Blogs

Forward from a friend of RR:

Hi folks,
Bad news, I mean in more ways than one.
I subscribe to a few email updates from various information bureaus of the Justice Department. The Bureau of Justice Statistics and a few others. the information they put out was surprisingly objective. However just this week I got an email from the National Criminal Justice Reference Service that has "Prisoners and Pot: Debunking the Myth" as the subject line. Back when Ashcroft first got in he talked about the various information outlets of the DOJ "Speaking with one voice" preumably to better reflect the policies of the DOJ itself. I knew it was coming I haven't seen evidence of it until now. This recent report, that is announced in the email is a clear attempt to discredit some of the rhetoric used by critics of the drug war, basically by saying that only a tiny number of prisoners are in jail for pot. I haven't looked at it closely but it's got to be bullshit. The real unfortunate thing now is that what once was reliable source of information about the Prison Industrial Complex is now turning into a propaganda machine.

On Sunday my friend Susan and I cut through Union Square Park on our bicycles. It was a beautiful almost too joy filled day on the first gorgeous weekend of the year. It was great to be on bikes, until...near the east end of the park a woman stood in my way, not saying anything, just looking at me like I should know what was up. She asked if we knew that it was illegal to ride a bike in the park. We didn't. Didn't we see the signs? No.

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Fostering Civic Engagement: Models and Practices for All Libraries


Saturday, June 25th, 1:30-3:30pm, Sheraton, Ontario Room.


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SWARM the Minutemen invites people from all over the world who oppose racist violence to join the Electronic Disturbance Theatre action on May 27th, 28th and 29th, 2005 to engage in a virtual sit-in on the MinuteMen website during their "Unite to Fight" Summit.

For all the trans activists in Chicago at the end of June, if you can manage to make it to the ALA conference, there's going to be a workshop on addressing the information needs of trans people (inside and outside the library). We've got awesome panelists coming from a variety of experiences. If you have any questions or suggestions, post a comment on this blog!

Some of Radical Reference's Boston crew will be at these events. See you there!

Thursday, May 19th, 2005. Honor two generations of Puerto Rican independentistas

Friday, May 20th, 2005. Honor Peoples' Lawyer Lynne Stewart

Saturday, May 21, 2005. Set the Captives Free Conference

Thursday, May 19th, 2005. Honor two generations of Puerto Rican independentistas

I biked from work over the Manhattan Bridge (taking care to note the new gaps in the Brooklyn side anti-bike barriers [see Infoshop story for related communique]). It was close to 7:30 by the time I crossed Houston on Lafayette, and instead of riding all the way up to Union Square, I latched on to a group of 30 or so cyclists I encountered as they were heading west. We rode through the West Village and SoHo for a while, periodically whooping and cheering and dinging our bells, getting smiles and thumbs-ups and the occasional angry honk -- all in all, a very pleasant springtime Critical Mass experience.

Radical Reference staffed the communications headquarters in New York City. We don't know how many were arrested, but we believe we prevented a number of detensions by letting riders know where cops were massing.

Rethinking Schools has published an interesting article on military recruitment in high schools and a Portland, Ore., high school's unit on these recruitment techniques and the reality of enlistment.

Brought to you by Boston Radical Reference.