How'd you become a human rights activists, friends? Most of my online friends are devoted to doing something to help make America more just and compassionate, and I am interested in knowing how you developed that interest. My brother was a lifelong acute mental patient after infection from mumps (a childhood disease) went to his brain. Larry Neal, 54, was among acute mental patients America de-institutionalized in the 1970s (evicted from hospitals to seed the first private prisons). Police arrested Larry so much for misdemeanor offenses due to this mental illness over the next 20+ years that they decided to kill him and be done with their enforced role as psychiatric caretakers. That was apparently fine with the U.S. Department of Justice, which helped cover-up Larry's death in 2003 in Memphis Shelby County Jail. See http://WrongfulDeathOfLarryNeal.com/ Now my family is persecuted, especially this writer, because we won't "let sleeping dogs lie." Authorities refuse to release records about the 18 days Larry was under secret arrest in Memphis Shelby County Jail while police ignored his missing person report and lied continually to his social worker and family, denying that Larry was incarcerated. The lies prevented Larry's access to vital heart meds and made him doubly vulnerable to Tasering, restraint chairs and tables, or any physical confrontation that might have occurred. My brother was considered expendable for three reasons: He was black, he was mentally ill, and he lacked wealth. Either of those circumstances cause people to be considered expendable in America, whether they are black, white or other. At first we believed Larry had fallen through the cracks, but there are 1.25 million mentally ill prisoners warehoused in the United States, and they comprise 60% of inmates in cruel solitary confinement. I embarked on a justice quest for my family and other victims of the injustice system and founded Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill ("AIMI"), an online organization with roughly 300 members who advocate to decriminalize mental illness and end capital punishment, mass incarceration, censorship, avoidable wars, and race and class consciousness in the justice system. We fight cyberstalkers to post news and views at AIMI's link, which is http://www.care2.com/c2c/group/aimi . Censorship is applied for two main reasons: Larry Neal's death is still covered-up and there is no statute of limitations on murder, and secondly, mentally ill Americans are valuable private prison commodities. If they let you, please tell us what led you to devote time and/or resources to promote human rights. By commenting at this article, you might help raise consciousness about your cause and gain support - IF they let you.
If you are not involved in promoting human rights, I urge you to start today. Consider joining AIMI. Taxpayers pay up to $120,000 per year in some states to imprison and treat each mentally ill American behind bars rather than to hospitalize sick people or give timely psychiatric care in communities, which would avoid offenses that lead to arrests, from simple vagrancy to multiple murders. That's my story, except for "The Cochran Firm Fraud," which followed Larry's death and I invite you to read about online and see videos with that name. Just Google the term.
Blessings from Mary Neal, human rights advocate in compliance with Proverbs 31:8-9
Standing for the Innocent: Highlighting and fighting for Justice of Juvenile Defendants/wrongfully incarcerated prisoners of whom we strongly believe are innocent, deserve the passion and dedication of advocates, and as such will tirelessly fight on to bring them safely home.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Irishgreeneyes, for your advocacy for juvenile justice. People can follow you at this Twitter link http://twitter.com/princessdelap/ You always share such valuable information at your Twitter page. Thanks for your commitment to the wrongly convicted. Many blessings!
ReplyDeleteFriends, if you are a Facebook member, see some of the awesome answers to this article at "JustUs for Justice" group at this link http://www.facebook.com/groups/JustUs4Justice/
ReplyDeleteThis is an opportunity to learn about many different advocacy organizations as well as what motivates people to become peace advocates, health care advocates, prisoner activists, and champion other human rights movements. Check it out, and join the discussion.
Blessings!
Oh, oh. The stalkers stopped several features from working at FB on my sign-in: Home, search, my icons to read messages and get notifications are gone, etc. Has that ever happened to you?
ReplyDeleteSee this link http://justicegagged.blogspot.com/2011/11/americas-most-censored-mary-neal.html
I am "America's Most Censored: Mary Neal" because Jesus and I love justice!
I suggested to my FB friends, most of whom are serious human rights activists, that we should take the battle against mass incarceration and our HUMAN RIGHTS FOR PRISONERS MARCH across the USA as a relay march. I wrote:
IDEA: Let's form a HUMAN RIGHTS FOR PRISONERS MARCH across America. Have advocates meet the relay walkers at each city line and march the "HUMAN RIGHTS FOR PRISONERS" banner through their city to the next city line. MASS INCARCERATION HAS GOT TO GO! Instead of reducing our prison rolls, officials now plan concentration camps! Take the battle offline and to the streets! Let us plan to do this in October when the weather is mild. Please sign up to carry the sign through your city here and now. We're AWAKE, we're STRONG, we're UNITED. AIN'T NO STOPPING US NOW! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QFtd_C-BsI End DP, free political prisoners, end racism and class consciousness in the justice system, stop excessive sentencing and wrongful convictions, reduce phone rates for prisoners, no long-term solitary confinement, decriminalize mental illness, give decent meals and health care for all inmates . . .
Then the prison investors' cyberstalkers shut down my Facebook features! http://www.facebook.com/marylovesjustice It must be a terrific idea. If the stalkers turn loose a pit bull in our yard like they do when I really upset them, I will know the HUMAN RIGHTS FOR PRISONERS MARCH is a great idea to get DOG JUSTICE for prisoners in America and protest mass incarceration.
Started with a family whose principles meant doing something outside oneself, but the focus as I grew up was not justice but growing the power class. In school I noticed a lot of wrongs done to people of color, my friends--and then learned big things-- that war isn't noble, it's a crime. That nationalism was invented by power. That the base for my family's class was the work and suffering of my ancestor's slaves. That being a woman meant to feel injustice and unjust pain. That I would rather be with people who could teach me about life affected by all those. That everything Jesus says to me means care for others. I raised my children by myself and worked hard, then had time to be an activist when I was disabled. Muslim rights after 9/11 + anti-Patriot Act work + affordable housing advocacy + counter-recruiting (military) + whatever I could do. And I met La Mesha Irizarry and Eli Painted Crow and Veterans for Peace, and did whatever I could do. Worked with ILUW Local 10 after Oscar Grant's murder, am part of Oscar Grant Committee Against Police Brutality. In Occupy Oakland I investigate and research the Oakland Police Department. I'm mostly an organizer and networker and a writer for justice and empowerment. I do a lot of speaking and never feel I'm doing enough or can really explain what I do and why--people who will understand already do. The best compliment and the one that means the most to me is from a friend, an African American man, who said that I "get it," and am "humble" enough to listen. Can't ask for more. Except don't put me alongside people like my sister Mesha, I have not done anything like what she does.
ReplyDeleteThank you for asking, Mary