12 February 21
Feed the Greedy Corporation, Starve the Truth-Teller
The vast majority of our readers are far more likely to hand their money to the very Corporations whose abuses they rely on us to monitor than they are to give us — any money at all — to monitor them. It's not that you do not come to RSN, it’s that most of you do not help out.
As a result the abusive corporate entities thrive while smaller honest organizations are left without means. Stop funding the problem and start funding the solution!
Now would be a good time.
Marc Ash
Founder, Reader Supported News
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12 February 21
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Dan Rather | A Moment for Reckoning
Dan Rather, Steady
Rather writes: "I am shaken, and I like to think I don't shake easily."
I am moved to a deep and profound sadness, and I don't like to think I am prone to melancholy.
But I am also emboldened and determined that what we saw today, the overwhelming evidence presented by the House Managers in the impeachment trial of Donald Trump, shall not, must not, be a portent for where this country goes. Rather it must be a wake-up call to centuries of injustice and false grievances that a would-be despot, bolstered by no shortage of confederates, weaponized and catapulted into an assault on American democracy. As I write these words I still cannot quite believe what really happened. Nevertheless, there can be no denying the reality.
I have tried to get into a rhythm for these Steady posts with a morning publishing schedule. But I feel strongly that the events of today warrant an evening edition.
January 6 was a coordinated attack. It was built atop a foundation of lies doled out with precision over days and weeks. From a different perspective, you might say this was months, years, and even generations in the making. Will it be the last gasps of a discredited white supremacy and the other forces of intolerance that weaken our nation? Will we be able to successfully fight off the lies and propaganda? Or will this be part another major strike of the sledgehammer that’s fracturing our democratic experiment?
I firmly believe that the vast majority of American citizens will see this clearly for what it is. But our voices are on the sidelines for now, other than the pressure of conscience we can bring to bear on the 100 senators who will stand in judgement. That these same women and men were also in the crosshairs of the murderous mob and that the trial is taking place at the scene of the crime, makes the events transpiring today on Capitol Hill even more surreal.
- For the senators, there can be no hiding from this historic decision... silence or procedural excuses equal complicity.
- For the rioters, there can be no leniency... terrorists are inspired by weakness.
- For the instigators, there can be no immunity... to drum up a mob hellbent on violent injustice is to encourage insurrection.
- For those in the right-wing media who aided and abetted the lies, there can be no normalizing... their role in setting the stage for the insurrection is cemented by hours of television and thousands of tweets.
- For those who have dabbled in the false equivalence framework so prevalent in Washington, this must be the end of that... there can be no comparison between the actions of the previous president and his enablers, abetters, and cheerleaders, and any "other side." Thankfully, I think many in the press have long ago realized this and have reported accordingly.
Some might argue that this is a rush to judgement, that the president's counsel has a right to present their case. That is indeed true. But you would have to be willfully ignorant, or cynical to the point of malevolence, to not see and hear with clarity the evidence as it stands.
I have seen my country brought low before. I have reported on the injustices and inequalities that have weakened our national purpose since its inception. I witnessed cowardice and complicity. But never before have I seen all of these undercurrents so focused in a single event.
We have clarity. We have proof. We need accountability. And we need a justice that will ring forth for the generations that follow. We cannot speak of unifying this nation without reckoning with all that is tearing it apart.
—Dan
A snowstorm this winter at the memorial for George Floyd in Minneapolis. (photo: Getty)
William Barr Stopped Plea Deal for Cop Who Killed George Floyd
Matt Stieb, New York Magazine
Stieb writes: "Though Chauvin was facing a state murder charge, the deal reportedly required the federal government's approval because he asked to serve in a federal prison and because he requested an assurance from the Department of Justice that he would not be prosecuted on federal charges of violating Floyd's civil rights."
hree days after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin allegedly murdered George Floyd, he accepted a deal in which he would serve no more than ten years in exchange for pleading guilty to third-degree murder, according to the New York Times. But law-enforcement officials who spoke with the paper say that then-attorney general William Barr rejected the plea, because he felt that protesters around the nation would see it as too lenient and that it was not subject to a proper investigation.
With a plea deal to a charge of third-degree murder off the table, the slow process of trying Chauvin for second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter is about to begin, with jury selection scheduled for March 8. However, there are several different factors that could delay the trial, as the Times notes:
The prosecution has asked an appeals court to put off the proceedings, citing the risk that the trial, with so many demonstrators likely to fill the streets, becomes a superspreader event during the coronavirus pandemic …
The state is also appealing a decision by Judge Peter A. Cahill to separate the trial of Mr. Chauvin, who is charged with second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter — the initial charge of third-degree murder was dropped — from the trial of three other former officers involved in Mr. Floyd’s death, two of whom were rookies with just a few days on the job.
Legal experts, and lawyers involved in the case, say that Judge Cahill’s decision to hold separate trials could benefit Mr. Chauvin — whose lawyer had pushed for a separate trial — because he will no longer have to face the possibility of the other three men pointing the blame at him.
In anticipation of unrest during the trial, the National Guard is preparing for a potential deployment to Minneapolis, while Governor Tim Walz included almost $40 million in security and law-enforcement costs for the proceedings in a recent budget proposal.
The Times report on the failed plea deal comes the day after eight minority correctional officers at Ramsey County Adult Detention Center — the St. Paul jail where Chauvin was held until his release on $1 million bond in October — filed a racial discrimination lawsuit in state district court, claiming that a superintendent reassigned them to a different floor upon Chauvin’s arrival. “The impact on our clients has been immense,” the officers’ attorney said. “They’re deeply humiliated and distressed, and the bonds necessary within the high-stress and high-pressure environment of the ADC have been broken.”
An explosion caused by a police munition is seen while supporters of then-president Donald Trump gather in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6. (photo: Leah Millis/Reuters)
Former FBI Official, a Navy Veteran, Is 'Key Figure' in Jan. 6 Riot, Prosecutors Allege
Rachel Weiner and Spencer S. Hsu, The Washington Post
Excerpt: "A former U.S. Navy intelligence officer and FBI official from Virginia has emerged as a 'key figure' in the federal investigation of the Jan. 6 Capitol breach, as U.S. prosecutors alleged Thursday that he organized a group of trained fighters and was in contact with self-styled militia groups including the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and Three Percenters."
In asking a federal judge to detain Thomas Edward Caldwell, 66, pending trial, prosecutors revealed some of the most explicit evidence to date of discussions allegedly indicating coordination and planning among groups under scrutiny for the assault on Congress that left one police officer and four others dead, delayed the confirmation of President Biden’s victory and led to charges against more than 200 people.
Prosecutors allege Caldwell used his military and law enforcement background to plan violence — including possible snipers and weapons stashed on a boat along the Potomac River — weeks ahead of the Capitol insurrection. Caldwell, of Berryville, Va., is charged on counts of conspiracy, obstructing an official proceeding, trespassing, destruction of government property, and aiding and abetting.
Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes — identified as Person One by prosecutors in documents charging Caldwell — called on members of the group to “stand tall in support of President Trump” on Jan. 6. and, prosecutors say, Caldwell responded. He had been coordinating with the Oath Keepers since the week after the election, prosecutors allege, when he hosted members at his Virginia home for a pro-Trump protest that turned violent.
“Next time (and there WILL be a next time) we will have learned and we will be stronger,” he messaged others afterward, according to the court documents. “I think there will be real violence for all of us next time. . . . I am already working on the next D.C. op.”
Associates of the Oath Keepers had a chat group on the encrypted app Signal to prepare for Jan. 6, according to prosecutors, while Three Percenters met on Zoom.
Caldwell’s lawyer, Thomas K. Plofchan Jr., didn’t address the new allegations in the government brief when reached Thursday but reasserted his client’s innocence. Plofchan argued that the federal prosecutors didn’t address the two issues pending before the court — whether Caldwell, an ailing 66-year-old, is a flight risk or a danger to the community.
Caldwell holds a top-secret security clearance and worked as both a government official and contractor, Plofchan has said. Records show Caldwell won repeated jobs for information technology work from the Drug Enforcement Administration, including one $500,000 solicitation for computer-related services.
Prosecutors alleged in Thursday’s court filing that Caldwell’s military and law enforcement background probably taught him operational tactics that he used “to the detriment of the citizens he at one time swore to serve.”
After the November protest, Caldwell suggested that in its next D.C. foray the group organize into four-man teams with snipers and getaway drivers, according to messages included in the Thursday filing. For Jan. 6., according to the court filing, he suggested stashing “heavy weapons” in a boat on the Potomac River. He shopped online for a “Surgical Steel Tomahawk Axe” and a concealed firearm built to look like a cellphone, prosecutors alleged, and discussed coordination with Proud Boys and Three Percenters.
Five people who prosecutors allege are associated with the Proud Boys were arrested Thursday and charged with crimes connected to the Jan. 6. riot. Prosecutors say several rioters appeared to be associated with the Oath Keeper and Three Percenter movements. Both are loosely organized collections of armed, right-wing groups that focus on recruiting among military and law enforcement veterans. The Proud Boys are a mostly male far-right group that has a history of violence.
On Dec. 23, Caldwell texted a contact with the Three Percenters saying that he expected Oath Keepers from North Carolina, whom he hosted in November, to return for Jan. 6, according to court documents. Prosecutors also said he expected “a big turn out of the Proud Boys” and local Vietnamese Trump supporters. One week later, prosecutors alleged, Caldwell followed up with the contact about plans by his group’s members.
The Three Percenters said on Twitter that “this guy may have reached out to a member, but nothing was coordinated. In fact, we didn’t participate in the Capitol breach.”
Caldwell also compiled a “death list” that included a state election official, prosecutors alleged, and described his political enemies as “cockroaches” and “maggots” that he would dispose of by “killing them, shooting them, and mutilating their corpses to use them as shields.”
In a statement after Caldwell’s indictment, Plofchan said Caldwell is being used as a “scapegoat” and was merely “an observer of increased frustration by some members of the public.” He did not enter the Capitol, Plofchan said, and is not an Oath Keeper.
Prosecutors say it is irrelevant whether Caldwell personally breached the building.
“Like any coach on the sideline, Caldwell was just as responsible as his players on the field for achieving what he viewed as victory that day,” they wrote.
In an interview last month, Rhodes — who has not been charged — said Caldwell “helped” Oath Keepers during the November rally because “he’s a local,” but is “not a leader of any kind.”
Read the defense motion for release
Read the U.S. motion for Thomas Caldwell’s detention
Among those who prosecutors allege coordinated with Caldwell before and on Jan. 6 was Jessica Watkins, a 38-year-old Oath Keeper from Ohio. She too is a “key figure” in the violence and too dangerous to be released, prosecutors said in a Thursday filing.
In a search of Watkins’s home on Jan. 17, federal authorities say they found protective equipment and battle gear, medical supplies, a mini-drone, firearms, a paintball gun, a “bomb making recipe,” zip-ties and pool cues cut down to baton size.
Both she and Caldwell, prosecutors say, “harbor . . . a doomsday mindset that, if anything, risks greater radicalization if released into a community of like-minded individuals.”
On Jan. 21, prosecutors note that Rhodes called Biden’s presidency “illegitimate” and said that while he was “not calling for the initiation of violence,” his followers should “BE PREPARED TO MOVE.”
Watkins talked about going “underground” if the attempt to keep Trump in power was unsuccessful, according to the court records. Caldwell, prosecutors say, was ready for the next fight: “So it begins,” he messaged a contact the day after the riot. “They murdered at least one of us. This is OUR Boston Massacre.”
No attorney is listed for Watkins, who told the Ohio Capital Journal in January that she didn’t commit a crime and that the riot was a peaceful protest that turned violent.
Russian president Vladimir Putin. (photo: Aleksey Nikolskyi/Reuters)
The Same Putin Poison Squad Hit a Washington Post Columnist Before Navalny
Barbie Latza Nadeau, The Daily Beast
Excerpt: "Years before a Russian poison squad nearly killed Alexei Navalny by allegedly planting a Novichok-like nerve agent in his boxer shorts, the same group was honing its skills on other Russian opposition figures."
ears before a Russian poison squad nearly killed Alexei Navalny by allegedly planting a Novichok-like nerve agent in his boxer shorts, the same group was honing its skills on other Russian opposition figures, according to a new report by Bellingcat.
The same agents who Bellingcat says stalked, trailed, and spied on Navalny for more than three years, also trailed three other Russian dissidents, including Kremlin critic and journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza, who, like murdered Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi, was a contributor to The Washington Post.
Kara-Murza was poisoned twice, both incidents leaving him in prolonged comas while his vital organs shut down. Like Navalny’s suspected poisoning, Russian authorities refused to investigate the attacks on Kara-Murza despite international outcry.
According to Bellingcat’s report, two Russian hospitals and three independent examinations concluded that Kara-Murza was poisoned by an unidentified substance.
Using travel records, Bellingcat concluded that the same FSB poison squad who trailed Navalny also showed up where Kara-Murza was for months before his first poisoning in 2015 and trailed him again until he was poisoned in 2017. “The number of coinciding trips—seven destinations with 14 overlapping flights—renders a coincidental overlap statistically implausible,” according to the Bellingcat report. On at least one occasion while trailing the journalist, the squad was accompanied by Roman Mezentsev, who headed the FSB’s Directorate for Protection of the Constitution and the Fight Against Terrorism. Bellingcat says Mezentsev was a close ally with Vladislav Surkov, Putin’s former adviser known in Kremlin circles as The Grey Cardinal.
At least two members of the same poison squad also reportedly trailed Russian anti-corruption activist Nikita Isaev in the weeks before he died on a train ride from Tambov to Moscow in 2019.
The investigative group says it has focused on FSB poison-squad activities outside Moscow because the overlap between the agents and the potential victims is harder to refute, but they do not exclude that the agents actually prefer to kill far from home. “This may be either because of the assumed inferior quality of emergency medical services in those regions; due to the relative ease of accessing a target’s hotel room during trips; or even due to expected long-haul trips by their targets during which medical care would be impeded,” Bellingcat reports. “However, the observed preference of the FSB squad for ‘out-of-Moscow’ poisonings can be used as a proxy for determining their likely complicity to Moscow-based operations as well. It can be logically assumed—and is corroborated by data in the Navalny and Isaev cases—that the squad typically tails a target of a political assassination for at least several months before a hit is launched.”
Because Kara-Murza received treatment for his poisoning in the U.S., The Washington Post has called on the Biden administration to release information about the substance used and whether it was banned, which could open the door to sanctions or more. Late last month, the Post editorial board wrote that since the bureau is “investigating this matter as a case of intentional poisoning,” it should release the details. “It has refused to release the results of its laboratory tests, which might show whether Mr. Kara-Murza, like Mr. Navalny and other Kremlin targets, was attacked with a banned chemical weapon.”
The Post has also unsuccessfully petitioned congressional members, including Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), who is a senior member of the intelligence committee that would be privy to details of the matter. “In light of the string of attacks on Kremlin opponents and the imperative of holding the Putin regime accountable, that’s not acceptable,” the Post editorial board wrote. “Incoming Attorney General Merrick Garland should order the FBI to disclose what it knows about Mr. Kara-Murza.”
Grand jury declines to indict Robert McCabe and Aaron Torgalski on felony assault charges for shoving 75-year-old activist Martin Gugino. (photo: ABC News)
Charges Dropped Against Buffalo Officers Who Pushed 75-Year-Old Protester
Jordan Williams, The Hill
Williams writes: "Charges have been dropped against two police officers in Buffalo, N.Y., who pushed a 75-year-old protester during a demonstration against police brutality and racial injustice last year."
harges have been dropped against two police officers in Buffalo, N.Y., who pushed a 75-year-old protester during a demonstration against police brutality and racial injustice last year.
Erie County District Attorney John Flynn announced during a news conference on Thursday that a grand jury voted to dismiss the case against officers Robert McCabe and Aaron Torgalski.
The officers were charged with felony second-degree assault after being seen in footage last June pushing 75-year-old Martin Gugino during a protest against the death of George Floyd.
Video of the incident showed Gugino approaching the officers, getting pushed back, falling back and hitting the ground, with blood then pooling by his head.
Flynn said Thursday that he brought the charges because under state law if there's an “intentional act” involving a victim 65 years old or older and a perpetrator who is 10 years younger it's a felony.
“A full grand jury presentation was given, and at the end of the grand jury, the grand jurors voted to 'no bill' the case, which means that they dismissed the case,” Flynn said.
He added that the viral video “speaks for itself” while maintaining that officers could have handled the situation differently.
“Mr. Gugino committed a crime that day, he violated curfew. He had no business approaching the police officer, he had no business being on those steps at all, or there at City Hall,” Flynn said. “All that had to be done here, was grab Mr. Gugino, gently turn him around, put the handcuffs on him and walk him peacefully off the steps.”
Women's rights activists still behind bars in Saudi Arabia. (photo: Mohamad Elasaar/MEE)
Loujain Al-Hathloul Was Released, but Other Saudi Women Activists Remain Behind Bars
Nadda Osman, Middle East Eye
Osman writes: "After more than 1,000 days in detention, Saudi women's rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul was released on probation on Wednesday, according to her sister."
MEE takes a look at other advocates still imprisoned in Saudi Arabia for pushing for women's rights in the kingdom
Hathloul was arrested in May 2018 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and sent to Saudi Arabia, where she faced trial on a loosely worded terror law often used to prosecute activists.
A prominent women’s rights defender who campaigned for women freedom to drive, Hathloul quickly became an international icon symbolising the crackdown on freedoms in Saudi Arabia, with human rights organisations launching campaigns calling for her release.
News of Hathloul’s release on probation has been widely celebrated online, However, many women who campaigned for women’s rights in the kingdom still languish behind bars.
Like Hathloul, many were detained around the time Saudi Arabia lifted its ban on women driving on 24 June 2018.
Human Rights Watch has criticised Saudi authorities for continuing to repress dissidents, including human rights activists and independent clerics.
“Despite major women’s rights reforms in recent years, including an end to travel restrictions, Saudi women still must obtain a male guardian’s approval to get married, leave prison, or obtain certain healthcare," the group wrote. "Women also continue to face discrimination in relation to marriage, family, divorce and decisions relating to children, including child custody.”
MEE takes a look at some of those who remain behind bars today.
Nouf Abdulaziz
Soon after the news of Hathloul's release broke, it was revealed that Nouf Abdulaziz also left prison on Wednesday.
Abdulaziz, a blogger, was also detained during the 2018 crackdown on women's rights activists and was arrested on 6 June that year.
She regularly wrote on her blog about women’s rights, the need for reform and the fate of imprisoned activists in the kingdom.
Her columns, which appeared on her personal blog and Saudi feminist website Noon al-Arabyiah, were considered by Saudi authorities to discuss "sensitive issues".
The founder of the Saudi-focused human rights organisation Al-Qst, Yahya Assiri, told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in 2019 that Abdulaziz was forced to stop writing her columns following pressure from officials.
According to the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Abdulaziz was detained at her home in Riyadh in a police raid and has been held incommunicado ever since.
Al-Qst reported that Abdulaziz was convicted on 18 July 2019 on charges related to her posts on her social media. In June 2019, the organisation also reported that her health had deteriorated after she was allegedly tortured, including being beaten by a heavy cord.
The organisation also stated that Abdulaziz last appeared in front of a criminal court in Riyadh on 25 November.
Hana al-Khamri, a friend of Abdulaziz’s, published a letter from her shortly after she was arrested.
In the letter, Abdulaziz questioned why she was considered a criminal in her home country.
“I was never but a good citizen who loved her country and wished the best for it, a loving daughter and a hardworking student and a devoted worker, who never demeaned, hated or envied anyone,” she wrote.
“Take my life, time, health, all that I own if that is for the benefit of my country, take my present, future, and all that I love if that satisfies you and if it’s for the good of our people, but don’t take away my right to life and to freedom and dignity.
"Don’t take away all that I have dreamed of and striven for just to be a scapegoat for the benefit of another.”
According to Reporters Without Borders, Abdulaziz’s family had received warnings in 2016, from the interior ministry, stating that they were watching her.
Eman al-Nafjan
Blogger, author and columnist Eman al-Nafjan, who regularly spoke about feminism in Saudi society and contributed opinion pieces to CNN, the Guardian and Foreign Policy, was arrested in May 2018.
Nafjan started a blog in 2018, in which she wrote about her opinions on the campaign to allow women to drive as well as other women’s rights issues, Saudi anti-terror laws and human rights activists in the kingdom.
The mother of three and assistant teacher in linguistics at the University of Riyadh regularly spoke about women’s issues in the kingdom and encouraged her students to openly discuss such matters.
In an article published in 2012 in the Guardian, she wrote: “I don’t believe gender differences are so strongly felt anywhere in the world as in Saudi Arabia.”
In another article posted in 2012, she highlighted that while many athletes were heading to the London Olympics, Saudi women were still banned from sports.
According to the Gulf Centre for Human Rights, Nafjan drove a car publicly in 2013, in defiance of the law at the time, and was subsequently harassed and interrogated.
Saudi blogger and activist Omaima al-Najjar, who was a student of Nafjan’s, wrote about her fearless fight and campaigning for women’s rights in Saudi Arabia.
“She immediately struck me as a progressive woman with strong opinions who cared about women’s rights and did not shy away from stating it publicly … Eman taught us the value of freedom of speech and tolerance, insisting that all of us - whether conservative or liberal - expressed our opinions openly,” she wrote.
According to the CPJ, as of late 2018, Saudi authorities had not publicly disclosed any charges against Nafjan. In March 2019, Human Rights Watch also reported that prosecutors had not specified the charges against her. There have been no updates on her case since.
Human Rights Watch reported that she potentially faces charges of undermining the security and stability of the state, as well as suspicious contact with foreign parties, which could carry a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
Samar Badawi
Samar Badawi, the sister of imprisoned Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, was arrested on 30 July 2018.
Badawi was known for her work defending human rights and was among the first to bring forward a lawsuit demanding that women be allowed to vote and stand as candidates in municipal elections taking place in 2011.
Badawi also frequently campaigned for the end of the driving ban on women and male guardianship laws, which she believed restricted women’s freedoms.
According to Al-Qst, Badawi was arrested in an armed police raid on her home and is currently held in the Dhahban Central Prison in Jeddah. The rights group also stated that Badawi and other activists have been subjected to “severe and brutal torture and sexual harassment” while detained.
On 19 February 2020, Badawi was called for a secret trial session in the criminal court which international observers were barred from attending. According to the BBC, Badawi appeared in court in November that year. However, no information on her charges has been made public since.
Nassima al-Sadah
A vocal activist, Nassima al-Sadah campaigned for civil and political rights, women’s rights, as well as the rights of the Shia Muslim minority in the country.
In 2016, she questioned the country’s guardianship laws, which she said didn’t make sense. “Why should an underage boy be the guardian of a woman who is an adult?
"Why isn’t there an age at which a woman becomes an adult, responsible for her decisions and life? Why should there be a man responsible for her life?” she wrote.
Sadah was arrested on 31 July 2018, and has been held in solitary confinement and forbidden from seeing her children or her lawyer for months at a time since.
She has made two court appearances since her arrest. The third hearing, which was due to be held in March 2020, was cancelled due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. The BBC reported that she appeared in court in November, but no details on her case have been made public.
A source close to Sadah’s family told Vice that she stood for equal rights for women, despite knowing the dangers she would face as a consequence.
“Essentially, this spirit of struggle is what makes her who she is. I don’t think she can be defined outside of that," the source said.
According to the report, Sadah had received many threats on Twitter over her activism prior to her arrest.
Mayaa al-Zahrani
Mayaa al-Zahrani was detained on 10 June 2018 after expressing support online for Nouf Abdulaziz.
Zahrani had shared an article written by Abdulaziz, in which the latter volunteered to put people in touch with lawyers and human rights organisations.
According to FIDH, Zahrani was sentenced to five years and eight months by Saudi Arabia's special criminal court on 28 December 2020 in relation to her defence of women's rights and activism.
The rights group added that the court has suspended two years and 10 months of the sentence, meaning she would be due to be released in early 2021. However, the partial release will come with a three-year probation period and a five-year travel ban.
"These sentences are in no doubt aiming to punish them for their activism in favour of promoting women's rights, including women's right to drive, which was granted by the [crown prince] of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, a few weeks after their arrest," the rights group stated on its website.
An absorbent boom is placed next to the Chevron Richmond Long Wharf to contain an oil spill at the Chevron refinery in Richmond, California. (photo: Ray Chavez/AP)
'A Clear Danger': Oil Spill in California City Revives Calls to Cut Ties With Chevron
Gabrielle Canon, Guardian UK
Canon writes: "Emergency crews in Richmond, California, are rushing to clean up an estimated 600 gallons of oil that spilled from a Chevron refinery into the San Francisco Bay. Details on the spill are still scant, but the emergency has reinvigorated calls from residents and environmentalists for the city to change its relationship with the refinery."
An estimated 600 gallons of oil have spilled from the Richmond refinery into the San Francisco Bay
The spill at the Chevron Wharf, which poured unabated for nearly two hours on Tuesday, cast a brownish sheen across the waters of the north-eastern part of the bay where harbor seals haul out, migratory birds skim the water, and residents live and recreate.
“It smelled like somebody spilled gasoline in front of my house,” Richmond resident Margaret Berczynski told ABC News. “I cannot take my kids to the water, I cannot walk on water, I cannot enjoy it. I’m really scared,” she added.
Sprawling across close to 3,000 acres on the peninsula hillsides overlooking the Pacific, Chevron’s Richmond refinery churns out 245,000 barrels of crude oil a day. The refinery is older than the city itself, which is located 12 miles from San Francisco and counts roughly 110,000 residents. Tuesday’s spill is just the latest incident in a long history of environmental and public health hazards associated with the oil company in Richmond.
The refinery is one of California’s largest polluters, casting toxins into the sky and sea even during normal operations. State records show the refinery released nearly the same amount of greenhouse gas emissions in 2018 that it did a decade prior.
In 2012, an explosion released black clouds of toxic smoke into the air that sent more than 15,000 people to the hospital. In the last five years, the refinery has been hit with 147 formal enforcement actions, according to documents from the US Environmental Protection Agency. Late last year, Chevron agreed to a settlement with the Bay Area Air Quality Management District for 29 violations issued between 2016 and 2018. Recent increases in flaring – when excess gases are burned off – have also caused community concern.
Richmond has become known as one of the biggest battlegrounds for environmental justice in the US, and Tuesday’s spill renewed calls from activists for the city to end its century-long relationship with the refinery.
“These refineries are a clear, present and ongoing danger to the residents who are forced to live near them,” said Andrés Soto, an organizer at Communities for a Better Environment, an advocacy organization. “These are mostly communities of color,” he added, “and this is disproportionately impacting African Americans, Latinos, working-class and immigrant Asians and working-class and poor whites”.
Roughly 80% of Richmond’s residents are people of color. Nearly a fifth of families fall near the poverty line. Studies have shown higher rates of cancer than in other parts of the county, and roughly 27% of children in the city have asthma, nearly double the rate that do countywide.
“The people of Richmond already carry a disproportionate environmental burden, and spills like this add life-threatening exposure to toxic pollutants,” said Sejal Choksi-Chugh, the executive director of Baykeeper, a non-profit that works to protect San Francisco Bay and its tributaries from pollution, in a statement. “The beaches are closed, the water is contaminated and the whole area smells like a gas station,” she added.
The Richmond city council member Gayle McLaughlin, a former Green party member who has worked in city politics since 2004, including the eight years she served as mayor, said she was planning to form a taskforce that will look into how the city can push Chevron out. She has won battles – and lawsuits – against the company in the past. A founder and central figure for the Richmond Progressive Alliance, a political group that won seats even when it was up against heavily Chevron-funded candidates, she led a march with more than 3,000 people protesting against the refinery in 2013 on the year anniversary of the explosion and she said since then support had only grown.
“We have a great reputation in Richmond for forming huge local movements and bringing in Bay Area community members,” she said. “We have lived with this refinery for 100 years,” she added. Now, she’s ready to do “whatever it takes” to get them to leave.
It won’t be easy and the move is probably a long way off. Chevron remains the city’s top employer, providing nearly 3,500 jobs. The Pacific Institute reported in 2013 that previous years’ tax documents showed Chevron contributed more than 10% of Richmond’s general fund. The city’s most recent budget shows the amount has risen since.
The oil titan has also invested heavily in local non-profits, economic development projects and city initiatives. In 2015, the city gave Chevron the green light to move forward with a large-scale modernization project in exchange for $90m provided to the community over 10 years, and $80m to fund environmental programs.
“Chevron’s Richmond Refinery workforce takes its role as good neighbors seriously and is continually working to reduce our environmental footprint and to improve reliability,” the Chevron spokesperson Tyler Kruzich said in a statement to the Guardian, adding that the company has invested $200m annually on maintenance and reliability projects on top of the hundreds of millions of dollars over the past 15 years. He also attributed the recent flaring to the startup of the $1bn Modernization Project, which “improves energy efficiency, reduces air emissions overall, and increases safety and reliability”.
McLaughlin doesn’t think the company has acted in good faith. “We were pushing for climate crisis mitigations and they utilized that so now they can pollute our community and maybe plant some trees over in another country”, she said.
And, she adds, it’s time to start planning for the future anyway. California has set a goal to go 100% carbon-free by 2045, and she would like to see the city gradually ease off its connection to Chevron, so there is time to rebuild the local economy around other industries. She thinks the citizens of Richmond will agree.
“We will use the power of people to push them,” McLaughlin said, “and if we have to, we will use our policing power as a city.”
