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| RebZ's view of protesters escorted by police, the Arch and Old Courthouse, St. Louis, 31 Dec 2014. |
Showing posts with label St Louis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label St Louis. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
St Louis Today
Monday, October 13, 2014
Wow. Inspiring
The events in St. Louis overnight have been inspiring and moving as all get out. Rebelutionary_Z has been on the front lines, and I've been catching up with some of his archived video.
The first one I looked at was a march to and rally at St. Louis University. Thousands were there. They held their arms high in solidarity for four minutes of silence in the memory of Vonderrit Myers and Mike Brown -- and how many others who have been killed by police? Today's total looks like 1613 since May 1, 2013; at least 860 killed by police since January 1 of this year.
It was inspired for the march organizers to take over the plaza at St. Louis University for the rally, despite the objections of campus security. "Out of the dorms, into the streets!"
Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream
Next I watched the confrontation between the police -- who were beating their sticks on the pavement -- and the marchers on the way to the University. We've seen this scene so often not only during the confrontations in Ferguson and St. Louis but around the world it seems. The police, by killing so many, and by acting such fools delegitimize their authority. They just can't help themselves, I guess...
Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream
And so it goes.
Today's actions are dubbed "Moral Monday," something that's been ongoing in North Carolina for some time.
It's an idea whose time has come.
Solidarty.
The first one I looked at was a march to and rally at St. Louis University. Thousands were there. They held their arms high in solidarity for four minutes of silence in the memory of Vonderrit Myers and Mike Brown -- and how many others who have been killed by police? Today's total looks like 1613 since May 1, 2013; at least 860 killed by police since January 1 of this year.
It was inspired for the march organizers to take over the plaza at St. Louis University for the rally, despite the objections of campus security. "Out of the dorms, into the streets!"
Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream
Next I watched the confrontation between the police -- who were beating their sticks on the pavement -- and the marchers on the way to the University. We've seen this scene so often not only during the confrontations in Ferguson and St. Louis but around the world it seems. The police, by killing so many, and by acting such fools delegitimize their authority. They just can't help themselves, I guess...
Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream
And so it goes.
Today's actions are dubbed "Moral Monday," something that's been ongoing in North Carolina for some time.
It's an idea whose time has come.
Solidarty.
Thursday, September 18, 2014
Darren Wilson Goes Before the Grand Jury -- and Police in Jennings, MO, Kill Another Man
Interesting.
Darren Wilson spent four hours talking to the St. Louis County Grand Jury on Tuesday as reported in the St. Louis Post Dispatch yesterday. It's an interesting development for a number of reasons:
1) The prosecutor has extended the term of the GJ until January, truly an unconscionable delay if their sole focus is Michael Brown's killing by Darren Wilson. Though previously they were only meeting once a week, the investigation and presentation of evidence sufficient to indict shouldn't take so long, provided, of course, an indictment is likely. The only reason to extend a grand jury in a case like this is to defuse the potential for anger and reaction by the public -- which is often standard procedure in cases of officer involved shootings.
2) It is highly unusual for a likely defendant to appear before a grand jury for the simple reason that the witness has no legal representation in grand jury proceedings, and unless well-versed in the law (and even then...) may well self-incriminate, testimony which can then be used by the prosecutor to impeach testimony at trial. In other words, it is very risky for the potential defendant, and observers are aghast that Wilson testified.
3) While we still don't know where Wilson is staying while being protected, nor by whom he is being protected, the indications are that he is still in the St. Louis area. He is reported to have been interviewed by St. Louis County police twice so far and the Federal investigators once. Supposedly, he is "cooperating." But there has been no public statement from him, only hearsay from third parties.
Meanwhile, in Jennings, MO, the adjacent community to Ferguson, MO, where Darren Wilson first served as a police officer prior to the disbanding of the force in 2011-12, a man was shot and killed by police -- the new police force -- last night, allegedly while carrying a rifle and fleeing from officers, or while pointing a rifle at officers. As is so often the case, accounts vary.
This shooting occurred as a consequence of a 911 call. As in so many cases, calling 911 got someone killed by police. This happens most often on domestic violence calls, child endangerment calls, and armed suspect calls (such as the recent killing in Utah of a "suspicious person" with a Samurai sword.) In this case, it was apparently an "armed suspect" call, or rather calls, as the "armed suspect" was reported and police were dispatched twice to the same location last night.
Police claim that the suspect was spotted when they went to investigate on the second call. The suspect got into a vehicle and rammed police vehicles -- a frequently alleged incident in police involved shootings -- and then fled from the scene with a weapon in hand (said to be a shotgun or perhaps a rifle).
Police allege that the suspect fired the weapon at them, but there is no corroborating evidence that he did so. Police often allege "pointing a weapon" or "firing a weapon" to justify killing someone, but there is almost as often no evidence apart from officer statements and testimony. As we know, officers don't always tell the truth.
Police fired at the suspect who was pronounced dead at the scene.
Make of it what you will.
The question I will ask in every case like this -- and they are so similar by now -- is whether the killing by police was necessary or were there reasonable alternatives to the use of deadly force available.
If there weren't, why not?
Too many killings. Too many.
Darren Wilson spent four hours talking to the St. Louis County Grand Jury on Tuesday as reported in the St. Louis Post Dispatch yesterday. It's an interesting development for a number of reasons:
1) The prosecutor has extended the term of the GJ until January, truly an unconscionable delay if their sole focus is Michael Brown's killing by Darren Wilson. Though previously they were only meeting once a week, the investigation and presentation of evidence sufficient to indict shouldn't take so long, provided, of course, an indictment is likely. The only reason to extend a grand jury in a case like this is to defuse the potential for anger and reaction by the public -- which is often standard procedure in cases of officer involved shootings.
2) It is highly unusual for a likely defendant to appear before a grand jury for the simple reason that the witness has no legal representation in grand jury proceedings, and unless well-versed in the law (and even then...) may well self-incriminate, testimony which can then be used by the prosecutor to impeach testimony at trial. In other words, it is very risky for the potential defendant, and observers are aghast that Wilson testified.
3) While we still don't know where Wilson is staying while being protected, nor by whom he is being protected, the indications are that he is still in the St. Louis area. He is reported to have been interviewed by St. Louis County police twice so far and the Federal investigators once. Supposedly, he is "cooperating." But there has been no public statement from him, only hearsay from third parties.
Meanwhile, in Jennings, MO, the adjacent community to Ferguson, MO, where Darren Wilson first served as a police officer prior to the disbanding of the force in 2011-12, a man was shot and killed by police -- the new police force -- last night, allegedly while carrying a rifle and fleeing from officers, or while pointing a rifle at officers. As is so often the case, accounts vary.
This shooting occurred as a consequence of a 911 call. As in so many cases, calling 911 got someone killed by police. This happens most often on domestic violence calls, child endangerment calls, and armed suspect calls (such as the recent killing in Utah of a "suspicious person" with a Samurai sword.) In this case, it was apparently an "armed suspect" call, or rather calls, as the "armed suspect" was reported and police were dispatched twice to the same location last night.
Police claim that the suspect was spotted when they went to investigate on the second call. The suspect got into a vehicle and rammed police vehicles -- a frequently alleged incident in police involved shootings -- and then fled from the scene with a weapon in hand (said to be a shotgun or perhaps a rifle).
Police allege that the suspect fired the weapon at them, but there is no corroborating evidence that he did so. Police often allege "pointing a weapon" or "firing a weapon" to justify killing someone, but there is almost as often no evidence apart from officer statements and testimony. As we know, officers don't always tell the truth.
Police fired at the suspect who was pronounced dead at the scene.
Make of it what you will.
The question I will ask in every case like this -- and they are so similar by now -- is whether the killing by police was necessary or were there reasonable alternatives to the use of deadly force available.
If there weren't, why not?
Too many killings. Too many.
Thursday, September 4, 2014
Forced Into Poverty
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| "Wish I was in the land of cotton, old times there are not forgotten, look away, look away..." |
For some time -- I'd say since the beginning of this now permanent recession -- I've been prattling about the millions forced into poverty every year by our economic overlords and the government policies which support them. A couple of million every year are forced into poverty, while those at the top make more and more money, often directly from the impoverishment of those below them. It's a cycle, a vicious cycle that once started is very hard to stop barring intervention, but those who might have intervened in the past -- such as the government -- are the ones enabling and supporting the current state of affairs leading to such high levels of impoverishment. So there's no help there.
There are consequences, however, from these continual rounds of deliberate impoverishment, one of them being that there are many municipalities that farm the poor for revenue. They attract them and farm them and keep them poor and scrambling because it is so very profitable for them to do so.
Ordinarily, I wouldn't link to a Radley Balko article. For cause. When Balko was at Reason, he tended to be hyperbolic and he routinely dissembled. It was the culture there, and he was the Editor. He outright lied about competitors in the field. Since moving into the mainstream, he's apparently changed some of his evil ways, but I am still leery and skeptical of what he writes and says, just as I would be of Michael Gordon, Judith Miller, and Charles Krauthammer, all of whom have proved themselves over and over again to be marketeers of deadly falsehood.
With that caveat, Balko has an extensive examination in the WaPo of how the poor -- and mostly Negro -- residents of St. Louis County are farmed (he doesn't use the term) by the multiplicity of municipalities for revenue, and how these activities help maintain residents in poverty through fees, fines and forfeitures.
For those who aren't familiar with the practices that are so commonplace in St. Louis County and are not unknown elsewhere, it's a good introduction. For those who are familiar, it's a detailed examination of how the system works to fund the often corrupt municipalities in St. Louis County and elsewhere at the expense of those least able to pay. It's a nightmare for those caught up in it, and a treadmill off which it is almost impossible to get.
By design.
I have referred to the practice as "Negro Farming" -- a term I probably picked up during the Civil Rights era from some radical or other. Apparently the term is offensive to some delicate liberals and libertarians because it implies that "Negroes" are commodities. Well. That's the point. In a plantation culture, such as exists in large parts of the South, and in the ostensibly Midwestern (but actually quite Southern) city and county of St. Louis, farming cash crops is fundamental, whether the crops are cotton or tobacco or... Negroes. If plantation owners can't buy and sell their Negroes any more because of the interference of the (illegitimate) Federal Government, the plantation owners are going to find other ways to make their Negroes pay for the plantation. Sharecropping was one way. "Negro farming" by municipalities is another, one that may more lucrative all things considered.
What it means is that Negroes are attracted to a community that's experiencing white flight. In the St. Louis region, the initial wave of Negro residents into a neighborhood being abandoned by whites is typically solid middle class, but soon enough poor Negroes are attracted as well, often housed in Section 8 apartments. The first wave will own their houses, but the poor Negroes will rent using Section 8 vouchers which provide the mostly white landlords with a steady stream of rental income that they might not otherwise be able to get. The tenants tend to be transient, however, as economic hardship is imposed on them to a more or less significant degree by the extortions they are forced to pay via fees, fines, and forfeitures, starting often enough with their first traffic ticket for a broken tail light or lack of insurance.
The cycle begins. The victim often cannot pay and does not appear in court (which may only be in session once every two weeks). Bench warrants are issued. The victim will be apprehended at some point and be jailed, fined, and otherwise exploited. Some arrangement for payment will be made, some payments will be made, and then the cycle begins again, over and over and over again, in an endless round that the victim cannot get off of. He or she will be endlessly cited, fined, jailed, extorted, and so on without let up for so long as he or she remains in the St. Louis metropolitan region. If he or she manages to leave, the warrants that piled up in St. Louis will hang like a sword of Damocles over their heads forever.
It's a vicious cycle that municipalities depend on for a serious percentage of their revenue. It's not confined to St. Louis or the South, either.
Most Americans have no idea that it goes on, sometimes even when they are caught up in it.
The system forces people into poverty and keeps them in poverty. It does what it is designed to do.
Darren Wilson killed Michael Brown in the context of that system in Ferguson, Missouri. I understand that prior to the killing of Michael Brown, there hadn't been a homicide/murder in Ferguson for many years. This in a supposedly gang-riven and violent community of savages. No such thing was apparently the case, but resentment at the constant extortion and exploitation of the residents by the police was and is a hot button issue.
And I would say that as more and more Americans are forced into poverty they cannot get out of, the practices of the plantation owner communities of St. Louis County will spread and become standardized. Impoverishment and exploitation of the poor is already what many millions of Americans face every day. It is becoming the reality for many more. We've seen something of how it works in Ferguson and much of the rest of St. Louis County. But we shouldn't assume those patterns aren't commonplace elsewhere and aren't bound to spread far and wide.
The future is nigh.
"Look away, look away, look away Dixieland..."
Friday, August 22, 2014
The Other Police Killing In St. Louis
Now wait. This is just wrong. This is so wrong, as wrong in its own way as the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson just down the road on August 9. As wrong as the police killing of James Boyd in the foothills of the Sandia Mountains on March 16. As wrong as... well, we could go on. And on. And on. There are hundreds of these police killings. How many hundreds, nobody knows because there are no national statistics on police killings. But the vast majority are deemed justified and the book is closed on them, whether or not there is outrage and protest as there's been in Ferguson this Blood Summer, but not -- not yet -- in St. Louis where Kajieme Powell was shot down without a qualm by two young St. Louis police officers in front of stunned onlookers and a cameraman.
Let's watch (I know it's awful, as awful in its own way as the Albuquerque police murder of James Boyd. But it should be seen in order to comprehend just how cold-blooded the officers in this case were -- as they were in the Boyd case, though they waited longer before killing Boyd, hours rather than seconds...)
The officers, two young men, one in his twenties, the other 31, both with limited experience on the force, and with back up on the way, drive up, get out of their car and confront Powell with guns drawn, issuing commands, demanding he drop the knife he's said to be holding (in an "overhand grip" according to police, but the video shows that's not true), and when Powell doesn't do as he is commanded within seconds, they fire 12 shots, most or all of which hit Powell, several shots fired after he's on the ground, and they roughly turn the near-dead body over and handcuff him as back up officers arrive, and the shocked and appalled onlookers are pushed back.
The St. Louis police chief calls this a good shoot.
The man, after all, asked the officers to shoot him. So they did. What's to worry? Why the fuss? The officers were simply doing the man a favor, and one less Negro will now be troubling the Good People of St. Louis. Job well done, amirite?
No. No, it's wrong on every level, and we have to recognize this and say it. It's WRONG.
The St. Louis police are busy patting themselves on the back for a "good shoot" and for their marvelous transparency *they released the video, after all* in comparison to ham-handed TomFoolery and mystification by the Ferguson police in the matter of Michael Brown, where they didn't even take a report, the crumbs.
Because the StL police have been so up front about what happened, they say, there have been no disturbances in StL over this sad incident. That's because the people understand what happened and why, and they can see for themselves in this cellphone video that the StL police themselves released. So it's all good.
Right?
No. No it's not.
What we see in this video should shock our consciences to the core. It's a video of yet another summary execution in front of a number of witnesses. It's a video of police acting as judge and jury and executioner, again, as if it's perfectly normal for a police cruiser to arrive at a location, and within seconds shoot a man dead because... he doesn't do what he's told fast enough on the one hand -- though he is not threatening anyone -- and because he is in the way, black, and disposable on the other.
I first saw the video the day before yesterday shortly before I had to leave the house for a trip to Santa Fe, and I didn't see it again until yesterday. I'd heard about the shooting of course, and heard about the police chief's press conference and community meetings and so forth, and so I knew a bit about what the police and witnesses said had happened. I was alert to the fact that this incident seemed to be another summary execution on the streets and byways of the Good Ol' United States of America where this sort of thing is practically a daily occurrence.
I'm looking at it for a third time, and I'm more convinced than ever that police in America have become cowards hiding behind badges and guns and patrons who protect them, essentially no matter what they do (unless sex is involved), especially if what they do is to shoot down and beat down any potential threat to the highest of the mighty. Mentally disturbed individuals -- such as Mr. Powell appears to have been -- are particularly vulnerable to these cowards with guns and badges, most especially so if they're black and male.
There is apparently no greater threat to the realm and its masters than mentally disturbed black men. So it would seem.
And 12 seconds after the police pull up on Kajieme Powell, they shoot him dead.
In the case of James Boyd, the 40 or so officers on scene waited 4 hours or more before killing him, but they decided that the matter would have to be resolved before dark, and as Boyd was surrendering, they shot him. Time was up.
Meanwhile, in St. Louis, the police didn't wait at all. Didn't even try to de-escalate. Nothing. A few barked commands, defiance but no threat from Powell, and bam. He's dead. Case closed.
Welcome to America in the 21st Century.
Unlike the case of Michael Brown in Ferguson, the police were up front about what a good shoot they thought this incident was, how Powell wanted to the shot and how the officers obliged him, and how in the end, it's just one of those things, you know? Go on about your business, there's nothing to be upset about.
But we should be upset, we should be outraged, we should be as horrified by this incident as we are with the shooting of Michael Brown and the hundreds of others killed every year by this country's police, killings that we should question regardless of whether the prosecutors or police do.
This war on the people has got to stop.
Let's watch (I know it's awful, as awful in its own way as the Albuquerque police murder of James Boyd. But it should be seen in order to comprehend just how cold-blooded the officers in this case were -- as they were in the Boyd case, though they waited longer before killing Boyd, hours rather than seconds...)
The officers, two young men, one in his twenties, the other 31, both with limited experience on the force, and with back up on the way, drive up, get out of their car and confront Powell with guns drawn, issuing commands, demanding he drop the knife he's said to be holding (in an "overhand grip" according to police, but the video shows that's not true), and when Powell doesn't do as he is commanded within seconds, they fire 12 shots, most or all of which hit Powell, several shots fired after he's on the ground, and they roughly turn the near-dead body over and handcuff him as back up officers arrive, and the shocked and appalled onlookers are pushed back.
The St. Louis police chief calls this a good shoot.
The man, after all, asked the officers to shoot him. So they did. What's to worry? Why the fuss? The officers were simply doing the man a favor, and one less Negro will now be troubling the Good People of St. Louis. Job well done, amirite?
No. No, it's wrong on every level, and we have to recognize this and say it. It's WRONG.
The St. Louis police are busy patting themselves on the back for a "good shoot" and for their marvelous transparency *they released the video, after all* in comparison to ham-handed TomFoolery and mystification by the Ferguson police in the matter of Michael Brown, where they didn't even take a report, the crumbs.
Because the StL police have been so up front about what happened, they say, there have been no disturbances in StL over this sad incident. That's because the people understand what happened and why, and they can see for themselves in this cellphone video that the StL police themselves released. So it's all good.
Right?
No. No it's not.
What we see in this video should shock our consciences to the core. It's a video of yet another summary execution in front of a number of witnesses. It's a video of police acting as judge and jury and executioner, again, as if it's perfectly normal for a police cruiser to arrive at a location, and within seconds shoot a man dead because... he doesn't do what he's told fast enough on the one hand -- though he is not threatening anyone -- and because he is in the way, black, and disposable on the other.
I first saw the video the day before yesterday shortly before I had to leave the house for a trip to Santa Fe, and I didn't see it again until yesterday. I'd heard about the shooting of course, and heard about the police chief's press conference and community meetings and so forth, and so I knew a bit about what the police and witnesses said had happened. I was alert to the fact that this incident seemed to be another summary execution on the streets and byways of the Good Ol' United States of America where this sort of thing is practically a daily occurrence.
I'm looking at it for a third time, and I'm more convinced than ever that police in America have become cowards hiding behind badges and guns and patrons who protect them, essentially no matter what they do (unless sex is involved), especially if what they do is to shoot down and beat down any potential threat to the highest of the mighty. Mentally disturbed individuals -- such as Mr. Powell appears to have been -- are particularly vulnerable to these cowards with guns and badges, most especially so if they're black and male.
There is apparently no greater threat to the realm and its masters than mentally disturbed black men. So it would seem.
And 12 seconds after the police pull up on Kajieme Powell, they shoot him dead.
In the case of James Boyd, the 40 or so officers on scene waited 4 hours or more before killing him, but they decided that the matter would have to be resolved before dark, and as Boyd was surrendering, they shot him. Time was up.
Meanwhile, in St. Louis, the police didn't wait at all. Didn't even try to de-escalate. Nothing. A few barked commands, defiance but no threat from Powell, and bam. He's dead. Case closed.
Welcome to America in the 21st Century.
Unlike the case of Michael Brown in Ferguson, the police were up front about what a good shoot they thought this incident was, how Powell wanted to the shot and how the officers obliged him, and how in the end, it's just one of those things, you know? Go on about your business, there's nothing to be upset about.
But we should be upset, we should be outraged, we should be as horrified by this incident as we are with the shooting of Michael Brown and the hundreds of others killed every year by this country's police, killings that we should question regardless of whether the prosecutors or police do.
This war on the people has got to stop.
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