Police Brutality During Chicago NATO Summit

by Stephen Lendman

 

NATO arrives everywhere violently. Chicago was no exception. Residents were terrorized for days.

Many are still recovering. For some, it’s from hospital beds. Others are behind bars. Chicago cops upheld their odious reputation. The city is notorious for being America’s police repression capital.

On May 25, the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) Chicago chapter assessed days of police brutality. More on that below.

Former NLG leader Arthur Kinoy (1920 – 2003) spoke for like-minded activists, saying:

“We, as lawyers, are fighting to keep the First Amendment alive in the legal arena. The people are fighting to keep the First Amendment alive in the streets, in their homes, in the factories, in the legislative halls, in the political arena.”

Given today’s climate in America and other Western societies, the struggle is sorely tested. Police brutality during Chicago’s NATO summit highlighted a repeated problem nationwide.

Activist struggles are targeted. Cops are enforcers for crime bosses. Constitutional rights no longer matter. They’re more artifact than reality.

On May 17, an NLG press release condemned a preemptive Bridgeport neighborhood raid. At least eight arrests were made. No one committed a crime.

Witnesses said cops burst into a six-unit apartment building violently with no search warrant. Doing so is illegal. They entered an apartment guns drawn.

One tenant was tackled in his kitchen. Two were handcuffed for two hours in their living room while police searched their apartment and a neighboring one.

A search warrant produced four hours later had no authorizing signature. Beer-making supplies and cell phones were seized.

Three youths were charged with possession of incendiary devices, material support for terrorism, and conspiracy to commit it.

Despite no evidence whatever proving it, allegations claimed planned use of Molotov cocktails and pipe bombs against police stations, financial institutions, Obama’s Chicago headquarter, and Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s home. Other baseless accusations were made.

On May 22, the Chicago Tribune headlined “Lawyers for 3 charged in firebomb plot say solitary confinement in jail is ‘cruel and unusual,’ ” saying:

NLG attorney Michael Deutsch said they’re held on excessive $1.5 million bonds in “hospital-white” cells, 24 hours a day, and can’t communicate with anyone.

“They are totally in isolation from everyone else in the jail and each other,” he said. “They have nothing to read. They have no writing material. It’s a kind of sensory deprivation situation.”

The Constitution’s Eight Amendment prohibits “excessive bail,” “excessive fines,” and “cruel and unusual punishment.”

Brian Church, Jared Chase, and Brent Betterly are victimized by all three.

A follow-up May 23 Tribune article headlined “Lawyers for 3 accused of NATO plot criticize jail isolation,” saying:

Cook County Sheriff Department spokesman Frank Bilecki claimed the three youths were isolated to assess if they risk “harm (to) themselves or anyone else.” NLG attorneys denounced their isolation as “cruel and unusual.” They also affirmed their innocence.

On May 25, the NLG Chicago chapter headlined “National Lawyers Guild Provides Wrap-up of Police Actions During Week-long NATO Demonstrations,” saying:

Cops engaged in “harassment and violence.”

“(S)erious injuries, high-level charges, and exceptionally high bonds” followed.

NLG estimated 117 arrests. Less than 100 were charged. Most were for violating city ordinances, disorderly conduct, failure to disperse, trespassing, resisting arrest, and other misdemeanors.

Sixteen face felony accusations. Five are accused of terrorism-related activities.

Virtually everyone charged is innocent. Cops violated their rights, not the reverse.

Over 70 reports of police brutality were received. Most occurred during Sunday marches. Most injuries were from baton head and body blows. Over two dozen were hospitalized for broken bones, concussions, knocked out teeth, and open wounds requiring stitches.

According to NLG spokesperson Kris Hermes:

”Although police allowed some unpermitted marches to take place without incident, there were massive shows of force by police throughout the week of NATO demonstrations and indiscriminate violence perpetrated against many protesters.”

“Contrary to rhetoric from Mayor Emanuel and Police Superintendent McCarthy, the city was anything but tolerant to political dissent.”

It waged war against peaceful protesters. Hundreds of Occupy Chicago participants have been targeted, harassed, arrested, and, at times, beaten for demanding rights they’ve been denied. Protesters on city streets always face harsh police responses.

During NATO’s summit, activists’ homes and organizing spaces were violated without warrants. Chicago Independent Media Center and Wellington Avenue Church were targeted. Numerous unconstitutional stops and searches were conducted.

On May 22, the first felony case was dismissed in Cook County court. On May 15, Danny Johnson was arrested at an immigration rally. He was charged with aggravated felony assault on a police officer. He was jailed for a week on $10,000 bond. According to NLG’s Hermes:

“The dismissal of charges against (him) certainly raises questions about the veracity of claims against many other NATO protesters.”

A dozen or more remain in custody. Five are for terrorism-related charges. No evidence whatever proves them. Most court dates were scheduled from mid-to-late May.

Hearings for the so-called “NATO 5″ will be on June 12 and 13.

During days of NATO protests, NLG lawyers were available round-the-clock if needed. Observers were deployed to document police misconduct.

NLG “is committed to provid(e) legal representation for anyone arrested and facing charges.”

They’ll need all the help they can get. Innocence is no defense. NATO 5 activists face kangaroo court injustice. Guilty by accusation is policy.

Precedent shows if they’re exonerated they’ll likely be retried on new charges until convicted.

Police state justice doesn’t take no for an answer. Imperial America wants no challengers abroad or at home. The nation’s gulag is filled with those who try and many others illegally entrapped.

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2012/05/28/police-brutality-during-chicago-nato-summit/

NO ALTO A LA VIOLENCIA

People all over the world are waking up to their own power and are taking it back, great news Jim. The light always prevails over darkness once people “truly” discover their own inner light…Mahalo!

Jim Stone, Freelance Journalist, April 22 2012, Mexico City, Mexico

I had a laptop battery problem I needed to solve, and on my way to the Centro de la Technologia, (a major computer swap meet) I came across Nael Penniman of the Morena Movimiento Regeneracion Nacional. This organization is attempting to oust the CIA drug lords from Mexico and restore Mexico to a fully sovereign state.

He spoke fairly good English, and after some time I was able to get his message clearly; and it is:

We know it’s the CIA feeding the drug problems in Mexico, We know it is America providing the weapons to the drug lords and escalating the violence in mexico, and we want America OUT of Mexico, we don’t want the problems, the violence, we want Mexico restored to what it was before America went into our country and caused so many problems.

He was also aware that the war on drugs was a fraud perpetrated by the same government that spawned all the problems to begin with.

He was on his way to a meeting regarding this issue, and was very intelligent and well kept.

As an American who has his own set of problems with said agencies, I would also like to ask the CIA to stop messing around with other people’s countries and get the HELL out of Mexico too!

jimstonefreelance.com

Police Teargas Oakland Protesters at May Day General Strike

Madina Kochenova

by grtv

Around 400 protesters have been confronted by police who used tear gas, causing hundreds to scatter on May 1. Some activists blocked streets throughout the day and vandalized two banks, a news van and police vehicle. Nine people were taken into custody in Oakland, California, after hundreds of people took to the streets.

Police reportedly used Taser against at least one of them. Officers ordered protesters out of the street after firing the tear gas and “flash-bang” grenades.

RT’s correspondent Madina Kochenova has the latest from Los Angeles.

Link to RT video:

http://tv.globalresearch.ca/2012/05/police-teargas-oakland-protesters-may-day-general-strike

61-Year Old Woman Violently Arrested After Peacefully Protesting a Koch Funded Meeting

Note: Kansas Gov. Brownback’s disturbing comments posted on the Heritage Foundation’s web site:

“A 61 year old woman with a husband taking care of their disabled child at home while she’s out disrupting the actions of elected officials. Protesting instead of caring for her child, hopefully the cops beat some sense into her but I doubt it, wild indians on the war path are totally out of control. Sounds like a state social services case manager needs to take charge of the child to insure that it is receiving appropriate care !”

Anyone who still votes Republican seriously needs to reassess their position,  this is not the same GOP of the good ole days. It’s owned by fascists like the Koch brothers, nothing more than psychopaths fashioning themselves after feudal lords hell bent on hording the wealth and turning the clock back to the dark ages.

Phone numbers are listed at the bottom if you wish to voice your concerns over this incident.

From: Nation of Change

On November 16^th, protestors in Wichita, Kansas registered and attended Governor Brownsback’s Town Hall Meeting focusing on child poverty in the state. The group planned to protest the Governor’s decisions on how to improve the poverty level of children in Kansas. To date, Governor Brownback has cut funds for several educational and healthcare programs for children and adolescents while 75,000 children in Kansas are without health insurance.

All citizens in attendance were made to sit at assigned tables while listening to speeches sponsored by the Heritage Foundation, a think tank funded by the Koch Brothers. The meeting that took place failed to discuss Brownback’s several poor decisions and instead was a subtle promotion for marriage in Kansas – something that the speaker related to the poverty level.

At the end of the speech, protestors stood with their backs to the speaker and read their own statement to educate those in attendance on the cuts that Brownback has orchestrated. At the end of this statement, as the protestors attempted to walk out quietly, police officers entered the building and arrested Doris Gent (Ravenfeather), a 61-year-old Native American woman.

Doris was arrested brutally, with onlookers describing the police twisting her arm behind her violently and pushing her against the wall. The police were so forceful she was left with several bruises and a strained neck, prompting a visit Wesley Hospital’s Emergency Room the next day. Meanwhile, Doris had a husband at home caring for their disabled child.

Doris was released after she was charged but will have to return for her trial on April 20, 2012. We ask you to support the activists that are attempting to get the charges against her dropped. We believe that she is being used to set an example for simply exercising her right to peacefully protest.

Please call the Wichita Mayor and City Council. Please make your calls from 9:00 am – 5:00 pm daily until 4/20. Go To Facebook Events Page: Drop the Charges Against Doris ‘Ravenfeather’ Gent and also: Pack the Courtroom for Doris Ravenfeather!
City phone #(316) 268-4331 Fax# (316) 858-7743
Connect with City Council members or leave a message.

This article was published at NationofChange at: http://www.nationofchange.org/61-year-old-woman-violently-arrested-after-peacefully-protesting-koch-funded-meeting-1334850629. All rights are reserved.

7 Rules for Recording Police

 

Things you should and shouldn’t do when armed with a camera against the police.

April 8, 2012

LIKE THIS ARTICLE ?

Join our mailing list:

Sign up to stay up to date on the latest Civil Liberties headlines via email.

Last week the City of Boston agreed to pay Simon Glik $170,000 in damages and legal fees to settle a civil rights lawsuit stemming from his 2007 felony arrest for videotaping police roughing up a suspect. Prior to the settlement, the First Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that Glik had a “constitutionally protected right to videotape police carrying out their duties in public.” The Boston Police Department now explicitly instructs its officers not to arrest citizens openly recording them in public.

Slowly but surely the courts are recognizing that recording on-duty police is a protected First Amendment activity. But in the meantime, police around the country continue to intimidate and arrest citizens for doing just that. So if you’re an aspiring cop watcher you must be uniquely prepared to deal with hostile cops.

If you choose to record the police you can reduce the risk of terrible legal consequences and video loss by understanding your state’s laws and carefully adhering to the following rules.

Rule #1: Know the Law (Wherever You Are)

Conceived at a time when pocket-sized recording devices were available only to James Bond types, most eavesdropping laws were originally intended to protect people against snoops, spies, and peeping Toms. Now with this technology in the hands of average citizens, police and prosecutors are abusing these outdated laws to punish citizens merely attempting to document on-duty police.

The law in 38 states plainly allows citizens to record police, as long as you don’t physically interfere with their work. Police might still unfairly harass you, detain you, or confiscate your camera. They might even arrest you for some catchall misdemeanor such as obstruction of justice or disorderly conduct. But you will not be charged for illegally recording police.

Twelve states—California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Washington—require the consent of all parties for you to record a conversation.

However, all but 2 of these states—Massachusetts and Illinois—have an “expectation of privacy provision” to their all-party laws that courts have ruled does not apply to on-duty police (or anyone in public). In other words, it’s technically legal in those 48 states to openly record on-duty police.

Rule #2 Don’t Secretly Record Police

In most states it’s almost always illegal to record a conversation in which you’re not a party and don’t have consent to record. Massachusetts is the only state to uphold a conviction for recording on-duty police, but that conviction was for a secret recording where the defendant failed to inform police he was recording. (As in the Glik case, Massachusetts courts have ruled that openly recording police is legal, but secretly recording them isn’t.)

Fortunately, judges and juries are soundly rejecting these laws. Illinois, the state with the most notorious anti-recording laws in the land, expressly forbids you from recording on-duty police. Early last month an Illinois judge declared that law unconstitutional, ruling in favor of Chris Drew, a Chicago artist charged with felony eavesdropping for secretly recording his own arrest. Last August a jury acquitted Tiawanda Moore of secretly recording two Chicago Police Internal Affairs investigators who encouraged her to drop a sexual harassment complaint against another officer. (A juror described the case to a reporter as “a waste of time.”) In September, an Illinois state judge dropped felony charges against Michael Allison. After running afoul of local zoning ordinances, he faced up to 75 years in prison for secretly recording police and attempting to tape his own trial.

The lesson for you is this: If you want to limit your legal exposure and present a strong legal case, record police openly if possible. But if you videotape on-duty police from a distance, such an announcement might not be possible or appropriate unless police approach you.

Rule #3: Respond to “Shit Cops Say” 

When it comes to police encounters, you don’t get to choose whom you’re dealing with. You might get Officer Friendly, or you might get Officer Psycho. You’ll likely get officers between these extremes. But when you “watch the watchmen,” you must be ready to think on your feet.

In most circumstances, officers will not immediately bull rush you for filming them. But if they aren’t properly trained, they might feel like their authority is being challenged. And all too often police are simply ignorant of the law. Part of your task will be to convince them that you’re not a threat while also standing your ground.

“What are you doing?”

Police aren’t celebrities, so they’re not always used to being photographed in public. So even if you’re recording at a safe distance, they might approach and ask what you are doing. Avoid saying things like “I’m recording you to make sure you’re doing your job right” or “I don’t trust you.”

Instead, say something like “Officer, I’m not interfering. I’m asserting my First Amendment rights. You’re being documented and recorded offsite.”

Saying this while remaining calm and cool will likely put police on their best behavior. They might follow up by asking, “Who do you work for?” You may, for example, tell them you’re an independent filmmaker or a citizen journalist with a popular website/blog/YouTube show. Whatever you say, don’t lie—but don’t let police trick youinto thinking that the First Amendment only applies to mainstream media journalists. It doesn’t.

“Let me see your ID.”

In the United States there’s no law requiring you to carry a government ID. But in 24 states police may require you to identify yourself if they have reasonable suspicionthat you’re involved in criminal activity.

But how can you tell if an officer asking for ID has reasonable suspicion? Police need reasonable suspicion to detain you, so one way to tell if they have reasonable suspicion is to determine if you’re free to go. You can do this by saying “Officer, are you detaining me, or am I free to go?”

If the officer says you’re free to go or you’re not being detained, it’s your choice whether to stay or go. But if you’re detained, you might say something like, “I’m not required to show you ID, but my name is [your full name].” It’s up to you if you want to provide your address and date of birth if asked for it, but I’d stop short of giving them your Social Security number.

“Please stop recording me. It’s against the law.”

Rarely is it advisable to educate officers about the law. But in a tense recording situation where the law is clearly on your side, it might help your case to politely present your knowledge of state law.

For example, if an insecure cop tries to tell you that you’re violating his civil liberties, you might respond by saying “Officer, with all due respect, state law only requires permission from one party in a conversation. I don’t need your permission to record so long as I’m not interfering with your work.”

If you live in one of the 12 all party record states, you might say something like “Officer, I’m familiar with the law, but the courts have ruled that it doesn’t apply to recording on-duty police.”

If protective service officers harass you while filming on federal property, you may remind them of a recently issued directive informing them that there’s no prohibition against public photography at federal buildings.

“Stand back.”

If you’re approaching the scene of an investigation or an accident, police will likely order you to move back. Depending on the circumstances, you might become involved in an intense negotiation to determine the “appropriate” distance you need to stand back to avoid “interfering” with their work.

If you feel you’re already standing at a reasonable distance, you may say something like, “Officer, I have a right to be here. I’m filming for documentation purposes and not interfering with your work.” It’s then up to you to decide how far back you’re willing to stand to avoid arrest.

Rule #4: Don’t Share Your Video with Police

Read more here:

http://www.alternet.org/rights/154898/7_Rules_for_Recording_Police/?page=entire

Regime Change In Oakland

Posted 13 hours ago on Jan. 31, 2012, 8:58 a.m. EST by OccupyWallSt

On Saturday, January 28, thousands of parents, families and engaged citizens gathered together to open a community center in the heart of downtown Oakland. The Police, under orders from Mayor Quan, responded to this peaceful demonstration of direct democracy and community building by arresting around 400 people. Hundreds more were injured when an army of officers marched on these unarmed families, raised their guns and fired bullets, tear gas canisters, smoke bombs, concussion grenades and other explosive devices into the crowd. Mayor Quan, on the same day as solidarity marches were organized by dozens of occupations across the nation, has called on the Occupy Movement to denounce Oakland’s show of bravery under fire and community strength. We stand with Oakland and call for the immediate resignation of Quan, who on Saturday made it clear that the state has abandoned democracy and joined the 1% in declaring war against the people.

Extreme economic injustice and true democracy can never co-exist. We have seen this violent truth before: in Pinochet’s Chile, 1990’s Russia, Suharto’s Indonesia. Four months ago, the Occupy Movement showed that this historical truth has finally come home: The economic oppression by the 1% has become so egregious that it cannot exist without destroying the spirit of the American democratic system. Across the country, people are rising up to demand a more just nation, and police brutality and state violence are the only things keeping this injustice in place. In Oakland, thousands of active community members chose to engage in true democracy by supporting the real and pressing needs of the people. The state, which supposedly represents these people, exercised extreme police brutality and violence to protect the 1%’s vacant assets. The explicit goal of the action was to build community—to open a desperately needed community center with a library, medical care, free education and emergency housing in a city that has suffered massive budget cuts, high unemployment rates and ravaged public schools. In response, the city government poured hundreds of thousands of dollars, bullets and canisters of tear gas into declaring open war on these parents, students, workers, artists, teachers, children and veterans. These people’s only offense was to believe so deeply in the American tradition of democracy, self-sufficiency, and sacrifice for the next generation that they were willing to put their bodies on the line to make this nation the empowering democracy that we know it can be.

On Saturday, Mayor Quan’s actions again demonstrated that open war has been declared on the spirit of democracy and the people of Oakland and this nation. We call for the end of Mayor Quan’s administration and a regime change in Oakland. We continue to stand in solidarity with Occupy Oakland and will support them as they continue peaceful protest and community building until this and all other authoritarian administrations have been ousted from their place of illegitimate power. Together, we are building a stronger world, a stronger community, a stronger promise for the next generation.

http://occupywallst.org/article/regime-change-oakland/

Top Radiation Expert: 50 Bq/kg in humans leads to irreversible lesions in vital organs, Russian children dying from adult diseases — Top UN official refutes effects of internal radiation, absolute political corruption, suppressing evidence and falsification of data (VIDEO)

Shameful expose` on the corruption, blatant denial and deliberate cover-up on the part of nuclear industry on the dangerous effects from low doses of radiation. The world has waited 25 years for the results to come back on the health effects from the Chernobyl disaster, now that it’s beginning to show very alarming consequences in children’s health the results are ignored.

When you understand the extent globally due to radioactive contamination from Chernobyl, Fukushima, atmospheric atomic testing, the  irresponsible, illegal dumping of radioactive waste by products from countless nuclear power plants and now all the depleted uranium entering the atmosphere and environment from the masters of the Universe implementing deadly policy making for the military industrial complex – we have a serious problem.

Nuclear Controversies by Vladimir Tchertkoff; Released in 2003, 51 minutes

Key Points

• Intro – Children’s perspective
• 2:30 – Agreement between IAEA and WHO – WHO cannot research health effects of radiation or effects of nuclear accidents if IAEA does not agree
• 7:00 – Former head of WHO admits they answer to IAEA
• 14:00 – Chernobyl had no effect -UN
• 15:45 – Scientist refutes UN
• 27:30 – 200km from Chernobyl, 10,000 becquerels measured inside child
• 30:20 – According to Professor Yury Bandazhevsky (former director of the Medical Institute in Gomel), Over 50 Bq/kg of body weight lead to irreversible lesions in vital organs
• 30:50 – *MUST SEE* Refutes internal radiation! -Norman Gentner, Secretary of UN UNSCEAR (United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation), ~2001 (See Gentner speak at 13:55 — No increase in leukemia, even among liquidators)
• 34:15 – *MUST SEE* Internal or external it makes no difference!
• 45:20 – Internal lesions
• 49:25 – Now only 20 out of 100 considered healthy, before it was 80 out of 100
• Keep your eye out for Chris Busby at 35:30 and 38:40

Link to VIDEO

http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=8746168177815160826&hl=en&fs=true

My Occupy LA Arrest, by Patrick Meighan (UPDATE: 12/9/11)

Note:  For those of you who haven’t paid much attention to the Occupy movement because your life hasn’t been touched by financial hardship yet so you still haven’t reached a point of desperation or anger, or maybe you fed into media propaganda about dirty hippies defecating on the American flat or urinating on police cars. Maybe you just don’t get it yet, well hopefully this will help open your eyes to the emergence of a well defined police state lurking in the shadows of injustice.

This is the story of one protestor’s experience in Los Angeles the night the LAPD raided the Occupy LA encampment and the total disregard for human rights or well being. It’s apparent now that the real terrorists were all being trained here at home  to overtake peaceful American’s, while at the same time we were marching troops overseas to root them out of caves.

If you can’t or won’t participate in the protests there are other ways to support the movement, go to Occupy.com to find you local chapter for suggestions how you can get involved and make a difference in your local community. Keep in mind that many cities and towns have police departments that are working with protestors to promote change in their areas.

Time to wake up and get involved…They came for the Muslims, but I was not Muslim so I did nothing. They came for the Immigrants, but I was not and Immigrant so I did nothing. They came for the teachers, unions and public workers, but I was not a teacher…so I did nothing. They came for the Occupy protestors, but I was not an Occupy protestor…so I did nothing.

Who’s left to come for next? Debtors – then you. In Republicon led red states, these so-called leaders are actually talking about making “debtors” criminals, why? As an  an overall tactic to drive down wages and because they want prison labor to replace all the immigrants they’ve deported or who left state out of fear of deportation. As prisons are privatized, they need to fill up those prisons to keep the shareholders happy. So lawmakers are on the race to the bottom to find ways to criminalize the citizenry and the Occupy arrests reflect that trend.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My Occupy Arrest by Patrick Meighan

My name is Patrick Meighan, and I’m a husband, a father, a writer on the Fox animated sitcom “Family Guy”, and a member of the Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Santa Monica.

I was arrested at about 1 a.m. Wednesday morning with 291 other people at Occupy LA. I was sitting in City Hall Park with a pillow, a blanket, and a copy of Thich Nhat Hanh’s “Being Peace” when 1,400 heavily-armed LAPD officers in paramilitary SWAT gear streamed in. I was in a group of about 50 peaceful protestors who sat Indian-style, arms interlocked, around a tent (the symbolic image of the Occupy movement). The LAPD officers encircled us, weapons drawn, while we chanted “We Are Peaceful” and “We Are Nonviolent” and “Join Us.”

As we sat there, encircled, a separate team of LAPD officers used knives to slice open every personal tent in the park. They forcibly removed anyone sleeping inside, and then yanked out and destroyed any personal property inside those tents, scattering the contents across the park. They then did the same with the communal property of the Occupy LA movement. For example, I watched as the LAPD destroyed a pop-up canopy tent that, until that moment, had been serving as Occupy LA’s First Aid and Wellness tent, in which volunteer health professionals gave free medical care to absolutely anyone who requested it. As it happens, my family had personally contributed that exact canopy tent to Occupy LA, at a cost of several hundred of my family’s dollars. As I watched, the LAPD sliced that canopy tent to shreds, broke the telescoping poles into pieces and scattered the detritus across the park. Note that these were the objects described in subsequent mainstream press reports as “30 tons of garbage” that was “abandoned” by Occupy LA: personal property forcibly stolen from us, destroyed in front of our eyes and then left for maintenance workers to dispose of while we were sent to prison.

When the LAPD finally began arresting those of us interlocked around the symbolic tent, we were all ordered by the LAPD to unlink from each other (in order to facilitate the arrests). Each seated, nonviolent protester beside me who refused to cooperate by unlinking his arms had the following done to him: an LAPD officer would forcibly extend the protestor’s legs, grab his left foot, twist it all the way around and then stomp his boot on the insole, pinning the protestor’s left foot to the pavement, twisted backwards. Then the LAPD officer would grab the protestor’s right foot and twist it all the way the other direction until the non-violent protestor, in incredible agony, would shriek in pain and unlink from his neighbor.

It was horrible to watch, and apparently designed to terrorize the rest of us. At least I was sufficiently terrorized. I unlinked my arms voluntarily and informed the LAPD officers that I would go peacefully and cooperatively. I stood as instructed, and then I had my arms wrenched behind my back, and an officer hyperextended my wrists into my inner arms. It was super violent, it hurt really really bad, and he was doing it on purpose. When I involuntarily recoiled from the pain, the LAPD officer threw me face-first to the pavement. He had my hands behind my back, so I landed right on my face. The officer dropped with his knee on my back and ground my face into the pavement. It really, really hurt and my face started bleeding and I was very scared. I begged for mercy and I promised that I was honestly not resisting and would not resist.

My hands were then zipcuffed very tightly behind my back, where they turned blue. I am now suffering nerve damage in my right thumb and palm.

I was put on a paddywagon with other nonviolent protestors and taken to a parking garage in Parker Center. They forced us to kneel (and sit–SEE UPDATE) on the hard pavement of that parking garage for seven straight hours with our hands still tightly zipcuffed behind our backs. Some began to pass out. One man rolled to the ground and vomited for a long, long time before falling unconscious. The LAPD officers watched and did nothing.

At 9 a.m. we were finally taken from the pavement into the station to be processed. The charge was sitting in the park after the police said not to. It’s a misdemeanor. Almost always, for a misdemeanor, the police just give you a ticket and let you go. It costs you a couple hundred dollars. Apparently, that’s what happened with most every other misdemeanor arrest in LA that day.

With us Occupy LA protestors, however, they set bail at $5,000 and booked us into jail. Almost none of the protesters could afford to bail themselves out. I’m lucky and I could afford it, except the LAPD spent all day refusing to actually *accept* the bail they set. If you were an accused murderer or a rapist in LAPD custody that day, you could bail yourself right out and be back on the street, no problem. But if you were a nonviolent Occupy LA protestor with bail money in hand, you were held long into the following morning, with absolutely no access to a lawyer.

I spent most of my day and night crammed into an eight-man jail cell, along with sixteen other Occupy LA protesters. My sleeping spot was on the floor next to the toilet.

Finally, at 2:30 the next morning, after twenty-five hours in custody, I was released on bail. But there were at least 200 Occupy LA protestors who couldn’t afford the bail. The LAPD chose to keep those peaceful, non-violent protesters in prison for two full days… the absolute legal maximum that the LAPD is allowed to detain someone on misdemeanor charges.

As a reminder, Antonio Villaraigosa has referred to all of this as “the LAPD’s finest hour.”

So that’s what happened to the 292 women and men were arrested last Wednesday. Now let’s talk about a man who was not arrested last Wednesday. He is former Citigroup CEO Charles Prince. Under Charles Prince, Citigroup was guilty of massive, coordinated securities fraud.

Citigroup spent years intentionally buying up every bad mortgage loan it could find, creating bad securities out of those bad loans and then selling shares in those bad securities to duped investors. And then they sometimes secretly bet *against* their *own* bad securities to make even more money. For one such bad Citigroup security, Citigroup executives were internally calling it, quote, “a collection of dogshit”. To investors, however, they called it, quote, “an attractive investment rigorously selected by an independent investment adviser”.

This is fraud, and it’s a felony, and the Charles Princes of the world spent several years doing it again and again: knowingly writing bad mortgages, and then packaging them into fraudulent securities which they then sold to suckers and then repeating the process. This is a big part of why your property values went up so fast. But then the bubble burst, and that’s why our economy is now shattered for a generation, and it’s also why your home is now underwater. Or at least mine is.

Anyway, if your retirement fund lost a decade’s-worth of gains overnight, this is why.

If your son’s middle school has added furlough days because the school district can’t afford to keep its doors open for a full school year, this is why.

If your daughter has come out of college with a degree only to discover that there are no jobs for her, this is why.

But back to Charles Prince. For his four years of in charge of massive, repeated fraud at Citigroup, he received fifty-three million dollars in salary and also received another ninety-four million dollars in stock holdings. What Charles Prince has *not* received is a pair of zipcuffs. The nerves in his thumb are fine. No cop has thrown Charles Prince into the pavement, face-first. Each and every peaceful, nonviolent Occupy LA protester arrested last week has has spent more time sleeping on a jail floor than every single Charles Prince on Wall Street, combined.

The more I think about that, the madder I get. What does it say about our country that nonviolent protesters are given the bottom of a police boot while those who steal hundreds of billions, do trillions worth of damage to our economy and shatter our social fabric for a generation are not only spared the zipcuffs but showered with rewards?

In any event, believe it or not, I’m really not angry that I got arrested. I chose to get arrested. And I’m not even angry that the mayor and the LAPD decided to give non-violent protestors like me a little extra shiv in jail (although I’m not especially grateful for it either).

I’m just really angry that every single Charles Prince wasn’t in jail with me.

Thank you for letting me share that anger with you today.

Patrick Meighan

The Shocking Truth About the Crackdown on Occupy

At this point it appears police brutality is being used as a tool to provoke protestors to the point of escalating into violence, like the kind we’re seeing in Egypt. Yesterday I posted the Democracy Now! interview with Egyptian journalist Mona Eltaway, who survived a brutal sexual assaulted by the military during clashes last week. Mona’s recount of a peaceful revolution’s fall into violence, is eerily reminiscent of current developments unfolding around the Occupy movement.

Which illustrates the importance of taking OWS “partially” off the streets  and into areas of general strikes, boycotts and other forms of non-compliance like the recent bank transfer day which was enormously successful.  Actions that would appeal to people who are disaffected, but aren’t willing, able or ready to take to the streets or to risk their jobs by getting arrested.  Certainly by now there are plenty of people scared of getting their heads bashed in or doused with chemical laden, potentially toxic pepper spray.

It also needs to be noted that many communities haven’t taken to militarized measures, yet.

http://www.sott.net/articles/show/238137-The-Shocking-Truth-About-the-Crackdown-on-Occupy

Naomi Wolf
The Guardian, UK
Fri, 25 Nov 2011 18:14 CST

© Allison Joyce/Getty Images
Occupy Wall Street protester Brandon Watts lies injured on the ground after clashes with police over the eviction of OWS from Zuccotti Park.

US citizens of all political persuasions are still reeling from images of unparallelled police brutality in a coordinated crackdown against peaceful OWS protesters in cities across the nation this past week. An elderly woman was pepper-sprayed in the face; the scene of unresisting, supine students at UC Davis being pepper-sprayed by phalanxes of riot police went viral online; images proliferated of young women – targeted seemingly for their gender – screaming, dragged by the hair by police in riot gear; and the pictures of a young man, stunned and bleeding profusely from the head, emerged in the record of the middle-of-the-night clearing of Zuccotti Park.

But just when Americans thought we had the picture – was this crazy police and mayoral overkill, on a municipal level, in many different cities? – the picture darkened. The National Union of Journalists and the Committee to Protect Journalists issued a Freedom of Information Act request to investigate possible federal involvement with law enforcement practices that appeared to target journalists. The New York Times reported that “New York cops have arrested, punched, whacked, shoved to the ground and tossed a barrier at reporters and photographers” covering protests. Reporters were asked by NYPD to raise their hands to prove they had credentials: when many dutifully did so, they were taken, upon threat of arrest, away from the story they were covering, and penned far from the site in which the news was unfolding. Other reporters wearing press passes were arrested and roughed up by cops, after being – falsely – informed by police that “It is illegal to take pictures on the sidewalk.”

In New York, a state supreme court justice and a New York City council member were beaten up; in Berkeley, California, one of our greatest national poets, Robert Hass, was beaten with batons. The picture darkened still further when Wonkette and Washingtonsblog.com reported that the Mayor of Oakland acknowledged that the Department of Homeland Security had participated in an 18-city mayor conference call advising mayors on “how to suppress” Occupy protests.

To Europeans, the enormity of this breach may not be obvious at first. Our system of government prohibits the creation of a federalised police force, and forbids federal or militarised involvement in municipal peacekeeping.

I noticed that rightwing pundits and politicians on the TV shows on which I was appearing were all on-message against OWS. Journalist Chris Hayes reported on a leaked memo that revealed lobbyists vying for an $850,000 contract to smear Occupy. Message coordination of this kind is impossible without a full-court press at the top. This was clearly not simply a case of a freaked-out mayors’, city-by-city municipal overreaction against mess in the parks and cranky campers. As the puzzle pieces fit together, they began to show coordination against OWS at the highest national levels.

Why this massive mobilisation against these not-yet-fully-articulated, unarmed, inchoate people? After all, protesters against the war in Iraq, Tea Party rallies and others have all proceeded without this coordinated crackdown. Is it really the camping? As I write, two hundred young people, with sleeping bags, suitcases and even folding chairs, are still camping out all night and day outside of NBC on public sidewalks – under the benevolent eye of an NYPD cop – awaiting Saturday Night Live tickets, so surely the camping is not the issue. I was still deeply puzzled as to why OWS, this hapless, hopeful band, would call out a violent federal response.

That is, until I found out what it was that OWS actually wanted.

The mainstream media was declaring continually “OWS has no message”. Frustrated, I simply asked them. I began soliciting online “What is it you want?” answers from Occupy. In the first 15 minutes, I received 100 answers. These were truly eye-opening.

The No 1 agenda item: get the money out of politics. Most often cited was legislation to blunt the effect of the Citizens United ruling, which lets boundless sums enter the campaign process. No 2: reform the banking system to prevent fraud and manipulation, with the most frequent item being to restore the Glass-Steagall Act – the Depression-era law, done away with by President Clinton, that separates investment banks from commercial banks. This law would correct the conditions for the recent crisis, as investment banks could not take risks for profit that create kale derivatives out of thin air, and wipe out the commercial and savings banks.

No 3 was the most clarifying: draft laws against the little-known loophole that currently allows members of Congress to pass legislation affecting Delaware-based corporations in which they themselves are investors.

When I saw this list – and especially the last agenda item – the scales fell from my eyes. Of course, these unarmed people would be having the shit kicked out of them.

© n/a
Oakland, California riot police advance on peaceful Occupy Oakland, November 3, 2011.

For the terrible insight to take away from news that the Department of Homeland Security coordinated a violent crackdown is that the DHS does not freelance. The DHS cannot say, on its own initiative, “we are going after these scruffy hippies”. Rather, DHS is answerable up a chain of command: first, to New York Representative Peter King, head of the House homeland security subcommittee, who naturally is influenced by his fellow congressmen and women’s wishes and interests. And the DHS answers directly, above King, to the president (who was conveniently in Australia at the time).

In other words, for the DHS to be on a call with mayors, the logic of its chain of command and accountability implies that congressional overseers, with the blessing of the White House, told the DHS to authorise mayors to order their police forces – pumped up with millions of dollars of hardware and training from the DHS – to make war on peaceful citizens.

But wait: why on earth would Congress advise violent militarised reactions against its own peaceful constituents? The answer is straightforward: in recent years, members of Congress have started entering the system as members of the middle class (or upper middle class) – but they are leaving DC privy to vast personal wealth, as we see from the “scandal” of presidential contender Newt Gingrich’s having been paid $1.8m for a few hours’ “consulting” to special interests. The inflated fees to lawmakers who turn lobbyists are common knowledge, but the notion that congressmen and women are legislating their own companies’ profitsis less widely known – and if the books were to be opened, they would surely reveal corruption on a Wall Street spectrum. Indeed, we do already know that congresspeople are massively profiting from trading on non-public information they have on companies about which they are legislating – a form of insider trading that sent Martha Stewart to jail.

Since Occupy is heavily surveilled and infiltrated, it is likely that the DHS and police informers are aware, before Occupy itself is, what its emerging agenda is going to look like. If legislating away lobbyists’ privileges to earn boundless fees once they are close to the legislative process, reforming the banks so they can’t suck money out of fake derivatives products, and, most critically, opening the books on a system that allowed members of Congress to profit personally – and immensely – from their own legislation, are two beats away from the grasp of an electorally organised Occupy movement … well, you will call out the troops on stopping that advance.

So, when you connect the dots, properly understood, what happened this week is the first battle in a civil war; a civil war in which, for now, only one side is choosing violence. It is a battle in which members of Congress, with the collusion of the American president, sent violent, organised suppression against the people they are supposed to represent. Occupy has touched the third rail: personal congressional profits streams. Even though they are, as yet, unaware of what the implications of their movement are, those threatened by the stirrings of their dreams of reform are not.

Sadly, Americans this week have come one step closer to being true brothers and sisters of the protesters in Tahrir Square. Like them, our own national leaders, who likely see their own personal wealth under threat from transparency and reform, are now making war upon us.

The State of the World: Three Lines of Force and a Wild Card

Andrés Perezalonso
Sott.net
Fri, 25 Nov 2011 10:17 CST

I will assume that if you are taking a few minutes to read this article you are, like me, more or less a news addict. Every day you wake up and while fixing breakfast you turn on the radio and a laptop to check what is up with this world. As you eat you protest at the comments that come through the airwaves and correct every attempt at subtle propaganda, although sometimes you just have to laugh. Meanwhile you compare the radio broadcast with what is coming through the net in alternative news websites such as Sott.net. You also check out Facebook or some other social media site where you have a number of friends who are also into hunting interesting news items, so you want to see what they have spotted in the last twelve hours.

A week ago I had a surreal moment while reading headlines on Facebook. It was the clear impression that the world had indeed gone mad – and not in a harmless or amusing mad way, but in a cruel and soul-less way. Among the things that caught my eye:

10-Year-Old Survives Life Threatening Complications To Give Birth To Son Prematurely Likely a victim of rape.

House GOP Classifies Pizza As A Vegetable To ‘Prevent Overly Burdensome’ School Lunch Regulations. They grow on trees, you would think.

How the Telecom Industry Seeks to Confuse About the Dangers of Cell Phones. “From the way it was set up originally, this deeply flawed study was designed to fail to find an increased risk of brain tumors tied with cellphone use.”

TSA Puts Off Safety Study of X-ray Body Scanners. At least they are backtracking in Europe. But what harms Europeans is OK for Americans?

Seattle Police pepper-spray 84-year-old woman and pregnant teen. Because they can.

It is these sort of shocking items that make us feel that urge to understand how and why. What is the point of it all? What is the bigger picture? Horror moves us to seek knowledge, which is why I have been thinking lately about the main lines of force in the current state of global affairs. The way I see it, the major interrelated threads are the economic crisis, revolutions, imperialism and climate change. The first three are like standing lines of dominoes about to collapse. The last one can ‘rain’ down on us at any point – in fact it already has, but how strongly will it be when it does again?

It’s tempting to make predictions once you more or less have a handle on things in your mind. That is what so-called futurologists do. They detect trends, extend them twenty or thirty years into the future and come up with a picture of what the world may look like. Sometimes they get it right, but most often they don’t, as they will themselves admit. The main reason is that history does not move in straight lines. Often ‘mega-trends’ are disrupted by unforeseen events which come from either a previously overlooked trend or just from completely out of the blue.

Here I am not interested in what will happen decades into the future, but in our more immediate future. Even if the time-frame is shorter, the task is no less difficult, as the collapsing lines of dominoes are intertwined and not exempt from possible surprises.

Economic Crisis

Do you remember reading a year and a half ago in an installment of the Connecting the Dots series how the global economic crisis entered a new phase with Greece and the “PIIGS” making the headlines? The fact that it was planned in Wall Street left a great impression on me then.

It doesn’t get much more explicit than this folks. As reported by the Wall Street Journal, a very special and very private “idea dinner” was held on February 8 in Manhattan. Invited were a list of Wall Street hedge-fund representatives from SAC Capital Advisors, Soros Fund Management, Greenlight Capital and Brigade Capital. At the dinner, the speculators are said to have ‘predicted’ that the euro is likely to plunge in value to parity with the dollar. The euro has been under pressure because of Greece’s debt crisis, in addition to similar fiscal worries about Portugal, Italy, Spain and Ireland (“PIIGS”, in financial parlance – ingenious, no?) But the euro has also been sapped of its strength because certain hedge funds have been placing huge bets on the currency’s decline, which could make the speculators hundreds of millions in profit. In other words, the expectation of the euro’s decline is a prophecy that the financial mafia is happy to fulfill itself. Goldman Sachs, Bank of America-Merrill Lynch and Barclays Bank of London were also playing “let’s sink the euro,” cashing in on the trend by betting on the currency’s fall. And this was worked out over dinner. That’s all it takes for a handful of psychopaths to cause untold misery for millions upon millions of people.