DailyKos Uses Ferguson, MO to Request Contributions to DK, Ignoring Family's Memorial Fund

DailyKos editor Chris Bowers has originated DaikyKos' own petition about Ferguson, MO, urging readers to contact Attorney General Eric Holder, but also requesting donations to "keep DailyKos strong". DailyKos rejected linking directly to an earlier and substantially similar petition by Color of Change.  

Although the DailyKos e-mail requests donations to DailyKos, it does not mention the Michael Brown Memorial Fund at Go Fund Me, created to receive donations for the benefit and education of Michael Brown's siblings.

This appears to me to be rank opportunism on the part of DailyKos.  A 97% white readership blog seeks to raise money for its own coffers, hijacking efforts started and daily maintained by humble Black protesters, Black elected officials and community leaders, online Black Tweeters and advocacy groups.

Although it might otherwise be commendable for DailyKos to take a position in this case, it could have better helped to promote the much discussed "conversation" on skin color by linking to and directing contributions through the Black organization Color of Change, instead of linking to the white organization ActBlue while requesting donations for the virtually all-white DailyKos.

It is my contention that making any contribution to DailyKos only supports and encourages the blog apartheid that DailyKos has practiced since its inception.

Although the argument has been raised that DailyKos cannot be a white anti-Black antagonist blog because its owner is Latino, Markos Moulitsas has specifically disavowed being any kind of minority in the past. http://goo.gl/FxDzbd 

In the fifth article of a series of four commissioned articles for his college newspaper, Markos C. A. Moulitsas, announced his intention to withdraw again into "detached selfishness", grateful that he was not one of "them" (the minorities), 

whose skin color or religious persuassion (sic) made them the target of bigotry and discrimination. They would never be able to escape who they were.  (Emphasis added.)

The Economics of Police Oppression

A simple formula explains oppressive, brutal and violent police behavior: The cost of abuse is low (virtually 0% chance of punishment equals almost certain impunity) while the rewards for oppression are high, because oppression IS THE JOB.  Police oppress and society ratifies the oppression by continuing to pay individual officers.

Pedophile priests do not rape little boys because the priests lack training.  They rape little boys because the priests are pedophiles and because they work within an organization that accepts, defends and rewards their behavior, for example, by relocating priests after they have raped boys to a new location where no one will suspect the danger and their pedophilia can continue unabated.

Pedophile priests do not rape children in spite of training.  They rape children because the church permits them to do so and because their practical training tells them that there will be no consequences and may even be rewards for their behavior.  Relocating a pedophile is a reward and reinforcement that encourages and enables pedophiles to continue.

Likewise, police who engage in oppression within the community are not doing so in spite of what they are taught.  They are doing so because of what they are taught.

The United States has the largest prison population in the world, exceeding that of China even though China's population is four times larger than that of the United States.  Half of the United States prison population is Black.

Police can arrest people, but they cannot charge them, sentence them or imprison them.  Society ratifies the behavior of police officers when prosecutors, judges and juries and prison wardens or corporations each play their role in the oppression of the imprisoned.  Police behave as they do because they are part of an institutional approach to Black people that says that Black people should be in jail.  Likewise, the slave catchers of the antebellum period were not rogue men of evil.  They were supported by the national Fugitive Slave Act and by a finely woven network of state and federal laws and customs intended to subjugate and maintain the oppressed role of Blacks.

Slave overseers were not brutal because they were poorly trained.  They were brutal because it was a function of their job, with the goal of breaking the slaves' temptation to resist.

Lack of training is often called the problem in police brutality cases, but that like saying that bank robbers rob banks because they are poorly trained criminals.  Many videos show police officers engaging in behavior that any member of the public with no police training at all immediately understands is beyond the pale.

The skin color of the victims of police brutality is also important, although class counts as well.  When my mother went on talk radio to discuss police brutality in our city, we found many whites who reported brutality as well. However, if whites were abused at the rates that Blacks were, there would have been a hue and cry far larger than actually occurred.  Sometimes, low-income whites are the victims of police brutality, but not nearly on the scale that Blacks are.

Many Blacks are in jail simply because the police, once having beaten the hell out of a suspect, then charge the suspect with resisting arrest and assaulting an officer, in order to justify the police's own brutal and outrageous behavior.

The only way for oppressed people to decrease police brutality is by increasing the cost of this behavior both for the individual police officers involved and for society as a whole.  In the nineteen-sixties, riots were a mostly unsuccessful attempt to increase the cost of police brutality, as they were often set off by outrageous examples of police behavior.  Today, it is not clear what efforts are being made to increase the cost of systemic police brutality for the individual officers who do it for for the society that supports, underwrites and ratifies the behavior of individual officer.

In the current atmosphere of virtual impunity for police officers and the society they represent, the cost of police brutality still does not exceed the perceived benefits in terms of subjugation and oppression of discreet minorities such as Blacks and Latinos.

Common sense tells me that cops don't need a Taser or a shotgun to subdue a 95-year-old man.

Kass: Was police killing of 95-year-old necessary?

Common sense tells me that cops don't need a Taser or a shotgun to subdue a 95-year-old man.

August 02, 2013|John Kass

The old man, described by a family member as "wobbly" on his feet, had refused medical attention. The paramedics were called. They brought in the Park Forest police.

First they tased him, but that didn't work. So they fired a shotgun, hitting him in the stomach with a bean-bag round. Wrana was struck with such force that he bled to death internally, according to the Cook County medical examiner.

"The Japanese military couldn't get him at the age he was touchable, in a uniform in the war. It took 70 years later for the Park Forest police to do the job,"

Wrana's family attorney, Nicholas Grapsas, a former prosecutor, said in an interview with me Thursday.

Wrana's family wants answers. The Illinois State Police are investigating the horrific incident but won't comment, and neither will the Park Forest police pending the outcome of the inquiry.

I wasn't at the scene, and maybe the police have a good explanation. But common sense tells me that cops don't need a Taser or a shotgun to subdue a 95-year-old man.

Read the full story.

Fort Worth man dies after being shocked by police Taser

Saturday, May 18, 2013


RE: Fort Worth man dies after being shocked by police
Taser
Commentary by Eddie Griffin


A disabled African-American
man was tasered to death by the Fort Worth Police Department. Jermaine Darden, age
34, a 300-pound asthmatic on a breathing machine, was wrestled to the floor and
tased, after police kicked in his unlocked front door on a “no-knock” warrant. Officers
claimed he was resisting arrest when he would not comply with their order to roll
over on his stomach. But family members claimed the man was having breathing problems,
which were especially aggravated when he tries to lie on his stomach.

Darden’s mother, Donna Randle
describes what happen: “When they came in, they had
their weapons drawn like we were members of a drug cartel. There were six
people who told the police the man had health problems, yet they continued to
do what they did.”

She is now
asking why the police had to “use such excessive force.”

The incident
took place in the same neighborhood where Michael Jacobs, Jr., a 24-year old mentally
challenged African-American, was tasered to death by police in April, 2009. The
City of Fort Worth eventually had to pay a $2 million settlement to the family.

Darden would be
the seventh taser related death in the city’s history.

There have been
several attempts by the community to reconcile with the FWPD over racially
charged excessive force issues. The problem with taser related deaths should
have been settled when Chief of Police Jeff Halstead negotiated with TASER
International, the maker of the stun guns, to modify the design of their taser
product, which would allow an automatic shut off after a 5-second burst. But
change the weapon’s shut-off system does not change police abusive practices in
its deployment. Tasers still kill, with or without a 5-second shutoff. And Darden
is the second taser related death since Michael Jacobs, Jr.

It should be
evident here of a violation of police policy. According the WFAA 8 Jim Douglas
report, the weapon was deployed multiple times. What is not clear is whether one
officer used the override on the 5-second cutoff or whether several tasers were
deployed at once. The incident is still under investigation.

Besides FWPD
policy, whether officers complied with it or not, there are serious human
rights and constitutional questions about the right of the accused, and the
nature of the heavy-handed gang buster tactics.

Human Rights
advocates have always contended tasers to be torture in violation of the Eight
Amendment’s protection against cruel and unusual punishment. A victim being stunned
by 50,000 volts of electricity is equivalent to being electrocuted by high
voltage utility wires, or comparable to the electric chair.

More
importantly, however, is that a person has the right to life. No one should be
summarily executed by electrocution at the whims of a law enforcement officer.
This violates the First Amendment Right to life, and the Sixth Amendment Right
to Due Process.

It would be
fruitless, however, to argue constitutional rights issues with the same agency guilty
of the violations. If the agency cannot enforce its own policy and the City
unable to protect the public, then monetary retribution should be exacted as
heavily as possible. Corrections can and will be made, if liabilities for abuses
of authority began to cost more than the City can willingly afford.

Of course, little
defense can be offer for Derrick Anthony Birdow who was tasered to
death while in the act of killing a preacher. Some might rationalize his death as
justifiable in the heat of the moment. But the point still stands: Tasers kill.
And multiple jolts of 50,000 volts of electricity will kill with surety,
something every FWPD officer should know. Thus, the killing of Darden should
not have come as a complete surprise to the deploying officer or officers.

Someone needs to be held
accountable. First, there is the officer or officers who deployed the weapon or
weapons. Was he or she or they criminally negligent? If they had full knowledge
of the Michael Jacobs tragedy, then they cannot claim ignorance.

Then there is the FWPD itself.
Do loopholes in its policy allow for and exonerate such on-the-spot street summary
execution of suspects, contrary to the constitutional rights of the suspect? The
officer who tased Michael Jacobs to death claimed she did not know that holding
the taser trigger down continued to shoot electricity into his body. Nobody
ever told her, and TASER International never educated officers about the risks.
What excuse can they offer now to exonerate them of their legal and criminal
culpability?

The third party is the City
of Fort Worth, who are obligated to back the police action and cover their
liabilities in cases where excessive force is employed. Shouldn’t they have
learned something from the Jacobs’s case? Didn’t they assure the community that
this would never happen again where an innocent person would be tasered to
death?

Fourth, there is TASER
International who falsely advertises tasers are non-lethal weapons. They are
the guiltiest insofar as they leave cities, like Fort Worth, to pick up the
pieces, pay off the wrongful death suits, while they continue marketing their
product as if it does no harm.

There is a memorial south of Fort Worth filled with
crosses for those killed by tasers, named the Michael C. Jacobs, Jr. Memorial. The official death count now
stands at 779, with a cross for Jermaine Dardento be added. Here is a list of those who died by tasers in Fort Worth:

·       November 2, 2004: Robert Guerrero,
21, Fort Worth, Texas
·       April 3, 2005: Eric Hammock, 43, Fort
Worth, Texas
·       June 24, 2005: Carolyn Daniels, 25,
Fort Worth, Texas
·       August 23, 2006: Noah Lopez, 25, Fort
Worth, Texas
·       April 18, 2009: Michael Jacobs Jr.,
24, Fort Worth, Texas
·       October
29, 2012: Derrick Birdow, 33, Fort Worth, Texas
·       May 17, 2013: Jermaine
Darden, 34, Fort Worth, Texas

As for the investigation by the
FWPD’s major-case unit and the Department’s heavy-handed “no knock” tactic that
allowed the police to kick open a family’s “unlocked door”, under the pretext
of a big drug raid that eventually cost this disabled man his life, let’s see what
they were after and what they netted for their effort:

Five people who were
arrested:
•         [Suspect No. 1], age 25, suspected of
possessing 1 to 4 grams of a controlled substance and 2 to 4 ounces of
marijuana.
•         [Suspect No. 2], age 22, suspected of
possessing less than 2 ounces of marijuana. Police also found that [Suspect No. 2] was wanted on two
warrants from other jurisdictions.
•         [Suspect No. 4], age 27, accused of
evading arrest and detention. [Suspect
No. 4] also had a warrant.
•         [Suspect No. 5], age 29, and [Suspect No. 6], age 29, both with class
C warrants from Fort Worth. [Suspect No.
6], who identified herself as Darden’s cousin, said she has an unpaid
ticket for talking on a cellphone while driving in a school zone.

In a police report, Officer
N.B. Danford was the one who drafted the probable-cause warrant to search for
cocaine at the house. The “no-knock” warrant was signed by Tarrant County
Magistrate Cheyenne Minick at 3:35 p.m. Thursday, according to the report.

The investigation should not
begin with the suspects, because there was never any really “big fish” in this
expedition, only a few misdemeanor guppies at worst. So they kick down an
unlocked door and kill a man for the above probable-causes.

No, the investigation should
begin at the determination level of probable cause and a criminal justice
system that allows a magistrate who signed off on a “no-knock”
(kick-the-door-down) raid to bag a few petty misdemeanor offenders.

Los Angeles to Reopen Its Inquiry of Officer's Allegations of Color-Aroused Abuses

A Black ex-officer of the Los Angeles Police Department says that witnessing police brutality and fellow cops referring to Blacks using the "N" word prompted him to file reports against the officers in question.  And then the LAPD fired him, accusing him of filing false reports, although no one has explained why Dorner would file a false report under circumstances or what he would have to gain by doing so.

The officer has drawn national attention to his case by promising to kill LAPD police officers involved, as well as members of their families, and by allegedly actually killing three people.
The New York Times linked to an online manifesto by the fired officer, Christopher J. Dorner, in which the ex-officer uses the word "nigger" eight times while describing how he and other Blacks were treated, in his presence, by members of the LAPD.

Ex-officer Dorner alleges that his present rampage is color-aroused and based in the color aroused ideation, emotion and behavior of people in the LA police department.  However, the New York Times did not mention the color-aroused nature of the case until the LA Police acknowledged it and determined to reopen the investigation into Mr. Dorner's allegations.

The Times reports:

The Los Angeles Police Department will reopen its investigation into the 2007 episode that led to the firing of Christopher J. Dorner, the former police officer who is wanted in three killings, department officials said Saturday night. Mr. Dorner pledged revenge against Los Angeles police officers in a manifesto he posted online, in which he also claimed that racism in the department had led to his dismissal. He is wanted in connection with the killing of a former police captain’s daughter and her fiancé last Sunday and the shooting death of a Riverside, Calif., police officer on Thursday morning.

“I am aware of the ghosts of the L.A.P.D.’s past, and one of my biggest concerns is that they will be resurrected by Dorner’s allegations of racism within the department,” Chief Charlie Beck said in a written statement. 

“Therefore, I feel we need to also publicly address Dorner’s allegations regarding his termination,” he said. “I do this not to appease a murderer. I do it to reassure the public that their Police Department is transparent and fair in all the things we do.”

The Times has, to my knowledge, failed to report the skin color of the victim of the alleged kicking incident, even though this fact might  be essential to understanding Dorner's reaction to the incident and the LAPD's reaction to his complaint.

It seems possible that, as the facts are known, this case will prove to be a clear example of extreme color-aroused ideation, emotion, and behavior leading to abuses within the LAPD and then leading a Black man to fight those abuses in a way that shows that he, too, suffers from extreme color-aroused ideation, emotion and behavior.

Had the LAPD dealt with the allegations of Christopher J. Dorner more seriously when they occurred, whether they were based on fact or not, then this rampage might not have occurred.

Whether or not a fellow officer kicked a suspect who was on the ground, as Dorner alleges, the LAPD decision to fire him for even asserting that it happened would predictably dissuade other officers from reporting abuses they witnessed.  That attitude on the part of the LAPD seems as though it might partially explain why Mr. Dorner believes a rampage is necessary.  Dorner's reaction is not so strange when one recalls that that were generalized riots in LA in 1992 over similar questions of police brutality that was often color-aroused.

Accused Killer LAPD Cop Says Color-Arousal Drove Him to Kill

The New York Times reports that a Black, male ex-LAPD officer and ex-Navy reservist has gone on a murderous rampage after explaining why in a essay he posted to the Internet.  In the essay, Christopher Jordan Dorner, 33, asserts that feelings of powerlessness in the face of color-aroused LAPD behavior drove him to begin killing.  The Times characterizes the ex-officer's explanation as "a rambling and threatening note" but the Times fails to report Dorners subjective belief that extreme color-arousal in the LAPD led to the killing spree.

Among the color-aroused incidents Dorney reports: 

The internal affairs investigation in the academy involving Schefres was spurned by a complaint that I had initiated toward two fellow recruit/offifcers. While on a assigned patrol footbeat in Hollywood Division, Officers Hermilio Buridios IV and Marlon Magana (both current LAPD officers) decided that they would voice their personal feelings about the black community. While traveling back to the station in a 12 passenger van I heard Magana refer to another individual as a nigger. I wasn't sure if I heard correctly as there were many conversations in the van that was compiled of at least 8 officers and he was sitting in the very rear and me in the very front. Even with the multiple conversations and ambient noise I heard Officer Magana call an indivdual a nigger again. Now that I had confirmed it, I told Magana not to use that word again. I explained that it was a well known offensive word that should not be used by anyone. He replied, "I'll say it when I want". Officer Burdios, a friend of his, also stated that he would say nigger when he wanted. At that point I jumped over my front passenger seat and two other officers where I placed my hands around Burdios' neck and squeezed. I stated to Burdios, "Don't fucking say that". At that point there was pushing and shoving and we were separated by several other officers. What I should have done, was put a Winchester Ranger SXT 9mm 147 grain bullet in his skull and Officer Magana's skull. The Situation would have been resolved effective, immediately. The sad thing about this incident was that when Detective Ty from internal affairs investigated this incident only (1) officer (unknown) in the van other than myself had statements constistent with what actually happened. The other six officers (John Carey, Gary Parker, Jacob Waks, Abraham Schefres and names I have forgotten) all stated they heard nothing and saw nothing. Shame on every one of you. Shame on Detective Ty (same ethnicity as Burdios) for creating a separate 1.28 formal complaint against me (Schefres complaint) in retaliation for initiating the complaint against Burdios and Magana. Don't retaliate against honest officers for breaking your so called blue line. I hope your son Ryan Ty, who I knew, is a better officer than you, Detective Ty.The saddest part of this ordeal was that Officer Burdios and Magana were only given 22 day suspensions and are still LAPD officers to this day. That day, the LAPD stated that it is acceptable for fellow officers to call black officers niggers to their face and you will receive a slap on the wrist. Even sadder is that during that 22 day suspension Buridios and Magana received is that the LAPPL (Los Angeles Police Protective League) paid the officers their salaries while they were suspended. When I took a two day suspension for an accidental discharge, I took my suspension and never applied for a league salary. Its called integrity.

In a sense, it barely matters whether Dorner's accounts are true.  It seems likely clear that color-aroused experiences, emotion and ideation play a significant role in his own understanding of why he has done what he has.

N.M. Cop Applies 50,000 Volts to 10 Yr. Old Who Declines to Wash Cop Car

 Copied and pasted from: TheYoungTurks, November 3, 2012.

Although the media is keeping this minor's identity secret, a photograph of him shows white skin, which leads me to believe that these electrocution devices are increasingly being used on the white majority as well as Black and Latino minorities.  However, although the boy's skin appears white-colored, he could still be a member of a Latino socio-chromatic group and/or the Black socio-political group and the police officer might have been aware of that when he decided how to interact with this boy.  F.L.H.

"A 10-year-old boy attending a Tularosa, N.M., Intermediate School's Career Day expected it to be fun and educational, but instead he ended up in the emergency room.

The boy, identified as R.D., blacked out after receiving 50,000 volts of electricity when struck by a police officer's Taser gun.

Rachel Higgins, a guardian appointed by the court to protect the child's privacy filed a lawsuit Oct. 26 in 1st Judicial District Court in Santa Fe County against Police Officer Chris Webb and the New Mexico Department of Public Safety on behalf of R.D., claiming that Webb fired his electronic control weapon at the boy on May 4, 2012.

Webb has been charged with battery, failure to render emergency medical care, unreasonable seizure and excessive force.

Higgins will appear in court to represent the boy because the family members live in a small town and do not want to reveal their identities.

The lawsuit claims police officers drove their patrol cars onto the intermediate school campus, where Webb asked a group of boys which one would like to clean his patrol unit.

R.D. raised his hand to say he did not want to clean the police officer's car.

Webb then said, according to the lawsuit, "Let me show what happens to people who do not listen to the police." He then "shot his Taser gun at the boy's chest," said the family's attorney Shannon Kennedy of the Kennedy Law Firm of Albuquerque."* Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian break down this story, calling for severe consequences for Officer Webb's reckless use of a taser on a child.

Read more from Lida Alikhani/ ABC News:
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/11/tasered-10-year-old-boy-sues-po...

Two-Dozen Santa Monica Police Officers Beat a Black Man for a Beer

Youtube:  "A Santa Monica college student is suing the Los Angeles Police Department for use of excessive force, alleging that officers beat and tased him despite the fact that he was unarmed and not resisting arrest. Aibuidefe Oghogho, who was 23 years old at the time, claims that a 2010 arrest outside a Hollywood nightclub over public consumption of alcohol escalated into a multiple-officer beatdown, reports CBS2...".* Ana Kasparian, Cenk Uygur, and Ben Mankiewicz discuss on The Young Turks.

Naked Student Seeks Help from Campus Police, Is Shot Dead

 

Better to be an ostrich in a run-in with police. 

Gilbert Thomas Collar was somehow mentally impaired when he went to the office of University of South Alabama campus police, seeking help.  Completely nude, he banged on the window of the campus police station, probably thinking that was where he should go when he was in trouble.  Instead of helping him, a security officer shot him in the chest and he died immediately.

According to a statement released by the university, an officer heard loud banging on the police station window early Saturday and left his post to investigate. The man banging on the window was Gilbert Thomas Collar, an 18-year-old freshman who had graduated high school the previous spring. He was naked.

Although some facts are disputed and in doubt, the moral of the story is all too clear:  Don't imagine that "police are your friends" when you're in need, because police may well not see it that way.  If you are a stray bear or an ostrich, police might take the time to arrest you without killing you, but it you are a human being who is naked as a bird, or missing two limbs in a wheelchair, police believe shooting and removing the body if often the preferred policy.

Perhaps police should be ordered to treat stray humans with the level of care for life that they accord stray animals.  Or, perhaps, animal control officers should be dispatched to deal with unruly humans rather than police.  Why is it that police have time to call animal control officers to handle 600 pound bears, but they haven't the time to capture human alive rather than shoot them?

Is it a matter of expectations (the police are expected to try to take animals in alive), or it is that police lack the alternative of calling an animal control officer when human beings are the animals out of control?

Unruly bears are shot with sedation drugs while human beings are shot to kill.  What a strange set of priorities!  The definition of "animal" should be changed such that police are required to call animal control officers when animals of the human species confront police and when the alternative to calling animal control officer for a live capture is that police shoot human animal dead.

One need only watch this video to see that a 600 pound bears is treated with more patience and care than are human beings who weigh only 25% as much and whose teeth and claws are not nearly as sharp.

Although police are often accused of treating people like animals, they actually treat human beings considerably worse than they would treat animals in many cases.

"Cornered" Houston Cop Shoots Dead Double Amputee in Wheelchair

Group Home Scene of Police Shooting of Wheelchair-Confined Double Amputee

Referred by African American Pundit.

In Houston, Texas, CNN reports, a police officer went to a group home for disabled people and shot an unarmed one-legged, one-armed man to death as he sat in his wheelchair.  This police atrocious police fatal aggression is reminiscent of the case in which, "An 82-year-old former heart bypass patient was zapped three times with a Taser fired by the [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] as he lay in a hospital bed in Kamloops, B. C.

According to MSNBC,

A Houston police officer shot and killed a one-armed, one-legged man in a wheelchair Saturday inside a group home after police say the double amputee threatened the officer and aggressively waved a metal object that turned out to be a pen.

Police spokeswoman Jodi Silva said the man cornered the officer in his wheelchair and was making threats while trying to stab the officer with the pen. At the time, the officer did not know what the metal object was that the man was waving, Silva said. 

She said the man came "within inches to a foot" of the officer and did not follow instructions to calm down and remain still. 

"Fearing for his partner's safety and his own safety, he discharged his weapon," Silva told The Associated Press.

Police did not immediately release the name of the man who was killed. They had been called to the home after a caretaker there called and reported that the man in wheelchair was causing a disturbance. 

The owner of the group home, John Garcia, told the Houston Chronicle that the man had a history of mental illness and had been living at the house about 18 months. Garcia said the man had told him that he lost a leg above the knee and all of one arm when he was hit by a train.

"He sometimes would go off a bit, but you just ignore it," Garcia told the newspaper.  Silva identified the officer as Matthew Jacob Marin, a five-year veteran of the department. He was immediately placed on three-day administrative leave, which is standard in all shootings involving officers.

Houston police records indicate that Marin also fatally shot a suspect in 2009. Investigators at the time said Marin came upon a man stabbing his neighbor to death at an apartment complex and opened fired when the suspect refused to drop the knife.

On Saturday, Marin and his partner arrived at the group home around 2:30 a.m. Silva said there were several people at the house at the time. The caretaker who called police waited on the porch while the officers went inside, she said.  "It was close quarters in the area of the house," Silva said. "The officer was forced into an area where he had no way to get out."

Is the Body Slam A New Standard in Police Arrests of Women and Girls?

Why do police male police officers seem to be body-slamming female members of the public to the pavement all across America?

The girl in the above video has an African-American father and Latino mother. Did her skin color or skin color group participation play a roll in the officer's decision to slam her to the pavement?

LA Officers Body Slam White Woman Twice During Texting Traffic Stop

Hat Tip to Frank, who submitted this video.

In this YouTube video, LA police bodily drag and lift a woman out of the driver seat of her car, body-slam her on the ground, handcuff her, and then body-slam her again! The woman is a 34 year-old registered nurse, says the video, and police were engaged in a "routine" traffic stop because the woman was allegedly using her cell-phone while driving.

After leaving the woman bruised and battered in the patrol car, these two armed and large police officers bump fists to congratulate one another for what they apparently believe to have been an heroic arrest.

According to the LA Times Blog,

The videotaped confrontation between two Los Angeles Police Department officers and a woman was disturbing and will be fully investigated, Police Chief Charlie Beck said.

“I have serious concerns about this incident," Beck said. "Every Los Angeles police officer, regardless of rank, will be held accountable for their actions."

The commanding officer of the Los Angeles Police Department's Foothill Division was reassigned Wednesday, a day after video was broadcast showing two of his officers twice body-slamming a 34-year-old nurse to the pavement, once while she was in handcuffs.

The move to reassign Capt. Joseph Hiltner, as well as bump him from his current Captain III rank to a lower pay grade of Captain I, was announced by Beck at a news conference Wednesday evening at LAPD headquarters.

Hiltner, a 34-year LAPD veteran, could not be reached for comment Wednesday night.

Beck said Internal Affairs detectives have launched a criminal and administrative investigation into the Aug. 21 use-of-force incident, which began after the officers pulled over Michelle Jordan at a Del Taco restaurant in Tujunga because she was holding a cellphone while driving.

LAPD brass didn't find out about the incident until the department was contacted by a KNBC reporter asking for comment Tuesday about the incident and black-and-white security surveillance footage that captured the officers' actions, police officials said.

As the 5-foot 4-inch Jordan left her vehicle, she allegedly failed to comply with officers' commands to get back into the car and was slammed to the ground by the male officers and placed in handcuffs, according to police officials.

While handcuffed, she was led to the officers' patrol car. Moments later, she was slammed again to the pavement, apparently with more force, by one of the officers, who was much larger than Jordan, the officials said.

The video footage appears to show the two officers exchanging high fives after Jordan was taken down.

Police Shoot Milton Hall 30 Times in Unjustified Killing

In the above video, Saginaw, MI police shoot at Milton Hall, a 47 year-old Black man who his family says suffered from "serious mental health issues," shot at approximately 46 times by six police officers, according to Michigan Live news. Police officers fire 30 shots that actually strike and and kill Mr. Hall.

Police apparently say that they were called to the scene because the man they shot was involved in an incident with a convenience store clerk beforehand.

One witness who observed the shooting said that Mr. Hall assumed a karate posture before police shot at him. It is not clear how it has become accepted as a matter of fact that Mr. Hall was holding a knife when police shot him, although it must be true that police say he was holding a knife, because that appears in the various news reports. One news video said police said the man was holding "some sort of knife."



The lack of specificity leads me to wonder why the police cannot say or have not said exactly what "sort of knife" the man was holding. To my eyes, the knife is not visible in the video. Was he holding a knife or wasn't he, I would like to know? Was he holding the same knife in the convenience store and, if so, is there any video confirming that?

It seems to me, based on watching the video and listening to the shouts of Mr. Hall, that Mr. Hall was in a self-destructive and combative state of mind when he was confronted by the police and shot. In the video, Mr. Hall says, "My name is Milton Hall and I just called the police." Then he challenges the police, shouting, "Let the dog go! Let the motherfucking dog go!" The dog is not visible in the video and it is not clear whether police did let the dog go and, if not, then why not, as an alternative to shooting Mr. Hall 30 times without releasing the dog.

It seems to me, based on the video, that Mr. Hall instigated the confrontation himself because he was in a self-destructive and mentally agitated state of mind. When confronted with potentially overwhelming force, including six police officers, the dog and their guns, he invited the police to use such force as they wished. That is consistent with the "serious mental health issues" from which the family told the media Hall suffered.

Mr. Hall seems to me to have committed suicide by cop, but did police make it too easy for him? Was this an assisted suicide? It seems clear that, even if Mr. Hall was holding a knife (that hasn't been presented for public inspection), police could still have released the dog to disable the man; could have shot the man in the leg or arm; could have thrown a net over him and toppled him to the ground; could have toppled him with a fire hose, and could have employed a myriad other strategies instead of and before shooting this man to kill.

I surmise that these police officers, instead of using problem-solving skills that a game control officer would use to capture an wild animal alive, were intent only on arresting Mr. Hall, dead or alive. When one officer decided to shoot him, they all did so until he was dead, instead of one of them taking announcing to the others that he would shoot Mr. Hill until he was disabled, but not necessarily until he was dead.

Was the police's homicidal behavior aroused by a knife or by Mr. Hall's skin color? What seems shocking about videos such as this one is that, although Blacks are a mere 13% of the population of the United States, people with brown skin seem to represent virtually all of the victims of shootings such as this one. If there are cases in which police shoot white-skinned knife wielders thiry times, none of us seems to be aware of those cases. That is, perhaps, because they don't exist.

Instead, police seem to arrive on the scene, observe or know already that the confrontation involves a Black person, and then mete out the treatment that they regularly use in cases involving Black people, including unnecessary lethal force and/or barbaric and atrocious reprehensible force and other behavior. Police know that there are rarely serious consequences for behaving in this way in incidents with Black people, but there might be a national firestorm of unprecedented proportions if they treated a white person in the same way. It would not be long tolerated and police would face serious consequences typically do not accrue when they kill a man with brown skin.

The media reports say local residents are angry that, after six weeks, the police have not reported the results of an internal investigation of the shooting. One problem of US conflict between police forces and the public is that police forces themselves are charged with the task of investigating their own behavior and incidents that raise questions about their own judgments.

Police certainly should gather all of the information that is available. Rather than release a statement about their findings, they should release all of the information they have gathered, including ballistics reports, recordings, officer, witness and family statements, and other information that would assist members of the public, the district attorney, attorneys for the family, the media, state and federal authorities in determining whether police behavior is problematic and what should be done about it.

Clearly, police perform various functions in the process of an investigation of themselves. They gather information internally; try to manage the public's anger, distrust and demands; engage in efforts to limit the damage to police and municipal interests that has been caused by an incident; defend a city and individual police officers from civil liability; protect police officers and their superiors from potential criminal liability and manage the public's perception of and acceptance of police behavior and authority.

It ought to be clear to the public that no unbiased "determination" about a shooting can come from an agency whose self-interests are so many and are so potentially and directly in opposition to the public's interest in knowing the truth. For these reasons, an investigation conducted by the police is unlikely to reveal any account of the facts that is unbiased in its investigation, compilation and publicly announced conclusions.

Rather than clamor for the police to complete an investigation, the public might more usefully clamor for access to physical evidence and police statements that could subsequently become evidence in a civil suit. The same evidence that would be the basis of a civil judgment is evidence that the public should demand to see in order to understand and judge the facts involving those who are ostensibly public servants. Although the demands might be met with silence, at least the demands themselves would be more educative and less misleading and beguiling of the public's expectations.

Since any police report is typically summary (does not include underlying evidence) and biased, I don't understand why the public would or should ask for such a report at all. It's a futile waste of time and energy, except for fulfilling any formal requirements that a complaint be lodged.

There are many strategy alternatives that Blacks might conceivably employ to seek justice or provide a police deterrent in cases like this one. Demanding a police review seems more like an exercise in futility than a strategy, unless it is coupled with the preparation of a civil suit and taking other measures. It's a dilatory request for a foregone conclusion.

Cops Shoot and Kill Handcuffed Black Man, Chavis Carter, in Squad Car

Same old color aroused hatred, 2012 style. While most people are celebrating what good about America, another 21-year-old black man was shot in the head and killed while handcuffed in the back of a patrol car.  Get this, now the police have launched a bogus investigation to determine what happened! WE know what happened the police killed a man for running his mouth and selling marijuana. They acted as jury and executionors. You see,
Chavis Carter was a passenger in a pickup truck that was stopped by police in Jonesboro, Ark., Saturday night, according to KAIT, an ABC-affiliated television station. An officer reportedly found some marijuana, and ran Carter's information. He was wanted on a warrant out of Mississippi, so officers placed him in a patrol car.

Get this, the police say, "As protocol, he was handcuffed behind his back, double-locked and searched," said Jonesboro Police Department Sgt. Lyle Waterworth in an interview with WREG-TV.

Just minutes later, police said they heard a thumping noise, turned around and found Carter shot in the head. Right! You got to be kidding me right!  The police said they heard a thumping noise, turned around and found Carter shot in the head. This is cold blooded murder folks. There is more stupidity coming from these bigots. Get this, Police say they think Carter pulled out a hidden gun and shot himself. “Any given officer has missed something on a search, you know, be it drugs, be it knives, be it razor blades," he said. "This instance, it happened to be a gun."  OK, so a handcuffed black man shot himself in the head? Community leaders are having none of this!

His mother, Teresa Carter, disagrees. "I think they killed him," she said. "My son wasn't suicidal."  Carter said she was also told her son was shot in the right temple, although he was left-handed.  Get this, The two officers who were present when Carter was found shot were placed on administrative leave.

Let's see how powerful the National Office of the NAACP is? Is it a paper tiger organization? Instead of giving image awards, they should be in the hood addressing the real issues impacting urban America. Hat Tip to the Ed Show, The Huffington Post and others for addressing this issue.

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Kingsley Burrell, aged 27 years old, died in what appear to be extremely suspicious circumstances in Birmingham.

Save the Date: March for Kingsley Burrell Saturday 11/08/12 (Time TBC)

As at 18th June 2012 the current status is - No officers convicted of a death in custody in the UK since 1969 despite 11 unlawful killing verdicts and over 1000 such deaths; over three hundred  and thirty of these since 1998.

More statistical information available from INQUEST www.inquest.org.uk

Kingsley Burrell, aged 27 years old, died in what appear to be extremely suspicious circumstances in Birmingham. It is reported that he called the police after he tried to talk to a group of young people who were intimidating him and his 5 year old son. He was subsequently arrested himself and detained under the Mental Health Act. Days later he was in intensive care and subsequently died 31st March 2011.

Fifteen months on Kingsley’s sister confirms that his body has still not been released for burial… it is truly inhumane that his body has yet to be released also that it takes so long for the matter to come before the courts…We can no longer be ignorant to the tactics that are being used in order to keep us from the truth... from justice being done...The family will be marching again 11th August 2012.

This is not a letter encouraging an Anti-Police protest but a peaceful NATIONAL show of solidarity by the community in order to support these families on the long and often lonely journey in seeking justice for their loved ones.

This march (as have others previously) will continue to make it clear to the Authorities that the Community is very much aware and concerned and will no longer allow our loved ones and members of our community to be unlawfully killed without us seeking answers to the pertinent and very painful questions, notwithstanding that in cases where there has been foul play, the IPCC investigation is comprehensive and balanced and that those responsible are held to account through the court.

I write this letter to petition YOU the Community both in the Midlands and further afield to attend and support the family of Kingsley Burrell in the march planned for Saturday 11th August 2012, the march will start at Summerfield Park, Icknield Port Road where the incident occurred with Kingsley and finish with a rally outside Centenary Square on Broad Street. Times will be confirmed at a later date.

Community this is just shy of two months’ notice. Please continue to share the details of the march among your organisations, friends, family, and colleagues and across your social networks we owe it to the families and the Community to show our support.
For more information regarding Kingsleys case please go to http://www.facebook.com/Justice4Kingsley

Signed a concerned community member...

https://www.facebook.com/notes/dena-tvrp-whitmore/open-letter-to-the-community-to-encourage-increased-support-of-the-march-for-kin/256012377838066

The Last Time I Cried, By Eddie G. Griffin, (BASG), Ex-Panther, Black Blogger

By Eddie G. Griffin (BASG)
Thursday, June 07, 2012

The last time I cried, I remember the stream of tears that running down the sides of my cheeks, tears of joy, an unbelievable crown and glory moment in my life.

I lay on my back in the grass, looking up at the night skies, at the moon and its stars. Tower lights beamed down upon the prison grounds, as bright as sunlight, but it had been years since I had last seen the silhouettes of the night. Seven years buried in a sensory deprivation chamber, deep inside the bowels of the federal infamous super-max Control Unit, alas, I was awe smitten to see the moon and stars for the first time in as many years.

They had just released me from a cold strip cell, where I had been held incommunicado, with three other captives. Barring me contact with my lawyers, federal officials instead transferred me to a college-like campus prison at El Reno in Oklahoma. It was here, within these confines, I lay, gazing up at the stars, and crying my eyes out.

The warden had pulled me out of the dungeon, where I had been stripped to my briefs, placed in an isolated cell, and given running water for 15 minutes in the morning, and 15 minutes in the evening. The windows of the cell were cranked wide open to allow the winter's bitter chill to invade my solitary chamber.

The barren cold gave me no peace, night or day, and neither could I lie down to sleep on the hard steel bunk. So, I sat hunched over, glued to my bunk by the frost, day in and day out, for weeks, until I lost my sense of time.

There was no need for me to eat, because my bodily functions were shutting down. Food trays came in through door slot and went back out, untouched and uneaten.

At first, I protested my mistreatment and demanded my rights. I demanded a pencil and writing paper. But none came, and neither came any mail from the outside world. I was totally cut off, with no voice of grievance to be heard and no power to execute my constitutional rights. Then it dawned on me, I was put here to die. Therefore, all my protests were meaningless and void.

I realized the dire straits of my situation one day when the guard passed through with the food trays. I asked him, “Will you give a dying man’s a last request for a cigarette?”

He reached into his shirt pocket, took one out, handed to me. Then he broke down in tears. Strange it felt. Somebody cared about Eddie Griffin. But there was nothing he could do to mitigate my suffering. His helplessness empathy showed on his face and in his tears.

Out the open windows, I had screamed repeatedly for help, hoping against the northern winds, that my voice could be heard by other inmates in the adjacent building. A lump popped up in my throat like a tumor, and there was no more strength left within me. Passively, I accepted my fate. I was slowly freezing to death and gradually declining.

Then one day, out of nowhere, the warden summoned me to be brought to his office. He had an announcement. “Griffin, we are kicking you out of here. We do not want to see or hear from you again,” he said.

In hindsight, being "kicked out" of a super-max dungeon, where politically conscious prisoners were kept in isolation, seemed rather bizarre. But all I could think, at the time, was: “Thank you, Jesus.” At that point, I could have kissed the warden’s feet. So, I made him the promise. If released, he would never hear from me again.

Up to that point, Eddie Griffin was the most interviewed prisoner in the system during the 1970s, as one journalist observed. I had been designated the sacrificial lamb as the prisoners’ voice on human rights issues, by all the inmates and prisoner support groups, because of my published writings. And almost every day, I found myself speaking to reporters from different newspapers, magazines, and television stations around the country about the status and conditions of prisoners confined in a facility the government would rather kept secret because of its experimental mind control programs.

Therefore, my release from the refrigerated morgue cell was conditional upon my consent to keep silent. I willfully agreed rather than be sent back. But as fate would have it, the old warden would indeed see and hear from me again, many years down the road, in courtroom testimony, in a lawsuit from lawyers who were denied access into the prison to interview other inmates. (Abel case)

Nevertheless, being released from the notorious Control Unit was a blessing within itself; otherwise my only hope was to be shipped back to my hometown in Texas in a body bag. And, staring up into the heavens on a starry night over El Reno, Oklahoma was as close to paradise as I could imagine.

I recalled a cold gray day in the dungeon, as I sat in a frozen stupor, peering out into empty space, a vision unfolded. I kept blinking to keep my eyes from glazing over with a crust of frost. But then I saw clearly, as it was, a screen like television monitor, with an image of a ship frozen at sea, against the backdrop of a deep blue sky. The image haunted me like a sign of impending death, like something a man would see just before crossing over into the unknown abyss.

The irony of it all was that by nightfall, I opened my eyes again and saw a quarter moon smiling down upon me and stars dancing across the Oklahoma skies. My soul was refreshed, my eyes flooded with tears of joy. I had survived another crown and glory moment in my life. But my eyes would never go back to normal.

eddiegriffin_basg@yahoo.com

Could George Zimmerman, Trayvon Martin Killer, Do 15 Years in Federal Prison for Lying on Passport Application?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Atty. Francis L. Holland

http://police-brutality-blog.blogspot.com

After George Zimmerman was arrested and charged with second degree murder for the killing of Trayvon Martin, and after he surrendered his passport as a condition of his bond, did he commit a separate federal crime punishable by up to fifteen years in prison by lying on a US passport application in order to replace the passport that he had surrendered to the criminal court?  Electronic recordings of his conversations while in prison, the fact that he obtained a second passport after surrendering one, and presumably the recent passport application itself, demonstrate precisely what he did.

The Christian Science Monitor reports:

During the hearing, prosecutors introduced several recordings of telephone conversations between Zimmerman and his wife, Shellie, made while he was in jail.  In one such recording, they can be heard speaking cryptically about a second passport in his possession.  Zimmerman was ordered by the judge to hand over his passport so he couldn’t flee the country, but Zimmerman applied for a second passport after the shooting, saying his first one had been stolen. (Emphasis added.)

Page two of the US Passport application form asks for the "status of most recent passport," whether "lost" or "stolen."  There are reasons for requesting a passport that are unlawful, so the questions requesting to know the motive for the application are legally essential to whether the passport will be issued and whether a crime is committed in requesting it.  If Zimmerman falsely checked a "lost" or "stolen" box, as the Christian Science Monitor reports, when in fact he had surrendered his passport to the criminal court trying him for murder, then he likely committed a separate federal crime, under 18 U.S.C. § 1542, for which he could spend up to fifteen years in federal prison.  

18 U.S.C. § 1542 , US Code Section 1542, "False statement in application and use of passport," provides that:

Whoever willfully and knowingly makes any false statement in an application for passport with intent to induce or secure the issuance of a passport under the authority of the United States,either for his own use or the use of another, contrary to the lawsregulating the issuance of passports or the rules prescribed pursuant to such laws; or 

Whoever willfully and knowingly uses or attempts to use, orfurnishes to another for use any passport the issue of which wassecured in any way by reason of any false statement - Shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 25 years (if the offense was committed to facilitate an act ofinternational terrorism (as defined in section 2331 of this title)), 20 years (if the offense was committed to facilitate adrug trafficking crime (as defined in section 929(a) of this title)), 10 years (in the case of the first or second such offense, if the offense was not committed to facilitate such an act of international terrorism or a drug trafficking crime), or 15 years (in the case of any other offense), or both.  (Emphasis added.)

According to US v. O'Bryant, a federal criminal case in which a defendant was convicted for a violation of this law, 

Section 1542 proscribes "willfully and knowingly" making a false statement in a passport application. The crime is complete when one makes a statement one knows is untrue to procure a passport. See Browder v. United States, 312 U.S. 335, 337, 61 S.Ct. 599, 601, 85 L.Ed. 862 (1941); United States v. Winn, 577 F.2d 86, 91 (9th Cir.1978). Good or bad motives are irrelevant. Browder, 312 U.S. at 337-38, 61 S.Ct. 599, 601, 85 L.Ed. 862; United States v. Washington, 705 F.2d 489, 493-94 (D.C.Cir.1983).

The purpose of the "lost" or "stolen" questions is to assure that no individual has more than one passport, to prevent the use of aliases and other subterfuge, such as obtaining a substitute passport to flee the country while out on bail.  For whatever reason, Zimmerman apparently engaged in precisely the type of subterfuge which the federal statute was enacted to prevent, and for which violation penalties were doubled in 1996.  See the statute, US Attorneys Manual, Christian Science Monitor reported facts and discussion below.

Did Zimmerman actually tell the federal government that his passport had been stolen when, in fact, he had surrendered it to a court as part of a criminal proceeding?  If so, in addition to a violation of the terms of his bond, that lying on a US passport application is a federal crime punishable by up to fifteen years in prison. 

The US Attorneys Manual provides further explanation and references concerning this federal crime:

US Attorneys > USAM > Title 9 > Criminal Resource Manual 1944 prev | next | Criminal Resource Manual

1944

18 U.S.C. § 1542—False Statement in Application for Passport and Use of a Passport Fraudulently Obtained

Section 1542 of Title 18 proscribes both false statements made to obtain a passport, and use of any passport so obtained. The false statement against which this section is most commonly used is the use of a false name in obtaining a passport. United States citizens attempt to obtain passports using false names in order to conceal criminal activity. A problem of proof can arise when the passport applicant has routinely used aliases and now seeks to obtain a passport in one of those aliases. See, e.g., United States v. O'Bryant, 775 F.2d 1528 (11th Cir.1985); United States v. Cox, 593 F.2d 46 (6th Cir.1979); United States v. Wasman, 641 F.2d 326 (5th Cir.1981), aff'd, 464 U.S. 932 (1984). Browder v. United States, 312 U.S. 335 (1941), is the leading case on use of a passport, the application for which contained a false statement. Browder obtained a passport in his real name, but in the portion of the application asking when his last passport was obtained, he falsely stated, "none." This statement was false because he had previously obtained a passport in a false name. He then used the new passport to enter the United States. The Supreme Court upheld Browder's conviction under 18 U.S.C. § 1542 for innocent use of a passport secured by a false statement. See 53 A.L.R.Fed. 507. The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) amended this statute to provide for enhanced penalties if the offense was committed to facilitate an act of international terrorism or a drug trafficking crime.[cited in USAM 9-73.600]

Although there are facts in doubt with regard to how and why George Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin, the facts recounted in the Christian Science Monitor, based on tape recorded conversations and Zimmerman's signature on a passport application, would seem to leave little doubt but that Zimmerman committed a federal crime while in state custody.  And Zimmerman clearly shows no respect for the rule of law that a legitimate crime watch volunteer would seek to advance and uphold.

Federal prosecutors in Florida should immediately indict George Zimmerman, and his wife if she aided and abetted his crime, for lying on the US Passport Application, seeking the ten or fifteen years in Federal prison that such a conviction could entail, depending on whether this was a first, second or third or more offense.

The above discussion does not constitute legal advice or counsel or the practice of law on behalf of any party or parties, and is provided exclusively for purposes of public debate.