Green Party presidential candidate, Jill Stein, and her running mate, Cheri Honkala, were arrested by police this afternoon when attempting to gain entry to tonight’s presidential debate at Hofstra University. The Long Island Report, a Hofstra student news website, posted a video showing Stein and Honkala being removed by police.

According to the LI Report, Stein said, “If you have done the work to get on the ballot, if you are on the ballot and could actually win the electoral college by being on the ballot in enough states, then you deserve to be in the election and you deserve to be heard,” to a crowd outside the debate hall. “The American people deserve to hear choices which are not bought and paid for by multinational corporations and Wall Street. This is why we are not hearing the critical issues in this debate.” Read More

Earlier this week I reported on the pending execution of John Ferguson for Truthout. Ferguson is a 64-year-old Florida prisoner scheduled for lethal injection on October 16 for a 1977 mass murder. The problem is that Ferguson is a severely paranoid schizophrenic who believes that he is the “Prince of God.” The Supreme Court has ruled, twice, that executing the mentally ill is unconstitutional if they don’t understand the rationale behind their sentence.

Florida prosecutors have been arguing that Ferguson is faking his delusions, what psychiatrists call “malingering”. After a competency hearing this week, a Florida judge has finally admitted that Ferguson is indeed delusional. Yet he has ruled that despite these delusions, Ferguson is competent for execution. Ferguson’s attorney, Christopher Handman, released this statement in response to the ruling: Read More

Two weeks ago, the shooting rampage at a movie theatre in Aurora, Colorado dominated headlines, ‘round the clock news coverage and the twitter-verse for a week straight. Politicians fell all over themselves in a competition over who could pray the hardest for the victims and their families. President Obama traveled to Aurora to speak with the victims. Obama and Romney halted their election ads in Colorado out of respect for the victims. The media was saturated with background stories of the lives led by those who passed, interviews with survivors and debates over gun control. In typical fashion, the NRA crowd argued that if more moviegoers were armed, they could have taken out the shooter.

Contrast that with the aftermath of the Sunday massacre at a Wisconsin Sikh Temple perpetrated by Wade Michael Page, a neo-Nazi musician.

Aside from a handful of condolence tweets, politicians were largely silent. Perhaps this silence is due in part to the fact that the majority of America’s political establishment spent the last ten years demonizing turban-wearing terrorists, violent Muslims, pretty much all peoples/cultures within and adjacent to the areas of the world America has been bombing for over a decade, fearmongering which has likely helped foster the hatred and violence towards these “others”. Read More

UPDATE: The Associated Press reports, “Marvin Wilson, 54, was pronounced dead at 6:27 p.m., 14 minutes after his lethal injection began at the state prison in Huntsville.” What does this mean for Atkins? I suppose time will tell…

The US Supreme Court has determined that Texas can move forward with this evening’s scheduled execution of Marvin Wilson, a mentally disabled man with an IQ of 61. Despite having been diagnosed as mentally retarded by a court-appointed neuropsychiatrist, Texas courts determined, based on nonclinical and highly subjective standards, that Wilson is not mentally retarded and therefore eligible for execution.

Wilson’s lethal injection will mark the 245th Texas inmate executed under Rick Perry. If that and his mental disability aren’t enough to disturb you, then consider the fact that Texas measures mental retardation using seven non-clinical standards  invented by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals that have no basis whatsoever in science or clinical application. Even worse, these standards are based on Lennie Small, the fictional mentally impaired migrant farm worker from John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. Apparently, Texas finds science unsuitable for diagnosing a medical condition, but not a work of fiction.  Read More

Yesterday, July 31, Oakland police drew their guns on two black teenage boys, forced them to the ground, and detained them for twenty minutes before releasing them.

Bystanders involved with Occupy Oakland, who happened to be hanging out at a nearby café, captured the incident on video, which you can watch at the bottom of this post.  According one of the bystanders at Political Fail Blog, police, who claim to have targeted the two men because they “fit the description of burglary suspects”, also aimed their guns at witnesses recording the police:

While sitting down with a few friends (@CourtneyOccupy, @BellaEiko, @Justizin, @OaklandElle & @AdaminOakland) in a downtown Oakland cafe on Tuesday, we witnessed OPD officer P. O’Donnell badge #392 draw his gun on two men as they walked down Broadway street. During the detainment, the officer briefly aimed his gun at me more than once, prompting me to drop to me knees under the cover of some locked up bikes.

One of the young men held at gunpoint identifies himself as 18-year-old Romel Yohannes. He told Political Fail Blog the following about the encounter:

“The police saw me walking down the street with my little cousin going to get something to eat, and they told us to go to the ground with our hands up, for no reason. They think we match the description of a robbery.”

“This is robbery of character right here. So the only thing we have to say after this is fuck the police.”

Throughout the video, a woman can be heard questioning the police about their behavior. “Oh my god! Don’t shoot them” she says holding back tears. “Why are you guys pulling up with your guns drawn in public like that?” They presented no fucking threat.”

She continues, “Is this what happens when we’re black and walking down the street? You wonder why I won’t leave without my camera? Would y’all have shot him too? Would y’all have did him like Alan Blueford?”

She then warns onlookers, “This is what happens when you’re black and walking down the street in Oakland!”

Apparently, the activists had just returned from a rally at city hall to demand justice for Alan Blueford, an 18-year-old high school student shot and killed by an Oakland police officer in May after running from police.

Just imagine would happen if police began routinely subjecting citizens in white suburban neighborhoods the same treatment—drawing guns on innocent white people walking down the street during the day, shooting at and sometimes killing white teenagers who run from police, and never being held accountable for employing excessive force against innocent white men. I highly doubt this type of police behavior would be tolerated for long, white parents and politicians would never allow it.  America would never allow it.

I highly recommend watching the video because it highlights the daily police harassment endured by people of color, particularly black men, in cities like Oakland, Chicago and New Yor. Yohannes and his cousin appear to be guilty of nothing more than being black dudes walking down the street, a kind of racism that Americans are far too accepting of.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTZya42HtpA]

Last night, I was on Thom Hartman discussing police brutality in Anaheim, California over the weekend. I tried to point out that these types of militarized police actions are largely limited to communities of color and political demonstrations (i.e. Occupy Wall Street, Chicago #NoNATO protests, upcoming RNC and DNC conventions).

[youtube=http://youtu.be/29s2KIs-Qn0&w=640&h=385]

The racialized aspect of the Anaheim incident is significant yet has hardly been discussed. According to Presente.org, there have been eight officer-involved shootings in Anaheim just this year. The Anaheim neighborhood where Manuel Diaz was shot on Saturday, July 21, is almost 90% Latino.

In police justifications for this recent shooting and subsequent treatment of protesting residents, the term “gang member” keeps popping up. For example, The Orange County Register reports (emphasis mine):

Police described Diaz as a “documented gang member,” and said he was shot after the officers saw three men near a car in the 600 block of Anna Drive, near La Palma Avenue and State College Boulevard. Believing the activity to be suspicious, the officers approached the vehicle, and all three men fled on foot.

Furthermore, The Register reports that Anaheim Police Chief John Welter described the firing of bean bags and pepper spray at protesting residents as in response to the throwing of bottles and rocks at officers by “some known gang members.”

“Gang” is a racialized term. It triggers images of violent black and/or brown criminal stereotypes. Repeatedly using the words “gang member” to describe the people at the other end of police violence is nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to elicit  racial indifference towards the victims. After all, if scary brown gangsters were involved, the police had every reason to shoot Diaz, whether he was armed or not, right?

When words like “gangs” or “drugs” are thrown around in connection to victims of color, sympathy for the injured and/or dead comes to a sudden halt. Look no further than the lack of concern for Chicago’s latest scourge of gun violence, with over 250 homicides in 2012 alone, up 40% from this time last year. This has been blamed on guns, gangs, and drugs, which is mostly true. (The larger problem, the War on Drugs and police tactics, is almost always ignored, but I’ll save that for another post.)

Contrast that with the horrified reaction to the Colorado theatre shooting. Sure, there was some unfair victim blaming along the lines of “those parents were crazy to take their kids to a midnight showing of a pg-13 movie”. Still, politicians fell all over themselves competing over who could pray harder for the victims and their families. President Obama even traveled to Aurora where the shooting took place. I can’t imagine him doing the same for the victims of Chicago’s gun violence.

The point is that people react with indifference to victims of “guns, gangs, and drugs” because those words are dehumanizing particularly when used in connection to people of color. So when police say, “suspected gang members provoked us”, and the media regurgitates their claims, the public quits caring, meaning excessive police force against these communities will continue as will the shootings of unarmed people of color like Manuel Diaz.

Below is a video I highly recommend watching of children from the Anaheim neighborhood, where officers shot rubber bullets and pepper spray, speak out against the police brutality aimed at them.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/5Xe3BmM5fZM&w=640&h=385]

Anaheim police shot and killed another man yesterday, marking the weekend’s second police shooting in just two days. Family and friends have identified the man as Joel Acevedo. Details surrounding the Acevedo’s are still murky to say the least, but here is the police version of what took place, from CBS News:

That shooting climaxed an incident that began around 11:20 p.m. Sunday, when anti-gang officers spotted a known gang member on probation in what they soon determined was a stolen SUV, Anaheim police Sgt. Bob Dunn said. The vehicle’s driver lost control on West Guinida Lane, and two men and a woman exited.

“The officers were in foot pursuit for about a half-block when one male suspect fired at the officers,” Dunn said. “The officers returned fire, striking the suspect, who was dead at the scene.”

A gun was found next to the body, he said. The second male suspect was detained, but the female got away. Dunn said it was not immediately determined if the suspect who fired on officers was the gang member on probation.

However, initial reports by the OC Weekly suggest that police tried to obscure the scene:

No one is being allowed to take photos, according to the source. When a group tried to take photos from an upstairs apartment, police shined a bright light onto the residents to block the view.

Following the death of an unarmed Anaheim man on Saturday, police allegedly resorted to offering to buy cell phone footage from witnesses who recorded the shooting, though Sgt. Dunn told reporters that he’s unsure if buying witness cell phone videos is legal.

The OC Weekly goes on to report the account of residents who were nearby the scene of Acevedo’s shooting:

A female resident who lives in the apartments right above where the shooting took place told OC Weekly she heard five consecutive shots, with no apparent gun exchange. She claimed she heard reports of the gun being planted on Acevedo; the report has not been confirmed.

Another resident who lives a few blocks down said she heard a loud crash then sirens blaring of at least 20 police cars, which she says drowned out the noise of the apparent gunshots.

Unless a full investigation takes place that includes canvassing the neighborhood for witness accounts, the police version of events will likely be reported as fact and Acevedo’s will be portrayed as gangster who got what he had coming.

Still, Acevedo’s death came just one day after Anaheim police shot and killed 24-year-old Manual Diaz, an unarmed Latino man who ran when approached by officers on Saturday afternoon. One witness says that Diaz was shot from behind, first in the buttocks, then the head. She also told reporters that police proceeded to handcuff Diaz before searching him, despite his body lying bloody and motionless on the ground.

Newly obtained cell phone footage, posted by the OC Weekly, shows police standing over Diaz’s bloodied body, which appears to be twitching as if still alive, for over three minutes before doing anything. One man can be heard pleading “He’s still alive man!”

Diaz’s shooting sparked a protest by area residents, some of who allegedly threw bottles and rocks at officers. Police reacted by shooting rubber bullets and pepper-spray and releasing (apparently by accident) a K-9 attack dog into a crowd of mostly parents and small children. The chaos was captured on video by a KCAL news crew where a parents can be seen shielding their children in horror.

Residents in Anaheim, California who witnessed a police shooting that left a man dead Saturday afternoon were brutally retaliated against following an angry confrontation with the officers involved.

The Orange County Register reports that the man, identified by family as Manuel Diaz, 24, ran when he and two others were approached by three Anaheim police officers around 4:00 pm. One of the officers chased after him, ultimately shooting and killing Diaz. The Register continues:

Crystal Ventura, who told the Register she witnessed the shooting, said she saw the shooting from about 20 feet away. Ventura said a first bullet hit him in the buttocks area, sending him to his knees, and a second bullet hit him in the head, sending him to the ground. Officers then handcuffed him, even though he was not moving.

“They searched his pockets, and there was a hole in his head, and I saw blood on his face,” she said.

Diaz died at the hospital three hours later. The Register adds that police allegedly tried to purchase cell phone footage of the killing captured by witnesses.

Shortly after the shooting, witnesses and nearby residents angrily confronted Anaheim police about what they viewed as an act of outrageous police brutality. Police claim the crowd began pelting them with rocks and bottles, sparking the clash that followed.

Anaheim Police Sgt. Bob Dunn pushed the narrative that the ensuing clash was between two equal parties. Dunn maintains the officers responded reasonably by unleashing rubber bullets, pepper-spray and a K-9 attack dog (which police claim was accidently freed from an officer’s car) on the “riotous” crowd. But video footage captured by KCAL-TV shows police shooting, not an angry crowd of violent rioters, but rather at terrified mothers, screaming children and even baby carriages.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/VZV3iyMz470&w=560&h=315]

The chaotic scene is shocking at every level. Dunn went on to explain that police launched less lethal weapons at the crowed because, according to The Register, they were “getting too close to the officers who were trying to detain a person suspected of being with a group that attempted to throw a bottle or rock at police.”

Meanwhile, the shooting victim’s 16-year-old niece, Daisy Gonzalez, believes her uncle ran from police due to negative experiences with law enforcement in the past, telling The Register, “He (doesn’t) like cops. He never liked them because all they do is harass and arrest anyone.” The behavior displayed by Anaheim Police this weekend shows that Diaz wasn’t too far off.

UPDATE: The Huffington Post’s Radley Balko tweeted:

Compare the headlines: http://t.co/UjT9oluO vs. http://t.co/7TwG3zvO

— Radley Balko (@radleybalko) July 23, 2012

The Reason headline reads, “Anaheim Cops Shoot Rubber Bullets, Unleash Dog on Crowd Protesting Police Shooting.” Very straightforward and accurate. The LA Times Headline,”Angry Anaheim crowd threw bottles at police, set fires on streets,”  echoes the police narrative. While this is not sup rising, it’s a perfect example of how the media, particularly large mainstream outlets, trumpet the police version of events, even when video footage so clearly contradicts that account.

While it’s true that bottles were thrown and fires lit, the LA Times suggests that a) these acts were isolated and unprovoked and b) the police were victims or at the very least were matched by an equally powerful opponent.

This type of skewed reporting is part of a larger pattern. Whenever police unleash their power, whether on a group of evicted Occupy protesters or an unarmed person of color in the wrong place at the wrong time, the media almost always errors on the side of authority, painting the resulting injuries and sometimes deaths as justified, or even worse, the fault of the victim(s).