February 26, 2015

Gestapo' tactics at US police 'black site' ring alarm from Chicago to Washington

The US Department of Justice and embattled mayor Rahm Emanuel are under mounting pressure to investigate allegations of what one politician called “CIA or Gestapo tactics” at a secretive Chicago police facility exposed by the Guardian.

Politicians and civil-rights groups across the US expressed shock upon hearing descriptions of off-the-books interrogation at Homan Square, the Chicago warehouse that multiple lawyers and one shackled-up protester likened to a US counter-terrorist black site in a Guardian investigation published this week."


Politicians and civil-rights groups across the US expressed shock upon hearing descriptions of off-the-books interrogation at Homan Square, the Chicago warehouse that multiple lawyers and one shackled-up protester likened to a US counter-terrorist black site in a Guardian investigation published this week.


As two more people came forward detailing their stories of being “held hostage” and “strapped” inside Homan Square without access to an attorney or an official public record of their detention by Chicago police, officials and activists said the allegations merited further inquiry and risked aggravating wounds over community policing and race that have reached as high as the White House. "

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/26/police-black-site-chicago-washington-politicians-human-rights

February 25, 2015

“We are fighting for our lives”: The little-known youth movement rising against police brutality

A few months after the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, President Obama invited seven activists from Missouri, Ohio, New York and Florida to represent their communities in a discussion about the growing public concern over police violence aimed at communities of color. The activists were affiliated with Young Activists United St. Louis, Millennial Activists United, the Dream Defenders, the Ohio Student Association and Make the Road New York. The groups had been organizing resistance in their communities on issues spanning the prison industrial complex and the school-to-prison pipeline to increasing student debt, unfair housing practices and living incomes for low-wage workers. The determination of this network of young people was only strengthened by the recent national attention given to police and white vigilante killings of unarmed black and brown youth."

*While young activists around the country have not yet organized behind one set of demands, they have lofty goals and ambitions to dramatically transform conceptions of safety in black and other marginalized communities. Organizations like the Justice League NYC demand changes to police training and policies, like broken windows, the appointment of special prosecutors in all cases involving police use of force, and passage of the Right to Know Act. While others, like Ferguson Action, have called for ambitious changes, like ending the prison industrial complex and the school-to-prison pipeline and creating full employment and decent housing for all Americans."

*As national mainstream attention eventually turns its head away from Ferguson, young and older activists alike may have to work harder and speak louder to penetrate our national consciousness and catalyze tangible change.

Viets-VanLear from We Charge Genocide doesn’t think this will be a problem. “This is only the beginning,” he said. “We are going to keep mobilizing because we are fighting for our lives.”

http://www.salon.com/2015/02/25/we_are_fighting_for_our_lives%E2%80%9D_the_little_known_youth_movement_rising_against_police_brutality/

February 25, 2015

Baltimore Police Launch Investigation Into New Brutality Claim

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — Baltimore police are investigating the actions of one of their officers after video shows the officer punching a man in the face before his arrest.

Derek Valcourt has the exclusive video, which lasts just about a minute—but some say it shows an officer going too far.

Cell phone video appears to show a city officer trying to move a crowd from in front of a McDonald’s on Howard Street—but the physical confrontation begins when the officer pokes a young man and the man then swats the officer’s hand away.

“What, you got probable cause?” the man asked.

“I’m going to ask you to get out of my face,” the officer replied.

“Don’t touch me!” the man replied."

The young man in the handcuffs is 19-year-old Antonio Moore.

“He punched me for no reason,” Moore said.

But the officer apparently saw it differently. In his statement of probable cause, he wrote Moore “without warning began rapidly advancing towards me in a threatening, hostile manner so I placed my arm out to create a distance and halted his advance.”

“The video shows the proof. I didn’t try to attack the officer,” Moore said.

Moore’s been charged with second degree assault and disorderly conduct. "

http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2015/02/24/baltimore-police-launch-investigation-into-new-brutality-claim/

February 23, 2015

A national clusterfu*k on all things related to police body cams, dash cams

The United States has a police brutality problem.

Beyond the reality that the United States incarcerates more people than any other nation in the world, our police officers shoot and kill more people in any given year than Germany and the United Kingdom combined over the past decade.

Police in the town of Pacos, Washington, with 59,000 people, have shot and killed more people the past six months than police in the United Kingdom, with a population of more than 60 million. And American police aren't shooting people left and right because they all have guns. Almost daily, a man or woman without a gun is shot and killed in America and problem is getting worse."

A Missouri lawmaker, in Senate Bill 331, is now proposing that all police-related videos be banned from public viewing. Here's the short bill proposed by Republican Senator Doug Libla:

590.810. 1. Any recording captured by a camera, which is capable of recording video or audio and is, during the course of a peace officer's official duties:
(1) Worn on the person of a peace officer;
(2) Attached to a peace officer's motor vehicle, watercraft, or aircraft; or
(3) Attached to any other device used by a peace officer,
shall not be a public record for purposes of the state's open records law under chapter 610 and shall not be disclosed by a law enforcement agency except upon order of a court in the course of a criminal investigation or prosecution or civil litigation.
2. No law enforcement agency shall be required by the state to provide cameras as described in subsection 1 of this section to officers employed by the agency, nor shall the state require any peace officer to wear such cameras.

Conservatives in Arizona have successfully advanced similar legislation that will prohibit the public from seeing footage from police cameras. "

A recent study found that half of the LAPD squad cars that were under review had tampered with their recording equipment to avoid being monitored."

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/02/23/1366239/-A-national-clusterfu-k-on-all-things-related-to-police-body-cams-dash-cams-etc

February 10, 2015

"When you've lost Kid Rock, GOP, you might as well go home already."

Kid Rock, talking to The New York Times:

Fiscally, I’m Republican. But the social issues kill me — gay marriage and abortion. It’s like, Come on, man, get off it. There’s so many big problems we got that we really need to address in this country."

I'm always happy to hear someone self-describe as fiscally conservative and socially liberal. That's like 90 percent of the way to being libertarian."

http://reason.com/blog/2015/02/09/kid-rock-fiscally-im-republican-but-the

February 10, 2015

To Prison for Poverty - Part One

Part Two:

February 5, 2015

Against The Law

Against The Law"

It's against the law to walk, and against the law to talk
Against the law to loaf, against the law to work
Against the law to read, against the law to write
Against the law to be a black, a brown, or white

Everything's against the law
I'm a low-pay daddy singing the high-price blues

It's against the law to eat, against the law to drink
Against the law to worry, against the law to think
Against the law to marry or try to settle down
Against the law to ramble like a bum from town to town

Everything's against the law
I'm a low-pay daddy singing the high-price blues

It's against the law to come, against the law to go
Against the law to ride, against the law to roll
Against the law to hug and against the law to kiss
Against the law to shoot, against the law to miss

Everything's against the law
I'm a low-pay daddy singing the high-price blues

It's against the law to gamble, against the law to roam
Against the law to organize or try to build a home
Against the law to sing, it's against the law to dance
Against the law to tell you all the trouble on my hands

Everything in Winston-Salem is against the law
I'm a low-pay daddy singing the high-price blues

February 2, 2015

Just A Dog? ( Graphic Content )

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=%253Fitok%253DiMgGUf_t&imgrefurl=http://www.examiner.com/article/the-news-story-behind-heart-wrenching-photo-of-man-holding-late-dog-after-fire&h=350&w=364&tbnid=CbYc7qyrRpf-ZM:&zoom=1&docid=K1SzMRH-XErU0M&ei=lqvPVOjUG5KvyQSS8YHYCA&tbm=isch&ved=0CCIQMygAMAA


"This man is holding his dog who passed on due to smoke inhalation. This picture was taken just after firefighters brought her out. Dogs aren't just pets. Dogs are family."