Podcasts about people's law office

May 20, 2021--This week on Universal Perspectives, Chris Skyhawk’s guests are Daniel Sheehan and Sara Nelson with the Lakota People’s Law Project. The project is dedicated to reversing the slow genocide of the Lakota People and destruction of their culture, partnering with Native communities to protect sacred lands, safeguard human rights, promote sustainability, reunite Indigenous families, and much more. There is also an update for listeners on the Jackson State Forest Tree Sit in East Caspar.

Flint Taylor discusses his new book The Torture Machine, which details fifty years of police abuse of power, on this week's show. He discusses his early involvement with the murder of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark on December 4, 1969, and how he and other young Northwestern law students, having recently founded the People's Law Office, visited the murder site and gathered evidence that would ultimately lead to revelations that that police and law enforcement organizations had conspired to murder the Black Panther leaders. He also discusses in detail his thirty-year involvement with the discovery of systematic torture sessions in the basement of CPD's "Area 2," and the role played by a parade of mayors, police superintendents, states' attorneys and other officials in covering up the torture. We’re also joined by “Live From the Heartland” host Thom Clark. Thom was co-founder in the 1970s of the Community Media Workshop, whose purpose was to open up access to Chicago media for community organizers and others whose voices were rarely heard. Thom appears on this show as a co-host to help lead the discussion. This program was produced by Chicago Access Network Television.

In the early morning hours of Dec. 4, 1969, FBI agents raided the apartment where Black Panther Party Chairman Fred Hampton was sleeping and shot him dead. Years later, a Chicago Police Department detective by the name of Jon Burge charged up a small electric box that would soon be used to torture hundreds of black men. The connection: Flint Taylor, author, attorney and founding partner of the People's Law Office. As litigator in the cases central to these events, he has spent his career seeking justice for those involved. On this episode of DISCOVERY, Taylor details the harrowing sagas of the Hampton murders and the infamous CPD torture ring.

Since April, the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, alongside other Native American tribes, have been protesting the construction of Energy Transfer Partners’ Dakota Access Pipeline. The tribe claims that this pipeline, which will stretch from North Dakota to Illinois by way of their land, will be a threat to their drinking water, sacred land and the future of their children. They also claim that they were not consulted before the approval of the project. On Lawyer 2 Lawyer, hosts J. Craig Williams and Bob Ambrogi join Monte Mills, co-director of the Margery Hunter Brown Indian Law Clinic at the Alexander Blewett III School of Law at the University of Montana and attorney Jeffrey Haas, who is presently working with the Water Protector Legal Collective representing the water protectors at Standing Rock. They will take a look at the protesting of the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock and discuss the legal issues, history of land and people, the protest, the history and impact of the pipeline, the recent re-routing news, and what the future holds.   Monte Mills is co-director of the Margery Hunter Brown Indian Law Clinic at the Alexander Blewett III School of Law at the University of Montana. He teaches a variety of Indian law courses and works with clinical students on a range of legal matters in the Indian Law Clinic. Prior to joining the faculty at the Alexander Blewett III School of Law at the University of Montana, Monte was the Director of the Legal Department for the Southern Ute Indian Tribe in Colorado. Jeffrey Haas is founding partner of the People's Law Office in Chicago and defended Mora County, New Mexico, which was sued by a subsidiary of Shell Oil for passing an ordinance banning fracking. Jeffrey recently wrote a piece for Truthout titled “Lawyer's View: Recent Days at Standing Rock.” He is presently member of the Camp's legal team, presently working with the Water Protector Legal Collective representing the water protectors at Standing Rock. Special thanks to our sponsor, Clio.

Kevin Gosztola hosts this episode. Joey Mogul, an attorney with the People's Law Office and a part of the Chicago Torture Justice Memorials project, discusses the findings of the UN Committee Against Torture against the Chicago Police Department. She highlights the history of Chicago police torture, the importance of the UN Committee and the campaign to get reparations for torture survivors.  In the discussion part of the episode, the latest delay of the release of the executive summary of the Senate intelligence committee report on CIA torture is covered as well as the US government's position that the FBI may impersonate repairmen and break into your private property to collect evidence against persons.