iacboston.org/chucktjudgepetition.html
Tell U.S. District Judge Douglas P. Woodlock that Chuck
Turner does not belong in jail.
Please tell U.S. District Judge Douglas P. Woodlock, with copies to the
Boston City Council, Mayor Menino, President Obama, Attorney General Holder,
Congressional leaders, the Massachusetts Congressional Delegation, Governor
Deval Patrick, the U.N. Secretary General Ban and the media that Chuck Turner
does not belong in jail.
YOUR EMERGENCY ACTION IS NEEDED NOW!
Sample Text (you will be able to edit it online):
To: Hon. Douglas P. Woodlock, Judge, U.S. District Court, Boston
cc: Boston City Council, Mayor Thomas Menino, President Barack Obama, Attorney
General Eric Holder, Congressional Black Caucus, Congressional leaders, the
Massachusetts congressional delegation, Gov. Deval Patrick, U.N.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the NAACP, the ACLU, the Boston Globe, the
Boston Herald, the New York Times, the Associated Press
I am writing to appeal to you not to sentence Boston City Councilor Chuck
Turner to jail time, but instead to allow him to continue to serve the
community and the people of Roxbury. Since his election in 1999, Chuck Turner
has gone beyond the call of duty in representing his constituents and serving
their needs. He alone among Boston politicians maintained a full-time office in
Roxbury at his own expense to serve the residents of the community. He has
devoted his life to community leadership and service. Councilor Turner does not
belong in jail.
Mr. Turner's prosecution must be seen as part of a national campaign to
oust African-American elected officials by demonizing them and prosecuting
them, whether in congressional hearings or in the courts. In reality, these
officials are singled out for who they are, for the disenfranchisement of the
communities they represent, and for their outspoken ideas and points of view.
Sentencing him to jail would cause irreparable harm to those communities for
which he advocates.
At a time of massive budget cutbacks and economic crisis, the people of Roxbury
must not be deprived of their leader and their voice.
Do not send Chuck Turner to jail! Allow him to serve the people of Boston
and the communities of Roxbury, Dorchester and Mattapan..
Sincerely,
(your signature here)
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iacboston.org/chucktjudgepetition.html
Community rallies to defend City Councilor Chuck Turner
By Frank Neisser
International Action Center Boston
Published Dec 16, 2010 10:07 PM
Cries of “Unjust!” and “Shame!” echoed through
Boston City Council Chambers on Dec. 1 as an overflow crowd of community
supporters protested the Council’s vote to remove progressive
African-American District 7 City Councilor Chuck Turner from the office the
people of Roxbury had elected him to. Prior to the vote more than 100 community
supporters rallied in support of Turner outside City Hall.
Turner is a tireless fighter for justice, against racism and for the rights
of the African-American community of Roxbury. He is the only Boston politician
who maintained an office in the heart of the Roxbury community to serve his
constituents, paying for it out of his own pocket.
When he was indicted in 2008, the community immediately knew he was innocent
and the victim of the U.S. Attorney’s and FBI’s national right-wing
political campaign to remove progressive political representatives elected by
oppressed communities from office. In the 2009 election they returned him to
office with more than 60 percent of the vote, rejecting the false charges
against him. In October he was falsely convicted of one charge of taking a
bribe and three charges of lying to the FBI.
The community immediately rallied behind Turner and sent hundreds of letters
to City Council members, telling them a vote to remove Turner would be a vote
to disenfranchise Roxbury and deny the community’s right to decide for
itself who should represent it.
A letter to council members from the Boston School Bus Union, Steel Workers
Local 8751 stated: “Chuck Turner has been a consistent, principled and
courageous champion not only for District 7 but for the oppressed and workers
of Boston, the state, the country and the globe. He has been a most powerful
and many times a lone voice for justice and liberation.
“In the nearly 40 years that this union has known him, he has been an
active supporter and leader in every progressive cause. He has fought against
war, poverty, racism, sexism and all forms of discrimination and for jobs and
rights for workers. He has been a staunch defender of equal, quality, public
education. He has stood for freedom — from Haiti to Colombia, from
Palestine to India.”
Turner’s supporters are continuing the struggle so that he
doesn’t spend a single day in jail. For information about sending letters
to Judge Douglas P. Woodlock, go to supportchuckturner.com. Sign an online petition addressed
to the judge at iacboston.org.
.
Community defends City Councilor Chuck Turner
By Frank Neisser
InternationalAction Center, Boston
Nov 3, 2010
On Oct. 29 a predominantly white and suburban federal jury falsely found
African-American Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner guilty of one count of
attempted extortion and three counts of lying to the FBI.
The case was based on an undercover sting operation and a cooperating
witness who had passed bribes for years, and who himself declared Turner to be
innocent in interviews in the Boston Globe. The witness condemned the FBI and
U.S. Attorney’s office, saying he thought they were conducting a
corruption investigation, but that he had been used to bring down two strong
progressive African-American politicians, Turner and State Sen. Dianne
Wilkerson, while no one else was touched. He only testified against Turner
under threat of being jailed for contempt of court if he didn’t.
This guilty verdict is a reflection of an alarming, expanding racist
conspiracy to oust African-American elected officials by demonizing them in
congressional hearings or in the courts with various charges of ethics
violations, especially corruption. In reality, these officials are singled out
for who they are, for the disenfranchised communities they represent and in
some instances, like Turner’s, for their radical politics.
More than 200 community residents, activists and supporters expressed their
total solidarity with Turner at a rally in front of his district office in
Roxbury on Oct. 30, saying, “We stand with Chuck Turner! Say no to
FBI/U.S. racist frame-up! Chuck is innocent! U.S. government guilty! The
verdict is the crime!” Roxbury is a predominantly Black community in
Boston.
The jury never got to hear from more than 80 witnesses who were prepared to
testify to Turner’s selfless service to the community, asking nothing for
himself.
For every day of the councilor’s two-week-long trial his supporters
packed the court room, forcing the U.S. District Court to provide a second
courtroom for the overflow. Beginning with Turner’s arrest two years ago
the community has understood this attack to be a political one on the entire
African-American community and its right of self-determination to choose its
own leaders.
Supporters poured out by the hundreds in rally after rally. Former U.S.
Attorney General Ramsey Clark, founder of the International Action Center, came
to Boston on Dec. 17 and stood next to Turner and condemned the nationwide
pattern by the U.S. Attorney’s offices and the FBI of going after elected
officials of color and progressive officials to remove them from office based
on a political agenda.
An online petition demanding all the politically motivated prosecutions of
progressive politicians and politicians of color be dropped and that the
prosecutors be prosecuted has generated over 35,000 e-mail messages to Obama
administration officials and congressional leaders. Support for Turner could
not have been clearer than in the 2009 City Council race, in which he won
re-election with more than 60 percent of the vote.
Strongly refusing to compromise his politics
At the Oct. 30 rally, Turner began the program by thanking his supporters
and saying it was their support that gave him strength and serenity from the
beginning.
Turner specifically recognized the Boston Workers Alliance and the Boston
School Bus Union as being the core of his support throughout. He spoke from the
School Bus Union sound truck, which had led many motorcades through the
community in support of him.
Turner blamed U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan and the FBI for his frame-up.
He expressed his excitement at the progress the African-American community has
made in electing more people of color to at-large positions on the City
Council. He spoke of having organized all of his life for the liberation of
African-American people. He spoke of the corruption of a system that was built
by unpaid slave labor in both the North and the South, and cited the fact that
the prison industrial complex is the fastest growing industry in today’s
economy.
Turner invoked Shay’s Rebellion against bankers’ control of the
U.S. government in the late 1700s, saying that the U.S. Constitution has been
illegal from the start and protects only the rich and the banks. He called for
a new people’s movement to build economic democracy for working people of
all races and backgrounds. The crowd was also addressed by Minister Rodney X of
the Nation of Islam and by longtime African-American City Councilor Charles
Yancey.
Yancey called Turner “our leader” and equated the FBI attack on
him to earlier FBI attacks on W.E.B. DuBois, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King.
Cultural expressions of solidarity were provided by The Foundation and Gabrilla
Ballard.
Love and support for Turner runs so deep in the Roxbury community that the
Boston Globe was forced to cover the rally with a picture and a full account
showing the depth of community support for him. The Globe also printed a
separate article interviewing person after person from the community saying
they knew the councilor to be a selfless dedicated servant of the people, who,
alone among city councilors, has maintained a district office in the heart of
Roxbury, paying the expenses out of his own pocket.
But the agenda of the real, racist rulers of the Boston establishment could
be seen in the Boston Globe Oct. 30 editorial on the verdict. It revealed what
they revile him for — that he dares to speak truth to power, pointing the
finger at the Boston Police chief for the crimes of the police in the
community, daring to say that U.S. soldiers had been guilty of the rape of
Iraqi women, and telling his constituents the truth that the corporate rulers
don’t want them to hear.
Turner’s supporters are determined to conduct a broad and tireless
campaign to see that he not spend a single day in jail. Turner is urging
supporters to write letters to Federal District Judge Douglas P. Woodlock
asking that he be put on probation rather than spend time in jail, so that he
can continue his work as a city councilor. These letters should be sent to City
Councilor Chuck Turner, Boston City Hall, One City Hall Square, Boston MA
02201.
He is also asking supporters to write to Boston City Council President
Michael Ross and the members of the Boston City Council at the same address,
and ask them to delay any vote on Turner’s continued tenure on the Boston
City Council until after he is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 25. Further
information can be found at supportchuckturner.com.
