The history of that police department, and the state attorneys office, is disgusting. It took another murder to bring all this to light? Is it any surprise the black folks there (and all over the country, for that matter) believe there is no justice?
Florida is home to some of the most disturbing, disgusting racial episodes in our history. See 'Rosewood' for one particularly egregious example, but it was not isolated or unique. We like to think of Florida as Miami and the Everglades, but the north end is more like Selma and Birmingham.
The history of that police department, and the state attorneys office, is disgusting. It took another murder to bring all this to light? Is it any surprise the black folks there (and all over the country, for that matter) believe there is no justice?
Florida is home to some of the most disturbing, disgusting racial episodes in our history. See 'Rosewood' for one particularly egregious example, but it was not isolated or unique. We like to think of Florida as Miami and the Everglades, but the north end is more like Selma and Birmingham.
The state seal is seen on the side of a Vermont State Police cruiser. Some Vermont inmates have gotten the best of the state police by adding a pig to the state decal on their cruisers.
Look at the cow underneath the tree. Embedded within the cow's spots is an image of a pig, which as the Burlington Free Press reminds us is the '60s-era epithet used by protesters to refer to police.
Reuters reports that it was likely put there by inmates. The state, Reuters adds, "contracts with correctional facilities employing prisoners to make some print products, including the cruiser decals." One or more inmates somehow accessed the computer program holding the image and rejiggered it. The quality assurance department failed to notice it and as far as the state police know, the modified decal was used on as many as 30 Vermont State Police cruisers.
Some weren't laughing.
"It dishonors the memory of those past and present members, especially for those who have lost their lives in the line of duty," state police spokeswoman Stephanie Dasaro told Reuters.
But the Free Press reports that others took it in stride:
"'This is not as offensive as it would have been years ago. We can see the humor,' said Public Safety Commissioner Keith Flynn, a former state trooper and state prosecutor who was named commissioner a year ago. 'If the person had used some of that creativeness, he or she would not have ended up inside.'"
It'll cost police $780 to correct the decals. The money will come from the small profits made by the prison division that makes things like license plates and stationery for state offices.
Yesterday, a Deutsche Bank branch in Atlanta had requested the eviction of Vita Lee, a 103-year-old Atlanta woman, and her 83-year-old daughter. Both were terrified of being removed from their home of 53 years and had no idea where they'd go next.
But when the movers hired by the bank and police were dispatched to evict the two women, they had a change of heart. In a huge victory for the 99 Percent, the movers "took one look at" Lee and decided not to go through with it.
Then it's a good thing we have the police. Otherwise, we'd have so many mean, brutish, Republican's, this could only be a one party system.
I say we just take turns going in. say, once every four years and let them pepper-spray us in the face. It's a small price to pay for the American dream.
Maybe that's what Jesus had in mind when he said to turn the other cheek.
If not police the others grow up to be Republicans.
Then it's a good thing we have the police. Otherwise, we'd have so many mean, brutish, Republican's, this could only be a one party system.
I say we just take turns going in, say, once every four years, and let them pepper-spray us each in the face. It's a small price to pay for the American dream.
Among those arrested was retired Philadelphia Police Captain Ray Lewis, who said, "All the cops are just workers for the one percent, and they don't even realize they're being exploited."
Ray Lewis, who retired in 2004, has a lot of interesting things to say, and I want you to hear as much of it as possible.
"They complained about the park being dirty," he said over the OWS Livefeed last night. "Here they are worrying about dirty parks when people are starving to death, where people are freezing, where people are sleeping in subways and they're concerned about a dirty park. That's obnoxious, it's arrogant, it's ignorant, it's disgusting."
What does that say about NYPD's credibility? This guy did not run the police department of Anytown, USA — he ran the police department in Philadelphia, a city that can only be compared to a few other American cities in terms of size and scope, namely New York...
In another excerpt from a late night (circa 2 a.m.) interview done over OWS Livestream, Ray Lewis said the following about police tactics:
"You should, by law, only use force to protect someone's life or to protect them from being bodily injured. If you're not protecting somebody's life or protecting them from bodily injury, there's no need to use force. And the number one thing that they always have in their favor that they seldom use is negotiation-continue to talk, and talk and talk to people. You have nothing to lose by that. This bullrush-what happened last night is totally uncalled for when they did not use negotiation long enough."
University police say the students, who chanted "You're beating students" during the incident, were not innocent bystanders, and that the human fence they tried to build around seven tents amounted to a violent stance against police.
I wonder what they thought the "violent" part was! Resisting being assaulted is now violence?
A debate over the use of police force has reignited at the UC Berkeley campus after videos surfaced showing officers repeatedly shoving and jabbing screaming students who tried to keep officers from dismantling a nascent Occupy encampment.
The videos taken by protesters, journalists and casual observers show UC Berkeley police and Alameda County sheriff's deputies in riot gear ordering students with linked arms to leave a grassy area outside the campus administration building Wednesday. When the students didn't move, police lowered their face shields and began hitting the protesters with batons.
University police say the students, who chanted "You're beating students" during the incident, were not innocent bystanders, and that the human fence they tried to build around seven tents amounted to a violent stance against police.
But many law enforcement experts said Thursday that the officers' tactics appeared to be a severe overreaction.
Both the ACLU and the National Lawyers Guild said they had "grave concerns about the conduct" of campus police...
