A march and demonstration of solidarity between a number of Indian movements and causes took place during the parallel Indian Markets in Santa Fe on August 22, 2015. We weren't there for the march and demonstration but we heard about it later, and we were particularly intrigued with the notion that the demonstration was instigated by members of the Indigenous Fine Arts Market specifically to disrupt the SWAIA (Southwestern Association for Indian Arts) Market. Nothing could be further from the truth, but it shows some of the paranoia out there as well as some of the rivalry.
The following video (embed disabled, but the video is available to view at Vimeo; use button on video screen or link) was assembled by Frost Fowler from IAIA (Institute of American Indian Arts) in Santa Fe. Spoken Word by John Trudell.
We Are Power - Santa Fe 2015 from FFowler on Vimeo.
Showing posts with label Demonstration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Demonstration. Show all posts
Friday, August 28, 2015
Friday, December 5, 2014
Not Quite Ready
Saw some of the Shut It Down actions in New York via JamesFromTheInternet's livestream last night, and I was impressed by the size of the crowds -- estimated at 15,000 or more -- by the time I had to head to bed. This is good.
However.
The decision to hold off on Shutting Shit Down until after the workday ended for many/most New Yorkers is somewhat puzzling. The police themselves shut down the Brooklyn Bridge and other sites to prevent the protesters from doing so. And the police have adopted tactics that split the crowds of marchers and protesters into numerous rather easily controlled elements which they then lead either in circles or into dead ends, causing a kind of "natural dispersal."
NYPD is skilled at these tactics. They used them against Occupy as well. They work to dissipate the energy of crowds of protesters and limit the effectiveness of actions. So far, it appears that demonstrators in New York have not found successful countermeasures, though it's obvious that they are aware of the tactics used against them.
Meanwhile I was catching up on some of the actions in St. Louis and watched an archived video shot by Rebelutionary_Z at Webster University in Webster Groves. A contingent of students gathered and marched on campus (one I'm somewhat familiar with, though obviously it's changed in the last 30 years), police and campus security in the lead. This happened at St. Louis University one time too. All of a sudden the march stopped and confusion reigned. Something had happened. There were outbreaks of anger, police lines were formed to prevent resumption and progress of the march, and there was considerable tussling in the crowd as they attempted to find out/figure out what was going on.
Eventually, the cause of the disruption became known. Someone had been arrested at the back of the march. It was one of the banner-carriers, a banner that reads "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" -- a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr. This banner has been used in a number of actions and demonstrations in the St. Louis area.
According to reports from witnesses, the arrest had been a "snatch and grab" -- another anti-protester tactic widely used by police these days, and often seen during G-20s and other Big Gatherings of the Mighty, as well as during Occupy's hey-day in the public eye. "Snatch and grabs" are a form of kidnapping in which putative leaders are targeted by police and removed suddenly, often dramatically dragged away by a phalanx of police. Other times, random protesters are similarly targeted and dragged away. Almost always, the only pretext for the arrest of these individuals is that they are strategically placed where the effect of their kidnapping/detention will have the greatest impact on the crowds. This is a link to a video of a similar kind of police action in San Francisco during the #Ferguson protests in which a man who vocally challenged an officer is suddenly grabbed and thrown down, arrested basically for mouthing off. It is a nasty and ought to be an illegal tactic, as charges against snatch and grab victims are rarely pursued. The point is to disrupt and discourage the protesters, and it often works.
It worked in Webster Groves in that the march on campus immediately stopped and the participants then spent twenty or thirty minutes wondering what was going on and/or arguing with police. Eventually, the police said that the man who had been arrested would be released on no bond, provided that the crowd abandoned the march and dispersed. They did so.
Whether the man was ever released, I don't know, but I read this morning about another incident that demonstrates the level of contempt police have for those who are engaged in protest against police violence, and the lengths they are prepared to go to stifle dissent.
Yesterday, a member of the Ferguson Commission who attended a meeting with the President at the White House on Tuesday was arrested by St. Louis Metropolitan Police and charged with assault for his participation in an action at St. Louis City Hall. This was clearly a targeted arrest aimed at intimidating the young man, Rasheen Aldridge, Jr. He's been very vocal about the issue of police abuse in St. Louis, and has participated in numerous demonstrations since the killing of Mike Brown in August. He's also received a lot of press and media coverage, especially after he was appointed to the Ferguson Commission.
His arrest comes on the heels of the failure of the St. Louis County Grand Jury to indict Darren Wilson for killing Mike Brown and the failure of the Staten Island Grand Jury to indict Daniel Pantaleo for killing Eric Garner in July. It's worth noting (again) that the man who recorded the video of Eric Garner's take-down and arrest, Ramsey Orta, the man who provided the video proof that Pantaleo used an unauthorized chokehold in the take-down, leading directly to Garner's death, was indicted by another Staten Island Grand Jury on unrelated weapons charges, and his wife was arrested shortly thereafter.
The issue here is the tactic of "making life miserable" for troublemakers. It's a tactic widely by police and Authority in general to silence dissent.
These are not random incidents or coincidences, these are dissent suppressing tactics on full display.
Even the appointment of commissions and meetings at the White House are strategic elements in a cynical campaign by Power to curb and disrupt dissent, protest, and uprisings of all kinds.
They work.
These tactics can be countered, and the disruption of protests and other actions can be thwarted, but it doesn't appear that the organizers of some of the current protests and actions are attempting to do so. I don't know whether it's a strategic choice to let events unfold as they will, or it is a lack of preparedness to counter the kinds of disruptions the police are engaging in.
My sense is that we are still in the "precursor" stage of a potential rebellion and revolution. Activists and Americans in general are not quite ready...
It could be decades before they are "ready." We won't know the day, the how, or the why until it comes.
However.
The decision to hold off on Shutting Shit Down until after the workday ended for many/most New Yorkers is somewhat puzzling. The police themselves shut down the Brooklyn Bridge and other sites to prevent the protesters from doing so. And the police have adopted tactics that split the crowds of marchers and protesters into numerous rather easily controlled elements which they then lead either in circles or into dead ends, causing a kind of "natural dispersal."
NYPD is skilled at these tactics. They used them against Occupy as well. They work to dissipate the energy of crowds of protesters and limit the effectiveness of actions. So far, it appears that demonstrators in New York have not found successful countermeasures, though it's obvious that they are aware of the tactics used against them.
Meanwhile I was catching up on some of the actions in St. Louis and watched an archived video shot by Rebelutionary_Z at Webster University in Webster Groves. A contingent of students gathered and marched on campus (one I'm somewhat familiar with, though obviously it's changed in the last 30 years), police and campus security in the lead. This happened at St. Louis University one time too. All of a sudden the march stopped and confusion reigned. Something had happened. There were outbreaks of anger, police lines were formed to prevent resumption and progress of the march, and there was considerable tussling in the crowd as they attempted to find out/figure out what was going on.
Eventually, the cause of the disruption became known. Someone had been arrested at the back of the march. It was one of the banner-carriers, a banner that reads "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" -- a quote from Martin Luther King, Jr. This banner has been used in a number of actions and demonstrations in the St. Louis area.
According to reports from witnesses, the arrest had been a "snatch and grab" -- another anti-protester tactic widely used by police these days, and often seen during G-20s and other Big Gatherings of the Mighty, as well as during Occupy's hey-day in the public eye. "Snatch and grabs" are a form of kidnapping in which putative leaders are targeted by police and removed suddenly, often dramatically dragged away by a phalanx of police. Other times, random protesters are similarly targeted and dragged away. Almost always, the only pretext for the arrest of these individuals is that they are strategically placed where the effect of their kidnapping/detention will have the greatest impact on the crowds. This is a link to a video of a similar kind of police action in San Francisco during the #Ferguson protests in which a man who vocally challenged an officer is suddenly grabbed and thrown down, arrested basically for mouthing off. It is a nasty and ought to be an illegal tactic, as charges against snatch and grab victims are rarely pursued. The point is to disrupt and discourage the protesters, and it often works.
It worked in Webster Groves in that the march on campus immediately stopped and the participants then spent twenty or thirty minutes wondering what was going on and/or arguing with police. Eventually, the police said that the man who had been arrested would be released on no bond, provided that the crowd abandoned the march and dispersed. They did so.
Whether the man was ever released, I don't know, but I read this morning about another incident that demonstrates the level of contempt police have for those who are engaged in protest against police violence, and the lengths they are prepared to go to stifle dissent.
Yesterday, a member of the Ferguson Commission who attended a meeting with the President at the White House on Tuesday was arrested by St. Louis Metropolitan Police and charged with assault for his participation in an action at St. Louis City Hall. This was clearly a targeted arrest aimed at intimidating the young man, Rasheen Aldridge, Jr. He's been very vocal about the issue of police abuse in St. Louis, and has participated in numerous demonstrations since the killing of Mike Brown in August. He's also received a lot of press and media coverage, especially after he was appointed to the Ferguson Commission.
His arrest comes on the heels of the failure of the St. Louis County Grand Jury to indict Darren Wilson for killing Mike Brown and the failure of the Staten Island Grand Jury to indict Daniel Pantaleo for killing Eric Garner in July. It's worth noting (again) that the man who recorded the video of Eric Garner's take-down and arrest, Ramsey Orta, the man who provided the video proof that Pantaleo used an unauthorized chokehold in the take-down, leading directly to Garner's death, was indicted by another Staten Island Grand Jury on unrelated weapons charges, and his wife was arrested shortly thereafter.
The issue here is the tactic of "making life miserable" for troublemakers. It's a tactic widely by police and Authority in general to silence dissent.
These are not random incidents or coincidences, these are dissent suppressing tactics on full display.
Even the appointment of commissions and meetings at the White House are strategic elements in a cynical campaign by Power to curb and disrupt dissent, protest, and uprisings of all kinds.
They work.
These tactics can be countered, and the disruption of protests and other actions can be thwarted, but it doesn't appear that the organizers of some of the current protests and actions are attempting to do so. I don't know whether it's a strategic choice to let events unfold as they will, or it is a lack of preparedness to counter the kinds of disruptions the police are engaging in.
My sense is that we are still in the "precursor" stage of a potential rebellion and revolution. Activists and Americans in general are not quite ready...
It could be decades before they are "ready." We won't know the day, the how, or the why until it comes.
Tuesday, December 2, 2014
The Yearning
"Hey hey, ho ho,
These killer cops have got to go!
Hey hey, ho ho,
These racist cops have got to go!"
That's one of the older chants being used during the current series of anti-police violence actions in Missouri and all over the country.
People, particularly young people, are fed up with the killer-cop culture that's infected police -- apparently everywhere. By and large they seem impervious to the plaints of the People, and they seem to lack any hint of conscience and compassion as well. Witness Darren Wilson's attitude toward his killing of Mike Brown.
The summary execution of little Tamir Rice in Cleveland is one of the most egregious examples of the police killer culture -- simply drive up and shoot and then leave the victim to bleed out until dead or nearly so. It's incredible. And yet versions of that horrible scenario have been happening for decades, and something like it happens practically every day somewhere in this country.
And of course there are the constant lies out of police forces everywhere about these killings. The lies began immediately when little Tamir Rice was killed, but we've seen the practice of constant lying about these killings for many a long year. The lies are always accompanied by smear campaigns against the victims. In the minds of police, it is always the fault of the victim -- who always needed killing anyway. No matter the facts, it's always the victim's own responsibility that he or she got dead, never that of the police who killed them.
Racism, of course, is part of the pathology that infects police forces. As some historians have pointed out, civil police forces (as opposed to military) began as slave patrols and militias, the purpose being to control the restive Africans forced to work for slave-masters, kidnapped for bounty, used and abused for the profits and convenience of the planter-class.
When civil police were established as a department of city administrations, the racism that was at the basis of slave patrols and militias was transferred to police departments, amplified and extended to encompass anyone or any group designated "The Other" -- if you weren't white, prosperous, and "normal," you would be subject whatever abuse and murder the police cared to commit, and for the most part, there would be no consequences and no justice -- for you.
In some ways, it's gotten better. There are some modest controls these days that didn't exist when I was a boy. On the other hand, because of the original sins and the nature of policing in this country, the racism at its foundation is still apparent in the astonishingly high arrest, killing, and incarceration rates of blacks and other minorities compared to whites.
And young people yearn for it to stop.
That's what the demonstrations breaking out all over the country are all about. The demonstrators demand -- yes, demand -- that this crap stop, that the killing stop, that the war police are conducting on the people stop.
End it. Now.
It's clear the police are stunned. They don't understand why the People would be up in arms about what to the police is their highest duty and accomplishment -- killing the Bad Guys, even if the Bad Guy is little Tamir Rice. He was a Negro With A Gun, and according to all the best practices and protocols, Negroes With Guns are to be shot on sight. That's how the police protect you'n'me you see. We should be grateful, we should honor them with parades and medals.
Of course the young don't see it that way. Not even. The young -- especially -- see the police preying on and villainizing the most vulnerable over and over and over again, brutalizing and killing with impunity. Particularly the mentally ill and minorities. Over and over and over again. Without remorse, without conscience, without any understanding that what they're doing is destroying lives, families and communities -- and it has got to stop.
It's clear that police are by and large confused and offended by the lack faith and understanding the young have for the difficult "split-second" choices police must make and the peril they are always in from the predators they must neutralize every day.
Even if it's little Tamir Rice.
There are demons to slay after all.
Demons.
The young yearn for an end to this madness.
And they won't rest until it ends.
These killer cops have got to go!
Hey hey, ho ho,
These racist cops have got to go!"
That's one of the older chants being used during the current series of anti-police violence actions in Missouri and all over the country.
People, particularly young people, are fed up with the killer-cop culture that's infected police -- apparently everywhere. By and large they seem impervious to the plaints of the People, and they seem to lack any hint of conscience and compassion as well. Witness Darren Wilson's attitude toward his killing of Mike Brown.
The summary execution of little Tamir Rice in Cleveland is one of the most egregious examples of the police killer culture -- simply drive up and shoot and then leave the victim to bleed out until dead or nearly so. It's incredible. And yet versions of that horrible scenario have been happening for decades, and something like it happens practically every day somewhere in this country.
And of course there are the constant lies out of police forces everywhere about these killings. The lies began immediately when little Tamir Rice was killed, but we've seen the practice of constant lying about these killings for many a long year. The lies are always accompanied by smear campaigns against the victims. In the minds of police, it is always the fault of the victim -- who always needed killing anyway. No matter the facts, it's always the victim's own responsibility that he or she got dead, never that of the police who killed them.
Racism, of course, is part of the pathology that infects police forces. As some historians have pointed out, civil police forces (as opposed to military) began as slave patrols and militias, the purpose being to control the restive Africans forced to work for slave-masters, kidnapped for bounty, used and abused for the profits and convenience of the planter-class.
When civil police were established as a department of city administrations, the racism that was at the basis of slave patrols and militias was transferred to police departments, amplified and extended to encompass anyone or any group designated "The Other" -- if you weren't white, prosperous, and "normal," you would be subject whatever abuse and murder the police cared to commit, and for the most part, there would be no consequences and no justice -- for you.
In some ways, it's gotten better. There are some modest controls these days that didn't exist when I was a boy. On the other hand, because of the original sins and the nature of policing in this country, the racism at its foundation is still apparent in the astonishingly high arrest, killing, and incarceration rates of blacks and other minorities compared to whites.
And young people yearn for it to stop.
That's what the demonstrations breaking out all over the country are all about. The demonstrators demand -- yes, demand -- that this crap stop, that the killing stop, that the war police are conducting on the people stop.
End it. Now.
It's clear the police are stunned. They don't understand why the People would be up in arms about what to the police is their highest duty and accomplishment -- killing the Bad Guys, even if the Bad Guy is little Tamir Rice. He was a Negro With A Gun, and according to all the best practices and protocols, Negroes With Guns are to be shot on sight. That's how the police protect you'n'me you see. We should be grateful, we should honor them with parades and medals.
Of course the young don't see it that way. Not even. The young -- especially -- see the police preying on and villainizing the most vulnerable over and over and over again, brutalizing and killing with impunity. Particularly the mentally ill and minorities. Over and over and over again. Without remorse, without conscience, without any understanding that what they're doing is destroying lives, families and communities -- and it has got to stop.
It's clear that police are by and large confused and offended by the lack faith and understanding the young have for the difficult "split-second" choices police must make and the peril they are always in from the predators they must neutralize every day.
Even if it's little Tamir Rice.
There are demons to slay after all.
Demons.
The young yearn for an end to this madness.
And they won't rest until it ends.
Monday, November 17, 2014
Declaration of War?
"No indictment of Darren Wilson will be a declaration of war..."
From the video prepared by HandsUpUnited
The governor of Missouri declared a state of emergency today and called out the National Guard. There has as yet been no announcement from the St. Louis County Grand Jury. Perhaps all the preparations for Teh Riots are not yet in place.
Demonstrations are planned throughout the country and in St. Louis and Ferguson no matter what the GJ's ruling is. Demonstrations have been going on in St. Louis and Ferguson nearly constantly since the killing of Michael Brown. And the killing continues, the count kept by Killed by Police is now up to 1729 since May 1, 2013, at least 975 since January 1, 2014.
Every day there are more.
Every day.
From the video prepared by HandsUpUnited
The governor of Missouri declared a state of emergency today and called out the National Guard. There has as yet been no announcement from the St. Louis County Grand Jury. Perhaps all the preparations for Teh Riots are not yet in place.
Demonstrations are planned throughout the country and in St. Louis and Ferguson no matter what the GJ's ruling is. Demonstrations have been going on in St. Louis and Ferguson nearly constantly since the killing of Michael Brown. And the killing continues, the count kept by Killed by Police is now up to 1729 since May 1, 2013, at least 975 since January 1, 2014.
Every day there are more.
Every day.
Sunday, October 12, 2014
The Revolution Continues... ?
While I've been otherwise engaged, events in St. Louis have taken on quite a broad-based character leading to protests and demonstrations and violent police reactions in the city and surrounding areas.
I've watched a bit of Rebelutionar_Z's livestream recordings from the Shaw demonstrations and the sit-down at the Quik Trip, and it's inspiring. People are taunting the police, and the police are reacting with their usual intimidation and violent tactics, and as we saw in Oakland during the Occupy protests, the upshot is that authority loses legitimacy.
The QT action overnight demonstrates how the process works.
The video below is long, but it's easy to scroll through. At about 33 minutes in, the po-po's tank arrives to threaten the demonstrators, and from that point, things get intense. At about 50 minutes in, the videographer is pepper-sprayed in the face -- again, he says it's the second time in three days that he's been sprayed -- and several in the crowd are sprayed as well. Listen for calls of "Medic!" The police follow crowd clearing protocol without resorting to tear gas, but there are reports of "snatch-and-grabs" and violent arrests. These are typically intended to frighten members of crowds into leaving. They usually work reasonably well. But in this case, the crowd refuses to be intimidated after the confrontation, they walk away.
Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream
The police tactics are routine by now, but in this case there's a quality of absurdity made manifest by the police outnumbering the protesters at some points, with the appearance of the tank and the police challenge of camera people. The police claim to be threatened by people with cameras. Indeed. They are violently arresting sit-down, nonviolent protesters. They hide behind shields, but not everyone in the police line has a shield. One of their vehicles has to be jumpstarted in the street. It's just ridiculous.
"Who do you serve? Who do you protect?"
Obviously, it's not The People.
More videos here.
Others on scene include Tim and Luke. Bella Eiko is in town.
Some mainstream coverage has been occurring as well.
Thousands of people are participating in demonstrations, a fair contingent of youthful anarchists as well as a large group of local and national activists.
The tipping point isn't here yet, but it's coming.
I've watched a bit of Rebelutionar_Z's livestream recordings from the Shaw demonstrations and the sit-down at the Quik Trip, and it's inspiring. People are taunting the police, and the police are reacting with their usual intimidation and violent tactics, and as we saw in Oakland during the Occupy protests, the upshot is that authority loses legitimacy.
The QT action overnight demonstrates how the process works.
The video below is long, but it's easy to scroll through. At about 33 minutes in, the po-po's tank arrives to threaten the demonstrators, and from that point, things get intense. At about 50 minutes in, the videographer is pepper-sprayed in the face -- again, he says it's the second time in three days that he's been sprayed -- and several in the crowd are sprayed as well. Listen for calls of "Medic!" The police follow crowd clearing protocol without resorting to tear gas, but there are reports of "snatch-and-grabs" and violent arrests. These are typically intended to frighten members of crowds into leaving. They usually work reasonably well. But in this case, the crowd refuses to be intimidated after the confrontation, they walk away.
Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream
The police tactics are routine by now, but in this case there's a quality of absurdity made manifest by the police outnumbering the protesters at some points, with the appearance of the tank and the police challenge of camera people. The police claim to be threatened by people with cameras. Indeed. They are violently arresting sit-down, nonviolent protesters. They hide behind shields, but not everyone in the police line has a shield. One of their vehicles has to be jumpstarted in the street. It's just ridiculous.
"Who do you serve? Who do you protect?"
Obviously, it's not The People.
More videos here.
Others on scene include Tim and Luke. Bella Eiko is in town.
Some mainstream coverage has been occurring as well.
Thousands of people are participating in demonstrations, a fair contingent of youthful anarchists as well as a large group of local and national activists.
The tipping point isn't here yet, but it's coming.
Sunday, June 22, 2014
Secret Agent Man
[Note: Johnny Rivers' "Secret Agent Man" was the opening music for the American broadcast of "Secret Agent", a popular British television program in the mid-1960s; this post is a parody of an episode of "Dragnet", a very popular American police drama which aired on both radio and television from the late 1940s into the mid '50s, and on television alone from about 1957 until 1959. It was revived for television several times after that, most recently in 2003. All photos used in this post, unless otherwise noted, are from David Correia's Twitter stream.]
It was hot in the City, Albuquerque, New Mexico, a place the travel brochures ought to say is "so close to Texas yet so far from God." A company of useless eaters was gathered in Roosevelt Park south of Central Avenue -- aka, the World Famous Route 66 -- to vent their spleens about an "end police brutality." I was working the day shift out of police intelligence. The name is Peck, Jason Peck. I carry a badge.
Useless eaters have meant trouble in the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico, for as long as my partners and I have been cops. We look at ourselves as Human Waste Disposers. When a man needs killing, we take care of it. And when the undeserving go against the established order, it is up to us to learn their plans and to thwart their schemes.
Thursday, August 2, 2012
California Lynching
 | ||
| Postcard photo of the "Last California Lynching" November 26, 1933, St. James's Park, San Jose, CA |
The lynching of Tom Thurmond and Jack Holmes for the murder of San Jose department store heir Brooke Hart most definitely was publicized, however, with all day radio announcements of the impending action and live coverage of the doings themselves in the main plaza of what was then quite a modest California town, the seat of Santa Clara County. Afterwards, California's governor, "Sunny Jim" Rolf notoriously issued fulsome praise of the lynchers and promised to pardon anyone who was convicted of participating in the festivities.
Thousands of people gathered in the plaza from all over the Bay Area and other parts of California to witness and cheer the beating, stripping, hanging and burning of Thurmond and Holmes, and to fight one another for scraps of their clothes and other souvenirs of the incident before going home happy and satisfied that justice had been done.
It never occurred to them that perhaps these men had not done the deed, or if they had, that they deserved a fair trial and appropriate punishment as determined by law, nor -- apparently -- did it occur to the media or to the cheery governor of the state of California that a technicality like a "trial" was in order.
Herbert Hoover, who had retired from his disastrous presidency to Stanford University in Palo Alto just down the Penninsula from San Jose, denounced the lynching and Rolf's approval thereof, only to be denounced in turn by Rolf for sending the army to evict the Bonus Marchers. President Roosevelt also denounced the lynching of Thurmond and Holmes, but one assumes Rolf managed to hold his tongue -- at least in public -- and did not denounce FDR.
But that was all a long time ago, and we're well beyond such pettiness now, aren't we? The play was something of a shock to the audience, because they didn't know that anything like this had happened in California, let alone in San Jose, let alone "so recently." Wouldn't they be surprised to know that lynchings have happened in California much more recently than these two. Oh my yes.
And wouldn't they be surprised to learn that quite a few people protesting in the public squares and streets of California have been charged with "lynching?" The charge was such a shock to some of those who were arrested after peacefully engaging in civil disobedience in Sacramento and elsewhere that they thought the charge was a mistake; they didn't believe they could actually be charged with lynching for participating in a protest demonstration.
To this day, I'm not sure it's ever been fully explained. Most of the lynching charges in Sacramento were dropped shortly after the protesters were released from jail, and a police spokesman was delegated to go around to those who had been charged with "lynching" to personally apologize on behalf of the police department and to assure the protesters that the charge was a "mistake."
But not everyone charged with "lynching" in connection with Occupy and other protests in California has been so lucky. And the fact that the charge was used inappropriately in Sacramento, indicates that it was a fumbled but quite intentional and planned act on the part of the police if Sec. 405a of the California Penal Code were violated in the course of protests and arrests.
Oh?
Yes.
The provision reads as follows:
Specifically, Penal Code 405a provides the definition: "The taking by means of a riot of any person from the lawful custody of any peace officer is a lynching." Penal Code 405b provides the penalty: "Every person who participates in any lynching is punishable by imprisonment...for two, three or four years."
During the course of the thousands of arrests of Occupy and other protesters in California and elsewhere since last October, there have been more than a few instances of "de-arresting," that is rescuing protesters from the clutches (or the batons, fists, and other weapons) of the Po-Po. Sometimes those de-arrests have been successful, other times not so much. And when police are able to retain custody of arrestees or to regain custody after a failed "de-arrest," they are just as likely to charge the arrestee as well as anyone who tried to help him or her under PC 405a, "lynching."
It should come as no surprise that the anti-lynching law under which numerous California protesters have been charged to date was precipitated by the negative nationwide reaction to the lynching of Thurmond and Holmes in San Jose in 1933. The law was of course intended to forestall another unfortunate incident like that in San Jose -- and it largely succeeded in doing that, as subsequent California lynchings are barely known of outside the circle of those who committed them. On the other hand, starting in 1971, court rulings in California extended the concept of "lynching" from that of a riotous mob taking individuals from police custody for the purpose of their torture and summary execution to one of protecting the police from "riot" -- which, according to the legal definition of "riot" in California, means two or more people designated by police as participating in a "riot."
One can in fact be charged with -- and convicted of -- "lynching" oneself in California as Tiffany Tran learned to her chagrin in Oakland last December.
 |
| Tiffany Tran lynching herself, December 30, 2011, Oakland, CA |
Charges were dropped in January, but still. The whole idea of charging people with "lynching" either because they have participated in a "de-arrest" or police believe they are resisting their own arrest is absurdity on stilts.
Thus when the City of Oakland released the Fraizer Group Report (lengthy pdf) on the unpleasantness of October 24/25, 2011, when the Occupy Oakland encampment was violently evicted and protests against the eviction and the violence of the police were met with tear gas and other "less lethal" ordnance -- severely injuring Scott Olsen in the process -- the use of the term "lynch" on page 23 was met with a certain level of derision.
But it turns out that "at law" the use of the term for de-arrests, while absurd, is correct.
Such is the deterioration of language with the result of utter disrespect for authority and law.
As the Analects remind us:
Tsze-lu said, “The ruler of Wei has been waiting for you, in order with you to administer the government. What will you consider the first thing to be done?”
The Master replied, “What is necessary is to rectify names.” “So! indeed!” said Tsze-lu. “You are wide of the mark! Why must there be such rectification?”
The Master said, “How uncultivated you are, Yu! A superior man, in regard to what he does not know, shows a cautious reserve.
“If names be not correct, language is not in accordance with the truth of things. If language be not in accordance with the truth of things, affairs cannot be carried on to success.
“When affairs cannot be carried on to success, proprieties and music do not flourish. When proprieties and music do not flourish, punishments will not be properly awarded. When punishments are not properly awarded, the people do not know how to move hand or foot.
“Therefore a superior man considers it necessary that the names he uses may be spoken appropriately, and also that what he speaks may be carried out appropriately. What the superior man requires is just that in his words there may be nothing incorrect.”
Thursday, March 15, 2012
This Is What A Police State Looks Like (Redux)
By now, it should be clear that the Authorities have been busy during the Occupy semi-hiatus over the winter. Oh yes. Oh. My. Yes.
The other day, the Oakland City Attorney sued one of the local Occupy activists for vandalism for acts he is alleged to have committed in Oakland on the night of General Strike Day, November 2. Cesar is one of the gentlest and most generous people I know. He says that on that night, he was not committing vandalism in Oakland at all. He was trying to protect himself from police munitions fire by "liberating" a piece of plywood covering a window to use as a shield. Cesar was arrested that night for vandalism and failure to disperse, but he has not been charged criminally. The video evidence the city says they will produce more than likely is ambiguous about what actually happened, but it's obvious the City of Oakland is using this case as a weapon to keep "outside agitators" out of Oakland. Message: if people from elsewhere show up in Oakland and something happens, the outsiders will be charged for damages. Sort of like the Hotel Tax, I guess.
Not content with merely charging outsiders for damages, the Alameda County District Attorney has filed criminal charges against a number of UC Berkeley students and one professor for their participation in the iconic protest demonstrations at Sproul Hall on November 9, 2011. It's worse than the Daily Cal reported above. Nancy O'Malley -- the now notorious Alameda County DA -- has charged a total of ten students who participated in the protest at Sproul Hall, some of them charged after the UCPD gained access to their records at the University medical center where they went for treatment of the injuries sustained when they were beaten by police. Only two or three of those charged by the DA were arrested that day. One of them was Celeste Langan who is seen dressed in purple, at the extreme left of the video at the beginning, "resisting" arrest.
http://youtu.be/kNHXuf6qJas
Cute. Her arraignment is scheduled for tomorrow, I believe. Should be quite a show.
These are links to raw footage of some of what was going on that day at UC Berkeley.
http://youtu.be/NSat-nRefXY (Langan is seen in this video, the second person thrown to the ground and trussed up by police at about 3:40; at the end of this video, she is shown being hoisted up and starts to be led away)
http://youtu.be/cEcqsLyX-vI (In this video, which shows nonsequential events, Langan appears at about 2:17 being led away. The determination of the students in the face of what was seen at that time to be outrageous police violence is impressive.)
http://youtu.be/SN7WOsvepUg (This video is sort of the Highlight Reel; early on a female likely Cal student is heard repeating "You're hurting him!" while a protester is being beaten nearby. She is then heard saying to someone "That's how we train them to fucking stop us. We pay for them to fucking hurt us." Which is absolutely true. The UC police and the Alameda County Deputies were actually training not far from this very site a month or so before -- I've read it was with Israeli trainers -- to conduct this kind of action. Celeste Langan is shown in complete shock being led away in flexicuffs at about 3:20.)
The picture used in the article about Israelification of Occupy suppression is of course of the UC Davis pepper spray incident that happened a week after the Cal police riot. After numerous delays, an official report on the incident was supposed to be released on March 6, but the UC Davis police officers union sued to prevent it and got a TRO which is currently in effect. They claim that release of the report will compromise the rights of officers who might be named therein. This matter is also supposed to be heard in court tomorrow.
The NYPD is notorious for spying on various suspect groups including Muslims and Occupy Wall Street, but now, according to In These Times, they've gone further than usual by arresting people for "thought crimes" or "pre-crimes." This practice was more-or-less institutionalized during the RNC convention in St. Paul in 2008 prior to which and during which dozens of arrests were made and property was seized of people who were suspected of making preparations to protest. There is apparently a grand jury empaneled in Chicago that has been trying to develop terrorism charges against some of those who were arrested in Minneapolis and St. Paul four years ago, but many of those subpoenaed have refused to cooperate.
This is a compilation video of some of what was going on in Minneapolis/St. Paul prior to and during the Republican convention.
Notice anything? The exact tactics have been used and are being used against Occupy. At the time, in 2008, what was going on in Minneapolis/St. Paul was seen as way over the top. The rallies and marches and protests during the convention were peaceful, even routine in the context, yet the police were on some kind of hair-trigger/steroid alert against the protesters constantly -- even before the convention, and they have stayed that way afterwards -- and they behaved with what was at that time shocking brutality and over kill. People were being kettled and arrested en masse -- whether or not they had anything to do with protesting -- hundreds were held for days, they were not allowed any sort of contact with the outside, nor did were they allowed medical attention for injuries or other conditions; people were arrested for doing nothing at all, but merely because they had been identified as "potential" protesters. Flash bangs and tear gas were liberally employed against nonviolent protests. Police brutality was commonplace. It was a war zone in which only one side -- the police -- was fighting. The protests were nonviolent. The police, however, employed what were at that time considered extreme levels of violence against them.
And it's going on in much the same way against Occupy.
What gives?
The political conventions are what's called National Special Security Events, during which, essentially, the Constitution is suspended. During National Special Security Events, a form of martial law can be and often is imposed; violent and otherwise unethical or illegal means are typically used to suppress protest. While I've written about National Special Security Events and the nature of policing during them, I'm not at all sure that many Americans actually understand what is going on.
More likely, they see the suppression and assume it is due to something the protesters have done, which is simply not the case. The suppression tactics and the "threat display" aspects of officials are policy during these events. The policy doesn't change based on what the protesters do or don't do. The policy is to suppress, to prevent, and to tightly control the public -- no matter what they do.
Since the October 25 assault on Occupy Oakland, it's looked more and more like the Occupy Movement has been categorized as something that requires NSSE-type suppression. The clue came much earlier, however, when fully armored up riot squads were deployed night after night against a handful of local protesters who were peacefully engaged in civil disobedience. Night after night after night, dozens of riot cops (sometimes up to 70 or 80), squad cars, paddy wagons and so forth were dispatched to round up ten or two or, on one occasion, one protester sitting on the sidewalk refusing to "disperse" at plaza "closing time." It was an absurd goon show that became a joke. But not a funny one. Eventually, even the police recognized how foolish they looked in their little riot get-ups and their ridiculously over produced arrest-theater, and scaled back their overkill, and when the hundreds of thousands of dollars it was costing was released, they stopped doing it altogether. The DA refused to prosecute, and in the end, all the charges against demonstrators were dropped, although there has been an attempt to assess "fees" against those who were arrested multiple times (typically around $300).
As someone pointed out, had the police used their discretion and not engaged in this nonsense to begin with, there wouldn't have been any costs to the city at all. Duh. But no. Civil disobedience must be suppressed. Violently in too many cases.
But even when there isn't police violence during Occupy suppression actions, the official intent is to intimidate and disable. For example:
Occupy Miami raided by SWAT teams (VIDEO) (h/t teri49 in comments)
Objectively, this is just insane. The official fear level about the Occupy movement -- and apparently any other civil disobedience -- has reached a fever pitch. The fact that people are so pissed off and no longer fear saying so seems to have hit a raw nerve among the ruling classes and their enforcers.
Bones are thrown to the masses from time to time, but it doesn't stop the protest and actions. Suppression doesn't stop it; in fact, action seems to be on an increasing curve as more and more activists pick up on the Occupy movement's strategies.
This is not going away, despite the institutionalization of the Police State -- which looks to be full-time and permanent now. The ruling class and its bought and paid for government and enforcers are in a pre-panic state. They do not know how to suppress it, and they don't know how to fully control it. But they don't want to actually listen the voices of the People and do the right thing, either. They still don't think they have to. After all, they have NDAA and HR 347.
We got nothin', right?
We'll see about that.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Is It The Protest -- or The Demonstration?
Is it a distinction without a difference or is it a matter of fundamental importance?
"The Protester" is chosen as Time's Person of the Year for 2011, and it superficially makes perfect sense, since "protest" has been a constant and growing pubic activity throughout much of the world, most of the year.
I haven't paid much attention to Time Magazine since the end of the Luce era, and I usually find the widespread "lefty" blogospheric fascination with the magazine to be amusing at best -- when it's not an outright misperception. Time has had its ups and downs over the decades, but it's never actually been a "liberal" publication, nor have its writers and editors ever been as insightful as their reputations would suggest.
Time was once an important publication in a very tightly controlled haute media environment; it has always been closely aligned with the interests of power and money. It once had a breezy, popular-literate style of word-play and phrase-making, but has fallen into the sort of turgid prose and "balance" that characterizes so much of the post-modern media.
Those issues aside, the question I've been wrestling with for some time has to do with the nature of what is going on with this global revolution: is it a Protest or a Demonstration, and what is the difference?
Time focuses on the protest aspect of the Revolution, and further narrows the focus to a protest against government, specifically certain aspects of governments, especially the dictatorships abroad and the incipient dictatorships at home.
Like most other media, Time essentially ignores the demonstration aspects of the Revolution.
But isn't a demonstration and a protest the same thing?
Not in the context of the Occupy Movement and the various localized revolutions that have already taken place, nor is it the same thing in the context of the overall Global Revolution sweeping the Earth, the one that has as a motto: "Another World Is Possible."
Globally this Revolution is driven in large part by a reaction to the impositions and exploitations of a shrinking cadre of economic terrorists, a global neo-liberal elite, who see the earth and its peoples as resources and commodities to exploit, dispose of and to profit from. Period.
This neo-liberal elite has captured governments all over the world, and even the most ostensibly "democratic" governments have largely ceased listening to or considering the interests and needs of their People so as to better serve the demands and requirements of the notorious 1%. "People" don't matter at all in this context -- except for the extent to which they can be stripped of dignity, deprived of justice and community, and forced to struggle against one another.
This situation gives rise to revolt by its very nature.
Protest is a tactic used as part of the revolt, it is not the revolt itself.
For reasons that I've never quite understood, those in power -- and the media that is part of the power structure -- simply cannot fathom the tactical nature of protest, nor can they quite grasp the essential nature of the Demonstration that is at the heart of the Revolution.
This blindness may not be such a bad thing in the end, because the less that Power "understands" the greater the potential for the ultimate success of the Revolution.
The more that Power reacts against the Revolution from a basis of Dalek-like mindlessness, the less likely it is to succeed in the end.
Thus, the irony of breaking up the protest encampments in this country and abroad is that the demonstration that began in the encampments is dispersed throughout the community and society. The act of breaking up or suppressing the demonstration has the effect of spreading it. And the more the demonstration of the possibility of another world is spread, the greater the popular understanding and support of the Revolution.
By trying to focus solely on the Protest, Time and much of the media and associated officialdom in effect serves the interests of the Revolution itself.
I'm astonished watching governments all over the world and in this country double down on their austerity obsessions in service to their financial and economic overlords -- and in increasingly brutal defiance of the interests and demands of their People. It is a textbook example of institutions flailing and failing. Suppression is hardly a recipe for endurance, and the notion that "dialog" is somehow The Answer is just funny. It's long past time for rulers to "hear." Action alone will make the difference, and the only action so far undertaken is suppression -- often with extraordinary levels of official violence and brutality.
Government, however, is neither the direct source of the problems the People face, nor is it the answer directly. The obsessive focus on protest against governments, therefore, is a reflection of the obsessions of the media. That there is a parallel demonstration of alternatives doesn't occur to them.
"Another world is possible," but unless you explore it and show it repeatedly, it's hard to see how that Other World can be instituted, or even if it can.
The demonstration which began in the public squares has now largely -- but not totally -- been evicted from the squares (much as households have been evicted from their homes throughout the economic and financial disaster of today's neo-liberal capitalism) and has dispersed through communities all over the world.
"Be not afraid," has become the message of the Revolution (or "Don't be afraid," for those who are reluctant to engage Biblical references). "We are winning," is the coda.
Protest is a tactic, but it is not the Revolution itself. Suppressing -- or permitting -- protest is peripheral to the central demonstration that is at the heart of the Revolution.
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