"Mr. Vidal, do you swear to tell the truth and nothing but the truth so help me God? You may proceed to the witness stand," ATTY. BOB McNEILL to client Alex P. Vidal during the Stanley Mosk Courthouse trial in Los Angeles in 2009.
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- I join the legal community in California in mourning the loss of legal legend, Attorney Robert H. McNeill, Jr., on April 17, 2016.
McNeill, Jr., 75, was co-founder of Ivie, McNeill & Wyatt, California’s largest African-American owned law firm.
Affectionately known as “Bob,” McNeill, Jr. had been a fixture in the Los Angeles community for over 50 years. He was born on January 7, 1941.
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| ATTY. BOB McNEILL |
McNeill, Jr. was my lawyer in the criminal case I filed in 2009 against Hall of Fame boxing trainer Freddie Roach.
According to the IMW (Ivie McNeill & Wyatt) website, "McNeill, Jr. tried numerous jury trials during his outstanding and versatile legal career."
The website said he successfully litigated many cases in both federal and state courts and in a wide range of practice areas, including medical malpractice, contract, business commercial disputes, real estate, criminal, construction defect, civil litigation, and family law.
CO-COUNSEL
He served as co-counsel in a highly successful litigation involving a multimillion dollar health care class action lawsuit which changed the terms of insurance coverage on behalf of insured men and women in California.
The American-African lawyer successfully defended several death penalty cases in the Los Angeles County Superior Court, including one in which he obtained not guilty verdicts on all charges, consisting of four counts of first degree murder with special circumstances.
McNeill, Jr. was admitted to the State Bar of California in May of 1979.
He served as a Deputy City Attorney for the City of Los Angeles and as Deputy District Attorney for the County of Los Angeles.
He went on to be appointed to the Los Angeles County Commission on Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs in 1993 on the nomination of County Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke, and served more than three four-year terms until his resignation in 2008.
DEPUTY
McNeill, Jr. served as a Deputy County Assessor from 1963 to 1977, and served as a member of the Los Angeles County Capital Case Fee Committee from 1993 to 1998 by appointment of the Supervising Judge of the Los Angeles Municipal Court. Bob was appointed to the Board of Directors of the California Science Center in Exposition Park by California Governor Gray Davis in 2001 for a four-year term. In 2015, Bob was inducted into the John M. Langston Bar Association’s Hall of Fame.
During his career, McNeill Jr. and the Ivie, McNeill & Wyatt law firm received numerous awards and recognition.
In 2006, he was selected as one of The Top 100 Attorneys in the State of California by the Los Angeles Daily Journal.
Ivie, McNeill & Wyatt received the Minority-Owned Law Firm Client Services Award in October, 2005. In 2013, Bob was selected as one of L.A.’s Most Influential African-Americans by Los Angeles Wave Magazine.
AWARD
He received Southwestern University Law School’s 2014 Outstanding Alumni Award from the Black Law Students Association and the Outstanding Lifetime Achievement and Dedication to Society Award from Virginia State University.
McNeill, Jr. was a highly sought after legal commentator during the O.J. Simpson trial who served as a legal consultant for National Cable Television News.
While he earned many professional achievements throughout his career and will be missed as a litigator, words cannot describe the void left in the Ivie, McNeill & Wyatt family by his departure as a friend, a mentor, and a business partner, the website added.
"We should embrace our immigrant roots and recognize that newcomers to our land are not part of the problem, they are part of the solution." ROGER MAHONY
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- The 4-4 deadlock decision of the US Supreme Court on President Barack Obama's contested immigration policies on June 23 means the agony of millions of undocumented immigrants in the United States will continue.
The word TNT (Tago Ng Tago) was coined by a Filipino who went to the United States without any intention of going back to the Philippines.
Most common of all the reasons is economic.
Like many people around the world, Filipinos think the United States is a land of milk and honey, a fulfillment of their dreams for a better life.
Filipinos are not the only TNTs in America.
In fact, of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants, six million are Mexicans.
Hundreds of thousands are Latinos, Chinese and Koreans. Most of these undocumented immigrants made it to the land of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck via "over the bakod" or over the fence (crossing the US-Mexican border illegally).
Undocumented Immigrant is defined as a foreign-born person who lacks a right to be in the United States, having either entered without inspection (and not subsequently obtained any right to remain) or stayed beyond the expiration date of a visa or other status. (Nolo law for all).
BENEFIT
These are the warm bodies that may benefit from the S.744, the "Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act," otherwise known as the comprehensive immigration reform law, which the US Senate passed by a 68-32 margin in 2013.
The bill was not yet a law. It needed the approval of the House of Representatives which would either modify it to reconcile with the senate version and approve it or kill it before it could reach the office of President for signature.
But the GOP-controlled Lower House refused to bring it to a vote.
The bill is called "comprehensive" because it deals with border security, enforcement, immigrant visas, and nonimmigrant visas.
Title one of the bill and its preamble address issues of border security, the oversight of the border, and the security goals (“triggers”) that must be achieved before other provisions of the bill are implemented. This part of the bill establishes that the security of the border is a primary concern as part of a comprehensive strategy to ensure a functioning, fair, and effective immigration policy.
LEGAL STATUS
The title "Immigrant Visas" addresses permanent legal status in the United States.
It creates a Registered Provisional Immigrant program for undocumented immigrants and incorporates versions of the DREAM Act and AgJOBS, for undocumented young people brought to the U.S. as children and for agricultural workers, respectively.
It provides sufficient visas to erase the current backlog of family and employment-based visa applicants in the next 7 years, eliminates or changes some family-based immigration programs, and creates a new merit system that is based on points accrued through education, employment, and family ties.
The subtitle "Legal Immigration Reforms" lays out reforms and new components of the immigration system and addresses backlogs and immigration levels.
In particular, it creates a new merit-based point system with two tracks that award points to immigrants with educational credentials, work experience, and other qualifications.
It will function alongside the current family-based immigration and employment-based immigration programs, which allow U.S. companies, citizens, and legal permanent residents to file petitions for relatives or employees.
The title "Interior Enforcement" addresses DHS’s ability to enforce immigration laws while correcting many procedural problems with the immigration system.
Central to Title III is a phased in, mandatory E-Verify employment eligibility verification program.
The bill also addresses important refugee and asylum issues, enhances due-process protections in the immigration courts, increases the oversight of detention facilities, and toughens penalties for gang-related convictions and other offenses.
Let's renew our call for world peace and pray more as terrorists made another blistering attack in Istanbul, Turkey. Here's the link:
http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/28/europe/turkey-istanbul-airport-attacks/index.html
Here's the full report from CNN:
ISTANBUL -- Gunshots, screams and explosions pierced the air Tuesday at Istanbul Ataturk Airport, as three terrorists armed with bombs and guns attacked passengers at one of the world's busiest travel spots.
Witnesses described deadly carnage and crowds in a panic as the attackers struck.
At least 36 people were killed, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said, in the terror attack, one for which there was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Another 147 people were wounded, Turkey's Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said
Sue Savage was in the airport to see a friend off when she heard gunshots and then an explosion, which she knew was a bomb. Then more gunshots and another boom, she told "Erin Burnett OutFront."
She ducked into a men's prayer room and then into a men's toilet, where she hid in a stall with a young woman. They came out, perhaps 20 or 30 minutes later, and heard more screams and gunshots and ducked into a room where luggage is inspected.
She and about 30 people were herded into a women's prayer room until authorities led them out and down an escalator into the main terminal hall.
"There was a lot of blood," she said. The floor was marked with bloody boot marks and she saw a woman's scarf on the floor. The group was herded around to the other side of the room.
"There was so much glass on the floor they were scuffing it aside so we didn't slip," she said.
Video from inside the airport terminal shows people racing away as fast as they could and the bright orange flash of fire from one of the explosions. Victims stagger and some fall from the now blood-covered, slick floor.
Another video shows a man walking with a gun, which he drops when he apparently is shot by a security officer. The man slumps to the ground and the officer briefly stands over him before running. About 10 seconds later, there is an explosion.
Traveler Laurence Cameron described what he saw after he stepped off a plane.
"It was just a massive crowd of screaming people. Some were falling over themselves. A poor chap in a wheelchair was just left, and everyone just rushed to the back of the building, and then people ran the other way and no one really seemed to know what was going on," he told CNN. "Where you normally hail a taxi, that is where the attack happened. The ground is just kind of shredded. There are bloodstains on the floor as well."
Istanbul Gov. Vasip Sahin said the three terrorists were also killed.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for a unified international fight against terrorism, saying: "Make no mistake: For terrorist organizations, there is no difference between Istanbul and London, Ankara and Berlin, Izmir and Chicago or Antalya and Rome. Unless all governments and the entire mankind join forces in the fight against terrorism, much worse things than what we fear to imagine today will come true."
The attacks happened on a warm summer night at the airport, east of Istanbul, which is the 11th busiest in the world in terms of passenger traffic. CNN's Ali Veshi said Ataturk is a modern, sophisticated airport.
"There are all of the major European and American boutiques there," said Velshi, who has traveled through Turkey many times. "... You see people of all shapes and colors, in all sorts of dress. If you want to target the cosmopolitan nature of Istanbul, this is possibly the most cosmopolitan, heavily populated part. You can target tourist areas, but this is the part where the world comes together."
Flights into the airport were diverted to the capital of Ankara and other cities, airport spokesman Erhan Ustundag said.
"The terrorists came to the airport in a taxi and then carried out their attacks," Yildirim told a national audience. "The fact that they were carrying guns added to the toll. Preliminary findings suggest all three attackers first opened fire then detonated themselves."
Yildirim didn't say why, but said signs pointed to ISIS being behind the attacks, which occurred with a little more than a week left in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Multiple U.S. officials told CNN's Pamela Brown and Elise Labott that the early thinking among U.S. intelligence officials was that ISIS or an ISIS-inspired group was to blame. Like the Turkish prime minister, the officials said there is much more investigating to be done.
One official said the attack bears the hallmarks of ISIS because of the target and the method. And a senior US official pointed to the way it was coordinated using weapons and explosions.
It would be a "big surprise" if it was the PKK -- or Kurdistan Worker's Party --- based on how the attack was conducted. The PKK tends to target military and security installations, other officials said.
"To be suspicious is not a fault. To be suspicious all the time without coming to a conclusion is the defect." Lu Xun
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- It is the custom to look upon friendship between men and women with suspicion.
The hard-headed wisdom of the world finds it difficult to admit that there is any such thing without the entrance of a baser motive, Dr. Frank Crane explains in Everyday Wisdom.
At the same time there have been as many enduring friendships between men and women as there have been friendships between men and between women.
There is no doubt, Crane adds, that the play of sex instinct, in what may be called a secondary or tertiary place, is as stimulating as those of more immediate contact.
COMPANIONSHIP
There is something in the companionship of men and women that is distinctly stimulating and creative.
According to Crane, it is allied to, and germaine to, that creative instinct which enables people to do their best work in the world.
The greatest poetry, if not the greatest prose, has been written under the inspiration of the opposite sex.
“There is no doubt but that the companionship is dangerous in a way but all precious things are dangerous and this should not induce us to question our friendships. There is something peculiarly stimulating to a man in the friendship of a woman which he does not find in that of a man,” Crane writes.
He said there is such a thing as sex in ideas and in personality and point of view, as well as more bodily functions; and there is little doubt but what each member of the race is stimulated to do the best work under the influence of the opposite sex.
ASSOCIATE
Boys are better trained if they are allowed to associate freely with girls, and men acquire a smoothness of manner under the influence of women more than they do by themselves.
In fact the question of educating each sex by itself has found considerable opposition from those who are best acquainted with the fundamentals of human nature, he elaborates.
Whoever made the human race, male and female created He them, and it is intended for them to best develop their personality and live out their lives by being in constant contact one sex with another.
It is pretty well demonstrated that a life can only find its proper stimulus and interest in the presence of the opposite sex, Crane stresses.
He sums up: “It is doubtful whether a man has ever attained distinction without the presence of some of those women who are called ‘femmes inspiritrice’ by the French which means those women who are especially endowed in inspirational ability.”
"I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet, strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers." Khalil Gibran
By Alex P. Vidal
NEW YORK CITY -- If I were police Chief Supt. Ronaldo "Bato" dela Rosa, I would refrain from issuing threats to members of the underworld, particularly the drug lords, even after I have assumed as PNP director general.
I would not telegraph my punches if my intention is to eradicate the drug lords.
I would neither give a deadline nor predict a timetable for the drug lords' demise.
I will just do my job. I will let my performance do the talking.
I'm a law enforcer, not a debater.
I will only implement the law and protect the civilian populace.
I will let my boss, President Rody Duterte, do all the noise.
Duterte's locomotive tongue is enough to send shivers down their spine, but uprooting them in their cocoons will take more than a lip service.
CONNECTION
Drug lords are not patsies. They, too, have connections all over the archipelago.
They have branched out not only in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, but also in other Asian and even American countries where they maintain a symbiotic business relationship.
They have the money to burn, so to speak.
They have in their payroll not only rogue cops and jail wardens, but also corrupt journalists, powerful politicians, and hoodlums in robes--fiscals and judges.
Drug lords may also have protectors not only in the judiciary but also in the legislative branch.
They reportedly bankrolled the victory of some lawmakers. And this is a common knowledge.
We won't be surprised if some solons are drug lords, too; or are in cahoots with drug lords.
In fact, we doubt if all drug lords in the Philippines will be wiped out in six months.
Some of the small fries maybe, but not those in the hierarchy.
Drug lords have links in other parts of the world. Their cohorts are also well-connected and well-entrenched.
In this age of technology, they swap support in many disguises and networks.
OPERATIONS
Their operations are not peanuts. They operate using hi-tech gadgets and can afford to give away hundreds of millions in bribes and other operational expenses.
Predicting their downfall in only six months is like predicting Dracula to reject blood for his drink.
Instead of talking a lot, Dela Rosa should begin with a house cleaning in the PNP without any banter and blunderbuss.
According to Rappler, while Dela Rosa’s pending appointment did not surprise Camp Crame officials, it has raised some eyebrows.
Rappler reported: "His taking on the highest post in the police force means his upperclassmen – from the Philippine Military Academy classes of 1983, 1984 and 1985 – will miss their chance at the PNP’s top post. Born on January 21, 1962, Dela Rosa is set to retire in 2018, when he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 56.
"Assuming he begins his stint by July 2016, Dela Rosa would serve as PNP chief for at least one and a half years. His term would be a little longer than current PNP chief Director General Ricardo Marquez's 12-month stint, but shorter than that of President Benigno Aquino III's favorite cop, sacked PNP chief Alan Purisima.
"Purisima was appointed chief of the PNP in late 2013 and was not set to retire until November 2015, which meant an almost 2-year-old term. But Purisima was suspended in December 2014 and later, dismissed by the Ombudsman over a supposedly shady deal in Camp Crame."
Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.
--THEODORE ROOSEVELT :
In caring, what we know and how much we know are not important. It's how far are we willing to get involve with and how deep are we willing to understand.
--ALEX P. VIDAL
