It’s been nearly two months since Officer Darren Wilson shot and killed 18-year-old, unarmed Black teenager, Mike Brown, and County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch has done everything in his power to avoid holding Wilson accountable, while state Governor Jay Nixon stands idly by. We at the Organization for Black Struggle have been working day and night demanding justice for Mike Brown and so many others who have been unjustly killed as a result of systemic racial bias and violence against black and brown communities. Black lives matter, and we can’t let Wilson get away with murder! And now, reports have surfaced that a jury member has broken the grand jury secrecy rules by tweeting that there is not enough evidence to arrest Wilson.(1) Public discussion of confidential jury proceedings is serious misconduct, and now it's up to Governor Nixon to show that justice is possible in Missouri. He must get rid of McCulloch for his disgraceful and corrupt handling of this national tragedy. McCulloch could have charged Wilson immediately, but chose to convene a grand jury instead. He then refused to recommend charges to the grand jury, a move that discourages jurors from indicting.(2) In 23 years as County Prosecutor, McCulloch has not prosecuted a single police shooting.(3) Given this shameful history of denied justice, it’s clear that McCulloch is incapable of securing justice for Mike Brown. The world is watching, and the one person with the power to do something is Governor Nixon, who has a responsibility to the Black voters that supported him. It’s time for him to act. Join us in demanding that Governor Nixon remove McCulloch from this train wreck of a case, and appoint a special prosecutor to take over. Since Brown’s death, we’ve been out on the streets facing Ferguson’s militarized police as we peacefully demand justice for Mike Brown. Time and again, local officials have shown us that Black lives don’t matter. We refuse to accept that message. An indictment could happen by October 15, so we must act now to change the story here in Ferguson. Governor Nixon has been given enough time to intervene and restore integrity and justice in the case against Officer Wilson. Help us create enough widespread public pressure to ensure that Governor Nixon appoints a special prosecutor by October 15. We demand Justice! P.S. Join OBS, ColorOfChange.org, and thousands of others standing shoulder to shoulder in Ferguson, Missouri for a Weekend of Resistance Oct. 10-13: http://fergusonoctober.com References 1. “Grand jury considering the Ferguson shooting is being investigated for misconduct,” Washington Post 10-01-2014 http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/10/01/grand-jury-hearing-ferguson-shooting-is-being-investigated-for-misconduct/ 2. “Ferguson tragedy becoming a farce,” Washington Post 09-12-2014 http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dana-milbank-ferguson-tragedy-becoming-a-farce/2014/09/12/e52226ca-3a82-11e4-9c9f-ebb47272e40e_story.html 3. See reference 2.

Black Fund Manager Files Motion to Withdraw Plea in Securities Case after Government hides evidence of innocence Infinity Q Founder James Velissaris Seeks Trial (Atlanta, Ga)-On Friday, leading law firm Barnes & Thornburg filed a motion on behalf of Infinity Q founder James Velissaris to withdraw from a November plea deal regarding one count of alleged securities fraud. Velissaris, a graduate of Harvard University and Columbia University’s Fu Foundation School of Engineering, was one of the leading African American fund managers in the country at the time his case began. After establishing himself as one of the highest performing managers on Wall Street, Velissaris founded his own firm, Infinity Q Capital Management, in 2014 and was backed by renowned investor David Bonderman. In 2021, Velissaris was falsely accused of overstating the value of his multibillion-dollar fund solely based on a discrepancy between his valuation calculations and that of the Bloomberg BVAL pricing tool. Velissaris believed, and repeatedly stated that the tool was not working properly and therefore the team had to augment with other known industry data points to arrive at more reasonable valuations. In January of this year, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) found that the Bloomberg tool did, in fact, miscalculate values and, as a result, fined Bloomberg $5 million dollars. In his request to withdraw his plea, Velissaris' filing states on page 23, "At the same time the government was claiming BVAL was an authoritative source in this case to show that Mr. Velissaris improperly valued Infinity Q securities, the SEC had an ongoing investigation into that very same valuation tool. A significant part of Mr. Velissaris’ defense includes the reasonableness of his adjustments to the BVAL inputs in order to reach fair value for Infinity Q securities because of the very deficiencies in the tool shown by the SEC settlement.” The Infinity Q investor disclosure documents clearly state that the team had discretion to use their expert judgement when pricing the portfolio. According to the SEC settlement, the Bloomberg BVAL tool was not producing reasonable values. Therefore, Infinity Q valuations should not be expected to match the values of the broken tool. Velissaris' legal team submitted five additional points in their request to withdraw the plea. The six point argument for withdrawal asserts that (1) Velissaris repeatedly disclosed in investment documents to investors that the funds would depart from BVAL valuation, (2) his valuation models were in line with market conditions, (3) he requested from his previous legal team almost immediately to request a withdrawal (4), the government is not harmed by allowing Velissaris to go to trial and (5) that he did not want to accept a plea and (6), as stated above, the government hid several pieces of exculpatory evidence including known deficiencies in the Bloomberg BVAL tool. Velissaris recently retained legal counsel from Barnes & Thornburg's Washington, DC office. The legal team is led by Michael Battle, a former US Attorney, judge and director of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys and Billy Martin, a former federal prosecutor with over 40 years of experience and named as one of the country's '50 Most Influential Minority Attorneys'. Currently, the request to withdraw is pending.

The City Council seeks police reform of hiring, firing, and discipline of officers, as well as, the civilian complaint review practices in the Springfield MA Police Department. We want the Mayor to follow the law he is breaking and implement the Citizens Police Commission.