tagged w/ Police Brutality
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Police do not disarm suspect, but shoot him 10 times after tazering him
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When the brick crashed through her bathroom window and somebody began kicking in her front door, the 19-year-old single mother of two in Milwaukee dialed what are supposed to be the most trustworthy three numbers.
“I called 911 for help,” she later said in court. “I didn’t call 911 to be the victim.”
Within minutes, two police officers responded. One took her 15-year-old brother outside to speak to him. The other cop, Police Officer Ladmarald Cates, gave her boyfriend $10 and told him to go the store and get some water. She told him that he was welcome to chilled water from her refrigerator.
“I only drink bottled water,” Cates said.
Her boyfriend has a pronounced limp and set off with no promise of returning soon. Cates asked to see the broken window and she led him down a narrow hallway to a bathroom in the back. She felt sure that jealous neighbors had attacked her happy home because she dared to defy what seemed surely to be her fate as an inner-city teenage single mom.
“I wanted to be a good example to my kids,” she would later say. “I wanted to learn something, be somebody.”
She had returned to high school as a mother of two and after graduation she had continued on to the University of Wisconsin, where she was studying criminal justice with the thought of becoming police officer or a lawyer.
“I thought I was going pretty good,” she would recall.
She now stood on a floor littered with broken glass and pointed to the brick. The cop she had summoned to protect her instead chose this moment to grab the back of her head by her hair and sodomize her. Then he raped her.
Her revulsion in the aftermath was so visceral that she vomited as she ran outside. The cop’s partner had become concerned when he did not immediately see Cates and called for back-up. Other cops began arriving and saw a woman screaming incoherently about being raped.
Cates appeared and grabbed her by the waist, spinning her around. Her swinging feet may or may not have struck the partner. She was handcuffed and taken in, told at the stationhouse that she was being charged with assaulting a police officer.
She became more coherent but no less outraged and vocal as she continued cry out from a holding cell that she had been raped. She also continued to vomit. The other cops dismissed her as a liar.
After 12 hours, she was interviewed by internal affairs and taken to a hospital, where a rape kit was used to collect evidence. She was then taken to the county jail and held for four days before being released without actually being charged.
She took her story to the Milwaukee District Attorney’s office. A prosecutor subsequently wrote, “While I did find the victim’s version of events credible, I did not believe that her testimony would be strong enough to successfully prosecute Officer Cates.”
In other words, Cates was still a cop and she was still an inner-city teenage single mom. She stopped going to school as she fell into a deep depression, making two serious suicide attempts.
“It was killing my soul,” she says.
She who had so desperately wanted to be a good example for her 3-year-old boy and 2-year-old girl began to wonder if they should even be with her.
“Sad and crying all the time,” she says. “I didn’t know if I wanted my kids around, me being upset like that about something that happened to me.”
Meanwhile, internal affairs confronted Cates with DNA evidence linking him and the victim. He told three different stories, finally saying there had been a voluntary sexual encounter. His victim read in the newspaper that he had been fired for lying and for “idling and loafing” on duty, words that mocked what had been done to her.
“That really pissed me off,” she says.
She took some comfort in knowing Cates was not going to be answering any more 911 calls. But he still had not been held accountable for what he did to her.
“It wasn’t really justice,” she says. “It didn’t say he hurt me.”
She was sinking only deeper into despair when she went on the Internet and chanced up a photo of an eminent Milwaukee defense lawyer named Robin Shellow.
“She had a beautiful smile,” the victim recalls. “It was just her smile and the look in her eyes…She’s not mean and she’s a woman … She looked like she could understand me...She looked like she would help.”
She went to Shellow’s office.
“I just was giving it a shot. I didn’t think nothing was going to come of it.” Shellow proved to be everything her photo suggested. Shellow also happened to have just finished a case in federal court and she had the number handy for the prosecutor who had been her opponent. Asst. U.S. Attorney Mel Johnson came to her office with an FBI agent to interview her new client. He not only found her credible, he was willing to prosecute.
“He was a very nice guy,” the victim says. “He kind of made me not afraid.”
“I knew it,” she says. “The way he treated me, I knew he had to have hurt somebody else before.”
As the case headed for trial, Gina Barton of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Cates had been investigated for illegal behavior on five previous occasions, three of them involving sexual misconduct. Two of those were with prisoners. The third was with a 16 year-old and that case had been referred to the Milwaukee district attorney’s office, which declined to prosecute. The priors came as no surprise to the 19-year-old who was now accusing him of raping her while he somehow remained employed as a cop.
“I knew it,” she says. “The way he treated me, I knew he had to have hurt somebody else before.”
But, the law prohibited the prosecution from using Cates’s history to sway the jury. The case was still a she-said-he-said as the victim took the stand. She had been counseled and steadied by Shellow right up to this moment. She was now on her own.
“I am here today because Officer Cates is a very bad man,” she said. Shellow says that her client was a terrific witness. The victim herself feels otherwise, faulting herself for not being able to convey the enormity of what happened. She does say, “It felt good to look at him and tell him what he did. He was looking at his shoes.” She also felt that whatever her shortcomings he was sure to be convicted.
“I thought it would be guilty,” she said. “I felt it in my stomach. Anybody with two eyes could see this dude was an animal.”
On January 11, the jury convicted Cates of violating the victim’s civil rights by raping her.
“I just heard the 'guilty' and then I left because I was so emotional,” she says.
She returned to court on Jan. 18, to see Cates remanded, pending sentencing in April, when he faces a maximum of life in prison.
“I didn’t feel happy,” she says. “I felt like, ‘Finally, it’s over.’”
She could not help but feel sympathy for Cates’s children.
“They didn’t do anything,” she says.
She has chosen to accept the anonymity accorded a sex crime victim as she resumes being the hero of her own particular life. She is back to being the mom she wanted to be for her own kids. And she plans on continuing her studies next semester, though she has seen enough of the legal system to have a new career goal.
“A nurse or a doctor,” she says.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/01/29/she-dialed-911-the-cop-who-came-to-help-raped-her.htmlWhen the brick crashed through her bathroom window and somebody began kicking in her... more
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While distributing the notices, two female officers appeared to focus in on one vocal protester, and as they began to restrain the individual, one officer tased the unarmed man still clad in his pajamas. After the man apparently suffered a seizure, bystanders claim that he was 'refused medical treatment.'
http://veracitystew.com/2012/01/30/dc-police-taser-unarmed-occupy-protester-video/While distributing the notices, two female officers appeared to focus in on one vocal... more
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The High Court has ruled in favour of the Metropolitan Police over an appeal in the 'kettling' case brought by G20 demonstrators following the 2009 protests.
Student Hannah McClure and Josh Moos, a campaigner for the Plane Stupid group, both attended the protests and won a High Court case declaring officers had used 'violent [and] unjustified force' to contain them.
However, Lord Neuberger, the Master of the Rolls, Lord Justice Hughes and Lord Justice Sullivan sitting at the Court of Appeal have now ruled that the High Court's decision was flawed.
'Kettling' is when demonstrators are contained or corralled inside police cordons and prevented from leaving.
It was used by officers to restrain protesters at a Camp for Climate Action during the G20 summit nearly three years ago, in Bishopsgate, central London.
At the time of the decision, which did not outlaw kettling, the police expressed concern that it could have an impact on their ability 'to prevent disorder within protests'.
On the same day, Ian Tomlinson died after a protest in which he was struck by PC Simon Harwood. The demonstrations were at a separate, more explosive, G20 protest at the Royal Exchange in London.
However, the High Court had ruled police had no reason to 'kettle' protesters at the climate camp, which was more peaceful but nevertheless saw demonstrators held behind a cordon for up to four hours later into the evening.
'Kettling' tactics continue to be advocated by police forces and some kettling was in evidence during the summer riots in 2011.
VIDEO: How police kettling looks to protesters (amateur footage)The High Court has ruled in favour of the Metropolitan Police over an appeal in the... more
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By David Edwards
Thursday, January 12, 2012
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is investigating one of their own officers after video surfaced showing him punching a special needs woman in the face.
Passenger Jermaine Green, who recorded the incident on his cell phone, said that 42-year-old Julie Nelson had been polite before two deputies tried to remove her from the bus.
“They said get off the bus,” Green recalled to NBC’s Los Angeles affiliate. “She then started cursing at (the female deputy). You could tell she had special needs. After that they grab her, she curses him out, calls him a big shot, next thing you know he gives her a big shot.”
In a 911 call released Wednesday, a caller said Nelson had threatened to “beat up” other passengers. Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said she also had a four convictions of violence against police officers.
Nelson, who is homeless and known to be living behind a CVS Pharmacy, was taken into custody on a 72-hour psychiatric hold without being arrested.
At a press conference Wednesday, Sheriff Lee Baca admitted that the video was “disturbing.”
“If the deputy who swung an elbow at the lady is looking at that as a sensible solution, we need to retrain that individual and hold him accountable,” he explained.
Childhood friends of Nelson told NBC L.A. that she had a history of mental problems, but had not been taking her medication.
“We’re going to take her and put her somewhere safe, same thing we always do, feed her, help her out, we love her,” one friend said.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/01/12/l-a-deputy-punches-special-needs-woman/
Watch the video below from NBC L.A., broadcast Jan. 11, 2012.
"Man, that was uncool and uncalled for!!!!"By David Edwards
Thursday, January 12, 2012
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s... more
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KB723
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...do we as police officers, sheriffs, deputies and others who have taken the oath to uphold and defend the constitution, now turn our back on that very oath? Do we now turn against the very same people that entrusted us with a most sacred duty to serve and protect them? If in fact we follow a rule of law such as this bill enacts, it would mean that the oath that we all took meant nothing. We are obliged to follow all lawful orders given to us, but we cannot do this blindly. http://oathkeepers.org/oath/2012/01/07/ohio-peace-officer-drafts-ndaa-letter-for-police-and-sheriffs/...do we as police officers, sheriffs, deputies and others who have taken the oath to... more
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By Eric W. Dolan
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Police officers knocked down and clubbed a young woman during an anti-police march in Oakland late Saturday night, and arrested six people.
Video of the incident uploaded to YouTube showed the young woman riding her bicycle towards a small group of officers. As she approached, officers shoved her to the ground and at least one clubs her with his baton.
Protesters quickly rushed to her aid, and dragged her away from police.
An “Occupy Oakland” press release said the “Fuck the Police” march was held to protest the “brutal campaign of repression” conducted by Oakland police to prevent protesters from re-establishing their camp in Frank Ogawa Plaza. It describes the City of Oakland as a “war zone.”
About 100 people marched from Frank Ogawa Plaza to the Oakland Police headquarters at 7th and Broadway, where more than 50 officers stood guard.
Police clashed with the protesters after some people threw bottles at the officers. Police spokeswoman Johnna Watson said the protesters also broke patrol vehicle windows and vandalized a media van.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/01/08/police-club-young-woman-riding-bike-at-oakland-protest/
Watch video, uploaded to YouTube, below:
"If you watch the video, you will see the young lady had a carry on on the back of her bike... Many cyclists carry their children in these carry ons, I wonder if there were any children in it???"By Eric W. Dolan
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Police officers knocked down and clubbed... more
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KB723
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By David Edwards
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
An officer in Utica, New York is being accused of planting evidence — and he was busted by the dash cam in his own police cruiser.
The Utica Phoenix recently obtained dash cam video of a February 11, 2011 traffic stop, where officers Palladino and Padulla search an African-American couple.
At about one minute into the video, one of the officers is seen taking a plastic bag out of his back pocket and seems to place it inside the vehicle. Several moments later, he emerges from the vehicle with a larger plastic bag, presumably evidence.
Utica Police Chief Mark Williams was reportedly contacted by Venice Ervin, chairman of the Legal Redress Committee of the NAACP, about the video.
“We have an on-going internal affairs investigation regarding this matter, therefore I am not able to speak about it,” Williams said. “I’ve already met with Venice Ervin of the NAACP on this complaint. When this matter has been thoroughly investigated, I plan on meeting with Mr. Ervin first to discuss the results of the investigation.”
According to the Phoenix, suspicions about police abuses are nothing new among Utica’s black community.
In one recent interview, a black woman accused police of kicking down her door and coming in her house while they “waited for a warrant.”
Although a drug-sniffing dog found initially no contraband, police later claimed to find drugs in that case as well.
“All I can tell you is this; if I have an officer that I feel is planting drugs, he’s not going to have a job with the Utica Police Department. It’s not in my bests interests to keep someone like that around,” Williams told WKTV.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/01/03/dash-cam-video-appears-to-show-officer-planting-evidence/
Watch this video from Utica Phoenix, uploaded Jan. 2, 2012.
'Hmmm, Hard to Disagree, that Cat was up to something!!!'By David Edwards
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
An officer in Utica, New York is being... more
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KB723
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The wheels of justice roll slowly but they do roll. I believe many people are very shocked at the behavior of the police and had no idea how militarized they have become. This one thing being brought to peoples attention by Occupy has awakened many.The wheels of justice roll slowly but they do roll. I believe many people are very... more
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Police Officers Taser Military Veteran To Death
http://youtu.be/Bl9H5dL2w1E
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A Canton police officer could soon be out of a job. Daniel Harless is caught on tape cursing and yelling at people during traffic stops and threatening to kill them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=-uK-Nwxn2ws
As we reported last week, a disciplinary hearing for Canton police officer Daniel Harless, which has already been postponed on two occasions, is scheduled to be held on Thursday, Dec. 15.
The hearing is the culmination of an investigation of Harless' conduct during a traffic stop in June involving a concealed handgun license holder. The officer's actions were captured on dash cam video, and subsequently posted on YouTube.
In the dash cam video, the officer can be heard unleashing a profanity-laced tirade, yelling "I should blast you in the mouth right now...I'm so close to caving in your head," and "you're just a stupid human being!" He continued to berate the license-holder, shouting "You want me to pull mine and stick it to your head?" "People like you don't deserve to f#$%g move throughout public. Period!"
Harless left the driver in the rear of the police vehicle, and returned several minutes later and began shouting at the driver again. "...I swear to God this little bull crap you pulled has me so hot. You know what I should have done? I tell you what I should have done. As soon as I saw your gun I shoulda taken two steps back, pulled my Glock 40, and just put ten bullets in your ass and let you drop. And I wouldn't of lost any sleep. Do you understand me? And he would have been a nice witness as I executed you because you're stupid."
The video went viral, as did two subsequent videos that were uncovered, also showing Harless behaving in a violent and seemingly uncontrolled manner.
In a July 2010 video, Harless can be heard saying "Don't f#$%g move. Let me see your f#$%g hands," Harless shouted. "I'll kill every one of you mother f#$%ers. There's a goddamned gun in this car. You f#$%g move, I'll shoot you in the head."
Harless also threatened to send the suspects "to the grave" if they moved, adding, "I'm telling you what mother f#$%er. I'll shoot you in the face and I'll go to sleep tonight. Do you understand me?"
In a December 2010 video Harless can be heard saying "If you scratch you balls wrong, I'm going to pull my gun and I am going to shoot you."
According to WEWS (ABC Cleveland), an internal affairs investigation concluded that Harless violated three department rules and regulations during the December stop, and also during two other stops where he was captured on dash cam video yelling, swearing and threatening to kill people during traffic stops.
Unfortunately, he was put back on the street, allowing the shocking and violent events of June 2011 to unfold.
After the most recent incident, Harless was put on administrative leave, and later went on medical leave. (The Canton Repository reported last week that he has since run out of sick days, but is still reportedly receiving pay thanks to a special clause in his union contract.)
Yet another investigation was launched, and a disciplinary hearing was set for September 7. On September 3, however, The Repository reported that the hearing has been postponed until December 1 days "at the request of the union [president Bill Adams], which claimed the patrolman has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder." (The Canton Police Patrolmen's Association had actually requested an indefinite extension, which was was denied.)
The progress that Dan Harless is making with his doctor visits would only be reversed with reliving this incident so close to his treatment for his PTSD disability," Adams wrote. "When his doctor or the city of Canton's doctor would clear him for duty, then an appropriate disciplinary hearing should be scheduled."
Adams also stated at the time that Harless could not assist in his defense or participate in his disciplinary hearing.
Last week, the hearing was again postponed. Canton Police Department Safety Director Thomas Ream told The Repository the hearing was "rescheduled because he had a scheduling conflict." While the "he" was undefined in the article, it may just have been Officer Harless whose schedule was to blame.
You see, Officer Daniel Harless, who only 90 days ago was deemed by the Canton Police Patrolmen's Association to be so mentally "disabled" that he was unable to attend his own disciplinary hearing, was busy last week testifying at a murder trial.
If Daniel Harless is well-enough to testify in a murder trial, in which the defendant was ultimately convicted, he is certainly well-enough to show up to his hearing, right? And he certainly won't attempt to claim a mental disability as a defense a week after he testified at a murder trial, right? After all, we wouldn't want the convicted killer's attorney to file an appeal based on Harless' self-admitted incompetence and possibly get his client's conviction overturned.
http://www.buckeyefirearms.org/node/8113A Canton police officer could soon be out of a job. Daniel Harless is caught on tape... more
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Uploaded by MOXNEWSd0tC0M on Dec 15, 2011
December 14, 2011 KIRO 7 News
http://MOXNews.comUploaded by MOXNEWSd0tC0M on Dec 15, 2011
December 14, 2011 KIRO 7 News... more
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CodePink Austin, along with allies from Veteran's for Peace and Women in Black staged a Don't Buy War "freeze" at Barton Creek Mall on Saturday, December 3rd. The strategically chosen mall location was between the Santa photo station and the Gamestop store, which prominently advertises the 'Modern Warfare 3' video game.
The goals were to raise awareness about the continuing wars on Iraq and Afghanistan, to educate shoppers about the costs (both human and economic) of the wars, and to dissuade parents from purchasing war toys. The creative action was well received by shoppers, and several veterans approached the group to thank us. All was peaceful until mall security and APD arrived, and an APD officer brutally attacked a young woman who had joined the group spontaneously. She was seriously beaten and ended up with three cracked ribs and bruises all over her body!
Produced for Austin Indymedia by Jeff Zavala.
A ZGraphix Production.
http://zgraphix.orgCodePink Austin, along with allies from Veteran's for Peace and Women in Black... more
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My name is Patrick Meighan, and I’m a husband, a father, a writer on the Fox animated sitcom “Family Guy”, and a member of the Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Santa Monica.
I was arrested at about 1 a.m. Wednesday morning with 291 other people at Occupy LA. I was sitting in City Hall Park with a pillow, a blanket, and a copy of Thich Nhat Hanh’s “Being Peace” when 1,400 heavily-armed LAPD officers in paramilitary SWAT gear streamed in. I was in a group of about 50 peaceful protestors who sat Indian-style, arms interlocked, around a tent (the symbolic image of the Occupy movement). The LAPD officers encircled us, weapons drawn, while we chanted “We Are Peaceful” and “We Are Nonviolent” and “Join Us.”
As we sat there, encircled, a separate team of LAPD officers used knives to slice open every personal tent in the park. They forcibly removed anyone sleeping inside, and then yanked out and destroyed any personal property inside those tents, scattering the contents across the park. They then did the same with the communal property of the Occupy LA movement. For example, I watched as the LAPD destroyed a pop-up canopy tent that, until that moment, had been serving as Occupy LA’s First Aid and Wellness tent, in which volunteer health professionals gave free medical care to absolutely anyone who requested it. As it happens, my family had personally contributed that exact canopy tent to Occupy LA, at a cost of several hundred of my family’s dollars. As I watched, the LAPD sliced that canopy tent to shreds, broke the telescoping poles into pieces and scattered the detritus across the park. Note that these were the objects described in subsequent mainstream press reports as “30 tons of garbage” that was “abandoned” by Occupy LA: personal property forcibly stolen from us, destroyed in front of our eyes and then left for maintenance workers to dispose of while we were sent to prison.
When the LAPD finally began arresting those of us interlocked around the symbolic tent, we were all ordered by the LAPD to unlink from each other (in order to facilitate the arrests). Each seated, nonviolent protester beside me who refused to cooperate by unlinking his arms had the following done to him: an LAPD officer would forcibly extend the protestor’s legs, grab his left foot, twist it all the way around and then stomp his boot on the insole, pinning the protestor’s left foot to the pavement, twisted backwards. Then the LAPD officer would grab the protestor’s right foot and twist it all the way the other direction until the non-violent protestor, in incredible agony, would shriek in pain and unlink from his neighbor.
It was horrible to watch, and apparently designed to terrorize the rest of us. At least I was sufficiently terrorized. I unlinked my arms voluntarily and informed the LAPD officers that I would go peacefully and cooperatively. I stood as instructed, and then I had my arms wrenched behind my back, and an officer hyperextended my wrists into my inner arms. It was super violent, it hurt really really bad, and he was doing it on purpose. When I involuntarily recoiled from the pain, the LAPD officer threw me face-first to the pavement. He had my hands behind my back, so I landed right on my face. The officer dropped with his knee on my back and ground my face into the pavement. It really, really hurt and my face started bleeding and I was very scared. I begged for mercy and I promised that I was honestly not resisting and would not resist.
My hands were then zipcuffed very tightly behind my back, where they turned blue. I am now suffering nerve damage in my right thumb and palm.
I was put on a paddywagon with other nonviolent protestors and taken to a parking garage in Parker Center. They forced us to kneel on the hard pavement of that parking garage for seven straight hours with our hands still tightly zipcuffed behind our backs. Some began to pass out. One man rolled to the ground and vomited for a long, long time before falling unconscious. The LAPD officers watched and did nothing.
At 9 a.m. we were finally taken from the pavement into the station to be processed. The charge was sitting in the park after the police said not to. It’s a misdemeanor. Almost always, for a misdemeanor, the police just give you a ticket and let you go. It costs you a couple hundred dollars. Apparently, that’s what happened with most every other misdemeanor arrest in LA that day.
Full Story Here:
http://www.infowars.com/my-occupy-la-arrest/My name is Patrick Meighan, and I’m a husband, a father, a writer on the Fox... more
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On Saturday, December 3, 2011, Occupy the Bronx was scheduled to conduct its roving General Assembly in solidarity with Morning Glory Garden gardeners at 11 am. However, upon arriving we were preempted by NYPD Captain Garcia and his legal gang - including some in "community" affairs attire - under his command from the 40th Precinct who began randomly arresting Bronxites, including Shaun Lin, Carlos Sabater, David Suker, Alex, and a sister who was merely there as an independent writer for allegedly "blocking pedestrian traffic" and congregating without a permit.
At the time of the arrest, there weren't many of us there, but we were as vulnerable to arrest as anyone else and as vulnerable as those who were indeed wrongfully arrested without cause.
THIS WEDNESDAY at 6PM at Lincoln Hospital, we invite you to confront the 40th Precinct at the precinct council's monthly meeting to expose the inconsistency of this precinct's policing practices within the Mott Haven, Melrose, Port Morris sections of the Bronx; to stand up for Shaun's, Carlos', David's, Alex's, and the sister's, and the Bronx' collective dignity; and to demand Deputy Inspector Christopher J. McCormack reign in his crew in all shades of blue!
JOIN US!
At the Bronx general assembly, there are numerous causes being fought for, all spearheaded by a single principle of community control and self-governance. The people in the Bronx should decide how things are run in the Bronx--in our schools, hospitals, streets and neighborhoods.
GENERAL ASSEMBLIES take place every Saturday at 11am, rotating locations each week:
1st weekend of every month: Fordham Plaza
2nd weekend of every month: 149th & 3rd Ave aka The Hub
3rd weekend of every month: Plaza by the Hunts Point Ave 6 train station
4th weekend of every month: Gun Hill Rd and White Plains Ave
Visit: http://www.occupythebronx.org/
for more information, and join our community page on Facebook!On Saturday, December 3, 2011, Occupy the Bronx was scheduled to conduct its roving... more
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I don’t know Lt. John Pike. But I can’t help making some guesses based on his behavior. I make some assumptions based on the casual, matter-of-fact tone with which he pepper-sprays those students. I don’t know how he feels about blacks, Mexicans or Arabs, although that lawsuit suggests something about how he regards gays. All of the evidence before me makes me believe that he’s a type I have known before, a man frustrated by his powerlessness in the face of social change that he feels threatens his place in society.I don’t know Lt. John Pike. But I can’t help making some guesses based on... more
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Occupy Wall Street protester Brandon Watts lies injured on the ground after clashes with police over the eviction of OWS from Zuccotti Park. Photograph: Allison Joyce/Getty Images
US citizens of all political persuasions are still reeling from images of unparallelled police brutality in a coordinated crackdown against peaceful OWS protesters in cities across the nation this past week. An elderly woman was pepper-sprayed in the face; the scene of unresisting, supine students at UC Davis being pepper-sprayed by phalanxes of riot police went viral online; images proliferated of young women – targeted seemingly for their gender – screaming, dragged by the hair by police in riot gear; and the pictures of a young man, stunned and bleeding profusely from the head, emerged in the record of the middle-of-the-night clearing of Zuccotti Park.
But just when Americans thought we had the picture – was this crazy police and mayoral overkill, on a municipal level, in many different cities? – the picture darkened. The National Union of Journalists and the Committee to Protect Journalists issued a Freedom of Information Act request to investigate possible federal involvement with law enforcement practices that appeared to target journalists. The New York Times reported that "New York cops have arrested, punched, whacked, shoved to the ground and tossed a barrier at reporters and photographers" covering protests. Reporters were asked by NYPD to raise their hands to prove they had credentials: when many dutifully did so, they were taken, upon threat of arrest, away from the story they were covering, and penned far from the site in which the news was unfolding. Other reporters wearing press passes were arrested and roughed up by cops, after being – falsely – informed by police that "It is illegal to take pictures on the sidewalk."
In New York, a state supreme court justice and a New York City council member were beaten up; in Berkeley, California, one of our greatest national poets, Robert Hass, was beaten with batons. The picture darkened still further when Wonkette and Washingtonsblog.com reported that the Mayor of Oakland acknowledged that the Department of Homeland Security had participated in an 18-city mayor conference call advising mayors on "how to suppress" Occupy protests.
To Europeans, the enormity of this breach may not be obvious at first. Our system of government prohibits the creation of a federalised police force, and forbids federal or militarised involvement in municipal peacekeeping.
I noticed that rightwing pundits and politicians on the TV shows on which I was appearing were all on-message against OWS. Journalist Chris Hayes reported on a leaked memo that revealed lobbyists vying for an $850,000 contract to smear Occupy. Message coordination of this kind is impossible without a full-court press at the top. This was clearly not simply a case of a freaked-out mayors', city-by-city municipal overreaction against mess in the parks and cranky campers. As the puzzle pieces fit together, they began to show coordination against OWS at the highest national levels.
Why this massive mobilisation against these not-yet-fully-articulated, unarmed, inchoate people? After all, protesters against the war in Iraq, Tea Party rallies and others have all proceeded without this coordinated crackdown. Is it really the camping? As I write, two hundred young people, with sleeping bags, suitcases and even folding chairs, are still camping out all night and day outside of NBC on public sidewalks – under the benevolent eye of an NYPD cop – awaiting Saturday Night Live tickets, so surely the camping is not the issue. I was still deeply puzzled as to why OWS, this hapless, hopeful band, would call out a violent federal response.
That is, until I found out what it was that OWS actually wanted.
(click on the link for the full article)Occupy Wall Street protester Brandon Watts lies injured on the ground after clashes... more
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This disturbing video clip shows Occupy Oakland protester and three-tour Iraq war veteran Kayvan Sabehgi in an altercation with riot police on October 2. The Guardian posted the clip late last week and reported that Sabehgi suffered a ruptured spleen as a result of the beat-down captured here, and that Oakland police say they are looking into the incident.
http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/another_vet_struck_down_by_police_in_oakland_20111121This disturbing video clip shows Occupy Oakland protester and three-tour Iraq war... more
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Like a lot of people I was angered when I watched the video of a Police Officer spraying a group of College students with pepper spray. The way in which he seemed to take pleasure in the act made it even worse. In response the students to their credit didn't respond with violence and in that I can find hope. Albeit a small amount but hope non the less. The continued heavy handedness of various Police organizations across this country in response to American citizens attempting to exercise their Constitutional rights is embarrassing. While the rest of the world struggles to over come tyrannical leaders in an attempt to have the kinds of freedoms we take for granted we are increasingly loosing those freedoms. People who want to work can't, those who do have jobs have to work more than one to get by, kids can't afford to go to college and those who are in positions of power in politics and business have decided that they only have to worry about themselves even if it means that the nation falls apart both figuratively and literally. It's no wonder people who feel powerless finally have had enough and like many times before in this nations brief history have banded together in order to take back what is rightfully theirs. No amount of Pepper Spray, catchy soundbites or a lack of permits will prevent the change that is necessary for this nation to continue to grow and eventually become what our founders imagined it could be. Although in truth they probably couldn't have even begun to imagine what the future would truly look like.Like a lot of people I was angered when I watched the video of a Police Officer... more
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