I've made it to the initial round for favorite progressive blogger in the Air America Cruise Contest. I have to stay in the Top 5 before the second voting round begins, so your vote is appreciated! First voting round:
The Christian Civic League of Maine's Mike Hein calls Pam's House Blend: "a leading source of radical homosexual propaganda, anti-Christian bigotry, and radical transgender advocacy."
He is "praying that Pam Spaulding will "turn away from her wicked and sinful promotion of homosexual behavior."
(CCLM's web site, 10/15/07)
Ex-gay "Christian" activist James Hartline on Pam:
"I have been mocked over and over again by ungodly and unprincipled anti-christian lesbians."
(from "Six Years In Sodom: From The Journal Of James Hartline," 9/4/2006, written from the "homosexual stronghold" of Hillcrest in San Diego).
"Pam is a 'twisted lesbian sister' and an 'embittered lesbian' of the 'self-imposed gutteral experiences of the gay ghetto.'" -- 9/5/2008
Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth Against Homosexuality heartily endorses the Blend, calling Pam:
A "vicious anti-Christian lesbian activist." (Concerned Women for America's radio show [9:15], 1/25/07)
"A nutty lesbian blogger." (MassResistance radio show [16:25], 2/3/07)
Pam's House Blend always seems to find these sick f*cks. The area of the country she is in? The home state of her wife? I know, they are everywhere. Pam just does such a great job of bringing them out into the light.
--Impeach Bush
who monitors yours Bevis ?? Just thought I would drop you a line,so the rest of your life is not wasted.
We are a society bathed in sadism and brutality - and this is just one of many examples of parents behaving badly along with police again misusing a Taser to enforce compliance rather than a substitute for a gun. What mother would gladly give consent for her 65 lb, 4'6" daughter to receive a 50K shock!? (The Smoking Gun):
An Arkansas cop tasered an unruly 10-year-old girl after her mother called police to report that the child was crying, screaming, and refusing to go to bed. The tased girl, Kiara Medlock, is about 65 pounds and 4' 6", according to her father. Anthony Medlock, a truck driver who does not live with the fifth grader and her mother, provided TSG with a recent photo of his daughter, which can be seen at right. According to the below Ozark Police Department report, when Officer Dustin Bradshaw arrived at the residence last Thursday, he found the girl "screaming, kicking, and resisting every time her mother tried to touch her." Bradshaw added that, "Her mother told me to tase her if I needed to." After Kiara continued to refuse her mother's instructions, the cop concluded that "there was not going to be a peaceful resolution of the issue." Bradshaw warned the girl that she was "going to jail," but the child continued kicking and crying and resisted his attempt to handcuff her. During the tussle, Kiara "struck me with her legs and feet in the groin, reported Bradshaw, who countered with a brief "stun to her back" with his Taser.
Here is the police report. Her father said: "If you can't pick the kid up and take her to your car, handcuff her, then I don't think you need to be an officer."
This piece was bumped from my day subbing for Glenn at Salon because it was quite similar to a piece by Monday subber Digby (I hadn't seen her post). However, you all get to kick it around. :)
As you all know, I frequently blog about the rollback of civil liberties, specifically when it comes to police brutality and the misuse of the Taser, an electroshock device designed as a non-lethal alternative to using a firearm. A Taser delivers 50,000 volts into its target, causing strong involuntary muscle contractions. While there is no doubt that Taser International's controversial device has resulted in calls for a ban on the use of it, the fact is we're talking about a tool, training, and misuse. It takes a human being with badge to shoot one of these things off at a suspect (um, well not anymore, but we'll get to that later).
Police officers, who put their lives on the line every day protecting and serving communities around the country, are now dealing with a host of thugs bad apples in their midst who seemingly have: 1) lost the capacity to communicate effectively with agitated unarmed people to defuse tense situations; 2) fail to understand the concept of the Taser as the last resort before using a gun; 3) an inability to judge a life-threatening situation from an annoying one; and 4) so few interpersonal skills and patience that they see the Taser as a weapon to make a person submit to their will or instantly comply as a time-saving measure. Unfortunately, the Taser has been deployed in instances that have resulted in a subject expiring, or as Electrocuted While Black refers to it, "pre-trial, extra-judicial electrocutions and executions."
The abuse of this device is disproportionately deployed against minorities (surprised, no?). In Houston, an audit found incredible statistics:
Black officers are less likely to use Tasers, but black suspects are more likely to be jolted with the weapons, according to the first city audit of Taser use by Houston Police officers, KPRC Local 2 reported.
...The audit of 2.8 million calls to police from January 2000 to June 30, 2007, found black suspects make up 66.9 percent of all people zapped with the device, despite making up 46 percent of the total incidents and comprising 24.7 percent of the Houston population.
...The report spells out that most officers have only used their Taser one time, but one officer has used his on 13 people, another used it on 12 people. Two officers had shocked nine people each, and four officers had eight Taser incidents each.
• Over 7,000 law enforcement employ more than 140,000 Tasers in the United States • In a 6-year period, Amnesty International reports over 290 deaths from police Taser usage in the USA and Canada • Use-of-force policies provide guidance for police officers to follow during specific scenarios • Two Department of Homeland divisions rejected its use altogether.
Questionable Taser usage on suspects, such as non-violent or previously restrained suspects, damages community perception of law enforcement personnel. Shocking and provocative videos circulate at rapid speed on Youtube depicting questionable Taser usage and are seen not just by members of a single community, but are viewed by millions around the world.
We call on our Congress to speak out and organize public hearings on the systemic human rights violations occurring with Federal funding against black, Latino, Native American and other Americans.
While there continues to be considerable media and congressional attention to torture in Guantanamo, there is comparatively little attention to the mounting evidence of human rights violations in the streets of America by a number of police departments across America, including torture and killings of black children, women and men through-out the United States through the use and abuse of Tasers.
...We believe most Americans would favor Congressional hearings as to whether our own U.S. police, policing policies and actions violate Federal and International laws prohibiting human rights violators. Evidence of widespread police abuse of tasers is more than enough to warrant our concern and justify a congressional inquiry.
One has to walk away from that thinking that a few of those officers are, to be charitable, electro-trigger happy against minorities. The natural follow up question is what, aside from bias, motivated those officers to Taser first more often than their colleagues and what training might have reduced those numbers.
Honestly, from the numerous Taser abuse stories I monitor each month, the buckwild brutes with badges seem to leave no demographic untouched. Witness these incidents:
* In Manassas, Virginia, a 55-year-old Bible study teacher and a mother were Tased three times in rapid succession, on his own property where a child's baptism party was being held, seen by a yard full of children and family members. The police were called because of a noise complaint. Video.
Back in March I blogged about yet another example of cops out of control -- the murder by cop of a 73-year-old black man, a cancer survivor, who was hosting a family cookout in front of his humble home in Homer, Lousiana.
Officer Tim Cox, and Officer Joey Henry showed up at Bernard Monroe's house to speak with the elderly man's son Shawn (he had a record, but didn't have any current warrants against him). The younger Monroe ran toward the house and Officer Cox pursued him and...
[T]he elder Monroe had started walking toward the front door, carrying only his drink bottle, to try to intervene. When Monroe got to the first step on the front porch, the witnesses said, Cox opened fire, striking him several times as adults and children stood nearby.
"He just shot him through the screen door," said Denise Nicholson, a family friend who said she was standing a few feet from Monroe. "After [Monroe] was on the ground, we kept asking the officer to call an ambulance, but all he did was get on his radio and say, 'Officer in distress.' "
As Monroe lay dying, the witnesses said, the second police officer, who has not been publicly identified, picked up a handgun that Monroe, an avid hunter, always kept in plain sight on the porch for protection. Using a police-issue blue latex glove, the officer grasped the gun by its handle, the witnesses said, and then ordered everyone to back away from the scene. The next thing they said they saw was the gun on the ground next to Monroe's body.
Well, here we are in August (the shooting was on Feb. 20) and there have been at least two investigations. Did anything come of this? The update is the two officers are moving on to other jobs. No one with a badge did any time for the slaying of an unarmed, elderly black man.
"Tim Cox told me he is moving to St. Tammany Parish and I think will be training canines for police departments," Colvin said. "I don't know what Joey Henry is going to do."
Both officers had been on paid administrative leave after the shooting, which is still under investigation by the FBI and state police.
"They should have been gone," said Rev. Willie Young, head of the Claiborne Parish NAACP, on Wednesday. "I don't think taxpayers should have been paying their salaries all this time."
God almighty, it makes me sick to keep reporting on this bullsh*t police brutality state because we all know there are so many good law enforcement officers putting their lives on the line every day. But they are working alongside some seriously disturbed/power-mad sadists with a badge who clearly have no skills, training or desire to properly subdue or communicate with civilians -- they reach for the Taser, which is meant as a substitute for a GUN, and blast people into submission.
Officers who used pepper spray and a Taser to remove a man from a store bathroom found out only later he was deaf and mentally disabled and didn't understand they wanted him to open the door, police said Tuesday.
A spokesman for the Mobile Police Department said the officers' actions were justified because the man was armed with a potential weapon - an umbrella.
The man, Antonio Love, has, according to his mother Phyllis Love, the mental capacity of a 10-year-old and didn't realize the police were trying enter the bathroom.
Police spokesman Christopher Levy said Tuesday store workers called officers complaining that a man had been in the bathroom for more than an hour with the door locked. Officers knocked on the door and identified themselves, but the person didn't respond.
Officers used a tire iron to open the door, but the man pushed back to keep it shut. Officers saw the umbrella and sprayed pepper spray through a crack trying to subdue the man, Levy said. They shot the man with a Taser when they finally got inside, he said.
Officers didn't realize Love was deaf or had mental problems until he showed them a card he carries in his wallet, Levy said. He was arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct, but officers released him and took him home after a magistrate refused to issue a warrant.
Levy said officers were justified in using force against Love since he had an umbrella.
"The officers really worked within the limits of our level-of-force policy," he said. "We had no information about who this guy was."
BTW, Love said that the officers laughed at him after they found out he was deaf. The officer has since been placed on administrative leave. I don't know if it's a training issue, a lack of humanity or what, but these weapons are being abused all around the country by the police -- and the abuse is being affirmed by their superiors in many of these cases -- it's frightening. How can we stop the madness?
Here we go again. A cop is caught using a Taser not in the place of a gun, but as a device to ensure compliance from a belligerent person who is not a threat to the law enforcement officer.
Dash cam video has been released to FOX 7 showing exactly what happened between a Constable's deputy and a 72-yaer-old woman, before she was tasered last month. The officer says says Kathryn Winkfein mouthed off, and was physically non-compliant. Winkfein told us that wasn't true. Precinct 3 Sgt. Maj. Gary Griffin says he's reviewed the dash cam footage and he's standing by his deputy--he says followed policy.
Just after two in the afternoon on May 11, the video shows Deputy Chris Bieze stopping Kathryn Winkfein for speeding on a notoriously dangerous strip of Highway 71. After completing the paperwork, the officer returns to Winkfein's truck, but she refuses to sign the speeding ticket.
"Take me to jail," Winkfein demands on the tape, "I'm a 72-year-old woman." That's when the deputy opens the driverside door to arrest the great-grandmother. "Give me the ******* ticket now," Winkfein curses. The deputy shoves her. "You're gonna push me? A 72-year-old woman?"
The shove, the Constable's office says, served to get the two out of oncoming traffic. Then, the deputy warns her one of five times.
"Stand back, " Bieze says. "I'm gonna tase you." She responds by saying, "I dare you."
The deputy announces he's going to taser Winkfein, and the woman hits the ground as the taser is deployed.
I do not see how the police could view this as a proper use of a taser. Bieze threatens to taser her again if she does not put her hands behind her back. He then tasers her again. He then charges her with resisting arrest.
The video is a textbook example of how tasers have served to escalate the level of force in such encounters. While Bieze might have called for back up or physically restrained Winkfein, he moves almost immediately to the use of the taser. The fact that Constable McCain would watch this video and find (here) that Bieze acted properly raises serious questions of his own judgment.
What is this world coming to? Oh, and the prison officer offered up this reason for 43 kids getting blasted with the stun gun -- "it wasn't intended to be malicious, but educational." And this can also go under the tag "Parents Behaving Badly":
According to information released Saturday by the Florida Department of Corrections: During "Take Our Children to Work Day" events at three prison facilities, 43 children were hit with stun guns while others were exposed to tear gas.
"Three prison guards have been fired, two have resigned and 16 more employees - from corrections officers to a warden - will be disciplined due to the incidents that unfolded April 23, said DOC Secretary Walt McNeil," reported The Miami Herald. "An investigation is ongoing.
"None of the children in any of the incidents required medical attention or was notably harmed, McNeil said. He said the children, who ranged in age from 5 to 17, were all children of prison officials." "The jolt sent at least two of them sprawling to the floor, crying out in pain and clutching at agonizing burns on their arms. One child ended up in hospital," reported the Mail Online.
My, my, is this what we call progress in the New World Police State? Taser International has convinced our friends across the pond to deploy the "electronic control device" in London this week, where protestors can feel the burn, as it were, if they get too out of hand. (AlterNet):
Months after the Republican National Convention in the U.S., such sweeping security measures may seem to be par for the course. But in the UK -- where police forces have traditionally not carried guns -- it was not that long ago that Tasers were new to the streets. Since their arrival in the spring of 2003, however, their popularity has skyrocketed; last fall, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith unveiled a plan to spend £8 million on Tasers and Taser training for 30,000 police officers, providing some 10,000 new Tasers to police across England and Wales. "I am proud that we have one of the few police services around the world that do not regularly carry firearms," Smith said, "and I want to keep it that way." But an arms expert at Amnesty International UK called the move "a dangerous step in British policing," citing "numerous" taser deaths in North America as a cautionary example.
There are plenty of cases to review right here on the Blend. But Taser International is now offering a model with new and enhanced capabilities that is surely going to be attractive to the sadist set...
On March 31, the company's latest Taser model -- called the Shockwave -- hit the market; according to Taser International website, it "allows for both increased safety and stand-off capability during hostile situations, minimizing risk with a stand-off distance of up to 100 meters." But as Dalia Hashad, director of Amnesty International's USA Program focusing on domestic human rights, wrote about the product last falll, the Shockwave "belongs in my 'You've Got to Be Kidding' file along with Taser International's leopard-print MP3 player that doubles as a taser and their employment of Playboy Bunnies for promotion." The company's literature shows it to be a powerful crowd-control weapon:
"With the push of a button at a stand-off distance of up to 100 meters, the Shockwave unit deploys multiple standard TASER® cartridges that are oriented across an area arc. Full area coverage is provided to instantaneously incapacitate multiple personnel within that region."
En masse Tasing capability -- when law enforcement cannot even educate cops on the beat to use a single-stun device appropriately -- is unbelievable. Take a look at this device in action (via EnGadget):
The first (gulp) generation of Taser remote area denial systems consists of a Taser 6-shooter module covering a 20-degree arc at 25-feet. Best of all, they can be daisy-chained into an apparently endless array of hot neuro muscular incapacitation action.
The on-the-clock behavior of Chicago Police Officer Richard Fiorito is going to be the focus of a press conference held by the Gay Liberation Network. Multiple federal lawsuits have benf filed against the cop, who is accused of hurling anti-gay and racial epithets and falsifying DUI and traffic charges, focusing on harassing LGBTs.
According to one of the attorneys, Brendan Shiller, Dean was arrested on Oct. 7, 2007 for driving on a suspended license and taken to the Town Hall District station, where he spent about 1 1/2 hours before bonding out.
His car also had been towed there, and after he was released Dean was standing in the parking lot wondering how he was going to get his car home when Fiorito approached and ordered him to move the vehicle, the lawyer said.
Dean complied and drove "around the corner," where Fiorito allegedly pulled him over, Shiller said. According to the suit, the officer cited Dean for several offenses, including operating a vehicle without insurance, driving on a suspended license and DUI. Shiller said Fiorito called Dean anti-gay names and used a racial slur in his report.
In Rauch's case, Shiller said Fiorito made a traffic stop on April 17, 2007 in which he "manhandled" Rauch and calling him anti-gay names. Though Rauch was charged with DUI, the lawyer said, Fiorito didn't perform field-sobriety tests, nor did he conduct a breathalyzer test.
Shiller is one of four attorneys also representing Susan Kolinek, who was stopped by Fiorito on Jan. 10 and allegedly called anti-gay names.
Rauch's attorney, Jon F. Erickson, said "[Fiorito] grabbed Rauch's throat, slammed him up against the wall and called him a faggot."
Some of the victims of Fiorito's alleged misconduct, their attorneys, and community activists will appear at the GLN press conference at 11 AM in the lobby of the Dirksen Federal Court Building, 219 S. Dearborn Street, Chicago. From its press release:
According to several of Fiorito's victims, the transport officer from the 23rd to the 19th Districts routinely informs defendants that "Fiorito is an overtime whore and the arrestee should get a lawyer." No official action has been taken to curb Fiorito, 60, who is assigned to the 23rd District "Town Hall" police station at Addison and Halsted. Fiorito is among the state's highest writers of DUI tickets and arrested over 300 people for DUI last year.
On Thursday, four more federal lawsuits will be filed against Fiorito, in addition to three already filed, alleging that he targets lesbian and gay for false charges, frequently using anti-gay epithets during arrests, and occasionally uses excessive force. Attorney Jon Erickson says that as many as 11 more similar suits will be filed against Fiorito over the next six weeks.
In two separate cases of lesbians arrested by Fiorito, the lock-up officers at the Belmont and Western 19th District station made entries on the arrest report that directly contradict Officer Fiorito's account.. In one report, the lock-up officer wrote that the subject was "not under the influence of alcohol/drugs," and that "Chicago Police Officer Neita was unable to detect the smell of alcohol coming from subject." In another report, the lock-up officer wrote, "arrestee entered women's lockup she seems to be fine at this time is speaking clearly."
In two other cases, Fiorito insisted on conducting field sobriety test which test the subject's ability to listen to and follow instructions even though the arrestees told Fiorito they are deaf. Lawyers claim Fiorito made bogus arrests to rack up overtime pay by appearing in court when he wasn't on duty.
In Peoria, a man was beaten, stomped on at least 20 times and was repeatedly Tased by two police officers last May. The officers (Andrew Smith, left, and Gerald Suelter) face multiple charges. (PJStar):
Officers Gerald W. Suelter, 39, and Andrew R. Smith, 29, each face four counts of official misconduct and one count each of battery, mob action and aggravated battery. Both men appeared in court via video from the Peoria County Jail, where they have been held since their arrests on Monday.
Assistant State's Attorney Steve Pattelli on Wednesday offered details of the May arrest, both seen and those not caught on tape from an in-car video camera, that began after Scott stopped his SUV near Abington and Perry streets after a brief chase.
"One officer punched the driver at least twice in his face, and while three officers were handcuffing the driver, Peoria police officer Gerald Suelter approached and drew his electronic Taser . . . Suelter removed the air cartridge from his Taser and began to repeatedly stun the driver," Pattelli said, noting Scott was Tasered by Suelter at least three times.
"Peoria police Officer Andrew Smith was the last of the officers to arrive . . . after (Scott) had been pulled from the vehicle and was on the pavement with five other police officers above him," Pattelli continued. "When Smith arrived, he began to kick and stomp the driver at least 20 times, at one point repositioning himself for leverage."
The defense said the officers acted because they weren't sure if Scott had a weapon. About how many Tasings and stomps into the corrective action did they actually look for the nonexistent weapon?
And in Boston, a 15-year-old dies after being Tased. More after the jump. Oh, I didn't even get to the part about Taser International looking for a stimulus handout. That's below the fold as well.
The police state continues. Grand Valley State University student Derek Copp was shot in the chest by an officer (serving a drug warrant) who entered through a back door, blinded the 20-year-old with his flashlight -- when Copp raised his hand in front of his face, the cop shot. Unlike many of these cases, Copp survived the shooting.
"He never even had a chance to even see who was coming at him, with a bright flashlight in his face," said Sheryl Copp, Derek's mother, in a 24 Hour News 8 report. "He had no clue. He heard someone knock on his door, and he had no clue."
Copp's parents were not notified of the shooting by police, reported CelebStoner. They allegedly found out six hours later.
This is outrageous. Now why would an officer open fire without any oral warning? Why not knock on the front door to serve the warrant? Why were his parents not told that he was shot? The injuries were not insignificant -- the bullet went through his upper right lung and liver and damaged two ribs There are a lot of questions about this incident that don't sound right. Here's the video, from WOOD-TV (via Raw Story):
On the last afternoon of his life, Bernard Monroe was hosting a cookout for family and friends in front of his dilapidated home on Adams Street in this small northern Louisiana town.
Throat cancer had robbed the 73-year-old retired electric utility worker of his voice years ago, but family members said Monroe was clearly enjoying the commotion of a dozen of his grandchildren and great-grandchildren cavorting around him in the dusty, grassless yard.
Then the Homer police showed up, two white officers whose arrival caused the participants at the black family gathering to quickly fall silent. Within moments, Monroe lay dead, shot by one of the officers as his family looked on.
This issue is that the U.S. Justice Dept. is investigating a series of gun-downs of blacks by police around the country. There have been four cases of police officers accused of shooting blacks allegedly without any provocation. In the case of Bernard Monroe, four witnesses came forward to describe the incident. The police had arrived to talk to Monroe's son, who had a record, but didn't have any current warrants against him. When they asked to speak to Shawn Monroe, he ran into the hous, and then the officer, Tim Cox, chased him into the house. And then...
[T]he elder Monroe had started walking toward the front door, carrying only his drink bottle, to try to intervene. When Monroe got to the first step on the front porch, the witnesses said, Cox opened fire, striking him several times as adults and children stood nearby.
"He just shot him through the screen door," said Denise Nicholson, a family friend who said she was standing a few feet from Monroe. "After [Monroe] was on the ground, we kept asking the officer to call an ambulance, but all he did was get on his radio and say, 'Officer in distress.' "
As Monroe lay dying, the witnesses said, the second police officer, who has not been publicly identified, picked up a handgun that Monroe, an avid hunter, always kept in plain sight on the porch for protection. Using a police-issue blue latex glove, the officer grasped the gun by its handle, the witnesses said, and then ordered everyone to back away from the scene. The next thing they said they saw was the gun on the ground next to Monroe's body.
I've had enough of this BS -- an elderly, unarmed man? No shouting for the person to step out of the house? More below the fold, including an interview with the Tribune's Howard Witt.
Oh really? This is going to be the defense of Johannes Mehserle, the former BART officer who executed a handcuffed, down-on-the-ground, 22-year-old Oscar Grant on a transit platform. (Raw Story):
According to files released Friday, Johannes Mehserle, the Bay Area Rapid Transit officer who shot and killed 22-year-old Oscar Grant on New Year's Day, told a fellow officer he planned to shock Grant with his Taser, not shoot him.
...The court documents, which contain statements from fellow BART officers present during the shooting, indicate that Mehserle had intended to use a Taser on Grant.
"I'm going to taze him, I'm going to taze him," Mehserle said, according to Officer Tony Pirone. "I can't get his arms. He won't give me his arms. His hands are going for his waistband."
..."The judge said Mehserle's statements 'seem to be inconsistent' because if Mehserle truly believed that Grant had a gun then Mehserle would have been justified to pull out his gun and use deadly force and wouldn't have needed to use his Taser," said KTVU.
Stupidly, the BART police chief compromised the investigation to the point that an outside agency has to take it over. Why? Look at this:
Also on Friday, it was announced that an outside agency would take over the shooting investigation, displacing BART Police Chief Gary Gee after he circulated a memo describing how BART employees might go about sending money and material comforts to Mehserle.
"It is unacceptable for the police chief, who ostensibly is investigating Mehserle and other officers ... To encourage officers to visit and make financial contributions to Mehserle," said John Burris, who represents Oscar Grant's family.
And what else was left in the arsenal of the Dallas, NC police department to use? In this case, the family says that Terrance Kennedy was trying to run from the police, who were attempting to arrest him on an assault warrant. After that, the stories from the man's family, bystanders, and the police diverge. With stories all over the map, finding out what really occurred will be challenging, to say the least.
A Dallas, N.C., man who police say tried to grab an officer's gun was fatally shot Saturday in the small town about 20 miles west of Charlotte.
But witnesses, including one of the dead man's family members, told the Observer's news partner, WCNC, that they believe the police officers acted inappropriately.
Investigators said Kennedy got into a fight with the police officers and tried to grab one of their guns before he was shot. Police haven't said which officer's gun they believe Kennedy went for or which officer fired the fatal shot.
...Kennedy's family members - and others who said they were outside the home at the time - said Kennedy first tried to run from the officers.
Some of the bystanders, who were still outside the home Saturday afternoon, said officers first used pepper spray on Kennedy, then used an electronic stun gun. Some told WCNC they saw an officer hit Kennedy with a police baton before he was shot.
...Police in the town of about 3,700 would not confirm the family's account Saturday, saying that only Chief G.W. Buckner could speak about the matter. The chief didn't return calls to his office phone Saturday.
The family has contacted the president of the Gaston County NAACP, Clyde Walker, who said his office will file a complaint with the Dallas Police Dept. and the NAACP national office.
"We're not going to make any accusations against the police department," said Clyde Walker. "We're not going to be rioting. We want to do this thing in a civil matter."
Chattanooga Police Det. Kenneth Freeman will not face charges in an incident in which he shoved a 71-year-old greeter at the Wal-Mart in Collegedale to the floor after he tried to stop him while doing a receipts check.
Collegedale Police declined to bring charges, then the employee, Bill Walker, filled out a complaint himself. Collegedale Judge Kevin Wilson has reviewed the complaint and did not issue an assault charge.
In the incident on Christmas Eve, Mr. Walker said an alarm went off when Det. Freeman and another city police officer, Edwin McPherson, were leaving the store.
He said he reached to try to stop Det. Freeman and he was pushed against a soft drink machine and to the floor. He said the officer then hovered over him as he lay on the floor.
Oh, by the way, when a customer tried to chastise the officer for shoving an old man to the ground, he was thrown through a glass door of the store by Freeman.
A police report says a customer then told Det. Freeman, "You can't push down an old man" and began struggling with him. It says Det. Freeman then shoved that man, Gholom Ghassedi, through a glass door. Officers found Mr. Ghassedi with blood on his neck, but he declined medical treatment.
Sgt. McPherson broke up the fight between Det. Freeman and Mr. Ghassedi.
The disgusting, almost-surreal nature of this story spurred Jesus' General to propose that the Chattanooga PD star in a new reality show.
You deemed it a good beating and declined to arrest, or even cite Freeman.
That's it. That's what our show, "Greeter Beaters," will be about. Every week we will show Collegedale and Chattanooga police assaulting elderly greeters, parking lot attendants, and bystanders in the greater Chattanooga metropolitan area. I'm also thinking of giving each show a theme. One week might be "batons," another "tasers," and maybe "shootings" for each season finale.
Your involvement is crucial. I don't think we can find another police chief in the country who'd allow it.
The sad truth is, with the Oscar Grant execution and the rampant abuse of Tasers as "compliance-assurance" devices instead of its proper use as a gun alternative, the idea of Greeter Beaters is way too close to reality.
On Wednesday there were peaceful vigils held around the country, a National Day of Action demanding justice for Oscar Grant, who was executed by a BART police officer on New Year's Day. Grant, 22-year-old man from Hayward, California (and who leaves a four-year-old daughter), was told to lie on the ground, with hands behind his back, and Officer Johannes Meherles pulled out his gun, stood over the unthreatening Grant and shot him in the back -- in front of hundreds of BART patrons -- some capturing the crime with their cell phone cameras.
Speaking at this vigil, held in Leimert Park, Los Angeles, were: Vincent Jones (Jordan Rustin Coalition), Vallerie Wagner (National Black Justice Coalition), Elmer Roldan (Community Coalition), Latrice Dixon (Here To Stay Coalition), Brian Morgan (Courage Campaign), and Nakhone Keodara (Gays United Network).
"We are united by more than a public execution and gross misuse of authority," says Jordan Rustin Coalition Board Member Vincent Jones. "We come together tonight because all of our civil rights are at risk when we don't lift our voices against this type of injustice."
The goal of today's National Day of Action is to put pressure on legislative leaders to create an independent body with oversight powers over BART police and to have BART officer Johannes Mehserle arrested and charged to the fullest extent of the law.
"There is only one answer to a tragedy like this: justice. On behalf of our nearly 400,000 members, the Courage Campaign calls for an immediate independent oversight of the BART police," says Courage Campaign Chair Rick Jacobs. "We join in solidarity with hundreds of people across the country in mourning this horrific shooting and pledge to redouble our efforts to build social justice in our state."
"In light of last night's arrest of the former officer who committed the killing of Oscar Grant, it is now more important then ever for a national showing of solidarity and demand for and end to police brutality everywhere," says Sean Dugar, President of the California NAACP Youth & College Division.
The death of Oscar Grant has brought together a diverse coalition of groups committed to ending discrimination and violence. A number of LGBT groups have stepped into the struggle in a show of solidarity.
"We are stunned and outraged at the continued pernicious attacks that the Black community suffers at the hand of the police," says Latrice Dixon of the Here to Stay Coalition, a Black LGBT organization." From the murders of Amadou Diallo and Sean Bell by the NYPD to the recent assassinations of unarmed Dante Story in South Central and unarmed Oscar Grant in San Francisco, the Here to Stay Coalition condemns the repeated police terror of Black and poor communities and calls for all communities to use King's example and organize for justice!"
"Gays United Network is standing with the African-American community to fight injustice in all of its forms," says Nakhone Keodara, Gays United Network Founder & Community Organizer.
Now that Mehserle is in custody, I wonder if we will see Oscar Grant's family receive justice, given the history of BART cops getting away with murder.
The BART police officer who fatally shot an unarmed man on an Oakland train platform and then refused to explain his actions to investigators was arrested Tuesday in Nevada on suspicion of murder, authorities said.
Johannes Mehserle, 27, of Lafayette was taken into custody in Douglas County, Nev., said Deputy Steve Velez of the Douglas County sheriff's office. The arrest was also confirmed by David Chai, chief of staff to Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums.
Mehserle was arrested in the New Year's Day shooting of Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old supermarket worker from Hayward who was lying facedown after being pulled off a BART train by police investigating a fight. An Alameda County judge signed an arrest warrant alleging murder, and Mehserle surrendered without incident, authorities said.
The shooting, which was recorded by passengers in videos widely circulated on the Internet and television, prompted public outrage, and some viewers said that the shooting appeared to be an execution.
By now many of you have probably heard about the New Year's Day execution of Oscar Grant by BART police in Oakland, CA. The shooting of the handcuffed, down-on-the-ground 22-year-old by transit officer Johannes Mehserle occurred in full view of people on the train and was captured on video. Oakland residents took to the streets in protest and chaos and violence ensued. (AP):
Grant, a supermarket butcher with a 4-year-old daughter, was one of several men detained by BART police responding to reports of fighting on a train full of passengers returning from New Year's Eve celebrations.
Amateur video by several onlookers shows Grant being pushed to the subway platform before an officer fired into his back, killing him.
Grant's family and community leaders have called for the prosecution of the officer, 27-year-old Johannes Mehserle. The Alameda County District Attorney's office is investigating, as are the Oakland Police Department and BART.
Mehserle resigned from the agency Wednesday but remains free pending the investigation.
..."Oakland, unfortunately, has had a history of treating the African-American community unfairly," said George Holland Sr., an attorney who heads the Oakland chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. "The community has a great distrust for police officers because they feel they can't be punished."
...More than 100 people were arrested and about 300 businesses were damaged Wednesday. Three of the people arrested during the violence were arraigned Friday on various charges, including vandalism, arson and firearm possession.
Public confidence is low because results of incidents involving officers and civilians tell the tale - no officers involved in shootings since 2004 have been charged with crimes, and none to date have been fired. Indymedia recently released clearer footage of the incident. It's below the fold.
You'd think after the Louima case the NYPD would purge its ranks of the Uber sadists and torture terrorists.
A grand jury has reportedly decided to indict three police officers over allegations that a man was sodomized with a police baton after being seen smoking marijuana outside a Brooklyn subway station last October.
...[The victim, Michael Mineo] claims that Officer Richard Kern sodomized him with a collapsible police baton, while the other cops held him down, after they chased him into the subway. But instead of being arrested, Mineo was let go with a summons for disorderly conduct.
Law enforcement is a terribly difficult job, but it makes it hard to build trust in the community when the bad apples are even worse than some of the criminals they collar.
According to a New York Times report, Mineo's lawyers "said the attack left Mr. Mineo with a tear to his rectum that became abscessed and had to be surgically drained." While the hospital records haven't been publicly released, his lawyers maintain that they "showed that Mr. Mineo had suffered from an 'anal assault,' and that the diagnosis reflected an independent medical conclusion. One law enforcement official said Mr. Mineo suffered a tear to his rectum that was both internal and external," the paper reported.
The NYPD recently had to deal with a case of a Taser death of a mentally ill man, and the suicide of one of the cops as a result of the tragedy. Now another police brutality case puts the behavior and training and fitness to serve of other members of the force. (CBS):
Prosecutors are investigating allegations that five New York City police officers attacked a tattoo parlor worker and sodomized him with a walkie-talkie in a subway station. The 24-year-old man says the officers then wrote him a disorderly conduct ticket and abandoned him as he was writhing in pain.
...Lawyers say five police officers approached Michael Mineo on Oct. 15 around 12:30 p.m. because they believed he was smoking marijuana near a subway stop in Brooklyn. When the tattoo parlor employee entered the station, he claims officers jumped him from behind, handcuffed him and wrestled him to the ground, according to attorney Stephen Jackson.
Mineo told his lawyers that he felt a foot on his neck as the officers beat him, then yanked down his pants and sodomized him with the walkie-talkie. The lawyers say the officers took the bleeding Mineo into a police car, wrote him a disorderly conduct ticket and left him at the subway station.
"My God, this just sent chills throughout my body when I heard this," Jackson said. "This is one of the most horrendous acts of police brutality." Two witnesses reported seeing Mineo struggle during the arrest, a police source told the newspaper, but they did not witness any acts of sodomy. However, the police source said one of the witnesses saw Mineo's bare buttocks.
The NYPD denies the story of the assault, even though medical examinations of Mineo corroborate his story.
One of Mineo's co-workers took him to the hospital, where he remained most of the week with internal injuries. His attorney says the hospital administrator contacted the Brooklyn District Attorney's office because it appeared Mineo was the victim of a sexual assault.
This is no tin-foil hattery, it comes to us from an Army Times article. Of course it starts off sounding like a benign effort to secure the homeland, but don't you think this unprecedented move in the hands of someone like Bush (or hot-tempered McCain-or worse, fundie Palin) could lead to disaster?
The 3rd Infantry Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team has spent 35 of the last 60 months in Iraq patrolling in full battle rattle, helping restore essential services and escorting supply convoys.
Now they're training for the same mission - with a twist - at home.
Beginning Oct. 1 for 12 months, the 1st BCT will be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army service component of Northern Command, as an on-call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks.
[T]his new mission marks the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment to NorthCom, a joint command established in 2002 to provide command and control for federal homeland defense efforts and coordinate defense support of civil authorities.
Training for this permanent domestic assignment includes how to use the Jaws of Life, medical training, and skills to clear a road of trees and debris. And then this aside about the unit that will be known as CBRNE Consequence Management Response Force, or CCMRF (pronounced "sea-smurf").
The 1st BCT's soldiers also will learn how to use "the first ever nonlethal package that the Army has fielded," 1st BCT commander Col. Roger Cloutier said, referring to crowd and traffic control equipment and nonlethal weapons designed to subdue unruly or dangerous individuals without killing them.
"It's a new modular package of nonlethal capabilities that they're fielding. They've been using pieces of it in Iraq, but this is the first time that these modules were consolidated and this package fielded, and because of this mission we're undertaking we were the first to get it."
The package includes equipment to stand up a hasty road block; spike strips for slowing, stopping or controlling traffic; shields and batons; and, beanbag bullets.
...They may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control or to deal with potentially horrific scenarios such as massive poisoning and chaos in response to a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive, or CBRNE, attack.
Weigh in folks; do you trust that CCMRF will always be deployed with positive intentions by our commander in chief?
Back in March 
God almighty,
There are plenty of cases to review 
In Peoria, a man was beaten, stomped on at least 20 times and was repeatedly Tased by two police officers last May. The officers (Andrew Smith, left, and Gerald Suelter) face multiple charges. (
On Wednesday there were peaceful vigils held around the country, a National Day of Action demanding justice for Oscar Grant, who was executed by a BART police officer on New Year's Day. Grant, 22-year-old man from Hayward, California (and who leaves a four-year-old daughter), was told to lie on the ground, with hands behind his back, and Officer Johannes Meherles pulled out his gun, stood over the unthreatening Grant and shot him in the back -- in front of hundreds of BART patrons -- some capturing the crime with their cell phone cameras.
"There is only one answer to a tragedy like this: justice. On behalf of our nearly 400,000 members, the Courage Campaign calls for an immediate independent oversight of the BART police," says Courage Campaign Chair Rick Jacobs. "We join in solidarity with hundreds of people across the country in mourning this horrific shooting and pledge to redouble our efforts to build social justice in our state."
Now that Mehserle 
