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

Police state abuses, live in Fergistan (video)

Ashley Wells, Pfc. Sandoval, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Ryan Devereaux (FirstLook.org/TheIntercept); Amy Goodman, Juan Gonzalez (DemocracyNow.org, 8-20-14)

Do Americans know they're being spied on in Ferguson and all throughout USA?

Rubber Bullets, Tear Gas and Jail: Ferguson Police Crack Down on Journalists Covering Protests

Obama watches (firstlook.org/theintercept)

FERGUSON, Missouri - Protests over the fatal police shooting of unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown have continued for a 10th night in "Fergistan, USA." Protesters are calling for the arrest of a killer cop, Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, who shot the unarmed teenager six [to eight] times, including twice in the head.

Guns in police hands (ThisModernWorld)

According to The New York Times, Attorney General Eric Holder and top Justice Department officials are weighing whether to open a broader civil rights investigation to look at Ferguson’s police practices in general.

Meanwhile, the Committee to Protect Journalists has called on the Ferguson Police Department to stop harassing and detaining journalists. At least 11 journalists have been detained while covering the protests sparked by the shooting of Brown. We speak to Ryan Devereaux of The Intercept. On Monday night covering the demonstrations, he was terrorized, shot by a rubberized bullet, arrested, and jailed overnight in spite of -- or possibly because of -- identifying himself as a member of the media.

 

"Not Acceptable in a Civilized Society": Pastor on Ferguson Police Targeting Traumatized Youth

 

"They Are All Michael Brown": State Senator Defends Protesters Seeking Justice in Police Shooting

 

Stop the Violence from Ferguson to Gaza: 90-Year-Old Holocaust Survivor Arrested in St. Louis

HEADLINES 

• Police: 47 Arrested on 10th Night of Protests in Ferguson
• St. Louis police murder black man miles from protests
• Top U.N. human rights official: "Apartheid is flourishing" in parts of U.S.
• NFL players hold up hands in solidarity with Ferguson
• Pentagon defends its program That Supplied Military Gear to Ferguson Police
• Grand Jury to consider NYPD chokehold killing of Eric Garner by group of officers on pretext of selling loose cigarettes
• Israel resumes its criminal assault on civilian Gaza Strip; 11 Palestinians murdered
• Israeli-Palestinian truce talks break down in Cairo
• Oakland: Protesters continue bid to block unloading of Israeli ship [protest and blockade of ship will continue farther north]
• Islamic State says U.S. journalist James Foley was publicly beheaded in revenge for Iraq airstrikes
• Iraqi forces seek to reclaim Tikrit from Islamic State
• Ebola deaths top 1,200; Liberia imposes curfew, isolates slum
• 31 arrested in Ferguson protests overnight; 2 shot during unrest
• Brown Family attorney: Autopsy backs up witness accounts of fatal shooting
• Obama raises concerns about police militarization in post-shooting paramilitary crackdown
• Israel, Hamas extend truce for 24 hours; key differences remain
• U.N. agency: Gaza can’t return to blockade conditions
• Israel blocks Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch from Gaza
• Obama hails "major step" as Kurdish, Iraqi forces claim to retake Mosul dam
• Islamic State video threatens attacks on Americans
• Ukraine, rebels trade allegations of civilian killings
• Unidentified warplanes strike militias in Libya
• Tens of thousands rally in Pakistan anti-gov’t protests
• Nazi resister returns Holocaust medal to Israel after Israel kills relatives in Gaza
• Autopsy: Michael Brown shot 6 times, twice in head
• [Distant, possibly racist] Missouri governor orders National Guard into Ferguson as protests flare [on latest revelations of police cover up]
• Syrian gov’t renews airstrikes on ISIL

VIDEO: "We are all Michael Brown" — NYC parents whose kids were murdered by police rally for justice 

• "A Human Rights Crisis": In unprecedented move, Amnesty International sends monitors to Ferguson [Egypt calls for US military restraint]
• Armed w/ military-grade weapons, Missouri police crack down on right to protest over Michael Brown murder
• The killing of Michael Brown: Missouri Police shooting of unarmed black teen sparks days of protests 
• Noam Chomsky: Israel’s actions in Palestine are "much worse than Apartheid" in South Africa

A Night in Ferguson: Rubber bullets, tear gas, and a jail cell

Ryan Devereaux (firstlook.org/TheIntercept, August 19, 2014)

Late Monday evening, after many of the major media outlets covering the protests in Ferguson, had left the streets to broadcast from their set-ups near the police command center, heavily armed officers raced through suburban streets in armored [military] vehicles, chasing demonstrators, launching tear gas [and potentially lethal projectiles] on otherwise quiet residential lanes, and shooting at journalists. Their efforts More

Intercept reporter shot with rubber bullets and arrested while covering Ferguson protests

John Cook (The Intercept, Aug. 19 2014)

Intercept reporter Ryan Devereaux was arrested this morning while on the ground covering the protests in Ferguson, Mo. According to St. Louis Post-Dispatch photographer David Carson, who witnessed the apprehension, Devereaux [was needlessly shot with a projectile] and a German reporter he was with were both taken into custody by members of a police tactical team. They were handcuffed and placed... More

Breaking Rank: Exposing U.S. Police (video)

Ashley Wells, Amber Larson, Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly; Norm Stamper; Alan Pelc

American police state USA, Indiana law shooting by police (lrjtv)

(Alan Pelc) What does the officer/murderer do exactly at Minute 2:02? Give himself a manly gorilla-style "Yeah!" like a footballer who just made a touchdown?
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Cop's Expose of Dark Side of American Policing

Opening with a powerful letter to former Tacoma police chief, David Brame, who executed his estranged wife before turning the gun on himself, author and former chief of the Seattle police force Norm Stamper introduces us to the violent, secret world of domestic abuse that cops perpetrate and navigate.

Former chief of the Seattle police force, Stamper goes on to expose much more: a troubling culture of racism, sexism, and homophobia that is still pervasive within the 21st century force. He then explores how such prejudices can be addressed.

 

He reveals the dangers and temptations that civilian cops face, describing in gripping detail the split-second life-and-death decisions. Former police chief Stamper draws on lessons learned to make powerful arguments for drug decriminalization, abolition of the death penalty, and radically revised approaches to prostitution and gun control.

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(Alan Pelc) When police kill, it's "Die, motherfather, die die!" that is, "No Warning Shot"
 

I'm going home tonight, but you're not.

He offers penetrating insights into the "blue wall of silence," police undercover work, and what it means to kill a man. 

Stamper gives his personal account of the World Trade Organization (WTO) debacle of 1999, when protests he was in charge of controlling turned violent on the streets of Seattle.

Breaking Rank reveals Norm Stamper as a brave man, a pioneering public servant whose extraordinary life has been dedicated to the service of a community [he abused as a police officer and attempts to now make right by revealing the truth about American policing]. More
 
Los Angeles protesters rally in front of LAPD headquarters

Southern California Public Radio (SCPR.org/KPCC FM with contributions by Frank Stoltze); Pat Macpherson, Pfc. Sandoval (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

LOS ANGELES, California - Hundreds of protesters gathered in downtown Los Angeles yesterday [Sunday, Aug. 17, 2014] to vent their anger at police shooting to of death unarmed black man Ezell Ford, who was killed by police in South LA on Monday night. 

 

Carrying signs and chanting "We are all Ezell," the crowd stopped at the LA Police Department's headquarters, where several protesters spoke. Marchers then continued to Union Station and La Placita, through Little Tokyo into Chinatown, then back to City Hall [in the vicinity of the Occupy Movement's violently evicted encampment].
 
"I think there continues to be a dehumanization of black and brown people in this country," said Susanna Parras, 31, a public school social worker from South LA.
 
Many people carried signs with the names of both Ezell Ford and Michael Brown, the 18-year-old African American teen shot by police in Ferguson, Missouri. "I'm here to support the right of black and brown folks to live with peace and dignity," said Alex Villapando, 31, of South LA.
 

Protests? We (NYPD) can take of that the way we did in Iraq and Afghanistan (theblaze.com)

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Ford, 25, was shot by members of LAPD's Gang Enforcement Detail Monday evening after he reportedly tackled officers and reached for one of their guns. Family members say Ezell was known to have mental problems and question why he was stopped in the first place.
 

Syria leader would side with LAPD

But many people were suspicious of the department's version of events. [Eyewitnesses saw no struggle, just an execution. The reason police execute victims is so there were ill be no story to counter their version of events: "No person, no problem." In this way they are able to "justify" their acts by collectively inventing stories that would legally justify their actions. This crime by officers is a separate felony called "conspiracy" and suggests premeditation, which means police are "murdering" victims not inadvertently shooting them during arrest.]

• [Reports are that police took a mentally ill black man playing basketball alone in the park into their custody, dragged him into the public restroom, and proceeded to beat him severely for no reason better than the joy of beating someone who could do nothing about it. This may be the Ford case or another recently reported in LA County. Protesters are upset about all such recent and long-running abuses.] 

Police are stuck in the mire of murdering us.

Too many black men have been shot and killed by police, said Andrew Nance, 38, of Mid-Wilshire. "I'm out here because I have an 8-year-old daughter," he said. "I think she has the right to know her father throughout her life, without fear that he may be get mowed down in the streets by the people who are sworn to protect."

Police gave the crowd a good deal of room to move, allowing them to march in the middle of the street in some areas. An LAPD spokesperson said this was done deliberately to keep things calm and because the streets were less crowded on a Sunday.
 

There are murderers with badges in LAPD

"I think the LAPD has learned, maybe, how to relate to the public. They're not trying instigate something like Ferguson," Alex Villapando explained.​
 
Sunday night's rally in LA echoed protests taking place around the U.S. following the murder by police of Michael Brown, who was killed by police last week in Ferguson Missouri -- where officials are actively attempting to cover up and disseminate information to mar victim Brown's character and muddy the water even as a private autopsy has just revealed that the teen was shot at least six times, twice in the head -- prompting rallies that have turned violent in recent days.
 
On Saturday, Missouri's governor declared a state of emergency and placed a midnight curfew on the St. Louis suburb. More

• VIDEO: New LAPD Chief (New Boss Same as the Old Boss) wants peace in the Middle East -- but how? A police state?

When white cops get weapons of war (video)

Pat Macpherson, Pfc. Sandoval, Wisdom Quarterly; Sadhbh Walshe (Guardian via Occupy)

CIA-trained Chilean cop patrolling on horseback, medieval (nocaptionneeded.com)

The war on Americans. Sniper sits training military-grade weapon on unarmed U.S. civilians with the audacity to protest being killed in the streets by killer cops. Michael BrownFerguson protestsPolice brutalityPolice killingsRacial killingsPolice militarization

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"Enemy combatants" getting uppity in USA?

We can argue about the looting and brick-throwing. We can argue about what constitutes a race “riot” these days -- and why in the world we are seeing teargas being shot every other evening in the suburbs, or why Jim Crow-reminiscent police dogs are being released in the year 2014.

 

Charlie-Bravo-Haji, we see them coming. Arm up the MRAP before they lawyer up.

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There are a lot of things worth arguing about now that the world’s eyes are focused on Ferguson, Missouri, a town where two-thirds of the population is black yet 50 of the 53 police offers there are white and where one of those officers infamously gunned down an unarmed black kid in broad daylight.

• Police State: Ferguson, Missouri riots
• Post Traumatic Slavery Syndrome (Prof. DeGruy) 
• Mass Incarceration for ALL U.S. "troublemakers" (Dr. Michelle Alexander/newjimcrow.com) 
• The Counter-Revolution of 1776: Slave Resistance...
• White Supremacy and Slavery (Prof. Gerald Horne/Salon)

Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome

But here is something that makes no sense: Ferguson (population 21,135) has about 40 robberies per year, a couple of homicides, almost no arson cases, and a crime rate only a bit higher than the national average. Indeed, the town’s crime rate was going down as of two years ago, when the last major data set is available. Ditto in neighboring St. Louis.

Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles (MRAP) save military lives while killing lots of bystanders and civilians. Oh well. Survivors share stories. Since it was established in October 2006, the Joint MRAP Vehicle Program has delivered more than 26, 000 MRAP vehicles to Iraq and Afghanistan. This is the largest acquisition program for the Department of Defense since World War II. Video courtesy of Marines TV (player.theplatform.com). Still want to glorify war? Then visit jieddo.dod.mil or why not follow the militants on Twitter (twitter.com/JIEDDO) while being spied by Facebook (facebook.com/TheJIEDDO)?

 

Occupy together (occupy.com)

Now St. Louis isn’t exactly the ideal of safety, but two years ago the St. Louis Police Department acquired a Lenco BearCat armored military vehicle, a “tactical support vehicle,” and a helicopter that’s popular with the Korean Air Force. Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security donated a 22-ton Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle -- the thing the US military used on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan -- to the police department in nearby St. Charles, Missouri (population 66,463). More - Latest - Most Read - Did you miss it...
 

The Assault Breacher Vehicle (ABV) is a tracked armored engineer vehicle  specifically designed for conducting in-stride breaching of minefields  and complex obstacles (armyrecognition.com). The ABV is built on the same chassis as the General Dynamics-built  M1A1 Abrams main battle tank. The Assault Breacher Vehicle (ABV) is a  single platform that will provide deliberate and in-stride breaching  capability to the assault force of the Marine Air Ground Task Force. Army Recognition online Defence & Security magazine (eurosatory.com).

The Militarization of U.S. Police: Finally Dragged Into the Light by the Horrors of Ferguson

America now has a domestic police force that looks, thinks and acts more like an invading and occupying military than a community-based force to protect the public. More

Shift Change: A Film About Worker-Owned Businesses And Why They Work

This new documentary highlights worker-owned enterprises in North America and the remarkable Mondragon cooperatives in the Basque region of northern Spain. More

How Crony Capitalism and Deregulation Poisoned Toledo's Water

Like other water-related crises this year in West Virginia and Detroit, the poisoning of Toledo's water is tied to corruption at the highest levels of state government by corporate special interests. More
  

Edward Snowden, The Most Wanted Man in the World

"I’m an engineer, not a politician. I don’t want the stage. I’m terrified of giving these talking heads some distraction, some excuse to jeopardize, smear, and delegitimize a very important movement.” More

 

Football in Brazil, NSA in Bahamas, Rush, Nader

Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly; Ryan Devereaux (firstlook.org/The Intercept)

(Thoughty2) The most secretive places on Earth (except the NSA may be there, too)

If there's no safe harbor, no privacy, on a faraway tropical island, how about the city?

 

The Bahamas Wants to Know Why NSA is Recording Its Phone Calls

Greenwald says there's no place to hide (PIN)

Government officials in the Bahamas want their U.S. counterparts to explain why the National Security Agency has been intercepting and recording every cell phone call taking place on the island nation.

 

Responding to a report published by The Intercept on Monday, which revealed that the NSA has been targeting the Bahamas’ entire mobile network and storing the audio of every phone call traversing the network for up to 30 days, Bahamian officials told the Nassau Guardian that they had contacted the U.S. and vowed to release a statement regarding the revelations.

Chaplain anti-gay is a virtue

In a front-page story published Tuesday, Bahamian Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell told The Guardian that his government had reached out to the U.S. for an explanation. Mitchell said the cabinet was set to meet to discuss the matter and planned to issue a statement on the surveillance. The Bahamian minister of national security told the paper he intended to launch an inquiry into the NSA’s surveillance but did not provide a comment.

Nader: Climate, Iraq...

A source familiar with the situation told The Intercept that the cabinet meeting had indeed taken place, but an official in Mitchell’s office said there would be no comment Tuesday. “You’ll have to call back,” said the official, who did not identify herself. More

Repressing World Cup Football protests in Brazil is big biz; What we don't see on TV

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How secret partners expand NSA’s dragnet

Ryan Gallagher (The Intercept/June 18, 2014)

Huge volumes of private emails, phone calls, and Internet chats are being intercepted by the National Security Agency (NSA) with the secret cooperation of more foreign governments than previously known, according to newly disclosed documents from heroic whistleblower Edward Snowden. The classified files, revealed today by the Danish newspaper Dagbladet Information in a reporting collaboration with The... More

Ron Paul’s Secret Shame

(DavidFeldmanShow.com, August 13, 2013) Who killed Ron Paul’s campaign manager? Why won’t CNN ask that question? Dr. Nancy, Mark Thompson, Will Ryan and the Cactus County Cowboys. Plus Michael Snyder talks movies.
 

• WikiLeaks reveals secret global deal for corporations
• Learn about Social Media in less than 30 minutes!
• Cost of London real estate shows widening wealth gap
• The Ownership Revolution: Future emerging after...
• The global campaign to dismantle corporate power! 
• 15M Movement Spain's emerging Podemos Party
• The Top 5 Weirdest Websites on the Net 

Rush on women in workplace