Invitation to "Steps Toward Justice" & About Those Shots . . .

.
**PLEASE read this blog before going to any links herein. Links do not open in a new window at Blogger, and you need to back arrow to return.

I. Invitation

First, I wanted you to know that I published good news in StepsTowardJusticeHub#3 - Very often, bad news gets wide attention, public outcry, petitions, and generates calls and letters to our representatives, just as it should! Sometimes after we've heard about injustices and expressed our disapproval, it leads to just conclusions that get much less public exposure. Have you ever wondered what happened regarding news stories you read?

My HubPages report the satisfactory conclusions to problems or steps taken that might lead to a justified end. These reports are all called "Steps Toward Justice" followed by a numerical indicator. If you missed "Steps Toward Justice" 1 and 2, check them out while you're there! No. 3 has five exciting and positive news reports regarding bigotry against ethnic children punished, prison reform encouraged, a suicidal man saved by police, and the growing movement to decriminalize mental illness. Visit today to read the good news and see the videos. See how situations that concerned you turned out!

All Good News with Videos! http://hubpages.com/hub/StepsTowardJusticeHub3

II. About Those Shots

In case you wonder why I have no photo on this post, I was suddenly unable to upload images. Furthermore, when I tried to go to my HubPages article today, I reached a message saying HubPages was down for maintenance, which I very much doubt. Thanks for your interest in my blog and articles. People go to so much trouble to interfere with my publications that they might be of value. I began writing at HubPages recently and sharing more input in this FreeSpeakBlog after having my membership suspended at NowPublic. What horrible thing did I do?

Membership suspension followed my writing a successful series of articles against enforced H1N1 vaccines. That battle is just heating up in New York, where certain health care workers were told to take the vaccine shots or lose their jobs. About 100,000 health care workers are slated to be vaccinated. One day soon it might become your battle, too. Perhaps the cyberdogs are afraid I will load the picture of the doctors and nurses protesting the idea that their bodies are not their own and refusing to submit to being "test rats" (their term).

Health care workers screamed "No forced shots!" as they rallied Tuesday, September 29, against the state regulation requiring them to roll up their sleeves.

When asked if he's willing to lose his job, one protestor, Mr. Mannino, said, "Absolutely. I will not take it, will not be forced. This is still America."

Perhaps because I uploaded photographs of the health care workers' protests to my computer tonight, the cyberdogs did something to counter my ability to share them in this blog. But I wasn't even going to report that today. I am writing to invite you to visit "Steps Toward Justice" at HubPages. Maybe we'll delve into the vaccine debate at a future blog, and maybe not. After what happened at NowPublic, it seems dangerous to discuss. Wonder if they're going to grab those health care professionals and just commence to inoculating them? Call out the troops? Get the trains that are reportedly equipped with shackles and deliver the protesters to concentration camps? I have read all kinds of rumors connected with those vaccines. Most of them are scary and hopefully not based in truth. Have Americans become property of U.S.A.? Have our public servants become our Pharaohs? Time will tell. Stay tuned!

Here's an article with comments that might give you nightmares and/or old time religion:

Concentration Camps Proposed in Congress - H.R. 645
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/american-concentration-camps-proposed-congress-h-r-645

I suggest that you go to Google Images and type "vaccine protests" into the browser once you reach that website. You can follow most of the photographs there to the matching story. I may not write about that mess again! I have learned that unfortunately, freedom of press largely depends on what one has to say.

Mary Neal
MaryLovesJustice@gmail.com
P.O. Box 7222
Atlanta, GA 30357
.

25-yr Sentence for Killing Dog; All-clear for Death of Mental Patient

I love dogs and cats. I even had a pet chicken as a girl, and I guarantee you that chickens are intelligent! There was nothing "bird-brained" about Wobble Tail! Although I agree that animals need protection from heartless people who abuse and kill them, 25 years in prison seems excessive sentencing for Alex Castro's crime: he killed his girlfriend's dog. If Castro had killed a black mental patient, authorities might have helped him hide the body. People need dog justice!

See a UPI report excerpt on Castro's sentence below. The entire article is at the link that follows.

*******************************************

Man gets 25 years for killing dog
Published: Sept. 26, 2009

SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 26 (UPI) -- A Milpitas, Calif., man has been sentenced to more than 25 years in prison for killing his girlfriend's 10-year-old dog, Copper, prosecutors said.

Alex Castro was sentenced Friday for beating Copper to death with a hammer in 2007. His sentence was influenced by two former violent felony convictions, Deputy District Attorney Kevin Smith said.

"Despite the defendant's claims he was getting too much time for 'only killing a dog,' he is getting this sentence for the violence in his past," Smith told The San Jose Mercury in a story published Saturday.

Joanie Gonzalez, who owned 10-year-old Copper, a cocker spaniel, said she was "satisfied" with the verdict.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/09/26/Man-gets-25-years-for-killing-dog/UPI-38601253991429/

*******************************************
.

Compare Alex Castro's investigation, prosecution, and sentencing with the amount of disclosure and justice my handicapped brother's death received, which was zero. Dogs have apparently surpassed disabled Americans for protection under the law, especially African American men. Isn't that something? California now has one more inmate costing the state $50,000 per year at a time when the its senior citizens and disabled people reportedly received IOUs instead of live checks this summer.

Castro's murder of Copper, the cocker spaniel, will cost taxpayers roughly ONE MILLION TWO HUNDRED FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS ($1,250,000.00) if Castro serves his entire sentence and does not get sick and require special services, and if prison rates do not increase.

Judges sometimes give lengthy sentences as a warning to others that the defendant's offense is considered very grave by the court. All who learn about Castro's lengthy sentence are made fully aware that California will tolerate no animal abuse and murders. Following that logic, what message does it send to police officers across the country to learn that Larry Neal, a schizophrenic heart patient, was secretly arrested in Memphis Shelby County Jail in 2003 and his family was denied records and legal recourse? Does it tell police departments that mental patients don't count like dogs do?

What does it tell lawyers when they learn that The Cochran Firm was not censured at all for committing fraud against Larry's family, having pretended to act as our wrongful death attorneys for 10.5 months while actually doing nothing to file the family's lawsuit against the jail? Does this tell lawyers that it is OK to contract with plaintiffs and trick them to benefit their clients' defendants, who are usually more wealthy? For instance, if you contract with an attorney after a drunk tractor trailer truck driver crosses the expressway and kills your family, would it be OK if the lawyer (secretly a major investor in that trucking company) withheld your lawsuit to spare the trucker's insurance from paying damages?

The lack of due process of law after Larry's demise is the reason my advocacy started. I became aware of gross inequities in the justice system as evidenced by the sentence Alex Castro received for killing Copper compared to wrongful deaths of some citizens. Plenty of people were given lesser punishment than Castro's for killing humans, and some (as in Larry's case) were not even questioned.

"Equal justice"? Some people must aspire not only to be treated equal to other humans in this justice system, but they must also compete for DOG JUSTICE. Mental illness is criminalized in America, and citizens with that health condition are frequently victimized in their communities and in custody. Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill (AIMI), founded after Larry's death, works to reduce the stigma attached to mental illness and advocates for officials to replace imprisoning psychiatric offenders with inpatient and outpatient treatment.

See more about the secret death of a schizophrenic heart patient throughout this blog and at the link below by Pam Wagner, celebrated poet and co-author of "Divided Minds":

Life with schizophrenia/bipolar, Lyme disease, poetry, and art

Incarcerated and Mentally Ill: Larry Neal’s Story http://wagblog.wordpress.com/2009/09/16/incarcerated-and-mentally-ill-larry-neals-story/

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

Don't Taser Legless African Americans in Wheelchairs!

PLEASE DON'T TASER LEGLESS AFRICAN AMERICANS IN WHEELCHAIRS. PLEASE DON'T DO THIS TO PEOPLE. PEOPLE NEED DOG JUSTICE!

See the video at the link below and pray for this victim and the officers.

Most police officers would never do such a thing, I believe: See the YouTube VIDEO at this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hb0RLBkkTks

PLEASE DON'T TASER 78-YEAR-OLD CITIZENS AS SEEN IN THE VIDEO AT THE LINK BELOW. Some seniors have Alzheimer's and might not understand police orders or may fail to respond appropriately. Some senior citizens have hearing impediments. Have compassion, please!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIrxrOT4nzk&feature=related

This is unusual coming from a human rights advocate, but I advocate for increased salaries for police officers. I feel that will help resolve some of the police brutality issues. Too many police officers must work two jobs. They work in high stress situations every day dealing with the public. Police officers need more vacation time and pay increases sufficient for them to only work one job and report to work fresh.

If law officers were compensated sufficiently to only work one job, they might be better able to evaluate situations and take appropriate action - not react with overuse of force because they are tired and cranky!

Over 350 people have been killed by Tasers. Senior citizens and wheelchair-bound people are fragile. It is shocking to see elders and invalids being manhandled and Tasered by police officers; however, these occurrences are becoming disturbingly more common. The DOJ should conduct a study to determine whether the majority of officers involved in overuse of force situations work one job or two. That might help them get pay raises and more vacation time. One study suggested that police officers should routinely be brought off the street for desk duty to relieve them of tension.

Steroid use is unfortunately high among some law enforcement officers. Those who fire weapons - Tasers or firearms - should have immediate drug tests. They may need help getting over some addiction that impairs their ability to assess danger. Certainly, neither the 78-yr-old or the double amputee in the videos at the links above posed a danger to officers that was worthy of risking killing either the handicapped man or the elderly citizen.

What do you think of these suggestions? I addressed them more fully in an article at my Care2 blog months ago. Improved salaries for police officers would also help recruit high caliber candidates, and officers already on the force might care more about keeping their jobs and keeping their records free of citizens' complaints to obtain generous raises. Firefighters and police officers perform a vital community service, but ultimately, PEOPLE WORK FOR MONEY. The more money people make, the more they care about doing a good job and keeping the jobs they have.

Yes! I advocate for police officers, too. Although most of them may not recognize it, they, too, are in the slave class. All who live on salaries or fixed incomes rather than dividend checks are under-appreciated and often under-compensated. Police officers encounter much risk to capture suspects. The suspects who are subsequently sentenced to prison then generate substantial profits for elite prison investors - up to $50,000 per inmate per year, sometimes for 30 or 40 years. More criminal justice revenue should go to the men and women who risk their lives and limbs making the arrests that bring in the human commodities.

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. ~Matthew 25:40

The film and comments are at this link, also, but the link stopped working for me. Not unusual: http://www.hiphopmusic.com/best_of_youtube/2009/09/california_police_taser_legless_man_in_wheelchair.html
To access links to more of my articles regarding justice issues in America from a laywoman's perspective, please see my Google profile at http://www.google.com/profiles/MaryLovesJustice.

Thanks for your interest! Your feedback is invited in the comments area below, or you may email me at MaryLovesJustice@gmail.com

Mary Neal
http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/
.

Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill
http://www.care2.com/c2c/group/aimi

POLL: Sue Again for The Cochran Firm Fraud?

The (Johnnie) Cochran Firm tricked our family as wrongful death attorneys for my handicapped brother, Larry Neal, and I request your advice on what to do about it.

Larry was a mentally and physically handicapped man who was arrested repeatedly on misdemeanor offenses following mental hospital release in the 1970's. He had basically been an inpatient since before puberty. Apparently, Memphis Shelby County Jail was weary of the enforced role as psychiatric caretaker for Larry. Police arrested Larry and denied having him in custody for 18 days while he missed his prescription heart drugs and died. If more was done to kill Larry, his family does not know.

For six years, we have been denied any records or accountability related to his secret arrest and death. After Larry's death, an elaborate cover-up ensued that was facilitated by The Cochran Firm. Despite two lawsuits against The Cochran Firm, Larry's family has no records or explanations about his demise. First The Cochran Firm, which pretended to conduct discovery for us, did not actually seek the records. Later when we recognized the fraud and subpoenaed Larry's records, the federal subpoena was not honored.

POLL: Should Larry Neal's Family Sue for the Cochran Firm Fraud Again?
http://www.votingcentral.com/VotingCentral/displayPoll.do?pollId=123e0a31-e544-163d-b520-055afffffff0

It is a question to consider carefully.  As you can see from the photograph above, those are many wealthy and powerful people who used their position as Larry Neal's wrongul death attorneys to prevent my family from suing Shelby County Jail.  Unethical behavior is sometimes a companion to criminal conduct.  After serving suit, I started being followed and notified 2,000 people on my email list after one particularly horrifying experience that was witnessed by the guard who walked me to my car.  Since Cochran Firm attorneys were on my mailing list, they also got my notice.  Cochran Firm attorney Angela Mason complained to United States District Court, Northern District of Georgia that I accused Cochran Firm attorneys of hiring a Caucasian man in a white vehicle to follow and harass me.  Of course, I had accused no one.  But more importantly, I had not revealed in my email the color of the vehicle that followed me most often, and neither had I ever told anyone.  How did Angela Mason know what color it was?

BACKGROUND
.
The day after Larry's funeral services, my 80-year-old mother and I went to The Cochran Firm office in Memphis on an appointment that had been facilitated by The Cochran Firm's Atlanta office. We had assurance that the two offices - Atlanta where my mother and I lived and Memphis where Larry died - would work together to bring a lawsuit against the jail and other parties because of Larry's negligence and wrongful death. The statute of limitations in Tennessee is only 12 months for such cases.

The Cochran Firm held our lawsuits inactive for 10.5 months and lied to my family about work that was NOT being done. The firm thereby defrauded us of the opportunity to sue the jail. Six weeks was inadequate time to find another attorney, hold interview and contract meetings, and that attorney research and file three lawsuits, two of which were meant to be filed against government entities (the jail for wrongful death, the State of Tennessee and Larry's final care home for negligence). The jail was to be sued because officers there repeatedly lied during Larry's incarceration for nearly three weeks in order that Larry would miss his heart medications and die. Larry's death removed him from being a continuing burden to police, which was not Larry's fault. The State of Tennessee, of which Larry was a ward, refused to readmit him as an inpatient. This refusal happens to many families in America, with authorities saying that the acute mental patients do not present an immediate danger to themselves and others and cannot be hospitalized. Tragedies often result from the denial of inpatient services.

The Cochran Firm did not inform Larry's family that Julian Bolton, a long-standing Shelby County Commissioner, was manager of The Cochran Firm's Memphis office, although the Shelby County Commission owns and operates the jail we sought to sue. The Cochran Firm did not lift a finger to actually honor its contract with my 80-year-old grieving mother for nearly a year, but merely used its position as our wrongful death attorneys to protect the jail while the one-year statute of limitations ticked away.
.

Because the unscrupulous lawyers protected Shelby County Jail, our intended defendants, from lawsuit, we sued The Cochran Firm for its fraud. Suit was served to the firm's Atlanta office, the office we contacted on August 1, 2003. That was the day when Shelby County Jail reported Larry's death and admitted Larry was secretly incarcerated there during the entire time his social worker and family searched for him as a missing person. (No wonder police did nothing to help find the 54-year-old mentally ill man who needed heart meds for survival - they already knew exactly where Larry was!)

The Cochran Firm had no defense for what it did. Seeking to avoid paying justified damages to the Neals and avoid public exposure in court, The Cochran Firm's Atlanta office where our lawsuit was served simply denied being related to The Cochran Firm in any way whatsoever. Furthermore, it denied having any association with The Memphis office of The Cochran Firm. Instead, the Atlanta law office claimed to be a firm called Cochran, Cherry, Givens, Smith & Sistrunk, P.C. (CCGSS), wholly owned and operated in the State of Georgia, and disclaiming all connections to The Cochran Firm. The firm is so wealthy and well-connected that it was comfortable in this perjury.

No attempt was made to stop commercials for the Atlanta law office that ran every five minutes on Atlanta MARTA trains. No attempt was made to discontinue ads on television, in newspapers, on billboards, on the Internet with legal search engines or even the firm's own website! Why bother to cover perjury when a wealthy firm can simply disclaim that it even exists while continuing to operate in Georgia under its public identity, and a judge will declare it so? That is exactly what happened. In May 2006, Georgia Superior Court declared the most famous and widely advertised law firm in the state non-existent under its advertised identity and dismissed the Neals' lawsuit.

THE COCHRAN FIRM FRAUD MADE ME SICK - LITERALLY

After our case was dismissed with the court ruling that the Cochran Firm office we served suit to did not exist, I was physically ill every morning riding Atlanta MARTA train to work and having to watch the commercial of Johnnie Cochran fading into the background and the firm he left behind assuring commuters that it would carry on in his tradition and giving the address to the NONEXISTENT Atlanta office.  I was so hurt over the fraud that I had to give up the train and television, where more Atlanta Cochran Firm office commercials played every five minutes it seemed.  When I still felt frustrated and sick, I also had to give up being a litigation secretary.  I could not continue to process other people's justice quests when my 82-year-old mother and my family had been so horribly betrayed.  Reality hit and I had to return to work, but I soon sued again.  Since the frauds did not exist as The Cochran Firm in Georgia, we sued in USDC under the diversity rule, which requires that plaintiffs and defendants not co-exist within the same state.  I expected someone to say, "NO," but the fraud continued.

My mother's distress is naturally induced by losing her "special" child under mysterious circumstances under secret arrest and the jail having lied to us repeatedly for weeks while Larry was dying in government custody.  That hurts me also, but that is not the loss that hurts me as much as recognizing that I do not count.  I cannot have equal justice.  I am not included in "liberty and justice for ALL."  I loved America - watched Yankee Doodle Dandy every 4th of July.  I thought I was a citizen.  I thought my family - taxpayers, some military men, voters - counted.  We don't.  We are too black, too poor, and to top it off, Larry was mentally ill and therefore expendable.  In fact, federal court even told us that everything that was done to us was "immaterial," presumably because we are deemed to be immaterial ourselves.  Knowing the truth about how little we mattered in America hurts me more than losing Larry did.  I researched and discovered something that surprised me.  I am not the only one who does not count.

 YOU PROBABLY DON'T COUNT EITHER. 

Since learning that plenty of Americans, including African Americans, poor and working-class Caucasians, Latinos, and Native Americans are dogged out in the "justice" system like the Neals, I became a human rights activist.  I work to help more people to COUNT in America - people like Troy Davis, a fellow Georgian who must rely on the same courts we did.  He is also a black man who is not wealthy, and I feel so sorry for him.  I especially advocate for the 1.25 million mentally ill inmates in this country who are imprisoned like Larry was for reason of a common, treatable health condition.  Sick people should be in hospitals or in community care, depending on their offenses, but never imprisoned, abused, or killed.  But mental illness in America is often answered with imprisonment, homelessness, gross abuses, and sometimes death.  See more about my advocacy at the subtitle below, Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill.  Help if you can.  There are many Larrys living behind bars who need us.  They are male, female, black, white, and other - 1.25 million of them.

KATHRYN JOHNSTON CASE - MORE FRAUD?

Six months after Georgia Superior Court dismissed our justified lawsuit against The Cochran Firm by disclaiming that it had been served to a Cochran Firm office, Kathryn Johnston was killed in the worst no-knock warrant case in history. The Cochran Firm signed contract with her survivors to sue Atlanta Police for killing the 92-year-old African American in pre-dawn hours in her own home. Her family has yet to recover damages in the lawsuit that The Cochran Firm supposedly filed for them wherein the lawyers reportedly alleged "negligence," not "wrongful death," although three police officers went to prison for her murder. It appears that unethical law firms and others are coming against citizens to minimize or eliminate damages that should be paid after abuses of power by police and perhaps infractions by businesses and others that are in the "hook-up." The Cochran Firm has now expanded its legal "services" to the Latino community.

GREATER IS HE THAT IS WITHIN ME THAN HE THAT IS WITHIN THE WORLD

The Cochran Firm's Atlanta office had itself declared nonexistent by using a name that was not even registered in the State of Georgia (CCGSS, P.C.).  The Neals sued The Cochran Firm's home office, the Memphis office, and David McLaughlin, our assigned attorney, in United States District Court under the diversity rule. The diversity rule cannot be used where plaintiffs and defendants reside within the same state. The USDC judge declared that The Cochran Firm's fraud, malpractice, and perjury in court were all "immaterial," probably because that is how the court saw Larry and his survivors. Again, the Neals' case was dismissed right before it was time to take it before a jury.

The representation that there is no Cochran Firm office in Georgia was brought before the court by The Cochran Firm's attorneys, Carlock, Copeland, Semlar & Star.  It is my understanding that attorneys are officers of the court and should not knowingly misrepresent evidence even for high-paying clients.

Much more happened in this drama, and those who are interested in more information are invited to read from my 173 articles at http://NowPublic.com/duo. One might also browse online for THE COCHRAN FIRM FRAUD, and visit our website's DOCUMENTS tab at http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/ - The website was last updated in February 2008. It will be updated to include the culmination of the USDC court case and other information. I do not open our website from our home computer because of the horrible cyberstalking that we endure, but we will have a trustworthy professional to do the updates very soon.

MEDIA BLACKOUT
.
Whereas mainstream media does not report news of my brother's death and the ensuing Cochran Firm Fraud, much has been published on the Internet. I am perplexed about a wealthy celebrity law firm choosing to have its reputation ruined to protect one settlement that is more than warranted and could easily be covered by malpractice insurance or the proceeds from just one lawsuit. It is comparable to a successful restaurateur losing the confidence of most of his customers who overhear him arguing with one woman complaining about a roach in her plate. I believe that attorneys are smarter and more reasonable than that, especially David McLaughlin, who enjoys the designation of being a Super Lawyer.

WHAT MIGHT IT MEAN?

Since I cannot understand a law firm giving up its reputation when trust is the main necessity between lawyers and clients, I pay close attention to H.R. 645. That congressional bill was introduced in January by Florida representative Alcee Hastings. It proposes six concentration camps (FEMA centers) to be erected within America capable of warehousing millions of people. I follow news about enforced H1N1 vaccines and wonder what is in the needles. The Government and drug manufacturers have already absolved themselves of any responsibility for deaths and sickness the vaccines cause. I wonder why any wealthy, successful law firm would allow its name to fall from grace to this extent unless the elitist, well-connected partners know something about the future of law practice in America that the public does not know. Martial Law virtually cancels the laws we supposedly adhere to in America.

ASSISTANCE TO THE INCARCERATED MENTALLY ILL (AIMI)

The last few years have been frightening but rewarding for me. Hundreds of thousands of other people with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and various other acute problems were released from inpatient care around the time Larry was. Many patients fare well in society despite mental dysfunctions. Others suffer from a condition called "anosognosia," which makes it difficult for them to recognize their own illness and seek or accept treatment. Larry often avoided taking his psychiatric drugs in part because he felt he did not need them once he was stabilized after a psychotic episode, and in part because of side-effects. Even when unmedicated, Larry was non-violent. Larry suffered mumps at age eight, and the swelling and fever were quite intense. His jaws went down suddenly in just hours, and he was never the same mentally. The belief is that the infection from his jaws went into his brain. When untreated, Larry would often talk or sing too loud, have hallucinations, spend hours reciting historic speeches and Bible verses, and generally disconnect from reality. His loud reciting and singing was perceived as disturbing the peace.

After Larry's tragic death, we founded an online advocacy organization called ASSISTANCE TO THE INCARCERATED MENTALLY ILL (AIMI). AIMI works to remove the stigma associated with mental illness and decriminalize the common, treatable health condition. Some AIMI members have mentally challenged loved ones, and some are mentally or emotionally challenged themselves. However, most of AIMI's 200+ members have no immediate connection with mental illness themselves or through family members. They are simply people who care about promoting human and civil rights and feel that incarceration is the inappropriate response to mental illness in the 21st century.

AIMI believes the nation's 1.25 million mentally dysfunctional inmates should be in hospitals or community treatment, depending on their offenses. Our advocacy helps remove the stigma and encourages lawmakers to support alternatives to incarcerating mental patients. H.R. 619 seems to be the best alternative to restore the availability of inpatient care, and we solute Rep. Eddie Johnson for proposing to reinstate Medicaid insurance for inpatient mental health treatment. Additionally, Congress passed a number of important laws to benefit the mentally ill during the two years AIMI has been in existence. We hope our voices helped effect positive changes when joined with those of many other fine mental health organizations and dedicated, effective prisoner support groups. Larry did not die in vain.

THANK YOU!

Thanks for your attention and participation in the poll. Please send our link to this blog to your friends and groups so we will have plenty of good advice. http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/ - I am going now to see why the curb at my house has been outlined with a foot of blue paint about the size of vehicle license plate - one before and after our property line - and no other homes in my immediate area have this (aerial?) marking. If that seems paranoid, you may not have not watched my Cochran Firm Fraud 1 and 2 videos on YouTube or reviewed the affidavits from others who witnessed a few of my stalking events over the past two years, which are in our USDC file. Check online for Neals vs. The Cochran Firm, and get a free Pacer account to see the documents. Also, please view The Cochran Firm Atlanta office commercial at the link below. It was released just over a week after USDC dismissed our lawsuit that was filed under the diversity rule, requiring that plaintiffs and defendants residing in different states. It appears the lawyers are tired of lying about their identity. What next? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlcolpUzckU

Thanks for your interest.

Mary Neal
http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/

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

Dog Justice Poem and Petition for Larry Neal

I was so impressed with the zeal to enforce justice for pit bulls that I penned this poem, wishing that certain people counted as much as dogs in America with their right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness protected like canine citizens:

DOG JUSTICE

Too bad you weren't a dog, my brother

In my heart, I cried

Many more people would care about you

And wonder why you died

You had no spots or floppy ears

You never fetched a ball

Instead, you were a human being

But poor, black, and flawed

You died in jail for mental illness

I know down in my heart

Your death would be investigated

If only you could bark

Dog deaths get swift justice

Their abusers are sent to jail

Poor Mama would have closure now

If you'd had a wagging tail

But you were made in God's image

And some day, I have no doubt

The mentally ill and American dogs

Will have at least equal clout

~ by Mary Neal, all rights protected

See the petition calling for DOG JUSTICE FOR THE MENTALLY ILL at this site:
http://www.petitiononline.com/Neal/petition.html


VIDEO:  Dogs personified as the mentally ill, homeless and in prison
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kzim_Atdo1c


The DOG JUSTICE poem is available in three languages at:
http://www.nowpublic.com/culture/dog-justice-mary-neal

Abuse feels like this to humans, too.

Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill
http://www.care2.com/c2c/group/AIMI


Larry Neal's Wrongful Death Website: http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/
.
MANY PEOPLE NEED DOG JUSTICE.
.

Google Outage on 9/1: Was it Cyberstalking?

It is infinately preferable to prevent a likely wrongful execution than it is to protest one after the fact.  Authorities had the fire report in Cameron Todd Willingham's arson/murder case before his execution in 2004, but executed the Texan anyway.  Authorities now have the DNA test results for Thomas Arthur that rule him out as the source for forensic evidence at the scene of Troy Wicker's murder, but plan his execution anyway.  Mainstream media quit reporting about Arthur upon receipt of his DNA test results in July that indicate innocence, and my own reports are met with censorship and cyberstalking.  Why?
.
Will the media also simply stop reporting on the Troy Davis case if authorities decide to execute him despite strong indications of innocence? Why is there censorship around planned executions?  Troy Davis is under gag order, and mainstream news reports about Thomas Arthur's DNA test results are nonexistent. If authorities are ashamed of capital punishment and the mistakes that are made, censorship is not the answer.  It is simply time to say DEATH TO THE DEATH PENALTY!
.
Did Google discover the cause for gmail going down on September 1, 2009?  My inquiry is because of interference experienced announcing an article I published on that day in Care2 News Network.  eCards I sent to 200 friends and human rights groups on September 1 were sabotaged.  And gmail, which I use for my prisoner advocacy email box, went down.  Care2 reported a cyberattack on September 1 in the ecard area. Is this coincidence?

The article I published on September 1 that encountered such interference concerned condemned Alabama man, Thomas Arthur.  More than two months after his DNA results were received, mainstream media still has not reported that Arthur's DNA was a negative match for the evidence tested.  However, if one enters "Thomas Arthur Alabama" into the Web browser, there is extensive media coverage on Arthur's quest to prove his innocence through DNA testing, which was denied repeatedly during many of the 26 years of his imprisonment.  Numerous news reports over the years covered the courts' and governor's denial of Arthur's requests for post-conviction DNA testing, protests regarding his lethal injection, and Arthur's stays of execution. But there were no mainstream media reports about his test results that were received this summer.  What happened?

I learned of Arthur's favorable DNA test results from his daughter immediately after the forensic lab released them in July.  Sherrie Stone wrote to prisoner activists and thanked us for working on behalf of her father finally being granted DNA testing, which substantiated his innocence.  At the time, she anticipated that Arthur's test results would lead to his exoneration and release.  (Sherrie Stone's email thanking prisoner activists and informing us about her father's DNA results is in the fourth comment in the Care2 News Network article at LINK # 3 below.)

It was therefore surprising to discover that Arthur was still on death row in August and to read in The Birmingham News that a district attorney planned to ask for a death warrant.  The news report was dated August 11, and it made no mention whatsoever of Thomas Arthur's DNA test results.  The article reported that Arthur had allegedly committed a "fraud on the court" by inducing Bobby Ray Gilbert, another inmate, to make a false confession regarding Wicker's murder, which resulted in Arthur winning a stay of execution on July 31, 2008.  The Birmingham News article reported that Gilbert had undergone DNA testing, and forensic evidence conclusively proved the inmate's confession was false; he did not kill Wicker.  Why did The Birmingham News omit reporting that Thomas Arthur's DNA test, presumably against the same evidence, also proved that Arthur was not Wicker's murderer, I wondered.  (See the link below for The Birmingham News article entitled "Alabama prosecutor seeks execution date for Thomas Arthur," LINK #1)

To be executed for committing fraud to save one's life seemed so extreme that I launched this poll at Voting Central on August 31:  Should Thomas Arthur, Whose DNA Test Results Were Negative As the Murderer, Be Executed Anyway? (The poll is available at LINK #2 below) 

On September 1, I published the poll in a short article at Care2 News Network, but my attempts to notify people about the poll and article via Care2 ecards were sabotaged.  The ecards I sent to 200 friends, human rights groups, and others were stripped of all the data about Thomas Arthur, the DNA test results, and his impending execution, and only the title and tag lines (leading nowhere) were intact.  In fact, the ecards arrived to my addressees basically blank. Care2 was attacked on September 1 in its ecard system and gmail had an outage.  Comments at my Care2 News Network article evidence the cyberwar that was waged against my alerting people about Arthur's pending execution despite the outcome of his DNA test.  (See the article at LINK #3 below)

After publishing the article, I also spoke with Arthur's daughter, Sherrie Stone, on September 1.  She explained that Judge Pulliam had put her father's DNA results under seal, prohibiting his lawyers from publishing the results.  Perhaps because the court sealed Arthur's DNA test results, mainstream media must also keep the DNA test results secret until after Arthur's execution.  Arthur's DNA test results are published on his website at LINK #4 below.  Sherrie wrote:

Mary, Thank you for all the articles you have done on behalf of my father. I have posted the DNA test results on my fathers web site. There are still a few items that could be tested, but state will not allow that. The state also denied any additional testing on the items that were recently tested. The Innocence Project* feels more advanced testing should have been made available to the defense from the beginning. The whole ordeal has just been a nightmare that never ends. I really appreciate all you have done and continue to do on my father's behalf. Sincerely, Sherrie

*The Innocence Project is not Arthur's lawyers.

The only article covering Arthur's DNA test results that I found on the Internet other than my own was written by another blogger in Alabama News Commentary.  The blogger opined that since Arthur's DNA results came back as a negative match for crime scene evidence tested, the State of Alabama should not hurry to execute him.  (See the link to the blog below as LINK #5.)

Since I publish MaryLovesJustice@gmail.com  as my prisoner advocacy email box and use it to send announcements whenever I publish articles, I wondered if the cyberstalkers attacked gmail, as they attacked the Care2 ecards program.  Just how secret are Thomas Arthur's DNA test results?

My Internet cyberstalking is not unlike what an activist named Cyxymu reportedly experiences.  On August 8, TheLoop21 reported that cyberstalkers caused Twitter to go down for two hours and negatively impacted operations at other networks in order to stop Cyxymu's reports, including Google and Facebook.  "Facebook said its service had been degraded," the article reported. I commented under the TheLoop21 article about my own cyberstalking problems.

"The attack appears to be directed at an individual who has a presence on a number of sites, rather than the sites themselves," a Facebook spokesman told BBC News. (See a link to The Loop21 report Web Attack Aimed at One Activist Blogger below as LINK #6.)

On September 1, despite the fact that Care2 reported suffering a cyberattack that destroyed the data I had input on ecards about Thomas Arthur's DNA test results, and although Google had an outage that negatively affected my getting information about my article published to friends and human rights groups via gmail, the article with Thomas' poll nevertheless made front page at Care2 News Network and helped to notify many people who care.  Ironically, the same thing happened a week later when I published an article featuring a petition for Cameron Todd Willingham to be exonerated post mortem.  The petition is sponsored by Texas Moratorium Network to request that the State of Texas admit it wrongly executed Willingham for the arson murders of his children, because fire reports indicate there was likely no arson.  eCards I sent to notify friends and human rights groups about the petition and article arrived to addressees stripped of my input except the heading, just as had happened a week before regarding the Thomas Arthur article and poll.  I know of no other Care2 ecards having data deletions except these.

Why do I publish news about such justice issues as Thomas Arthur's?  In part because the media never reported my family's justice quest regarding the secret arrest and wrongful death of Larry Neal, my handicapped brother, we have been deprived of the information needed for closure for over six years.  No media coverage was given to The Cochran Firm Fraud that followed his death, wherein that law firm used its position as Larry's wrongful death attorneys to help Memphis Shelby County Jail, our defendant, to avoid accountability for Larry's demise.

Because my brother's secret jail death is not afforded the investigative effort of animal abuse and our family's pleas for justice were met with denial of due process of law, people like Arthur's family have my sympathy. I try in my limited way to bring their justice quests before the public in hopes that someone will care enough about human and civil rights to give them the assistance that my family is denied.  Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill (AIMI) was founded to help decriminalize mental illness, but we also advocate for the wrongly convicted, which appears to apply to Thomas Arthur.  It would be rewarding to help save a family from enduring the wrongful death of a loved one rather than helping to publicize the loss after it already happened like Todd Willingham's execution and my brother's demise.  (See LINK #7 below for our website about Larry Neal's secret arrest and wrongful death.)

SEPTEMBER 1, 2009 WAS APPARENTLY A BUSY DAY FOR CYBERSTALKERS SEEKING TO PREVENT DISSEMINATION OF NEWS ABOUT ARTHUR FACING EXECUTION DESPITE HIS DNA RESULTS.

Sample of the basically empty ecard that went from Care2 to my network:

Dear Mary Neal,

Your Care2 eCard was received by "Jim P." on Sep 1, 2009.
To view your eCard, click on the following link:
http://www.care2.com/send/preview/1243-33361-12981-3565    
Warmest regards,
www.Care2.com


                                                   Internet links referenced in this article:

(1) The Birmingham News, August 8:  Alabama prosecutor seeks execution date for Thomas Arthur  http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/metro.ssf?/base/news/124997852313600.xml&coll=2
 
(2) Poll - Voting Central, August 31:  Should Thomas Arthur, Whose DNA Test Results Were Negative As the Murderer, Be Executed Anyway?
http://www.votingcentral.com/VotingCentral/displayPoll.do?pollId=1236f80e-49c4-163d-b520-0cb9ffffffd4

(3) Care2 News Network article published Sept. 1:  ...The Thomas Arthur Story
http://www.care2.com/news/member/513396753/1236493

(4) Thomas Arthur's Website - with DNA test results - http://www.thomasarthurfightforlife.com/

(5) Blog:  Alabama News Commentary- al.com:  OUR VIEW: Alabama Death Row inmate Thomas Arthur's DNA tests don't prove his innocence but they don't confirm guilt, either
http://blog.al.com/birmingham-news-commentary/2009/08/our_view_alabama_death_row_inm.html

(6) The Loop21, August 8: Web Attack Aimed at One Activist Blogger
http://www.theloop21.com/news/web-attack-aimed-one-activist-blogger

(7) Website:  Wrongful Death of Larry Neal  http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/
.
.

AIMI Video Library, by Mary Neal

AIMI members have collected videos to help in advocacy to decriminalize mental illness, repeal the death penalty, and ensure human rights for prisoners.  View them at the below link. 

Videos collected by AIMI: http://www.care2.com/c2c/groups/disc.html?gpp=17280&pst=842947

NOTE:  One must use the back arrow to return to this blog, or open http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/

The videos help to make it clear that treatment is needed for mental illness and drug addiction, not incarceration.  Psychiatrists and counselors are more qualified to address such problems than police and prison guards.  More treatment centers are needed for drugs, alcohol, and mental illness (in-patient and outpatient facilities), not more prisons.  See an index of AIMI's video library below.

Below is a sample video, called Schizophrenia.  It shows how important treatment is.



AIMI's video library's films are available help the public to understand mental illness and what happens to mentally ill prisoners.  There is also a Taser series.  See Inman Morales' death caused by Tasering during a lunacy arrest attempt, and more.

LIST OF FILMS

Reach out and Touch Somebody's Hand - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-7qCG2_aaA


Bipolar Crisis on Atlanta MARTA Train - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NZtGz_7WI0



COCHRAN FIRM FRAUD 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1ltCpy1uu0

COCHRAN FIRM FRAUD 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQ5d_wju2M8

Comments on The Cochran Firm Fraud videos are at this Care2 News Network article that made front page:  http://www.care2.com/news/member/464062319/900292 - The videos were published following my horrific stalking experience on Sept. 27, 2009. 



Torture in American Prisons
(Beware - graphic violence, nudity, and death):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWxpQ87C4t4



SOLITARY CONFINEMENT – TORTURE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEs3BQ0znAs



Dogs personified as the mentally ill, homeless and in prison
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kzim_Atdo1c



Trapped: Mental Illness in America’s Prisons
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pVh_FhNU0Y



Tasering Death of Inman Morales, Mentally Ill NY Man
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob-jSDaroUc



TASER VIDEO COLLECTION OF SEVEN (7) FILMS

Officer Uses Taser To Tame Best Buy Shopper
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdCUdR8qNF4



Hospital Tasers 66-year-old over a joke
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clVzQfCZSA0



11 Year Old Tasered at School as a "Last Resort"!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcWPT7Ec1kg



Taser Torture of an Ohio Woman 7 Times
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZ3GXLpClD4



Police Tase Suicidal Man on Bridge, Causing His Fall
http://youtube.com/watch?v=dvFsGmdndCE&feature=related



Taser Torture of an Unarmed 78 yo Man in LAX
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKzSHtYqQvo



66-year-old Edmondton lawyer tased for taking pictures
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JP_zkJzpSk



PsychCentral presents "the ten best psychology videos available on the web."  Please access the links at AIMI's video strand at http://www.care2.com/c2c/groups/disc.html?gpp=17280&pst=842947

1. An Unquiet Mind: Personal Reflections on Manic-Depressive Illness
2. The Stanford Prison Experiment
3. My Stroke of Insight
4. The Paradox of Choice
5. Trapped: Mental Illness in America’s Prisons
6. Teen Brain
7. Depression: Out of the Shadows
8. Thin
9. I Am Not Sick, I Don’t Need Help: Research on Poor Insight and How We Can Help
10. The Psychology of Global Warming

*******

Universal Declaration of Human Rights - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTlrSYbCbHE


On June 27, 2009, many people marched for the wrongly convicted. A video on the website, Freedom March USA, features beautiful imagery and photos of people who were freed by DNA testing. Hopefully, Thomas Arthur will someday join the exonerated. His DNA proved negative in July, but he remains on Alabama's death row (December). THE VIDEO IS CALLED "I'M WAITING." THOUSANDS MORE ARE INNOCENT, ACCORDING TO THE VIDEO'S ESTIMATE.   http://www.freedommarchusa.org/


PHILOSOPHY OF LIBERTY -  http://www.isil.org/resources/introduction.swf


The most life-affirming video ever. 
MY REDEEMER LIVES - Team Hoyt 
http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=8cf08faca5dd9ea45513

The euthanasia article I wrote to accompany the above video at this link:
... Stay Back Doctor Kevorkian!
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/be-careful-bush-administration-stay-back-doctor-kevorkian



The Wrongly Convicted, by The Innocence Project, features people who were freed by DNA evidence.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wYaOsCVRCI


More videos are added from time to time, so please visit soon and often.  Thank you for your interest in decriminalizing mental illness and in other human rights issues, especially as they pertain to prisoners.

Mary Neal
http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/

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

Your donations help the advocacy to decriminalize mental illness at
http://freespeakblog.blogspot.com/