January 19, 2015

Good Cop Sues Corrupt Department That Told Him ‘If you snitch, your career is done’

Good Cop Files Lawsuit Against Corrupt Department That Told Him ‘If you snitch, your career is done’
Counter Current News * January 15, 2015 * by Reagan Ali and Jackson Marciana

Baltimore -- “Where are all the good cops?” Critics of police brutality and abuse of power often wonder this – sometimes aloud, often on social media. But there is an answer to that question – it’s not purely rhetorical – the “good cops” are driven out of work by the bad cops.

Far from being “a few bad apples,” Detective Joseph Crystal of the Baltimore Police Department says that he was targeted by other officers for trying to root out corruption. “If you snitch, your career is done,” one officer told him. He eventually became public enemy No. 1 inside the Baltimore Police Department. But before that, he was considered a rising star in law enforcement.

Crystal was the son of two NYPD cops, and was in charge of his police academy cadet class from the start. With only two years on the force, he was promoted to detective. “Being a cop was all I ever wanted to do,” he explains. “A dream come true.” But all of that changed after he came forward to report the 2011 beating of a drug suspect by another officer.

His testimony helped to secure convictions against the officer who beat the suspect and the sergeant who helped. But Crystal says that there was a systemic, pattern of abuse. “I never imagined that doing the right thing as a cop could cost me so much,” Crystal told reporters from the Daily News.

Now, Crystal is suing the Baltimore Police Department for failing to protect him from retaliation after he outed the bad cops in his department.

Watch the video and interview at this link:
http://countercurrentnews.com/2015/01/good-cop-files-lawsuit-against-corrupt-department-that-told-him-if-you-snitch-your-career-is-done/

January 15, 2015

Cops Restrain Coroner from investigating suspicious inmate death by hanging.

UPDATE (1/15/15): Cops File Restraining Order Against Coroner, Prevent Further Investigation into Hanging Death

Georgetown, Ohio -- Zachary Goldson was called “trash” by police and found to be hanged to death in their custody. Before his death by hanging, police were also heard saying “Yeah, this motherfucker is getting a welcome party when we get to jail.” Dr. Judith Varnau with the Brown County Coroner was conducting a further investigation into the Sheriff’s department, after an earlier investigation determined that the death was a homicide by strangulation, according to reports.

The Coroner had issued several subpoenas to the Sheriff’s office for investigative materials relating to the manner in which Goldson died after being arrested. The Sheriff’s office employees responded by actually filing a restraining order on the coroner, preventing the investigation from continuing.

The Judge issued the restraining order, saying: “The Court finds and concludes that there is reasonable cause to believe…that sufficient doubt exists as to the coroner’s authority to conduct an inquest into Goldson’s death…that Defendant must be restrained from proceeding as indicated, and preservation of the status quo is necessary until this matter can come before the Court on a hearing.”

Interestingly, the Coroner was trying to gain information about the sprinkler system from which Goldson was found hanging. Some have said that sprinkler system is too high for one man to “commit suicide” by hanging himself from it, and thus required someone else to set up a noose and hang him from it.

If they have nothing to hide, then why would the sheriff’s office employees prevent further investigation into the case?

Continue reading full article at link for more details.
http://filmingcops.com/american-citizen/

January 11, 2015

Police Corruption Exposed

Police Corruption Exposed
Sunday, 11 January 2015 * By Margaret Kimberley * TruthOut.org

The false narrative about the need for hyper policing has come crashing down and police themselves destroyed the well-cultivated propaganda. The awful truth which black people were well aware of is now out in the open for all to see. Police departments in the United States exist for the purpose of maintaining white people’s prerogatives as the group in control of everyone else. Enhancing public safety is a secondary consideration.

~snip~

We don’t need nearly as many police as we have in order to insure public safety. If we lived in a just society, there would be serious discussions about the need for law enforcement, and more importantly about how to keep them under community control. Instead we have a “liberal” mayor who danced to their tune only to be treated little better than the people they victimize.

The mayor is part of a larger political problem. In our system elected officials have little incentive to fight for their constituents against the police state. ... The number of black politicians who spoke out strongly when Eric Garner was killed may be counted on just one hand. The number who felt compelled to give condolences to the two officers was much larger.

No one knows exactly how many Americans are killed by police, but reliable estimates by concerned groups and individuals indicate approximately 1,000 deaths every year. We should keep that number in mind when we are told that other nations violate their citizens’ human rights. If the police can cut the number of arrests they make by 66% because they are feuding with the mayor, they can do it again. If New Yorkers don’t feel afraid despite the work stoppage, perhaps we can begin asking serious questions about why and indeed if we need the police force that we have. For once we may owe the police a bit of gratitude.

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/28479-police-corruption-exposed

January 10, 2015

Torture Advocate Alan Dershowitz Implicated In Sex Slave Lawsuit

Torture Advocate Alan Dershowitz Busted In Sex Slave Lawsuit
January 5, 2015 10:18 am * Counter Current News

There have been few voices supporting law enforcement torture of suspect as loud as that of Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz. Known for popularizing the argumentative fallacy of the “ticking time bomb” scenario, Dershowitz argued that federal and local law enforcement should be given a blank check to torture suspects if they think it might “prevent another 9/11.”

It would be astonishing enough for a Harvard Law Professor to be named in a suit accusing him of participating in a child sex slave ring, but given his pro-torture background, Dershowitz’s naming in the case is even more significant.

The lawsuit was filed by four women. The suit is against the federal government itself, which they claim violated the rights of victims of sexual assault when the State made a plea deal back in 2008 with Jeffrey Epstein who was alleged to have sexually abuse minors as part of a child sex slave ring.

Epstein only ended up doing about a year in prison for his crimes. But the ladies who have brought this suit against the federal government are saying that Epstein was not alone. In addition to many other notables, Dershowitz found himself accused of having routinely had sexual relations with Epstein’s “sex slave” while she was under the age of 18, before she escaped her slavery to Epstein.

Dershowitz has denied the charges and threatened legal action for these victims of sexual abuse courageously coming forward. Dershowitz said these charges are “totally, unequivocally and completely false”.

http://countercurrentnews.com/2015/01/alan-dershowitz-named-in-suit/

ON EDIT: Some have objected to the countercurrent.com website, so i'm adding the following NY DAILY NEWS link as well:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/alan-dershowitz-categorically-denies-sex-17-year-old-article-1.2067453

January 10, 2015

Inside the Underground Bunker Condos Where 1 Percenters Plan to Ride Out the Apocalypse

Inside the Underground Bunker Condos Where 1 Percenters Plan to Ride Out the Apocalypse
If you do have a few million lying around, a piece of these fortified silos can be yours.
By Natalie Shure * AlterNet * January 7, 2014

Without the savvy to live off the land that we associate with survivalists, how are the one-percenters supposed to get through the apocalypse? It’s tough to envision the well-heeled skinning deer to feed their Wall Street dinner party guests. But now the elite have another option. Instead of handing the future to bearded crackpots building sandbag barricades on rural compounds, the rich can score a luxury underground Survival Condo nice enough to remind them of the one they left in Manhattan.

Built in two underground missile bunkers at an undisclosed location in Kansas, the units run from $1.5 to $.4.5 million and typically can’t be financed—so that sum’s got to be paid up front. But if you do have a few million lying around, a piece of these fortified underground silos can be yours. So far, there’s no shortage of takers. The first silo is reportedly sold out, and the second is currently accepting contracts.

It would likely take a serious cataclysm to drive posh coasties to the Kansan underworld, and you can’t sell these things without also selling fear. In fact, the project’s website includes a photo of a colorless DC skyline ravaged by an implied nuclear holocaust, complete with a bombed-out capitol building. (Another page includes an illustration of the Statue of Liberty nearly submerged by stormy seas, with nary an ape in sight.)

But project manager Larry Hall rejects the notion that these units are for tinfoil hat types: “There is a stereotype of some survivalists as being single-minded—that they spend virtually all of their time doing just survival activities with no other activities,” he wrote to me in an email. This survivalist subculture is indeed fixated, as any viewer of A&E’s hit reality series “Doomsday Preppers” would attest. But Hall says those aren’t his customers. “We are not like that. Most of our clients are professional people who run businesses and have diversified interests. The involvement in the survival condo project is a recognition that there are a lot of potential threats that could disrupt their normal lives, and they want to have a plan for that possibility.”

http://www.alternet.org/inside-underground-bunker-condos-where-1-percenters-plan-ride-out-apocalypse

January 9, 2015

46 examples of Muslim outrage about Paris shooting that Fox News can’t seem to find

46 examples of Muslim outrage about Paris shooting that Fox News can’t seem to find
Katie Halper * 08 JAN 2015 AT 16:00 ET * Raw Story

Every time an extremist who is Muslim commits an act of terrorism, people ask where the moderate Muslim voices condemning violence are. (Interestingly, as a Jew, I don’t usually get asked to condemn extremism when it is perpetuated by Jewish fundamentalists like Baruch Goldstein, who shot 29 praying Muslims do death, and injured 125, at the Cave of the Patriarchs, or Yigal Amir, who killed Israeli Prime MinisterYitzhak Rabin.) And the same thing is happening following this week’s deplorable, pathetic, and tragic killing of 12 people at the offices of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.

Not surprisingly, much of the “where is the Muslim outrage” outrage is coming from… Fox News, as Media Matters notes. Fox’s own Monica Crowley, for example, said that Muslims “should be condemning” the attack and that she hadn’t “heard any condemnation… from any groups.” Fox News’ America’s Newsroom guest Steve Emerson complained, “you don’t see denunciations of radical Islam, by name, by mainstream Islamic groups.” Bob Beckel, a host of Fox News’ The Five host said Muslims were “being quiet” about the shooting and accused the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) of keeping “their mouth shut when things happen.”

To be fair, it’s not all Fox News. Here’s CNN’s Don “why didn’t you just bite Bill Cosby’s penis” Lemon asking Arsalan Iftikhar, a Human Rights attorney and the founder of The Muslim Guy website, “Do you support ISIS?” on Wednesday.



So, allow me to do some of the legwork for the media… And present examples of Muslim outrage about the Paris shooting.

Let’s start with organizations, like CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which has, according to Fox, kept its mouth shut. Somehow they managed to get out this statement.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/01/46-examples-of-muslim-outrage-about-paris-shooting-that-fox-news-cant-seem-to-find/

January 8, 2015

Kurt Schrader (OR-05) is one of 35 Dems in House who just voted to roll back Dodd/Frank

Just a heads up. I didn't see any other Oregon Dems listed, here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026059189

January 7, 2015

RE: "Stopping the Biggest Corporate Power Grab in Years" (TPP)

This guy, Arthur Stamoulis, knows his shit when it comes to international trade deals such as the TPP: he's Director of Citizens Trade Campaign (CTC) ~ http://www.citizenstrade.org/ctc/ ~ CTC is a national coalition of labor, environmental, family farm, consumer, and human rights organizations working together to improve U.S. trade policy. Follow CTC on Twitter at @citizenstrade. In this article he lays out a compelling case for an immediate mobilization to "Stop the biggest Cororate Power Grab in Years".

Mr. Stamoulis is sounding a serious alarm here, calling for immediate mobilization to derail "fast-tracking" by exposing TPP's nefarious contents to the public. US Senator Bernie Sanders is pressing Obama and Congress to do just that: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026043682

~~~~ * ~~~~ * ~~~~ * ~~~~ * ~~~~ * ~~~~ * ~~~~ * ~~~~ *

Stopping the Biggest Corporate Power Grab in Years
How fighting back against one arcane, Nixon-era trade negotiating procedure could put a stop to a global corporate coup.
By Arthur Stamoulis * January 6, 2015 * CommonDreams.com/Foreign Policy in Focus

When global justice groups wanted to halt expansion of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1999, they organized massive demonstrations in Seattle, where the official ministerial conference was being held. Tens of thousands of people filled the streets. Groups held rallies, marches, and teach-ins, conducted civil disobedience, and in many cases faced attacks by police. With delegates unable to even reach the convention hall, the opening ceremony was cancelled, and the talks eventually fell apart. The “Battle of Seattle” not only succeeded in derailing the Millennial Round of negotiations, it also turned opposition to corporate globalization into international headline news.

~snip~

The TPP is a corporate power grab clearly worthy of Seattle-caliber mobilization. But the fight against this reprehensible deal requires different types of tactics. And the place to start is by derailing “Fast Track,” the mechanism that would allow TPP approval to rush through the U.S. Congress with little debate and no amendments.

~snip~

Organizing Against the TPP Using The Anti-Fast Track Strategy

~snip~

TPP boosters have said time-and-again that passing Fast Track is critical not only to getting a completed pact through Congress, but also to convincing foreign TPP negotiators to actually finish the pact. Just imagine other governments’ reasoning: Why bother giving in to Washington’s most draconian and politically risky demands when the White House can’t even get the pact through the U.S. Congress without more demands being tacked on?

TPP supporters and opponents alike both know that, with the U.S. presidential elections gearing up in the latter half of 2015, the window of opportunity for concluding the TPP is fast closing. Neither political party in the United States wants an unpopular trade debate on its hands while it’s trying to take the White House. And so, anti-TPP activists are both extremely close to victory and about to face another major pro-Fast Track onslaught.

~snip~

The first months of the new year are the period when we’ll win or lose. If activists are able to escalate local expressions of opposition to Fast Track for the TPP over the coming months, and to continue communicating to their U.S. representatives that a Fast Track vote is something that they’ll remember forever, they will succeed in preventing the most harmful corporate sneak-attack since the 1990s.

PLEASE SEE ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE: http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/01/06/stopping-biggest-corporate-power-grab-years

January 7, 2015

Darren Wilson grand juror suing prosecutor for botching the case and putting Mike Brown on trial

Darren Wilson grand juror suing prosecutor for botching the case and putting Mike Brown on trial
Tom Boggioni * 05 JAN 2015 * Raw Story

In an effort to freely speak out on what happened in the Darren Wilson grand jury deliberations involving the shooting of Michael Brown, a member of the jury is suing St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch, saying he mischaracterized the proceedings after presenting a “muddled” case, reports St. Louis Public Radio.

In a lawsuit (pdf) filed Monday morning, the juror — described as “Grand Juror Doe” – claims McCulloch’s statements to the press following the announcement of no indictment against Wilson were inaccurate and that the juror would like to address those inaccuracies.

According to the lawsuit, “In [the grand juror]’s view, the current information available about the grand jurors’ views is not entirely accurate — especially the implication that all grand jurors believed that there was no support for any charges. Moreover, the public characterization of the grand jurors’ view of witnesses and evidence does not accord with [Doe]’s own.”

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/01/darren-wilson-grand-juror-suing-prosecutor-for-botching-the-case-and-putting-mike-brown-on-trial/

January 7, 2015

A Colorado NAACP Office Was Bombed Today

A Colorado NAACP Office Was Bombed Today
BY IAN MILLHISER * JANUARY 6, 2015 * Think Progress

In what appears to be an attack on a well-known civil rights organization, an “improvised explosive device” detonated on Tuesday at the headquarters of the Colorado Springs, Colorado NAACP, according to a statement by the FBI. No one was killed or injured in the explosion, and there was “only minimal surface charring to the exterior wall of the building,” which also includes a hair salon. The explosion could have been much worse, however, as the explosive device was placed next to a gasoline can in an apparent attempt to increase the force of the explosion. The gasoline did not ignite.



The FBI statement adds that a “potential person of interest in this investigation is a Caucasian male, approximately 40 years of age, and balding. He may be driving a 2000 or older model dirty, white pick-up truck with paneling, a dark colored bed liner, open tailgate, and a missing or covered license plate.”

Although the apparent bomber’s motives are not yet known, bombings were a common terrorist tactic during the Jim Crow era. The city of Birmingham, Alabama became known as “Bombingham” due to a rash of bombings targeting black homes and churches, including a 1963 church bombing that killed four girls. The aftermath of that bombing is depicted in the picture at the top of this post.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/01/06/3608722/a-colorado-naacp-office-was-apparently-bombed-today/