The IndypendenT #234: ApRIL 2018 • IndypendenT.ORG

FRAMed By The BROOKLyn dA? p6 SCOURGe OF The nypd p8 The LAWyeR WhO dId GOOd p13 And MORe... INDY

NOIR RUSTY ZIMMERMAN 2 COMMUNITY CALENDAR The IndypendenT

THE INDYPENDENT, INC. 388 Atlantic Avenue, 2nd Floor Brooklyn, NY 11217 212-904-1282 www.indypendent.org Twitter: @TheIndypendent facebook.com/TheIndypendent

BOARD OF DIRECTORS: Ellen Davidson, Anna Gold, MON APR 2 needed to plan your own 242 W 37th St., 5th Fl., of Americana and raga writer Neil Gaiman. Alina Mogilyanskaya, Ann 7PM–10PM protest. Mnhtn intersections. 92ND STREET Y Schneider, John Tarleton BOOKTALK: THINGS THAT MAYDAY SPACE LINCOLN CENTER 1395 Lexington Ave., Mnhtn MAKE WHITE PEOPLE 176 St Nicholas Ave., Bklyn APR 13–APR 14 10 Lincoln Center Plz., EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: UNCOMFORTABLE FRI & SAT, times vary • Mnhtn APR 19–APR 29 John Tarleton Super Bowl Champion and SUN APR 8 $25–$1000 THU–SUN times vary • $12 ASSOCIATE EDITOR: three-time Pro Bowler 7PM–9PM • FREE CONFERENCE: ORGANIZ- SAT APR 14 and up Peter Rugh Michael Bennett is an out- SCREENING: MANN V. ING 2.0 10AM–1PM • $12.50 FESTIVAL: THE TRIBECA spoken proponent of social FORD The region's premier skills ART: BROOKLYN STREET FILM FESTIVAL CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: justice and a man without A documentary portray- training conference for ART TOUR Through programs that Ellen Davidson, Alina a censor. Join Bennett for ing the Ford corporation’s organizers, communica- Learn the fascinating embrace storytelling in Mogilyanskaya, Nicholas an intimate discussion of legacy of environmental tors, techies and activists history of graffi ti culture all of its forms — fi lm, TV, Powers, Steven Wishnia his new memoir with its co- contamination in northern of all levels. Trainings and street art and how it's online work, virtual reality author, Nation sports editor New Jersey. Toxic chemi- include: online and offl ine evolved and see dozens of and music — the festival ILLUSTRATION DIRECTOR: Dave Zirin. cals still plague a neighbor- organizing, digital strategy, unique pieces and murals sets out to reimagine the Frank Reynoso THE NEW SCHOOL ing indigenous community, visual storytelling and along the way. cinematic experience 66 W 12th St., Mnhtn the Ramapough Lenape much more. Visit BUSHWICK COLLECTIVE and explore how art can DESIGN DIRECTOR: Mikael Tarkela Nation. Discussion to fol- organizing20.org to register 30 Wyckoff Ave., Bklyn unite communities. Visit APR 6–APR 8 low fi lm. as a group or individual. Indypendent.org for our full DESIGNERS: FRI–SUN, times vary • BLUESTOCKINGS BOOK- THE MURPHY INSTITUTE APR 16–APR 22 coverage. Tickets, sched- Leia Doran, Anna Gold $25–$85 STORE 25 W 43rd St.,19th Fl., MON–SUN, times vary • ule and locations available FESTIVAL: THE 10TH AN- 172 Allen St., Mnhtn Mnhtn $0–$49 at tribecafi lm.com. SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER: NUAL BROOKLYN FOLK FESTIVAL: PEN WORLD Manhattan Elia Gran FESTIVAL WED APR 11 FRI APR 13 VOICES FESTIVAL OF The best in American and 6:30PM–8:30PM • FREE 6PM • Adults $15, $25 with INTERNATIONAL LITERA- THU APR 19 INTERN world folk; a celebration of PANEL: LATINX ART IS book, children & seniors $5 TURE 8PM • $35 in advance, $45 Erin Sheridan down home music, cultural AMERICAN ART READING: JUNOT DIAZ Join 165 writers and artists day of, 18+ diversity and memory in Artists Miguel Luciano and The Pulitzer Prize-winning representing over 50 na- MUSIC: PHAROAH SAND- GENERAL INQUIRIES: Shelleyne Rodríguez join author reads from his debut tionalities for this weeklong ERS [email protected] the heart of Brooklyn. This year's lineup includes Blind curators from the Whitney, children's picture book, series of literary events Sanders possesses one SUBMISSIONS & NEWS TIPS: Boy Paxton, the East RIver Boston University and the Islandborn. Q&A and book with a human rights focus. of the most distinctive [email protected] String Band with R. Crumb Smithsonian for a discus- signing to follow. Speakers include Roxane tenor saxophone sounds and legendary Roman sion on Latin America’s UNITED PALACE THEATER Gay, Dave Eggers and in jazz, harmonically rich ADVERTISING & PROMOTION: street musician, Birdman. artistic heritage and con- 4140 Broadway, Mnhtn Chelsea Manning. Tickets, and heavy with overtones. [email protected] Plus workshops, open jam temporary signifi cance. location and schedule After making a name for sessions and annual banjo THE NEW SCHOOL FRI APR 13 available at himself through expres- VOLUNTEER CONTRIBUTORS: throwing competition. Visit THERESA LANG CENTER 7:30PM–9PM worldvoices.pen.org. sionistic free jazz in John Linda Martín Alcoff, Camille brooklynfolkfest.com for 55 W 13th St., Mnhtn MUSIC: OUTSIDE (IN)DIA: Citywide Coltrane’s ensembles of Baker, Gino Barzizza, full schedule. MARTHA REDBONE the mid-’60s, Sanders has Bennett Baumer, Emily ST. ANN’S CHURCH WED APR 11 Part Cherokee, Choctaw, TUE APR 17 taken gentler avenues Bell, José Carmona, Valerio 8PM • $40 in later years without sacri- Ciriaci, Rico Cleffi , Federico 157 Montague St., Bkyln 7PM–9PM • FREE European and African- di Pasqua, Renée Feltz, SCREENING: THIS IS American, Martha Red- TALK: LAURIE ANDERSON fi cing any of his music's Bianca Fortis, Lynne Foster, SAT APR 7 PARKDALE bone is a pioneering voice IN CONVERSATION WITH intensity. Lauren Kaori Gurley, David 2PM–5PM • FREE A screening and discus- of Appalachian and Native NEIL GAIMAN (LE) POISSON ROUGE Hollenbach, Gena Hymowech, TRAINING: INTRODUC- sion of a documentary American song. In a debut Artist, composer, fi lm- 158 Bleecker St., Mnhtn Georgia Kromrei, Gary TION TO DIRECT ACTION about how tenants in a collaboration, Redbone maker, performer and Martin, Oliver Martinez, Hosted by Rainforest Ac- Toronto neighborhood will be joined by Brooklyn all-around creative pioneer MON APR 23 Lydia McMullen-Laird, tion Network, this training successfully organized Raga Massive’s community Laurie Anderson sits down 7PM–9:30PM • $6–$15 Charina Nadura, Mike will cover a brief history on to fi ght displacement and of Indian music-inspired for a wide-ranging con- DISCUSSION: REVISIT- Newton, Donald Paneth, Dean direct action and the tools gentrifi cation. artists for an exploration versation with acclaimed ING THE COLUMBIA U. Patterson, Astha Rajvanshi, Mark Read, Reverend Billy, Jesse Rubin, Steven Sherman, Pamela Somers, Caitrin Sneed, Leanne Tory-Murphy, Naomi Ushiyama, and Amy Wolf.

VOLUNTEER DISTRIBUTORS: Erik Anders-Nilssen, Eric Brelsford, Chris & Pam Brown, Hank Dombrowski, Joseph Epstein, Ed Fanning, MIC CheCK! Kim Frazcek, Lew Friedman,

April 2018 Mindy Gershon, Tami Gold, LISTen TO OUR And pOdCASTS On ITUneS & SOUndCLOUd TOdAy. Indy AUdIO IndySTRUCTIBLe Allan Greenberg, Priscilla Grim, Zack Kelaty, Michael Korn, Jane LaTour, Dave Lippman, Ashley Marinaccio, Saul Nieves, Liam Reilly, Carol Smith, and Harris The IndypendenT Walker. The IndypendenT 3 ApRIL IN THIS ISSUE

STRUGGLE OF 1968 Inside Assad's Syria followed by a FABRICE TROMBERT The student-led takeover of the discussion. Columbia University campus for WORD UP COMMUNITY BOOK- a week in April 1968 was one of STORE/LIBRERIA COMUNITARIA the defi ning moments in a year of 2113 Amsterdam Ave., Mnhtn revolutionary upheaval around the world. Learn how black and white APR 28–APR 29 students and their community SAT & SUN, 12PM–9PM • allies in Harlem took on Columbia’s $19–$199 ruling-class representatives, City FESTIVAL: THE WORLD'S FARE Hall, the NY Times and the NYPD Over 100 vendors come together in and won. For more, see New York City’s most diverse bor- marxedproject.org. ough and unite through authentic BROOKLYN COMMONS food, drink and music curated by 388 Atlantic Ave., Bklyn the city’s leading culinary advo- cates. WED APR 25 CITI FIELD 5PM–7PM • FREE 120-01 Roosevelt Ave., Queens WORKSHOP: BLACK POETS SPEAK OUT SAT APR 28 STATe & The CITy, p4 This workshop will focus on the 2PM–7PM • FREE Can Actress-tivist Cynthia work of Black Poets Speak Out, FESTIVAL: MAYDAY FESTIVAL OF EAST MEETS Nixon give Gov. Andrew whose hashtag video campaign RESISTANCE WEST: Martha Cuomo a run for his money?

on Tumblr featured hundreds of An outdoor concert featuring Nitty Redbone, whose music BOB TRAVIS videos from black poets reading in Scott with M.A.K.U Sound System, draws on her American The GhOST OF JOe hyneS, p6 response to the grand jury’s deci- Bushwick Jarocho Collective, Indian roots, shares the He’s gone, but false convictions sion on Nov. 24, 2014, not to indict NECIA, and DJ Sabine Blaizin. This stage with Brooklyn still haunt the Brooklyn DA’s Darren Wilson, the police offi cer year, the festival celebrates move- Raga Massive, a o f fi c e . who killed Michael Brown. ments led by women of color, black community of Indian- THE LAUNDROMAT PROJECT women, trans women, and femmes inspired musicians. The AnTI-COp, p8 920 Kelly St., Bronx that are transforming the world. This offi cer turned P.I. is out to MARIA HERNANDEZ PARK police the police. FRI APR 27 301 Suydam St., Bklyn TOP OF THE 6:30PM–8:30PM • FREE, donations PYRAMID: No The MOST dAnGeROUS pAInTInGS welcome one blows the sax like In AMeRICA, p10 SCREENING: INSIDE ASSAD’S Pharaoh Sanders. He’s A picture says a thousand words SYRIA at (le) poisson rouge (about indefi nite detention). A screening of the VICE/HBO Film this month. AGAInST The SySTeM, p12 Can new Philly DA Larry Krasner topple the prison industrial complex from within? pRO BOnO pUBLICO, p13 Radical lawyer Marty Stolar uses the law as a means of protest.

JUSTICe AIn’T BLInd, p14 The fi ght to enable defendants to see the evidence against them.

GIVen A SeCOnd ChAnCe, p15 After 45 years behind bars, former Black Liberation Army member Herman Bell is on the verge of being paroled.

The nAZIS neXT dOOR, p16 2018 April A new fi lm explores France’s pivot to the far right.

COUnTeRCULTURed, p17 IndypendenT The Peter Hujar captured New York’s raw underbelly. TRUMp heLp hOTLIne, p18 Reverend Billy on guns and

TED RALL money. 4 OP-ED nIXOn nOW?

By John Tarleton his re-election campaign coffers to the tune of $31 mil- mediate suburbs. While Teachout METROPOLITAN TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY/PATRICK CASHIN lion and counting. But what if ordinary New Yorkers carried more than 30 upstate CUOMO’S lbany. Here in Gotham we rarely think of decided they had had enough of Cuomo’s misrule and counties, Cuomo crushed her here COMEUPPANCE: this quiet city of 100,000 people that lies began to stir? Could we topple Cuomo like poor ol’ Yer- in the fi ve boroughs with over- The actress and former on the west bank of the Hudson River 150 tle who famously face-planted in the muck from which whelming support from Black Sex and the City star miles to the north of the Big Apple’s hustle he rose? and Latino voters. is seeking to oust the and bustle. Yet, it is in the state capitol In 2014, previously unknown law professor Zephyr For their loyalty, New York City governor. Awhere much of our city’s fate is decided: the function- Teachout won 34 percent of the vote against Cuomo in residents haven’t received much in ing of our mass transit system, the quality of our public the Democratic primary running on an anti-corruption return. Cuomo oversaw the completion of the Second schools, whether we will have protection from rapa- message. On March 19, the actress Cynthia Nixon Avenue line at a cost of more than $1 billion per mile, cious landlords and much more. announced she would challenge Cuomo in this year’s but hasn’t bothered to do anything about the system’s At Albany’s center is a giant, windswept government Democratic primary. Best known for starring in the decrepit signal system ensuring continued subway cha- plaza made of 240,000,000 cubic feet of concrete and hit television series Sex and The City, Nixon is a na- os. Wall Street-backed charter school chains get favored 600,000 cubic feet of stone imported from three con- tive New Yorker who has been a prominent advocate treatment while public schools continue to be under- tinents. From miles away, you can see four identical for public schools over the past 15 years. She came out funded. CUNY students have seen their tuition increase 23-story state offi ce buildings. They stand on one side as gay in 2004 and has also championed LGBTQ rights 35 percent under Cuomo while per pupil state support of the plaza with a 44-story monolith on the other. In and Planned Parenthood. has declined. An unholy alliance between Cuomo, State this weird, alienating realm there is also a quarter-mile Nixon has the celebrity fi repower that Teachout Senate Republicans and the real estate industry make it long offi ce building modeled on the Pharaoh Hatshep- did not. She will raise far more money than Teachout impossible to win more protections for rent-stabilized sut’s Temple, a giant egg that contains a public theater (who is serving as her campaign treasurer) even while tenants. And so on. and a garish, castle-like capitol building erected in the eschewing corporate campaign contributions. Nixon is We deserve better than this. late 1800s. running to the left of Cuomo on support for public edu- Nixon faces long odds. She will have to persuade vot- To stand in that plaza is to feel small and powerless. cation, universal health care and reforming the state’s ers between now and the Sept. 13 primary that she is The ideal of representative government of, by and for archaic elections laws that protect incumbents of both up for the job. That said, defeating Cuomo from the the people never seems more remote. And that’s just fi ne parties. Above all, she will try to make hay of Cuomo’s left with a candidate who would also be the state’s fi rst with the people who run the joint on behalf of the spe- abysmal oversight of the MTA and the disastrous de- female and LGBTQ governor would be a big deal. Pro- cial interests who fund their campaigns. cline in subway service during his two terms in offi ce. gressive reforms that have been stymied for decades The dominant player in Albany is Gov. Andrew But, is being a smart, well-meaning white lady would have a real shot at moving forward. Cuomo. Like Dr. Seuss’s Yertle the Turtle, Cuomo sits enough? So is Nixon the one? We owe it to ourselves to listen astride a political machine and commands all that he Cuomo is the devil we know. Son of a three-term to her closely and fi nd out. sees. Famously vindictive and with his hands on the le- governor, he is nothing if not familiar with the ma- vers of state government, few in the political class dare chinery of state government. Four years ago, Cuomo’s to cross him. Meanwhile, his wealthy backers have fi lled strongest support came from the city as well as the im- SOME PLACES YOU CAN FIND The IndypendenT BELOW CINEMA VILLAGE ABOVE FORT WASHINGTON DEKALB LIBRARY RED HOOK LIBRARY WOODSIDE LIBRARY 14TH ST 22 E. 12TH ST. 96TH ST. . LIBRARY 790 BUSHWICK AVE. 7 WOLCOTT ST. 54-22 SKILLMAN AVE. 535 W. 179TH ST. SEWARD PARK LIBRARY LGBT CENTER SAVOY BAKERY WYCKOFF STARR COFFEE ALIGN BROOKLYN JACKSON HEIGHTS 192 EAST BROADWAY 208 W. 13TH ST. 170 E. 110TH ST. INWOOD LIBRARY SHOP 579 5TH AVE. LIBRARY 4790 BROADWAY 30 WYCKOFF AVE. 35-51 81ST ST. HAMILTON FISH LIBRARY MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS BAY RIDGE LIBRARY 415 E. HOUSTON ST. 14TH TO LIBRARY INDIAN ROAD CAFE BUSHWICK LIBRARY 7223 RIDGE BLVD. 96TH ST 2900 BROADWAY 600 W. 218TH ST. 340 BUSHWICK AVE. BRONX LES PEOPLE’S FEDERAL COBRA CLUB CREDIT UNION CIVIC HALL HARRY BELAFONTE SWALLOW CAFÉ 6 WYCKOFF MOTT HAVEN LIBRARY 39 AVENUE B 118 W. 22ND ST. 12TH FL. 115TH ST. 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The IndypendenT 112 E. 96TH ST. 5 April 2018 April The Indypenden The T 6 OPEN CASES

STILL TAInTed By The pAST AFTeR eXOneRATInG 23 InnOCenT Men IT COnVICTed, Why IS The BROOKLyn dA’S OFFICe STILL CLInGInG TO ITS ShAKy CASe AGAInST JOhn GIUCA?

By Theodore Hamm rite — has little substance. What hovers over the pro- asking us for updates about the case.” Nicolazzi also ceedings, however, is the legacy of Joe Hynes. Under mentioned speaking to Hynes directly about John This past February a New York appeals court unani- Ken Thompson and now Gonzalez, the DA’s Convic- Avitto, the Rikers informant who came forward in mously overturned the conviction of John Giuca, cit- tion Review Unit has issued 23 exonerations — but June 2005 claiming that Giuca had confessed to him. ing prosecutorial misconduct during a high-profi le almost none have involved leading prosecutors from The day after Nicolazzi made her fi rst court appear- 2005 Brooklyn trial for the murder of 19-year-old the Hynes era. And like Gonzalez, many of the key ance on Avitto’s behalf, she received an email from college student Mark Fisher. Despite recantations by players in the Giuca case spent the bulk of their ca- Anne Swern, then Hynes’ in-house counsel (or #3 per- three of the four witnesses who directly implicated Gi- reers in the Hynes administration. son in the offi ce). In the message — subject line: “[A] uca in Fisher’s death, newly elected DA Eric Gonza- In fi ghting to maintain what appears to be the very vitto” — advised Nicolazzi as well as the prosecutors lez is planning a retrial (currently scheduled for May shaky conviction of John Giuca, Gonzalez and his who oversaw the DA’s drug treatment programs to 1). A full understanding of the case requires a journey administration seem unable to escape the ghost of “mark the John Avitto case for special attention.” into Brooklyn’s not-so-distant past, when Joe Hynes Joe Hynes. Compounding the obstacles Giuca faced were was DA and the Post and Daily News still drove the Hynes’ connections to the families of two key fi gures local news cycle. The tabloids may have diminished • • • in the case, Angel DiPietro and Albert Cleary. DiPiet- in infl uence, but Hynes’ dubious legacy endures. ro, a fellow Fairfi eld University student, was the only Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi, lead prosecutor in the Gi- person Fisher knew at the party in Brooklyn. (On the ’m ready to do the perp walk,” Clarence Nor- uca case, was a rising star in the Brooklyn DA’s offi ce. day of the murder DiPietro gave friends three differ- “ man assured reporters outside the offi ce of Nicolazzi joined the Homicide Bureau in 2001, and ent explanations of Fisher’s whereabouts.) Angel is the Brooklyn District Attorney Joe Hynes on the over the next decade would compile a 35-0 record in daughter of criminal defense attorney James DiPietro, second Thursday evening of October 2003. murder cases; after Ken Thompson defeated Hynes in a longtime Hynes ally. Albert, meanwhile, is the son Brooklyn’s powerful Democratic Party boss 2013, she served as chief of trials in the same bureau. of Susan Cleary, vice chair of Brooklyn’s Republican wouldI spend that night on a cot in a conference room In late December 2004, a grand jury returned Nico- Party. In the 2005 race, Hynes sought and received of 350 Jay Street, in advance of his arraignment the lazzi’s indictment of Giuca and Russo, and the case permission from the Brooklyn GOP to run on its bal- next morning on a slew of corruption charges. There went to trial only nine months later — a conspicu- lot line in the general election, a fallback plan in case was no particular reason for Norman’s solo slumber ously faster pace than most other Brooklyn murder he lost the primary to John Sampson. During the af- party at the DA’s offi ce, but Joe Hynes knew how to cases at the time. ternoon following Fisher’s early-morning murder, Al- create tabloid headlines. In February 2005, Hynes illustrated the unique im- bert and Angel (who weren’t romantically involved) That same weekend, a college student named Mark portance of the election-year case by appointing an went to meet James DiPietro at the family’s stately Fisher was found murdered in Brooklyn. After bar- “elite team” to oversee it. Nicolazzi now worked with Long Island home. hopping on the Upper East Side, the 19-year-old Fair- notorious prosecutor Michael Vecchione and two of Early in the case, both the NYPD viewed Albert fi eld University football star traveled to a house party his deputies from the Rackets Bureau. Nicolazzi bor- Cleary and Angel DiPietro as uncooperative witness- in the leafy surroundings of Prospect Park South. At rowed some tricks from Vecchione, who is best known es, and evidence continues to suggest their presence 6:40 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 12, residents on Argyle for railroading Jabbar Collins in a 1995 murder trial at the murder scene. However, both not only escaped Road heard several gunshots and a vehicle speed via ruthless witness coercion. Appeals court judges prosecution but also testifi ed against Giuca. In short, away. Thus began a saga ready- made for the tabloids. Two years later, the unrelated ONE OF THE KEY WITNESSES IN THE cases would converge in the cham- bers of Kings County Supreme Court at 320 Jay Street. In late GIUCA CASE NOW WORKS IN THE August 2005, Clarence Norman went on trial for an illegal cam- BROOKLYN DA’S OFFICE. THAT’S NOT paign contribution, a whopping $10,000 that was used for elec- tion supplies. On Monday, Sept. THE ONLY CONFLICT OF INTEREST. 12, jury selection began in the dual cases of John Giuca and Antonio Russo, both also frequently noted Vecchione’s penchant for intro- Hynes, Nicolazzi and company stacked the deck re- facing murder charges for Mark Fisher’s death. The ducing new theories about a case during his closing ally high against Giuca, and the jury quickly found trials took place in neighboring courtrooms, or what’s argument, which is considered misconduct because him guilty of second-degree murder. known as “double-feature,” which ensures an abun- the defense cannot respond to any such material. dance of local media coverage. During Giuca’s trial, Nicolazzi coerced witnesses • • • That Tuesday, Sept. 13, was the 2005 Democratic and speculated wildly about the defendant in her primary in New York City was hardly a coincidence. summation. One witness who has since recanted Despite the daunting odds Giuca faced in the In targeting Norman, Hynes was going after the most says Nicolazzi threatened his child custody; another original trial, whether his attorney Sam Gregory powerful black politician in Brooklyn, who also hap- received favorable treatment after violating his drug mounted a vigorous defense is an open question. As pened to be supporting the DA’s main challenger, treatment sentencing. In her closing statement, Nico- Doreen Giuliano recalls, Gregory, a Brooklyn court- John Sampson. But by prosecuting Giuca for the high- lazzi claimed for the fi rst time that Giuca (in addi- house regular, was in Alaska for the month of August profi le murder of a fellow white kid, Hynes could tion to Russo) actually shot Fisher. As Giuca’s mom, 2005. And when she tracked him down to ask ques- not be charged with racism. (Antonio Russo, whose Doreen Giuliano, recalls, Vecchione came into the tions about the mid-September trial, Giuliano says, mother is African-American, did not fi t the bill.) That courtroom “at least twice” to confer with Nicolazzi the lawyer was “very annoyed” that she was inter- may sound like an extremely cynical calculation, but about the progress of the case. The reason Vecchione rupting his vacation. That may be hindsight — but April 2018

politics often outweighed justice for the Hynes admin- couldn’t devote his full energies to the Giuca trial was Gregory clearly made some perplexing decisions in his istration, which has seen several of its murder convic- simple: he was next door leading the prosecution of defense of Giuca. tions overturned in recent years. Clarence Norman. The tabloids had a fi eld day. For example, Gregory called no witnesses on Gi- There’s not much left in the DA’s original case Nicolazzi had also kept Hynes and his inner circle uca’s behalf. Yet included in the prosecution material against Giuca: no physical evidence placed him at posted about developments in the Giuca investigation. handed over to the defense was a detective’s report (or the murder scene, three of the four key witnesses re- In a 2015 deposition, Nicolazzi recalled “at least two DD-5) from Hideko Swornik, a resident of 150 Argyle

The IndypendenT canted, and the alleged motive — a gang-initiation different meetings at different times with [Hynes] Road, where the body was found. According to the 7

STILL TAInTed By The pAST AFTeR eXOneRATInG 23 InnOCenT Men IT COnVICTed, Why IS The BROOKLyn dA’S OFFICe STILL CLInGInG TO ITS ShAKy CASe AGAInST JOhn GIUCA?

DD-5, Swornik heard “a car door opening and closing” and “more where the DA’s offi ce arranged for them to be escorted into the court- than two people” on the street outside her home, including “one fe- room. Fisher’s parents have long maintained that while Giuca was

male voice” (of a “young” person), prior to the gunshots. (Given that involved, so too were Cleary and DiPietro. It’s quite unlikely that ELIA GRAN Cleary lived directly across the street and DiPietro spent the night at Gonzalez will expand the prosecution’s targets in the case, however. his house, the statement points in their direction.) Swornik’s next- Angel DiPietro, after all, was hired by Hynes in 2012 fresh out of door neighbor also told detectives that she heard the shots, then saw law school and remains an assistant district attorney under Gonza- an “older four-door” car drive away. Four other neighbors also re- lez. That DiPietro has a reputation for competence among her col- ported hearing both gunfi re and a car, yet Nicolazzi’s trial narrative leagues further complicates matters. While it’s unlikely that Gon- included neither a female nor a vehicle at the scene. zalez will need help from Susan Cleary or the Brooklyn Republican Gregory also opted not to put Robert Legister on the stand. At the Party, prosecuting Albert Cleary would undermine the case against trial, Cleary had testifi ed that Legister (then away at college) was Giuca. Notably, neither DiPietro nor Cleary has immunity, yet both the “boss” of a gang called the “Ghetto Mafi a,” with Giuca serving seem protected. as his “capo” and Russo as Giuca’s “soldier.” Yet Giuca’s then-girl- Most of the prosecutors in the case — including Nicolazzi — are friend Lauren Calciano also testifi ed that rather than an “organized” no longer in the DA’s offi ce. But as host of her own true crime cable outfi t, the Ghetto Mafi a was “simply what the guys called each oth- TV show, “True Conviction,” Nicolazzi continues to champion her er.” Similarly, in a 2014 affi davit, Legister stated the Ghetto Mafi a 35-0 record and highlight her work in the Fisher case. Her celebrity was “not a ‘street gang.’ It was a group of guys from different areas status may be something the Brooklyn DA’s offi ce takes pride in, but of Brooklyn who hung out together.” According to Legister, it was others view her in a different light. “Given Nicolazzi’s conduct in my “ridiculous” to suggest that he and the others created any structure, son’s case,” Doreen Giuliano says, “all 35 of her murder convictions hierarchy or titles. Gregory easily could have shown that the Ghetto should be investigated.” Mafi a was a not a real gang, but instead let Nicolazzi stoke the jury’s Gonzalez frequently touts his offi ce’s Conviction Review Unit as fears of a menacing crew. a national model of exonerations. Led by Homicide Bureau veteran As the recent appeals court decision made clear, Nicolazzi and Mark Hale — who partnered with Nicolazzi in a high-profi le 2008 company went out of their way to help John Avitto, the Rikers in- trial (for the murder of NYPD cop Russel Timoshenko) — the CRU formant who testifi ed at the trial. Gregory, however, had the oppor- upheld Giuca’s conviction. Of the 23 people the CRU has exonerated tunity to expose the weakness of that testimony in front of the jury. since 2014, only one case involved a high-ranking prosecutor from On the stand Avitto claimed that in the visitor’s room at Rikers, he the Hynes era still in the offi ce (Anne Gutmann, who put away Der- overheard Giuca’s father ask his son, “Why did you have a gun with rick Hamilton). Even though Hale is not considered to be a Vecchione you?” A series of strokes, though, had severely impaired Giuca’s dad’s ally, the CRU has not overturned any of the latter’s many question- ability to speak. During the trial Giuliano and other family members able cases. Hale also prosecuted well over 100 cases during the Hynes frantically brought medical records proving that fact to Gregory, but era, none of which have resulted in CRU exonerations. he once again chose not to use the information. In her prosecution of Giuca, Nicolazzi relied on Vecchione’s play- “We could never get straight answers out of him,” Giuca says re- book of dirty tricks. But it’s hard to imagine that she was the only garding Gregory’s moves in the case. Giuca recalls questioning Greg- other Brooklyn prosecutor who did so under Joe Hynes’ watch. ory’s decisions not to cross-examine Angel DiPietro or use his fa- Even so, Gonzalez seems unlikely to shake free of that legacy any- ther’s medical records. “He said things like ‘I’ve been handling trials time soon. Having spent his entire professional career in the Brook- for 20 years. Listen to me.’ And I thought that since I am innocent, it lyn offi ce, Gonzalez has plenty of longstanding relationships with FRAMED?: Doreen won’t matter.” Giuca’s mom, who ponied up $100,000 for Gregory’s fellow Hynes-era veterans. And he has many friends among defense Giuliano, who wants her counsel, feels “robbed” of her money — not to mention the last thir- counsel. On March 14, Gonzalez spoke at a fundraiser for Sam son’s slippery murder teen years of her son’s life. (Gregory didn’t return the messages left by Gregory’s summer program that brings underprivileged Brooklyn conviction overturned, The Indypendent with his longtime assistant.) teens to Alaska. stands at the gates of Rikers Giuca’s current attorney, Mark Bederow, is now preparing to Meanwhile, as the DA’s offi ce concocts its retrial strategy, John Island where he is being held mount a comprehensive defense. There’s only one remaining witness Giuca, now approaching 35, awaits his fate in the hellhole other- awaiting retrial. from the original trial who directly implicated Giuca in the murder: wise known as Rikers Island. Many people watching the case closely Albert Cleary. Yet, as Bederow explains, Cleary initially “denied suspect that Gonzalez and company are hoping to grind down the knowing anything about Fisher’s death for more than one year. He defendant in order to make him accept a potential plea offer; one TABLOID FODDER: and his lawyer commissioned a polygraph and presented a report to possibility is that he could be released with time served (but a murder The press had a fi eld day the DA in order to prove his lack of knowledge.” At the time of the conviction on his record and no recourse to sue for damages). In any when John Giucia stood 2018 April murder, Cleary was on probation for a Bronx assault and thus vul- event, Rikers is a “madhouse,” says Giuca, wearily. trial in 2005. This time the nerable to DA threats. “If the DA’s offi ce believed Cleary was cred- headlines are different. ible,” Bederow says, Nicolazzi “assuredly would not have resorted to Theodore Hamm is editor of Frederick Douglass in Brooklyn a dubious jailhouse informant like Avitto.” (Akashic Books) and chair of journalism and new media studies at IndypendenT The St. Joseph’s College in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. • • •

Given the fl imsy case against Giuca, why Gonzalez is planning for a retrial merits scrutiny. Such a move appears to be supported by Fisher’s family, several of whom attended the February hearing, 8 INVESTIGATIONS

The peOpLe’S p.I. MAnUeL GOMeZ IS USInG The SKILLS he pICKed-Up AS A BROnX COp TO GeT The WROnGLy ACCUSed OUT OF JAIL

By Simon Davis-Cohen said in the video affi davit, which she later affi rmed in a televi- badge and gun taken away. I’m here doing an investigation sion news interview. on you. I’d like to know what the deal is with all these cases jaya Neale has a problem. Soon after returning from North Carolina, Gomez hit the that you guys have been falsifying.” The detective’s response Accused of shooting a rival gang member to streets and says he tracked down 17 Crips gang members from before walking off: “Okay.” death, Neale faces 25 years-to-life for a crime Jamaica, Queens, who had some knowledge of the murder. “I wanted to look him in the eye,” Gomez later recounted. he says the Queens District Attorney’s offi ce is “I’ll sit down, I’ll eat with them,” he says,“things cops won’t Though Gomez relishes head-to-head battles, he now wants falsely pinning on him. The incident occurred in do.” That lunch, he says, produced leads on Facebook mes- to go from fi ghting one case at a time to tackling the injus- A2014 at a baseball game in a busy park in Jamaica, Queens. sages from the day of the murder and new witnesses, including tices he sees in a systematic manner. He despises laws that Neale, 29, has maintained his innocence for more than three- one who said that the killer was shorter and slimmer than the give prosecutors legal immunity, that allow prosecutors to and-a-half years. In October 2017, still awaiting trial and with heavily built Neale. withhold discovery material from the defense until trial, and few places left to turn, Neale’s family hired former NYPD “Unfortunately,” says Gomez, “[Neale’s] case is a dime the general lack of public accountability in the criminal justice cop-turned-renegade private investigator Manuel Gomez. a dozen.” system. That’s where a new project of Gomez’s comes in. “I heard about Gomez from watching TV, from the Pedro Hernandez case,” says Neale, referring to Gomez’s role in freeing a Bronx teenager who drew national attention after he THE MAKING OF A COP THE GOMEZ-SERPICO PLAN was slapped with a $250,000 bail and forced to spend over a year locked up at Rikers Island on trumped-up charges of fi r- Gomez, 50, grew up in the Bronx during the 1970s and ’80s Gomez often concludes his stories with the assertion: “That’s ing a gun into a crowd and injuring two people. when both crime and police misconduct were rampant. Com- why we need the Department of Civilian Justice.” He has In the Hernandez case, Gomez tracked down a victim, who ing of age, he says he “witnessed a lot of injustice [by the devised model legislation for the The Department of Civil- claimed NYPD detectives had physically coerced him into cops],” which led him to think “maybe if I joined the team ian Justice with his friend and fellow former NYPD offi cer- naming Hernandez as the shooter. Other witnesses said Her- that was doing it [the injustice], maybe I could make a change turned-whistleblower, Frank Serpico — depicted by Al Pacino nandez was innocent, and Gomez found the prosecution’s star in it,” he says. “I became a cop to make a difference.” in the 1973 Hollywood classic Serpico. witness — William Stevens — who confessed to Gomez and Gomez was in the Army during the fi rst Iraq War in 1991 Serpico’s revelations of pervasive NYPD corruption made a local television station that he was beaten by detectives un- before entering the police academy and serving as a beat cop front-page headlines and led to the 1970 creation of the Com- til he falsely identifi ed Hernandez as the shooter. Stevens told in the southeast Bronx and parts of Queens between 1999 and mission to Investigate Alleged Police Corruption (known as WNBC Channel 4 he was systematically intimidated, abused 2011. What he saw was disillusioning. the Knapp Commission). The department and its supporters and harassed by detectives to provide false testimony, with the “I witnessed illegal stop, question and frisks. [Cops] toss- say the investigations of that era forced it to fundamentally knowledge of a Bronx assistant district attorney. ing and throwing people against the wall, and I refused to be change its ways for the better. However, Gomez is quick to This and other cases have launched Gomez into the lime- a part of it,” he says. “That’s one thing they had a hard time criticize the results of the Knapp Commission and can point light, including being profi led in a documentary fi lm that was understanding, that they couldn’t intimidate me — and they to the persistent revelations of NYPD misconduct and recent honored at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. Ajaya Neale’s still can’t.” media reports of the NYPD’s lax approach to disciplining case is a typical assignment for Gomez. During the three-plus Gomez says his investigations have led to charges being dis- hundreds of offi cers who committed fi reable offenses. years he has been awaiting trial, the prosecution has declined missed in 90 cases. As his fame grows, he encounters increas- “It gave New York City the most glorifi ed stroke job in to share key evidence like police reports, witness statements ing numbers of strangers who recognize him on the spot. history,” says Gomez in his signature raspy voice. “Nothing and 911 calls — because New York’s “blindfold law” (see Following a hearing for Ajaya Neale, two passersby spotted was accomplished! That’s why we need the Department of page 14) allows them to withhold such evidence until the day Gomez outside the Queens County Criminal Court. “I have a Civilian Justice.” before the trial. question for you,” a middle-aged woman asked, reaching for Under a draft of the Gomez-Serpico plan, the head of the That’s where Gomez comes in. Within days of taking Neale one of Gomez’s cards. “It’s my son’s case,” she said. The other DOCJ would be appointed by the City Council and serve, as a client, Gomez began to unravel the case with the same was a short, boisterous man who said he recognized Gomez at most, for two four-year terms. The department would be aplomb that he attacked the Hernandez case. He tracked from TV. “I watch him, you understand me? Very good man! staffed only with civilian investigators (no former cops, pros- down the prosecution’s own star witness and others the pros- I see him all the time on the TV.” ecutors, judges, etc.) and would have subpoena powers and ecution had missed or ignored. But it’s not just his admirers who have taken notice of Go- the power to investigate, suspend and discipline anyone who “Someone made the mistake of including a photocopy of mez’s work. In late 2017, the president of the NYPD Detec- works for the NYPD, the district attorney’s offi ce or the city’s [the star witness’] business card,” Gomez told The Indypen- tives’ Endowment Association sent out an email blast advising Department of Corrections who impedes a DOCJ investiga- dent, referring to police documents he examined for the case. detectives to “avoid any contact with [private investigator] tion. Such an institution would break with the long-standing Armed with just this information, Gomez zoomed down to Manny Gomez.” When I brought up the detective union’s practice of internal accountability and end the siloing of each North Carolina in his white Mustang convertible. The next email, he treated it as an endorsement. “What more could I separate component of the criminal justice system. day, he returned with a video affi davit from the star witness ask for? [They’re] telling cops to avoid me!” What’s the difference, Gomez asks, between “the cop who that blew the case wide open. In the video, the witness, Erika In Neale’s case, like most, Gomez has developed a personal wrongfully arrests you [and] the prosecutor who keeps you in King, accuses NYPD detectives of manipulating her state- rivalry, this time with the assistant district attorney on the the jail for over a year while knowing you’re innocent?” ments and intimidating her. She says she picked out three sus- case, Karen Ross. Gomez is quick to point out her role in a Gomez and Serpico are not the fi rst to propose civilian April 2018

pects from a lineup, but the NYPD detective on the case only 2014 mistrial, where prosecutors failed to hand over a key oversight of law enforcement. An independent civilian review asked her to sign off on Neale’s photo. “I said in my statement ballistics report that cleared the defendants. board was torpedoed by the police union in 1966 and again in that I was not 100 percent sure,” she said in the video collected In a similar vein, during the Pedro Hernandez case, Gomez 1992. Many special commissions have been formed to study by Gomez. went to the 42nd Precinct in the Bronx to pay a visit to one of the issue dating back to the 1890s, but all it has yielded is King also accused detectives of coercing her into testifying. the detectives who had coerced false testimonies. “I’m inves- today’s Civilian Complaint Review Board, whose verdicts are “If I did not testify, [they told me] a warrant for my arrest tigator Gomez,” he said to the detective in a video recording subject to review by the police commissioner himself.

The IndypendenT would be sent out … I feel like I’m being forced to testify,” she of the interaction. “You might know me. I got your partner’s Gomez has some experience with sparking change. Fol- Indypendent Ad 5x7 06-23-15.pdf 1 6/23/15 1:56 PM

BROADCAST ON MORE THAN 1,300 PUBLIC TV AND RADIO STATIONS WORLDWIDE 9 A Daily Independent Global News Hour with Amy Goodman and Juan González

DEMOCRACYNOW.ORG lowing the Pedro Hernandez case, Tune In Live Every Weekday 8-9am ET a federally assisted internal inves- RIGHT SIDE OF THE tigation into the Bronx District At- TRACKS: Growing up in ELIA GRAN • Audio, Video, Transcripts, Podcasts torney’s offi ce ensued. Though the the Bronx, Manuel Gomez results have not been made public, wanted to make the good guys • Los titulares de Hoy (headlines in Spanish) fallout from the controversy has led good again. a crime analyst who works for the • Find your local broadcast station and schedule Bronx District Attorney’s offi ce to open a personal injury claim of $15 million, alleging that there was a culture of • Subscribe to the Daily News Digest racial bias, on-duty sex, alcohol and even physical fi ghting among prosecutors within the DA’s offi ce. Gomez has also Follow Us @ DEMOCRACYNOW gotten a detective demoted and an assistant district attor- ney transferred. But he says these measures only amount to a “glorifi ed slap on the wrist.”

WHEN CHANGE WILL COME

After things settle down outside the Queens courthouse following Neale’s hearing — which ended in yet another adjournment — Gomez and I retired to a nearby deli where one witness in the Neale case found us after being ques- tioned by prosecutors. Upon fi nishing our bagels, we hop in Gomez’s other car — a white Hummer — and head to Manhattan, where he has a meeting scheduled with the New York City Depart- ment of Investigation, the ethics watchdog for all city agen- cies and employees. At the meeting, Gomez details some of his cases and pitches the DOCJ. He is also asking Brooklyn City Councilmember Jumaane Williams to hold a hearing on his proposal. Robert Gangi, director of the Police Reform Organizing Project, says the Serpico-Gomez proposal is “on point and Bennett’s insights addresses a very serious problem, which is essentially how into everything our law enforcement apparatus, particularly in the form of from Black Lives the NYPD and district attorney’s offi ces, operate with vir- Matter to inter- tually unchecked power.” But Gangi says it would require sectional fem- a sea change in city politics for something like the DOCJ to inism will not pass. “No mainstream political politicians have any kind only make white of record that shows they are prepared to curtail the power people uncom- of DAs or police departments,” says Gangi. Gomez knows you can’t just institute full-scale criminal fortable, but it justice reform at the drop of a hat. “When the screams for will challenge change are equal to the amount of injustice, that is when the status quo we will get social change,” he says. of our entire While Gomez dreams of sweeping reform to the system, society.” he continues to fi ght it out one case at a time with dirty —Keeanga- cops and DA’s offi ces. For this his clients are grateful. YaMahtta 2018 April “Thanks to the evidence that Manuel Gomez found,” taYLor Neale told The Indy. “I think I’m in a lot better place.” His case is still pending before the Queens County “Pure fire.” Criminal Court. —naoMi KLein IndypendenT The 10 11 INDEFINITE DETENTION

RAIDERS OF THE LOST ART INTRICATE WORKS OF ART PRODUCED BY GUANTÁNAMO DETAINEES HAVE BEEN ALLOWED TO TRICKLE OUT OF THE PRISON CAMP FOR YEARS. THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION HAS OTHER PLANS IN MIND.

had hoped to send it to his mother in Saudi Arabia. Ahmed Rabbani painted a still life of empty glassware, Professor Thompson has started an online petition addressed perhaps a reference to his years-long hunger strike. In an-

to the Department of Defense in support of the artists, which other of his works, giant binoculars trained at the 2016 super ELIA GRAN has garnered nearly 2,000 signatures. Meanwhile the artists moon fl oat above a massive building. Before coming to Guan- By Nancy Hoch ists when the fi rst major display of their work, entitled “Ode to the Sea,” may get another exhibition: Thompson is in discussion with “a tánamo, Rabbani was held and tortured at a secret “black opened at John Jay. The exhibit contained 36 paintings, sculptures and number of venues in the United States” and says that “the ex- site” for nearly two years, and was kept for seven months in t the U.S. naval base in Guantánamo, Cuba, the prisoners drawings by eight detainees. Included were Al-Alwi’s model ship and Qa- hibit could travel abroad as well.” Future exhibitions, she says, total darkness. “A good deal of what he paints relates back to are making art. Their studio is a cell in Camp 6, where about sim’s painting of the Titanic. will include “more artworks and, hopefully, more artists.” that time. None of those paintings are released,” his lawyer, two dozen detainees are housed. The men, many of whom Instead of exhibiting the art in one of the college’s regular art galleries, Since at least 2010, a display of prisoners’ art, though off- Shelby Sullivan-Bennis of Reprieve US, told Postprint maga- have been there since the prison opened in 2002 and none Thompson and co-curators Paige Laino and Charles Shields decided to limits to the detainees, has been a regular stop for dignitar- zine. “Depictions of suffering are more or less categorically of whom have been charged with any crime, are shackled to mount the exhibit in a sixth-fl oor hallway leading to several administra- ies, observers and journalists touring Guantánamo. Kassem banned from release.” theA fl oor and to the table while they draw. Their subjects are often pictures tive offi ces. At the time, Thompson told The Indy, she thought the exhibit says these tours are intended to signal that “Guantánamo is a When Hussain was asked whether any of the detainees’ their teachers—most recently an engineer who seems to have no training wouldn’t excite that much attention. normal, humane prison, which it isn’t.” What really bothered lawyers could give a description of art that has been banned, in art—have photocopied from art books or magazines like National Geo- But just the opposite occurred: the show received positive media atten- prison authorities about Ode to the Sea, he believes, is that she explained that even a verbal description would have to be graphic. Though the United States spends nearly $11 million per prisoner tion and people, curious to learn something about the anonymous pris- it enabled the detainees to “speak with their own voices and cleared by military censors. per year, art-making materials are scarce. Detainees often depend upon oners of Guantánamo, sought it out. The show drew more attention a put their humanity on display for the world to see. That’s a Former detainee Djamel Ameziane, who was held for fi ve their lawyers for paint or art-instruction books. few weeks after the opening, when a Department of Defense spokesperson fundamental threat to the narrative that supports the entire more years after being cleared for release in 2008, told Post- The artists are inventive, even playful, in fi nding ways to work around announced that, pending a policy review, no new art would be leaving national-security edifi ce.” print that his watercolor of a shipwrecked boat “refl ected the lack of materials. Khalid Qasim, a detainee currently on hunger strike, Guantánamo, and an inmate reported to his lawyer that a guard had told Carol Rosenberg of the Miami Herald reported that the art what I was living in prison. We were always badly treated by

created an interesting texture for his painting of the Titanic (the fi lm was him all future art would be burned. COURTESY OF DJAMEL AMEZIANE/JOHNdisplay JAY COLLEGE was not included in a media tour of the prison in early the guards: beaten, provoked, dragged on the fl oor … bodily shown by prison authorities) by mixing glue into bits of gravel, sand and The policy review concluded that “items produced by the detainees at February, the fi rst in six months. Both Rosenberg and NPR’s searched three or four times a day. … All that on a daily basis rock gathered from the prisoners’ recreation area and then layering the Guantánamo Bay remain the property of the U.S. government,” Pentagon David Welna reported tense interactions between prison au- for years and years. It gave me the impression of being a boat mixture onto his cardboard “canvas.” Moath Al-Alwi spends hours every spokesperson Sarah Higgins told The Indy via email, so there will thus thorities and journalists and many new restrictions on report- facing storm after storm after storm that never seemed to end.” day in his cell constructing model boats and other sculptures, using only a be no further “transfer of detainee-produced artwork from the detention ers. Welna said they were shown a nearly completed prisoner small pair of children’s scissors to shape the cardboard. For sails on a two- facility.” The reason, she explained, was that detainee artwork “was being health clinic with shackles on the fl oor, but not allowed to pho- For more or to view the exhibit, see artfromguantanamo.com. foot-long model of a ship from the age of exploration, he used pieces of a sold to third parties.” Art in the exhibit by some of the four detainees who tograph them, and were told about plans to replace Camp 7 T-shirt stiffened with glue. The wheel is fashioned out of a plastic bottle have since been released and are now living abroad was offered for sale. with a new prison and to build a barracks for over 800 troops. cap, and dental fl oss connects the rudder to the cardboard hull. Aliya Hana Hussain, an advocacy program manager at the Center for A few days before, President Donald Trump announced he Most of the 779 men and boys detained at Guantánamo over the years Constitutional Rights and a member of the legal team for several of the had signed an executive order rescinding President Barack as “enemy combatants” in the “war on terror” have been released without released artists, told The Indy that despite the diffi cult economic circum- Obama’s 2009 directive to close Guantánamo. Trump wanted ever being charged. Today only 41 remain, 15 in a top-security part of the stances confronting some released detainees, money is not their motiva- it open, he said, so “terrorists wherever we chase them down” prison called Camp 7. The others — sometimes called “forever prison- tion. “People have been told that the prisoners at Guantánamo are the could be sent there. ers” because the United States claims the right to hold them indefi nitely worst of the worst,” she says. “The artists hope their artwork will show The sea has a special meaning for the prisoners. In an es- — are in Camp 6, where they live more communally and are allowed to people that they are humans, not monsters. And that those detained are say written for the exhibit, former detainee Mansoor Adayfi take classes in such things as Spanish and Arabic calligraphy. One of the still suffering.” explains that very few had seen it before coming to Guan- most popular, Navy spokesperson Anne Leanos told The Indypendent via In January, detainee lawyers wrote to the Pentagon to protest the new tánamo, and some were frightened of it: “The Afghans told

email, is art. policy and warn that the government’s claim that it owns the art violates COURTESY OF MOATH AL-ALWI/JOHNother JAY COLLEGE detainees that the American interrogators threatened Most people are surprised to learn that Guantánamo prisoners are mak- copyright law. They also raised concerns about whether the art program ART COLLECTION: Aliya Hana Hussain them, saying, ‘When we fi nish with you here, you will be tak- ing art. Much about the prisoners is secret from the public. The images would continue. Higgins told The Indy that “there have been no changes of the Center for Constitutional Rights displays en to the sea, and you all will be thrown there.’” The ocean is that make their way out—orange hooded fi gures kneeling in abject posi- to the ability of detainees to produce artwork” and Leanos said art classes one of 200 paintings and drawings that CCR only a few hundred feet away, but tarpaulins cover the fences. tions, eyes covered by goggles, ears blocked by headphones—give the im- still take place “several times per week.” has received from Guantánamo detainees it Prisoners can smell it, but they can’t see it. In 2014, as a hur- pression of men scarcely human. What little information we have mostly However, Ramzi Kassem, a professor at CUNY School of Law, where has represented. ricane approached, the tarps were taken down and for four comes through detainees’ lawyers, who are constrained by what they can he and his students in the Immigrant and Non-Citizen Rights Clinic repre- days, “everyone who could draw drew the sea,” Adayfi wrote. reveal, or from released prisoners. That detainees are shackled while in the sent Moath Al-Alwi, told The Indy that prisoners have become “disheart- “The sea means freedom no one can control or own, freedom art studio, for example, comes from a video interview of Yemeni detain- ened” over the thought that they will no longer be able to share their art DESOLATION ROW: Many of the for everyone.” ee Mansoor Adayfi , who was released in 2016, by Melaney Portillo and with the outside world and especially with their families. detainees come from landlocked regions. At Before art can leave the prison, it is subjected to censorship Amanda King. When asked about this, Leanos would only say, “security With art no longer allowed to leave the prison, there is also concern Guantánamo they can hear the ocean day and security screenings. Al-Alwi’s boat was X-rayed before procedures are in place.” about what will happen when the amount prisoners are allowed to keep in and night but are prevented from seeing it by it was allowed to be taken to the show, and its delicate sails 2018 April Art classes at Guantánamo began in the early years of the Obama ad- their cells and in storage bins is exceeded. Leanos said detainees periodi- their captors. bore the black-lettered stamp “Approved by U.S. Forces.” That ministration. The fi rst artworks left the prison through the International cally turn in “objects that exceed their storage capacity for disposal” and stamp, applied to every piece of art, infuses the works, Thomp- Red Cross, which helped detainees send it to family members. Around “this is not new.” son says, with “a ghostly mix of art and authority.” April 2018 INDYPENDENT THE 2015, prisoners started being allowed to give their lawyers their art, either Confi scation of art at the prison is, unfortunately, also not new. In SAIL AWAY: Guantánamo detainee In the exhibition catalogue, she explains that artists must as gifts or for safekeeping. Lawyers have accumulated hundreds of pieces 2013, when over 100 prisoners went on hunger strike, guards removed Moath Al-Alwi made a larger version of this balance the need to show authorities they don’t harbor nega- of it, much of it kept in their offi ces. Erin Thompson, an art professor at the art in their cells and never returned it. Recently, a ship by Al-Alwi boat he intended to share with his mother in tive emotions with the need to express themselves. The sea, City University of New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice, fi rst that Kassem says was even more sophisticated than the one in Ode to Saudi Arabia. Now he fears that it has been Thompson writes, “contains powerful emotions under an in- heard about the art when lawyers for the detainees approached her with the Sea was confi scated by guards, who said it was too big for his cell. destroyed by guards. nocuous surface.” Paintings of a gloomy lighthouse, its light the idea of mounting a show. Al-Alwi fears that the ship, which he had worked on for three months extinguished, or of two empty boats, unmoored, fl oating side

THE INDYPENDENT In October 2017, the world at large learned about the Guantánamo art- while sleeping only four or fi ve hours a night, has been destroyed. He by side illustrate her point. 12 ENDING MASS INCARCERATION

phILLy’S neW pROSeCUTOR

By Peter Rugh millennials, LGBTQ folks, mothers and survivors legations that she presided over an offi ce rampant

of gun violence as well as “incarcerated men and with debauchery. MICHAEL GRANT t was an extraordinary sight, one that women who are coming home to roll their sleeves When they do have a chance to go to the polls played out on the local 11 o’clock news. Ex- up to join this fi ght.” in DA races, events in Philadelphia could provide prosecutor Richard Sax said he felt bad for “You have political lifers who have been en- a path for how activists with fi nancial support the City of Philadelphia. gaged in the political landscape in Philadelphia from well-heeled liberal reformers like Soros can “[H]er citizens are really and truly going for 20 or 30 years and are now seeing things a enact sweeping change. Of a new crop of district toI suffer,” he told Channel 6 while the ABC af- little bit differently,” Jones said. attorneys taking offi ce, Krasner has the most radi- fi liate rolled footage of his former colleagues haul- Just nine months prior to the January fi rings, cal pedigree and could end up defi ning the outer ing fi le boxes crammed full of framed photos and Krasner — his ever-present tie loosened, the limits of what is possible from within the system. knick-knacks onto the curb at South Juniper Street. sleeves of his white Oxford shirt rolled up — ap- Remarkably, not four years earlier Philly’s “Change is never easy,” read a statement from peared on stage with Philly punks Sheer Mag, movement against mass incarceration was on the offi ce of Larry Krasner, a civil rights attor- joining the band in a rendition of “Clampdown” the defensive, fending off plans to build a new, ney who famously sued the Philly police 75 times by the Clash. Alternately brooding, sarcastic 3,000-bed jail. After a months-long campaign of throughout his three-decade career. Sworn in as and defi ant, the song is a rejection of encroach- marches and civil disobediences, the City Council Philly’s new district attorney only three days pre- ing fascism. “Let fury have the hour, anger can rejected the expansion. Aware that all their grass- viously, Krasner had campaigned on overhauling be power,” Krasner sang, “D’you know that you roots efforts would simply mean overcrowding at the criminal justice system in a city with the high- can use it?” the city’s fi ve remaining jails, where 20 percent of est incarceration rate in the country. Use it voters did. Now the tune is “Rock the detainees are locked up because they can’t afford It is not entirely unusual for fat to be trimmed Casbah.” to get out in advance of their trials, activists began during a change of administration, but aside from Efforts to end what legal scholar Michelle Al- calling for the elimination of cash bail. This effort making good television, the January fi rings, 31 in exander termed the “New Jim Crow” have stalled prompted them to consider participating in the total, infl amed Krasner’s detractors — already on on a the federal level with the appointment of At- district attorney’s race. The Coalition for a Just high alert that a red-bellied leftist was now the torney General Jeff Sessions. However, even be- DA formed. city’s top attorney. fore Donald Trump’s election, Not everyone was worried. progressives inspired by the “The message it sent to me was that Krasner Black Lives Matter movement A RADICAL TRIES TO is making good on his promise of instituting cul- knocked off entrenched DAs ture change,” Rick Krajewski of Reclaim Phila- in Cleveland and Chicago. As delphia told The Indypendent. “Prosecutors be- was the case in Philadelphia, CHANGE THE SYSTEM fore had a lot of bad practices. They’d ask for the fi nancial support of bil- high amounts of bail. They didn’t consider harm lionaire philanthropist George during their prosecutions, didn’t think about the Soros helped. Reform candi- FROM WITHIN. immigration consequences. There was a cultural dates have also prevailed in narrative in the DA’s offi ce that was counter to Mississippi, Louisiana and New Mexico and ac- “We started hunting around for a progres- our narrative of trying to end the over-incarcera- tivists are targeting more district attorney races in sive candidate to support,” Jones told The Indy. tion of our communities.” this fall’s elections. “Krasner rose to the top.” New Yorkers won’t be able to vote in a DA race The transition represented a move from an out- until 2021, but each of the fi ve borough DA offi ces side strategy to an inside one. Groups that had A MOVEMENT MOMENT could use a house cleaning. typically sought to sway elected offi cials through In Manhattan, Cyrus Vance Jr. short-circuited protest were now going door-to-door, fl yering and Krasner’s victory at the polls in November didn’t the case against Harvey Weinstein, despite the making phone calls on behalf of one of their own. so much belong to him as to a grassroots social NYPD providing him secretly recorded state- And it appears to have paid off. movement, years in the making, that arose in ments by the Hollywood mogul admitting to In his initial three months as district attorney, response to corruption (Krasner’s predecessor is sexual assault. Soon after, he received a campaign Krasner announced he will stop prosecuting low- currently serving a fi ve-year sentence for bribery), contribution from Weinstein’s lawyer. The Brook- level marijuana offenses, fi led a lawsuit against institutionalized racism and mass incarceration. lyn DA’s offi ce was a false conviction factory for Big Pharma over the opioid epidemic, appointed Now, as Krasner seeks to fulfi ll his mandate of decades and its current leader, Erik Gonzalez, has the city’s fi rst-ever “immigration council” to pro- instituting sweeping reforms to Philly’s criminal been reluctant to hold key fi gures accountable (see tect the undocumented from apprehension while justice system, that same movement is working to page 6). In Queens, Richard Brown is 85 years old attending court proceedings and instructed his April 2018

hold him accountable. and has not faced a serious electoral challenger prosecutors not to seek cash bail for 25 mainly “There’s a lot of diverse communities that have since he took the post in 1991. The district attor- nonviolent offenses, including shoplifting and been banding together,” said Reuben Jones of ney’s offi ce in Staten Island went out of its way to prostitution. He and his staff have also been meet- Front Line Dads, an organization that advocates persuade a grand jury not to indict Offi cer Dan- ing regularly with the grassroots activists who got on behalf of formerly incarcerated men, among iel Pantaleo in the choking death of Eric “I Can’t him elected. whom Jones counts himself. This coalition of Breathe” Garner and Bronx District Attorney

The IndypendenT coalitions, Jones told me, includes immigrants, Darcel Clark has made headlines of late over al- Continued on page 14 13 CIVIL RIGHTS

BRInGInG pROTeST InTO The COURTROOM

By Apoorva Tadepalli smile remains something of an under- current on his face — it gives his eyes a

t the point where a dem- kind, crinkled look even when they are ELIA GRAN “ onstration is marching wide with indignation, as they often and if I turn right I’m are when he talks about injustice. Yet going into an arrest situ- he is still active, continuing to represent ation and if I turn left I’m dissidents and work with the National avoidingA it, I’ll turn left every time,” Lawyers Guild’s (NLG’s) mass defense Martin Stolar tells me one afternoon committee, where he helped represent at his offi ce on 14th Street. “I’m more thousands of protesters arrested during effective as a political person represent- the 2004 Republican National Conven- ing the people who do get arrested.” tion and at Zuccotti Park in 2011 dur- Stolar has stood up for activists — ing Occupy Wall Street. from Black Panthers to Black Lives “They do the backend, crappy work,” Matter demonstrators — his entire Fraczek says of the NLG’s attorneys. New From half-century career as a civil rights “Everyone loves action, but they’re the and criminal defense attorney. He invisible part of our movement that’s International Publishers and O/R Books fi nds challenging authority not only really necessary.” Fraczek, who cut her necessary but fun, yet plays out his activist teeth in Occupy, can still recite radical beliefs by the letter of the law. the Guild’s phone number. The best political trials, he says, are Nonetheless, Elsie Chandler, a trial where the “protest is carried forward lawyer for the Neighborhood Defense into the courtroom.” Services of Harlem and Stolar’s wife, In 1971 when a group of Catho- tells me, “Marty’s very clear that he’s lic anti-war radicals and others burnt a lawyer, not a friend or compatriot of draft papers in Camden, N.J., Stolar his clients.” joined a three-member legal team that Stolar and his long-time friend Je- helped the defendants, known as the thro Eisenstein sued the NYPD in 1971 Camden 28, put the Vietnam War on in a class action lawsuit, Handschu vs. trial. A jury returned a not-guilty ver- Special Services Division, for curtail- dict in part through jury nullifi cation. ing the First Amendment through the Even though the defendants acknowl- surveillance, data collection, infi ltra- edged their actions, the jurors believed tion and entrapment of left-wing activ- the law could not be morally applied to ists. After years of litigation, Stolar and their case. Eisenstein reached a consent decree More recently, in Cortlandt, N.Y., with the NYPD in 1985, establishing where activists known as the Montrose the “Handschu guidelines,” a series of 9 used civil disobedience in 2016 to protocols that outline when the NYPD temporarily halt the construction of a can investigate political and First natural gas pipeline, Stolar argued the Amendment activity. Just Out! necessity defense, also known as “de- This past November, Stolar, Eisen- John Reed’s classic account of the days fense of justifi cation” under New York stein, the lead plaintiff in the Hand- leading up to the 1917 Bolshevik law. Stolar and his clients contend- schu case, Barbara Handschu, and sev- ed that the danger posed by climate eral NLG members visited an exhibit Revolution in a special new edition change outweighed the criminality of at the Municipal Archives building on honoring the centennials of the revolution their actions. The Montrose 9 were Chambers Street. Photographs docu- and the author. convicted and Stolar led an appeal. menting the political and social up- Kim Fraczek, a long-time New York heaval the 1960s and ’70s — the Black With a new foreword by the celebrated 2018 April environmental activist and his client in power movement, anti-Vietnam pro- Marxist scholar David Laibman. the Cortlandt case, recalls that it felt tests, the fi rst Earth Day march, a gay like they were in the same fi ght togeth- power demonstration — hung from the Order via the IP website er. “I never needed to explain to him walls. The images were not captured by IndypendenT The how fucked up the system was. He was journalists or the activists themselves www.intpubnyc.com right there with me.” but by undercover police. Hence, the At 75 years old, Stolar is a small, wiry exhibit’s title: “Unlikely Historians: or call: man with a bounce in his step. When Materials Collected by NYPD Surveil- he isn’t due in court, he usually shows 212-366-9816 up to work in jeans and sneakers. His Continued on page 14 14 DISCLOSURE neW yORK’S BLInd SpOT WILL IT Be FIXed ThIS yeAR? GARY MARTIN By Ann Schneider the New York Bar Association, the Legal Aid Society and In the other four boroughs, the defense attorney must the Innocence Project. The state district attorneys’ asso- make a series of pretrial motions to get the judge to or- coalition of progressive state legislators and ciation opposes it. der the prosecution to turn over evidence before trial. The legal organizations is campaigning for legis- Both Lentol’s bill and the state Senate version, spon- assistant district attorney typically fi ghts advance disclo- lation to repeal New York State’s “blindfold sored by Tony Avella (IDC-Queens), have been in com- sure, citing the need to protect witnesses from retalia- law”—which allows prosecutors to with- mittee since the legislative session opened in January. tion. This tug-of-war causes lengthy pretrial delays and hold all evidence, including witness state- The bill’s supporters say prosecutors’ ability to with- increases court costs. ments,A from a criminal defendant until the morning of hold evidence skews the system against defendants. As It is exceedingly rare for a prosecutor caught cheating their trial. 94 percent of state criminal prosecutions result in a plea to be formally punished. Prosecutors have “absolute im- This practice is allowed despite the 1963 Brady vs. deal, they believe it encourages “overcharging,” in which munity,” which shields them from legal liability for their Maryland case, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled district attorneys accuse suspects of more serious crimes misdeeds. Of 151 New York cases between 2004 and that prosecutors must turn over any “exculpatory” evi- than they can prove in order to intimidate them into 2008 where an appeals court found prosecutorial miscon- dence in their possession, such as if there’s evidence their pleading guilty to a lesser charge. Of the 234 exonera- duct, only three led to public sanction. star witness said inconsistent things. The Court, however, tions in New York State since the Brady case, 38 percent did not say when that evidence must be given to the defen- have involved withheld Brady material, according to the For more about the campaign to reform the pre-trial dis- dant. Nor do prosecutors have any obligation to look for National Registry of Exonerations. covery process, see legal-aid.org. witnesses who may have seen things differently. The Brooklyn district attorney’s offi ce has modifi ed its A bill introduced last year by Assemblymember Joseph practices to include a form of “open discovery,” giving an Lentol (D-Brooklyn) would require prosecutors to turn accused person a chance to assist their lawyer in preparing over police reports, witnesses’ names and statements, and a defense. But of the roughly 100,000 people arrested in grand jury testimony early in a case. It’s been endorsed by Brooklyn each year, 90 percent cannot afford an attorney.

POLICE UNION PUSHBACK idea what Krasner had actually said during the you don’t want to take a step that will neW pROSeCUTOR meeting. The very thought of Krasner visiting make it harder to then take a second step,” Continued from page 12 As anyone who has watched the opening se- the academy launched him into a tirade. Tratner said. quence of “Law and Order” knows, the crimi- While McNesby worries Krasner will go too It’s a precarious path, but none of the ac- “It is not just token engagement,” says nal justice system is made up of “police, who far, Cara Tratner frets he won’t go far enough. tivists I spoke with doubts Krasner’s sincerity. Cara Tratner, a criminal justice reform advo- investigate crime, and the district attorneys, “We’re glad that he stopped using bail for Most are impressed with what they are wit- cate who has attended the monthly meetings. who prosecute the offenders.” some people,” Tratner said, “but were also nessing. Reclaim Philadelphia’s Rick Krajew- “They are really listening and they are ac- Krasner’s job depends on his ability not only disappointed that his offi ce used charge cat- ski see’s Krasner’s election as a “springboard.” knowledging the expertise of community or- to appease the electorate but to maintain a egories” to determine when to seek it. The “Right now, you can take a more progres- ganizers and activists, people who are directly working relationship with Philly’s cops, whose Coalition for a Just DA wants the practice of sive stand on criminal justice issues than you impacted in the room, and they are seeking union leadership has displayed a kneejerk money bail eliminated all together. A spokes- could a few years ago,” he said. “If we can re- our support in creating their policy and have loathing toward him. When, in February, person for Krasner, Benjamin Waxman, told produce that when it comes to education, eco- been very transparent.” Krasner visited the city’s police academy and The Indy that the DA’s offi ce is taking an nomic equality, housing; if we can fi nd candi- Still, Reuben Jones acknowledges that Kras- told offi cers-in-training they must understand “A-B-C approach” but Tratner is concerned dates who are willing to stick their necks out ner is in a “diffi cult position.” they will be “held to a higher standard,” the that the distinction between what types of of- there and take bold stances on those issues we “He came into this role not being a poli- head of Philly’s Fraternal Order of the Police, fenses warrant bail will make it more diffi cult can incrementally push our city to one that is tician and now he has to play politics,” John McNesby, called Krasner’s remarks “ri- to further roll back the detainer system. The more progressive.” Jones said. diculous and dangerous,” accusing the DA of public will think future bail reforms are for having “intentionally sought to endanger your violent offenders. lives.” It later emerged that McNesby had no “Even if you are doing it step by step,

crimes, yes? It’s just civil activity?” understanding (MoU) with the Manhattan District Attor- RAdICAL LAWyeR “There were some,” Mendez replied. ney’s offi ce that allowed the NYPD’s legal arm to prosecute Continued from page 13 “What percentage?” Stolar asked. There was scattered low-level offenses. Jeffryes was targeted, according to subse- laughter. quent court testimony from the NYPD, not because of a traf- lance Teams, 1960–75.” Mendez smiled uncomfortably. “It’s hard to say.” fi c infraction but because she was one of the march’s leaders. The exhibit was largely the result of Stolar and Eisenstein’s The consent decree that settled Handschu vs. Special Ser- Stolar contends that the agreement enables the NYPD to make work. As part of their 1985 settlement, a review board, in- vices Division is subject to revision. After the 9/11 attacks, illegal arrests and then avoid subsequent civil rights lawsuits cluding a civilian appointed by the mayor, was established to the guidelines were watered down to make investigating sus- by pressuring protesters to plead guilty in return for adjourn- sign off on any surveillance that did not solely involve crimi- pected terrorism easier. Instead of requiring approval from a ment in contemplation of dismissal (ACD) orders. Under a nal activity. The materials that were recovered from the ’60s separate authority that included a civilian, the only approval typical ACD agreement, charges are ultimately dropped, pro- and ’70s were handed over to the Department of Records and necessary was from the NYPD commissioner for intelligence vided defendants are not charged with another crime within Information Services. and counterterrorism. But the NYPD’s unlawful surveillance a six-month period, but they lose their ability to challenge the On principle, Stolar is offended by the exhibition, since the of Muslims violated even these relaxed guidelines in the pe- validity of their original arrest in court. whole point of his case was that this material shouldn’t exist riod after 9/11, and Stolar and his colleagues got them tight- Earlier this month, after Stolar fi led a lawsuit over the at all. But he also appeared pleased as he explored it; after all, ened again. The long-running case remains open in U.S. dis- MoU, the NYPD rescinded the memorandum, claiming that the exhibition brings to light many of the issues he has been trict court. Stolar and Eisenstein are doubtful that it will be they didn’t have the legal resources to continue these prosecu- trying to raise for decades. settled in their lifetimes, and they’ve discussed preparing their tions. One of the exhibition’s curators, Rossy Mendez, welcomed younger colleagues to carry it forward. “It appears we exhausted them by doing such things as April 2018

the lawyers. “It’s a pleasure,” she said, somewhat sheepishly, Today, one of Stolar’s main clients is Arminta Jeffryes, a making the jaywalking trial a four-day affair,” Stolar refl ect- introducing the exhibit, which included about 30 photographs 24-year-old activist arrested for jaywalking on East Houston ed. Jeffryes has been found guilty of jaywalking but she and and seven video segments. “This period was a tumultuous Street during a Black Lives Matter march. What makes Jef- Stolar are actively considering an appeal on First Amendment one,” she recited. “It was great changes we were seeing.” fryes’ case unique — aside from the fact that she was arrested grounds. “Rossy,” Stolar called amiably from across the room, for jaywalking in New York City — is that she was being “In addition to being obtained illegally, there’s no evidence prosecuted by the NYPD.

The IndypendenT that any of what the police were surveilling here were actual In 2016, the police department reached memorandum of 15 PAROLE REFORM

BeLL TOLLS ADAPTING

By Renée Feltz pressed remorse and was likely to lead a “law-abiding life.” Commissioners are vote by the New York required by state law to consider such TO THE Parole Board to release factors, but have only recently complied Herman Bell, a former after pressure from groups like RAPP.

Black Panther and Black The board often cites input from vic- BRYAN SHIH VIA FREEHERMANBELL.ORG. Liberation Army member tim’s family members, who can infl uence REPEAL OF Aimprisoned for the killing of two NYPD but not determine their decision. This offi cers in 1971, marked a victory for time it referred to a letter from the name- reform measures advocated for by the sake son of slain Offi cer Waverly Jones, formerly incarcerated. who expressed forgiveness for Bell, and NET Bell, now 70 years old, is due to be wrote that to “deny him parole again released mid-April. During his nearly would cause us pain as we are reminded 45 years behind bars on a 25-to-life sen- of the painful episode each time he ap- tence, he mentored thousands and main- pears before the board.” NEUTRALITY tained a clean disciplinary record (de- Despite this request, the Patrolmen’s spite a brutal attack by prison guards last Benevolent Association and Mayor Bill September). State mandated tests show de Blasio have called for the board to re- *A Civic Intelligence Service* he poses the lowest possible safety risk if verse its vote, which it could do if it de- allowed to re-enter society. termines there is new evidence it has not But for each of his last seven times yet considered. before the board, commissioners de- Meanwhile, the son of Jones issued a THE EAR TO THE GROUND nied Bell’s release because of his original new statement expressing concern. “Par- crime. This refl ects the “broken” parole ticularly upsetting is the attack on the system Mujahid Farid, founder of Re- Parole Commissioners who made the de- NEWSLETTER lease Aging People From Prison (RAPP), cision to release [Bell],” Jones, Jr. wrote. described to The Indypendent in 2015, “In these times of increased hate, we 1. Local newspapers when he argued the board was “co-opted need more compassion and forgiveness.” by the punishment paradigm.” 2. New state laws Things went differently when Bell 3. Press releases from local grassroots groups faced the board for an eighth time in March, and it recognized he has ex- 4. Corporate blogs From all across the nation. Analyzed and boiled down for YOU, twice per month.

W B A I PRESENTS “As a citizen I genuinely think reading [the] newsletter felt like the best lens into what’s actually going on out there I’ve read all year.” -Reader

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Subscribe NOW: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=6846535 Email with questions: [email protected] www.wbai.org Produced by: 2018 April The IndypendenT The 16 FILM

FASCISM, SOMe ASSeMBLy ReQUIRed

This is Our Land (Chez Nous) changing the party’s name to the “Rassem- This indicates a larger

Directed by Lucas Belvaux blement National,” National Rally. problem: The Front National THE RIGHT TO JEAN-CLAUDE LOTHER, SYNECDOCHE, ARTEMIS PRODUCTIONS Distrib Films, 2017 Ambitious as Belvaux’s project may be, This enjoys widespread media cov- BEAR LEAFLETS: Is Our Land fails to hold its own as a work of erage in France and abroad, (From left) Stéphane art. At its best, it nods to fi lm noir, with scenes but there is precious little in- Caillard, Catherine Jacob, By Anna Polonyi of seedy surveillance and late-night phone depth attention paid to the Cyril Descours and Émilie calls. But more often than not, the plot is er- root causes that push voters to Dequenne in This is Our Land wo women in their forties are sit- ratic, and the fi lm consistently sacrifi ces psycho- turn to Marine Le Pen, or any (Chez Nous). ting eating salads in a diner. One logical depth to its more didactic agenda. other leader who encourages says to the other: “It’s now or What This Is Our Land reveals, perhaps un- hatred and intolerance over democratic values. never, dammit. We’ll fuck them wittingly, is an alarming lack of understanding L’Hénard could be somewhere in West Vir- all!” “Fuck who?” her friend asks. regarding not-so-fringe far-right movements. ginia or Ohio or many other locales in Trum- T“All of them! All the lesson-givers at work, on The main protagonist, Pauline, remains some- plandia. The movie has the potential to serve as TV, everywhere… It’s our turn to teach them a what of a mystery. Although she expresses a distant mirror to viewers here, by presenting lesson.” Is this the onset of the #MeToo move- doubts about becoming involved with the the rise of a conservative backlash in a differ- ment, the burgeoning of a feminist cause? No. party, she caves in surprisingly fast. How does ent country. Pauline represents the fraction of We’re in a small town in northern France, and the daughter of a communist and union orga- people who get involved in the FN not through this conversation prompts one of the women to nizer end up representing the radical right? Is any specifi c political conviction but through a run for mayor on a far-right party ticket. it because she, like many others in this town, combination of factors: the increased normal- This Is Our Land (Chez Nous), a fea- feels abandoned by the national government ization of hate speech, job scarcity and a sag- ture fi lm set in the fi ctional French town of and needs an outlet to vent her frustration? Is ging economy, a resurgence of patriotism. But L’Hénard, tells the story of Pauline, a nurse it through the infl uence of her boyfriend, a for- despite covering all the symptoms, this fi lm of- and single mother of two, as she is lured into representing the ultra-conservative, anti- A FAR RIGHT POLITICAL PARTY’S immigrant party Le Bloc, led by a buxom blonde who inherited the party from her APPEALS TO HATRED AND INTOLERANCE openly racist father. Director Lucas Belvaux’s OVER DEMOCRATIC VALUES GAINS fi ctionalization of France’s far-right Front National par- ENTHUSIASTIC SUPPORT IN A DEPRESSED ty is thinly veiled: Marine Le Pen inherited the FN’s leader- ship in 2011 from her father, FRENCH MINING TOWN. WHY? Jean-Marie Le Pen, an open Jew-hater and Holocaust denier. She has since mer neo-Nazi who enjoys intimidating brown- fers little insight into the underlying processes attempted to distance the party from him and skinned people at night? Or does the party lure of radicalization, nor how to respond to such its violent, neo-Nazi image, and rebrand it as Pauline in by fanning her ego, as it is the only dangerous political drift. a more mainstream anti-immigrant force. The outlet that promises any kind of upward mobil- Still, in a context in which far-right, xeno- town in the fi lm is inspired by Hénin-Beaumont, ity in an otherwise dormant town? phobic and anti-democratic parties are gaining a formerly left-wing mining town where the FN We don’t know, because the fi lm offers up leverage in Europe and the rest of the world, won local elections in 2014. all of these potential reasons by rote, without This Is Our Land is a timely, if fl awed, remind- At a party conference in March in the exploring any of them long enough to be truly er of the insidious ways in which the narratives northern city of Lille, former White House insightful. When Pauline’s campaign organizers of fear can take hold of everyday lives. strategist Steve Bannon gave a pep talk. “Let begin to radically reshape her life, she draws the them call you racist, let them call you xeno- line, not out of a crisis of morals nor because she This Is Our Land will screen at the Film Forum phobes, let them call you nativists,” he told realizes she is being manipulated, but simply be- beginning April 18. them. “Wear it like a badge of honor.” But cause she’d rather stick with her boyfriend than since being solidly defeated in last spring’s have a political career. The fi lm might be mak- April 2018

presidential elections, Marine Le Pen has in- ing the argument that Pauline is your average tensifi ed her efforts to appeal to a wider audi- Jeanne, and, through sheer passivity, can get ence, by saying “globalist” instead of “Jew,” manipulated into becoming a run-of-the-mill toning down the party’s anti-euro rhetoric, right-wing radical. But this is a problem from a forcing a top party offi cial to resign after storytelling perspective: To have a passive cen- he was fi lmed calling a black man “a shitty tral character is mystifying at best, condescend-

The IndypendenT kind of nigger,” and, at the Lille conference, ing at worst. 17 ART

peTeR hUJAR’S UndeRGROUnd neW yORK

“Peter Hujar: Speed of Life” The Morgan Library & Museum Morbidity pervades Candy Darling on Her Deathbed,

225 Madison Avenue published in the New York Post months after Darling © PETER HUJAR ARCHIVE, LLC, COURTESYFRAENKEL PACE/MACGILL GALLERY, SAN GALLERY, FRANCISCO. NEW YORK AND Through May 20, 2018 died of lymphoma, caused by the same hormones that fueled her transition. She was an extremely glamorous actress, an Andy Warhol superstar, but the times were By Gena Hymowech generally not ready for her and she was largely ignored by the mainstream. ew York in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s was unsoiled by gentri- Now, some may not want to look at a photo of a woman dying, espe- fi cation and alive with the energy of sexual, activist and cially a young woman like Candy, yet those of us who are obsessed with her artistic revolutions. It was an embarrassment of riches for or with death wouldn’t dare look away, though what we are seeing is un- photographers talented enough to know what to do with it. clear. She has maybe just fi nished crying, possibly she’s defi ant or perhaps The disco crowd drew in Bill Bernstein and Bobby Miller; she’s resigned to her fate. She seems to be on the verge of a smile, looking DianaN Davies focused on the queer movement; Richard Sandler looked at amused. She’ll be damned if she’ll let cancer steal her beauty. Flowers sur- life in the subway; Joe Conzo, Janette Beckman and Martha Cooper, the round her as if she is already in a coffi n. The room is dark reminding us of hip-hop scene; and Peter Hujar, a cultural underground that would attain the ultimate, eternal darkness that awaits us all. legendary status. Palermo Catacombs #11 is an early Hujar photo of a burial ground

Hujar was one of photography’s rebels, the creative love child of the with what one guesses to be skeletons looking like they’re auditioning for a © PETER HUJAR ARCHIVE, LLC, COURTESYGALLERY, PACE/MACGILL NEW YORK AND FRAENKEL FRANCISCO. GALLERY, SAN weird Diane Arbus and another underground community photographer, “Tales from the Darkside” episode. Girl in My Hallway is another shock- Nan Goldin. He attempted a mainstream magazine career early on but ing piece, with its young, maybe dead child or teen, who Hujar isn’t trying GARY SCHNEIDER discovered it wasn’t what he wanted. Hujar had to march to the beat of his to help. It speaks volumes about the way New York was, the way residents IN CONTORTION own drummer. became numb to urban decay. (2), 1979, gelatin silver The fame of his subjects eclipsed his own at times; still, he should be Hujar was also a queer photographer, involved briefl y with fellow artist print, purchased on The remembered for more than just taking some cool pictures of cool people. David Wojnarowicz. And though he’s not primarily known for his work in Charina Endowment Fund, He helped loosen up the art form, challenging portrait photography in this area, LGBTQ+ history buffs will be intrigued by the way he captured The Morgan Library & the same way some of his subjects challenged the art forms they were the early days of queer activism. There is a feeling of joyfulness, of power, Museum. working in. of a community united in Gay Liberation Front Poster Image. Just think of getting your portrait done at a studio or taking a photo With Christopher Street Pier (2) we look between a man’s legs, which of yourself for Instagram. What do you envision? Getting all dressed up, sounds a lot sexier than it is. He isn’t even naked, and the cruising ground SELF-PORTRAIT wearing make-up and smiling? Staring straight at the camera? A Hujar is almost empty. But what the place stands for — and what this man stands JUMPING (1), 1974, subject might appear to be sleeping, or just getting up, or, as in his photos for — is a wonderful, hard-won sexual freedom. The tragedy, of course, is gelatin silver print, of Susan Sontag, Peggy Lee or Charles Ludlam, lost in thought. that the freedom would be taken away. purchased on The As the museum explains, a “reclining portrait” was “a genre of photo- Like so many talented New Yorkers, including some he photographed, Charina Endowment Fund, graph Hujar made his own.” Hujar captured Ludlam, a theatrical pioneer, Hujar died of an AIDS-related cause. He left too soon but made good use of The Morgan Library & out of drag, looking away from the camera, in a corner of a room, likely his his time here. He slowed down the speed of life so those of us born too late Museum. Morton Street apartment. Hujar isn’t photographing him like a photojour- could get a good view of a New York that will likely never be so exciting, nalist out to capture “the wacky avant-garde.” We feel like we need to take so full of possibility, again. Ludlam seriously. There is also an after-hours feel. Perhaps it is the end of a very long day. Hujar appeared to have a deep respect for his subjects, an understanding. His photographer status meant he was outside the community, but he was also one of them. Fran Lebowitz trusted Hujar enough to A PHOTOGRAPHER WHO TAPPED let him photograph her under a bed sheet (or perhaps a couple) at her then-home in Mor- ristown, N.J. Looking grungily seductive, she INTO OUR BURNING DESIRE TO was a few years away from the publication of Metropolitan Life, but already writing for KNOW WHAT THE FAMOUS ARE LIKE 2018 April Andy Warhol’s Interview. I don’t think Leb- owitz has allowed herself to be photographed appearing so vulnerable since. AWAY FROM THE SPOTLIGHT. She looks at us confi dently, in front of wall- IndypendenT The paper that’s as 1970s as it gets. In Hujar’s world, you were allowed to look less than camera-ready, but still seem sure of yourself in simple, serviceable black and white. Color would only mar his photographs, steal their reality. With the Ludlam, West and Lebowitz portraits, Hujar tapped into some- thing that still looms large over our culture — our burning desire to know what the famous are like away from the spotlight. 18 bluestockings REVEREND BILLY’S radical bookstore | activist center | fair trade cafe 172 ALLEN ST • 212-777-6028 bluestockings.com TRUMP HELP HOTLINE

APRIL 6 • 7–9:30PM BOOK TALK: An evening with Nisha Kapoor, author of Deport, Deprive Extradite: 21st Century State Extremism.

APRIL 12 • 7–9:30PM WORKSHOP: Free for trans folks that want to learn web development and Hi Rev, my 10-year-old daughter and We act surprised that Crackbook is such JON QUILTY computer programming fundamentals. her friends took part in the recent a congenial atmosphere for hate, and school walkouts for gun safety. I’m that gangsters have taken over. But we APRIL 24 • 7–9:30PM proud of her, but I worry she is grow- shouldn’t be. In our country, presidents PODCAST: Suzanne Leonard, author of ing up too fast, becoming political too aren’t leaders, money is. Mark Zucker- Wife, Inc.: The Business of Marriage in the soon. Can you put my mind at ease? berg is one of the wealthiest executives on , in conversation with Twenty-First Century the planet. When he apologized recently Elisa Kreisinger, host of the series Strong — CARLY, East Village for losing our personal data, didn’t Mark Opinions Loosely Held. seem sort of … listless? That’s because Z-berg isn’t a leader either, and that was Celebrate it don’t fear it. The children dawning on him. The dark economy re- carry the truth. They haven’t said that called his soul. Money made a decision. Washington is impenetrable. They We never asked, ‘What is this doing Co-founded by Michael Ratner haven’t admitted that it’s impossible to to us?’ There are ways to communicate (1943-2016) President, Center for have peace. American capitalism wants that make fairness and generosity easier Constitutional Rights; and hosted by to fl ood our kids with childish wars, than hate. Why replace the sexy joy of movement lawyers Heidi Boghosian, porno, ICE raids and Disney aspira- neighborliness? When we walk in the Executive Director, A. J. Muste tional narratives. We need the children to street with our heads up, not bowed over Memorial Institute; and Michael deprogram us. The other day, during the iPhones, then we have the pleasure of un- Steven Smith, New York City 17-minute walkout, we fl oated around expected bumps and swirls and laughter attorney and author. my daughter Lena’s school in a righ- and sorrow and the ongoing music of real teous throng of children under 12. They people. Just put the phone down and go shouted, marched and waved “Love Not back to your body. Look up! Hate” signs. Let’s be feral adults raised — Rev by kids! REVEREND BILLY IS AN ACTIVIST AND POLITICAL SHOUTER, A POST-RELIGIOUS • • • PREACHER OF THE STREETS AND BANK LOBBIES. GOT A QUESTION FOR REVER- END BILLY? JUST EMAIL REVBILLY@ Dear Reverend Billy, INDYPENDENT.ORG AND UNBURDEN YOUR I never wanted to know how badly SOUL. Facebook invaded my privacy. It allows me to stay in touch with my friends and family. I even use it to keep track of you and the Stop Shopping Choir. Now that I can no longer plead ignorance, I’m pondering deleting my account. Can you convince me otherwise?

— BURT, Jersey City April 2018

The IndypendenT 19 April 2018 April The Indypenden The T