Entries Tagged 'Police State' ↓

From Democracy Now!:

*****

Terrible on all fronts.

From Time Magazine:

“Another factor (in the law numbers of immigrant detentions in Arpaio’s recent sweep) may well have been Lydia Guzman, a prominent Hispanic activist, who, along with a group called CopWatch, designed a detailed messaging system to warn the Phoenix Valley of immigration sweeps. Guzman sent an initial text blast to 100 rapid response teams of business owners, Spanish radio stations, pastors and teachers, each of whom messaged their respective networks. At the same time, Guzman contacted lawyers, social workers and elected officials to be at the ready to help. “It spiderwebs out,” she says. “Before you know it my text tree spreads out to thousands of people.
…..
In addition to Guzman’s tweets, CopWatch visibly tails police operations. On Thursday, in one small West Phoenix mobile command center, members of CopWatch monitored police communications. “They just said ‘294 King’ — that means immigration. Let’s go,” cried one member listening to the police scanners. And with that CopWatch activists grabbed cameras, lawyer contacts and car keys to follow Arpaio’s sweep.”
*****
An awesome heroic effort on the part of CWers in Arizona!

From Consortium News:

“The Baro family of Mexican immigrants was celebrating the 22nd birthday of Walter Baro on July 17 when the incident began. Two LAPD officers arrived shortly after midnight claiming they had received noise complaints from a neighbor.

According to Walter Baro’s 26-year-old sister, Elida, there was a brief exchange at the front door and the police ordered them to end the party and send their 70 guests packing.”
*****
Video of the beatings and harsh treatment the family received follows.

From the Tribune:

“The Oakland City Council voted Tuesday night to pay $6.5 million in two search warrant cases from 2008 that claimed several Oakland police officers falsified sworn affidavits resulting in illegal raids on homes in East and West Oakland.

The two federal civil rights lawsuits, representing 104 people, stemmed from allegations that a number of officers had misstated facts in sworn affidavits over a period of several years to Alameda County judges, indicating they had tested substances bought on the street to determine if they were drugs even though no test was ever conducted on the substances.”
*****
When considering all this it’s good to keep in mind what happened in Detroit to Aiyana Jones and to think about the prevalence of SWAT raids. This is terror on the order of what is unleashed on Iraqis by US house raids.

From Alternet:

“In 1980, 2,884 SWAT deployments were recorded nationwide; the number today is estimated by experts at 50,000 annually or more.”
*****
This is a really important piece and it has a lot of important information. After the murder of Aiyana Jones, I don’t think we can afford not to be pressing the cops about these issues.

An important message from a brave woman who was tortured by police at the G20 in Toronto.

From the NYT:

“The details of the shootings on the bridge that began to emerge, and which were elaborated on in the indictment unsealed Tuesday, were ghastlier than many in the city had expected.

Responding to a call that the police were under fire, officers drove to the bridge over the Industrial Canal in eastern New Orleans in a Budget rental truck. Some were armed with assault rifles, others with a shotgun or a semiautomatic pistol.

Mr. Brissette and five members of the Bartholomew family were walking across the bridge to get food and other supplies from a supermarket, the indictment reads, when the officers opened fire. Four members of the Bartholomew family were shot. Susan Bartholomew, at the time 38, lost part of her arm; her husband, Leonard Bartholomew III, was shot in the head. Mr. Brissette, who was killed, was shot seven times.

Some officers then traveled to the other side of the bridge and found two brothers, Ronald and Lance Madison, who were on their way to check on a dentist’s office that belonged to their oldest brother, Dr. Romell Madison. According to the indictment, Mr. Faulcon then shot Ronald Madison to death with a shotgun. Afterward, it continues, Sergeant Bowen kicked and stomped on Mr. Madison as he lay dying on the ground.”
*****

The overwhelming police force summoned by Oakland and its mutual aid pacts was not able to stop property damage and looting. Despite police from Fremont, Vallejo, Berkeley, San Francisco and perhaps even hundreds of California HIghway patrol, protests lasted until after 11pm when Russel and I stopped our shift.

The protest at 14th and Broadway was shut down soon after the 8pm end time of the authorized speakout. The intersection was closed to traffic but was completely surrounded by thick lines of cops at each cross street. When the mic shut down, some people tried to march. Cops even began advancing on the crowd at one point only moments after the end of the program.

There were probably over 1000 people in attendence. Some left after the speakout but others came. What was clear was that the incredible cost of paying so many cops did not yield the desired result: I saw stores that had windows smashed and a couple were looted (jewelry store, Foot Locker, few others). Many windows broken, mostly corporate. Lots of graffiti and some small fires. So far about 50 arrests.

It strikes me that the overwhelming force was used to disrupt and prevent a march. However, the strategy of using so many cops to close streets and chase people meant that the crowd was in small clumps, each equally capable of taking a side street and doing what they wanted. It was also noted that stores that were damaged were left COMPLETELY unsecured by police even though they had hundreds at their disposal. Even a few cops in those places could have helped the small businesses they had earlier claimed to want to protect.

The Afghanistan approach, or massive military style DID NOT achieve its objective! Try winning hearts and minds next time!

The following are links to helpful sites if you are trying to follow the coverage from Oakland. We’ll try to have updates from the ground as soon as they start to arrive.

Oscar Grant Protests Website

IndyBay timeline and photos

OccupyCA blog

NYT article

Live Blog coverage at the Tribune

Video from the Tribune

ABC 7 Coverage

Video from DN!

From DN!:

I’ve been saying it for awhile now: torture is an American export.