Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, speaking at the People's Summit in downtown Detroit on June 15, 2009. (Photo: Alan Pollock)
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
By Abayomi Azikiwe
Editor, Pan-African News Wire
Attorney General Report Continues Cover-up in Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah’s Assassination
Attorney General Mike Cox has issued a 107-page report on the October 28, 2009 assassination of African American Muslim Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah. The imam was shot 20 times by FBI agents at a Dearborn warehouse where he had been lured by informants under false pretenses.
When the imam arrived to purportedly unload goods from transport trucks, which in actuality had been supplied by the FBI, he was attacked by a police dog and shot to death by several agents. The conclusion of the report issued by Cox upholds the actions of the federal government saying that they were justified.
The report released on September 30 begins with unsubstantiated allegations taken directly from the U.S. District Attorney’s Office in a 44-page criminal complaint issued at the time of the Imam Abdullah’s assassination. Cox states that “FBI agents’ use of deadly force in this matter was legally justified.”(Attorney General Report, p. 2)
In a subsequent report issued by the Dearborn Police on October 1, new details reveal that the killing of the imam was a counter-terrorism operation. The Detroit Free Press notes that “the FBI brought in 14 agents from an elite squad based in Quantico, Va., known as HRT, Hostage Rescue Team, to assist the Detroit FBI.” (Detroit Free Press, October 1)
The Free Press continues by pointing out that “Three of the four agents who shot at Abdullah were with HRT. The team is known for dealing with hostage or counter-terrorism situations.” In addition to 66 federal agents being involved in the operation, there was also the presence of ICE, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Wayne County Sheriff’s Department, Detroit Police and Dearborn Police.
Various organizations have rejected the AG’s report as relying almost exclusively on information provided by the FBI and government informants. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) of Michigan has criticized the report as being one-sided.
A press statement issued by the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality on October 1 stated “We believe that the 22-shot barrage that brought an end to the life of Imam Luqman, and which resulted in at least 10 men awaiting trial on minor criminal charges, represents a misuse of federal, state and local law enforcement resources.” (Detroit News, October 1)
MPSC Hearing Seeks to Absolve DTE Energy of Responsibility in Detroit Fires
A hearing called by the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) on September 29 in Detroit provided few answers to the internal operations of DTE Energy in regard to citizen’s complaints that the corporation failed to respond to requests for repair of faulty equipment that contributed to setting 85 fires in various sections of the city.
Public comment was heard by an Administrative Law Judge for the MPSC Daniel Nickerson. When a representative of the Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures, Evictions and Utility Shut-offs addressed the hearing and cited numerous newspaper articles that carried quotes of neighborhood residents who said that they had called in requests to repair equipment for several days prior to the fires on September 7, Nickerson acted as if he was unaware of such claims.
All of these accounts were published in both Detroit dailies, the News and Free Press. Nickerson then said that the only purpose of the hearing was to gather information from those affected by the fires on September 7.
DTE Energy is largely a monopoly in southeastern Michigan. Through the company’s own public admissions they disconnect both electrical and heating services of over 150,000 households per year. Over the last 15 months there have been media reports of at least 12 people who have died after their utility services were terminated.
Rev. Ed Rowe, pastor of Central United Methodist Church in downtown Detroit, told the MPSC that “we need a moratorium on utility shut-offs.” Rowe also told the Commission that the utilities should not be owned by a private corporation.
DTE Energy, which claims to have over $20 billion in assets, has failed to re-invest its profits into providing maintenance and upgrading its equipment. The corporation has blamed illegal utility hook-ups for the fires and deaths.
Detroit Fire Fighters have had their ranks trimmed down to 500 personnel. Budget cuts due to massive debt-service payments to the financial institutions are crippling the ability of the city government to respond to emergencies. The Moratorium NOW! Coalition has distributed leaflets, held rallies, mass meetings and demonstrations demanding that the city administration declare a suspension of debt payments to the banks.
State Poverty Rate Increase Leads the Country
In recent U.S. Census data released in regard to income and household assets, the rate of poverty has increased tremendously among all sectors of the working class. However, poverty rate increases have been most substantial among women, African Americans and Latinos.
The state of Michigan has experienced the largest drop in household income of any other place in the U.S. Census data made public on September 29, the Detroit News says, “shows how much less—the state’s median household income fell by more than $12,000 over the last decade—the equivalent of trimming $1,000 from a family’s monthly budget.
“The drop was stunning in both its size and its singularity: No other state came close to losing the estimated 21.3 percent of its median income between 2000 and 2009, and no state endured the 6.5 percent drop seen from 2008 to 2009.”
Census figures published in recent weeks illustrates that government claims that the Great Recession is over means very little in regard to the social conditions of working people and the oppressed in the United States. With specific reference to Detroit, a city with over an 80% African American population, “a third of the city’s residents lived in poverty in 2009, a dramatic increase from a quarter in 2000.” (Detroit News, September 29)
For residents of Detroit the median income declined by 31.3 percent over the last decade, from 38,009 in 2000 to $26,098 in 2009. The city ranks fourth among all municipalities nationwide that are most adversely affected.
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