"Officer-Involved Shooting" = Murder by Police
Philando Castile was murdered in Minnesota by a police officer as he was sitting in his car, reaching for his license and registration. His girlfriend, Lavish Reynolds, and her four-year-old daughter were in the car. As is common in extrajudicial murders of black people in America, the victim's loved one, Lavish, was taken into custody and as of this writing has not been released even though she is accused of no crime.
Alton Sterling was murdered in Louisiana, shot at point-blank range, by a police officer while immobile on the ground. He was a father of five. Although there are several different stories of why the police were there, it doesn't matter. There was nothing that he was doing that would have resulted in death if he were white.
You can google for the details of both of these horrible incidents, and the hundreds more that have already occurred all over this country this year. To start, here's the link to the Guardian's database. http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2015/jun/01/the-counte...
I'm not a journalist. What I am is sick to death of black people being slaughtered by agents of the state, in our name. Over and over and over again. With no accountability, very few trials, almost no convictions, and with the costs of the civil settlements not coming out of the pockets of the police perpetrators or even their union, but out of the pockets of taxpayers. Why are we paying for cops' racist brutality?
Broken tail lights, selling CDs or loose cigarettes in a parking lot, walking home, shopping in Walmart, playing in a park -- all of these have been deemed worthy of on-the-spot death sentences by terrified, trigger-happy cops. This is completely unacceptable, but it will not stop until the majority of people in this country demand that it stop.
Please stand up, and do whatever you can. At the very least, sign petitions, donate money to the families, talk to your friends and loved ones, write to your gov't officials, join organizations that are working toward police and prison reform and retraining. Demonstrate, shout loud.
White silence is violence. White silence is complicity. #BlackLivesMatter
Edited to add two links, opportunities for action: www.joincampaignzero.org, www.checkthepolice.org
Hasta la victoria siempre!
blaze
Comments
my first essay
I had many thoughts about what my first visible statement on this site would be. But when I checked the recent blog list this morning, and no one else had written on this topic, the decision was made.
There is no justice in America, but it is the fight for justice that sustains you.
--Amiri Baraka
I'm glad you did. It needed saying.
"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"
Thank you for posting this, blazinAZ.
Fuck the pigs!
Philadelphia and Cleveland are likely to both be worse than Chicago 1968. The only question that remains to be revealed is whether we will let them cut us down, or will we shoot back?
Time will tell.
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
I don't like the derogation
applied generally to the police, but there are numerous deserving individuals--and entire departments deserving of the porcine epithet. Do not think for one minute that there will be armed rebellion if the police brutalize non-violent protesters in with Convention venue--just think about what happened in Dallas yesterday. 10 police shot and 4 of them killed by snipers. It's called payback. The more these police transgressions, the more the retaliations will become and the more lethal they will be.
One idea would be to have the Justice Department, possibly working through the National Organization of Police Chiefs supervise training in the humane treatment of the people police are supposed to "protect and serve". If the cops do not mend their ways, the more adverbial will become the community responses.
I did not know his gf was taken into custody
I'm so glad she was live with her video, but I fear for her life. Please don't make her another Sandra Bland!
A co worker is selling his son's '94 Toyota because he thinks a newer model Jetta will make him less of a target. Unfortunately, he said, "Cops are killing young black men again." I didn't tell him they never stopped. It's just that we generally only hear about it if there's a video.
It has to stop!
Oh, and welcome. I have to head back in to working in the convection oven.
she's out now
Diamond (her preferred name) Reynolds has been released and has made a statement. I'm not going to link to any of the mainstream news sites, but you can find it easily
Thx for the positive welcome.
There is no justice in America, but it is the fight for justice that sustains you.
--Amiri Baraka
I'm waiting to hear what Sen Franken has to say
about the killing in his state, but I'm not holding my breath.
"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"
Oh, he'll probably make a statement about how
this was horrible and unacceptable.....then do nothing and move on to something else. (Gawd, I hope I'm wrong.)
Not unlike somebody said after the last mass shooting "Politicians will decry this mass murder as "unthinkable". Well "unthinkable" is the last thing it is. It is very fucking "thinkable". It happens all the time."
"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey
If I were a smart-aleck,
I'd probably say "if only there had been a good guy with a gun to save the good guy with a gun from the bad cop with a gun". But I cannot for the life of me see how more guns would have improved the situation, while I can easily see how fewer guns would have.
If I were a smart-aleck
I'd say after her majesty is crowned in January these will no longer be called police shootings/murders. They will hence for be known as "bringing them to heel operations"...
Fewer guns?
I'm sorry, but fewer guns would have helped? Are you saying we need to disarm the government? Because if so, I'm in agreement. Statistics show that it's safer to be around a citizen with a concealed carry permit than it is a government agent carrying a weapon.
Yes, fewer guns.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that. Even those of average intelligence should be able to grasp the concept. If the victim hadn't been armed, he wouldn't have been shot. If the cop hadn't been armed, he wouldn't have shot. If neither had been armed, everybody would have gone home safely.
And statistics show that concealed carry holders are far more dangerous than any government agent.
PHILANDO CASTILE
Compliant
No criminal record
No resistance
Followed orders
What's the excuse now?
A four-year-old child was in the back seat when the cop fired a gun at a man in the front seat of the car.
A four-year-old child watched this man bleed out.
A four-year-old child watched this man die.
Let THAT sink in.
.
WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGERY
Note:
Pay close attention to the way the officer first reacts... very telling.
Correction: thank you blazin AZ
Correction: I was so upset when I read this essay, I attributed it to author of the one above.
Just watched this, know there will be many, http://edition.cnn.com/videos/us/2016/07/07/philando-castile-mother-uncl...
"video provider not supported" - it's on CNN now.
------------------------------------------------------
A broken tail light.
Loose cigarettes
There are no more words to describe this world we're living in. When Elie Wiesel was asked why it took him so long to write Night, his experience of living the Holocaust, he tried to explain, there were no words to describe the horror of it.
We now have PICTURES, pictures of the horror of our world. A broken tail light.
Say Her Name - Sandra Bland.
JFK said this years ago: "Those who would make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
Please don't let the truth be hidden by "gun control" - This Truth is Not about Gun Control. This is another, another, another, where is our Memorial on the Mall, The Wall of our dead, this is a continuing war led by people who are literally licensed to kill, at will.
A four year old child, sitting just behind, watching, learning, this is our world.
I do try to bear witness, as
I do try to bear witness, as much as I can, but simply cannot face watching that video... I feel I am so lucky as to not have to live this myself - at least until/if the corporate coup comes through and all of us non-billionaire poors in every country become expendable.
They make up their own excuses as they go, because they know there will be no repercussions, not for police brutality, false arrest, murder, since the excuses are 'acceptable' in what are too-often kangaroo courts where even the deceased unarmed shot-in-the-back victim may often be 'on trial' - and some lives matter less than others to Those Who Matter, those they indoctrinate and psychopathic personalities in general.
The sickness comes from the top and must be addressed from all levels, with the law applying equally to all, with more responsibility properly assigned to those in any position of responsibility, with an increase in accountability directly related to level.
If public servants tacitly approve of the abuse and murder of citizens by other public servants or, like Hillary, even state that a Mayor helping to conceal evidence of police murder of citizens is fit to retain his job, they should obviously be charged as well as fired, and with great promptitude. Poisoning anyone, including entire populations, ought to be treated as the criminal act it is, if not as terrorism, as with knowingly subjecting people to a poisoned water supply or allowing their air to be industrially poisoned, as is continually done to cut costs/increase profits for self-interests while people and the environment suffer, sicken and die.
The condoning/encouragement of voter suppression, electoral cheating, oligarchical control of public policy/electoral choices, police brutality, false arrests, police murder of citizens - all of the above are banana republic signature issues - not those of democracy. One of the average American's most basic Constitutional rights being denied them is that of democracy, to which they - and the people of other democracies around the world - have a guaranteed right entailed for perpetuity.
Anyone supporting banana republic signature issues including those listed above, whether blatantly or tacitly, clearly has disqualified themselves from public office and self-identified as a criminal. Why are they still being considered as potential electoral choices in America by anyone remotely sane?
If you cannot Bern, (still hoping for miracles,) vote Green, and keep records of all evidence of all attempts at suppression/cheating - we now better know what to expect.
None of this will stop until it is stopped, and this is the last chance any of us may have.
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
I understand.
To witness the final moments of someone's life is horrific. On one hand, I believe white Americans need to bear witness to the constant unprovoked violence in black communities nationwide. On the other, these videos do little to lay to rest the doubts of skeptics who see each as isolated incidents, preventable IF the victim had not sold cigarettes, cd's, worn a hoodie, talked back, etc. etc . etc - ad nauseam.
Today, the thought of watching a person hanging from a tree at a lynching party sounds grotesque. Yet, at the turn of the 20th century, lynching was a tool used to enforce segregationist ideologies and devalue the lives of African Americans. Indeed, for a person to be publicly tortured and killed at the satisfaction of a viewing audience, they lost the humanity afforded to white Americans. Blacks were humans who could be treated as nonhuman, and no amount of care on their part to follow the ‘rules’ could in the end ensure their safety.
Police brutality is modern lynching— and a person does not have to experience the violence directly to feel its effects. We are only honor bound to show up to speak out.
When white people are killed, the world pays attention, but black lives? Too many still remain silent ...
The truth is:
You don't follow instructions, and the officer feels threatened, you get shot, and maybe die.
You do follow instructions, and the officer feels threatened, you get shot, and maybe die.
The fact is that if you are a threat, as in walking, driving, or breathing while black, and the officer feels threatened, you get shot, and maybe die.
The common denominator is: "the officer feels threatened" no matter how irrational it sounds. These types of officers need to be removed before they are in a position to act out of fear. I happen to know a lot of officers, and I know none that fit the category of "the officer feels threatened" but then again I am not black.
Everyone knows what needs to be done, but to get there we need to remove those from positions of authority that block attempts to upgrade training and education requirements, and improve academy training standards.
In Oregon in the 1950s and 1960s the best trained were the State Patrol Officers, while the worst trained were the Rural City Police Officers. The general rule was never trust a city cop or meter-maid, but a state cop was your friend.
These types of officers
When you say "these types of officers", you do mean "police officers", right?
There are no good apples. If there were, corruption couldn't continue. But it does, because pigs protect their own.
Go back to Daily Kos please
Some teachers get sexual favors from students . . . therefore, all college professors are corrupt.
Your lack of understanding astounds me.
Terrible analogy
Do those professors all band together in order to protect the predators among them?
As for your request that I "go back to Daily Kos"... all I can say is stuff it.
An Important Site to Visit ...
... is Campaign Zero. They're doing excellent work gathering data on this hideous systemic problem in the USA. You can find out what laws your state has when it comes to these police murders, and they're also gathering information on police union rules in all of the states.
There has never been a time in this country when Black people have not been disproportionately killed and otherwise abused by law enforcement. The only difference is that now we have video recordings of what happened -- and even then, it's difficult to get real accountability for these murders.
This is a systemic problem in this country flowing directly from the days of slavery, it's written into our laws and social customs.
The Campaign Zero recommendations are a very good start at dealing directly with this reality.
Beat in the USA.
I keep getting petitions and
I keep getting petitions and updates on US police officers getting off scot-free for even the video-taped murders of PoC - it seems to be darned near impossible, as matters stand, to get real accountability for these murders in order to prevent their continual occurrence.
Matters must change - and that means a real democratic government of, by and for the people, not involving either presumptive nominee or the usual already-corrupted suspects. Yet, even on this site, I see so many people selecting racist billionaire Trump and racist multi-millionaire Hillary as the only two Presidential choices against an assumed nothing else, with the faint hope still of a miracle Berning in many hearts and the existing option of Jill Stein, non-psychopathic, non-corporate Green candidate of whom it can be said that the corporate media dares not speak her name in case people smarten up enough to vote against the corporate candidates. Can it really be thought that she wouldn't be a far, far better option than either of the racist warmongering corporate/billionaire liars intent on the destruction of democracy and the natural life support system to suit suicidally ignorant profiteering Greeds?
Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.
A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.
over and over again
Will it ever stop?
From Democracy Now about 9 min including Diamond's footage.
In St. Paul, Minnesota, hundreds of protesters gathered outside the governor’s mansion to protest the fatal police shooting of African American man Philando Castile during a traffic stop for a broken tail light. Castile, his girlfriend Lavish Reynolds and her young daughter were stopped by police on Wednesday. Reynolds broadcast the aftermath of the fatal police shooting live on Facebook in an extraordinary video, in which she narrates the events while still inside the car next to her dying boyfriend as the police officer continues to point the gun at her and her daughter. For more we speak with Nekima Levy-Pounds, the president of the Minneapolis chapter of the NAACP: "It is not uncommon to treat black victims and witnesses as criminals in these types of cases."
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCmYBsq5xa0]
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
The Philadelphia and Cleveland Conventions
First, a fundraising notification from Ramona Africa:
I met Ramona at a Black Lives Matter/ Black Panther event for Black History Month last year. Ramona has hideous burn marks as a survivor of the Philadelphia PD firebomb that burned down a half dozen city blocks. Does anyone belive that the Philadelphia PD is better now than it was then?
Cleveland PD is hiring extra help from the surrounding communities to increase their 1,200 officer number to 5,000. Does anyone think the additional "officers" will be anything besides mad dog roid rage assholes?
Expect police violence at both conventions. Have contingency plans and a bail bond company ready.
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
"Let the Fire Burn"
Thank you for posting this request from Ramona. In case anyone doesn't know the story of the Philadelphia fire-bombing of the MOVE group, there's a terrific documentary you should watch. Here's a trailer [video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uViPLuur_EI]
There is no justice in America, but it is the fight for justice that sustains you.
--Amiri Baraka
Fire bombing in Philly
I watched a documentary about that and was flooded with so many thoughts I had to keep pausing and pacing. How could something so horrific happen in my country, in modern times? Why hadn't I ever heard about it? (I was a moon landing/Woodstock/Manson Helter Skelter baby - and yet I still knew about old Charlie.) Why hadn't this been taught to me in history or social studies? How could authorities get away with it? They burned all the group's neighbors' homes to the ground too. Why? WHY?
Its time to shut down the United States of America.
Justice Now!
(FULL VIDEO) Diamond Reynolds (Girlfriend Of Philando Castile) Speaks Out Following His Murder
From the Light House.
Personally, I think more guns always equals more deaths
...but there is a strong argument for any black person to carry and shoot at any police officer altercation. This is especially so given the profound silence from the police community in these events. Why would any black person not expect to be shot and killed when being pulled over ?
Reaching the boiling point
I'm personally reaching the boiling point, and I can't imagine I'm the only one. This country is failing, top to bottom. At the top you can get away with anything (Bush, Obama, Clinton, et al) and at the bottom, you're lucky if they let you live.
I know progressives are anti-gun for the most part, but if they deny you justice in the courts, deny you change through phony elections, what other option is there?
I'm sure this will put me on an FBI watch list, but fuck 'em.
Philando Castile had a gun and was registered to carry
it and he still died. More guns = more death.
"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"
Yes and Alton Sterling had a gun
but chose to never use it. That choice proved fatal.
Last nights incident in Dallas was inexcusable - but predictable. I have been saying for years this was going to happen.
We need real leadership to address out of control cops and establish gun control that keeps weapons from those that should not have them.
Cornel West and Bob Avakian
Historic Dialogue on a question of great importance in today's world between the Revolutionary Christian Cornel West and the Revolutionary Communist Bob Avakian.
Brother Cornel starts speaking at hour two.
http://www.revcom.us/film/index.html
From the Light House.
The only solution is for the police to fix this.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DD64urEx28]
Clearly there is NOTHING a black man can do. Clearly they are not where the solution lies. Police exist in a racist culture now. They don the uniform it is a racist uniform - just like the black man they are tainted by it. They are seen as racist even if they aren't. When a black man is killed they have to eat the shit sandwich they just made. And that is the only way out that I can see. Even if the cop is justified they have to eat that shit. And every other cop who works in that racist culture gets a taste of it. Because it is the cops racist culture. They made it, they have to own it. Maybe they should fire those cops that serve up this shit that we are all eating. Protect and serve my ass.
"If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back" - Regina Brett