April, 30 2015, 04:30pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Mary Jane Wilmoth
Paul Lyons
(202) 342-1902
mjw@whistleblowers.org
pl@kkc.com
SEC Chair Praises Agency's Whistleblower Program
Today SEC Chair Mary Jo White gave a major public presentation endorsing the SEC whistleblower program and explaining how whistleblowers now play a central role in protecting U.S. financial markets.
Stephen M. Kohn, executive director of the National Whistleblower Center, made the following statement in regard to Ms. White's remarks:
WASHINGTON
Today SEC Chair Mary Jo White gave a major public presentation endorsing the SEC whistleblower program and explaining how whistleblowers now play a central role in protecting U.S. financial markets.
Stephen M. Kohn, executive director of the National Whistleblower Center, made the following statement in regard to Ms. White's remarks:
"Chair White's endorsement of the whistleblower program is a milestone for whistleblower protections. From her vantage point as America's top securities regulator, she has witnessed the effectiveness of whistleblowing and the key role it plays in the enforcement of anti-fraud laws."
Ms. White praised the SEC Whistleblower Office stating:
"The volume of tips has been greater and of higher quality than expected when the program was first adopted. We have seen enough to know that whistleblowers increase our efficiency and conserve our scarce resources. Importantly, internal compliance programs at companies also remain vibrant and effective ways to detect and report wrongdoing."
Chair White's full statement: The SEC as the Whistleblower's Advocate
Since 1988, the NWC and attorneys associated with it have supported whistleblowers in the courts and before Congress and achieved victories for environmental protection, government contract fraud, nuclear safety and government and corporate accountability.
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'Unprecedented': Belgian Police Blast Climate Defenders With Water Cannon
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The climate action group Extinction Rebellion Belgium on Saturday decried what it called "disproportionate police violence" against nonviolent demonstrators who were blasted with a water cannon during a protest in Brussels demanding an end to fossil fuel subsidies.
Hundreds of Extinction Rebellion-led climate defenders blocked Rue Belliard in the European Quarter, the de facto European Union capital, during EU Open Day, when agencies of the 27-nation bloc open their doors to the public. In what Extinction Rebellion called an "unprecedented police response," officers used a truck-mounted water cannon on the protesters, some of whom were also allegedly struck with batons.
Brussels police said 132 activists—some of whom glued themselves to the ground—were arrested.
"This police behavior toward nonviolent protesters exercising their freedom of assembly is illegal and authoritarian," Extinction Rebellion Belgium said in a statement Saturday.
"The use of water cannons against peaceful demonstrators is of great concern," the group added. "We call on the police to exercise restraint and respect the right to demonstrate peacefully and without violence."
The activists are calling on European governments to stop subsidizing fossil fuels amid a worsening planetary crisis. They're also demanding the declaration of a climate emergency.
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Ofir Gendelman, Netanyahu's Arab media spokesperson, said Sunday that the closure would be "implemented immediately."
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Human Rights Watch Israel and Palestine director Omar Shakir called the order "an assault on freedom of the press."
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As U.S. Republicans push for the deployment of National Guard troops to quell nationwide student demonstrations against the Gaza genocide, progressive lawmakers marked the anniversary of the 1970 Kent State Massacre by condemning police repression of peaceful protesters and reaffirming the power of dissent.
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Fellow "Squad" member Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said that "54 years ago, the Ohio National Guard opened fire on unarmed students at Kent State."
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On May 4, 1970, 28 Ohio National Guard troops fired 67 live rounds into a crowd of unarmed Kent State students rallying against the expansion of the U.S.-led war in Vietnam into Cambodia. They murdered students Allison Krause, Jeffrey Glenn Miller, Sandra Lee Scheuer, and William Knox Schroeder—all aged 19 or 20. Nine other students were wounded, including one who was permanently paralyzed.
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As law enforcement officials have tried to justify the crackdown by claiming "outside agitators" are behind the protests, some observers noted historical parallels.
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Eleven days after Kent State, police opened fire on a crowd of Black students protesting the bombing of Cambodia at Jackson State College in Jackson, Mississippi, killing Phillip Lafayette Gibbs and James Earl Green and injuring 12 others.
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