DESTROY CHEMICALS OF MASS DESTRUCTION:

The Australian Coalition Against Death Penalty (ACADP) is (again) calling on U.S. President George W. Bush, to join the civilised world and destroy all chemicals of mass destruction, for the dignity and respect of every human life.

The three chemicals (poisons) of mass destruction are;

1. SODIUM THIOPENTAL (Pentothal).

A barbiturate which induces general anaesthesia ...In lethal injections sodium thiopental is used at much higher than clinical dosage levels.

2. PANCURONIUM BROMIDE (PAVULON).

A muscle relaxant ... For lethal injection execution, Pavulon is administered in a massive high dose of up to 100 mg. Tubocurarine chloride and Succinylcholine Chloride are similar chemicals.

3. POTASSIUM CHLORIDE.

A toxic salt ...During lethal injection executions, a dose of around 50-100 milliequivalents is administered over a short period. Its effect at these concentrations is to upset the electrical signalling essential in regulation of heart function and to induce cardiac arrest.

Politicians in the U.S. should reflect upon the damage these chemicals (poisons) used in lethal injection inflicts on their country's reputation. The U.S. president frequently promotes America as the world's most progressive force for human rights. In his State of the Union address, President George W. Bush said that the U.S. long ago made a choice to respect 'the dignity of every human life'.

Chemicals (poisons) used in lethal injection have also shown they fail to deliver the suffering-free execution its proponents claim. There have been a number of cases in which it has failed to bring about the quick, clean and painless death as advertised.

Apart from technical failures in administering these chemicals to a human being, the pain and stress involved with inserting needles and tubes and the often lengthy time spent strapped to the death-gurney waiting to die - is both emotional and physical human torture.

The respect for all human life must begin with the world role model for human rights, George W. Bush, the self-acclaimed compassionate leader of the free world.

Chemicals used for the destruction of human beings must be either destroyed, or administered in the appropriate doses for surgical purposes only, as advised by qualified medical practitioners.

Failure to destroy chemicals of mass destruction for the intent of killing human beings - the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment of state-sanctioned murder - starkly gives the lie to the claim that the United States of America is a leading force for the preservation of human life.

By ACADP 31 March 05

ACADP@ACADP.com
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AUSTRALIAN COALITION AGAINST DEATH PENALTY
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David Kahn, youth program director at Let's Get Free, says there are several places where the plan should push farther, such as developing a strong community oversight process to ensure that the CYA adheres to its commitment. "There's also no mention of closing the facilities and opening new ones," Kahn adds. "In order to provide a safe and supportive environment that is close to home, those that exist now won't work."

Let's Get Free also hopes to intervene on a larger, systematic level. The group wants to see an end to what they see as racist sentencing practices, which they believe result in the over-representation of youth of color in places like CYA. They also hope to monitor the prison guard lobby. Some of the loudest and most colorful opposition to the CYA's new plan so far have come out of from this lobby - the Los Angeles Times recently quoted a former prison officer asking, "Who wrote this plan, Walt Disney?" The California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA), the state's prison guard union, is one of the highest contributors to legislators across the political spectrum. Anti-prison and prison reform activists have long cited this lobby as a driving force behind what they call "the punishment industry," by fostering a tough-on-crime climate that ensures their jobs won't be taken away.

Scyentiffick Herbert, a youth organizer for Let's Get Free, says he is dissatisfied with any plan that involves locking young people up. In the long term, Herbert believes that youth of color need communities and educational practices that affirm and nurture their growth by respecting their ideas and self-expression. "So we're going to fight for our programs and what other organizations like us offer - instead of the CYA," he says.

As youth program director, Kahn explains, "We think that Let's Get Free can be a model community that demonstrates the results you get when you respect young people, when they have opportunities to take leadership positions and make decisions. So while the immediate family of people in the Youth Authority are experts on the problems in the system, Let's Get Free builds our members' expertise on the solutions."

In the coming year, the group also plans to investigate and document effective interventions and alternatives to incarceration, and work to build consensus around them, according to Kahn.

Building Communities of Resistance

Another group that recently began partnering with Books Not Bars in its longer-term vision is Asian and Pacific Islander Youth for Advocacy and Leadership (AYPAL). Like Let's Get Free, AYPAL is also Oakland-based and youth-driven but it also has an annual issue-identification process in which its membership collectively decide on each of their year-long campaigns. Minorum Nok, an AYPAL intern, says the group chose to collaborate with Let's Get Free and Books Not Bars' efforts after watching System Failure.

"After the screening, we were all mad -- and sad -- because all the youth are getting abused and harassed by guards for no reason," Nok says.

Nok, whose uncle is currently incarcerated in an INS detention center, was also active in AYPAL's last campaign challenging deportations.

This collaboration between AYPAL and Books Not Bars has powerful potential to transcend organizing practices that haven't always actively brought together immigrant and U.S.-born communities of color. The hope is to challenge the criminalization of young people in both communities in a way that builds on what the groups have in common.

Claire Tran, youth organizer at AYPAL, says that deportation and the incarceration of CYA youth are both cases where people get separated from their families and communities, and where the punishments does not always fit the crime. And while many of the people who have been deported since 9/11 are in their late 20s, Tran explains that this phenomenon has to do in part with the sentencing people received when they were youth.

The Illegal Immigration and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IRAIRA) of 1996 made people with one-year prison or probation sentences deportable -- and it was retroactive. "Because youth of color are punished more harshly for the same crimes as white youth, they [can] receive doubly harsh punishments [after IRAIRA]," Tran says.

Looking forward, Tran says, "There's a lot of solidarity that's going to be built between the youths. We definitely have their back and they have our back, and that's going to make our fight stronger. "

Potential Ripple Effect

While California is the home to one of the nation's worst juvenile systems, Kahn of Let's Get Free acknowledges that it has the potential to be a big agenda-setter for the rest of the country.

"A lot of people were convinced that the rehabilitative model would work in Missouri but not California," he says. "But I don't think that's totally accurate. There will be differences but the philosophy can and will work. Once California changes to a therapeutic, rehabilitative model with measurable, positive results, other people in smaller states like Connecticut or Rhode Island can look at us and say, 'If it works for a state that big, with that level of complexity, then we can make it work, too!'

Vanessa Huang, 21, is an undergraduate at Brown University concentrating on ethnic studies.

By Vanessa Huang, WireTap. Posted February 14, 2005.

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