[Peace-discuss] Rev. Edward Pinkney Imprisoned For Fighting The Whirlpool Corp

[David Johnson via Peace-discuss]

Rev. Edward Pinkney Imprisoned For Fighting The Whirlpool Corp

Description: Rev. Edward Pinkney and his lawyer Tat Parish (Photo: John
Madill)

 <https://www.popularresistance.org/category/educate/> Educate!
<https://www.popularresistance.org/tag/community/> Community,
<https://www.popularresistance.org/tag/economic-justice/> Economic Justice,
<https://www.popularresistance.org/tag/law/> Law,
<https://www.popularresistance.org/tag/social-justice/> Social Justice 
By Victoria Collier and Ben-Zion Ptashnik,
<http://truth-out.org/news/item/28050-whirlpool-corporation-sentences-edward
-pinkney-to-prison-with-no-evidence> www.truth-out.org
December 17th, 2014

Rev. Edward Pinkney and his lawyer Tat Parish (Photo: John Madill)

"Here, Whirlpool controls not only Benton Harbor and the residents, but also
the court system itself. They will do anything to crush you if you stand up
to them. That's why it's so important to fight this. I'm going to fight them
until the end. This is not just an attack on Rev. Pinkney. It's an attack on
every single person that lives in Benton Harbor, in the state and around the
country." - Rev. Edward Pinkney

On December 15, Rev. Edward Pinkney, a leader in the struggle for social and
economic justice for the residents of Benton Harbor, Michigan, was sentenced
to serve up to 10 years in prison, on the basis of thin circumstantial
evidence that a few dates had been altered on a recall petition against the
city's mayor, James Hightower. The recall was prompted by the mayor's
continued support for tax evasion by the Whirlpool Corporation, the Fortune
500 company and $19 billion global appliance manufacturer, headquartered in
Benton Harbor.

As
<http://truth-out.org/news/item/27974-all-white-jury-convicts-black-communit
y-leader-with-no-evidence-reverend-edward-pinkney-faces-life-in-prison> we
wrote last week in depth, the politically motivated prosecution against
Pinkney killed the petition to recall Hightower, who many believe would have
been ousted due to his ongoing protection of Whirlpool's interests at the
expense of impoverished Benton Harbor, which is over 90 percent
African-American.

There was absolutely no evidence to convict Pinkney, and, legally, the
altering of a petition document should have been a
<http://www.michigan.gov/documents/sos/Ini_Ref_Pet_Website_339487_7.pdf>
misdemeanor offense. Instead, they charged him with felony forgery - though
no signatures were forged and all signatories testified that they signed
willingly on the correct day. A forensics expert for the prosecution
testified that there was no way to determine who changed the handful of
dates. Incredibly, the all-white jury was urged by the prosecutor to believe
that direct evidence was not required; they only had to "believe" that
Pinkney was motivated to cheat and that he "could" have changed the dates
while circulating the petitions.

Mary Alice Adams, a Benton Harbor commissioner
<http://peoplestribune.org/pt-news/2014/11/significance-rev-edward-pinkney-t
rial/> stated, "Rev. Pinkney was accused of writing and changing my date on
a petition when, in fact, I wrote my own date and changed it after realizing
I had put the wrong date down." The jury at Pinkney's trial rejected Adams'
testimony.

Witness after witness stood up to the prosecutor who put not only Pinkney on
trial, but also his community organization, BANCO. The prosecutor hounded
the witnesses to "confess" that somehow the dates were altered, and
questioned if they were card-holding members of the BANCO organization. The
scene held shadows of a McCarthy-era House Un-American Activities Committee
witch-hunt.


 
<https://www.popularresistance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Screen-Shot-20
14-12-17-at-10.23.34-AM.png> Description: Screen Shot 2014-12-17 at 10.23.34
AMPinkney had helped organize the petition to unseat Benton Harbor Mayor
James Hightower, who residents consider a "yes-man" for Whirlpool. Instead
of supporting a tax that would make Whirlpool pay its fair share for city
services and employees, the mayor signed a $3.2 million loan that the
residents of Benton Harbor, one of the poorest cities per capita in the
United States, would now have to pay. Meanwhile, Whirlpool pays absolutely
no income taxes to the federal government or to Michigan.

Pinkney was also a leader in the fight against what he called an "illegal"
ceding of a Benton Harbor public park to Whirlpool and a development firm
which privatized the park and gentrified that prime real estate into a golf
course and wealthy gated community on Lake Michigan - excluding the people
that the property was deeded to serve. Pinkney led a protest against the PGA
Senior golf tournament at the private new golf course, sponsored by
Kitchen-Aid, a division of Whirlpool.

And so, with the complicity of a white, "highly political" right-wing
prosecutor, Whirlpool reached into the court system and publicly "lynched"
the town's most prominent and outspoken black community activist who dared
to stand up to the powerful company and the state's elite. Pinkney's
sentencing is as blatant a kangaroo court as seen since Hurricane Carter, a
black power advocate, was framed by New Jersey prosecutors decades ago - a
typical case of the white power structure icing an "uppity Negro" with
trumped up charges. In Carter's case, the witnesses were two men facing
charges for burglary, who were enticed to provide false testimony with
reduced charges.

Pinkney says he was similarly set up to take a fall for a paltry smattering
of election fraud charges in 2006 during an attempt to recall a city
commissioner. He was finally convicted of possessing four absentee ballots,
but pointed out that the women who fingered him - all members of a family -
mysteriously avoided jail time for the multiple criminal charges they were
facing, including a drive-by shooting and kidnapping.

"I'm not angry with them for doing that," Pinkney said. "It's a deal that's
hard to pass up."

Pinkney was put on probation at the time, until he had the audacity to quote
a particularly scathing section of Deuteronomy to the judge, who then
sentenced him to three to 10 years in prison. During his seven months in the
county jail and four months in prison, Pinkney ran for a seat in the US
House and received more than 3,500 votes as a Green Party candidate. The
American Civil Liberties Union finally got him released on an appeal bond,
and he was allowed to return home under house arrest.

But if Pinkney is a man who's hard to keep down, his enemies are just as
determined to put him away for good.

"It's a modern day lynching," said Adams, the Benton Harbor commissioner, of
Pinkney's latest conviction. "After hearing the 'evidence' it would seem
that the decision was made before the trial began. They are looking at
Michigan as a glove for dictatorship. And the predominantly black
communities are the test tubes. When you stand up against the largest
manufacturer of appliances in the world, of course there will be a
backlash."

Pinkney was straightforward in his description of his conviction:

Here, Whirlpool controls not only Benton Harbor and the residents, but also
the court system itself. They will do anything to crush you if you stand up
to them. That's why it's so important to fight this. I'm going to fight them
until the end. This is not just an attack on Rev. Pinkney. It's an attack on
every single person that lives in Benton Harbor, in the state and around the
country. We got to fix this jury system. There was not one person from
Benton Harbor, not one person from Benton Township on the jury. Anytime a
Black man is sitting inside that courtroom and the jury is all white, that
is a major problem.

Michigan is a state where virulent racism followed the Great Migration of
southern blacks into northern industrial states in the 20th century. With
more than two dozen racist hate groups still active in the state, Michigan
has essentially turned into the Mississippi of the North. In fact, Pinkney
organized his community against the KKK when they began to hold rallies in
Benton Harbor in the 1990s.

Pinkney points out how class intersects with race, when it comes to the
oppression of the people of Benton Harbor. "It's a class war," he said.
"It's us against them. Rich against poor. That's what it adds up to. The
point is we have to take a stand. It's about you, your children, and your
grandchildren. I never thought for a minute that the system could be this
broken and would go to this extreme. They could care less about you, me or
anybody else. They only have one thing in mind. That is to make sure they
protect the rich."

Judge Schrock denied Pinkney's lawyer's request for release pending his
appeal. Pinkney was handcuffed and hauled off to jail from the county
courthouse as his wife, Dorothy, and supporters stood aghast, having
witnessed US justice for an African-American minister at its racist best.

Concerned activists and clergy associated with People Demanding Action, a
national social justice organization, are circulating a petition to
ministers and various organizations. The petition is to be forwarded to the
US Justice Department and Attorney General Eric Holder, asking for an
investigation into the circumstances of Pinkney's trial and sentencing.

Support for Rev. Edward Pinkney's appeal should be sent to his organization:
BANCO, 1940 Union Street Benton Harbor MI 49022

 

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