The Pentagon Doesn’t Know What 108,000 Military Contractors Are Still Doing In Afghanistan

The number of contractors working in Afghanistan now vastly outnumbers American troops stationed there, according to a Congressional Research Service report.

CRS, along with the Government Accountability Office, also determined that the Pentagon is unable to properly document the work these contractors are doing.

And the information DOD is receiving is often unreliable and inaccurate.

According to CRS, there are now 108,000 private workers in Afghanistan, a workforce that dwarfs the 65,700 American troops still stationed there.

That means there are 1.6 contractors for every American soldier in Afghanistan.This is an increase from last month, when The Fiscal Times reported that there were 1.4 contractors per American soldier.

Given the size of the private forces, it’s not surprising that CRS found that in recent years, the Defense Department spent more than any other agency to support contractor work.

“Over the last six fiscal years, DOD obligations for contracts performed in the Iraq and Afghanistan areas of operation were approximately $160 billion and exceeded total contract obligations of any other U.S. federal agency,” CRS found.

The CRS report comes in the wake of a recent GAO report that the United States spent $195 billion for contractor services in 2010, or twice what it spent on contractors in 2001, before the start of the war in Afghanistan.

The increase in the contractors to troop ration is yet another indication that although the vast majority of troops are leaving Afghanistan, a private army will remain in the country for years.

But the CRS and GAO reports did more than simply document how much was being spent on contractors. They also explored contractor oversight and DOD’s ability to track contractor work.

Taken together, they amount to yet another indictment of how the Pentagon deals with private workers. CRS found that the Pentagon lacked the ability to document the work each contractor is performing. It also found even when the government has information on contractors, it’s often inaccurate and doesn’t reflect the actual work being done. This leaves the Pentagon unable to determine if the hundreds of billions it’s spending are leading to effective results.

A Texas tragedy: Ample oil, no water because of fracking boom August 13, 2013

Beverly McGuire saw the warning signs before the town well went dry: sand in the toilet bowl, the sputter of air in the tap, a pump working overtime to no effect. But it still did not prepare her for the night last month when she turned on the tap and discovered the tiny town where she had made her home for 35 years was out of water.

"The day that we ran out of water I turned on my faucet and nothing was there and at that moment I knew the whole of Barnhart was down the tubes," she said, blinking back tears. "I went: ‘dear God help us. That was the first thought that came to mind."

Across the south-west, residents of small communities like Barnhart are confronting the reality that something as basic as running water, as unthinking as turning on a tap, can no longer be taken for granted.

Three years of drought, decades of overuse and now the oil industry’s outsize demands on water for fracking are running down reservoirs and underground aquifers. And climate change is making things worse.

In Texas alone, about 30 communities could run out of water by the end of the year, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

Nearly 15 million people are living under some form of water rationing, barred from freely sprinkling their lawns or refilling their swimming pools. In Barnhart’s case, the well appears to have run dry because the water was being extracted for shale gas fracking.

The town — a gas station, a community hall and a taco truck – sits in the midst of the great Texan oil rush, on the eastern edge of the Permian basin.

A few years ago, it seemed like a place on the way out. Now McGuire said she can see nine oil wells from her back porch, and there are dozens of RVs parked outside town, full of oil workers.

But soon after the first frack trucks pulled up two years ago, the well on McGuire’s property ran dry.

No-one in Barnhart paid much attention at the time, and McGuire hooked up to the town’s central water supply. “Everyone just said: ‘too bad’. Well now it’s all going dry,” McGuire said.

Ranchers dumped most of their herds. Cotton farmers lost up to half their crops. The extra draw down, coupled with drought, made it impossible for local ranchers to feed and water their herds, said Buck Owens. In a good year, Owens used to run 500 cattle and up to 8,000 goats on his 7,689 leased hectares (19,000 acres). Now he’s down to a few hundred goats.

The drought undoubtedly took its toll but Owens reserved his anger for the contractors who drilled 104 water wells on his leased land, to supply the oil companies.

Water levels were dropping in his wells because of the vast amounts of water being pumped out of the Edwards-Trinity-Plateau Aquifer, a 34,000 sq mile water bearing formation.

"They are sucking all of the water out of the ground, and there are just hundreds and hundreds of water trucks here every day bringing fresh water out of the wells," Owens said.

Meanwhile, residents in town complained, they were forced to live under water rationing. “I’ve got dead trees in my yard because I haven’t been able to water them,” said Glenda Kuykendall. “The state is mandating our water system to conserve water but why?… Getting one oil well fracked takes more water than the entire town can drink or use in a day.”

Even as the drought bore down, even as the water levels declined, the oil industry continued to demand water and those with water on their land were willing to sell it. The road west of town was lined with signs advertising “fresh water”, where tankers can take on a box-car-sized load of water laced with industrial chemicals.

"If you’re going to develop the oil, you’ve got to have the water," said Larry Baxter, a contractor from the nearby town of Mertzon, who installed two frack tanks on his land earlier this year, hoping to make a business out of his well selling water to oil industry.

By his own estimate, his well could produce enough to fill up 20 or 30 water trucks for the oil industry each day. At $60 (£39.58) a truck, that was $36,000 a month, easily. “I could sell 100 truckloads a day if I was open to it,” Baxter said.

He rejected the idea there should be any curbs on selling water during the drought. “People use their water for food and fibre. I choose to use my water to sell to the oil field,” he said. “Who’s taking advantage? I don’t see any difference.”

Barnhart remained dry for five days last month before local work crew revived an abandoned railway well and started pumping again. But residents fear it is just a temporary fix and that next time it happens they won’t have their own wells to fall back on. “My well is very very close to going dry,” said Kuykendall.

So what is a town like Barnhart to do? Fracking is a powerful drain on water supplies. In adjacent Crockett county, fracking accounts for up to 25% of water use, according to the groundwater conservation district. But Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, argues fracking is not the only reason Texas is going dry – and nor is the drought. The latest shocks to the water system come after decades of overuse by ranchers, cotton farmers, and fast-growing thirsty cities.

"We have large urban centres sucking water out of west Texas to put on their lands. We have a huge agricultural community, and now we have fracking which is also using water," she said. And then there is climate change.

West Texas has a long history of recurring drought, but under climate change, the south-west has been experiencing record-breaking heatwaves, further drying out the soil and speeding the evaporation of water in lakes and reservoirs. Underground aquifers failed to regenerate. “What happens is that climate change comes on top and in many cases it can be the final straw that breaks the camel’s back, but the camel is already overloaded,” said Hayhoe.

Other communities across a bone-dry south-west are resorting to extraordinary measures to keep the water flowing. Robert Lee, also in the oil patch, has been hauling in water by tanker. So has Spicewood Beach, a resort town 40 miles from Austin, which has been trucking in water since early 2012.

San Angelo, a city of 100,000, dug a pipeline to an underground water source more than 60 miles away, and sunk half a dozen new wells.

Las Cruces, just across the border from the Texas panhandle in New Mexico, is drilling down 1,000ft in search of water.

But those fixes are way out of reach for small, rural communities. Outside the RV parks for the oil field workers who are just passing through, Barnhart has a population of about 200.

"We barely make enough money to pay our light bill and we’re supposed to find $300,000 to drill a water well?" said John Nanny, an official with the town’s water supply company.

Last week brought some relief, with rain across the entire state of Texas. Rain gauges in some parts of west Texas registered two inches or more. Some ranchers dared to hope it was the beginning of the end of the drought.

But not Owens, not yet anyway. The underground aquifers needed far more rain to recharge, he said, and it just wasn’t raining as hard as it did when he was growing up.

"We’ve got to get floods. We’ve got to get a hurricane to move up in our country and just saturate everything to replenish the aquifer," he said. "Because when the water is gone. That’s it. We’re gone."

"Thousands of migrants ride atop the trains, known as “la bestia,” or the beast, during their long and perilous journey through Mexico to the U.S. border. Many of the immigrants are robbed or assaulted by gangs who control the train tops, while others fall asleep and tumble down, losing limbs or perishing under the wheels of the trains. Only a fraction of the immigrants who start the journey will arrive safely on their first attempt to illegally enter the United States.” — Getty Images

Bolivians expected to endorse charter to end centuries of oppression for indigenous population

Since Francisco Pizarro’s conquistadors first clanked into their domain almost 500 years ago, Bolivia's indigenous people have been subjugated and marginalised by European overlords and their descendants.

But after a bruising struggle between supporters and opponents of President Evo Morales, the country is now poised to adopt a new constitution which could prove a watershed for South America. A referendum on Sunday is expected to endorse a charter which supporters say will empower the indigenous majority and roll back half a millennium of colonialism, discrimination and humiliation.

Indigenous leaders gathered in the baroque hall of La Paz’s presidential palace this week to give thanks to their champion Morales, a former llama herder who rose to the highest office and delivered, as he promised, a revolution.

In a scene unimaginable just a few years ago the visitors, dressed in the ponchos, colourful skirts and bowler hats of highland peasants, played pan pipe music, chewed coca leaves and spilled alcohol on the mahogany floor as an offering to Pachamama, or Mother Earth, a goddess revered in the Andes.

"We will offer unanimous support to this new constitution," said David Choque, a traditional Aymara leader. His companions exploded in cries of "Jallalla", a call to arms and expression of triumph. Half a century ago indigenous people were banned from the palace.

Opinion polls suggest that despite the efforts of the conservative opposition, the 411-article charter will prevail, enshrining radical policies to extend state control of the economy and tilt Bolivia in favour of its underclass.

Morales, an abrasive and charismatic figure elected in 2005 as the first indigenous president, wept for joy when the draft was agreed last October. It would redress grievances dating to the Spanish conquest, he said. “We have made history. I can now go to the cemetery a happy man.”

The charter will confirm Bolivia, South America’s second-poorest country after Guyana, as a leader in the regional “pink tide” of leftist governments which have ousted traditional elites and challenged US influence.

Addressing a rally last night night, Morales said voters would make Bolivia’s “democratic revolution” irreversible.

"Patriots, we are not visiting the palace, we are here to stay for life," he told cheering crowds.

"Millions of Bolivians will guarantee the approval of the new constitution to refound Bolivia as a new state with equal opportunities, a new state where everyone will have the same rights and duties."

But not everyone is celebrating, and Morales’s fight to “refound” Bolivia is not over. Conservative opponents in the eastern lowlands, a semi-tropical stronghold of paler-skinned European descendants, reject the constitution as a recipe for ruin, division and authoritarianism.

They fiercely resisted its drafting and mounted street protests which turned into bloody clashes with pro-government supporters, including miners armed with dynamite and peasants with machetes. Several people died, hundreds were injured and the country was left dangerously polarised.

"This constitution is making a big mistake by giving more rights to the indigenous [population] and less rights to the people of mixed race. As South Africans did some years ago, we need to unite," said Oscar Ortíz, the senate president.

By mimicking the wholesale nationalisations and hostility to private enterprise espoused by Venezuela’s president, Hugo Chávez, the charter invited disaster, said Ortíz. “This will isolate Bolivia.” The opposition hopes to unite behind a single candidate against Morales in elections later this year.

Radical elements in the lowlands have pushed for autonomy to stymie the constitution’s implementation in at least four provinces, a high-risk defiance of central government authority. “There will be violence,” said Victor Hugo Rojas, a leader of a youth group in Santa Cruz. “We are ready for confrontation if necessary.”

Some of the 50-page charter’s most controversial provisions include state control over natural resources, tough penalties against privatisation, and the separation of church and state. Christian groups joined the campaign with the slogan: “Choose God, Vote No.”

Wide-ranging provisions extend the rights of Bolivia’s 36 indigenous groups and grant indigenous systems of justice the same status as conventional courts which are widely considered inefficient and corrupt.

Morales was forced to make important concessions in the text. He promised to stand for just one more term, meaning he must vacate the presidential palace by 2014.

He also diluted land reform so that any limits on the size of estates will not be retroactive. In addition, big landowners will be protected from peasant invasions or government confiscation if they can show their land is productive.

Some members of the president’s party, the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS), complained the concessions went too far and that ambiguous wording left some provisions unclear.

Loyola Guzman, a former guerrilla who fought with Che Guevara and helped draft the constitution, was disillusioned. “This text generated more polarisation instead of uniting us. And there are many inconsistencies.”

Few doubt the president, who won 67% in a recall election last year, will triumph on Sunday. But with the opposition preparing for a campaign of attrition, and prices for Bolivia’s commodities falling, the future is murky.

"The new constitution may get ample political backing [but] surely won’t solve many of the pressing governance challenges facing the Morales administration," said Michael Shifter, of the Inter-American Dialogue thinktank. "These will become even more acute as overall economic conditions worsen this year. The question will be how Bolivia’s political forces interpret and carry out the many ambiguous clauses in the new constitution."

Indigenous leaders recognise the text is imperfect and that fresh battles loom: at the ceremony in the presidential palace they gave Morales a whip to help him tame opponents.

But for them this is a moment to savour. The election of Morales was the first flexing of indigenous power; the constitution affirmed it was here to stay, said Eugenio Rojas, head of the Red Ponchos, a radical Aymara group.

"We are indigenous people that for the first time in history are in power. We will fight to keep this constitution, we will fight hard to make it work and be respected."

A breakdown of what the $47 billion that the U.S. government has proposed for the militarization of the already-secure border with Mexico will buy them.

But what about the human cost?

7 million residents in border areas would be forced to experience life in a war-zone.. complete with drones, video surveillance, radar, and tens of thousands of border patrol agents.. not to mention the potential human rights abuses and racial profiling in border communities that come along with increased militarization.

Black Mothers Speak Out After Trayvon: ‘My Son Is Not a Suspect’

In the aftermath of George Zimmerman’s acquittal on all charges related to the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, the continued racial profiling of young black men has become even bigger news than usual. On Tuesday, Essence Magazine launched a social media campaign called #HeIsNotASuspect to challenge the negative images of young black men in the media. Its aim is to end racial profiling by targeting the often unacknowledged victims of violence targeted at young black men: the black mothers, grandmothers, aunties, sisters, and girlfriends who are often left behind to pick up the pieces.

A Boys’ Camp to Redefine Gender

Over the past three years, photographer Lindsay Morris has been documenting a four-day camp for gender nonconforming boys and their parents.

The camp, “You Are You” (the name has been changed to protect the privacy of the children and is also the name of Morris’ series), is for “Parents who don’t have a gender-confirming 3-year-old who wants to wear high heels and prefers to go down the pink aisle in K-Mart and not that nasty dark boys’ aisle,” Morris said with a laugh.

It is also a place for both parents and children to feel protected in an environment that encourages free expression.

“[The kids] don’t have to look over their shoulders, and they can let down their guard. Those are four days when none of that matters, and they are surrounded by family members who support them,” Morris said.

Morris has stated that her photographic goal for the project is “to represent the spirit of these boys as they shine.” Some of the ways in which the kids shine is through the talent and fashion shows at camp that are popular and for which the campers come well-prepared.

“Some practice for the talent show all year, and others create their own gowns with their mothers or friends of the family,” Morris said. “The focus and enthusiasm is really pretty incredible. Also, it can be very emotional for the parents, especially the families who are new to camp and are experiencing this kind of group acceptance for the very first time.”

Although it is unknown if the kids at the camp will eventually identify as gay or transgender—or even if the way gender and sexuality are defined throughout society will evolve—the camp allows the kids to look at themselves in a completely different way.

“They get enough questioning in their daily lives, so it’s a great place for them to express themselves as they feel. … I feel we hear so many of the sad stories and how LGBT kids are disproportionately affected by bullying, depression, and suicide, and it hangs a heavy cloud over them and kind of dooms them from the beginning. I’m saying this is a new story. This is not a tragedy.”

Morris hopes to eventually publish a book of her work and also launch a large multimedia show that travels the country and the world to show a new face of LGBT youth. The children featured here and in Morris’ project are photographed with the permission of the their parents. Her ultimate goal is to start a foundation that raises money to help underwrite the cost of camp for kids unable to attend. She also hopes to add even more dimension to the project, concentrating on producing more portraiture and documenting the transition the kids experience upon arrival to the camp.

Bell Hooks on Zimmerman (via becomingkeltik)

Ms. hooks has spoken.

#HoodiesUp: Candlelight Vigil & Rally in Toronto

Black and unarmed.

Remember the names of unarmed Black men who were killed by police or vigilantes. This is only a short list, please reply with other names so we may remember these men.

Trayvon Martin.

The fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman took place on the night of February 26, 2012, in Sanford, Florida.  Martin was a 17-year-old African American high school student. He was unarmed and headed home after buying skittles and sweet tea from a gas station close to his home. George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old multi-racial Hispanic American was the neighborhood watch coordinator for the gated community where Martin was temporarily staying and where the shooting took place. Zimmerman, against the instructions of the Emergency dispatcher pursued Martin on foot calling him “the suspect.” When the case garnered international attention sparking protests all over the world, the state of Florida filled charges against him 46 days after Martin’s death. Zimmerman was tried for second-degree murder and manslaughterand found not guilty on Saturday, July 13, 2013.

Ervin Jefferson

The 18-year-old was shot and killed by two security guards — also African American — outside his Atlanta home on Saturday, March 24, 2012. His mother says that he was unarmed and trying to protect his sister from a crowd that was threatening her.

Amadou Diallo

22-year-old Amadou Ahmed Diallo, a Guinnea-Bissau immigrant, was killed when four white New York police officers in plain clothes fired 41 shots at him, 19 of which hit his body. The officers said they thought Diallo was reaching for a gun when they shot him in the doorway of his apartment. Turns out it was his wallet. During the trial, the officers admitted that they never considered the situation (four strangers in an unmarked car with guns approaching a guy on his stoop at night) from Diallo’s point of view. They were acquitted of all charges. 

 Patrick Dorismond

The 26-year-old father of two young girls was shot to death in 2000 during a confrontation with undercover police officers who asked him where they could purchase drugs. An officer claimed thatDorismond — who was unarmed — grabbed his gun and caused his own death. But the incident made many wonder whether the recent acquittal of the officers in the Amadou Diallo case sent a signal that the police had a license to kill without consequence

Ousmane Zongo

In 2003 Officer Bryan A. Conroy confronted and killed Zongo in New York City during a raid on a counterfeit-CD ring with which Zongo had no involvement. Relatives of the 43-year-old man from Burkina Faso settled a lawsuit against the city for $3 million. The judge in the trial of the officer who shot him (and was convicted of criminally negligent homicide but did not serve jail time) said he was “insufficiently trained, insufficiently supervised and insufficiently led."

Timothy Stansbury

Unarmed and with no criminal record, 19-year-old Stansbury was killed in 2004 in a Brooklyn, N.Y., stairwell. The officer who shot him said he was startled and fired by mistake. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly called his death “a tragic incident that compels us to take an in-depth look at our tactics and training, both for new and veteran officers." A grand jury deemed it an accident.

Sean Bell

Hours before his wedding, 23-year-oldSean Bell left the strip that hosted his bachelor party, jumped into a car with two friends, and was killed when police fire 50 shots into his vehicle. Police say they opened fire after Bell rammed his car into an unmarked police van filled with plainclothes officers. They say they followed Bell and his friends outside the club suspecting that one person in their group had a gun. Referring to Bell and his friends, Mayor Bloomberg told the Associated Press "there is no evidence that they did anything wrong." A judge acquitted the officers of all charges in 2008. 

Orlando Barlow

While surrendering on his knees in front of four Las Vegas police officers, Orlando Barlow was shot with an assault rifle by officer Brian Hartman 50 feet away. Hartman argued that he feared Barlow was feigning surrender and about to grab a gun. Barlow was unarmed. A jury ruled the shooting “excusable." Hartman later resigned from the force a month before a federal probe uncovered that he and other officers printed T-Shirts labeled "BDRT" which stood for “Baby’s Daddy Removal Team" and “Big Dogs Run Together." 

Aaron Campbell

 Portland police officers got a call to check on a suicidal and armed man at an apartment complex. Aaron Campbell,25, came of the apartment walking backward toward police with his hands over his head. The Oregonian reported that police say Campbell ignored their orders to put his hands up. At which point one officer fired six bean bag shots at his back. Witnesses say they saw Campbell reach his arm around his back, where the beanbag struck him. Officer Ronald Frashour said he saw Campbell reach both hands around his waistband to get a gun, and so he shot Campbell in the back with an assault rifle. The jury acquitted the police officer with no criminal wrongdoing.

Victor Steen 17-year-old Victor Steen died when he fled from police, was tasered, crashed his bicycle and was run over by police cruiser. Steen committed a simple traffic violation while riding his bike. The deadly incident was captured on video. The officers were acquitted of any criminal wrongdoing.

Ronald Madison and James Brissette

In 2005, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, five officers opened fire on an unarmed family on the east side of the Danziger Bridge, killing 17-year-old James Brissette and wounding four others. Next, officers shot at brothers Lance and Ronald Madison. Ronald, a 40-year-old man with severe mental disabilities, was running away when he was hit, and an officer stomped on and kicked him before he died. In a federal criminal trial, five officers involved in what have become known as the “Danziger Bridge Shootings" were convicted of various civil rights violations, but not murder.

Oscar Grant

On New Years morning, 2009, three Bay Area Rapid Transit officers pulled 22-year-old Oscar Grant and four other black men off a train in Oakland. You can view what happened afterwards in this Youtube video. In it, former-transit officer Mehserle can be seen shooting Grant in the back. During the trial, Mehserle argued that he thought Grant was reaching for a gun near his waistband. To stop this from happening, Mehserle said he intended to Tase him, but shot him with a pistol instead. He was sentenced to two years in prison and served 11 months.

Jordan Davis

On Nov. 23, an unarmed, 17-year-old Jordan Davis, was shot and killed by Michael Dunn after an argument over loud rap music. Dunn, 46, Davis through the window of a sport utility vehicle at a Jacksonville convenience store gas station before driving away, authorities say.Officials say Dunn parked next to the vehicle where Davis was sitting with three other teens. Dunn complained about the loud music and they started arguing. Dunn told police he thought he saw a gun and fired eight or nine shots into the vehicle. N He is charged with first degree murder.

 Kenneth Chamberlain

On November 19, 2011, after his Life Aid medical alert necklace was inadvertently triggered, police came to Chamberlain’s home and demanded that he open his front door. Despite his objections and statements that he did not need help, the police broke down Chamberlain’s door, tasered him, and then shot him dead. Chamberlain was a 68-year-old, African-American, retired former-Marine, and a 20-year veteran of the Westchester County Department of Corrections. He wore the medical alert bracelet due to a chronic heart problem. A grand jury reviewed the case and decided that no criminal charge would be made against police officers involved in the killing.

Abner Louiama

 30-year-old Haitian immigrant, Abner Louima, was arrested and sodomized with a broomstick inside a restroom in the 70th Precinct station house in Brooklyn. The case became a national symbol of police brutality and fed perceptions that New York City police officers were harassing or abusing young black men as part a citywide crackdown on crime. One officer, Justin A. Volpe, admitted in court in May 1999 that he had rammed a broken broomstick into Mr. Louima’s rectum and then thrust it in his face. He said he had mistakenly believed that Mr. Louima had punched him in the head during a street brawl outside a nightclub in Flatbush, but he acknowledged that he had also intended to humiliate the handcuffed immigrant. He left the force and was later sentenced to 30 years in prison. The commanders of the 70th Precinct were replaced within days of the assault. As the legal case wore on, Charles Schwarz, a former police officer, was sentenced in federal court in 2002 to five years in prison for perjury stemming from the torture case. A jury found that Mr. Schwarz had lied when he testified that he had not taken Mr. Louima to the station house bathroom where the assault took place.

Kimani Gray

16-year-old Kimani was shot four times in the front and side of his body and three times in the back by two New York City police officers as he left a friend’s birthday party in Brooklyn on March 9, 2013. The only publicly identified eyewitness is standing by her claim that he was empty-handed when he was gunned down.

 Kendrec McDade

19-year-old college student McDade was shot and killed in March 2012 when officers responded to a report of an armed robbery of a man in Pasadena, Calif. He was later found to be unarmed, with only a cellphone in his pocket. His death has prompted his family to file a lawsuit, in which McDade’s parents argue that he was left on the street for a prolonged period of time without receiving first aid. According to court documents, McDade’s last words were, “Why did they shoot me?" The officers involved were initially placed on paid administrative leave but have since returned to duty.

Timothy Russell

Russell and his passenger, Malissa Williams, were killed in Cleveland after police officers fired 137 rounds into their car after a chase in December 2012. Officers said they saw a possible weapon, but no weapon or shell casings were found in the fleeing car or along the chase route. 

Steven Washington

Washington was shot by gang-enforcement officers Allan Corrales and George Diego in Los Angeles one night in 2010 after he approached them and appeared to remove something from his waistband. The officers said they’d heard a loud sound in the area and the 27-year-old, who was autistic, was looking around suspiciously. No weapon was ever recovered.

Alonzo Ashley

Police say that 29-year-old Ashley refused to stop splashing water from a drinking fountain on his face at the Denver Zoo one hot day in 2011, then made irrational comments and threw a trash can. The responding officers, who didn’t dispute that he was unarmed, killed him with a Taser, saying he had “extraordinary strength." No criminal charges were filed against them.

Wendell Allen Allen was fatally shot in the chest by officers executing a warrant on his house on March 7, 2012, in New Orleans. The 20-year-old was unarmed, and five children were home at the time of his death. Police found 4.5 ounces of marijuana on Allen after they killed him. An attorney for the family says that New Orleans police are investigating whether Officer Joshua Colclough was wrong to pull the trigger.

Travares McGill

In 2005 in Sanford, Fla. (the same county in which Travyon Martin was killed), the 16-year-old was killed by two security guards, one of whom testified that Travares was trying to hit him with his car. But evidence showed that the bullet that killed the teen hit him in the middle of the back and that the guard kept firing even after the car was no longer headed toward him.

Ramarley Graham

18-year-old Ramarley Graham was shot and killed in February of 2012, when Officer Richard Haste and his partner followed Graham into his grandmother’s apartment where Graham was attempting to flush a bag of marijuana down the toilet. Haste fatally shot Graham, who was unarmed, in the chest. The officers did not have a warrant to be inside the home. A Bronx judge later tossed out an indictment against the NYPD cop. No weapon was ever uncovered from the scene.

All three people on death row are black men. In a state that is only 4.3% African American,Colorado’s death row is 100% African American.

All three men on death are from the same one county, out of Colorado’s 64.

All three men committed their crime when they were under the age of 21.

Two law professors who studied Colorado’s application of the death penalty concluded it was unconstitutional, after finding that prosecutors pursue the death penalty in less than one percent of the cases where it is an option, and that the state failed to set “clear statutory standards for distinguishing between the few who are executed and the many who commit murder.”

“It appears that race, geography and youth largely determines who gets the death penalty in Colorado,” wrote a group of NAACP leaders in a letter urging Gov. Hickenlooper to grant clemency. They note that not a single black juror served on the panel that sentenced Dunlap to death.

In addition to the injustices that define the Colorado system, a group of former Colorado judges also point out that Dunlap’s bipolar disorder and psychotic tendencies were not even mentioned at trial. In fact, according to their letter, Dunlap’s lawyer told the jury that there was no explanation for his violence.