Showing posts with label military rule. Show all posts
Showing posts with label military rule. Show all posts

Wednesday, 20 August 2014

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?



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 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.
 
 
 

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

A Night in Ferguson: Rubber Bullets, Tear Gas, and a Jail Cell

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

(The Intercept,
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

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Thursday, 14 August 2014

US police use military weapons to crack down

Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Amy Goodman, Juan Gonzalez (Democracy Now)
(Democracy Now, Aug. 14, 2014) Armed with military-grade weaponry from war on Iraq, Missouri police crack down on protests over Michael Brown shooting
The Missouri town of Ferguson, a suburb of St. Louis, looks like a war zone as police fire tear gas, stun grenades, and smoke bombs at civilians.

They claim to be attempting to break up a fifth night of protests over the police shooting of unarmed African-American teenager Michael Brown, [who was apparently executed by police, shot in the back in revenge after an altercation]. At least 10 people were arrested on Wednesday, including St. Louis Alderman Antonio French, who has been posting video online of the protests and who appeared on Democracy Now! earlier this week.
 

Button-houston-jealous
All-white jury acquits cop of video beating
An earlier protest faced a heavy Caucasian police response, with police in riot gear stationed by a massive armed vehicle in the street -- using weapons left over from the U.S. war on Iraq. Journalists from The Washington Post and Huffington Post were roughed up and arrested last night then released without charges [once they learned their lesson that police will not tolerate anyone exposing their crimes in a time of "crisis"].

Michael-brown
Our racism kills; protests ensue
They were detained while filing reports from a McDonald’s restaurant. Ferguson police have refused to release the name of the officer who shot unarmed teen Brown, citing fears for his safety. But the name is known in the community and has been reported without confirmation. He executed the teen in broad daylight in front of witnesses who know his name.]

They have also requested demonstrators to limit their protests to "daytime hours." [Apparently this would save on police overtime costs.] DN! goes to St. Louis to speak with a very reticent Patricia Bynes, Democratic committeewoman of Ferguson township. Bynes has been out in the streets of Ferguson every night documenting the protests on Twitter.

Protests coming to Los Angeles
L.A. skyline pre-climate chaos (buzzfeed)
The killings and beating of African and Latin American youth continues throughout the U.S., particularly in Los Angeles, where police severely brutalized another unarmed mentally ill man, this time in Compton. On account of this, and in unity with Ferguson, citizens will march on the LAPD on Sunday.

Barry Montgomery, 29, was arrested in July after [police claim] he attempted to punch an LA County Sheriff’s Dept. deputy, according to the agency. But family members and the president of the Compton branch of the NAACP gave a much different account: Montgomery was playing basketball alone around 9:25 pm at Enterprise Park when he was approached by deputies, handcuffed, dragged from the court and into a bathroom, where he was severely beaten....Montgomery suffered a fractured eye socket, broken nose, and fractured ribs in the 25-minute beating, Simpson Gibson said. He was hospitalized... (as reported by L.A.'s new right wing newspaper, The L.A. Register, which brags "refreshingly not liberal").
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Friday, 23 May 2014

A Coup in Thailand?: Bangkok Rising (video)

 
Look, mom, I'm in a coup! (nytimes.com)
(VICE) For almost a decade, Buddhist Thailand has been trapped in a bloody conflict between Red Shirt supporters and Yellow Shirt opponents of the billionaire-tycoon-turned-politician Thaksin Shinawatra (and the subsequent Thai PM, his sister Yingluck Shinawatra).

Ousted Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra
During his time as prime minister, Thaksin improved life for the poor and the working class.

But his autocratic tendencies and crony capitalism led his opponents, mainly made up of conservative royalists and the upper middle class, to rise up and overthrow him.

Thaksin was ousted in a military coup in 2006 for alleged abuse of power and corruption. Since then Thaksin's opponents -- widely known as the Yellow Shirts -- and his avid supporters, the Red Shirts, have taken turns instigating mass street protests to topple their opponents.

CNN/CIA coverage has been superficial
While attempting to clear her brother's name of corruption charges in November 2013, Thaksin's sister and Thailand's latest PM [ousted by the court two weeks ago] Yingluck Shinawatra triggered a new Yellow Shirt uprising that has so far killed a reported 23 people and injured hundreds.

Yingluck Shinawatra tried to diffuse the protests by dissolving Thailand's parliament and calling for new elections. But the Yellow Shirts, determined to overthrow her, began a shutdown of Bangkok on January 13th, bringing the Thai capital to a standstill.

Huh, what coup? This has happened before.
Since the election was annulled on March 31st, Red Shirts are mobilizing and intensifying their threats of starting a civil war.

VICE News was on the ground to capture Thailand's state of emergency as the long-running battle for the country is coming to a head.

There are other people, ethnic minorities like these beautiful mountain village girls from the north, often seen selling trinkets in Chiang Mai, Thailand's second-city (Max_Drukpa/flickr).
 
Commentary
We're Red Shirts, but we're tourists.
Who's right, who's wrong? It is easy to support the revolutionary Red Shirts. But the person they entrusted their future to may have been, could likely have been, a corrupt billionaire. He made all the right promises...as did Obama. These "populist" leaders say the right things. They don't follow through. They sell out their followers. Then the Red Shirts succeeded again by electing the fabulous Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, sister of ousted and exiled PM Thaksin Shinawatra.

A People's Coup 2013 (nation.com)
But Yellow Shirts accused her of continuing her brother's populist/corrupt policies. Was she great, or was she a hypocrite? Should Thaksin been allowed back into the country, or had he offended the establishment too much? How could he, a billionaire tycoon, be the "people's hope"? He was the one making all the right promises, offering help to the poor. This is what so many would-be dictators begin by saying. Even if they are sincere, clandestine forces come in to convert or assassinate them. (Why is explained in John Perkin's Confessions of an Economic Hitman).
 
Surely the Shinawatras were a better alternative to the status quo -- but an even better option is what Red Shirts are actually fighting for: a citizens' committee to rule the country. The military will not stand for it. The military-industrial complex (government police+private corporations = military+industry) have a plan for that kind of talk: Game over, time out, military coup, police state, "I'm taking my ball and going home," as Cartman would put it.

People's Coup vs. Military Coup 
Thitinan Pongsudhirak (The Nation, Dec. 13, 2013)
Bangkok, Thailand protest rally for the people, Red Shirts vs. Yellow Shirts (AP).
.
Woman sells statues, talismans (Ska09/flickr)
Never has Thai politics degenerated so quickly from uneasy accommodation to outright insurrection.

It started a month ago [Nov. 2013] with broad-based opposition to an expansive amnesty legislation that would have absolved former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra from convictions for corruption and abuse of power.

It ended up as a civilian putsch by anti-Thaksin forces, led by the Democrat Party and its erstwhile heavyweight MP Suthep Thaugsuban. On an anti-corruption crusade and intent on uprooting what they call the “Thaksin Regime,” these forces incorporate the royalist “Yellow Shirts” and other anti-Thaksin groups from recent years who constitute one side of Thailand’s polarization.

Whether they succeed in removing the government of PM Yingluck Shinawatra, Mr. Thaksin’s younger sister, from power and installing their own government will determine the direction of Thai democracy. More
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Tuesday, 20 May 2014

Army's Martial law in Thailand surprise to gov't


BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) - The Thai army declared martial law throughout the country Tuesday in a surprise move that an aide to the embattled Prime Minister said the government didn't know about beforehand.
 
"They took this action unilaterally. The government is having a special meeting regarding this. We have to watch and see if the army chief honors his declaration of impartiality," the aide said, describing the situation as "half a coup d'etat."
 
Lt. Gen. Nipat Thonglek told CNN the move was not a coup.
 
"The Army aims to maintain peace, order and public safety for all groups and all parties," a ticker running on the army's television channel said. "People are urged not to panic, and can carry on their business as usual. Declaring martial law is not a coup d'etat."
 
Martial law went into effect at 3:00 am on Tuesday, the ticker said. More + VIDEO
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Tuesday, 8 April 2014

California Spring Break RIOT (video)

Seth Auberon and Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; TomoNewsUS  DELTOPIA

 
If they dare disobey, that's great. Riot on! (ES)
ISLA VISTA, Santa Barbara, California - It used to be fun to watch MTV's version of "Spring Break," but then one wakes up to the house party rather than the bikini-clad rap festival of our silly dreams. "It's The Man, it's The Man," you hear other colleges say, like UMass Amherst trying to worship Dionysus/St. Patrick. One never thinks the deadly projectiles, tear gas, and truncheons are going to rain down on people trying to enjoy the sunny coast. Mass arrests, mass incarceration, and we're the lucky ones!

Run! It's safer there with the sharks.
Imagine if we were partying while black. Imagine if we were surfing beyond the breakers? "Quick, shoot him! He might hurt himself!" Imagine if we reached down to pull up our baggy slacks. Imagine if agents of the police state were actively looking for a pretext/excuse. It might not be so funny. Still, what are 100 students doing in jail and many more waiting to be rounded up because of all the spy cams placed along the boardwalk and calls for citizen bystanders to turn in their neighbors with incriminating cellphone camera video. "Police overreacted," witnesses report. "They were looking for a riot to suppress. So they made one." [Everything looks like a nail to a man with a hammer. Every youthful gathering looks like a potential "riot" to paramilitary soldiers with batons, teargas, rifles, handguns, and impunity.]

"Now it is 1984. Knock-knock at your front door. It's the [sweaty] denim secret police. They have come for your uncool niece. Come quietly to the camp. You'd look nice as a..." - California Uber Alles.
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Friday, 21 February 2014

I am a Ukrainian girl (video)


  
This clip is being called “a must-see video of a Ukrainian girl asking the world for help against [police] oppression and corruption.” It has gone viral and left an impression on millions of people. Here is a brief description from the Facebook page linked to the video on YouTube:
Russia's Putin is to blame! (FEMEN.org/en)
This is Yulia. She is a post-graduate student in literature. After the first people were killed on Hrushevskogo St., she posted about it on Facebook. She felt like screaming about every- thing that had been happening in [Ukraine].
How are democratic citizens supposed to react?
(Kostyantyn Chernichkin/kyivpost.com)
Her friend suggested to make the video of the same statement for more people to see and hear her. They made the video on Hrushevskogo next to the destroyed makeshift hospital. It was very cold then and her speech is uneven sometimes.” I wanted to show that here I am -- a person. If you say there are radicals and terrorists in our streets, then I am a terrorist too,” explains Yulia.
Life in Kiev, Ukraine before police and military began killing civilians

Pussy Riot whipped, beaten, tear gassed by Russian police in Sochi

The head of the Udar (Punch) party Vitali Klitschko speaks to a man as anti-government protesters gather on Independence Square (Maidan) in Kiev on February 21, 2014. Pres. Yanukovych and three main opposition leaders signed a deal to end three-month crisis over the ex-Soviet country's future that has led to ~100 murders by police (AFP/Bulent Kilic).

This deal helps [Ukrainian President] Yanukovych, who can now get the support of Putin's KGB as Pres. Putin will no longer be busy with Sochi [and the Winter Olympics]. If I were a Ukrainian then I would keep the protest going until Yanukovych is finally out and not replaced by another Putin puppet. If Ukrainians do not win now then they will ALWAYS be under Putin's KGB dictatorship. - Donovan Pullen (Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool)
 
Protesters threaten violence if Ukraine's Pres. Yanukovych does not resign now (Kyiv Post)
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