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<div><font style="background-color: transparent;">Hi Everyone,</font></div>
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<div>The June meeting of the GPSCC voted to send a letter of support to Rev. Edward Pinkney who is facing five felony charges for his role in a recall petition campaign against the Mayor.</div>
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<div>Below is information about the case that I collected for the Green Shadow Cabinet.</div>
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<div>Sandy Perry</div>
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center; line-height: normal;"><span lang="EN" style='color: rgb(37, 55, 28); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN;'><a href="http://greenshadowcabinet.us/statements/facing-25-years-prison-circulating-petition"><font color="#5596aa" size="3">http://greenshadowcabinet.us/statements/facing-25-years-prison-circulating-petition</font></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-line-height-alt: 13.8pt; mso-outline-level: 1;"><span lang="EN" style='color: rgb(16, 87, 109); font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 18.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;'>Facing 25 Years in Prison for Circulating a Petition <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal;"><span lang="EN" style='color: rgb(37, 55, 28); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN;'><font size="3">June
26, 2014<o:p></o:p></font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal;"><a href="http://greenshadowcabinet.us/member-profile/7547"><span lang="EN" style='color: rgb(85, 150, 170); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; text-decoration: none; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN; text-underline: none;'><font size="3">Sandy
Perry, Secretary of Housing</font></span></a><span lang="EN" style='color: rgb(37, 55, 28); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN;'><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 6pt 0in 12pt; line-height: normal;"><span lang="EN" style='color: rgb(37, 55, 28); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN;'><font size="3">Green Party member and 2008 Congressional candidate
Rev. Edward Pinkney of Benton Harbor, Michigan is once again battling
political persecution. On July 21, he will stand trial for
circulating recall petitions against Benton Harbor’s pro-corporate Mayor
James Hightower.<o:p></o:p></font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 6pt 0in 12pt; line-height: normal;"><span lang="EN" style='color: rgb(37, 55, 28); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN;'><font size="3">The state is charging him with five felony
counts and threatening him with up to twenty-five years in
prison. Benton Harbor has 70% unemployment and 90% of its people living<br>
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below the poverty line, and is also home to one of the richest companies
in the world, the $19 billion Whirlpool Corporation.<o:p></o:p></font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 6pt 0in 12pt; line-height: normal;"><span lang="EN" style='color: rgb(37, 55, 28); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN;'><font size="3">Rev. Pinkney has led residents in a
relentless battle against racism in the criminal justice system, for jobs,
for education, for a better life, and against the state-appointed
“Emergency Financial Manager” (EFM) that took over Benton Harbor in 2011.
EFMs are a threat to democracy everywhere, as proven when an EFM declared
the bankruptcy of Detroit in 2013. A federal judge subsequently ruled that its
workers had no right to keep their pensions despite explicit protection in
the Michigan State Constitution, a decision that impacts the fate
of workers as far away as California.<o:p></o:p></font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 6pt 0in 12pt; line-height: normal;"><span lang="EN" style='color: rgb(37, 55, 28); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN;'><font size="3">The specific charges against Rev. Pinkney
in the recall of Mayor Hightower are that he altered some of the dates on
the petitions. However, the evidence against him introduced at his
preliminary hearing was flimsy and contradictory, as pointed out in a June
3 article in </font></span><a href="http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/06/03/rev-pinkney-in-the-mouth-of-the-beast-in-benton-harbor/" target="_blank"><span lang="EN" style='color: rgb(85, 150, 170); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; text-decoration: none; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN; text-underline: none;'><font size="3">Voice of Detroit</font></span></a><span lang="EN" style='color: rgb(37, 55, 28); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN;'><font size="3">:<o:p></o:p></font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 12pt; line-height: normal;"><i><span lang="EN" style='color: rgb(37, 55, 28); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN;'><font size="3">· </font></span></i><font size="3"><span lang="EN" style='color: rgb(37, 55, 28); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;'>Another Benton
Harbor resident turned in the recall petitions on January 8, not Rev.
Pinkney.</span><span lang="EN" style='color: rgb(37, 55, 28); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN;'><o:p></o:p></span></font></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 6pt 0in 12pt; line-height: normal;"><span lang="EN" style='color: rgb(37, 55, 28); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN;'><font size="3">· Rev. Pinkney was formally charged and a
warrant issued for his arrest on that same day, January 8, but the
petitions were not turned over to the Michigan State Police Forensics Lab
for examination until February 26.<o:p></o:p></font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 6pt 0in 12pt; line-height: normal;"><span lang="EN" style='color: rgb(37, 55, 28); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN;'><font size="3">· In March, Berrien County Sheriff Deputies
conducted a massive campaign to interrogate and intimidate petition
signers throughout Benton Harbor.<o:p></o:p></font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 6pt 0in 12pt; line-height: normal;"><span lang="EN" style='color: rgb(37, 55, 28); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN;'><font size="3">· Sgt. James Goff, who examined the
petitions, is not a certified Forensics Document Examiner.<o:p></o:p></font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 6pt 0in 12pt; line-height: normal;"><span lang="EN" style='color: rgb(37, 55, 28); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN;'><font size="3">· Sgt. Goff testified that, “I can’t say
who altered them or when.”<o:p></o:p></font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 6pt 0in 12pt; line-height: normal;"><span lang="EN" style='color: rgb(37, 55, 28); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN;'><font size="3">· No original petitions were admitted into
evidence, only copies, and the Berrien County Sheriff’s Department,
Elections Commission, and Michigan State Police disagree on where the
originals are located.<o:p></o:p></font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 6pt 0in 12pt; line-height: normal;"><span lang="EN" style='color: rgb(37, 55, 28); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN;'><font size="3">· Three witnesses who had circulated petitions
testified that they saw petition signers themselves change the dates on
their signatures due to errors, and one circulator testified that she
changed a date she herself entered due to an error.<o:p></o:p></font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 6pt 0in 12pt; line-height: normal;"><span lang="EN" style='color: rgb(37, 55, 28); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN;'><font size="3">· County Sheriff Sgt. David Zizkovsky
stated that he himself asked the Forensics Lab to change five dates on the
petitions.<o:p></o:p></font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 6pt 0in 10pt; line-height: normal;"><span lang="EN" style='color: rgb(37, 55, 28); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN;'><font size="3">· There was no confession, no certified
handwriting expert testimony, no eye witnesses, no evidence that Rev.
Pinkney had exclusive access to the petitions, and lots of evidence that
lots of other people had access to them. <o:p></o:p></font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 6pt 0in 12pt; line-height: normal;"><span lang="EN" style='color: rgb(37, 55, 28); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN;'><font size="3">The charges against Rev. Pinkney are an
attack on our right to petition for redress of grievances and our right to
take political action independently of the corporate agenda and the
two-party system. The fight to defend Rev. Pinkney is the fight for
democracy and for the future of America.<o:p></o:p></font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 6pt 0in 12pt; line-height: normal;"><span lang="EN" style='color: rgb(37, 55, 28); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN;'><font size="3">~</font></span><a href="http://greenshadowcabinet.us/member-profile/7547"><i><span lang="EN" style='color: rgb(85, 150, 170); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; text-decoration: none; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN; text-underline: none;'><font size="3"> Sandy
Perry</font></span></i></a><font size="3"><i><span lang="EN" style='color: rgb(37, 55, 28); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN;'> serves
as Secretary of Housing on the General Welfare Branch of the Green Shadow
Cabinet.</span></i><span lang="EN" style='color: rgb(37, 55, 28); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN;'><o:p></o:p></span></font></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 6pt 0in 12pt; line-height: normal;"><span lang="EN" style='color: rgb(37, 55, 28); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN;'><font size="3">Prior article on Rev. Pinkney: </font></span><a href="http://greenshadowcabinet.us/news/democracy-campaigner-rev-pinkney-arrested" target="_blank"><span lang="EN" style='color: rgb(85, 150, 170); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; text-decoration: none; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN; text-underline: none;'><font size="3">Democracy Campaigner, Rev. Pinkney,
Arrested</font></span></a><span lang="EN" style='color: rgb(37, 55, 28); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN;'><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 6pt 0in 12pt; line-height: normal;"><span lang="EN" style='color: rgb(37, 55, 28); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN;'><font size="3">Publicize this case. Write letters of
support for Rev. Pinkney to BANCO (Black Autonomous Network of Community
Organizations) at </font></span><a href="mailto:banco9342@sbcglobal.net" target="_blank"><span lang="EN" style='color: rgb(85, 150, 170); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; text-decoration: none; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN; text-underline: none;'><font size="3">banco9342@sbcglobal.net</font></span></a><span lang="EN" style='color: rgb(37, 55, 28); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN;'><font size="3"> Donations for legal defense may be
sent to BANCO, 1940 Union Street, Benton Harbor, MI 49022.<o:p></o:p></font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin: 6pt 0in 10pt; line-height: normal;"><span lang="EN" style='color: rgb(37, 55, 28); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN;'><font size="3">©2014 Green Shadow Cabinet The Green Shadow
Cabinet of the United States is a civic project not sponsored by or affiliated
with any political party.<o:p></o:p></font></span></div>
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