For anyone who would like to think about this one here. The NYPD, the CIA, the American government, need to reconsider the human rights of non-white people in the USA, across the world.

Martin Lee Anderson, was a 14 year old boy, brutalized by 9 adults while in custody at a Florida correction facility.

"George Bush doesn't care about black people"

-Kanye West



"Amadou Diallo was born on September 2, 1975 in the village of Sinoe, Liberia, West Africa. He was the first of four children born to Saikou and Kadiatou Diallo. Amadou has one sister, Laouratou, and two brothers, Ibrahima and Abdul Salaam. Because his father, Saikou, was a businessman, Amadou traveled throughout much of his childhood living in Togo, Guinea, the homeland of his parents, Bangkok and Singapore.

Amadou grew up with a love of reading, music, dancing and sports. Once in the United States, he became an avid basketball fan, in particular, Michael Jordan. In fact, Amadou was such a true Michael Jordan fan that he shifted from a Bulls fan to a Knicks fan when Jordan had decided to retire.

Amadou had a passion for school and attended some of the finest schools in the world, including The French International School, London's Cambridge University, The British Consulate College in Thailand and the Asian Institute of Microsoft. It was Amadou's dream to one day enroll in school in the United States. At twenty, he decided to come to America to continue his computer education and he wanted to do it on his own. In September of 1996, he decided to come to New York to start a business with his cousin. His father, Saikou, was reluctant at first but later relented after he was reassured by relatives that Amadou would be taken care of.

Upon his arrival in New York, he first worked as a delivery man but later became a street peddler selling gloves, socks and video tapes in Manhattan on 14th Street. He worked six days a week, 12 hours a day. However, his dream to pursue his education in America continued. A young man from Senegal who met Amadou in New York fondly recalls the times he and Amadou would sit talking for hours about school. After class, he'd stop by Amadou's stand where Amadou would always have a cold bottle of apple juice waiting for him. He'd take his usual seat while Amadou would run down his usual questions; "So tell me, how was school in America today? How do you feel about being in the classroom?" He'd get so excited just listening and, at the end of every conversation, he'd say, "You know, I'm really going to go to school here someday."

A spiritual person, when Amadou was about 18 years old, he began to focus and collect books on his religion, studying the Koran and praying five times a day in the Muslim tradition. When the family came to collect Amadou's belongings after his death, they found solace in what they discovered. Among the many things they found were writings where Amadou had begun to research the prophets. He had written the names of all the prophets along with the dates of their birth. He had highlighted passages in the Koran that spoke about the dialogues between Christians and Muslims. Amadou was on a spiritual journey.

Amadou was killed on February 4, 1999, after midnight, by four New York City police officers from the Street Crime Unit. Amadou had come home from work to his apartment at 1157 Wheeler Avenue in the Soundview Section of the Bronx and decided to go back out to get something to eat. Upon his return, he encountered the police officers who ultimately fired a fuselage of 41 shots, 19 of which riddled his body. Amadou died in the vestibule of his apartment."

This is my first photo concept project, these photos which are compiled in this collage. They are all test prints from the darkroom.
I will present the entire project soon.

It's called New York.

It was freezing! But after several hours starting from the morning, we managed to make some stuff
that wasn't w/a corn cab pipe and a button nose. Wish you could have made it, all you folks
who said you were coming. Thanks to Pacco, Matti, Pirjo, Seppo & crew, Ille, Kata, Tommi, Rosa & Franz.
Seppo's sauna looked rocking but the reluctant city girl came out, I chose to take picture instead.
I'm all about embracing the culture but some things I can't handle!

"Fla. Officials Release Boot Camp Tape

By MELISSA NELSON
PANAMA CITY, Fla. (AP) - Guards at a juvenile detention boot camp struck and restrained a teenager for a half-hour on the day before he died, a videotape released Friday shows.

The boy's parents said the security tape raises questions about an autopsy that found that 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson died from internal bleeding caused by a genetic blood disorder, and not from any injuries suffered in the Jan. 5 altercation.

``Martin didn't deserve this right here - at all,'' the boy's mother, Gina Jones, said after viewing the tape Friday at her lawyer's office in Tallahassee. ``I couldn't even watch the whole tape. Me as a mom, I knew my baby was in pain and I am in pain just watching his pain.''

Anderson, who entered the camp because of a probation violation, complained of breathing difficulties and collapsed while doing push-ups, sit-ups and other exercises. He died the next day at a Pensacola hospital.

Officials for the Bay County Sheriff's Office, which runs the Florida Panhandle camp, said guards restrained Anderson after he became uncooperative during the exercises.

On the grainy, 80-minute tape, which has no sound, as many as nine guards can be seen wrestling Anderson to the ground and restraining him. The boy appeared limp for most of the ordeal and never appeared to offer significant resistance. While he lay motionless on the ground, a guard struck him several times, either on his arm or torso.

At one point, a guard struck him from behind, lifting his feet off the ground. At the beginning, as the guards are pinning him against a pole, they struck him three times with their knees.

It's not clear from the tape how hard the blows were or where they landed. The physical confrontation lasted about 30 minutes.

A woman in a white coat was present while Anderson was restrained and at one point used a stethoscope to check him. Near the end of the confrontation, guards appear to become more concerned, and several run in and out of the scene. A few minutes later, emergency medical personnel take him away on a gurney.

State police investigating the case released the tape after a lawsuit by news organizations.

The autopsy by Charles Siebert, medical examiner for the district that includes Bay County, found bruises and scrapes on the boy's body but said they were linked to attempts to resuscitate him. It blamed his internal bleeding on sickle cell disorder, which is present in one in 12 African-Americans but doesn't show up in routine blood work.

There has been research - some involving recruits at military boot camps - linking the trait to sudden death after extreme exertion. Experts on sickle cell trait, however, questioned Friday whether the disease could be definitively and entirely to blame for Anderson's death.

``There is a slight, increased risk at the extremes of human endurance, but it really takes a profound amount of exercise and dehydration,'' said Dr. James Eckman, director of the Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center at Grady Health System in Atlanta and a professor at Emory University.

While research has shown an increased chance of sudden death with heavy exertion, it mostly occurs either in extreme heat and humidity or at high altitude. Weather records show the high temperature was 68 the day Anderson passed out.

A Harvard Medical School professor who reviewed Anderson's autopsy for The Miami Herald told the newspaper that the report was ``not plausible at all.''

The Justice Department is investigating possible civil rights violations in the case. Lawmakers and family lawyers on Friday called for the arrest of the guards who were seen on the videotape confronting Anderson and blasted the autopsy findings.

``It doesn't make sense and goes against all the logic of watching what happened to this young man,'' Republican state Rep. Gus Barreiro said.

Democratic Sen. Gary Siplin said any guard who touched Anderson should be immediately arrested.

``At the very least it's aggravated battery, at the top of the ladder it's murder,'' Siplin said.

Anderson was arrested in June for stealing his grandmother's Jeep Cherokee and sent to the boot camp for violating his probation by trespassing at a school.

The boot-camp concept for juveniles began in Florida in 1993, and five camps now house about 600 boys ages 14 to 18.

Associated Press reporters Brent Kallestad, David Royse and Andrea Fanta in Tallahassee contributed to this report."

This is absolutely outrageous. Tell me there are no similarities to the Diallo case. Except here we are talking about a 14 year old boy, a minor, being "restrained" by at least 9 guards.

Rings oddly familiar to the Amadou Diallo case, 41 rounds of ammunition, 19 bullets entering into his body, whilst he was reaching for his wallet (ID?!).

Looks like a case of that classic mythological super human, omipotent strength that we Black people have. Can't stop a man with 1 bullet to the knee for e.g., especially while he's reaching for his wallet. Can't "restrain" a 14 year old boy with say 2 adults, you need up 9 adults to "retrain" him for about a half an hour.

America the Beautiful...

Liberty and Justice for All...

I just wanted to say THANKS!! to everyone for coming to Tavastia last night! You guys were a fun crowd and I'm glad you are digging the record. Also BIG THNX to the people who came to Dynamo 15.1.06. Lovely crowd, thanks for the support. We'll be back!

Some of us are off to NY next week so lets see if we can get something going in the US. It's all panning out, we got licensing in Japan, distribution in Switzerland, UK and France. Let's keep rocking and shocking! WE LOVE INDEPENTS LABELS! Not taking no shorts no more!

Back to school tomorrow. A bit broke on photo ideas, self portrait. Anyone?? Thought I'd try something a bit ICE cold...

To all that have submitted us on their top 2005, keep on!

If there is something that we must check out in NY from 23 feb till 4 march let us know. Child friendly! I'll be hitting the old places, get a few oysters, some record stores and see just how gentrified it's all become.

Meanwhile here in Lahti, I can feel spring coming, if only by sixth sense.