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December 28, 2004
Ratner's brother and partner defends detainees' rights, but is silent on eminent domain
During a slow news day, NoLandGrab will cast its net over a wider area to see what comes up. Here's one for our readers' end-of-year contemplation:
Michael Ratner, President of the Center for Constitutional Rights, holds a copy of a report detailing the experiences of former Guantanamo detainees Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal, and Rhuhal Ahmed, while addressing reporters during a news conference in New York, Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2004. The report claims that the men were held in open cages in the sweltering Cuban heat, with scorpions and snakes roaming the cells, and that they were forced through brutal treatment to make false confessions. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
Brooklynites' beef with Michael Ratner is that while he tirelessly fights for the constitutional rights of detainees in Guantanamo, he continues to condone, with his NJ Nets investment, the threatened abuse of the 5th Amendment (eminent domain) to quell property owner's 1st Amendment rights (free speech). Property owners who have sold to "Brother Bruce" under the threat of eminent domain must sign gag orders that "prohibits them from speaking out against the arena or attending anti-arena rallies and public hearings" (Brooklyn Papers, May 15).
Michael Ratner has been a role model to many conscientious citizens who are fighting Ratner's plan. These activists are still scratching their heads and wondering when their hero will break his silence or divest his intrest in the Nets.
Posted by lumi at December 28, 2004 7:34 AM