Amnesty International Group 22 Pasadena/Caltech News
Volume XXIII Number 4, April 2015
UPCOMING EVENTS
Thursday, April 23, 8:00 PM. [NOTE NEW
TIME!] Monthly Meeting. We meet at the
Caltech Y, Tyson House, 505 S. Wilson Ave.,
Pasadena. (This is just south of the corner with
San Pasqual. Signs will be posted.) We will be
planning our activities for the coming months.
Please join us! Refreshments provided.
Tuesday, May 12, 7:30 PM. Letter writing
meeting at Caltech Athenaeum, corner of Hill
and California in Pasadena. This informal
gathering is a great way for newcomers to get
acquainted with Amnesty.
Sunday, May 17, 6:30 PM. Rights Readers
Human Rights Book Discussion group. This
month we read "Now I Know Who My
Comrades Are" by Emily Parker.
COORDINATOR'S CORNER
Hi All
Group 22 celebrated our POC Gao Zhisheng's
birthday last week with a cake, candles, and
Happy Birthday sung in Chinese and English!
(Thanks to Wen for the translation.) Robert
videotaped it and put it on You Tube!
https://youtu.be/rvMrqy8TIfY
Stevi was invited to speak to a political science
class at PCC. Read her article in this newsletter.
Con Carino,
Kathy
RIGHTS READERS
Human Rights Book Discussion Group
Keep up with Rights Readers at
http://rightsreaders.blogspot.com
Next Rights Readers meeting:
Sunday, May 17, 6:30 PM
Vroman's Bookstore
695 E. Colorado, Pasadena
AUTHOR BIO
Emily Parker is the author of "Now I Know
Who My Comrades Are: Voices from the
Internet Underground" which was published
by Sarah Crichton Books/Farrar, Straus &
Giroux in 2014.
"Now I Know Who My Comrades Are" tells
the stories of Internet activists in China,
Cuba and Russia. Mario Vargas Llosa,
winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize for
Literature, wrote that the book is "a
rigorously researched and reported account
that reads like a thriller. It's been a while
since I have read a book that is so
entertaining, not to mention so encouraging
for the culture of liberty." Vargas Llosa's full
article about "Now I Know Who My
Comrades Are" can be found here. "Now I
Know Who My Comrades Are" has been
assigned in courses at Harvard, Yale,
Columbia and Tufts.
Emily is currently digital diplomacy advisor and
senior fellow at the New America Foundation.
She spent over five years working for The Wall
Street Journal, first as a writer in Hong Kong
and later as a writer and editor in New York.
From 2004 to 2005 she wrote a Wall Street
Journal column called "Virtual Possibilities:
China and the Internet." She is also a former
editor at The New York Times.
Previously, Emily was a member of Secretary
Clinton's Policy Planning staff at the U.S.
Department of State, where she covered 21st-
century statecraft, innovation, and technology.
While at State she advised on issues related to
Internet freedom and open government, and
traveled to the Middle East to explore the role of
new media in post-revolutionary Egypt. She no
longer has any affiliation with the U.S.
government.
Emily is the creator of three digital diplomacy
projects: Make Energy: A US-Mexico Innovation
Challenge, Green Electronics: A US-China
Maker Challenge and Code4Country, the first
open government coding marathon between the
United States and Russia. Code4Country
brought together Russian and American
software developers to identify technological
solutions to challenges of government
transparency. Emily is a former International
Affairs Fellow at the Council on Foreign
Relations, an Arthur Ross Fellow at Asia
Society's Center on U.S.-China Relations and a
Global Policy Fellow at Carnegie Moscow
Center, where she researched the role of
blogging and social media in today's Russia.
She has written for The New York Times, The
Wall Street Journal, Slate, The New Yorker,
Politico, Newsweek, Foreign Policy, The New
Republic and World Affairs. Her chapter on
Chinese nationalism appeared in China's Great
Leap: the Beijing Games and Olympian Human
Rights Challenges (Seven Stories Press, May
2008). In 2002 she worked at the Japan Business
Federation (Keidanren) in Tokyo, where she
researched how historical tensions between
China and Japan would affect Sino-Japanese
business relations.
She has worked in China and Japan, and speaks
Chinese, Japanese, French and Spanish. She
graduated with Honors from Brown University
with a double major in International Relations
and Comparative Literature (French and
Spanish). She has a Masters from Harvard in
East Asian Studies.
Email: emilyparkerwrites@gmail.com
Twitter: @emilydparker
BOOK REVIEW: 'Now I Know Who My
Comrades Are' by Emily Parker
Authoritarian regimes use the Internet as a tool for
repression, but dissidents around the world believe it can
be a force for freedom.
By Luke Allnutt
March 20, 2014
Zhao Jing was working as a hotel receptionist in
an eastern Chinese province when he
downloaded a dissident newsletter from a proxy
server in 1999. The firsthand accounts and
bloody photographs of the Tiananmen Square
massacre 10 years earlier changed everything for
him. Whispered critiques that had previously
gone no further than dinner-table conversations
were suddenly confirmed, and he was no longer
alone in his doubts about the Communist state.
He began digging into online discussion forums
and eventually started his own blog-until
Microsoft, which hosted the site, shut it down in
2005. Writing under the pen name Michael Anti,
he is today one of China's most well-known
bloggers. "The Internet made me know who I
am," he tells Emily Parker. "Now I know who
my comrades are."
Mr. Anti's statement gave Ms. Parker the title for
her investigation of the power of the Internet to
empower political dissidents. Over the past few
years, there has been a fierce debate among
intellectuals and technologists over whether the
Internet is an inherent force for democracy or
whether the Web can just as easily be used as a
tool of repressive regimes. Particularly after the
so-called Arab Spring, there was hyperbolic talk
of an era of Twitter uprisings-a decentralized
new cyber-commons was, with the help of
Silicon Valley, just a few clicks away from
toppling despots.
Ms. Parker doesn't discuss the Mideast much in
"Now I Know Who My Comrades Are,"
concentrating instead on China, Cuba and
Russia. In three sections respectively titled
"Isolation," "Fear" and "Apathy," she shows the
malign, sophisticated ways in which modern
authoritarians operate. To do so, she profiles the
charismatic dissidents who resist them.
A Chinese speaker-and a former editorial
writer for The Journal in Asia-Ms. Parker is at
her best on China. For many Chinese citizens,
the Internet circumvents traditional state-run
media, just as samizdat once did in the Soviet
Union. Despite the state's extensive surveillance
and censorship of content, commonly referred to
as the Great Firewall, more than 600 million
Chinese are online.
Ms. Parker's portraits of Chinese bloggers
complicate the caricature of brave, principled
freedom fighters. These are spiky, sectarian
personalities-and sometimes far from
democratic. Many explain that their criticism of
the system can only go so far. Direct calls for
street protests are a red line. As Mr. Anti puts it:
"If you want to be a public opinion leader, self-
censorship is part of your job."
It is not self-censorship but outright fear that
characterizes Cuba. This is an old-fashioned
authoritarian society in Ms. Parker's telling, with
networks of citizen-informers keeping a
watchful eye. Bloggers and their families are
always being hauled in for "interviews" with
security officials. Ms. Parker's reporting (she
also speaks Spanish) captures well the online
activists' pervasive feeling of being constantly
monitored.
The author experiences this herself when she
meets with one Cuban blogger, Laritza
Diversent. "Whenever I went out with Laritza,
we were never quite alone. A man would sit
down at a nearby table and stare straight ahead
or thumb listlessly through a newspaper.
Someone would come over to the table and ask
for the time, or perhaps a cigarette," Ms. Parker
writes. Brave bloggers like Ms. Diversent write
about their country's social problems, like being
forced into the black market to survive, yet with
merely an estimated 5% of Cubans online, only a
handful of Cubans will get to read their work.
Russia is a much freer place, where the Internet
is widely available. Direct, Chinese-style
censorship, where many websites are simply
inaccessible, is relatively rare. Instead, the state
relies on other tactics to limit dissent, such as
armies of online commenters who propagate the
Kremlin line. The challenge for activists in this
context is apathy: A largely ineffectual
opposition, relative economic stability compared
with the chaos of the 1990s, and the relentless
Putin propaganda machine have left Russians
with little appetite for public protest.
One person who has tried to ignite ordinary
Russians' sense of civic purpose is Alexei
Navalny, a lawyer and anticorruption activist.
By relentlessly blogging about high-level
corruption in state-controlled companies, "he
wanted to show Russians that they could fight
corruption from the convenience of their living
rooms, and that they could win," Ms. Parker
writes. Mr. Navalny has paid a price for his
activism: He is now under house arrest, while a
probe continues against him for alleged money
laundering-a charge he says is politically
motivated.
Ms. Parker is optimistic about the Internet's
power to spread freedom. "Over the years," she
writes, "blogs and social media helped to
transform cowed, powerless individuals into
revolutionaries." Yet governments, she
acknowledges, are fighting back: "They censor
content and block entire websites. They try to
influence online discussions. They spy on
troublemakers and intimidate and arrest
bloggers." But the author doesn't cover these
efforts in much detail, asserting that such
countermeasures "are not nearly enough to
reverse the psychological transformation taking
place among citizens of the Web." She gives
short shrift to the critics who have assailed the
idea that the Internet is necessarily liberating,
and she fails to show the exact nature and extent
of the 'psychological transformation.'"
The key question Ms. Parker dodges is whether
the so-called netizens who are emerging will be
genuine liberals or whether they're just as likely
to be ultra-nationalists-or something worse.
Ordinary citizens may be "discovering their
voices," as Ms. Parker writes. But these voices
might not be what we expect.
[Mr. Allnutt is an editor at Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty. Review from the Wall Street Journal.]
SECURITY WITH HUMAN
RIGHTS
by Robert Adams
AIUSA released the following press release on April
17, 2015:
Amnesty International USA Calls for Approval
of Civilian Board to Oversee St. Louis Police
WASHINGTON- Amnesty International USA
calls for the St. Louis Board of Aldermen to
establish a Civilian Oversight Board that would
evaluate police shootings, as well as broader
police practices.
The civilian review board was proposed in the
wake of the killing of unarmed teenager Michael
Brown by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson
and the subsequent Department of Justice
investigation. While the DOJ did not press
charges against Wilson, the report found that
the Ferguson Police Department violated
individuals' Fourth Amendment rights and
exhibited racial bias when it stopped people
without reasonable suspicion, arrested them
without probable cause, and used unreasonable
force against them. Alderman Terry Kennedy
filed Bill 208 calling for the formation of a police
civilian oversight board.
The DOJ report showed that the Ferguson police
force was more concerned about generating
revenue through unfair fines and tickets than
they were with protecting the lives of the people
they were sworn to serve," said Steven W.
Hawkins, executive director of Amnesty
International USA. "This legislation would be
an important step in ensuring appropriate
systems of oversight. It is critical that reforms at
the national level follow suit, including
guidelines for using deadly force in the U.S. that
are in line with international standards."
If approved, the civilian review board would
have the ability to investigate allegations of
police misconduct; research and assess police
policies, operations and procedures; and make
findings and recommendations. The board
could also independently review evidence and
witness statements from investigations by police
internal affairs. All findings will be reported to
the city's public safety director and police
commissioner.
To read On the Streets of America: Human Rights
Abuses in Ferguson, go to:
amnestyusa.org/OnTheStreetsOfAmerica
AI GOES TO NIGHT SCHOOL
by Stevi Carroll
On April 7, Brittany Conrad from the
Department of Political Science at Pasadena City
College contacted us to have someone come to
speak to her class on World Government and
Politics.
When I got to PCC, the class was discussing
terrorism. It seemed like a good idea to follow
that with some human rights. A couple of
students knew a little about AI, so when they
finished, I filled in a little history of Amnesty
that included the importance of the UN
Declaration of Human Rights. I passed out our
bookmarks that enumerate the Rights. I noticed
a number of the students carefully reading
them.
The first big case I remember writing for is Ken
Saro-Wiwa. I told about getting involved with
AI and how this case had touched me. I had
some visuals including this one that makes what
happened and by whom very clear.
The story of Gao Zhinsheng interested them. I
showed them our birthday photo as well as the
Lego images from Ai WeiWei's installation on
Alcatraz. One of the students explained who Ai
WeiWei is. What joy!
When I talked about our book group, I passed
around a few of our past books. Again, I
noticed a number of the students looking at the
text on the backs and flipping through the
pages. I did mention they could join us without
having read the books.
I always figure letter writing is the one thing
students might be able to do. I asked them to
join us and said the information was available in
the newsletters each one of them got. During
class, a number of recent Urgent Actions
circulated around the room along with paper
and envelopes. The Urgent Actions snagged five
letters and the sign up sheet that was also
wandering around room netted us six names
and email addresses!
Many thanks to Brittany Conrad for inviting us
to her class.
DEATH PENALTY NEWS
By Stevi Carroll
Free At Last
For Anthony Hinton, April 3, 2015, will be a
lifelong day to celebrate; he became the 152
person exonerated, freed from death row since
1973. After being imprisoned for 30 years, the
charges against him were dismissed. Mr.
Hinton's original lawyer did not know they
could have funds to hire a qualified firearms
expert, so instead he hired one he knew was
inadequate. The results from testing bullets
used in the killings Mr. Hinton was accused of
and those fired from a gun found in Mr.
Hinton's house led to his conviction. Racial bias
also played a part in the outcome of his trial.
The prosecutor, who had a history of racial bias,
said he could tell Mr. Hinton was guilty and
'evil' by looking at him.
Bryan Stevenson and others from the Equal
Justice Initiative (EJI) took Mr. Hinton's case.
The three firearms experts employed by EJI
found no conclusive proof the six bullets used in
the murders Mr. Hinton was convicted of
committing were fired from the gun found at his
house.
Mr. Stevenson says Mr. Hinton faces challenges
along with joy for his freedom. Thirty years is a
long time to be removed from the world as we
know it.
March 11, 2014, Glenn Ford walked out of
Angola Prison's death row a free man. He, too,
had endured 30 years of incarceration. Mr. Ford
was accused of killing Isadore Roseman. His
defense lawyers had little experience and had
never been to court before, and he faced an all-
white jury. Recently, Marty Stroud, the
prosecutor in Mr. Ford's case wrote a letter of
apology to The (Shreveport, LA) Times in which
he said he was at the time of Mr. Ford's trial
"arrogant, judgmental, narcissistic and very full
of myself". Later Mr. Ford and Mr. Stroud met
for a formal apology. To see this moving
encounter, go to
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmxiEr61lJM.
To read more about exonerated people, go to 10
Astonishingly Cruel Tales of the Exonerated in
America http://www.alternet.org/civil-
liberties/10-astonishingly-cruel-tales-
exonerated-america.
What to Do?
We love our choices. Pepsi or Coke? Compact car or
SUV? Vegan or Paleo? Condo or free standing home?
Our lists of choices are long. The world of choice has
entered the means of dispatching those among us
who have been sentenced to death.
As we know, those pesky Europeans decided they
did not want their drugs used to kill people, so they
stopped supplying the people who run our death
chambers. This led us to the compounding
pharmacies where the pharmacists mixed up brews
that could 'mercifully' put to death the convicted
man or woman. Problems arose when some of these
people writhed and groaned and took their time
dying. The good news for Texas is that they have
enough lethal injection drugs to kill their April
offerings to Justice. The bad news for Texas is that the
flow of drugs will not continue thus what to do?
Other states shine the light on options. In 2004,
Utah's Department of Corrections (DOC) stopped
offering the firing squad for people sentenced to
death (of course, someone convicted before that date
still could request the firing squad). In March 2015
since the shortage of drugs might prevent the Utah
DOC from executing people, Governor Gary R.
Herbert signed a bill reinstating the firing squad.
used with permission of Clay Jones
(http://claytoonz.com - http://suindependent.com)
Oklahoma becomes the first state to approve the use
of nitrogen gas because executions in the state are on
hold while the US Supreme Court considers whether
or not the state's three-drug protocol is
constitutional. Apparently, what happens with
nitrogen gas is it induces hypoxia. This means a
"deficiency in the amount of oxygen reaching the
tissues" and is thus "a humane and painless method
of execution that requires no medical expertise to
perform" (Oklahoma governor signs bill allowing
nitrogen in executions - AP - April 17, 2015).
Old Sparky, the electric chair, has been dusted off in
a number of states: Alabama, Florida, South Carolina,
and Virginia. So choice abounds in America.
used with permission of Rebecca Hendin
(www.rebeccahendin.com)
Even though the authorities in Tennessee have
reawakened Old Sparky, they now have decided to
delay executions scheduled for this year. Other
states are doing the same. The Nebraska legislature
has a bill that would replace the death penalty with
life sentences. Senate lawmakers in Delaware have
voted to repeal the death penalty and face opposition
from the House; although, the 15 death row inmates
would still face execution.
So choice does abound in America, and it might be a
choice other than just how we execute.
Least Number of Executions in the US in 20 Years
In 2014, the US saw 'only' 35 executions, the lowest
number in 20 years. Now with that said the US still
ranks fifth for executions worldwide behind China,
Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq. We also have seen
fewer states carrying out executions and a number of
people exonerated of their capital crimes. To read
more on this, go to Did Death Sentences in US Increase
or Decrease Last Year? By James Clark at
http://blog.amnestyusa.org/us/did-death-
sentences-in-us-increase-or-decrease-last-year/.
Life on Death Row
Of course, we think of the men and women who
spend their lives in prison on death row. But what
about the people who work on death row? "This Is
What It feels like to Spend Your Life Working on
Death Row" lets us know what this experience has
been for four of these people: The Warden, The
Bureaucrat, The Chaplain, and The Executioner.
The Warden: "I grew up in the civil rights era, in a
time when civil rights workers were being murdered.
I worked in law enforcement, reluctantly
fundamentally supporting the death penalty, until I
became a superintendent of prisons. I'm not a softie
on crime. Capital punishment was embedded in my
psyche as an appropriate sanction."
The Bureaucrat: "I witnessed 32 executions. As
regional director, I was on site in the control room.
During that time period, I was often asked my
opinion on the death penalty. My response was, 'It's
the law of the state, and I'm going to carry it out to
the best of my ability.'"
The Chaplain: "Standing by the gurney almost 100
times, and watching innocent men killed, watching
repentant men killed, and seeing the pain among
families and men and my employee friends, cannot
leave my memories."
The Executioner: "One of your main jobs at the
prison is to save lives. You're keeping them safe,
preventing suicides. When I had to do executions, I
would transform myself into a person who would
take a life."
To read the rest of these stories, go to
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/13/death-row-
stories_n_7043620.html.
Exonerations
March
23 Debra Milke AZ
23 years on death row
April
3 Anthony Hinton AL
30 years on death row
Stays of Execution
April
17 Lance Arrington PA
17 Albert Perez PA
Executions
April
9 Kent Srpouse TX
Lethal Injection 1-drug
14 Andre Cole MO
Lethal injection 1-drug
15 Manuel Garza TX
Lethal injection 1-drug
GROUP 22 MONTHLY LETTER COUNT
UAs 29
POC (Birthday Card) 1
Total 30
To add your letters to the total contact
aigp22@caltech.edu
Amnesty International Group 22
The Caltech Y
Mail Code C1-128
Pasadena, CA 91125
www.its.caltech.edu/~aigp22/
http://rightsreaders.blogspot.com
Amnesty International's mission is to undertake research and action focused on
preventing and ending grave abuses of the rights to physical and mental integrity,
freedom of conscience and expression, and freedom from discrimination, within the
context of its work to promote all human rights.