a PSA from ProPublica

an excerpt from their link:

After New York state repealed a law that kept police disciplinary records secret, ProPublica sought records from the civilian board that investigates complaints by the public about New York City police officers. The board provided us with the closed cases of every active-duty police officer who had at least one substantiated allegation against them. The records span decades, from September 1985 to January 2020. We have created a database of complaints that can be searched by name or browsed by precinct or nature of the allegations.

Related: We’re Publishing Thousands of Police Discipline Records That New York Kept Secret for Decades; ProPublica obtained these police records from New York City’s Civilian Complaint Review Board. NYPD unions are suing to halt the city from making the data public', Eric Umansky July 26, 2020, propublica.org

and remember: the NYPD has an office in Tel Aviv for trainings from the IDF.

Plainclothes NYC police grab protester and throw her into unmarked car’, Niles Niemuth, 30 July 2020, wsws.org (a few excerpts)

Shock and anger quickly spread online Tuesday as video posted on social media showed a group of armed men in street clothes snatching a young protester off the street and trundling her into an unmarked van during a peaceful demonstration against police violence in New York City.

While the men refused to identify themselves at the scene of the kidnapping, the New York Police Department (NYPD) later identified them as members of the police force’s plainclothes Warrant Squad.
................................
All such actions violate the US Constitution’s First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and assembly and its Fourth Amendment ban on arbitrary searches or seizures. They also run counter to the requirement that arrests be based on probable cause.

The NYPD played down the unconstitutional arrest, claiming the Warrant Squad routinely uses “unmarked vehicles to effectively locate wanted suspects.” But it is clear that the abduction of 18-year-old Nikki Stone was intended to send a signal to demonstrators, as well as the Trump administration, that the New York police are more than capable of cracking down on protests without direct federal intervention.
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Nikki Stone is a homeless youth who has been participating in protests throughout the city. The authorities have justified her chilling arrest—which bystanders took to be a kidnapping—with allegations of vandalism, including spray painting the lenses of police cameras around City Hall Park. She was released from police custody early Wednesday and charged with several counts of graffiti painting and criminal mischief.

The city’s Democratic mayor, Bill de Blasio, responded to the arrest by upholding the “right” of non-uniformed, unidentified NYPD officers to grab peaceful protesters off the street, while mildly criticizing the timing of the arrest.

“This is not Portland,” he said. “I want to emphasize what you see on that video are NYPD officers, federal agencies are not involved! I think it was the wrong time and place to effectuate that arrest. … I want to affirm very clearly, no one is allowed to damage police property. … If you damage property it will lead to consequences.”

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wendy davis's picture

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ggersh's picture

these protests aren't just in Portland nor are they isolated.

https://projects.propublica.org/protest-police-videos/

As protests erupted around the country in late May in response to the killing in police custody of George Floyd, police departments seemed to respond with more violence. In the ensuing weeks, hundreds of videos of police interactions with protesters surfaced on Twitter and other social media sites, often drawing outrage and, in some cases, swift disciplinary and legal action.

ProPublica wanted to find out what happens after these moments are caught on tape. We culled hundreds of videos to find those with the clearest examples of officers apparently using a disproportionate level of force against protesters and reached out to 40 law enforcement agencies about the 68 incidents below. For each incident, we inquired about any disciplinary action, investigations and whether the department would disclose the officer or officers involved. While some departments provided details or relevant public records, others leaned on state laws to withhold information. Here’s what we learned about each case. Do you have information about one of these cases? Tell us about it. | Related: What Has Happened to Police Filmed Hurting Protesters? So Far, Very Little →

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

wendy davis's picture

@ggersh

ProPublica rocks! my stars; just think of the epic diligence involved in pouring thru so many videos and featuring 68!

but in portland, seattle, and NYc and others, it's not just the police: it's paramilitary forces, even worse. wsws has been keeping good track, as have zeese and flowers (popular resistance; i'll see if i can did out one recent, lengthy newsletter).

but from wsws on july 27 (besides DHS):

Trump’s shock troops have been drawn from the apparatus of repression built up to target immigrant workers and wage war. This includes agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), each of which is led by an “acting” director not confirmed by the Senate and therefore accountable only to the president. Particularly ominous is the central role played by the CBP internal SWAT team known as BORTAC, a brutal and battle-tested organization that has been involved in the major operations of the US military abroad, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Last week, Trump declared that other cities will be subjected to federal intervention as well, including New York, Chicago, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Detroit, Baltimore, Oakland and Albuquerque.

the editorial didn't mince words, and called it a coup d'etat.

nope; sorry. i seem to have deleted the tome of a newsletter.

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ggersh's picture

@wendy davis in the back of my mind I keep seeing Eric Prince, not good at all!

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4 users have voted.

I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

wendy davis's picture

@ggersh

that a year or so ago, erik prince had asked the Trumpster for the honor of handling the endless War on Afghanistan. allegedly Boss Tweet had demurred, but who's to say one of Prince's iterations (blackwater, XI, acadamei, there must be others by now) hasn't done so?

and Erik's calvinist sister 9(marri to the King of Amway, isn't she?) is now DT's 'secretary of miseducation'.

we're not quite there yet, and i've long forgotten who'd posited this, but:

Evil happens when it’s so great it exceeds our imaginations to conquer it.

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@ggersh @ggersh Two observations from approximately the first half of the posted videos: 1) why are there so many cops and so few protestors 2) the frequency of PDs responses that the LEOs were following standard procedures.

Then I got to the Seattle Police Department, June 1, 2020:

An officer rides his bicycle up to a protester then pulls him into a headlock and drags him to the ground.

Suddenly, I perceived what the SOP is. Although in this instance a camera was rolling before the attack. How I see it, the cops are hunting in a pack then, 1) knock an isolated protestor to the ground or isolate a protestor and knock his/her to the ground 2) begin to thump on the protestor 3) one or more other cops will 'help' with the thumping 4) other cops will quickly surround the thumping to hide the specifics from cameras and observers (a visible 'blue line') 5) cart the victim off on whatever bogus charge the thugs can come up with.

With their mace and tazers, US cops don't need attack dogs like the Gestapo and Bull Conners of yore, but they aren't any different.

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Lily O Lady's picture

To block cameras, use shaving cream. At least you can claim to have not damaged property.

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

wendy davis's picture

@Lily O Lady

but folks on the related twitter accounts said nikki had never done such a thing.

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travelerxxx's picture

@Lily O Lady

To block cameras, use shaving cream.

Cameras are cheap and plentiful. People to keep them running, not so much.

I heard somewhere that some people like to use petroleum jelly (Vaseline, etc.) to smear on the lenses. According to what I've heard somewhere, when paint or some semi-solid material is used, it is immediately obvious as to what is wrong. A high level of expertise is not required to remedy the situation. On the other hand, petroleum jelly causes a blurred, out-of-focus type condition. This tends to require a more trained (and in more short supply) tech to fix the problem.

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snoopydawg's picture

@Lily O Lady

was accused of damaging video cameras on the streets. This is probably not a good idea. Unless...?

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

the fascist overthrow of US
for the protection of the
political / financial elites
is either willfully ignorant or
lacking in cognitive skills

the destruction of human rights
is now happening and escalating
*unpresidented*

we have no choice but to fight back

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wendy davis's picture

@QMS

"we have to fight back". fight back how, and which 'we' are the larger questions. me. i'm one of those laughable 'online armchair SJWs', so i don't have any skin in the game.

i've seen suggestions ranging from 'elect biden, to 'defund the police', 'disband the police', and 'black police for black communities','community control of police' (black agenda report the latter two, the former is silly, imo).

but there are always high-priced mercenaries for hire, as well as now, thse paramilitary forces.

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@wendy davis

demonstrations and focused commentary
this is building into a tsunami to coincide with state / fed failures
trillions for wall street? 2 billion / day for war?
*we* is everybody concerned, show support for progressives
expose authoritarian misdeeds, channel anger against the
f*cked up players that led us into these dire straights

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wendy davis's picture

@QMS

as i'd noted, i might demonstrate were i there and able-bodied, so i'm just doin' what i can as can armchair SJ warrior.

the rest of your comment makes sense, until i got to this:

...show support for progressives

i don't know how 'progressives' are on domestic issues, but i do know that many of our 'favorite progressives (i.e. Democrats) support illegal sanctions, support coup regimes (as in bolivia and VZ) while virtue-signaling otherwise. some decry ICE, yet vote for bloated and increased dollars for DHS and military budgets.

i'd also pinged the Ranting Rooster imagining saying to the police: 'we're comin' after you' with a related photo of a cop on the sidewalk, apparently a protestor on top of him. i can imagine similar thought crimes.

as a side note: i'd seen a couple No Biden commnenters jesting (?) that they'd write in Mickey Mouse, and so on. and few have EVER voted green. as long as the duopoly rules, not actual socialists, there will always be Rich Man's Wars as this is now domestically as well.

Some ones are crazy or
Maybe we take turns
Dreaming about some kind of life
We say it could have been different
But it wasn't because we weren't

Some things start good and go bad
Some things get bad and stay bad
Are we caught in between
Living a lie or not living at all

Eliminated choices
Lost in dreams we let go
Memories we never got to have
Something else to think about

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y88AaSnJwqA]

it's time for radical leftist change, imo.

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@wendy davis

perhaps *progressive* is too loose a term in this context.
What is intended is to know those that are able to bring the fight
to the next level...

economy check
equality check
peace check
change check
health check

these are the folks I support.
Personal interviews occur before I
get on board.

Thx WD

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wendy davis's picture

@QMS

thank you. i do hope that this is indeed a revolutionary moment, but where it will go is
anyone's guess.

p.s. on edit: i liked our chances better when the police tate protests were global. will they rise again?

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wendy davis's picture

and h/t to mr. wd. from sputnik news:

US Mail Logjam: Delays May Extend to November Election, Democrats Warn, july 31, 2020

Top Democrats and some postal workers are concerned that current mail delivery delays across the US may affect the looming presidential election, as states are increasingly resorting to mail-in voting to adapt to the pandemic.

The Washington Post reports that the US Postal Service has seen days-long backlogs of mail across the country, attributed to recent cost-cutting efforts by the new Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy.

Postal Service officials have previously warned that the debt-laden agency will run out of money by the end of September without help from Congress due to a fall in the volume of first-class mail.

On Wednesday, the US Treasury agreed to lend USPS $10 billion, included in congressionally-approved coronavirus relief legislation, in exchange for information on its contracts with private-sector shippers.

WTF? Extortion! Blackmail!

The new plan, adopted in mid-July, eliminated overtime pay and required postal workers to temporarily leave mail behind when necessary to avoid late and extra trips. Package sorters are also shut down early, forcing USPS employees to sort mail manually thus increasing the delivery time.
...............................................
Trump has criticised the Postal Service as a “joke” and suggested recently that the agency cannot be trusted to deliver ballots. On Thursday, he floated the idea that the general election should be delayed because the increased use of mail-in ballots across the United States this year would lead to widespread fraud.

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wendy davis's picture

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