On Janurary 1, 2009, 27 year-old BART police officer Johannes Mehserle shot and killed 22-year-old Oscar Grant as he was being detained. According to the official reports, Oscar was detained as part of 2 groups of young men who were possibly involved in an altercation with each other. Police officers at some point pushed Oscar face-down onto the train platform, Officer Mehserle stood up and fired a single round into his back as the other officers held him. The bullet pierced Oscar’s lungs after ricocheting off of the floor, effectively executing him.
Here is some citizen video of the event that was broadcast on the news – WARNING: This video depicts the death of an unarmed civilian at the hands of overaggressive and psychopathic police officers. Some viewers may find this offensive and disturbing.
None of the authorities, including the officer himself, have given any public information as to what is being done or what might have happened in this situation. There is speculation that Officer Mehserle meant to grab his taser gun, but most of the experts that have come forward on the issue disagree with that notion.
“That’s as reflexive as you getting in on the driver’s side of the car (instead of) the passenger side if you want to drive it,” [Florida criminologist George] Kirkham said. “There’s no remote similarity to a conventional firearm. … The Taser is just like apples and oranges.”
The officer himself has been receiving death threats, forcing his family to be moved twice in the last few days. The officer has yet to be suspended, is on paid leave (Update: Officer Mehserle has resigned), and no one involved seems to want to make any statement about the issue. Due to the lack of “official” evidence or information about the event released it has been difficult to figure out the exact line of events that led to the fatal shooting. Luckily, citizen videos of the event have been cropping up all over the internet’s video-sharing sites.
Police on the scene probably had some idea of the trouble that they were in, and even tried confiscating cameras and cell-phones. They denied that there was any official video of the event from security cameras in the area – but it turns out that this too was a lie. I claim absolutely no expertise in video analysis, police affairs, or anything of that sort. But from reading the different accounts, watching numerous videos of the event, and hearing the words of the witnesses themselves it is pretty clear – this was an unjustified and obvious execution, and a complete abuse of police power.
There is a protest planned for today from 3-8 PM PST at the Fruitvale BART station, and another one being planned for Saturday. Hopefully something is done quickly to deal with this travesty, or the people will take matters into their own hands.
UPDATE: There is new, clearer footage that shows the event taking place. It is very clear that lethal force was not necessary in any way, shape, or form. This was murder – plain and simple.
UPDATE (01/08/09): So, exactly what we thought would happen, happened. The protests turned violent, and rioters began smashing storefronts and destroying cars.
A protest over the fatal shooting by a BART police officer of an unarmed man mushroomed into several hours of violence Wednesday night as demonstrators smashed storefronts and cars, set several cars ablaze and blocked streets in downtown Oakland.
The roving mob expressed fury at police and frustration over society’s racial injustice. Yet the demonstrators were often indiscriminate, frequently targeting the businesses and prized possessions of people of color.
Unrest will only continue until this officer is punished, and severly.
UPDATE (01/08/09): More coverage of what some are now calling “The Oakland Riots”. Here is some video coverage:
UPDATE (01/14/09): Johannes Mehserle has finally been arrested on charges of suspicion of murder.
Johannes Mehserle, 27, of Lafayette was taken into custody in Douglas County, Nev., said Deputy Steve Velez of the Douglas County sheriff’s office. The arrest was also confirmed by David Chai, chief of staff to Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums.
Officer fired after brutal beating of woman
February 22, 2008
More news from the front of police brutality. Angie Garbarino of Shreveport, LA was brutally beaten by a police officer after she refused a breathalyzer test. The officer in question, Officer Wiley Wills, even turned off the security camera during the beating. When the camera was turned back on, Angie was lying in a pool of her own blood.
Angie Garbarino and her attorney, Ron Miciotto, say the investigation started with Shreveport Police Chief Henry Whitehorn.
KSLA News 12 talked to Garbarino Tuesday at her home. She didn’t want to be interviewed on camera and referred us to Miciotto.He gave us a copy of the tape which first shows Garbarino asking Officer Wiley Willis for a phone call, then demanding a phone call.
As Garbarino tries to walk out the door, she’s put into handcuffs. The tape later shows a scuffle, then Willis appears to shut the camera off.
When the video resumes, Garbarino is lying in a pool of her own blood.
At one point she could be heard saying, “I wasn’t even hurt that bad until he threw me onto the floor. Look at me.”
When paramedics arrive, they asked one of the officers what happened, to which he replied, “she fell down.”
Sounds familiar…
Here are the before/after pictures of this wonderful encounter:
Before
After
Recent studies by the University of Leeds has shown that people act like flocks of sheep or birds – allowing themselves to be led by a small percentage (5%) of individuals.
Results from a study at the University of Leeds show that it takes a minority of just five per cent to influence a crowd’s direction – and that the other 95 per cent follow without realising it.
…
Other experiments in the study used groups of different sizes, with different ratios of ‘informed individuals’. The research findings show that as the number of people in a crowd increases, the number of informed individuals decreases. In large crowds of 200 or more, five per cent of the group is enough to influence the direction in which it travels. The research also looked at different scenarios for the location of the ‘informed individuals’ to determine whether where they were located had a bearing on the time it took for the crowd to follow.
This is an interesting study – especially since just a few days earlier a study was released that showed that people are easily led by other individuals – even when they know a better way.
Even more striking, even when we are shown a faster route, we prefer to stick with the old one and tell others to take the long road too, a finding that could have lethal implications when it comes to evacuating a building or ship in an emergency.
“These results parallel similar findings in ants and fish, and show that very simple processes can underlie human behaviour” commented Dr Simon Reader of Utrecht University, who reports the findings today in the journal Biology Letters.
Information Operations Roadmap – The Pentagon's plan for the future
February 4, 2008
In 2003, Donald Rumsfeld signed a document called the Information Operations Roadmap. In 2006 the document was declassified thanks to the work of the National Security Archive at George Washington University. The document is a list of recommendations that details the US military’s information operations, including psychological operations, electronic warfare, and involvement in foreign journalism.
The document is pretty scary, listing the government’s wish to control the entire electromagnetic spectrum, fight the freedom of the internet, and use psychological operations to aggressively modify behaviour.
Links to analysis and breakdown (via Knowledge Driven Revolution):
- Information Operation Roadmap Part 1: Full Spectrum Information Warfare
- Information Operation Roadmap Part 2: Maximum Control of the Entire Electro-Magnetic Spectrum
- Information Operation Roadmap Part 3: “We Must Fight the Net”
- Information Operation Roadmap Part 4: Information Warfare Using Aggressive Psychological Operations
- Information Operation Roadmap Part 5: Information Warfare Without Limits
Also, mirrors from Signs of the Times: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5
PDF copy of Information Operations Roadmap
Sheriff's Deputies Rape Woman "Without Penetration"
February 2, 2008
WARNING: The following video contains graphic images of excessive force, rape, and brutal psychopathy. This content might be considered distasteful, grotesque, and offensive to most any human. This is weight of the police state.
FOR MATURE AUDIENCE ONLY!
Hope Steffey’s night began with a call to police for help. It ended with her face down, completely naked and sobbing on a jail cell floor.
Steffey says Stark County sheriff’s deputies used excessive force and assaulted her during a strip search 15 months ago, according to a federal lawsuit.Stark County Sheriff Timothy Swanson denies the allegation.
Steffey’s attorney says her clothes, including her underwear and bra, were stripped from her body by at least seven male and female sheriff’s deputies and jail workers. She lay face down in handcuffs at the time.
“Hope begged and pleaded with her … assailants to stop,” the lawsuit says. “There was no forcible penetration but Hope felt as if she was being raped.”
The sheriff denies this was a strip search.
…fucking fascists.
Bush Ignores Congressional Restrictions…Again
January 31, 2008
Just recently H.R. 4986 The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 was signed into law. This is basically a big bill designating funds for specific functions of the military, defense, and intelligence sections of the government. However, it seems that President Bush is ignoring the parts that he wants to – telling congress to basically shove it.
Provisions of the Act, including sections 841, 846, 1079, and 1222, purport to impose requirements that could inhibit the President’s ability to carry out his constitutional obligations to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, to protect national security, to supervise the executive branch, and to execute his authority as Commander in Chief. The executive branch shall construe such provisions in a manner consistent with the constitutional authority of the President.
Now, the best section out of that bill is 1222 – The Limitation on Availability of Funds for Certain Purposes Relating to Iraq – which states:
No funds appropriated pursuant to an authorization of appropriations in this Act may be obligated or expended for a purpose as follows:(1) To establish any military installation or base for the purpose of providing for the permanent stationing of United States Armed Forces in Iraq.
(2) To exercise United States control of the oil resources of Iraq
So, basically, Bush is saying that he can’t even abide by the simple rules of “No Permanant Iraq Bases” and “No Controlling the Oil”. Hmmmm…I wonder why that is? It seems that by simply looking at what he won’t listen to, we can see the plans for the future. This is a very dangerous situation – the fact that he can just openly and publicly give the metaphorical finger to the American people. Why doesn’t this news bother more people? I’ve only been able to find a few different articles about it around the net, and no mention in mainstream sources.
I’m bothed even more by the other sections. The first two (841, 846) seem to deal with contractors abroad. The first, deals with recieving permission from Senate committees for actions pertaining to government contractors (a la Blackwater), and the second with protecting employees from those companies (or Department of Defense employees) from prosecution if they come forward with “information that the employee reasonably believes is evidence of gross mismanagement of a Department of Defense contract or grant, a gross waste of Department of Defense funds, a substantial and specific danger to public health or safety, or a violation of law related to a Department of Defense contract (including the competition for or negotiation of a contract) or grant”.
So, Bush doesn’t want anyone to be able to tattle on the disgusting things going on up top, and he wants to continue to station mercenaries anywhere he chooses on the taxpayer’s dime. What a waste, what a waste. Hopefully Kucinich changes his mind again about impeachment hearings.
(via SOTT)
Update: GNN just covered this subject.
Kindergartner Handcuffed Over Temper Tantrum
January 28, 2008
5-year-old Dennis Rivera was handcuffed and taken to a hospital for psychiatric evaluation after throwing a temper-tantrum in his New York kindergarten class. Control starts very early. Haven’t they also been discussing giving tasers to teachers? This is just a really bad combination on top of an already-terrible situation.
Police and school officials are investigating a mother’s allegations that her 5-year-old son was handcuffed and taken to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation after throwing a temper tantrum in his Queens kindergarten.
Jasmina Vasquez tells the Daily News her son, Dennis Rivera, was “scared to death” by the Jan. 17 incident at PS 81. Link (via SOTT)
It just seems that from drugs to the curriculum, they don’t want anyone to be able to exist in any state apart from the system of control. They don’t want people to think or dream. Even the Rockefeller’s General Education Board admitted this:
In our dreams…people yield themselves with perfect docility to our molding hands. The present educational conventions [intellectual and character education] fade from our minds, and unhampered by tradition we work our own good will upon a grateful and responsive folk. We shall not try to make these people or any of their children into philosophers or men of learning or men of science. We have not to raise up from among them authors, educators, poets or men of letters. We shall not search for embryo great artists, painters, musicians, nor lawyers, doctors, preachers, politicians, statesmen, of whom we have ample supply. The task we set before ourselves is very simple…we will organize children…and teach them to do in a perfect way the things their fathers and mothers are doing in an imperfect way.
I believe Woodrow Wilson put it best:
We want one class to have a liberal education. We want another class, a very much larger class of necessity, to forgo the privilege of a liberal education and fit themselves to perform specific difficult manual tasks.
Dennis Rivera will probably not resist authority too much in the future. This event will stay in his mind for a long time to come.
