"We Support! Our Police!"

Public authority is breaking down in St. Louis. I've witnessed it through a number of livestreams, but Bassem Masri's has been among the most compelling, in part because he puts himself in the middle of the action and comments fearlessly and fiercely while he's documenting the events he's very much a part of.

During a rally at the St. Louis County (In)Justice Center in Clayton the other day, Bassem waded in to an almost entirely white and hostile "Pro-Police" crowd of a few dozen, maybe 100, chanting "We Support! Our Police!" and was set upon by the crowd which was turning into a mob. I have little doubt that they would have killed him if they thought they could get away with it -- if they had "permission," in other words --  just like a lynch mob. And Bassem got it all on video:



Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream

It's long, an hour and forty minutes, so feel free to scroll.

As Bassem suspects, these people are not really supporting the police at all. Instead, they're expressing their contempt and outrage for the protesters who have been disrupting their little lives since Mike Brown was killed by Darren Wilson in August. They'd be happier if the police would withdraw and let them handle the thugs* themselves. But the police on that day (Monday) intervened to prevent the mob from following through on its implicit threats of harm to Bassem and the others there to counter their.... for lack of a better word.... bullshit.

*"Thug" is the new N-word it would appear. 

The people in the streets love them some Bassem, his stature rises with every action he is a part of. He always claims he's not a leader of the protests, and that's true enough from the evidence of his livestreams. He doesn't lead the protests, but he often inspires the protesters with his personal bravery and his unshakable sense of justice. 

And then, on Monday, he let it be known that he was a heroin addict in recovery, that he's been clean -- and more or less sober -- for the last 16 months.

Oh my.

Well, I'm neither surprised nor horrified. Years ago, I dealt with addicts of all sorts when our theater company was "adopted" by an NA/AA group. One of them (that I know of) was a heroin addict, and he was the one who raised the most ruckus, caused the most problems, and did some of the most astonishing -- and often very brave -- work of any of the others.

When I see Bassem's livestreams and hear and read his commentary, I am reminded...

Heroin, they tell me, is one of the most difficult drugs to get off of, and even when an addict is able to get free from it, there are often irreversible changes in personality, behavior, and perspective that come about due the addiction and stay with the addict for the rest of their life. It's not necessarily a bad thing, it's simply something to notice. Heroin changes addict's personalities, but not necessarily in a bad way.

One of the consequences of heroin addiction -- at least in some cases -- is bravery in the face of injustice, and empathy for those who suffer. I really can't object to those consequences. Some of the people at the rally documented above could learn from them.

When Bassem told his story of addiction and recovery on Twitter, there was an immediate outpouring of love from his many followers and fans. It was remarkable to see, but not surprising.

He made his case that he's changed his life, and now he's on a new path, a path of service to his people. That would be the people in the streets of St. Louis and so many other cities where opposition to police violence is a matter of principle and a matter of community building and a matter of strength. That would also be the Palestinian people (Bassem is a Palestinian-American) who are under brutal Israeli occupation.

Like many others, Bassem sees direct parallels between the Israeli occupation and oppression of Palestinians and the widespread police violence and murder in the United States. They're not the same by any means, any more than the Apartheid regime in South Africa was the same as Jim Crow in the American South. But they echo one another, and there are direct interactions between the Israeli oppressors and the American police forces.

Those who support their police are simply and directly saying to those who protest police violence, "You don't count matter."

That's it in a nutshell. You don't count matter .

One man at the rally insisted that everyone killed by police in the recent past  -- all those names of men and women and children who have died in repeated hails of police gunfire -- deserved to die.  And a big reason why? They showed disrespect.  Their pants were too low, they threw gang symbols, they had guns or knives or something that a police officer interpreted as a threat, they insulted an officer, they disobeyed, they were black, they were standing there, they were advancing, they reached for something... etc, etc. In every case, the killing was justified in the eyes of most of those rallying on Monday primarily because the victim showed disrespect, contempt of cop.

Not much different than whistling at a white woman in Money, Mississippi, is it?

You do that -- boy -- and you deserve to die.

If one of the ralliers showed similar disrespect for authority -- as many of them no doubt do in their daily lives -- of course it would be different, and it would be different because they are white and right, and authority must yield to their demands.

That's the proper way of the world.

"We Support! Our Police!" 

And you don't matter.

So This Is Christmas.....

[Unfortunately, Vines tend to freeze or crash my browser. I generally won't use them or link to them for that reason. If this one causes your browser to have problems, my apologies. I'm looking for livestreams of the event, so far without success...]

Outside the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis last night, some people mostly dressed in black, bearing a poignant sign reading :

BLACK 

LIVES 

MATTER

gathered during Christmas Eve Mass. During Mass they gathered and chanted "Black Lives Matter". Outside the Cathedral Basilica...

The police were summoned and assembled in all their riot get-up, fully armed for "Righteous Battle" against the predators and wolves, the criminals and thugs who would dare to stand in the cold outside the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, during Christmas Eve Mass and disturb the gentle reveries about the Christ Child in the Manger,  and Peace on Earth, and... Goodwill Toward Men.

And then the police marched in protective phalanxes. They took up positions beside the Cathedral doors. They menaced the small crowd outside -- the crowd outside with their hand-lettered sign reading BLACK LIVES MATTER. 

The police threatened and intimidated. They made mock by their presence of the Joy to the World proclaimed in Bethlehem so many centuries ago. They cast fear and dread before them. They denied the very godhead they claimed to be protecting.

From what were they protecting?  From whom? And why?

In their minds, in their sad and addled minds, they were protecting the flock -- the sheep inside -- from the dreaded wolves baying at the doors outside. "Black Lives Matter!" means "let me kill you and eat you!" in this warped vision so many police carry in their heads, and so many Good White Folks sheepishly go along with. 

Black lives don't matter you see in that context. Black lives are dangerous by definition, and the only thing that can be done with them is to corral them in their multitudes and to kill them. And kill them. And kill them.

It's the American Way, the only way Americans have known throughout their history. 

I saw this image on Bassem Masri's Twitter feed this morning, Christmas morning, and I literally broke down in tears; it is too fucking true. Too fucking true for too fucking long.  In this, the greatest nation that ever was. Or so we have been led to believe.

There are those believers who insist that our nation's greatness is due to... that. The slaughter, the murder, the plunder, the rape. All of it protection from the Demons and soul-less un-humans, the thugs and the wolves and the savages and the animals, who would  run wild and devour the Good Honest People, the sheep, the dedicated achievers, the (shhh) white folk (shh) for whom God Himself granted this land, this New Jerusalem, this Shining City on the Hill.

They cannot imagine not killing the wolves at the door. It would be so... wrong.

This is the attitude of so many police and their masters. Kill and kill some more before the wolves get in and kill and eat you. 

For in their minds, that is what will happen if they ever stop killing the wolves at the door of the Cathedral.

They sincerely believe that the Thin Blue Line (now they often wear black, but you know...) is the only thing that stands between Civilization (white folks) and Utter Doom.

They sincerely believe it, and it is false.

So many are so sure that the killing must continue uninterrupted or Civilization itself will perish from the face of the Earth. And they are wrong. 

So this is Christmas... 

And I pray for the Awakening, for true Joy and Glad Tidings.



[Another Vine, I know... sorry... Vines are the only visuals I've found this morning of last night's action at the Cathedral... ]

Impunity Marches On

Bob McCulloch is turning into quite the little sideshow these days. He's the so-called St. Louis County prosecutor who rigged and manipulated the grand jury to return a no-bill on Darren Wilson for the execution of Mike Brown. [Note: I use the term "execution" in preference to "murder" because his actions and his excuses are in line with someone who summarily executes (under color of authority) rather than someone who premeditates and kills.]

McCulloch went public with the fact that he knew Witness 40 -- Sandra McElroy -- was bullshitting, lying, fabricating, etc, when she was called before the GJ to testify to what she had "witnessed" that day on Canfield Drive. Her testimony was almost word-for-word corroboration of Darren Wilson's story as reported in the St. Louis Post Dispatch the previous day. McElroy's testimony has been quoted numerous times in the media -- particularly on FOX -- to "prove" that Brown was charging the officer and did not have his hands up, yadda, yadda.

Except the "proof" is a fabrication.

McCulloch claims he knew it was fabrication and lies when his staff put her on the stand. So? The chest-out brazenness of it is pretty shocking. But then he's also said that plenty of witnesses lied to the grand jury, some on behalf of Brown and some on behalf of Wilson, and all he did was give the grand jury as much evidence and testimony as he could and let them decide whether there was evidence sufficient to charge Wilson with a crime.

They said "No," like nearly all grand juries and DAs do.

No matter what the cop does, what the testimony and evidence show, cops are almost never-ever charged with a crime when they kill someone. Sexual indiscretions, on the other hand, can get them into plenty of hot water.

McCulloch's brazenness in this case mirrors his brazenness in many others, wherein he not only refused to indict cops who committed "street justice", he used the opportunities to smear the victims and witnesses alike, just as he did in the Darren Wilson matter. It is his way, and it's the way of most DAs. Cops are perhaps imperfect, but the people they kill are monsters who need to be put down, at least in the culture and lore of the police/DA continuum. No matter the facts.

We're seeing this brazen impunity play out again and again, all over the country, in almost every case of police killing, while the People raging in the streets over it risk becoming part of the background noise of a society and globe in crisis.

I may have said it before, but it looks to me like Authority -- in the persons of Bob McCulloch and his counterparts in much of the country, and in the persons of chiefs of police and police union honchos, and in the persons of governors and various other political leaders -- are deliberately trying to incite rebellion, perhaps as a means to gauge the depth of resistance to the New Model American System.

In other words, there is at least a suggestion in McCulloch's behavior and that of the various PDs involved in the killing of Mike Brown and its aftermath of a deliberate intent to cause rebellion in order to study it, counter it and suppress it. A large-scale social experiment you might say.

There is a growing recognition that the American justice system -- from the cops on the beat to the Supreme Court -- is broken. Disparate justice is the rule, impunity for those with power vs harsh retribution for those without is the standard. There is no sign that Our Rulers will do anything to redress the legitimate grievances of the People and restore balance to a justice system out of whack.

Incidents keep piling up, but nothing substantive is done about it. Too many people like things just the way they are.

And people like Bob McCulloch and his counterparts are brazen as all get out about it, because they know that nothing can or will be done about it under the current system, and they are confident that the current system will endure, no matter the rebellion in the streets.

Impunity marches on.

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.

The Quest Continues

Street scene in St. Louis, c. 1915

I've been spending the last few days going through what seem to be endless archives of photos of Indianapolis, St. Louis, and parts of California that were important sites in my family's and ancestors' history.

The street scene above, for example would have been familiar to my mother's biological father the year before he died. The location is about two miles from where he was killed in 1916.

Union Traction Building in Indianapolis, c. 1910

Periodically after 1900, my mother's biological father worked as streetcar conductor in Indianapolis, and he would have been very familiar with this building and the streetcars that connected the various parts of Indianapolis and the outlying communities. As far as I've been able to find out, he left Indianapolis for St. Louis in 1912 or 1913.

Knights of Pythias Building, Indianapolis, c. 1910

I doubt my mother's biological father was a Pythian, but her stepfather became a member in Indianapolis. It was through his Pythian connections, I'm pretty sure, that he was able to find work in California when he and my mother and her mother left Indianapolis forever in 1917. Her stepfather started as a mechanic for a garage in Santa Maria and worked his way up to garage manager by 1930. He would hire another Pythian in that year to be the service manager for the garage. That man's brother-in-law, hired at the same time, would become my mother's first husband and my sister's father.

U-Auto-Stop, Willits, CA c. 1931

This was the service station and auto-court my mother's stepfather purchased sometime after 1930 and ran in Willits, CA, until 1939, when he sold it and he and my mother's mother moved to Reno where claimed to be a "mining engineer." Something tells me that the "mine" was a fraud, but I don't know.

These are just some of the photos I've been sorting through. Most of the sites where these people were living and working from about 1900 to 1940 or so are long gone. But the rail yard in St. Louis at the end of St. Louis Avenue is still there.

Wabash Rail Yard at the end of St. Louis Ave, St. Louis, MO, c. 2012 via the Google

Haunting.
---------------------------------------------
[I added a bunch of pictures and links but apparently didn't save them. Oh well! Here are some others....]

These are some additional pictures I've found that give me a better idea of the environment members of my family and some of my relations came from:

Both my mother's mother and her mother worked as telephone operators for the Fletcher American National Bank from 1910 or earlier to 1915 or 1916. This picture isn't them... so far as I know:


I wonder who's watching me....

"Number pluh-leeze" c. 1912

Fletcher American National Bank, c. 1915. They had other buildings in Indianapolis as well, but this is likely to be the place where they worked:

Note the street car. At various times in his life, my mother's father worked as a street car conductor, and as I was going through a bunch of Indianapolis street car pictures, I found this one:

Among other things, what's interesting about this picture is the location, E. Michigan Street and N. Emerson Avenue, the line's termination point. According to the story where I found the picture, the E. Michigan Street line was completed to N. Emerson Avenue in 1911. The E. Michigan line ran half a block from where my mother's relations -- including her mother and grandmother, her brother and a cousin -- were living in 1910 and where my mother would live after she was born in 1911. Lawrence, my mother's biological father, was working as a streetcar conductor in 1911. Wouldn't it be something if one of the men in the picture is her father? If the picture was taken in 1915, as stated in the story, it couldn't be him as he was then in St. Louis, but if it were taken any time between 1910 and 1913, it could be.

Progress Laundry c. 1911

This is a picture of the Progress Laundry that opened in 1910. One of my mother's aunts was working as a laundress in 1910, at a laundry not at home (so unlike Mildred Pierce's mother, she didn't take in other people's washing). I don't know that she worked at the Progress Laundry -- there were a number of laundries in Indianapolis at the time -- but it wouldn't surprise me.

A saloon:

Wm Brommer Saloon c. 1909

Looks like they cleaned it up and cleaned the customers out for the picture. I don't know that Lawrence frequented the Brommer Saloon, but he probably visited it -- and a number of others -- while carousing around the town.

The drug store Lawrence was alleged to have burgled in 1912 was owned by a fellow named Ferdinand A. Mueller, who soon thereafter went on to other pursuits:

Mr. Mueller's drug store on E. Washington Street is no longer there. Pretty much nothing is there anymore but parking lots. But Mr. Mueller told the the police and newspapers that so far as he knew, nothing was taken from his store in the infamous burglary.

Saturday Evening Post, published in Indianapolis, December 18, 1915.

Dreher's 1916 Simplex Guide and Map of Indianapolis -- detailing streetcar lines, how to get where you want to go, and showing views of the city.

Afterwhiles, by James Whitcomb Riley. My mother had several copies of this. I didn't know why. Now I do. She also had some other Riley books. Lawrence's middle name was... Riley.

A Hoosier Romance, by James Whitcomb Riley. 1910.

Sooty, gritty, grimy Indianapolis in the movies, c. 1916.

The Golden State, the Sunset, and the California all were "Limiteds" that passed through the orange groves of Southern California back in the day. Looks like the picture dates from before 1920.

And so, they arrive. My mother, her mother, and her stepfather arrived in California in 1917, perhaps in June, perhaps in October. They took the route to Santa Ana where Leo and Edna were wed, then they headed up the coast to Santa Maria where they stayed at least until sometime in the 1930s (haven't quite sorted out the year they left, but it was after 1930.) The postcard is part of the collection of a Canadian fellow named David who has been posting them on his blog since 2009. Many of his cards are simply charming.

Love This

[UPDATE: Sorry to say, it looks like Argus Radio has taken down the video of the I-270 protest. I don't see it anywhere on the site. Too bad. It was pretty good. Nevertheless, there's still lots of stuff there. It's a primary resource.]

Video of the protest in St. Louis, shutting down I-270 today for four and a half minutes in honor of Michael Brown. Worked like a charm. The stoppage starts around 13 minutes into the video.

There were said to be similar direct actions elsewhere at the same time, though I haven't seen reports yet. Mustafa Hussein claimed that the local media in St. Louis claimed that the protest had been canceled. Well, they were wrong.

So far as I could tell, there were no arrests though police did arrive just as the protest was dispersing.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Interesting: Don't know what happened, but the embed I originally posted turned into something else when the site was updated. Odd. This is the link to the "I am Mike Brown Live from Ferguson, MO" page where all the Argus Radio videos are archived. http://new.livestream.com/accounts/9035483/events/3271930

There's a lot of good stuff there that you won't find anywhere else.

What A Weekend

Wild? Not so much for us, no, but the sense that things are spiraling ever more out of control into disruption and chaos can't be avoided.

There was the continuing turmoil in Africa, Ukraine and the Middle East, of course, deadly turmoil that's become a litany of grief backgrounding practically everything else. It's still far enough away that we can pretend it has little or no effect on our everyday do-dah lives, but it has been going on so long, and it has been so bloody and vicious the mind and soul reels. That Our Rulers think it quite divine is sickening; that Western governments for the most part are the instigators and funders and suppliers of the ongoing misery is worse. And worst of all is the fact that we, the Rabble, seem to have no influence at all on the course of events playing out before us.

That's been true for many long years now.

In a northern suburb of St. Louis, MO, a young man named Michael Brown was shot dead by a police officer, apparently for the crime of walking while Black. We know this crime well in the United States of Goddamn, for it has been something of a truism from the nation's founding that if you're Black, get back. Do what the officer says, and you might get hurt a little less than otherwise. You mouth off and you get shot.

What happened in this case, I don't know. The fellow who was with Brown was interviewed by CBC and he described the incident in chilling detail. They were walking in the middle of the street. An officer pulled up beside them and told them to get on the sidewalk. They said they were near their destination and they would be out of the street momentarily. The officer continued on his way, the young men continued on their way. The officer suddenly backed up his vehicle and nearly hit Brown and his friend as he maneuvered the vehicle to cut off both lanes of the street. The officer suddenly opened the door of his vehicle, right into the legs of the young men, and when they didn't move or fall, the officer fell back into the car. The officer grabbed Brown by neck and then the arm and tried to pull him into the car. Brown resisted. The officer pulled his gun and said "I'll shoot you," and fired inside the vehicle. Brown was apparently hit but he escaped. From the account, it's not entirely clear whether Brown or the officer was hit, however. The officer got out of the car with his gun drawn and pursued Brown. He shot Brown once (again). Brown turned to face the officer with his hands up and fell to his knees wounded. The officer continued to approach Brown, firing his weapon as he did. Brown fell dead on the street.

It's an absolutely chilling account of a summary execution in the street in front of an apartment complex in Ferguson, Missouri, an account that has been backed up by many witnesses. Essentially, what is reported in the interview is what most of them saw. A police officer firing at a wounded young man on his knees who's hands were in the air. Oh my god in heaven. When will this madness end?

Needless to say, Brown's family and citizens and residents of Ferguson were upset. They protested. Rumors flew. There were more protests, and the police formed cordons, got the dogs out, got their riot gear on and threatened the protesters. Some of them looted a number of stores and burned another -- the site where Brown was at first was alleged to have stolen a cigar (though the accusation has since been withdrawn).

There were continuing protests yesterday at the Ferguson police headquarters. Police cordons continued and arrests were made, apparently arbitrarily (at least from what I saw).  There were town hall meetings and further protests yesterday, while the police continued their cordoning and blank faces in the midst of growing resident anger.

The FBI announced a parallel investigation into what happened to Brown and pundits expressed their views, mostly defending the police and condemning the "rioters."

Anger grew, and last night there was more unrest in Ferguson; tear gas was fired and more arrests were made.

From what I could tell, the primary issue was that people were fed up with the cops and the impunity by which they were able to get away with such actions as the summary execution of Michael Brown in the streets of their town. They wanted and demanded, justice. The blank faces of authority not only denied them their demands, they enforced a strange code of justice that presumed those making demands to be at fault for their own arbitrary treatment by authority.

According to the iron protocols of police culture, the victim is always at fault. The officer, never.

Of course, this is the very same protocol used by Israel in its continuing conflict with the Palestinian  prisoners of Gaza and the West Bank. The victims, the Palestinians, are always at fault; the Israelis, never.

They are supported by the government of the United States -- which tends to parrot Israeli talking points word for word, and which supplies the weapons that are used by Israel against the Palestinians.

We see the same dynamic and rhetoric in the Ukrainian conflict, with the added Israeli twist of calling protests and  resistance "terrorists."

This weekend marked the 50th Anniversary Reunion of PCPA Theatrefest Alumni. Ms Ché and I were both part of the PCPA Company for eight seasons over ten years, from the early 70s to the early 80s, and we would have liked to have been at the reunion, but it was not to be. The trip out to California was a bit too much for me still.

On the other hand, we are getting reports from a friend who is there and the Facebook page has been filling up with photos and stories and memorabilia, so there is that vicarious connection. It's nice to see that so many folks from Our Day -- 30-40 years ago -- are still alive.  This is good.

Then again, I learned one of the PCPA folks from Back When died yesterday. Robin Williams was only there one summer, in 1973 and was cast in "The Music Man" and "Caucasian Chalk Circle." It was our first season there, and Williams made quite an impression on us and practically everyone else that summer. He was a free spirit, wild and full of mischief. He was easily one of the nicest people and one of the funniest people to assemble that summer, but he was so hard to tame he was something of a challenge for directors and occasionally for other cast members. There was a dark undercurrent behind his humor and mischief, though, and we learned some things about him and his life that were not so happy. I don't remember the details, but they were serious enough to elicit a good deal of empathy.

I don't know whether he was invited to attend the Anniversary Gala last night. I hope so, but we haven't received a report yet on last night's festivities, so we don't know the full story.

When I found out he'd died,  after thinking about all those people who were still alive, it was a stark reminder of our mutual mortality.

Rest in peace. For Robin and for so very many others who have passed on this Blood Summer...