A) Narrative:

Riding home from the courthouse with my wife and one of my daughters after escaping the clutches of the media was a welcomed relief after my first day as an accused felon. But I couldn’t escape.

On the radio,the broadcaster was telling those who had heard and those who hadn’t that Councilor Turner not only was arrested but also was stripped by the Council President of all his committee responsibilities and had been invited to an executive session of the City Council the following Monday. Well, at least I’ll have a relatively quiet weekend to figure out what to do, I thought.

What I forgot was that the media never sleeps. When I got home, they were there and even though I wouldn’t talk to them, they stayed there until all our friends had left. Bright and early the next day, they came back. Different people but with the same insistence on my answering their needs until I asked the police to put up a Do Not Cross per order of the police barrier.

Throughout the day, calls from friends and family gave needed reassurance that I continued to have their support. Particularly helpful were calls from Steve Kirshbaum, School Bus Drivers Union

steward and International Action Center leader, and Aaron Tanaka, the organizer for the Boston Workers’ Alliance, an organization of unemployed workers that I had helped to organize and that was operating out of my District Office. Their question was whether I wanted them to organize a rally at City Hall on Monday. My immediate response was yes.

A)     The court of public opinion.

At 7:30 on the morning of my arrest, TV and radio stations began sending the message to the world that Chuck Turner, well known activist and Boston City Councilor had been arrested for extortion, conspiracy, and lying to FBI agents. The newscasters’ commentary were accompanied by pictures of a black hand putting something in my hand, while the hidden camera captured a smile on my face. This “evidence” of my guilt was being provided by the Massachusetts US Attorney to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that I was guilty.

Those initial pictures, however, were just the beginning of US Attorney Michael Sullivan’s plan to convict me in the court of public opinion before I had even gone before a judge to begin the legal process. The time was nearing for Sullivan to take the stage. How else could the world appreciate the magnificent job he was doing as US Attorney. Shortly after nine, three hours after my arrest, he stepped onto the podium in the press room of the Moakley Federal Court House to begin putting the final nails in my coffin.

“If I do this right”, I could imagine him saying to himself, “Turner’s days as a Councilor and activist will be done by next week and we won’t even have to waste our resources on him. Then we can concentrate on the big fish and get rid of the Senator. Smiling broadly at the world through the eyes of the cameras, he began his victory speech. Praising the work of his office and the FBI in bringing to justice two corrupt politicians, he then proceeds to use the media to the world.  

Today was the day that our system had planned to evict Drusilla Francis and her foster children from their home in Dorchester, MA. One more person and family in one more neighborhood in one more state in a county that is going wild with evicting people from their homes. One more day for a system, that exists to serve the interests of the banks and the wealthy elite and to hell with human beings and the communities we live.

A few years ago a few members of our party, including Chuck Turner, Mel King, Grace Ross, Merelice joined forces with a few other organizations. They saw a gigantic emerging monster beginning to roll down on our communities. They formed a statewide organization, MAAPL (Mass Alliance Against Predatory Lending). www.maapl.info

MAAPL is a growing statewide organization, and unfortunately, the last couple of years our party has become a much less significant force within this organization and movement. Thanks to Mel, Merelice and Eva for keeping us involved. Now, things are looking up, and more interest is expressed from members of our party in Boston and across the state.

Chapter 2

Keystone Cops Strike Again

A Luta Continua

By Chuck Turner

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board

A) Narrative:

On November 21, 2008, at 6:16 a.m. I was confronted in my office at City Hall by 10 white men and women, some in police uniforms. One of them barked at me, “Hang up the phone”. I had been talking with my wife, Terri, who had called me 10 minutes earlier, saying that the FBI had just come to our house to arrest me. My first response was “Well it finally happened” and we both laughed since Terri had been saying for years that my political work would result in my being killed or put in jail.

My second response was “Why are they going to arrest me.” She said she didn’t know and went on to say that they forced their way into the house when she told them that I had left for work. She was still relating her experience with them when the FBI accompanied by Boston Police burst into my office and ordered me to hang up the phone.

The large officer at the edge of my desk who had told me to hang up the phone, then ordered me to stand up and put my hands behind my back. As I followed his instructions, I started to laugh which infuriated him. “What are you laughing at?”, he shouted. I replied, “You would never understand”.

The situation was obviously a serious one. At the same time these ten “public safety officers” standing around me in my small office getting ready to handcuff a 68 year old, black, 9 year City Councilor, and lifelong activist seemed so ludicrous that I couldn’t help but laugh. It seemed that somehow I was playing a part in a grade C detective movie or perhaps even a Keystone Cops movie.  

Reflections from Behind the Wall

Anatomy of a Frame Up – Chapter 1

A Lifetime of Service

A Luta Continua

By Chuck Turner

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board

This is the first of eight chapters  in which I discuss my two and a half year experience with the Justice Department that has led to my being a convicted felon at the work camp at USP Hazelton, Bruceton Mills, West Virginia.

My first reaction was that I was dreaming; no, I was having a nightmare but I couldn’t wake up. After a lifetime of fighting for justice, I was in handcuffs being led out of City Hall. I didn’t even know what I was being accused of. Later, it became all too clear, not only from the prosecutor describing me as a corrupt politician but also from the newspaper headlines the next morning screaming that I had been indicted for conspiracy to extort money from a local community business man and lying about it to the FBI.

How could this happen? I knew I hadn’t done what they said but there were the camera trucks in front of our house. Reporters knocking at the door, urging me to talk to them as if it was my responsibility to answer their questions. Sure, they were just doing their job but they were part of an establishment that I had been fighting for decades. Yet, here they were ridiculing me, mocking me, gloating over my alleged hypocrisy. I felt like Alice in Wonderful and I had no idea how to get out of the rabbit hole.  

REFLECTIONS FROM BEHIND THE WALL: PREVIEW OF AN ANATOMY OF A COVERUP

By CHUCK TURNER Black Commentator 6/16/11

Dear Supporters,

I was arrested by the FBI on November 21, 2008 at 6:15 a.m. at Boston City Hall where I had served as a City Councilor for 9 years.  At 3 p.m. on the same day, I was arraigned before a judge magistrate in Worcester, MA, 45 miles from Boston, on one count of extortion, 3 counts of lying to FBI agents, and 1 count of conspiracy.  On October 29, 2010, I was convicted of 1 count of extortion and 3 counts of lying to FBI agents.

The conspiracy charge was dropped without explanation. On January 25, 2011, I was sentenced to 36 months in a federal penitentiary. The sentence was based on my conviction on the four counts and the judge’s assertion that I had perjured myself when I took the stand to testify in my own defense.

Today I am in my 11th week at the work camp at USP Hazelton in Bruceton Mills, West Virginia, where 130 men convicted of nonviolent financial crimes serve as the work force for the Hazelton prison complex, composed of a women’s medium security prison with 1000 inmates and a men’s maximum security prison with 1700 inmates. Based on the Bureau of Prison Sentencing Monitoring Computation of 3-31-2011, I will be released on November 2, 2013 if I maintain my good time.

Due to my financial insolvency, I applied for a court appointed appeals lawyer and was fortunate to have the appeals court appoint, Attorney Charles Rankin of the firm of Rankin and Sultan. Attorney Rankin is a prominent Boston appeals lawyer. Based on his reputation, I am convinced he will make an excellent presentation of the appeal. However, I believe I have a responsibility based on my experience with the Justice Department during the last two and a half years to show how U.S. Attorneys and their special police force, the FBI, use their law enforcement powers as well as  media and political relationships to eliminate those who they view as a threat or as not cooperating with their political objectives.

I made this promise to my supporters at a rally in front of my Roxbury office on the day before Thanksgiving 2008, a few days after my arrest. I think I have enough objectivity now to effectively make such a presentation. Each week for the next eight weeks, I will send an Chapter of what I am calling, “Anatomy of a FRAME UP”. My purpose is not to prove my innocence. While I am innocent of the crimes of which I was convicted, I understand that regardless of the outcome of my appeal, I will always carry the label of being a convicted felon. Fortunately, I have learned through my 48 years of activism that it does not matter what people label you as long as you live by the principles that you believe are appropriate for a civilized society.  

Representative Horan and Senator Rosenberg:

I was unable to submit my testimony to the Redistricting Comm. because my statement was too long!!!

The # of characters in my testimony was 10,815. The maximum amount of thought and opinion is 2,000 characters.

This is an example of your shameful procedures. Please fix this.

Below is my testimony. Please add my statement to the list of those who wish to publicly testify to the committee.

Thanks,

Mike Heichman    mikeheichman@verizon.net    617-265-8143

www.youtube.com/user/drovics?feature=mhum#p/a/u/0/6qnvio5w7h4

“Here’s a song for President Obama (and the Democratic Party more broadly) I wrote today.” –David Rovics

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member Chuck Turner is writing this column from the U.S. Federal Prison in Hazelton, West Virginia where he is serving a three year term for a bribery conviction.  BC is in contact with Mr. Turner by email and telephone.