Photographer Unmasked as FBI Informant," by Robbie Brown - Published: September 13, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/14/us/14photographer.html?_r=3&src=twt&twt=nytimes

Mary Neal
Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill
http://www.Care2.com/c2c/group/AIMI

HubPages Profile:  http://hubpages.com/profile/Mary+Neal
NowPublic Profile:  http://www.nowpublic.com/user/51620/assignments
Follow me at Twitter, where I am KoffieTime, and I will follow you back!  http://twitter.com/koffietime
Mary Neal's Google Profile - http://www.google.com/profiles/MaryLovesJustice - Get the RSS feed for my Care2 Sharebook at:  http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/rss.html/513396753/0/ - Get the RSS feed for my Twitter KOFFIETIME at http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/59790083.rss - Current, urgent justice issues from a laywoman's viewpoint at my primary blog http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/ (the name is a joke, believe me)  Recommended articles - http://topsy.com/site/freespeakblog.blogspot.com - email address - MaryLovesJustice@gmail.com - Topsy Koffietime tweets - http://topsy.com/twitter/koffietime?nohidden=1&page=1  The Coalition carries the cyberstalking/cyber censorship videos at http://groups.google.com/group/coalition-the/browse_thread/thread/4ade9d661daff268?pli=1 - We appreciate everyone who helps us overcome censorship.  As long as wrongs can be hidden, justice is denied.

Wrongful Death of Mitrice Richardson

(13 paragraphs, 11 links) Mitrice Richardson's family and friends mourn her tragic death. Her disappearance after arrest in Lost Hills, California touched the lives of scores of people who helped search for her and signed petitions for a federal investigation while thousands across the country prayed that she would be found alive and well.  Her death will not be in vain if we are moved to change the way America responds to mental health crises.

Excerpts from LA Times article dated August 12, 2010:

The skeletal remains found in Malibu Canyon on Monday afternoon have been identified by authorities as those of Mitrice Richardson, the young woman who vanished nearly a year ago after being released from the Lost Hills/Malibu Sheriff's Station, according to a source familiar with the investigation.


The identification of the remains, found deep in a ravine by park rangers checking for marijuana plants, apparently brings to a grim close the much-publicized mystery over the whereabouts of the Cal State Fullerton graduate who would have celebrated her 25th birthday this past April.


Her arrest for being unable to pay an $89 dinner tab at a Malibu restaurant and her subsequent release in the dark hours of the early morning last Sept. 17 without a car, cellphone or purse sparked widespread criticism of Sheriff's Department personnel and triggered two lawsuits accusing the department of negligence.


"If you knew how many buses I've chased down," Ronda Hampton, a psychologist who was friends with Richardson, said recently.

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Our deepest condolences to Mitrice Richardson's family and friends. I agree with a Twitter post by @FindMitrice - "Mitrice Richardson's death was AVOIDABLE. She deserves JUSTICE, and we will work as hard as possible to achieve it."

If a chronic medical condition had caused the health crisis Mitrice Richardson suffered in the upscale Malibu restraurant  restaurant on September 11, 2009, restaurant personnel would have called for emergency medical responders.  People who have heart attacks or suddenly go into diabetic coma are rushed to hospitals and treated promptly.  But Mitrice's health crisis was mental, not physical.  Therefore, police responded to the restaurant's call - not a medical team - and Mitrice was arrested.  Once again, America's answer to a citizens' mental health crisis was imprisonment and death.  Mitrice's mother has filed a wrongful death lawsuit.

Police officers who respond to a scene where someone is experiencing an emotional crisis should be trained to apprehend the individuals without harming them.  And no woman, especially one who is having a mental health crisis, should be released from police custody after 1:30 a.m. in an unfamiliar area without any cell phone, money or transportation, as reportedly happened in Mitrice Richardson's case.  In fact, people having a mental health crisis should be taken to a mental health care facility or to the psychiatric ward of a medical hospital for evaluation and treatment, not to jail.  Unfortunately, most police officers are inadequately trained for responding to such emergencies, and sick people are usually arrested due to the shortage of psychiatric hospital beds.  Mitrice Richardson's death need not be in vain.  Let us work together to change things for the next person who has an emotional crisis by making sure emergency responders have some place to take her other than to jail.

Please help make hospital care more accessible for Americans who require intervention for mental health crises and those who need long-term psychiatric care by supporting a federal bill to resume Medicaid for inpatient treatment - H.R.619.  Since Medicaid for inpatient psychiatric treatment ended several decades ago, psychiatric beds continue to dwindle as mental hospitals close across America.  The demand is too great for the few psychiatric beds that are available in most medical hospitals. Hospital insurance for inpatient psychiatric care was not included in the national health care reform bill that Congress passed in March 2010, but there is legislation pending to help decriminalize mental illness in America. A former psychiatric nurse, Rep. Eddie Johnson (D-TX), introduced H.R.619 into Congress in January 2009 to resume Medicaid for mental hospitalization.  Passing the important bill would help end discrimination against people who experience an emotional crisis like Mitrice Richardson as well as those who have severe mental illness like my brother Larry Neal, who died under secret arrest in Memphis Shelby County Jail in 2003 - http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/ .  Mentally challenged Americans need and deserve hospital care just as diabetic and heart patients do - not imprisonment and death.  Unfortunately, 1.25 million mentally challenged persons are currently inmates, including many who were arrested on lunacy warrants or for minor offenses like disturbing the peace or vagrancy.

Learn about and VOTE for H.R.619.  Use the link below to access the bill at OpenCongress.org, where you can say to elected officials, “We care about Mitrice Richardson and want to ensure that this never happens again."  http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h619/show

In his speech to the nation on August 31, 2010, President Obama announced an end to the U.S. war in Iraq and preparations to wind up U.S. domination in Afghanistan.  According to a recent study, as many as 54% of combat soldiers may transition home suffering from various levels of post traumatic stress syndorme.  The condition may be worst among soldiers who did repeated tours of combat duty like Sgt. John M. Russel, a 44-year-old communication specialist from Sherman, Texas who served 16 years in the U.S. Army before suffering a tragic mental health crisis in Baghdad. Most soldiers will adjust well to civilian life, but what of those who do not?  Will they wind up coming home to become prisoners of war?  How many will be killed during lunacy arrest attempts like Oscar Morales or suffer abuse and die while incarcerated like Larry Neal and Tim Souders or go missing like Mitrice Richardson?  Decriminalizing mental illness and mproving American's accessibility to psychiatric hospitals or community care programs would save and restore lives, improve community safety, and reduce the nation's prison budget, which is currently over $50 billion per year largely because of 1.25 million mentally ill inmates who should be in hospitals or community care programs depending on their offenses and functionality.  Taxpayers save nothing, but risk much, by ignoring the moral responsibility to help neighbors, relatives, and friends who have mental health challenges.  Consider the avoidable tragedies presented in my article "Am I a Bad Person?" at this link:  http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/am-i-bad-person.html

JAIL IS THE LAST THING THAT MENTAL PATIENTS NEED, AND TOO OFTEN, IT IS THE VERY LAST THING THEY EXPERIENCE. Please join our effort to decriminalize mental illness. No one deserves to be punished for having a health crisis.   See this website for more information about Mitrice Richardson's tragedy:  http://www.findmitrice.info/



The full LA Times article regarding Mitrice Richardson's remains being found is available at this link:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/08/malibu-remains-identified-as-mitrice-richardson.html

Mary Neal
Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill
http://www.Care2.com/c2c/group/AIMI

Jail is the Last Thing That Mental Patients Need

Hello Friends! INVITATIONS FOR YOU! (10 links)

Visit the Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill Photo Album at this lik:  http://www.care2.com/c2c/photos/view/217/513396753/AIMI_Photo_Album/

JAIL IS THE LAST THING THAT MENTAL PATIENTS NEED, AND TOO OFTEN, IT IS THE VERY LAST THING THEY EXPERIENCE. Please join our effort to decriminalize mental illness. Support Congressional bill H.R.619 to resume Medicaid for psychiatric inpatient care. No one deserves to be punished for having a disability. Equal justice!

Many people do not know that insurance for mental hospitals was not included in the national health plan bill that Congress passed in March 2010. YOUR help is needed to decriminalize mental illness in America. Sick people deserve treatment in hospitals or community care depending on their ability to live outside a controlled environment, not imprisonment. We have another chance! Federal bill H.R.619 was introduced in Congress in January 2009 by Rep. Eddie Johnson (D-TX) to resume Medicaid for psychiatric inpatients. Elimination of Medicaid for mental hospital insurance several decades ago led to today's crisis: 1.25 million mentally ill inmates in America, including 60% of the people enduring solitary confinement torture. Consider this quote:

"In a world with so much to be done, I thought there must be something for me to do." ~ Dorothea L. Dix, human rights advocate of the 1800's, responsible for the first generation of mental hospitals in America.

Please VOTE for H.R.619 to replace prisons w/ hospitals for acute mental patients. The link below will take you to OpenCongress.org where you can say to our elected officials, “We care about the least of these, His brethren: naked, sick prisoners.” (Matt.25:36) http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h619/show

AGREE WITH ASSISTANCE TO THE INCARCERATED MENTALLY ILL MEMBERS:  JAIL IS THE LAST THING THAT MENTAL PATIENTS NEED. MONEY THAT IS WASTED ON PUNISHING PEOPLE FOR BEING SICK BY EXPENSIVE PRISON TERMS SHOULD BE USED INSTEAD TO RESTORE THEM TO WHOLESOME LIVES IN DECENT, SECURE MENTAL HOSPITALS OR COMMUNITY CARE PROGRAMS, DEPENDING ON THEIR OFFENSES AND FUNCTIONALITY. 

You are invited to assist this justice quest.  It is time for Americans to denounce and abandon the Dark Age practice of locking mentally ill people away in dungeons.  That is discriminatory and mean.  Mental illness is a chronic health condition that requires continual care like diabetes and heart failure.  Treatment restores lives, increases community safety, and reduces the nation's prison budget, which is currently over $50 billion per year. 

Visit and join Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill at Care2 Network at this link: http://www.Care2.com/c2c/group/AIMI  and invite your friends to visit my blog at http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/  for justice news regarding mentally ill victims and other poor and working class exploited people. We must care for the sick and elderly; repeal capital punishment; stop excessive sentencing and wrongful convictions; respect human and civil rights. I look forward to reading your viewpoints in the comments.

Blessings!

Mary Neal

Mary Neal's Google Profile - http://www.google.com/profiles/MaryLovesJustice  - Get the RSS feed for my Care2 Sharebook at: http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/rss.html/513396753/0 /  - Get the RSS feed for my Twitter KOFFIETIME at http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/59790083.rss  - Current, urgent justice issues from a laywoman's viewpoint at my primary blog http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/  (the name is a joke, believe me) Recommended articles - http://topsy.com/site/freespeakblog.blogspot.com  - Address: MaryLovesJustice@gmail.com