MORE PHOTOS HERE
MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell on Monday condemned the “unprovoked police brutality” that occurred at the “Occupy Wall Street” protest over the weekend.
Video recordings showed female protesters being rounded up in an orange-colored mesh pen by police and subsequently sprayed with mace without any provocation, and other protesters being dragged across the street by police.
“The reason that man is being assaulted by the police is because of what he has in his hand,” O’Donnell said, while showing a video clip of a man with a video camera being tackled by police. “He’s holding a professional grade video camera. Since the Rodney King beating was caught on an amateur video camera, American police officers have known video cameras are their worst enemy. They will do anything they can to stop you from legally videotaping how they handle their responsibility to serve and protect you.”
“Everything those cops did this weekend to those protesters they’ve done to someone else when no video camera was rolling,” he later added.
Watch video, courtesy of MSNBC, below:
[CLICK THE LINK TO WATCH VIDEO]
A man who was standing on a public street in New York City, video recording passengers stepping onto a bus in Chinatown, was confronted by the bus operators who would not allow him to leave until police arrived.
Long Beach Post - 8.14.2011 - Police Chief Jim McDonnell has confirmed that detaining photographers for taking pictures “with no apparent esthetic value” is within Long Beach Police Department policy.
McDonnell spoke for a follow-up story on a June 30 incident in which Sander Roscoe Wolff, a Long Beach resident and regular contributor to Long Beach Post, was detained by Officer Asif Kahn for taking pictures of a North Long Beach refinery.
“If an officer sees someone taking pictures of something like a refinery,” says McDonnell, “it is incumbent upon the officer to make contact with the individual.” McDonnell went on to say that whether said contact becomes detainment depends on the circumstances the officer encounters.
McDonnell says that while there is no police training specific to determining whether a photographer’s subject has “apparent esthetic value,” officers make such judgments “based on their overall training and experience” and will generally approach photographers not engaging in “regular tourist behavior.”
This policy apparently falls under the rubric of compiling Suspicious Activity Reports (SAR) as outlined in the Los Angeles Police Department’s Special Order No. 11, a March 2008 statement of the LAPD’s “policy … to make every effort to accurately and appropriately gather, record and analyze information, of a criminal or non-criminal nature, that could indicate activity or intentions related to either foreign or domestic terrorism.”
Among the non-criminal behaviors “which shall be reported on a SAR” are the usage of binoculars and cameras (presumably when observing a building, although this is not specified), asking about an establishment’s hours of operation, taking pictures or video footage “with no apparent esthetic value,” and taking notes…MORE…
Note: Digital Read
URL: http://www.mediafire.com/?opg167fachei183
Opening:
“The police become necessary in human society only at that junction in human society where it is split between those who have and those who ain’t got.” -Chairman Omali Yeshitela
Why were the modern police created?
Is is generally assumed, among people who think about it at all, that the police were created to deal with rising levels of crime caused by urbanization and increasing numbers of immigrants. John Schneider describes the typical accounts:
The First studies were legal and administrative in their focus, confined mostly to narrative descriptions of the step-by-step demise of the old constabulary and the stead, but often controversial evolution of the professionals. Scholars seemed preoccupied with the politics of the politics of police reforms. IT causes, on the other hand, were considered only in cursory fashion, more often assumed than proved. Cities, it would seem, moved inevitably toward modern policing as a consequence of soaring levels of crime and disorder in an era of phenomenal grown and profound social change. [1]
I will refer to this as the “crime-and-disorder” theory.
Despite its initial plausibility, the idea that the police were invented in response to an epidemic of crime is, to be blunt, exactly wrong. Furthermore, it is not much of an explanation. It assumes that “when crime reaches a certain level, the ‘natural’ social response is to create a uniformed police force. This, of coarse, is not an explanation but an assertion of natural law for there is little evidence.”
The San Francisco Chronicle reports: Reasoning for SFO sagging-pants arrest debated
“Deshon Marman, 20, a defensive player for the University of New Mexico and graduate of Lincoln High in San Francisco, was arrested and removed from US Airways flight 488 Wednesday after police said he ignored an airline employee’s request to pull up sweatpants that exposed his underwear below the buttocks.
He was jailed for a day in San Mateo County on suspicion of trespassing, battery and resisting arrest before being released on $11,000 bail Thursday. Sheriff’s deputies said there was also an outstanding warrant for Marman from Santa Clara County on a marijuana possession charge.
San Francisco police, who took Marman off the plane, said he had refused the pilot’s orders and had taken 15 minutes to leave. His family disputed that, saying Marman had pulled up his pants after boarding the plane and thought the problem had been solved after a visit from the pilot.
Instead, the pilot made a citizen’s arrest and passengers were forced to deplane, causing an hour and half delay before the jet took off for Phoenix and Albuquerque.”
“Andrew Christie, a spokesman for US Airways, said employees had the discretion to decide whether boarding passengers are wearing clothes that ensure “the safety and the comfort” of other passengers.” READ MORE»
(video via SFChronicle)
Abuse of police power pisses me off like nothing else.
My father was an officer. So was my grandfather. And both raised me with the idea that the police are there to Serve and Protect. I was surrounded by peers who talked about not trusting the police and it confused me. I was taught my entire life that the police were people who you could trust, because the base of their job was to Serve and Protect.
And yet, as an adult, I continually see stories of police brutality and abuse of power. And I see these officers GETTING AWAY WITH IT. Getting away with the cold-blooded killing of a man that was CAUGHT ON CAMERA. Getting away with rape. Attacking students on a college campus for BEING ON A COLLEGE CAMPUS:
And I know that these are not isolated incidents. I know that these things are happening all over, these are just the instances where we have video or mainstream media attention.
To every officer of the law who does something like this: you dishonor men like my father and my grandfather who took pride in their jobs and who worked to protect those who needed protected NOT to abuse the power that came with their job. You are the reason GOOD cops have trouble, because your actions make villains out of anyone in uniform. Your actions do not make the world better or safer, they bring no one to justice, they only sow distrust and hatred.
You protect and serve only your own interests. You twist, distort and profane the profession. And you can either end it yourselves, or watch those you’re meant to protect and serve rise up and remind you how you have failed us.
