Orange County fails to convict its killer cops

Ashley Wells, Pat Macpherson, Pfc. Sandoval, Wisdom Quarterly; Chase Madar (PW)

"Ask Mister Republican Man" (Tom Tomorrow/thismodernworld.com)

Pro-Kelly Thomas demonstration (AmberJamie)

As further proof that police cannot be held accountable by our biased (in)justice system: Two of the gang of five murderous Orange County officers who assaulted, threatened, held down, repeatedly beat, Tasered, and finally murdered a helpless, white, mentally disabled, homeless man (Kelly Thomas) were acquitted today.

• Verdict: Not guilty in Kelly Thomas case The verdicts came after two years of hearings, recalled Fullerton city council members, a Police Department roiled by protests and firings. 
• OC jury: Cops who fatally beat Thomas not guilty (LAist)
• PHOTOS: KFI (right wing talk) AM radio

Jay Cicinelli and Manuel Ramo (OCR)

Plans to try a third officer involved in the gang killing are being aborted. Former Fullerton PD Officer Manuel Ramos was the first active duty officer to ever be charged with murder in the line of duty. With his acquittal -- even after many protests by concerned citizens and the victim's father, Ron Thomas, a former police officer who advocated for his dead son. Were it not for the father's advocacy, the case would have likely been swept under the rug. It is likely no charges would have ever been brought against him or fellow killers (former Officer Jay Cicinelli and Officer Joseph Wolfe) beyond the Office of Internal Affairs in the Department (where they were slapped on the backs in the locker room and called macho by fellow cops for killing a hapless, schizophrenic "bum").
 

Kelly Thomas after police gang beating (FF)

Even right wing radio hosts thought this beating and murder was excessive by their pro-police standards of vigilante justice. This is to say nothing of the police killings of Latins around Disneyland and other ongoing abuses in Anahiemstan, like police shootings at Occupy sites.

Welcome to Anaheimstan: the police state around "the Happiest Place on Earth"

 

Equality before the cops?

Chase Madar ("Afraid in America," PasadenaWeekly.com, 12-17-13)

 Anaheim, Orange County protests over police killings spark unrest

 
It will surprise no one that Americans are treated unequally by the police. Law enforcement picks on kids more than adults, the gay more than the straight, Muslims more than Methodists (a lot more than Methodists), antiwar activists more than cowering conformists.

Above all, our punitive police state targets the poor more than the wealthy and blacks and Latinos more than white people.

A case in point: After the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School, a police presence -- including surveillance cameras and metal detectors -- was ratcheted up at schools around the country, particularly in urban areas with largely working-class black and Latin students. It was all to “protect” the kids, it was said.

But at Columbine itself, no metal detector was installed and no heavy police presence intruded on students, no lock downs, no extra guards. The reason was simple. At that high school in the Colorado suburb of Littleton, the mostly well-heeled white families did not want their kids treated like potential felons.

 
And they had the status and political power to get their way and protect the civil rights of their children. But communities without such clout were less able protect their children from police, less able to push back against the encroachments of police state powers-that-be and their plans. More