Terence Crutcher: Cop Charged with Manslaughter.

Tulsa police officer Betty Shelby (Photo: Tulsa PD).

Tulsa police officer Betty Shelby (Photo: Tulsa PD).

The white Tulsa police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black man was charged with manslaughter on Thursday and a warrant has been issued for her arrest, Tulsa County District Attorney Stephen Kunzweiler said.

Officer Betty Shelby was charged with first-degree manslaughter for the death of Terence Crutcher, 40. The incident, captured on widely broadcast police videos, is one in a series that has raised questions of racial bias in U.S. policing.

“Although she is charged, she is presumed innocent until a judge or jury determines otherwise,” Kunzweiler said. “I don’t know why things happen in this world the way they do.”

Manslaughter? Really? How about 1st degree murder? “I don’t know why things happen in this world the way they do.” Oh for fuck’s sake! What kind of grade A idiot says something like that? A man was murdered for no reason at all by yet another cop out of control, and with a head stuffed full of stereotypical bigotry. We aren’t talking about some great mystery here, or an unexplained phenomenon. This is an all too regular occurrence, a cop murdering a person of colour. Depressingly fucking normal and typical. Don’t even start with such utter isht, making this out to be something remarkable. The only remarkable thing about this case is that it’s not in the least remarkable.

A lawyer for Shelby has said she acted because she feared for her life, believing Crutcher was reaching into his vehicle for a weapon during the encounter, which took place last Friday.

Yet another cop pleading scaredy-pants. Fuck, fuck, fuck, I’m sick of this. If you are so scared, you need to be stripped of your weapons and ersatz authority, stat. Find another job. Shelby’s partner had his taser out and armed. And her excuse for gunning Mr. Crutcher down? “I was scared.” This disgusting excuse must not be accepted, in any way whatsoever. Cops have all manner of weaponry besides their damn gun. How about they use it, instead of us getting to hear about yet another person of colour being murdered by cops? Instead of hearing about yet another family devastated by trauma and grief?

This constant narrative of cops having such an incredibly dangerous job has to stop. Policing doesn’t even make the top 10 in a list of most dangerous jobs. Lumberjack, deep sea fisherman, bush pilot, miner, personal transport driver, sanitation worker, search and rescue, welder and metal worker, mechanic, electrician, roofer, and firefighter are all  dangerous jobs, and all of them are more dangerous than being a cop. That’s not to say that there’s no danger or risk in policing, of course there is, however, it’s not up to what is always claimed, either. This narrative of constant, extreme danger is mostly swallowed whole by cops themselves, and it whips them up into a froth of fear and deep paranoia, which amplifies implicit bigotry, and you get “scared, so I gunned them down.”

Tulsa police have said Crutcher was unarmed and there was no weapon in the vehicle. In a bid for transparency, they released the videos, one of which was taken from a police helicopter and the other from a dashboard camera in a patrol car.

The U.S. Justice Department has launched a separate investigation to see if the officers on the scene violated Crutcher’s civil rights.

:Chokes:  Violated Mr. Crutcher’s civil rights? Is not being murdered in cold blood a violation of his rights? You have to check around to see if he was violated? Christ. This day, I seriously hate this damned country. (Yes, I know this can be used for additional charges. That does not take the inanity of it away.)

Via Raw Story.

Read Your Own Writing? Absolutely Not!

hell-cover

There’s an in-depth, heart-rending article at Solitary Watch, about William “Billy” Blake, now in his 29th year of solitary confinement, having been sentenced to 77 years in solitary. Blake wrote an essay which has been included in the slim volume Hell Is A Very Small Place: Voices from Solitary Confinement. The editors naturally sent a copy of the book to all those writers who contributed, but the powers who be have decided that it’s much too dangerous for Blake to read his own writing. Yep. I highly recommend the whole article, just excerpts here.

One of Blake’s essays about living in isolation, “A Sentence Worse Than Death,” was published in the first anthology of narratives about solitary. Although the book, titled Hell is a Very Small Place: Voices from Solitary Confinement, was released in February, Blake has yet to hold a copy in his hands.

Jean Casella, co-director of Solitary Watch and co-editor of the book, reports that two copies of Hell Is a Very Small Place were mailed to Blake at Great Meadow Correctional Facility in upstate New York, where he is currently incarcerated. They were sent directly by the publisher, in accordance with policies laid out by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS), but the copies never reached him.

Great Meadow Correctional Facility—referred to by most individuals serving time there as “Comstock,” after the small town where it is located—forwards all books entering the prison to the Facility Media Review Committee (FMRC). In deciding whether to allow access to a publication, the FMRC operates under a code of directives, or rules. After the evaluation, incarcerated individuals are issued an Inmate Disposition Notice, informing them of the FMRC’s decision.

Weeks after it was sent to him, Blake received a notice informing him that he was being denied access to his book.

The reason for the denial of Blake’s book reads: “Publication which incites disobedience towards law enforcement officers or prison personell [sic], presents clear and immediate risk of lawlessness, violence, anarchy, or rebellion agiainst [sic] governmental authority.” The notice flags fourteen page numbers but fails to mention the content in violation or where on the pages that content can be found—both of which are required by DOCCS Directive 4572.

[Read more…]

“I was picked out to be picked on in the name of Jesus.”

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Florida Highway Patrol wrote Judy Jones a ticket for having vinyl lettering on her truck’s windshield. However, she claims the trooper did it because of her faith.

“First thing he said to me, he said, ‘I want you to know that you are breaking the law.’ And I said, ‘How am I breaking the law, sir?’ He said, ‘With that sign up there, that Jesus thing up there,’” she said.

Jones got a $100 ticket and is fighting her case.

“I’m going to court for Jesus,” said Jones.

Florida law says no one can drive a car that has any signage or material on a windshield that is not transparent. Jones claims her decals are legal.

“It is not obstructing any, my sight at all,” Jones said. “I was picked out to be picked on in the name of Jesus.”

Florida Highway Patrol says that in no way did the officer write Jones the ticket because of its content. They say it was simply in violation of state law.

Okay, I know this is all rather silly, and while driving a Jesus testament truck wouldn’t be my thing, I do question the law here. I’m not in Florida, but I see all manner of vehicles here with sports teams names spelled out, and front and back windows littered with such stuff. I doubt that’s terribly legal here, either, but no one seems to care much. I can’t see how the lettering on Ms. Jones’s truck would obscure her vision any, and I do wonder if the truck was minus the Jesus stuff, and the lettering was sports related, whether she would have been targeted in the first place. A hundred dollars is a hefty ticket, I wouldn’t be happy about having to pay that for not actually doing anything dangerous or wrong. I do wish Ms. Jones good luck in court.

Story and video here.

McCrory: Nthing Down.

Credit: Youtube.

Credit: Youtube.

You really can’t say that McCrory is doubling down at this point. It’s gone far beyond that. He hangs onto HB 2 like it was a life preserver and he a drowning man. I don’t know why he clings so very hard to this hateful bigotry, especially in the face of so much opposition, not only from people all over the States, but from his own constituency. The majority of people in NC are not invested in this legalization of hate and fear; they don’t want this enacted. [See the full article for stats.] Surely, it must have occurred to McCrory that he could salvage at least a part of his reputation if he stepped back and killed HB 2. People might not like him, but he would at least get grudging respect for doing the right thing, for once. Unfortunately, McCrory is still McCrory, and he’s busy spreading his hate, fear, and bigotry as far as he can. Beware, there’s a major irony hazard coming up:

A new campaign ad from North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory released Wednesday defends his anti-trans bathroom bill on the basis of “privacy and safety.”

The 30-second spot is intended to answer criticisms of House Bill 2, the controversial legislation that effectively forces trans people to use public restrooms (in government buildings) that do not correspond with their gender identity; it also invalidated all municipal protections for LGBT people, and makes it impossible to pass future pro-LGBT housing and employment laws. In the ad, McCrory stands by the embattled bill, which was introduced, debated, and signed into law in a single day.

“You know, when we were raising average teacher pay, creating new jobs, and cutting taxes, other folks were actually pushing to make our schools allow boys to use the girls’ locker rooms and showers,” McCrory claims. “Are we really talking about this? Does the desire to be politically correct outweigh our children’s privacy and safety? Not on my watch. Our kids and teachers are my priority.

“This is North Carolina,” he concludes. “Let’s do what’s right.”

Wouldn’t that be something, seeing McCrory doing something right? As for his “watch”, from what I understand, there’s hardly a thing McCrory has touched that hasn’t been a major fuck up. By this time, McCrory knows about trans* peoples, and how they work, so he has zero excuses for this “oh no, boys in the girl’s locker room!” nonsense. This has been ceaselessly debunked, and yet he carries on. He is an excellent example of someone who holds up hate and bigotry as virtues, I’ll give him that much. Content Note: contains lies, bigotry, and hate.

Full Story at The Advocate.

Sunday Facepalm

(File Photo) The man's affidavit was not accepted by court due to his stated occupation Alfredo Estrella/AFP/Getty Images.

(File Photo) The man’s affidavit was not accepted by court due to his stated occupation Alfredo Estrella/AFP/Getty Images.

An Irish High Court judge has ruled a litigant could not describe his occupation as “Disciple of Jesus Christ” in a sworn statement.

The presiding judge, Mr Justice Richard Humphreys, criticised the litigant for attempting to challenge a decision by the Residential Tenancies Board to fix a market rate for his rent, describing the case as “frivolous, grandiose and vexatious”.

He upheld the decision by the Central Office of the High Court to refuse to accept the litigant’s affidavit as it did not comply with the rules of the court, reports the Irish Times.

The Tenancies Board had stated the man and another tenant were using such court actions as a “tactic to delay and frustrate proceedings”.

Mr Justice Richard Humphreys said: “The courts are not a playground in which litigants can amuse themselves at will.

“For the court to bask in self-congratulatory patience for quirky insouciance of applicants would be to play the role of a judicial free-rider.

“If such a mode of description were permitted, one could not stop the next deponent describing themselves in the opening of an affidavit as a ‘Guardian reader’ or the one after that as a ‘keen golfer’ and so on.”

Plus, we have Banana Jesus! Did this belong to Ray Comfort?

BananaJesus

There’s a slideshow at the link of various things people have found Jesus to be inexplicably occupying.

Via Independent.

Cop Union: Accountability? Uh uh, Give Us Money.

San Antonio Police Chief William McManus can’t meaningfully discipline his officers under current contract rules. CREDIT: AP Photo/Eric Gay

San Antonio Police Chief William McManus can’t meaningfully discipline his officers under current contract rules. CREDIT: AP Photo/Eric Gay.

City leaders in San Antonio will soon vote on a new union contract for police officers that contains no reforms to accountability processes for cops, because the officers’ union wanted more money before agreeing to higher standards.

Mayor Ivy Taylor brought a seven-point list of reforms to union negotiators this spring, the San Antonio Express-News reports, but none made it into the contract. If the City Council ratifies the deal on September 1, the city will continue to face tight limits on how it can discipline officers.

Any misconduct records older than two years cannot be used to justify punishment for new incidents. Short suspensions that officers do not appeal get erased and converted into simple reprimands on their records after two years.

Taylor’s seven-point wishlist would have ended each of those rules, giving the Chief of Police greater ability to punish repeat offenders and examine patterns of behavior across an officer’s full career when deciding to suspend, demote, or fire a cop.

“The (police) chief (William McManus) and I feel that it is important, but the union was not willing to consider that and they wanted to be paid for any changes in the disciplinary process,” city manager Sheryl Sculley told the Express-News.

The contract already includes a 14 percent raise over four years. The raises union officials reportedly sought in exchange for reform would have been over and above those pay bumps — something that one activist called “essentially extortion.”

[Read more…]

Baltimore: Lawyers, Cops, and Nazis. UPDATED.

A 2002 rally by neo-Nazi group the National Alliance (Flickr Creative Commons).

A 2002 rally by neo-Nazi group the National Alliance (Flickr Creative Commons).

A lawyer hired by the city of Baltimore to defend police officers in court has long-standing connections to a neo-Nazi group, but insists that his “crazy ideas” do not affect his work.

The New York Daily News reported Thursday that attorney Glen Keith Allen is a longtime supporter of the National Alliance, a group the Southern Poverty Law Center calls “explicitly genocidal” and which is characterized as a hate group.

Allen admits he joined the National Alliance because, “I was in the U.S. Army from 1978 to 1982 and I had some pretty awful experiences with black people there, to be honest.”

While he is not currently involved in the Freddie Gray case, Allen has defended the Baltimore Police Department in court, notably in a current lawsuit brought by Sabein Burgess, a black man says he was wrongfully convicted and spent 19 years in prison before being released in 2014.

[…]

In spite of Allen’s insistence that he left the National Alliance in the 1980s, he was still paying membership dues in 2003. The 65-year-old attorney also attended a Holocaust-denial conference in 2007, but denies that his views affect his work for the city in any way.

“I have an unblemished record in 30 years of practicing law…I have the highest ethical standards and zealous representation of my client, and that’s what I’ve been doing for the city,” he told the Daily News.

The Anti-Defamation League said that the National Alliance “dehumanize(s) both blacks and Jews, depicting them as threats to ‘Aryan culture’ and ‘racial purity.’”

Federal Election Commission (FEC) documents show that Allen is a donating member of the American Eagle Party, a fringe right group led by a man named Merlin Miller who says that Israel planned the 9/11 attacks in cahoots with the U.S. government.

“Should I be fired from the city of Baltimore because I have crazy ideas about 9/11?” Allen said.

I think you should be relieved of your position because you’re a nazi, Mr. Allen. Apparently, this doesn’t bother the city of Baltimore or cops in the least. It would certainly bother me, but I guess cops are tossing away any pretense of a standard these days.

UPDATE: Mr. Allen has been relieved of his position with the city. You can read about it here.

Via Raw Story.

Dakota Access Protest: We’re being sued – help us fight it!

Oceti Sakowin Youth.

Oceti Sakowin Youth.

Aug 17, 2016 — Things are escalating quickly, and we couldn’t be more grateful for your help. Over the past few days several more tribal members have been arrested, including Standing Rock Chairman David Archambault II. In retaliation, Dakota Access LLC has sued the chairman, specifically to stop us from interfering with the pipeline’s construction.

Dakota Access knows that our tribe has very little funds to fight their lawyers, and yet they attacked us for disrupting a project that threatens our health and community. This is sick – but we can’t take it lying down. Last time we asked you to make a call for us, you all showed up! Will you help us again?

Call the Energy Transfer Partners Headquarters at (214) 981-0700 and tell them:

“If built, the Dakota Access Pipeline will threaten the health and safety of all those living along its path, and particularly members of the Standing Rock Reservation. We know from the long history of impunity oil companies have enjoyed when it comes to pipeline leaks that it is not a matter of IF this pipeline leaks, but WHEN. I’m calling to demand that you drop the lawsuit you have filed against the chairman of Standing Rock and cease pipeline construction immediately.”

Don’t forget to leave a comment to let us know how it goes!

Sincerely,

Bobbi and Anna

Please, please help again. Call, signal boost, whatever you can do. Please, do not leave us alone in this fight, we fight for all people, we fight for healthy land, clean water, and the rights of all people to stand up and say no.

Petition Update. Sacred Stone Camp. The SLAPP suit.

Feds Grant TRO Against Standing Rock Members.

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Federal Court Grants TRO against Standing Rock Members in SLAPP Suit related to Dakota Access Pipeline

Posted on August 16, 2016 by

Here are the materials in Dakota Access LLC v. Archambault (D.N.D.):

1 Complaint

4 Motion for TRO

7 DCT Order Granting TRO

Via Turtle Talk.

Canadians, Not Always Nice.

Rainbow Bridge Border Crossing.

Rainbow Bridge Border Crossing.

A common discrepancy between passport nationality and license plate origin got Akwesasne District Chief Akwesasne District Chief Steven Thomas turned away at the Canadian border last month, and the Mohawk Akwesasne are concerned.

En route to an Assembly of First Nations (AFN) meeting in Niagara Falls, Ontario, on July 10, Thomas was stopped at the Rainbow Bridge crossing and refused entry. The reason? While he presented a Canadian passport, his car has New York State license plates. Thomas lives in the Ontario section of the Akwesasne reserve, which straddles the boundaries of Ontario, Quebec and New York.

“I worked in the United States for 37 years and have always owned an American-plated vehicle,” he said, adding that even when occasionally stopped, “I have never had any issues in crossing at any of the New York-Canada borders in the past and have done so hundreds of times.”

It is not that rare for Indians who are not Canadian citizens to occasionally be denied entry, Akwesasne Grand Chief Abram Benedict told Indian Country Today Media Network.

“It happens a few times a year,” he said.

[…]

There have been rare cases like Thomas’s, in which the CBSA demands that the person go through the process of importing the vehicle, Benedict said. However, Thomas’s incident highlights a broader problem, he added.

“The fact is CBSA doesn’t broadly recognize aboriginal rights when it comes to border crossings, and that’s clearly what this case has demonstrated,” Benedict told the Cornwall Standard-Freeholder.

Thomas cited the Jay Treaty of 1794, which has a clause confirming Indians’ free border-crossing rights. However, Canada’s Supreme Court has ruled that the treaty does not apply because Parliament didn’t ratify it—it was struck between Great Britain and the U.S.—and because in any case the War of 1812 would have abrogated it. The Treaty of Ghent, which ended that war, included a promise to restore Indian rights and a commitment to “engage” to do so “forthwith.” But the court found it was not definitive enough in its wording to compel Canada on the matter.

In June, Canada’s Standing Senate Committee on Aboriginal Peoples issued a report, Border Crossing Issues and the Jay Treaty, acknowledging that border crossing protocol must be clarified.

“Means must be implemented to facilitate legitimate travel for day-to-day activities by First Nations people,” the report said, recommending that “the Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs appoint a special representative to explore further solutions to address Canada-U.S. border crossing challenges faced by First Nations communities across Canada.”

As for Thomas, he entered Canada the next day by way of the Cornwall border crossing, without difficulty, and drove to the AFN meeting.

“The ironic part of this denial was, I was on my way to attend the Assembly of First Nations for a border crossing presentation!” he said.

Another day, another broken treaty. Another day, another government disrespecting the rights of a First Nation. The Canadian government needs to get their Canada Nice on.

Via ICTMN.

Baltimore: Good Ol’ Boys Club Convention.

Baltimore police conference protest (Photo: Baynard Woods/Twitter).

Baltimore police conference protest (Photo: Baynard Woods/Twitter).

There is the woman being publicly strip-searched after being stopped for a missing headlight. There are the officers coercing sex from prostitutes in exchange for avoiding arrest, planting drugs on people they stopped, cursing “shut the fuck up bitch” because they are “the fucking law.” There is the supervisor telling officers “to arrest ‘all the black hoodies’ in a neighborhood.” There are officers using templates for arrests where they only had to fill in dates and names — the words “black male” were already inked in.

Running to 163 pages, the Department of Justice report on the ongoing abuse inflicted upon African Americans by the Baltimore police is full of stories like these.

In light of the DOJ report on just how corrupt the Baltimore cops shops are, of course the staunch defenders of bigoted, killer cops, the FOP, decided to have their conference, which was protested. Well, for a while, at least, until all those pesky persons insistent on pointing to reality were arrested.

Baltimore police arrested a dozen protesters at the Hyatt Regency on Sunday afternoon where the state Fraternal Order of Police was holding a conference.

Some of the protesters refused to leave the hotel on Light Street, blocked access to an escalator and chained themselves to railings as part of a demonstration against discriminatory police practices.

The group, some of whom were with the activist group Baltimore BLOC, were joining hands and carrying signs that read “Abolish Racist F.O.P.”

[Read more…]

Curing LGBT people from their affliction.

Pray-away-the-gay-800x430

Illinois, like many states, passed legislation called the Youth Mental Health Protection Act, to ban the practice of a “failed and discredited non-therapy that attempts to change the unchangeable,” as Equality Illinois put it.

But now five pastors have come together to sue based on religious freedom. They believe they should be exempt from the bill because of their religion and designation as a church and religious institution. Like many churches and religious businesses over the years, when they see a law they don’t like they claim First Amendment protections. This argument could be made with any law, however. There could be an argument that slavery and servitude not to mention abuse of one’s children and family could be sanctioned by The Bible, and thus laws outlawing it should be allowed in the church as part of a “religious freedom” exemption.

Pink News reports Pastor Steven Stultz of Nu-Church Apostolic Ministries of East Garfield is one of those seeking to use the torturous technique on LGBT people. Claiming, “In 1 Corinthians 6:9, the Apostle Paul writes to those who had overcome many sins including homosexuality, stating, ‘such were some of you’ but you were changed through God’s healing,” he said. “I have personally witnessed many people change their sexual orientation through counseling and know it is possible. The government is interfering into someone’s private decisions. This ban on counseling creates fear in the people most in need of comfort and support.”

The pastors’ attorney insists this is a ban on those who seek spiritual guidance at difficult times where they are questioning their sexual orientation.

“Each person should be free to receive Biblical and spiritual counseling from the pastor of their choice to help them orient their sexuality,” said John W Mauck from Mauck and Baker LLC.

Most recently, a Texas teen was forced into a “pray away the gay” boarding school after she tried to take her girlfriend to the prom. The litigation in her case is ongoing and the court documents have been sealed, but she was ultimately released, after trying to escape.

Pastors, go fuck yourselves, please. You aren’t offering comfort, aid, or help. You’re looking for governmental help in kidnapping, imprisoning, and torturing people. While that’s certainly biblical, it has no place among thinking, compassionate, rational people who are living in the 21st century.

Via Raw story.

Cop Who Killed 73 year old: record of excessive force.

Punta Gorda Police Officer Lee Coel is pictured in this undated handout photo, received August 11, 2016. Punta Gorda Police Department/Handout via Reuters.

Punta Gorda Police Officer Lee Coel is pictured in this undated handout photo, received August 11, 2016. Punta Gorda Police Department/Handout via Reuters.

A Florida police officer who mistakenly killed a 73-year-old woman during a role-play exercise this week has been the subject of excessive force complaints in the past, according to a police official and media reports.

[…]

Punta Gorda police have released few details about what led to Knowlton being shot by a live round, and Lewis declined to answer questions at the news conference.

He acknowledged reports that Coel, a K-9 police officer, had been accused of allowing his police dog to attack a man while on patrol in October last year.

“This officer was involved in a K-9 apprehension incident,” Lewis said. “Currently that incident is in civil litigation.”

Lawyer Scott Weinberg said Coel intended to cite his client, Richard Shumacher, for riding a bike at night without a headlight or taillight when the attack occurred.

Weinberg, who has filed a notice of intent to sue the city and the police department, released a police dash-cam video of the incident earlier this year. In it, Coel can be seen holding Shumacher down while the dog mauled him.

“The bottom line is that when I released this video two months ago, I had warned everybody that this man was going to kill somebody,” Weinberg said in a phone interview. “I told the chief to his face that this man was dangerous.”

Coel also was accused of excessive force in April 2013 while working as a police officer for Miramar, Florida police, court records show.

That incident and another case led investigators to determined Coel had violated department policies, and he was forced to resign, the Miami Herald reported.

Is anyone surprised by this? Anyone? Why, every single time, does it take multiple incidents, and at least one death to kick an evil asshole out of a cop shop? And lately, even murdering people isn’t enough to get cops fired. This is so wrong. Beyond wrong. Beyond fractally wrong. This has to stop. A cop gets investigated for excessive force? That’s it, you’re out, and you lose everything, job, pension, all of it. Maybe, just maybe, cops might start getting the message that a badge is not a license to do whatever they want.

Via Raw Story.