January 5, 2015

Another Unarmed Citizen Shot Dead. 2 More Killer-cops get a PAID VACATION

Unarmed Kansas Man Shot and Killed By Police After a “Verbal Exchange”
By Mike Sawyer * January 4, 2015 * The Free Thought Project

Wichita, KS — Two Witchita police officers are on paid administrative leave following the shooting death of an unarmed 23-year-old man.

Interim Chief Nelson Mosley, with the Wichita Police Department, said in a press conference Sunday that police were called to a disturbance around 6:45 p.m. on Saturday.

Two officers responded and reportedly found two men inside of an SUV. Police asked both men to get out of the vehicle.

According to their report, the 44-year-old driver complied with the verbal commands of police, but the 23-year-old began a verbal argument. Police Lt. James Espinoza said the 23-year-old man engaged in a “verbal exchange” with the officers when he was outside the vehicle.

The argument led to the back of the police cruiser at which point they repeatedly yelled at the 23-year-old to place his hands on the vehicle, which he did not do according to the report.

“Officer A then fired his taser,” said Mosley at the press conference. Officers claim that the man did not respond to the taser. At this point Officer B claimed to “see the suspect reach towards his waistband,” so she fired 2 shots into the man’s abdomen.

“Upon officers arriving and meeting the man until the shots were fired was 3 minutes,” said Mosley.

Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/unarmed-kansas-man-shot-killed-police-argumentative/#7IPhxwUtKvUcYcuL.99

January 3, 2015

The Problem with Police "unions": Problem cop elected President of police union in LA

It would appear police unions have become nothing more than an organized white-wash scheme to protect cops guilty of using excessive force. This issue is touched on in this LA Times piece about Officer Lally, and several other articles are referenced and linked that illustrate the problem with police unions.

Recenty we've seen how this plays out, when there is a high-profile open & shut case of police brutality in Ferguson, and in NYC with Eric Garner. It's "the union to the rescue", every fucking time. IMHO this is a serious abuse of the whole notion of labor unions, which historically have championed justice, fairness, equality, etc. rather than covering the asses of murderers and bullies.

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From 'problem officer' to president, new police union leader takes over
By JOEL RUBIN * Dec, 31, 2014 * LA Times

Craig Lally, the incoming president of the union that represents Los Angeles police officers, has a framed newspaper article from 1992 haging on his office wall.

Far from a puff piece, the article named Lally as one of the Christopher Commissions’s infamous 44 "problem officers." The commission, a blue-ribbon panel that proposed reforms following the police beating of Rodney G. King in 1991, had flagged the officers for having several allegations of misconduct against them. The list, according to the commission, was meant to illustrate "the problem of excessive force in the LAPD."

Lallly, a nearly 35-year veteran of the department, said he keeps the article nearby “as a reminder not to let what happened to me happen to any other officer.” He takes over as head of the Police Protective League on Thursday after winning a vote by the union’s roughly 9,800 rank-and-file officers.

In many ways, Lally, 58, said the path that led him to the union’s top post began with his inclusion on the list of 44.

He was at the time a newly promoted sergeant who was well-regarded within the department. When The Times published the names of the 44 officers, Lally publicly contested the commission’s decision to include him on a ledger of the department’s worst offenders. Unlike many on the list, none of the accusations Lally faced had been sustained by department investigations.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-lapd-union-20141231-story.html

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SPECIAL REPORT: Unions protect problem officers
Part 3: Florida's two police unions use their political clout to push for changes in disciplinary process
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20111206/ARTICLE/111209976

Police Unions Produce Rules That Protect Bad Actors, That’s How Public Unions Work
http://reason.com/blog/2014/08/14/police-unions-produce-rules-that-protect

The Bad Kind of Unionism
When police unions have widened their gaze beyond issues like compensation and working conditions, it’s been almost exclusively to conservative ends.
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/01/the-bad-kind-of-unionism/

January 3, 2015

On the Docket: The Top 4 SCOTUS Cases to Follow in 2015

Good write-up on upcoming SCOTUS cases in 2015. The article contains a brief summary of each
of the cases going (or likely going) before SCOTUS soon, including what's at stake.

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On the Docket: The Top 4 SCOTUS Cases to Follow in 2015
January 2, 2015 * by Brianna Kovan * Ms. Blog

The Supreme Court’s 2014-2015 term—which began on Oct. 6—will conclude near the end of June 2015. After a year of decisions that narrowed women’s reproductive and economic rights, the current term provides the justices ample opportunities to right their wrongs (that is, if they can see past their egregious “blind spot” for women’s rights).
Below, take a look at a list of cases already on the docket that could have a big impact for women.


On the Docket
(1) Pregnant Workers’ Rights and Employment Discrimination
(2) Free Speech vs. Threats
(3) Employer Discrimination Protocol
(4) Clarifying Police Right to Search or Seizure

Potential cases
(1) Marriage Equality
(2) Contraceptive Coverage
(3) TRAP Laws

http://msmagazine.com/blog/2015/01/02/on-the-docket-the-top-4-scotus-cases-to-follow-in-2015/

January 2, 2015

Dear President Obama: If the TPP is so wonderful why the dark cloak of secrecy?

This one thing should repulse anyone who calls themselves a "Democrat" ...
What could be less democratic than an international agreement binding on the USA, an
agreement crafted in complete secrecy, save for a handful of Wall St. CEOs.

And then even after it's drafted, no one gets to know all of what's in the document?
Yet our democratically elected Congress-peeps are supposed to put on blindfolds and
vote for the damn thing anyway?

I don't think so.

Fuck that. Fuck the TPP. Fuck Wall St.

Despite the wide-ranging effects on the global population, the TPP is currently being negotiated in total secrecy by 12 countries. Few people, even within the negotiating countries’ governments, have access to the full text of the draft agreement and the public, who it will affect most, none at all. Large corporations, however, are able to see portions of the text, generating a powerful lobby to effect changes on behalf of these groups and bringing developing country members reduced force, while the public at large gets no say.

Julian Assange, WikiLeaks’ Editor-in-Chief, said:

The selective secrecy surrounding the TPP negotiations, which has let in a few cashed-up megacorps but excluded everyone else, reveals a telling fear of public scrutiny. By publishing this text we allow the public to engage in issues that will have such a fundamental impact on their lives.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/updated-secret-trans-pacific-partnership-agreement-tpp-freedom-of-information-civil-liberties-and-access-to-medicines-at-stake/5408730

January 1, 2015

Cops Hunt Down & Kill Man After He Makes A YouTube Video That Police Find "Threatening"

This guy clearly has (or I should say had) some major "issues" with authority, and was also arguably endangering the cops, but still ... he was unarmed ... they couldn't shoot out the tires? ... and why did they even feel a need to hunt him down in the first place, as a "terrorist"?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying this guy was totally innocent, or that his video made any sense, or that his behavior while being chased down was appropriate at all ... he was acting out something with the cops and/or authority figures in general. He actually appears to have needed a good counselor or shrink. It's sad to me that cops act this way.

Why can't we have cops like they have in Sweden, where they've only killed ONE person in the entire history of their police force?

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Cops Hunt Down And Kill A Man After He Made A YouTube Video That Police Found Threatening
By John Vibes * December 31, 2014 * Free Thought Project

Police fired so many bullets that it sounded like “a fireworks grand finale”

Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania – A man was shot and killed by police in a Philadelphia suburb this Tuesday night, just days after he made inflammatory posts about police on YouTube.

A minimum of five police officers fired an unknown amount of shots at 52-year-old Joseph Anthony Pacini, claiming that he was attempting to run them over, all five of them at the same time, apparently.

In the eerie videos that he posted online earlier this month, he actually predicted his own death, saying that “Clearly these guys want me dead or in prison and there’s no way in hell I’m going back to prison.”

“The lose-lose scenario, you try to arrest me. Consequently, there will be serious and irreversible catastrophic consequences,” Pacini also said in one of the videos.

At that point it seems that police actually had no prior warrants against him and no reason to arrest him, but they were so upset by the videos that they decided to arrest him for making “terrorist threats.”

Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/cops-hunt-kill-man-youtube-video-police-threatening/#KsOJxUzoGx2JBO7O.99