Thanks to WKRN Channel 2 and Christine Maddela, the 'Smoking Gun" in Mrs. Juana Villegas' torture has been discovered

Most of us remember the summer of 1973 as a very exciting one as we watched the Senate Watergate hearings on TV.

But the summer became a sizzler when Alexander Butterworth, the man responsible for communications at the White House, appeared on the witness stand before the late great Sen. Sam Ervin and then U.S. Sen. Howard Baker of Tennessee. No one in the media knew why he was there.

But then under questioning by the great Sam Dash, Democratic attorney for the Senate Judiciary Committee, Butterworth testified to the existence of taping devices in the Oval Office. A year later, Nixon resigned the presidency. And it was the "smoking gun" tape that Nixon was forced by a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court to release that showed he had ordered the coverup in the Watergate case. That was a high moment for our republic.

I preface this column post with that bit of history to point out that in every controversial story, journalists look for the "smoking gun." And I believe there is one in the torture of Mrs. Juana Villegas (DeLaPaz) by Nashville authorities.

The following report by Christine Maddela for WKRN Channel 2 reveals the spokesperson for the sheriff's department admitting that Mrs. Villegas was pulled over for driving without an operator's license. You don't have to believe me. Listen and watch the video.

Mrs. Villegas says she was never told why she was pulled over. So Maddela asked the sheriff's department -- which decided to torture Mrs. Villegas before and after childbirth -- why. The spokesperson says she was pulled over on "a driver's license charge."

How can you tell a person does not have a driver's license to operate a vehicle while a car is moving?

When an audibly stunned Maddela gave the spokesperson another chance to answer the question, she backtracked and told Maddela to ask the Berry Hill Police Department. It has told other media that the arresting officer was only following proper procedure.

It would easy to say the spokesperson just made a mistake. But often the first answer is the most truthful one, and she did nothing wrong in telling the truth.

Tennessee has a history of racial profiling, which is also quite recent. A review of Tennessee State Highway Patrol stops showed Hispanics and American-Indians were the most likely to be pulled over, even ahead of African-Americans. Yet Hispanics and American Indians make up very little of the population in this Southern state.

And the governor -- a Democrat -- now is allowing the highway patrol to start using the heinous 287g deportation program to question and incarcerate immigrants over long periods of time.

That's why Driving While a Woman, Driving While Hispanic and Driving While Immigrant is dangerous in Nashville and the state of Tennessee. You don't know what the local sheriff will end up doing to you under powers that should only belong to the federal government. The good ol' boy network is alive and working in Tennessee.

Yet Shelby County, home to our largest city of Memphis, does not have 287g. Its sheriff says he doesn't need it. Then why does Nashville?

There is a new federal law outlawing racial profiling. Hedy Weinberg of the Tennessee ACLU has gotten involved in Mrs. Villegas' case to determine whether federal law has been broken. The video proves it has been as does the review of state highway patrol stops.

Besides Maddela, WKRN reporter Amy Napier Viteri deserves a lot of credit for airing the initial story on Mrs. Villegas in the mainstream media.

The national media hit its high-water mark during Watergate. The scandal involving Republicans teaches us that people with titles and high offices make mistakes when things go wrong. And trying to cover up wrongs only makes things worse.

Sheriff Daron Hall made a big mistake in bringing 287g here and grossly misleading the public on its true intent for personal political gain. Mayor Karl Dean and Congressman Jim Cooper deserve rebuke for their silence over the outrage of 287g and the torture of Mrs. Villegas, not to mention her newborn son.

Where is their sense of decency? Where are their loyalities to the progressive people who put them in office? Where are the voices of the progressive people who put them in office? Or maybe "progressive" is not what I believe it means? These three elected officials also are Democrats, or what passes for one in the South.

Here's the link to the text and video. Be sure to click on the video.

Hispanic woman claims racial discrimination

You can watch and listen to the truth. Remember, the whole world is beginning to watch and wonder whether Nashville and Tennessee are still part of the Old South when it comes to human rights.

Un mensaje para mi hermanos y hermanas Hispanos en Nashville

CONSULADO MOVIL EN NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE
Fecha: El Miércoles 13 al Sábado 16 de Agosto 2008
Horario de Atención: A partir de las 8:00 de la mañana y Sábado a las 9:00 am.
Lugar: Woodbine Community Center, 222 Oriel Avenue, Nashville, TN. 37213

DEBERA HACER UNA CITA AL 1877-639-4835 A PARTIR DEL 6 DE AGOSTO
NO SE RECIBIRA A NADIE SIN PREVIA CITA
**SI YA TIENE CITA PREVIA, RECUERDE CANCELARLA AL MOMENTO DE HACER LA NUEVA*

If you would like translation of this message, please send me an e-mail at the address at the bottom of my profile.

Mrs. Juana Villegas' story of torture reaches the West Coast; Boycott Nashville!

The following column appeared in the largest Spanish language newspaper in Los Angeles about the torture of Mrs. Juana Villegas by Nashville authorities.

The column advises people who read the newspaper and its website to stay away from Nashville as far as their tourism dollars and bringing conventions here. Readers also are encouraged to boycott country music products.

I am also grateful that the column appeared in El Reportero in San Francisco. Good people there love a cause.

The word is getting out across the country about human rights abuses in Nashville against women and Hispanics by authorities here. And so is the call for a boycott of this city. Now, along with the coverage by the Associated Press, The New York Times and The Boston Globe in the English-language mainstream media, Mrs. Villegas story continues to spread. The next stop will be the international press.

If you'd like an English-language translation of this column, just send me an e-mail. It is listed at the bottom of my profile. That includes you, Councilman Crafton.

Cuidado con Nashville

Tim Chávez | 2008-07-25 | La Opinión

TIM CHÁVEZ
NASHVILLE, Tennessee.— Ya no es mi Nashville. Es Guantánamo, y Abu Ghraib. Hemos replicado la tortura de agua que usó esta nación contra los cautivos sin recurso judicial que almacenamos al borde de la isla cubana y los varios grados de degradación por los que obligamos a pasar los prisioneros iraquíes.

A la señora Juana Villegas la torturaron literalmente este mes en el Departamento del Sheriff del condado de Davidson aquí en Nashville en lo que daba a luz a una hija.

Con esposas en la muñeca y la pierna le asieron a la barra de la cama en el hospital durante mucho del parto, la restringieron con garras que le pelaban la piel de las piernas cuando iba al baño y, lo peor de todo, el departamento del alguacil le negó el uso de una bomba de pecho para alimentar a su recién nacida y aliviar el dolor de sus senos.

La bebita, separada de su madre, desarrolló niveles peligrosamente altos de un químico en la sangre que culmina en una enfermedad infantil.

Mientras tanto, Villegas, de 33 años, se encontraba bajo la vigilancia en persona del departamento del alguacil, incluyendo a un centinela masculino que la vigiló mientras se cambió del sobretodo de la cárcel a ropa de hospital. Las enfermeras que la atendieron salieron de su cuarto de hospital llorando. Villegas, una inmigrante indocumentada de México, fue detenida tres días antes de dar a luz. Le acusaron de operar un vehículo sin licencia de conducir y de manejar descuidadamente.

La ley estatal reconoce como pena suficiente de la comparecencia futura de una persona ante un tribunal de infracciones de tránsito. No obstante, a pesar de contar con una matrícula, de tener el registro del vehículo, y tres hijos ciudadanos, Juana Villegas pasó siete días bajo la custodia del Sheriff.

Lo irónico fue que durante el fin de semana del Cuatro de Julio, Nashville auspició un episodio de tortura, el cual prohíbe las Naciones Unidas. No existe nada en la legislación estatal ni federal que requiera que Villegas, inmigrante sin documentos a quien ordenaron ser deportada una vez antes, recibiera tratamiento tan sin misericordia. Lo que llevó a que el departamento la tratara de forma tan inhumana fue la política y lo partidario de un solo hombre, el sheriff Daron Hall.

En Nashville y en el condado de Davidson han sido deportadas más de 3,600 cabezas de familia en los pasados 14 meses. Más de 1,500 seres humanos que están en este país legalmente fueron detenidos y sometidos a interrogatorios durante horas por parte del Departamento del Sheriff . Las autoridades del orden en 57 comunidades de todo el país tienen ahora el poder de hacer cumplir las leyes federales de inmigración.

Nashville se considera una ciudad progresista. Es cuna de Vanderbilt University y un sinfín de otras instituciones de educación superior. Los demócratas, o lo que pasa por demócrata en la región del sur, dominan aquí lo político. Sin embargo, lo que está transcurriendo sólo vuelve a fortalecer la imagen de un pequeño pueblo del sur dominado por el alguacil. Por virtud del programa de deportación 287g, al Sheriff se le permite torturar a mujeres embarazadas, con autorización del Departamento de Seguridad Interna. Amnistía Internacional nota que sólo tres estados prohíben el tipo de trato que tuvo que sufrir Villegas.

A prisioneras mujeres enfermas y embarazadas las atan con cadenas a camas de hospitales por todo Estados Unidos, reporta la organización. Dado lo que le ocurrió a Villegas, Amnistía Internacional tendría que poner bajo "vigilancia" a Nashville. Los servidores públicos como el alcalde de Nashville, Karl Dean, representante en el Congreso, Jim Cooper, y gobernador de Tennessee, Phil Bredesen —todos demócratas— no han reaccionado frente a este ultraje. Habría que avisarles que nuestros lugares turísticos resultarán mucho menos atractivos hasta que pidan cancelar el programa 287g.

Sólo los estados de California e Illinois cuentan con leyes que prohíben la tortura de mujeres encinta bajo custodia legal. Recientemente Wisconsin ha mejorado su política del Departamento de Correccionales. Hay mucho trabajo por hacer en otros estados también.

Por tu propio bien, aléjate de Nashville. Ya no me pertenece a mí ni a nadie más. Es de los que crean y mantienen políticas públicas fundamentadas en la intolerancia y de quienes huyen de la responsabilidad del servicio a todo el público ocultándose tras la cobardía del silencio.

Tim Chávez contribuye con Hispanic Link News Service y es columnista del periódico Nashville Tennessean. www.politicalsalsa.com. timchavez787@yahoo.com.

Come out this evening to support children and a crime free weekend for a better Nashville

For our African-American brothers and sisters in Nashville, the summer of 2008 has not been a fruitful time.

Murders of good people have continued in north, west and east Nashville. Business owners are under constant threat to their lives.

Worse, the future has also been endangered. The Metro Schools board voted recently to return Nashville to separate but unequal education. The Nashville NAACP has rightly stepped forward to challenge this outrage.

This evening at 5:30 in north Nashville(corner of 28th and Clifton) will be a moment of hope, brought to us by one of the greatest prophets of our time, the Rev. Enoch Fuzz. Below are the details of this evening's event to encourage a peaceful weekend and prepare for the school year for neighborhood children.

Please consider coming out. And on your way, stop by Walgreens or Walmart or whatever retailer and buy about a dozen notebooks of paper and a few backpacks to be given away at the event.

Here is how Rev. Fuzz envisions the event:


For a West Nashville Crime Free Weekend
Friday and Saturday August 8 - 9, 2008

At Tuesdays Nite Out Observance, I will declare the first Crime Free Weekend in West Nashville's Hadley Park, College Hill, Preston Taylor and Clifton Avenue Neighborhood. It will be two days of no violence, no drugs, no profanity, no robbery or thiefs. A weekend for parents and children to spend quality family times enjoying life in the neighborhood. And on Sunday I suggest everyone attend a church worship service of their choice.

The concept for the Crime Free Weekend is a vision I recieved from working over the past 12 years with a group of men in my church community. They formed an organization, Have A Child For A Day. Every year for for the past 12 they've put together The Easter Egg Communty Jam, the Don't Knock on My Door Halloween Bash, Back to School Picnic, and the Toys for the Neighborhhood Kids Rally. The purpose of their organization was to rally the neighborhood to take days that were set aside to spend with the children doing positive activities.

At their last event held Easter 2008 over $100.000.00 in dry goods food supplies were distributed thanks to one of our community partners.

The men in this organization passionately spread to word to the neighborhood to come together in support of their efforts. I am deeply gratified for their instant committment to assist in making the Crime Free Weekend a reality. And I am just as grateful that I know our friends in Metro Law enforcement will lend their cooperation to this initiative. I am requesting Chief Ronal Serpas, my friends in the Nashville News Media, former Tennessean columnist Tim Chavez, and radio station WVOL where I have hosted a community issues and information talk show since 2001, to join us to promote this vision to reality.

My radio talk show is called Just Talkin on WVOL, but it ain't Just Talking.
Our Community Need Words That Have Hands and Feet.

Night Out Against Crime

Neighborhood Fellowship and Crime Free Weekend Declaration

Tuesday August 5, 2008

5:30pm

Corner of 28thAvenue and Clifton

Food, Music, Dancing, School Supplies, and Prizes

Program Speakers and Live Entertainment

The Honorable Edith Langster; 39th Street Boys; Disc Jockey Ezy E; Mistress of Ceremonies Tennessee Style Editor Wanda Clay; Nashville Prodigy Reverend Gleason Rogers; The Esquire Dancers; David Clean Rapper

Sponsors and Organizers:

Have A Child For A Day, Givens’ Store, Pops Barbecue, "Just Talkin with Pastor Enoch Fuzz", Corinthian Baptist Church, Radio Station WVOL, West Precinct Metro Police, Mayor Karl Dean Office of Neighborhoods

This free event is open to the public

For information call 615-977-6855

Begin the TennCare fight, right in your own home

It was my distinct honor to give one of the speeches at the last major gathering of the Tennessee Health Care Campaign, an association of people who believe each of us is just one illness or accident away from financial and physical disaster without needed health care coverage.

This group of Tennesseans like you and me is headed by Tony Garr, a man of integrity who has had to deal with a governor who has little of that trait.

THCC is working to raise $40,000 between now and the beginning of the next session of the General Assembly to help fund efforts to convince lawmakers to resist further efforts by the governor to decimate TennCare, the state's Medicaid program. It also is pushing home meetings across the state to educate voters on the health care positions of Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain before Nov. 4. The candidates differ sharply on health care solutions.

I fully endorse this initiative and will participate myself. The stakes are high in protecting Tennessee families facing financial and physical devastation from accidents, illnesses and increasing job layoffs.

Here is how to help:


Working for health care justice

Access to health care is a human right

What can I do about the health care crisis?

A lot! You can gather 5 to 10 people at your home for two hours and show the Frontline documentary, "Sick Around the World." Call us today!

Call 1-877-431-7083 for more information.

Join THCC in this very important effort before election day, Nov. 4:

Conduct 100 gatherings in people's homes from Memphis to Kingsport (Your party would be one of the 100 parties);

One thousand plus people see and discuss the Frontline documentary, "Sick Around the World,"and see how five (5) other democratic, market countries provide health insurance to all its citizens;

Discuss a side-by-side summary of McCain and Obama health care positions; and
Ask others to conduct their own house party and to support the work of THCC
After seeing, "Sick Around the World," people say:

"If these five countries can do it, we can."

"I never thought that insurance could be part of the solution."

"Why aren't these solutions being considered?"

More Interviews: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/interviews/

Do you want to make a REAL difference between now and Nov. 4? Then call, 1-877-431-7083 or email Tony Garr at tgarr@thcc2.org and a THCC staff person will start working with you immediately.

To get started, you only need to set a date that works for you. Then call THCC at 1-877-431-7083.

The Tennessean's first original reporting on Juana Villegas' torture is much appreciated, needed

The Tennessean today published its first original reporting on the torture of Mrs. Juana Villegas in two stories on the front top of the Local section.

The stories are very appreciated in establishing a local public record of this outrage that occurred over six days in early July at the hands of Nashville authorities.

The Tennessean can reclaim its leadership role in covering the wrongs of the 287g deportation program in Nashville with continued reporting as displayed this morning.

Mrs. Villegas' hearing in Berry Hill is scheduled for Aug. 15. The Associated Press, The New York Times and The Boston Globe have established a national record. The Tennessean's coverage and leadership are desperately needed locally to bring human rights back to Music City.

As the late U.S. Sen. Bentsen would say, 'Mr. Kotz, you're no Liz Murray Garrigan!'

The new editor of the Nashville Scene answered my blog post of questions about the usefulness of the image of a smiling Mexican with gold teeth and a sombrero in his publication a la The New Yorker magazine's satire gone wrong about Sen. Barack Obama.

Unfortunately, editor Pete Kotz's response was the kind of reply that showed he was above question. I can't figure out why he is not making his way up the ladder of a mainstream newspaper and had to come to the alternative Scene. The corporate decision to bring him here to replace local icon Liz Murray Garrigan is even more questionable now.

But que sera, sera. (Sorry Councilman Crafton, I heard that expression in an old song.) Here is my reply to King Kotz the First about his rationalization and that of his reporter, P.J. Tobia.

Thank you, Mr. Kotz, for proving that I would have wasted my cell phone minutes talking to you. You also have proved that your "A" game on rationalization is always in place. You should have applied to be editor of The Tennessean. But your response now leaves me with more respect for him and less for you.

As for your reporter, P.J. Tobia, I did not know that the public could enact prior restraint on publication of a story. Didn't the Supreme Court rule against prior restraint? The only people who should have the power to prevent publication are editors and publishers.

I was always taught in journalism that you're only as good as your next story. Tobia believes a story two years ago satisfies his commitment. And you obviously believe the same.

Yes, torture is a pretty good threshold of newsworthiness, as your publication has cited concerning Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo in coverage. That torture, however, was not hundreds and thousands of miles away. With Mrs. Villegas, her torture was only a few miles from your office by Nashville authorities.

"Nashville"? Isn't that part of your publication's name?

For the record, The New York Times did not cover the story until 10 days after I broke it. AP took four days. WKRN was next after me. The Tennessean ran the story in the Local section below the fold as written by AP. Like you, it has not done any original reporting on the matter.

I would think that women in your readership would at least be interested in knowing that Nashville authorities restrained a woman with handcuffs during most of her labor and separated her from her child after birth. Sexism is as rampant as racism in our society and in Nashville. Open your eyes and don't let all the testosterone get in the way.

It's nice that people can laugh in other parts of the country about the image and the satire. It is quite good and the writer is very talented. I'm sure that's why he has written a book and has many fans.

Here in Nashville, however, we have 287g deportation. And with it, Old South stirrings are encouraged with the image you run. Hispanics shown as a cartoon character resembling a bandito only encourages many people to see all Hispanics that way. Thus, 287g is seen as deporting people who really aren't human beings and good for a better Nashville. I wish Nashville and Middle Tennessee were more enlightened to take the image as it should be considered, but the city and area are not. So that puts the responsibility on you, to rationalize away or reconsider.

Just like with The New Yorker's Obama cover, your image does not work. Sometimes, that's what happens with satire. That a coalition has praised the image is no consolation here. I've just formed a coalition with one my pets. And we've condemned the image. That's how easy it is to form a coalition and issue an opinion.

I would have called Liz Murray Garrigan before I had written anything about the image because that is how much she is respected here. But you're no Liz Murray Garrigan, Mr. Kotz. Your response proves that. And you've got a very long way to go before ever being considered in her league.

Hook, line and sinker ... NewsChannel 5 buys Bredesen's propaganda about sales tax holiday

NewsChannel 5 on its 10 p.m. newscast tonight had all the information to put two and two together to produce an accurate political analysis of the governor's propaganda that mean ol' Tennessee parents are costing state workers their jobs for buying school items sales tax free during the weekend.

Reporter Brent Frazier reported that the state would lose $8 million to $10 million in sales tax revenue during the three-day, sales tax holiday CREATED BY BREDESEN TO GET RE-ELECTED IN 2006.
But Frazier didn't mention the governor's outrageous poliabout being so bad for saving money during an economic recession.tical flp-flop during his report. He instead interviewed taxpayers

NewsChannel 5 did, however, have the right person to blame for lost state revenue later in its newscast. It mentioned Bredesen's wife leading a run for the fallen in the war on terror. Earlier this year, Andrea Conte used $11 milllion in state money to build a grossly unnecessary political theme park under the governor's mansion to entertain guests with important titles. State spending was never initally mentioned when she sold the project to the public.

Now her husband is crying about bad Tennessee parents trying to save themselves a few dollars -- during a sales tax holiday he originally created.
I hate it when a reporter only gives part of the story. Tennessee taxpayers and parents sure didn't deserve to be confronted as wrongdoers today when the governor and his wife are the ones costing state workers their jobs.

The free pass Nashville's news media continues to give Bredesen is the longest-running betrayal of a public that deserves both sides of the story.

Undocumented population in United States declines ... but beware of what you ask for

Congratulations are due the Bush administration and conservative advocates for an 11 percent-drop in the number of undocumented workers in the United States.

But this number may not be a cause to cheer after adding up the price tag.

Through the Department of Homeland Security, many undocumented human beings and their families are being routed and deported. For instance, more than 100 federal agents and two helicopters were used to raid a small meat processing plant in Pottsville, Iowa.

That raid -- which subsequently violated Constitutional guarantees of due process -- rounded-up 379 workers. One federal agent was set in motion for almost every four workers. And then there were all the judges, translators and stenographers who had to make an emergency appearance to try these human beings in a matter of days.

Yes, days. If it can happen to these human beings, it can happen to you, too. Constitution be damned.

Public defenders, who also have to be paid, could not even understand some of their clients. Some Guatemalans do not speak Spanish, but an Indian dialect. So these human beings were pleading guilty to charges they did not understand. And federal prosecutors and DHS officials schemed to come up with a plan to charge these human beings with felonies, instead of simple illegal presence and deportation. You the taxpayers then have had to pay for four months of incarceration of these undocumented workers.

Accordingly, while DHS was announcing its impressive numbers, the Bush administration was unveiling another set of figures -- a nearly half a $1,000, 000,000,000 (yes, that's trillion) budget deficit for the coming fiscal year. And part of that shocking bill for our grandchildren comes from public policy that requires the use of all those federal agents who need the right kind of sunglasses and slick windbreakers, besides expenses for food, drink and whatever is required for a FED in motion.

Pottsville was only one of many ICE raids the past 12 months with many more to come. Not to be criticized for inconsistency, the Bush administration has duplicated its war on terror failure in Iraq here at home with immigration.

Of course, DHS does not assign a dollar figure to its raids and deportations. If they did, a lot of taxpayers would not be so zealous about getting undocumented workers and their families out of this country.

Staying with the fiscal impact, a lot of states are now reporting dropping tax revenue. Undocumented workers pay sales taxes, wheel taxes, property taxes and a host of other levies and fees, including Social Security contributions. So American citizens will be paying for the deportation bill with reduced government services.

Not true, you shout? The University of Arizona's study of undocumented workers showed they contributed almost $1 billion more in revenue than in government services used. The Social Security fund was going to get an extra two years of life due to the contributions of undocumented workers. Now, a new administration will have to raise the amount taken out of your paycheck for the fund.

O, well, at least we don't have to see all those dark-skinned, Spanish-speaking people anymore. Now go see how much that buys you at the grocery store.

So congratulations to Rush Lumbaugh, Marsha Blackburn, Glen Beck, Sean Hannity, Lamar Alexander and all the politicos and their enablers who have made the ouster of undocumented workers and their families into Concern No. 1 while blocking comprehensive reform.

You're winning the battle, but losing the war for a better America. Perhaps Lou Dobbs can put on a hard hat or a kitchen apron to answer complaints about homes not built on time and food served cold and late.

Hispanic advocates must call out Democrats as well as Repubicans for human rights wrongs

Advocates of Nashville's Hispanic community are supposed to meet tomorrow under the wing of a prominent city law firm.

They are supposed to discuss how to react strategically to the the torture of Juana Villegas and her separation from her newborn son, the heinous 287g deportation program and the probable fall referendum on English First in the conducting of city business.

It is getting tougher by the day to be a Hispanic, a woman and an immigrant in Nashville. Even 1,500 human beings LEGALLY in this nation were detained and questioned by the county sheriff for hours under 287g's 14-month history here.

I am not officially part of the advocacy community. Advocates always have various priorities besides the crisis at hand. And they often protect their political buddies first -- Democrats -- before seeking immediate justice.

One of the points to tomorrow's meeting will probably be how to protect the reputations of Democratic Mayor Karl Dean and Congressman Jim Cooper, if the e-mail I received in response to attending the meeting was any indication.

Advocates will hear -- that in private -- Dean and Cooper really don't like 287g and are horrified by what happened to Ms. Villegas. But these leaders are politically trying to ride out the current storm over other, more important priorities -- like public school rezoning and budget cuts. So they can't use their political capital on 287g and Mrs. Villegas and the 1,500 people LEGALLY here who were detained and questioned for hours.

Advocates will also hear that these politicos do not want to risk making Sheriff Daron Hall -- a Democrat -- into a folkhero by coming out against his program. The City Paper -- a free newsstand publication adjacent to the free jobs circulars -- just got finished praising Hall and 287g.

That would be shocking except that there were newspapers in the South during the Civil Rights movement that praised Bull Connor and his water hoses in Birmingham, AL. Some things don't change, particularly when good ol' boy white folks are still running the local print media. They've never been the agents of change and the champions of human rights.

I can't stomach all this kind of crap. If a Democrat does wrong or fails to address a wrong, he or she should be called out immediately. The same goes for a Republican. But it seems advocates cry "foul" much more quickly when it comes to a Republican doing wrong than vice versa. That's hypocrisy, and it's wrong.

As for Nashville's print news media, I won't even waste words on its wrongs. That's because I know it won't change, even when my criticism is constructive.

I do, however, hope that something of substance for immedate results and justice will be forthcoming from tomorrow's meeting. But I am not counting it, nor will I be attending.

I consider my time on this earth as limited, leukemia or not. So each moment must be used for the greatest good for the most people as possible. That's why I'll continue to point out the cowardice of Mayor Dean and Congressman Cooper and encourage my readers of conscience across the country and Tennessee to boycott Nashville as a place to visit and hold their conventions. And people of conscience should not buy country music products from here.

Only the loss of dollars will increase the pressure on these public officials to finally speak up and act for basic human rights for all.

And only our consistency in criticizing the wrongs of both political partiies can we build credibility among members of the public that need to be convinced of our cause. And effect change.

Nashville's print news media returns to sad Old South standards; BOYCOTT NASHVILLE!

Now I know how my African-American brothers and sisters felt amid the human rights atrocities committed against them during the Civil Rights movement.

I'm not talking about water hoses and lynchings. I'm addressing the virtual absence of fair reporting and editorials about the atrocities to them in the local print news pages and on newspaper opinion pages.

In the case of the torture of Mrs. Juana Villegas (DeLaPaz) and the separation from her newborn, Nashville's print news media has virtually ignored her plight along with the heinous effects of the 287g deportation program.

Today, The Boston Globe published an editorial condemning the inhumanity and 287. Meanwhile, the local City Paper published an editorial endorsing 287g while not even mentioning the torture of Juana Villegas. It takes a really talented writer to avoid the obvious. Or perhaps there is another name for such a writer?

There also is another difference between The Globe and the City Paper -- readers actually pay to read one of these papers; readers of the other publication get it for free.

Yet the City Paper does represent one truth that closely resembles how the media in the South covered the Civil Rights movement versus the media in the North. The print media here in Nashvile has done its damndest to avoid Mrs. Villegas' case. Media apologists have taken to their positions to refute this human rights abuse.

The Associated Press, The New York Times and The Globe have had to step in and write on this outrage and 287g. The same media outlets had to do the same during the Civil Rights movement, along with exceptional reporting and film footage from the national TV networks.

With Mrs. Villegas, however, no TV network has bothered to cover her story. And CNN has been personally contacted. Darn, if we could only get Paris Hilton to have her hair mussed by a sheriff deputy here, then we could get a live CNN report or break in.

Yet there were some notable and heroic exceptions in the Old South, with what is now called The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the late great Hodding Carter Sr.'s fine small newspaper in Mississippi

The Tennessean did briefly have the late great David Halberstam on the Civil Rights beat. But his stories on sit-ins and other protests -- according to a longtime Tennessean city editor who used to work at the newspaper like me -- were regularly published on the back page.

Hell, I'd take that with Juana Villegas's case from Nashville's print media. But being Hispanic seems to make her story even less worthy of attention in the eyes of the supposed new and progressive South. The Tennessean - the print source of record in Middle Tennessee -- has really acted oddly. It did a comprehensive story on 287g a couple of months before Mrs. Villegas' torture. Now it has refused to cover her story, except in running an AP story below the fold on the second page of the Local section. What gives? Where is the consistency? What can someone constructively say about such behavior to affect positive change? I'm baffled. I'm open to any suggestions.

In reality, Old Times are not forgotten here, just duplicated, even in 2008.

So that's why I'm encouraging readers across the country and outside of Nashville to boycott Music City when it comes to your tourism dollars and your conventions. And don't buy the country music product from here.

Boycott Nashville! That action is the only logical and moral response from people of conscience.

'The whole world's watching' is becoming mantra about Nashville and torture of Juana Villegas; BOYCOTT NASHVILLE!

Wow! The story of the torture of Mrs. Juana Villegas (DeLaPaz) and the abuse of her newborn son has now reached the editorial pages of the influential Boston Globe after making the news pages of The New York Times.

Below is what The Globe editorial board had to say about Nashville authorities and this city's endorsement of the heinous 287g deportation program. I'm beginning to feel like one of those '60s advocates who cried out during the 1968 Democratic National Convention: "The whole world's watching. The whole world's watching."

With Juana's case, the whole world is indeed beginning to watch. And the silence of Mayor Karl Dean and Congressman Jim Cooper to this inhumanity is telling. It's time pass on the word to the world: BOYCOTT NASHVILLE! as a place to visit. Don't buy its products, particularly country music.

If you are a person of conscience, stay away from here and let your absence make a deafening statement for human rights for all people.

Home / Globe / Opinion / Boston Globe Editorials - One week of Editorials Globe Editorial

Illegal, but inhumane
August 1, 2008
JUANA VILLEGAS is a Mexican immigrant who broke federal law. As The New York Times recently reported, she was deported in 1996, but she returned illegally to the United States. What is more troubling, however, is what happened to her in custody of law enforcement this month. Overzealous use of the law trampled decency.

On July 3, Villegas, nine months pregnant, was pulled over in a Nashville suburb and arrested after admitting that she did not have a license. At the county jail, Villegas's illegal status was discovered by a federal official. That official was there as part of the federal 287(g) program, which trains local police to enforce federal immigration laws.

Two days later, Villegas went into labor. At the hospital her foot was cuffed to the bed, and the cuffs were reportedly removed only for two hours before she gave birth and for six hours after. An officer stood guard in her hospital room.

After she left the hospital, Villegas was held in jail. She could not breastfeed her baby and was not allowed to use a breast pump. She says she developed a breast infection and her baby became jaundiced.

Needless to say, the 287(g) program wasn't intended to snare pregnant women. Rather, it is supposed to help officers "pursue investigations relating to violent crimes, human smuggling, gang/organized crime activity, sexual-related offenses, narcotics smuggling, and money laundering," according to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Yet the perceived need for even local officials to crack down on illegal immigrants has become an obstacle to treating people humanely.

Villegas has been released to the custody of her family and faces deportation. Her case shows how much the country needs comprehensive immigration reform that deploys legal resources where they are most needed.

© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.


So let the word go forth: BOYCOTT NASHVILLE!