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After an all-day hearing Friday, a judge in Cumberland County Superior Court said he will rule next week on whether 17 Black Lives Matter protesters who were arrested after a march in Portland last summer fulfilled the terms of a plea agreement or should be tried on criminal charges.

The protesters pleaded guilty in January to civil charges of violating a city ordinance on disorderly conduct, paid $200 fines and agreed to take part in a restorative justice meeting with police to discuss their July protest march, during which they blocked part of Commercial Street for hours on a busy Friday night. They were protesting nationwide police killings of black men.

But the Cumberland County district attorney said they failed to live up to the plea agreement when a meeting with police fell apart on Feb. 1 over a disagreement on whether the protesters could meet with Portland Police Chief Michael Sauschuck in one group or two, and whether the deputy district attorney and others could take part in the session.

That moved the case back to court, with the District Attorneys Office trying to persuade Justice Lance Walker to rule that the protesters violated the terms of the plea agreement and order them tried on the original criminal charges, which are more serious than the ordinance violation to which they pleaded guilty. Most would be charged with obstructing public ways and failure to disperse, but some would face disorderly conduct and other, more serious criminal charges.

Fridays hearing lasted seven hours, highlighted by the unusual sight of lawyers taking the oath and being examined and cross-examined by other lawyers. The only non-lawyers to testify were Sauschuck and one of the protesters.

The case largely hinges on two words: as directed.

In the plea agreement, the protesters agreed to take part in the restorative justice meeting as directed by the District Attorneys Office. Defense lawyers said they took that phrase to suggest the prosecutors would set up a time and a place with a Portland organization that tries to foster reconciliation between criminals and crime victims.

But the District Attorneys Office interpreted the two words much more broadly, saying it meant that the protesters would show up when and where the office arranged, agree to meet with Sauschuck in two groups and allow Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Ackerman and two community observers to take part in the session.

We thought it was a good idea to have people there to witness it, Ackerman said, explaining the outside observers.

As for splitting the group in two, she said, we really wanted it to be a meaningful discussion and I thought that 17 was really a lot.

On the other hand, the protesters lawyers said that allowing their clients to meet with a prosecutor without a lawyer present would violate their rights.

John Gale said that if his client was going to attend a meeting with the District Attorneys Office, he would want to sit in.

Lawyers dont want to be part of this thing, he said. Well only mess it up. Several of the defendants lawyers said they never would have advised their clients to take the plea deal if they had known how broadly as directed was going to be applied, and said the District Attorneys Office was trying to give itself overly wide discretion to interpret whether the protesters held up their end of the arrangement.

Although Walker didnt indicate how he might rule, an observation he made near the end of the hearing suggested he might be inclined to agree.

He said the courts have ruled that plea agreements can be treated as contracts. And, he said, courts have ruled that when a contract is ambiguous, disputed interpretations should be decided against the party that drafted the contract, under the theory that the drafting party has a special obligation to avoid uncertainty and shouldnt profit from unclear language.

The plea agreement was drafted by Ackerman, including the as directed language.

Several witnesses also went into great detail about how the Feb. 1 meeting went awry, and most of the protesters lawyers pointed the finger at District Attorney Stephanie Anderson.

They said the defendants lawyers and Ackerman were trying to work out a deal to allow the session to go forward. For instance, they said, they suggested that Ackerman could take part as long as the group could stay together, although in her testimony, Ackerman said that she hadnt agreed to those terms.

Alba Briggs, one of the protesters, said the group wanted to stay together for solidarity and because the division proposed by the District Attorneys Office, although done alphabetically, happened to break along largely racial lines.

But Amanda Doherty, an assistant district attorney, complained that the protesters were trying to control the meeting the same way that they took control of a major intersection on Commercial Street during their protest last summer.

They were demanding that they still be in charge of the process, she said.

Anderson said she got involved when she learned by text message from Ackerman that the protesters at the meeting threw out Rachel Talbot Ross, who was representing the Portland chapter of the NAACP although the protesters insisted that they merely pointed out they hadnt invited her to the meeting and she opted to leave on her own.

Anderson said that when she got the text, she went to the meeting and, within a few minutes, concluded that it wasnt going anywhere. Then she, Ackerman and Sauschuck left.

I said, They have to have a better attitude, she said, concluding that wasnt going to happen on the day of the meeting.

I just said, Were leaving, Anderson said, and her office soon decided to seek to have the charges refiled.

But the defendants lawyers said the judge shouldnt find that their clients didnt fulfill the plea deal when it was the prosecutors who walked out of the meeting.

Anderson said her office mostly relied on the group that runs the Restorative Justice program to structure the meeting.

We really didnt know what we were doing, she said, because the program is usually intended to help individual crime victims and criminals come to terms on what constitutes justice. She said prosecutors sometimes take part in those sessions.

Ackerman said the meeting director said two groups meeting with Sauschuck for two hours would be the best way to foster open communication, but several of the defense lawyers testified that the director told them he could handle a large group and pointed out that he had run meetings with many more participants. And, they said, meeting with the larger group over four hours, instead of two two-hour meetings, wouldnt require more time from everyone involved.

The protesters lawyers noted that 16 of the 17 defendants showed up at 9 a.m. on the day of the meeting and some came from out of state or took off time from work to attend. Briggs said he spent the night before researching and preparing what he wanted to say.

Tina Nadeau, a defense lawyer, said the protesters had the rug pulled out from under them because of a unilateral decision by DA Anderson, who then wanted to use the situation to get the protesters back in legal jeopardy.

By imposing conditions on the meeting under the as directed language, Nadeau said, Anderson created an impossibility and then wants to punish people for not doing the impossible.

Fridays hearing was mostly calm and orderly, unlike a raucous hearing on April 3 that ended when the judge abruptly recused himself and set the stage for Walker to step into the case.

While waiting for Walker to start the hearing, the protesters started singing The People Rise Up, until they were hushed by a court officer. Outside, a small group of protesters chanted support for the defendants, but it wasnt loud enough to interrupt the proceedings. Walker admonished the protesters once after a fairly mild reaction to testimony.

Edward D. Murphy can be contacted at 791-6465 or at:

[emailprotected]

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Ruling expected next week in case against Black Lives Matter protesters - Press Herald

Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke who onceurged civilians to arm themselves because calling 911 is no longer the best option announced Wednesday during an interview with a local radio station that he has accepted a job offer as assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security. But DHS has not confirmed it.

Clarke recently made headlines after a jury recommended that two supervisors and five officers at his jail face felony charges for complicity in the death of Terrill Thomas in April 2016. Thomas died from dehydration after he was allegedly deprived of water for seven days straight at the direction of jail officials. A female former inmate also recently filed suit against Clarke and his jail alleging that the negligence of jail officials resulted in her late-pregnancy miscarriage.

But while problems brewed at home in Milwaukee, Clarke and his trademark cowboy hat were gaining a national spotlight as an outspoken Trump surrogate. His knack for outlandish statements have earned him regular spots as a talking head on Fox News over the past year or so. He made an impassioned speech in favor of Trump at the Republican National Convention in July, and, after the election, he was rumored to be in the running to head up the Department of Homeland Security.

Clarke has been particularly vocal about how he thinks the White House ought to handle suspected terrorist sympathizers.

..Scoop them up, charge them with treason and, under habeas corpus, detain them indefinitely at Gitmo, Clarke reportedly said in a radio interview in 2015. He has also theorized that Black Lives Matter activists and Islamic State sympathizers were likely to join forces.

Clarke, 60, has also shown himself to be a loyal foot soldier to Trump in terms of immigration policy. He wrote a letter to Immigration and Customs Enforcement in March expressing interest in enrolling in the 287(g) program, which ramps up coordination between federal and local law authorities on immigration enforcement despite the fact that Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors recently passed a resolution that would make the county a sanctuary for undocumented immigrants. He also butted heads over immigration policy with the Milwaukee police chief, who favors sanctuary city policies.

A spokesperson for DHS told VICE News that such senior positions are announced by the Department when made official by the Secretary. No such announcement with regard to the Office of Engagement has been made.

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Sheriff who once compared Black Lives Matter to ISIS says he's joining the Trump administration - VICE News

Observer

Black Lives Matter Co-Founder Pushing Feds to Let 50000 Haitians Remain in the Country Observer Elected officials and Haitian leaders rallied in Foley Square for the extension of Temporary Protected Status for 50,000 Haitians in the United States. Madina Toure/Observer. Opal Tometi, co-founder of Black Lives Matter and executive director of the ... and more »

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Black Lives Matter Co-Founder Pushing Feds to Let 50000 Haitians Remain in the Country - Observer

The production, written by a Ball State duo, is part of IndyFringe's OnyxFest, which spotlights black playwrights.

"Black Lives Matter (Too)" is one of the plays on the 2017 slate for IndyFringe's OnyxFest.(Photo: Photo provided/Dena Toler)

When Angela Jackson-Brown and Ashya Thomas wrote their play "Black Lives Matter (Too)," they set some goals.

They wanted to infuse thework which comprises scenes, poetry and music with human connections. They wanted to plant hope that triumphs in even the most difficult situations.

And when the play premieres this weekend, they want to use black people's stories from slavery through the present to unpack a term that has seen controversy. The work will be part of IndyFringe's OnyxFest, which spotlights work by black playwrights.

"A lot of these vignettes are going to be difficult to sit through, and that's intentional," Jackson-Brown said.

"We want to take people to uncomfortable places because so often we don't really talk about race in a constructive way. So we thought through the theater, oftentimes, people can be reached in ways that they can't through politicians or through lectures."

IndyFringe Executive DirectorPauline Moffat makes a habit of waiting until the festival itself to see the plays, but she is familiar with the strengths ofJackson-Brown. Her work has been part of IndyFringeandDivaFest, which highlights women playwrights.

Jackson-Brown "has such an incredible understanding of life and death, and ... the way she treats death is incredibly moving," Moffat said.

For "Black Lives Matter (Too)," Jackson-Brown, who is an assistant professor in the English department at Ball State University, teamed up with Thomas, who just graduated from the school. The two began collaborating on the play after Thomas turned in a particularly strong project, Jackson-Brown said. The OnyxFest work is Thomas' first play.

The darkened theater offers anonthreatening space to understand what Black Lives Matter means, Jackson-Brown said.The "(Too)" at the end of the play's titleclarifies the unspoken understanding that black people aren't saying they're the only ones who matter, she said.

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"It's simply a matter of, we've made too many strides to go backward," Jackson-Brown said. "So let's all remember what we came through during the '50s and the '60s, and let's not try to do things that are going to move us back to that place."

While race and relationships between black men and womenare part of the characters' journeys, Jackson-Brown said they sought an emphasis on self-love and a balance of storiesthat allowed characters to show their strength.

"We're not just exposing issues related to white and black, but we're also looking at issues related to black folks in general, problems that exist within our own community," Jackson-Brown said.

Meet the playwrights: Q&A from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Thursday.

"The Quilting": Mijiza Holiday.8 p.m. Saturday,7 p.m. Sunday and4:30 p.m. May 20at IndyFringe Indy Eleven Theatre, 719 E. St. Clair St.

Black Lives Matter (Too): Angela Jackson-Brown and Ashya Thomas. Produced by Jackson Brown Entertainment. 7 p.m. Friday, 6 p.m. Saturday and9 p.m. May 19at IndyFringe Basile Theatre, 719 E. St. Clair St.

Truth The One Man Show: Ryan Bennett. 7 p.m. Sunday, 7 p.m. May 19 and9 p.m. May 20at IndyFringe IndyEleven Theatre.

Cost:$15 at the door, $18 online (including fees), $13 students and seniors.

Call IndyStar reporter Domenica Bongiovanni at (317) 444-7339. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Read or Share this story: http://indy.st/2q61NrU

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'Black Lives Matter (Too)' play aims to unpack the term ...

As various movements have sprung up like flash mobs to march and protest President Donald Trumps election, a question gradually occurred to me: Wheres Black Lives Matter?

Ever since the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter was born after a jury acquitted a neighborhood watch volunteer in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin in Florida in 2012, the loosely formed movement has turned up repeatedly to protest fatal shootings of unarmed black men and other racial disparities in the criminal justice system.

But since President Trumps election, we have seen new eruptions of racially suspicious police incidents, but not of major protests.

Last week, for example, we saw a suburban Dallas police officer charged with murder for allegedly firing his rifle into a car full of black teens, killing a 15-year-old boy.

Last month we saw the stunning video of police officers in Grand Rapids, Mich., holding a group of black children at gunpoint - ranging in age from 12 to 14.

Yet as much as these disturbing stories made national news, they did not spark the major protests we have seen elsewhere. Why?

A Washington Post reporting team came up with one answer after interviewing what they described as more than half a dozen leaders in the Black Lives Matter movement.

The movement has entered a new phase, they were told. It is focused more on policy than on protest, all in response to the election of President Trump.

There are less demonstrations, Alicia Garza, one of three women credited with coining the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag, told the Post. People are channeling their energy into organizing locally, recognizing that in Trumps America, our communities are under direct attack.

Indeed, that makes a lot of sense at a time when Trumps election seems to have changed everything about how we Americans view the world.

But I think the energy and enthusiasm for Black Lives Matter street protests peaked out sooner than that. I think it happened last July when five police officers in Dallas were killed by a sniper at a Black Lives Matter protest. Ten days later, three more police were killed in Baton Rouge, La., after street protests over the shooting of another black man.

No, I dont believe it is fair to blame peaceful protestors for the shootings any more than I think it would be fair to blame Republicans for every deranged right-wing shooter who also happened to vote for their party. Still, its a little harder to criticize President Trump for his various inflammatory remarks if you dodge accountability for any anti-police tone in your protests.

Loosely organized flash-mob movements with weak leaders and vague agendas have become a trend in the Twitter age. But they tend to lack control over their members, their message and their momentum.

Lack of organizational discipline leads to embarrassments like the foolish protesters from St. Paul who chanted, Pigs in a blanket, fry em like bacon, while marching behind police officers at the Minnesota State fairgrounds two years ago. Conservative commentators still replay that video as though it was yesterday.

Everybody seems to have an opinion about what Black Lives Matter should do with itself. Heres mine: I think its time for the movement to move up from protests to planning, policies and programs. Protests have a lot of romantic appeal but theyre no substitute for an agenda, firm goals and a plan to get there.

Conservative media have pinned all manner of racist beliefs on Black Lives Matter, yet the movement has not put much of a priority on appointing official spokespeople to push back.

On the contrary, todays young self-styled woke (politically conscious) generation, I have found to my chagrin, too often thinks it is beneath them to arm themselves with knowledge and employ the simple art of persuasion to win people to their side. Its not my job to educate you, I have been told by some righteous activists in a form of intellectual snobbery that is bound to lead to failure.

Indeed, a lot of people find it easier to call for dialogue than to actually engage in one. Thats changing. Some Black Lives Matter activists have organized a formal agenda and leadership development programs, just for starters. Leaders matter. Whether things go right or wrong, somebody has to be where the buck stops.

Clarence Page is a member of the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board. Readers may send him email at cpage@tribune.com.

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Can Black Lives Matter move up in the age of Trump? | Newsday