Americans Have Said the "Pledge of Allegiance" So Long that We Really Expect "Liberty and Justice for All." Is it time for 're-education camps' for haughty commoners?
InfoWars.com Thursday, May 3, 2012 reports: A leaked U.S. Army document prepared
for the Department of Defense contains shocking plans for “political activists”
to be pacified by “PSYOP officers” into developing an “appreciation of U.S.
policies” while detained in prison camps inside the United States.
InforWars reports that the manual lists the following roles
that are designated to the “PSYOP team”:
- Identifies malcontents, trained agitators, and political
leaders within the facility who may try to organize resistance or create
disturbances.
- Develops and executes indoctrination programs to reduce or
remove antagonistic attitudes.
- Identifies political activists.
- Provides loudspeaker support (such as administrative
announcements and facility instructions when necessary).
- Helps the military police commander control detainee and
DC populations during emergencies.
- Plans and executes a PSYOP program that produces an
understanding and appreciation of U.S. policies and actions. http://www.infowars.com/leaked-u-s-army-document-outlines-plan-for-re-education-camps-in-america/
I learned in 2009 that authorities considered my family out
of line for asking how/why my mentally, physically disabled brother was
secretly arrested and killed in Memphis Shelby County Jail in 2003. When the
federal judge issued a court order that whatever The Cochran Firm did to
prevent our lawsuit against the jail and to prevent our access to records about
Larry's demise was "immaterial," I learned that Americans, especially
blacks, are considered less than pit bulls, whose right to life is actually
protected. Some Americans who think they are equal to pit bulls may need to go
to be re-educated in china. The Chinese know how to work that philosophy of
liberty out of anybody. The president and 112th congress signed NDAA with Section
1021 providing for Americans to be banished to camps.
IT IS TIME FOR EVERYONE TO WAKE UP AND SUPPORT RON PAUL. HE INTRODUCED H.R.3785 TO REMOVE THE THREAT OF BEING "RE-EDUCATED" IN CONCENTRATION CAMPS FROM AMERICANS WHO HAVE BEEN "BRAINWASHED" INTO BELIEVING WE HAVE A RIGHT TO BE FREE AND THAT OUR LIVES MATTER, EVEN HANDICAPPED PEOPLE LIKE LARRY NEAL. I TRULY ADVISE ALL HANDICAPPED PEOPLE AND THOSE WITH ELDERLY OR HANDICAPPED RELATIVES AND FRIENDS AND EVERYONE WHO HOPES TO GET OLD AND INFIRMED THEMSELVES TO VOTE FOR RON PAUL. THESE PEOPLE ARE TRULY THINKING STRANGE THOUGHTS. S-T-R-A-N-G-E. AND THEY AREN'T TRYING TO HIDE IT.
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
Reeducation Through Labor in China
US-China Summit (June 1998) and
Human Rights Campaigns Page
Reeducation through labor (laodong jiaoyang or laojiao),
according to the Ministry of Public Security, is an administrative measure of
reform through compulsory education designed to change offenders into people
who "obey law, respect public virtue, love their country, love hard work,
and possess certain standards of education and productive skills for the
building of socialism." The term refers to a system of detention and
punishment administratively imposed on those who are deemed to have committed
minor offenses but are not legally considered criminals. Reeducation through
labor sometimes labeled
rehabilitation through labor is
not to be confused with reform though labor (laodong gaizao or laogai), the
complex of prisons, labor camps, and labor farms for those sentenced
judicially.
The recipient of a reeducation through labor sentence has no
right to a hearing, no right to counsel, and no right to any kind of judicial
determination of his case.
There are five major problems with reeducation through labor:
the lack of any kind of procedural restraints, the use of reeducation to
incarcerate political and religious dissidents, the problems of appeal; the
conditions in the camps, and the system of "retention for in-camp
employment" that permits authorities to keep prisoners in the camps after
the expiration of their sentences.
Statistics are difficult to come by, but according to a
report by the U.N.'s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on December 22, 1997,
published after the Working Group's trip to China earlier that year, there are
230,000 persons in 280 reeducation through labor centers around the country.
The figure represents more than a 50 percent increase over four years. At the
end 1993, the reeducation through labor figure was 150,000.
Reeducation Through Labor Management Committees, composed of
officials from the civil affairs, public security, and labor departments, are
responsible for directing and administering the work of reeducation through
labor and for examining and approving those who are in need of reeducation. The
committees operate in provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly
under the central government, as well as in large and medium sized cities.
Different agencies and individuals, from parents to employers to the police,
can recommend to the committees, through a petition process, that offenders be
sent for reeducation. Public security organs are in charge of the actual labor
camps, and the "people's procuratorates" supervise the activities of
all agencies involved in the reeducation process.
The usual procedure is for the police acting on their own to
determine a reeducation term. Sentences run from one to three years'
confinement in a camp or farm, often longer than for similar criminal offenses.
A term can be extended for a fourth year if, in the prison authorities'
judgment, the recipient has not been sufficiently reeducated, fails to admit
guilt, or violates camp discipline.
The recipient of a reeducation through labor sentence has no
right to a hearing, no right to counsel, and no right to any kind of judicial
determination of his case. Decisions are often hastily made. Liu Xiaobo,
renowned literary critic and former professor of Chinese literature who helped
negotiate the safe departure of students from Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989,
was seized at his home on October 7, 1996 and administratively sentenced to a
three-year reeducation term the following day. As mentioned, those
administratively sentenced are technically not criminals and neither they nor
their children may be discriminated against when it comes to employment or
school enrollment.
Article 10 of a 1982 government document called Trial
Implementation Methods lists the "categories of persons" to be
"taken in for reeducation through labor." Several of the categories
and terms are vague. All the offenses described can be judicially prosecuted if
sufficiently serious, but no specific distinction between those acts deemed
minor and those which can be "pursued for criminal responsibility" has
ever been made. The first category listed refers to "counterrevolutionary
elements" and those who are against the communist party and socialism.
Often such dissidents are held on trumped-up charges such as
"hooliganism" or "disturbing the social order." Other
categories include "those who associate with groups which have committed
murder, robbery, rape, arson, etc."; migrants, prostitutes, and those who
steal or cheat but who refuse to reform; gang members who "disturb the
public order"; those who refuse to work or hinder production; and those
who instigate others to commit crimes. Those not eligible for reeducation
include mental patients, the blind, the deaf and dumb, the retarded, the
severely ill, those who cannot take part in labor, and pregnant women or those whose
children are not yet one year old and are being breast fed. Bishop Zeng Jingmu,
the seventy-eight-year-old Catholic Bishop of Yujiang diocese, Jiangxi
province, was sentenced to a three-year "reeducation through labor"
term on March 18, 1996 for "violating administrative norms," and for
"irresponsibly organizing illegal meetings," that is religious
assemblies and masses not sanctioned by the government's official Chinese
Catholic Church. Too old to work like other prisoners, he was held in a
facility housing detainees awaiting sentencing until his release in May 1998.
The 1990 Administrative Procedure Law provides for
challenges to reeducation through labor decisions by appeal to the people's
court. The court has the power to order a person's release, but apparently the
number of cases overturned on appeal is minuscule; and there is some evidence
that a challenge may be regarded as evidence of a person's lack of amenability
to reeducation. Liu Xiaobo, for example, spent five months in a reeducation camp
before his appeal was even heard and denied. Liu Nianchun, a veteran labor
activist who received a three-year reeducation sentence for his participation
in a petition campaign at the time of the sixth anniversary of June 4, 1989,
finally had an appeal hearing heard sixteen months after he
"disappeared." He was permitted to meet with his lawyer once, just a
few hours before the hearing; his relatives were effectively barred.
In theory, reeducation camps and reform through labor camps
are significantly different. Those in reeducation are paid for their work but
they must supply their own clothing and bedding. Part of an inmates' income may
be used for support of their dependents or reserved for their own use after
release. Inmates are to work no more than six hours a day and study no more
than three, and they are entitled to eight hours' sleep each night and rest on
Sundays and during festivals. Regulations provide for "awards for
achievement and punishment for...wrong doings. The reward should be big and the
punishment should be light." If the appropriate labor management committee
approves, terms can be shortened by as much as 50 percent; on the other hand
terms, as noted, can be extended for up to one year. The cases of Liu Nianchun;
Zhou Guoqiang, a labor rights activist and lawyer; and Gao Feng, a religious
dissident, all had their sentences extended (288 days for Zhou and 216 for the
others) for failure to reform. When Liu protested and began a hunger strike on
May 22, he reportedly was thrown into a small dark punishment cell, denied
sufficient water, and tortured with electric shocks. The international
publicity given to the cases may have accounted for reversals of the extensions
for Zhou and Gao. Liu Nianchun, due for release on May 20, 1998, was still in
prison as of June 1998.
A detainee with a good record after half a year
theoretically may go home at his or her own expense during festivals or under
special circumstances. Those who are very ill can be released for treatment but
must bear the costs unless the illness or injury is work related. In several
cases, "medical parole" even for very sick prisoners has been denied.
Once recovered they must complete their terms.
In practice, reeducation camp conditions are harsh and the
work load heavy. Inmates work in mines and brick factories, for example, and do
heavy agricultural labor. The People's Armed Police guard reeducation inmates
just as they guard those who have been judically convicted.
In practice, reeducation camp conditions are harsh and the
work load heavy. Inmates work in mines and brick factories, for example, and do
heavy agricultural labor. The People's Armed Police guard reeducation inmates
just as they guard those who have been judically convicted.
According to the regulations, the correspondence of those
held for reeducation is not subject to examination, and guards may not listen
to conversations between inmates and visitors. However nothing in the
regulations provides for regular visits and cases are known in which visitation
rights have been suspended for months on end. A Shanghai dissident, Bao Ge, for
example, was permitted only one family visit during his three-year term because
he refused to confess his "crimes." He was also denied permission to
attend his father's funeral even though he had not violated prison regulations.
Another Shanghai dissident, Yao Zhenxiang, was able to see his wife only once
in twenty-two months.
The Trial Implementation Methods limit to ten days the
amount of time those in reeducation who "carry out a violent act,
instigate troubles or commit other dangerous acts" may be locked up.
Punishment instruments can only be used if application to do so has been
approved, and then only for serious cases and only for seven days. Handcuffing
behind the back and shackles are prohibited as are beating, corporal
punishment, and torture. The case of Chen Longde proves otherwise. On August
17, 1996, shortly after his conviction to a three-year reeducation sentence,
Chen leapt from a two-story walkway at Luoshen Labor Camp in an attempt to
avoid repeated beatings and electric shocks from a senior prison official as
punishment for his refusal to write a statement of guilt and self-criticism.
The official also had promised other prisoners reduced sentences if they too
beat Chen. Suffering from two broken hips, a broken leg, and facial injuries,
Chen was moved to a police hospital where he spent months flat on his back
without moving. On December 1, he was returned to prison still suffering from
his injuries which included kidney damage related to the beatings. To date, he
reportedly has great difficulty walking but must put in the required work hours
at tasks he can do while sitting. Tong Yi, secretary to Wei Jingsheng, was
beaten for refusal to put in sixteen-hour days; Yao Zhenxiang was beaten beyond
recognition; and Zhang Lin, an Anhui labor activist, sentenced on the
trumped-up charge of never having registered his marriage, also was repeatedly
beaten.
"Retention for in-camp employment" refers to a
system which prevents some people who have completed reeducation terms from
returning home. Among those who can be retained are those who have served two
terms and, those whose reeducation sentences have been extended. If after three
years, such persons have truly reformed, they may return home; if not they may
be held indefinitely. In some instances, those who have completed judical
sentences are immediately sentenced to reeducation terms for what is deemed
unsatisfactory behavior in prison. Such people are sometimes subject to
indefinite retention.
Within the legal community in China, reeducation through
labor is controversial. Its revision or elimination was under discussion before
March 1996 when the National People's Congress (China's legislature) approved
major revisions to the Criminal Procedure Law which took effect on January 1,
1997. However, an article in the September 30, 1997 Legal Daily (Fazhi Ribao),
an official newspaper, defended the practice as a way to "maintain social
peace and prevent and reduce crime." It likened the practice as similar to
the way parents treat their children, doctors their patients and teachers their
students, and called for strengthening the system. It recommended further
definition of the system's legal status and its relationship to other laws,
standardization of screening and approval procedures, and improved mechanisms
of reeducation.
The legislation applicable to reeducation through labor goes
back to 1957; the last set of regulations, the Ministry of Justice's Detailed
Regulations on the Administration of Reeducation Through Labor dates from 1992.
The three that preceded it and are still applicable in whole or part are:
Decision of the State Council Regarding the Question of Reeducation Through
Labor, approved by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress,
August 1, 1957; Supplementary Provisions of the State Council on Reeducation
through Labor, approved by the Standing Committee of the National People's
Congress, November 29, 1979; and Trial Implementation Methods for Reeducation
through Labor, adopted January 21, 1982. The 1957 Decision is still the
fundamental law authorizing reeducation through labor.
Reeducation through labor sanctions violate numerous
provisions of International law. Article 9 (4.)of the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) provides that "Anyone who is deprived
of his liberty by arrest or detention shall be entitled to take proceedings
before a court, in order that the court may decide without delay on the
lawfulness of his detention..." The reeducation process is arbitrary. It
removes the presumption of innocence, involves no judicial officer, provides
for no public trial, and makes no provision for defense against the charges.
In practice, reeducation camp conditions are harsh and the work load heavy. Inmates work in mines and brick factories, for example, and do heavy agricultural labor. The People's Armed Police guard reeducation inmates just as they guard those who have been judically convicted.
US-China Summit (June 1998) and Human Rights - Campaigns
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