Los Angeles, March 28 - in invitations [1] to selected individuals in California, the US, and abroad, Dr Joseph Zernik, Los Angeles County resident, initiated the activities of Human Rights Alert - Los Angeles (HRA-LA). The mission of the organization was defined "to generate, review, archive, disseminate and/or publicize credible evidence or Human Rights violations, or statement by competent bodies of jurisdiction regarding Human Rights violations by the US, state, or local governments on the people of the United States." The immediate goal, and the reason for founding the organization at this time was provided as developing a report for submission to the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights, as part of the first ever review of the Human Rights record of the United States, scheduled for November 2010.
[1] Invitations for Members of the Board, Human Rights Alert - Los Angeles (HRA-LA)
Date: Sun, 28 Mar 2010 00:34:12 -0700
To: [ ]
From: joseph zernik
Subject: TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE: Request to join as a Member of the Board of Human Rights Alert-Los Angeles (HRA-LA) - a Los Angeles-based Human Rights monitoring NGO

March 27, 2010

[ ]
By email

Dear Ms [ ]:

With the deadline for the upcoming Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the Human Rights record of the United States coming up shortly, [1] I write to ask you to join Human Rights Alert- Los Angeles (HRA-LA) Board of Directors. HRA-LA is a non-governmental organization (NGO). Application for a non-profit, educational organization will be filed within the next few days - no fund raising is planned at this time. The mission of HRA-LA is to generate, review, archive, disseminate and/or publicize credible evidence or Human Rights violations, or statement by competent bodies of jurisdiction regarding Human Rights violations by the US, state, or local governments on the people of the United States. [2]

In the foreseeable future, HRA-LA will keep a special focus on the documentation, dissemination, and publicizing of credible evidence of the corruption of the US, state, and local justice systems, and communication and/or submission of such evidence to international bodies, including, but not limited to the United Nation Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, as part of the UPR.

HRA-LA will archive and disseminate two categories of reports:
1) HRA-LA endorsed reports - pertaining to reports where majority of active Board Members at the time of the review provided endorsements.
2) HRA-LA reports - pertaining to reports where at least one active Board Member at the time of the review provided an endorsement.
Each report will be clearly marked relative to the identity of Board Members who endorsed the particular report. Endorsements of Board Members will be solicited by balloting of the Board on any new proposed report to be added to the HRA Archive.

Under such operational procedures, [4] credibility and reliability of HRA-LA reports would largely hinge on credibility and reliability of the individual Board Members. Therefore, your service as a Board Member is kindly requested and highly desirable. [5]

Please let me know as soon as possible if you would agree to be listed as Member of the Board of Directors, and if so, please supply a short biographical text (no more than 200 words) for posting on the HRA-LA website.

I look forward to hearing from you, Time Is Of The Essence!

Truly,
[]
Joseph Zernik, PhD

[1] Deadline for submission of reports to the UN High Commissioner as part of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is April 19, 2010. Procedures related to the submission of such reports are linked below. Please notice that NGOs, such as HRA-LA, but not individuals may filed such reports. Any comments or suggestions regarding procedures or content for inclusion in the submission for the UPR are welcome. At present, the planned HRA-LA submission will be based on a collection of third party reports, such as the ones listed in [2] below, with a short overview providing the Los Angeles/ Southern California perspective of the state of Human Rights in the United States today. Any suggestions for additional reports for inclusion in the UPR submission would be gratefully accepted.
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/Pages/BasicFacts.aspx

[2] Reports where review and endorsement of Members of the Board is requested at this time are listed below. In case you volunteer to join the Board, an official ballot would be forwarded for your signature and comments.

Reports which are currently proposed for inclusion in the permanent HRA-LA archive:

a) Blue Ribbon Review Panel Report (2006) - official government report of a panel commissioned by the LAPD, which documented the ongoing false imprisonment of the victim of the Rampart corruption scandal (1998-2000). The report concluded "innocent people remain in prison", and recommended "external investigation", singling out the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, as requiring an examination.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/24902306/06-07-15-LAPD-s-Blue-Ribbon-Review-Panel-Report-2006

b) Erwin Chemerinsky - The Criminal Justice System of Los Angeles County (2000) - report by the founding dean of University of California, Irvine Law School, and acclaimed constitutional scholar, regarding the Rampart corruption scandal. Prof Chemerinsky concluded “This is conduct associated with the most repressive dictators and police states… and judges must share responsibility when innocent people are convicted.”
http://www.scribd.com/doc/27433920/00-09-01-The-criminal-justice-system-of-Los-Angeles-County-California-by-E-Chemerinsky-57-Guild-Prac-121-2000

c) David Burcham and Katherine Fisk - Loyola Symposium: The Rampart Scandal - Policing the Criminal Justice System. (2000) - report by then Dean Burcham and Prof Fisk, of the Los Angeles Loyola Law School, which concluded: “…judges tried and sentenced a staggering number of people for crimes they did not commit."
http://www.scribd.com/doc/29043589/00-00-00-David-Burcham-and-Katherine-Fisk-Loyola-Symposium-The-Rampart-Scandal-Policing-the-Criminal-Justice-System-2000-s

d) Public Broadcasting Service - Frontline: Rampart False Imprisonments (2001) - transcript of one installment from the acclaimed PBS series LAPD Blues, which provided estimates of the numbers of the victims of the Rampart corruption scandal - the Rampart FIPs (Falsely Imprisoned Persons) ranging between 8,000-16,000. Other estimates indicate that to this date only 100-200 of the Rampart FIPs were released.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/24901612/01-05-01-Rampart-FIPs-Rampart-First-Trial-PBS-Frontline-Rampart-False-Imprisonments-s

d) Inspector General of the United States Department of Justice - Special Report (1997) regarding CIA trafficking of illicit drugs to Los Angeles. It is alleged that such conduct by US agencies could never have taken place without mutual acknowledgment and patronizing of each other's conduct by local, state, and US agencies. Drug sales by law enforcement was the underlying theme in the Rampart scandal as well. Concerns regarding ongoing drug sales by law enforcement were acknowledged in the provisions of the Consent Decree (2001), which required periodic financial disclosures by undercover narcotic officers. However, such provisions were never enforced by the Los Angeles Overseer for Civil Rights during his long tenure (2001-2009).
http://www.scribd.com/doc/29044377/97-12-00-US-Department-of-Justice-Office-of-Inspector-General-December-1997-Special-Report-CIA-Drug-Trafficking-to-Los-Angeles-California-s

e) Joseph Zernik - Richard Fine, a Review (2010)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/24729084/09-12-17-Richard-Isaac-Fine-Review-e

f) Joseph Zernik - Request for Expert(s) Opinion(s) in re: Integrity of the Public Access (PACER) and Case Management/ Electronic Court Filing (CM/ECF) Systems of the US District Court, Los Angeles, as Reviewed in the Richard Fine Case (2010)
http://inproperinla.com/10-03-25-package-sent-to-mr-sankey-as-request-for-expert-opinions-s.pdf

g) Joseph Zernik - Addendum to Request for Expert(s) Opinion(s) in re: Integrity of the Public Access (PACER) System of the US Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit, as Reviewed in the Richard Fine Case.
http://inproperinla.com/10-03-27-addendum-1-to-request-for-opinion-s.pdf

[5] No fund-raising is attempted at this time, and no operational budget was defined at this time either. The immediate goal is to submit in a timely fashion the best possible report for the UN UPR, where no existing Civil/Human Rights NGO that was approached was willing to submit a report alleging Human Rights violations in the US by the US. Reconsideration of long term goals, organizational, and budget issues would be undertaken later than the deadline for the UPR submission.