Police are good except... (cartoons)

Pat Macpherson, Pfc. Sandoval, Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; PasadenaWeekly.com; LA Times; JimmyDoreComedy.com; Stephanie McMillan; SCPR

"Don't worry, folks!" Police can do whatever they are allowed to get away with (McMillan)

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CHP outlines possible charges against officer in senseless freeway beating of helpless, elderly woman

Obey me, obey me, obey me...or else!

(Frank Stoltze/SCPR) The case, which has attracted national attention, sparked angry outrage from civil rights activists who called it a clear case of excessive use of force

Ex-L.A. sheriff's deputy arrested for child pornography
Robert J. Lopez (latimes.com, Aug. 21, 2014)
Former deputy Lorne Reed [who allegedly committed sexual crimes against children while working as an L.A. sheriff's deputy] was arrested. He is accused of using the Internet to distribute child pornography.
 

Maybe he was just shopping at Amer App?

A former sheriff's deputy was arrested on suspicion of circulating child pornography, authorities said Wednesday night.

Lorne Reed, 32, was taken into custody after authorities with a multiagency task force served a search warrant Wednesday at his Santa Fe Springs home, according to the LAPD. Reed's two children were home at the time [Daddy, why are your co-workers taking you away in handcuffs?] and were turned over to the county's Department of Children and Family Services. [Daddy, why are the bad men taking us away, too?!]

Hi, Officer Friendly! - Hey, kids, wanna be in movies?

LAPD officials said an investigation was launched in April after Reed was suspected of using the Internet to share child pornography. The task force includes local police and federal agents who investigate allegations against people who use the Internet to contact children or share child porn.
 
Officer Reed [was likely asked and agreed to resign] from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department in February 2013, an agency spokeswoman said. But she had no additional details [or at least none that she wanted to disclose] regarding the resignation. Reed was being held in lieu of $20,000 at the LAPD's Metro Jail Division. More

Riots in Ferguson as distrust of police grows
André Coleman (Breaking Points, Pasadena Weekly, 8/21/14); edited by Wisdom Quarterly

As "rioting" continued for a second week in Ferguson, Missouri, and a recent ACLU report released two weeks ago is making the militarization of police a national concern, the mother of an unarmed black teenager who was murdered by Pasadena police criticized the arms buildup. And she is calling for an end to the targeting of blacks and Latinos by law enforcement agencies.

In Ferguson, located about 12 miles northwest of St. Louis, demonstrations broke out on Aug. 10 after six-year veteran police Officer Darren Wilson shot unarmed Michael Brown, 18. According to a witness, Brown had his hands in the air when he was [executed] by Wilson.

Strange Fruit in Ferguson, Missouri (thenation.com)

(telesurtv.net/english) - For many politicians, Ferguson isn't happening (thenation.com)

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According to famed forensic pathologist Michael Baden, who was working for Brown family to try to get an objective autopsy [untainted by a police cover up, which he was kept from completing because he was DENIED clothing to analyze and tissue samples for independent forensic tests], the teenager was shot six times -- twice in the head and four times in the arm [possibly in a surrendering or self-defensive posture], with one of those shots entering the top his skull. The Justice Department is planning to conduct a third autopsy on the youth. More
 

South Pasadena shooting plot: Students "wanted to kill as many people as possible"

[But because they're white and affluent, we'll try to let them off on significantly lesser charges; the poor scamps have been through enough already!]

(SCPR/AP) Police said Tuesday that two teenage students, one 17 and one 16, “confirmed very cold-heartedly in the investigation” that they were planning a shooting at the school.

• Mike Brown: Clashes in Ferguson as Nat'l Guard arrives
• L.A. to pay $5M to family of man killed by police downtown
• U.S. police [claim to] come under gunfire, arrest 31 in Missouri racial unrest
• Reporter’s death galvanizes anger, little action

• Wildfire near Yosemite threatens 500 structures
• VIDEO: Man shot to death by police in St. Louis
• 8 homes destroyed, 1,500 threatened by wildfire

Soren "Wildfire Weenies." Only someone else can prevent forest fires (JenSorensen.com)

• PHOTOS: [Due to the mass killing of sharks -- 100 million a year -- for shark fin soup and other shortsighted endeavors] Blue jellyfish are washing up on beaches by the billions

A Voice From Within

Carl Kozlowski (Arts, Pasadena Weekly, 8/21/14)

(jimmydorecomedy.com)

Comedian, Pacifica Radio host, [our friend], and Pasadena-based author Jimmy Dore uses humor to inspire people to activism. (He came to tell jokes at Occupy L.A. and for U.S. soldiers abroad).

 

There are lots of things about this country that annoy comedian Jimmy Dore.

One is how fat cats always get richer and pay fewer taxes while leaving regular folks holding the bag. Another is how the government pleads poverty when the time comes to repair America’s infrastructure, yet can bail out Wall Street bankers to the tune of $2 billion a week.

But most of Dore’s contempt is for the media. While he is best known as a nationally headlining club comedian with two acclaimed Comedy Central specials, Dore has earned the right to criticize the media because he is now part of it.

As the host of “The Jimmy Dore Show” each week on KPFK 90.7 FM and Pacifica radio stations nationwide, and as a member of the highly popular Web-based political commentary series “The Young Turks,” Dore has shown that he has a freewheeling political instinct that owes loyalty to nothing but the truth.

He’s now collected his views into a bitingly funny book called Your Country Is Just Not That Into You, which the Pasadena resident will discuss and sign at 7:00 pm next Thursday at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena. 

“The media used to be the watchdogs, but they’ve been bought by the people they’re supposed to be investigating,” says Dore.

“NBC didn’t give you the facts about Iraq because they’re owned by defense contractors. You’ll never get the truth, just false equivalency, saying there are two sides to every story like global warming [or Israel's oppression of the remaining civilian ghettos of "Palestine" painted as a fight between two roughly equal professional militaries]. I say there are not two sides to the truth. Don’t give us talking points. Give us the truth.” More

Zen monks risk death on extraordinary journey

Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; Journeyman.TV (Journeyman Pictures)

The Monks Risking Death On An Extraordinary Journey (Produced by ABC Australia. Ref - 2471)

The lionized Bodhidharma

The "Marathon Monks" of Japan undertake a perilous journey to "enlightenment" (satori, which is not enlightenment in Zen or kenshō but only an "epiphany") -- choosing suicide if they fail to complete the journey, and often dying en route. 

The world's greatest athletes may well live on top of a sacred mountain in Japan. As part of their spiritual training, the monks run 84 km every day for over three months.

 

"First Day of Zen Garden School" (Dan Piraro/bizarrocomics.com)

 
Genshin Fujinami runs through the forest for 17 hours every day. His straw sandals offer him little protection from the venomous snakes and jagged rocks. His feet are blistered and bruised.

But if he stops, he would be obliged to immediately kill himself (in a foolish act of hari kari or honor killing to save face).

What endogenous drugs are created by asceticism?

"You must think positively," he explains. "I cannot allow myself to think, 'What if?'" The grueling Kaihygo is the conclusion of seven years of training. He must also go nine days without food, water, or sleep. If he completes the quest, he will become a living "saint."

But only 46 monks have completed it in the last four centuries, and fewer and fewer people are attempting it.

[These are the ascetic extremes the Buddha warned about, self-mortification, the clinging to rites and rituals as if they could ever lead to actual enlightenment. The way to enlightenment is calm-and-insight (systematic contemplation founded on profound concentration), nothing more, nothing less.]

"Japanese culture is gradually dying away," Fujinami laments. The monks may have a wonderful history, but their future is one of uncertainty.

  

Journeyman Pictures is an independent source for the world's most powerful films, exploring the burning issues of the day. It brings out stories from the world's top producers, with new content coming in all the time. Its channel has outstanding and controversial journalism covering almost all global subjects imaginable.

Our "terrorist" tracking system by the numbers

Ashley Wells, Pfc. Sandoval, Wisdom Quarterly; Jeremy Scahill and Ryan Devereaux (The Intercept, "Barack Obama’s Secret Terrorist-Tracking System, by the Numbers"

Support independent cartooning: join Sparky's List—and visit Tom Tomorrow's Emporium of Fun, featuring the new book and plush Sparky! (The Nation/ThisModernWorld.com).

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Biggest group on watchlist not terrorists

Nearly half of the people on the U.S. government’s widely shared database of terrorist suspects are not connected to any known terrorist group, according to classified government documents obtained by The Intercept.

 

Of the 680,000 people caught up in the government’s Terrorist Screening Database -- a watchlist of “known or suspected terrorists” that is shared with local law enforcement agencies, private contractors, and foreign governments more -- than 40 percent are described by the government as having “no recognized terrorist group affiliation.” That category -- 280,000 people -- dwarfs the number of watchlisted people suspected of ties to al Qaeda, Hamas, and Hezbollah combined.

1984: The numbers are shocking and aimed at something far more sinister than "terrorism."

 

Peter, are you targeting American citizens?

The documents, obtained from a source in the intelligence community, also reveal that the Obama Administration has presided over an unprecedented expansion of the “terrorist” screening system. Since taking office, Obama has boosted the number of people on the no fly list more than tenfold, to an all-time high of 47,000 -- surpassing the number of people barred from flying under [Unprecedented President] George W. Bush.

 

Obama and Nixon (TTDB)

“If everything is terrorism, then nothing is terrorism,” says David Gomez, a former senior FBI special agent. The watchlisting system, he adds, is “revving out of control.”

 

The classified documents were prepared by the National Counterterrorism Center, the lead agency for tracking individuals with suspected links to international terrorism. Stamped “SECRET” and “NOFORN” (indicating they are not to be shared with foreign governments), they offer the most complete numerical picture of the watchlisting system to date. Among the revelations:

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When Guns Are Everywhere in police hands (Tom Tomorrow/thismodernworld.com)

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• The second-highest concentration of people designated as “known or suspected terrorists” by the government is in Dearborn, Michigan -- a city of 96,000 that has the largest percentage of Arab-American residents in the country.
• The government adds names to its databases, or adds information on existing subjects, at a rate of 900 records/day.
• The CIA uses a previously unknown program, code-named Hydra, to secretly access databases maintained by foreign countries and extract  data to add to the watchlists.

Puppet "Capt. America" and Nixon (thenation)

A U.S. counterterrorism official familiar with watchlisting data told The Intercept that as of November 2013, there were approximately 700,000 people in the Terrorist Screening Database, or TSDB, but declined to provide the current numbers. Last month, the Associated Press, citing federal court filings by government lawyers, reported that there have been 1.5 million names added to the watchlist over the past five years. More

LA Police Dept. kills, Ferguson burns (cartoon)

Pat Macpherson, Ashley Wells, Pfc. Sandoval, Sheldon S., Wisdom Quarterly; Tom Tomorrow (This Modern World); Branden Caldwell (dayandadream); Earl Ofari Hutchinson

"Officer Friendly, why are you dressed like Darth Vader?" (thismodernworld.com)*

Our tax money funds all U.S. imperial wars. It's about time the military-industrial complex bring the equipment/tactics back and use them on US from Ferguson to L.A. (occupy.com)

Words from Malcolm X in 1964 still resonate in 2014 for Michael Brown, Renisha McBride, Trayvon Martin, Ezell Ford, Sean Bell, Oscar Grant, Amadou Diallo, Abner Louima, Steve Biko, Eleanor Bumpurs, Michael Strewart, Rodney King, and for all the names we don’t know. #WeAreTargets #HandsUp #DontShoot (cashmerethoughtsss/tumblr.com)

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C'mon, Brown (occupy.com)

It's easy when the U.S.-backed Israeli government is committing war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other assorted atrocities to blame "Jews."

If we were Trayvon Martin then, we're Michael Brown now!

But there are a few who are not to blame -- brave individuals who stand up, speak truth to power, shout "Not in my name!" and work for peace and equity -- and so it is better not to cast the net so wide as to seem to be blaming someone for something just because of their religious/cultural baggage. (Take CODEPINK/codepink.org, for example, or IJAN/ijsn.net).

Ferguson father on police brutality (DAAD)

The same is true of P.D.-backed police agents committing civilian crimes, crimes against humanity, and other small-scale atrocities.

 

To blame "cops" casts the blame a little too widely, as if all of them were to blame.

Granted, they are mostly all corrupted -- at least a little bit:

Riot to full mili (socialesteemmedia.com)

They are insofar as they are engaged in criminal conspiracies, protecting other criminal-cops behind a "code of silence," roughing up "undesirables" who can't do anything about it, and generally shirking their oaths to obey and enforce all laws rather than picking and choosing which ones to break and which to enforce, singling out certain races or groups for enhanced enforcement, and breaking laws left and right knowing that no one is going to hold them to account unless they fall afoul of the BIB (Boys in Blue) gang or the Police Protective League, with sub-gangs being their racist cliques, fellow union members, the Brass, you know, the guys down at the station...

Killing Ezell Ford: Police commission leader says LAPD, MO slayings not comparable

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Hands up, don't shoot (TMW)

It is amazing to find even one good cop. Of course, the majority of police seem good, very nice, respectful, honest, conscientious -- well, not behind the scenes when they don't think anyone is looking, but up front when they feel someone is paying attention. Most police we've ever met seemed like fine people, hardly the monsters that show up on TV, in court, on the streets swinging batons with glee and impunity. Now we see that they have triggers, thresholds, Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde buttons that can be pushed then, stand back, sociopath in the room!

As L.A gathers to march on LAPD HQ on Sunday, Aug. 17, 2014, maybe you should call Brother Sergeant De Lacy Davis to intervene, educate, and retrain abusive cops (973) 926-5717.

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Black Cops Against Police Brutality (b-cap.org)

But back to the few, the proud, the honorable. Look at this organization, "Black Cops Against Police Brutality" (b-cap.org). It's amazing. The founder not only admits what police are really like, he knows it from first hand experience, and still talks about it. (He must be off the force because the Men in Blue would kill him otherwise; no one breaks the code of silence, the wall of conspiracy where crimes are planned, carried out, and covered up with a wink and a nod. It's gotten so bad that the Internal Affairs officers leak the names of tattletales to officers being exposed so that they can close out the investigations themselves in a way that Stalin would approve of, "No person no problem" or as our Stalins in America like to say, "Dead men tell no tales [or at least give no credible court testimony]."

*THE CARTOON: (TMW) The first draft of this "Officer Friendly" cartoon was actually written a month ago, inspired by this ACLU report and this New York Times article. [Tom Tomorrow] was saving it as a backup for some upcoming travel, but timing is everything, and as the events in Ferguson began to unfold, this went from evergreen to needing to be posted as soon as possible.

Aren't President Obama's words beautiful? He dissembles so elegantly. He addressed the "situation" in Ferguson: No one should disobey police and, of course, police probably should not, you know, kill unarmed teens or arrest reporters doing their job bringing us the news... It reminds one of the time he admitted to and authorized more U.S. torture. No one noticed.

• VIDEO: Michael Brown: MO Gov. finally addresses "situation" in Ferguson (AP/KPCC) Earlier in the week, the president issued a statement saying that Brown's death is stirring "strong passions," and he appealed for reflection.
• VIDEO: Police State: Ferguson, Missouri riots
• LAPD kills Ezell Ford, protests start up (SCPR)
  
• Another African American man killed by police, LAPD...
• Justice for LAPD murder victim Ezelle Ford (tumblr) 
• Better cover-ups? L.A. police panel revises officer shooting reviews
• California's Deadliest Cops (Facebook)

Officer Friendly get militarized (TMW)

Add the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. to the recent [and yet long running] string of unnecessary [murders] at the hands of the police.
 
The Missouri teen was gunned down by an officer early Saturday afternoon. His grandmother discovered his body sprawled along the pavement minutes before he was set to return home from the store. Reports vary...

[Why would] police [want] to open fire on the boy? [It's] believed that police were called to the area looking for someone who had shoplifted from a store in the area. [But as the police chief has clarified that the murderer, Officer Daren Wilson, did not know of any such crime at the time he shot the victim in the back. Officer Wilson was merely harassing unarmed teen Michael Brown for walking off the sidewalk.]

Might there be racism on the force or in the courts? (Ezelle Ford/tumblr)

 

Brown, whose body laid in the street for several minutes before it was even covered by authorities, was unarmed. [He had his hands up, he was moving away, he apparently said, "Don't shoot" implying that he posed no threat whatsoever.]
 
Louis Head, Brown's stepfather, immediately wrote on a sign, "FERGUSON POLICE JUST EXECUTED MY UNARMED SON." There were chants from a crowd of onlookers who protested the boy's death and the [unjustified] actions of the police. The move, along with unconfirmed reports [useful as a pretext] of shots in the crowd, led to authorities from surrounding areas to assist. By the time a crowd had gathered to march down to the police station in Ferguson, police had mobilized in tanks and held dogs to try and combat any potential unrest in the area.

We're gonna bring this war home (Kemi Filani)

[NOTE: The reason they were likely so quick to deploy their arsenal is that the government program that armed them can rescind the weapons on loan if they are not used, which encourages use, abuse, and any excuse to bring out the big guns. It leads to the militarization of civilian policing, not accidentally but apparently by design. Why else would the federal government purchase so much ammunition, millions of rounds, to arm each of its agencies, most of which have no enforcement arm?] More
 

Protests return to Ferguson over cover up

A Disturbing Pattern
Why it’s nearly impossible to nail cops for using deadly force 
Earl Ofari Hutchinson (PasadenaWeekly.com, Aug. 14, 2014)

Unarmed victim Michael Brown, 18

Mike Brown is the latest name on the growing list of victims of brazen overuse of deadly force by cops. The 18-year-old Brown had his hands raised when he was gunned down by a Ferguson, Mo., police officer after a stop. Brown fit the usual pattern of those killed. In almost all cases the victims are unarmed and not accused of committing a crime. Their killings also occur in broad daylight and with witnesses present.

S. Africa's tragic anniversary

Another part of this familiar and deeply disturbing pattern is that they are young African Americans or Latinos. The officers who commit these deadly acts are placed on paid administrative leave, and police officials, when confronted with demands from civil rights and community leaders for an investigation, make solemn promises to do just that. They assure us their investigations will be thorough and impartial. That’s the start of the problem. More

You're too "clingy" (cartoon)

Dhr. Seven, Crystal Quintero, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Ven. Nyanatiloka

I don't know what I'm doing wrong in relationship after relationship, searching for...

(Family Guy/Hulu) As clingy as a baby at the bosom is Stewie as Brian tries to cling to Drew

Starts off fun, gets to be too much.

Crystal, is clinging a problem in life? It is in Ashley's life; she has been known to get quite clingy. Ask her. But you? Not me so much, but guys I've dated. What do they do? You know how Brian once went on that reality dating show as a contestant then became infatuated with the bachelorette? Yes, exactly, I get it. He would leave all these phone messages and not get the hint to naff off. 

Brian the clingy bachelor (Family Guy)

"Clinging" (upādāna), according to the Path of Purification (Vis.M. XVII), is a pathetic and intensified degree of craving. The opposite is the "extinction of craving," which is identical with the "extinction of defilements" (āsavakkhaya), which is the attainment of full enlightenment or arhatship. (See noble persons).

There are four kinds of clinging that prevent enlightenment:

1. sensual clinging (kāma-upādāna),
2. clinging to views (ditthi-upādāna),
3. clinging to mere rules and rituals (sīlabbata-upādāna),
4. clinging to personality-belief (atta-vāda-upādāna).

(1) "What now is sensual clinging? Whatever with regard to sense objects there exists of sensual lust, sensual craving, sensual attachment, sensual passion, sensual delusion, sensual fetters (bonds of desire): this is called 'sensual clinging.'

Owner of a lonely heart? Try clinging to sensuality. It will disappoint, but what else are you going to do to overcome the empty feeling in your core and the body's cravings? Invest?

 
(2) ''What is the clinging to views? 'Alms and offerings are useless; there is no fruit or result for good and bad deeds: all such views and wrong opinions are called the clinging to views.

(3) "What is the clinging to mere rules and rituals? The holding firmly to the view that through mere rules (vows, precepts, discipline) and rituals (observances) one may reach enlightenment: this is called the clinging to mere rules and rituals.

• [NOTE: the way to enlightenment and nirvana is liberating-insight, made possible by the Noble Eightfold Path, not mere observance of ceremonies, celebrations, superstitions, magic, abstinences, or austerities, which may aid one along the way but cannot possibly in and of themselves bring about enlightenment.]

(4) "What is the clinging to personality-belief? The 20 kinds of ego-views with regard to the aggregates of existence (see sakkāya-ditthi): these are called the clinging to personality-belief" (Dhs.1214-17).

Not going to get all clingy, are you? - I'm not even going to call you tomorrow. - Good.

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Heart Sutra: immaculate heart free of clinging

This traditional fourfold division of clinging is unsatisfactory. Besides sensual (kama) clinging we would expect either clinging to form or materiality (rūpa) and clinging to formlessness or immateriality (arūpa), or simply clinging to continued existence (continued becoming, bhava-upādāna).

Although the non-returner, the third of the four stages of enlightenment, is entirely free from the traditional four kinds of clinging, that person is not yet free of rebirth, as one still possesses clinging to continued becoming, the deep desire for rebirth on other planes even though one grasps that they are illusory, marked by Three Characteristics of Existence, namely, that they are impersonal, impermanent, and never able to satisfy one's desires.

The Commentary to the Path of Purification (Vis.M. XVII), in trying to get out of this dilemma, explains "sense clinging" as including here all of the remaining kinds of clinging.

"Clinging" is the common rendering for the Pali/Sanskrit term upādāna, but "grasping" would come closer to the literal meaning of it, which is "uptake" after craving it. See the Three Cardinal Discourses (Wheel No. 17), p.19.

"Family Guy" the Very First Episode

(Workard) Life in modern suburban USA as brought to us by Seth Macfarlane and the many writers of and contributors to "Family Guy." This is the pilot or unofficial first episode, the prequel. The "official" first episode was a remake of it.

Psychedelic Rock at The Terrace (Family Guy)

Erik Morgan (Collective Consciousness), Anonymous, Dev, Wisdom Quarterly

The earthbound "fairies" (bhumi-devas) have their own special instruments (CC).

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(collectiveconsciousnessband)

We're looking for bands to book for psychedelic rock in Pasadena (in the foothill area of Los Angeles) on Thursday nights at The Terrace (next door to the Pacific Asia Museum and its many Buddhist exhibits) on Colorado Blvd. at Los Robles Ave.

 

Collective Consciousness

We want bands that will bring a lot of friends so that everyone's circles and musical creations can connect into a collective of memories and new friendships, coming together and forming greater networks between everyone in SoCal sharing in this beautiful collective consciousness. Infinite heart vibrations connect us.
 

The devas' music

Hey, Erik, can the Wisdom Quarterly house band audition? We only have two songs -- "Noble Indian Chief" and "Do Her" -- so far but lots of hipster/hippie friends and fans. Granted the songs are covers paying homage to Peter and Lois Griffin of "Family Guy" fame. We're called "Handful of Amber," psychedelic death metal/vegan grindcore, pro-entheogen, lute/harp music. Well, here, have a look:

(Family Guy) Peter and Lois are a "Handful of Peter" performing "Do Her" while baked on entheogenic cannabis, which does not end up helping their music or public performance.

Pacific Asia Museum

Fusion Fridays, Chinese and Mexicans return to America (pacificasiamuseum.org)