Tag Archives: NAACP

Public criticism —Leigh Touchton

Leigh Touchton posted a comment with a report from last night’s Valdosta City Council meeting:
I won’t stay to the end in the future because if they are going to make public attacks on citizens and then go into Executive session so they don’t have to hear a rebuttal, then I don’t care to listen to their bombast. Yost apparently thinks your public criticism of the activists not staying (and also the Tea Party left right after one of their members read from the Bible about how laws and regulation are a sin–I had difficulty keeping from laughing out loud—we’re in a recession because laws and regulation were thrown away and banks made a video called Banks Gone Wild…but I digress)…apparently Yost thinks your criticism of people not staying is something he can use to good effect to nullify the need to publicly address citizen complaints. Here’s his position, distilled:
“You won’t stay to the end, I’m offended. You called our important work boring, I’m offended. (much redness of face, some veins popping out) You come in here and talk to us like that then I’m not going to address your complaints, I’m offended.”
Well I’m offended that a grown man elected to represent Valdosta acts like that.

Let me go back and educate the gentle readers out there who haven’t

Continue reading →

Local NAACP votes to oppose private prison in Lowndes County

Leigh Touchton commented yesterday about a meeting Tuesday 19 April. She is president of the Valdosta-Lowndes NAACP. -jsq
Valdosta NAACP branch voted last night to oppose the private prison approved by VLCIA. We don’t need more prisons, and they do not improve economic standards in any community in which they have been located. There is a safety burden upon the community, there are human rights abuses, and the focus should be on saving the state money by rehabilitation of non-violent offenders rather than mass incarceration. When America has 5% of the world’s population but incarcerates 25% of the world’s prisoners, this is unacceptable. In North Carolina, private prisons have put local furniture manufacturers out of business because they cannot compete with the prison’s slave labor. These are not sustainable and it’s no mystery why most of the large Christian denominations in America oppose them.

-Leigh Touchton

Here’s Brad Lofton’s explanation of the private prison. Here are statements on private prisons by three Christian denominations. And the state of Israel has outlawed private prisons. More information about CCA and private prisons here.

-jsq

Misplaced Priorities: Over Incarcerate, Under Educate —NAACP

What can get Grover Norquist and the President of the NAACP on the same stage? A new report from NAACP:
Misplaced Priorities tracks the steady shift of state funds away from education and toward the criminal justice system. Researchers have found that over-incarceration most often impacts vulnerable and minority populations, and that it destabilizes communities.
And this is not just finger-pointing; it includes pointers on how to get out of this mess:
The report is part of the NAACP’s “Smart and Safe Campaign,” and offers a set of recommendations that will help policymakers in all 50 states downsize prison populations and shift the savings to education budgets.
Short version: Continue reading →

VDT says VLCIA illegally made up a document

Today’s editorial in the VDT is Another Industrial Authority misstep refers to the VDT article and editorial of Sunday, and continues:
The reporter who conducted the interview with Industrial Authority Project Manager Allen Ricketts has been subsequently repeatedly contacted by Ricketts for what he deems “false reporting.” According to Ricketts, the timeline was never official and was only something the Industrial Authority threw together to appease the Times when given an official Open Records Request. Ricketts is apparently unaware that legally he cannot produce a document that does not exist to comply with said request. If he knowingly did so, as he now claims, that is a clear violation of the Open Records Act.
Presumably that would be the “Project Critical Path time-line is attached” that wasn’t actually attached to documents returned for an open records request of 17 February 2011. Hm, since VLCIA did supply such a document to the VDT, presumably it is now a VLCIA document subject to open records request, even though it was not what VLCIA told VDT it was.

Back to the VDT editorial: Continue reading →

Environmental Justice –Leigh Touchton @ VLCIA 15 March 2011

Chairman Jerry Jennett asked for Citizens Wishing to be Heard, and first up was Leigh Touchton, President of Valdosta-Lowndes NAACP, who presented them a letter from Dr. Robert D. Bullard, about his findings that 80% of the residents within one mile of the proposed Wiregrass Power Plant are black and 75% of biomass facilities in Georgia are sited in minority/poor communities.
“This is what is called environmental racism.”
She also said she was tired of people who are against biomass being represented as a fanatical fringe crew, primarily by Mr. Lofton, considering she stood before them representing the local NAACP, the Georgia state conference of the NAACP, “the largest organization non-profit of voters in the state of Georgia”, and the national NAACP.


Leigh Touchton, President, Valdosta-Lowndes NAACP
regular monthly meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA)
Norman Bennett, Roy Copeland, Tom Call, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett chairman,
J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Brad Lofton Executive Director, Allan Ricketts Program Manager,
15 March 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Perhaps I missd it because I was a few minutes late, but this was the only mention of the Wiregrass Power LLC biomass plant that I heard at this VLCIA board meeting.

-jsq

Protesters at VLCIA, 15 March 2011

The first thing I saw when I drove up to the Industrial Authority building: protesters outside. They don’t seem to like some biomass plant.


Protesters, Wiregrass Activists for Clean Energy (WACE) at the
regular monthly meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA)
Norman Bennett, Roy Copeland, Tom Call, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett chairman,
J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Brad Lofton Executive Director, Allan Ricketts Program Manager,
15 March 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Let’s ask these two what this is about. Dr. Michael Noll, President of Wiregrass Activists for Clean Energy (WACE) said:

“We’re here to protest against biomass. We wish Brad Lofton well in his new job, but we want biomass to go as well.”


Karen and Michael Noll, Wiregrass Activists for Clean Energy (WACE) at the
regular monthly meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA)
Norman Bennett, Roy Copeland, Tom Call, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett chairman,
J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Brad Lofton Executive Director, Allan Ricketts Program Manager,
15 March 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

I asked Leigh Touchton, President of Valdosta-Lowndes NAACP about a letter she forwarded to LAKE, and she said: Continue reading →

Environmental apartheid and envieronmental racism –Leigh Touchton, VCC, 10 Feb 2011

NAACP reiterates charges of environmental racism, despite claims from Brad Lofton, Executive Director of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority, that “all of a sudden we haven’t heard anymore about environmental racism.” Leigh Touchton, president of the local NAACP chapter, presents to the Valdosta City Council research published by Robert D. Bullard about environmental apartheid.


Regular meeting of the Valdosta City Council, 10 February 2011.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
She posted the appended as a comment on the previous LAKE post about Robert D. Bullard’s report.

-jsq

Dear Mr. Quarterman:
Continue reading →

“a foot in the door to bring in more toxic waste streams” –Robert D. Bullard

Robert D. Bullard writes in Dismantling Energy Apartheid in the United States,
Many “clean wood chips” burning biomass plants can easily turn to burning more contaminated fuels (which may be cheaper or even free), or get paid to take really dirty wastes like trash or tires. Public opposition to biomass facilities has driven siting that follows the “path of least resistance,” which often translates to states where environmental regulations are lax and companies are given huge tax incentives to build these kinds of incinerators, and investors count on the local residents being uninformed and apathetic. Environmental justice siting concerns often get buried in the excitement and notion of “green energy.”

Zoning laws are often legal weapons deployed in facilitating energy apartheid.

There’s more, including a writeup about the local proposed incinerator, starting:
Residents in Valdosta, Georgia are fighting to block a 40 megawatt biomass incinerator slated for construction on a 22-acre site in their community. The community is already overburdened with polluting industries and heavy truck traffic.
Read it and see.

-jsq

Environmental Justice Community? –Phyllis Stallworth, First VP, NAACP

She asks about preschools, apartment complexes, etc.
I am for green energy, but I am against infant mortality. To VLCIA, City Councillors, County Commissioners, try planning with the community in mind.
A: It’s in an already-industrial area.


Video by Gretchen Quarterman of the 6 Dec 2011 VLCIA biomass event
for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

See also Phyllis Stallworth’s previous letter. See also VLCIA executive director Brad Lofton on “some opposition has crept up”.

-jsq