Oakland police chief confronted and shut down at “Justice 4 Alan Blueford” townhall
Published on May 24, 2012 by mrdaveyd
After murdering high school senior Alan Blueford, Oakland police have been trying to do damage control. Initially they claimed Blueford was involved in a shoot out and shot the officer.. We now know the officer shot himself after killing Blueford.. The officer’s name was not released to the public due to California law. The police held a townhall meeting at Acts Full Gospel church to try and calm down angry residents. As Chief Howard Jordan rattled of lie after lie, folks turned their back to him..They were not feeling what amounted to a dog and pony show.. OPD cut the townhall short as folks surrounded the police and demanded justice for Alan Blueford.. We caught up with Oscar Grant’s uncle Cephus Johnson aka Uncle Bobby to get his assessment of what took place.
May 24, 2012
http://sfbayview.com/2012/oakland-police-chief-confronted-and-shut-down-at-justice-4-alan-blueford-townhall/
Chris Moreland, who cried “Justice!” at the Oakland townhall, is now in jail on $100,000 bail for battery of an officer, clearly a trumped up charge; arraignment Friday, 2 p.m., Wiley Manual Courthouse; support march 7 p.m., 19th and Telegraph
by Davey D
Alan Blueford, 18, was preparing to graduate from high school when he was murdered by police for running from them on May 6 in East Oakland.
Since the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, close to 30 Black or Brown people have been shot and killed by law enforcement – or, in the case of Trayvon, wannabe law enforcement. Many of these shootings have been highly questionable, meaning the person killed was unarmed or there are strong conflicting statements from either the police or witnesses.
Here in Oakland, California, the shooting death of Alan Dwayne Blueford is one such killing. Oakland police have been very shady with the stories they put forth to the public. It seems like a deliberate attempt to muddy the waters, cast seeds of doubt and cover up their own mistakes.
Initially police said they were in a shoot-out and Blueford shot the officer in the stomach. Later the police said Blueford shot the officer in the leg. Next the police said that it was possible the officer was shot in the leg by another officer in a case of friendly fire. Finally it came out that the officer shot himself. He shot himself in the foot.
Many believe the officer shot himself after he killed Blueford and saw the young man was unarmed. The police then doubled back and said a gun was recovered; the community has yet to see any evidence of fingerprints, gun residue etc. Many have concluded it was the officer planting a gun near the scene.
This would not be unusual in a city that in the past 10 years has had to shell out over $58 million for wrongful death shootings and police brutality incidents. This would not be far-fetched in a city that was home to a rogue group of cops known as the Oakland Riders, who were found to routinely plant drugs and guns on suspects. One of the Riders is a still a fugitive at large. Read more »
Philippines: Police demolition team meets mass resistance in San Juan City
Residents hurling stones at members of the demolition team
23 hurt in demolition of shanties in San Juan
By Jose Rodel Clapano, The Philippine Star, January 12, 2012
MANILA, Philippines – At least 23 persons were hurt when the demolition of shanties along P. Narciso street in Barangay Corazon De Jesus in San Juan City turned violent yesterday morning.
Members of the demolition team, San Juan Police, Eastern Police District, National Capital Region Police Office and the Special Weapons and Tactics team clashed with the residents, who threw rocks, bottles and even molotov cocktails.
“We observed maximum tolerance, but they (squatters) started attacking us. We are here to maintain peace and order during the demolition, but they provoked us,” Superintendent Thomas Arcallana said.
Among the injured were policemen, members of the demolition team and at least three residents.
They suffered injuries in the head, belly, face and thighs and were rushed to the San Juan Medical Center.
The windshields of several vehicles parked near the area were also shattered.
Grace Cortes, spokesperson for Mayor Guia Gomez, said some of the victims suffered injuries in the chest, forearm, head and mouth.
Cortes said the 123 families, whose shanties were the subjects of the demolition, were part of the 400 families scheduled for relocation since Jan. 25 last year. Read more »
Greece: Disability activists protest government “austerity budget” cuts
13 December 2011 — More than a thousand of disabled people protested against government cuts and their impact on key benefits such as the disability living allowance, and disability pension.
Waving placards with slogans such as “No to dismantling the welfare state” and “Protect disabled from the misery, poverty and exclusion”, disabled people took to the streets of Athens center to protest at the government’s spending cuts.
The protesters, many of whom had never been on a demonstration before, included people who are virtually immobile with supporters, relatives, charities and friends.
In front of the Greek Parliament Riot Police closed the road not allowing them to go near the Prime Minister Hall, where they wanted to deliver their requests.
Hundreds of protesters march on NY’s Wall Street
By Chris Francescani and Sharon Reich
NEW YORK, Nov 17 (Reuters) – Hundreds of Occupy Wall Street protesters marched through New York’s financial district toward the stock exchange on Thursday to protest economic inequality at the heart of American capitalism.
Scores of police barricaded the narrow streets around the stock exchange and used batons to push the protesters onto the sidewalk as they marched from a nearby park in a bid to prevent financial workers from getting to their desks.
“I feel like this is a beautiful moment to take back our streets,” said Rachel Falcone, 27, from Brooklyn. “We need to prove we can exist anywhere. It’s gone beyond a single neighborhood, it’s really an idea.”
Chanting “We are the 99 percent” — a reference to their contention that the U.S. political system benefits only the richest 1 percent — the protesters broke off into groups and tried to enter Wall Street from various points. Read more »
Oakland’s police department, most brutal in the US, not part of the 99%
by hellagetto
Nov 2, 2011
Long before Lil’ Bobby Hutton, a 16 year old member of the Black Panther Party was gunned down by OPD (1968) to the still unnamed black man gunned down by OPD two weeks ago, Oakland’s police department has a long-standing reputation of shooting, planting evidence, harassing and otherwise terrorizing the community.
More recently, OPD raided Occupy Oakland in the early morning while protestors were asleep. That same night ,October 25th under the watchful eyes of OPD, Scott Olsen, a two-tour Iraq War veteran suffered a head wound for peacefully protesting in downtown Oakland. OPD claims not to have tear gas, rubber bullets nor concussion grenades due to federal orders currently against the department. The other 17 law enforcement agencies called in for back up are forbidden under a consent decree to bring in such weaponry as well. (OPD has been “monitored” by the feds since 2003.)
This footage is from a anti-police brutality community speak out held just in front of the Occupy Oakland camp on October 29, 2011.
Copwatch@Occupy Oakland: Beware of Police Infiltrators and Provocateurs – YouTube
Copwatch@Occupy Oakland: Beware of Police Infiltrators and Provocateurs
Army and police massacre protesters at Maspero, Egypt
October 9th, 2011
The army and police committed a horrible massacre against peaceful protesters today in Maspero, Cairo. Army vehicles ran over protesters. Live ammunition was used. Extensive rounds of tear gas were fired, and showers of beatings from the military police, the central security forces and plainclothes thugs.
At least 19 people have been killed, and more than 150 injured. The toll keeps rising.
The Army also stormed Al-Hurra and 25 January TV stations, and took them off air. The Egyptian state run TV is inciting the public against the “Coptic protesters” and even called on the citizens to take to the streets to “protect the army”!! SCAF is trying to instigate a sectarian civil war.
The protesters are not only Copts. There are Muslims present in the protests too and are talking active part in resisting the police and the army. There are ongoing battles as I’m writing now. The unifying chants in downtown Cairo is against the army and field marshal Tantawi. Protesters are chanting: “Muslims and Christians… One hand!” and “Death to the Field Marshal.”
For continuous updates, please follow the Revolutionary Socialists on Facebook.
see more at: http://www.arabawy.org/2011/10/09/army-and-police-massacre-protesters-at-maspero/
Naked class warfare in the wake of the UK revolt
[An important debate is taking place among activists in the UK and internationally about the nature of the "rebellion" or "riot" in London last month. But there is no dispute over the scale of government/police repression which is being carried out against thousands of youth--detailed in this article from A World to Win News Service.-- Frontlines ed.]
By Geoffrey Scott, London
Following the four days of rebellion that shook Great Britain last week in the wake of the police killing of a young Black man, Mark Duggan, the British state has unleashed a wave of repression whose severity has not been seen here in many years.
Almost 2,000 people have been arrested, and the police have announced that they hope to grab up as many as a thousand more from surveying CCTV footage. Most of the charges are the kind that would not result in detention, and still less in jail terms, in ordinary times. But the Magistrate’s courts have been working 24 hours a day after the upheaval and handing out three and four-month terms and worse in the name of restoring “law and order”. About half of those arrested have been sent over to the Crown courts, which alone have the authority to issue sentences of more than six months.
So far 138 youth under age 18 (legally children in England) have been sent to prison. The anonymity usually granted juveniles has been lifted by special order. The average age of those convicted in London is 19, and only one-third are being granted bail, instead of the usual 90 percent in Magistrate’s court. Jails and longer-term prisons are full to bursting, with 723 new inmates in the week before 19 August alone. Read more »
Homeland Security systematizing-federalizing the police repression of BART protests
August 30, 2011
By Ali Winston
Justice Department, Homeland Security personnel present at #OpBART protests
- Officers from a Department of Homeland Security Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response unit in the Civic Center BART station on August 29, 2011. photo by Geoff King
Amongst the dozens of riot gear-clad San Francisco and BART police officers that have packed Downtown San Francisco streets during the OpBART protests for the past three Mondays, you may have spotted some officers wearing khaki slacks and bulletproof vests, a far cry from the heavy duty helmets and body armor worn by officers from other agencies.
Those lightly-clad officers were part of a Department of Homeland Security Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) unit, an anti-terror unit charged with protecting transportation infrastructure from potential acts of terrorism. VIPR units are run by the Transportation Security Administration. According to the TSA’s website, VIPR teams are terrorism deterrents that “a random, announced, high-visibility surge into a transit agency, in addition to enhancing agency resources during special events.” VIPR teams have been deployed more than 50 times since the program began in 2005, and regularly patrol New York’s Metro North and Long Island Railroad commuter systems. Read more »
San Francisco: BART backs off tactic of cutting cellphone service to thwart protests
After taking heat from the ACLU and being hacked by Anonymous for shutting down cellphone service to four stations last week, the Bay Area’s BART kept cell service on during Monday protests.
(BART police officers push back a protester at the Civic Center station in San Francisco, Monday, Aug. 15. Cellphone service was operating as protesters gathered at a San Francisco subway station during rush-hour several days after transit officials shut wireless service to head off another demonstration. Photo by Jeff Chiu/AP)
By Patrik Jonsson, Staff writer, Christian Science Monitor
August 16, 2011
Officials at Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) decided Monday that cutting cellphone service to thwart another planned protest would cause more trouble than the protests themselves. Instead, four stations were temporarily closed, creating a chaotic rush-hour commute.
About 50 activists protesting two BART police shootings managed to disrupt local train service Monday evening as transit officials closed several central stations to commuter travel. Read more »
Seven Black men killed by Miami Police–Where can Justice be found?
Since justice is not available in Miami, some look to Attorney General Eric Holder for justice. UPI/Roger L. Wollenberg
Miami mayor seeks federal probe of police
MIAMI, Aug. 4 (UPI) — Miami’s mayor asked the U.S. Justice Department to probe the city police department after seven deadly police shootings of black men rocked Miami’s inner city.
“In light of the growing concern in the community regarding police practices and police accountability, I have concluded that an external investigation by [the Justice Department] would provide the resources, expertise and independence to begin to transform the department and assuage police-community tensions,” Mayor Tomas Regalado wrote to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder Wednesday.
Regalado — who has engaged in a public battle with Miami Police Chief Miguel Exposito for more than a year — wrote he was concerned not only about the “pattern” of shootings but also about the “apparent lack of response” to questions from relatives and the community, The Miami Herald reported.
All but one of the shooting deaths remain under investigation by the state attorney’s office and police. Both agencies refuse to discuss open investigations.
Exposito told the Herald he “welcomed any federal probe into our police department.”
He said the same thing in February in a letter to the Herald after the last of the shootings after earlier demands for a Justice Department review. Read more »
Why NOT take the cop’s word for it….when they say they killed the kid because “……………..
[The following excerpt from "Are Cops Constitutional?" by Roger Root, raises significant reasons to approach police testimony with great skepticism, and with demands for verification of everything. The lives of many have been lost due to police aggression against all kinds of people, especially in traditionally oppressed or culturally/politically targeted communities. The continuing losses of lives at the hands of police requires the highest attention and solidarity among the people in victimized communities and all who want an end to all attacks on our common humanity. -- Frontlines ed.]
“Untold dozens, if not hundreds, of Americans have been shot in the back while fleeing police, even after the Garner decision. Police have shot and killed suspects who did nothing more than make a move,123 reach for their identification too quickly,124 reach into a jacket or pocket,125 “make a motion” of going for a gun,126 turn either toward or away from officers,127 ‘pull away’ from an officer as an officer opened a car door,128 rub their eyes and stumble forward after a mace attack,129 or allegedly lunge with a knife,130 a hatchet,131or a ballpoint pen.132 Cops have also been known to open fire on and kill persons who brandished or refused to drop virtually any hand-held object — a Jack Daniel’s whiskey bottle,133 a metal rod,134 a wooden stick,135 a kitchen knife (even while eating dinner),136 a screwdriver,137 a rake138 — or even refused an order to raise their hands.139
Cops who shoot an individual holding a shiny object that can be said to resemble a gun — such as a cash box,140 a shiny silver pen,141 a TV remote control,142 or even a can opener143 — are especially likely to avoid liability. In line with this defense, police officers nationwide have been caught planting weapons on their victims in order to make shootings look like self defense.144 In one of the more egregious examples ever proven in court, Houston police were found during the 1980s to have utilized an unofficial policy of planting guns on victims of police violence.145 Seventy-five to eighty percent of all Houston officers apparently carried “throw-down” weapons for such purposes.146 Only the dogged persistence of aggrieved relatives and the firsthand testimony of intrepid witnesses unraveled the police cover-up of the policy.147
Resisting arrest, defending oneself, or fleeing may also place an American in danger of being killed by police.148 Although the law clearly classifies such killings as unlawful, police are rarely made to account for such conduct in court.149 Only where the claimed imminent threat seems too contrived — such as where an officer opened fire to defend himself from a pair of fingernail clippers150 — or where abundant evidence of a police cover-up exists, will courts uphold damage awards against police officers who shoot civilians.151
As Professor Peter L. Davis points out, there is no good reason why police should not be liable criminally for their violations of the criminal code, just as other Americans would expect to be (and, indeed, as the constables of the Founding Era often were).152 Yet in modern criminal courts, police tend to be more bulletproof than the Kevlar vests they wear on the job. Remember that the district attorneys responsible for prosecuting police for their crimes are the same district attorneys who must defend those officers in civil cases involving the same facts.153 Under the Framers’ common law, this conflict of interest did not arise at all because a citizen grand jury — independent from the state attorney general — brought charges against a criminal officer, and the officer’s victim prosecuted the matter before a petit jury.154 But the modern model of law enforcement provides no real remedy, and no ready outlet for the law to work effectively against police criminals. Indeed, modern policing acts as an obstruction of justice with regard to police criminality.
The bloodstained record of shootings, beatings, tortures and mayhem by American police against the populace is too voluminous to be recounted in a single article.155 At least 2,000 Americans have been killed at the hands of law enforcement since 1990.156 Some one-fourth of these killings — about fifty per year — are alleged by some authorities to be in the nature of murders.157 Yet only a handful have led to indictment, conviction and incarceration.158 This is true even though most police killings involve victims who were unarmed or committed no crime.159″
(Footnotes follow)————————————————————-
123 OCTOBER 22 COALITION TO STOP POLICE BRUTALITY ET AL., STOLEN LIVES: KILLED BY LAW ENFORCEMENT 307 (2d. ed. 1999) (hereinafter “STOLEN LIVES”) (saying officer shot and killed victim after victim ‘made a move’ following a foot chase).
124 See id. at 207 (listing a 1993 Michigan case). Read more »
Kuala Lumpur: Putting a nice face on state repression
[The Inspector General of Police in Kuala Lumpur is instructing cops that, no matter what they do, do it with a smiley face; put the iron fists in velvet gloves. -- Frontlines ed.]
Be good to look good
INSPECTOR-GENERAL of Police Tan Sri Ismail Omar was recently reported to have said good-looking police officers would be assigned to give the force a friendlier look.
We should be aware we are always communicating through our facial expressions, posture and gestures, without saying a word.
When talking to others, our visual appearance has greater impact than our tone of voice. Surprisingly, what words we use matter less than how we use them.
Therefore, it is essential to look good to others rather than to just be good-looking. Even those with good looks can appear uglier when angry. Read more »
Kuala Lumpur: Police To Detain Instigators, and will seize seditious shoes and trousers
June 29, 2011
KUALA LUMPUR, June 29 (Bernama) — The police will detain anyone who uses words or displays symbols to instigate the people to join the illegal rallies planned by several groups in the city on July 9, Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Ismail Omar said today.
“Not only attire, but cars, buses, shoes, trousers and anything at all that smacks of sedition can be seized under the law,” he told reporters at Bukit Aman here Wednesday.
As such, he advised the people to stay away from the illegal rally for the sake of peace in the country. Read more »
India: Maoists respond to new Indian state offensive
[The Indian mass media dutifully reports the government and police announcements. Frontlines here posts an Indian TV report, followed by an article from The Times of India, (http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-06-14/india/29656088_1_narayanpur-maoist-hit-states-chhattisgarh-orissa). Following these, we post a detailed statement from the Communist Party of India (Maoist) responding to the same events. -- Frontlines ed.]
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Orissa govt seeks Centre’s help to counter Maoists
New Delhi, June 15 (ANI): Orissa Government has sought from Home Ministry additional security personnel to counter Maoist menace in the state. After his meeting with the Home Minister P Chidambaram in New Delhi on Tuesday, Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said that the state needs additional security force to deal with increasing Maoist attacks.
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Anti-Maoist ops on Chhattisgarh-Orissa border to be intensified
NEW DELHI: As naxals intensified their attack in Chhattisgarh killing 18 security personnel in three separate incidents last week, the Centre will hold a special meeting here on Tuesday to discuss ‘counter-offensive’ measures with the state chief minister Raman Singh and his Orissa counterpart Naveen Patnaik.
The meeting, to be chaired by the Union home minister P Chidambaram, will discuss how both the states can further intensify operations against left wing extremists along the Orissa-Chhattisgarh border in a much more coordinated manner.
An official said, “Though we have had instances of naxal attacks in Dantewada and Narayanpur last week, Chhattisgarh has eliminated a number of Maoists in the past couple of months during joint operations. The need of the hour is to further intensify it, taking help from bordering states.”
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COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA (MAOIST)
CENTRAL COMMITTEE
Press Release
June 15, 2011
Fight back the new state offensive in Chhattisgarh and Odisha
as part of Operation Green Hunt – Phase II!
Any fascist offensive aimed at looting this country is bound to be defeated by the courageous resistance of the self-respecting people of India!
On 14-06-2011 the Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram had a high level meeting with the chief ministers of Chhattisgarh and Odisha and announced a new brutal offensive in these two states to contain ‘Left Wing Extremism (LWE)’. In the guise of his oft-repeated two-pronged mantra of ‘development and police action’, the HM promised full support of the centre for these states in their cruel offensive and egged them on to go ahead in full swing. Naveen Patnaik, the blood-thirsty CM of Odisha whose hands are already stained with the blood of hundreds of people of Odisha offered as human sacrifices for this ‘God of development’ right from Kalinga Nagar to Niyamgiri is now asking for helicopters to bomb the hapless adivasis. Raman Singh who would perhaps go down in history as the saffron fascist who sounded the death knell for one of the most ancient inhabitants in the world in Bastar, tried to cover up his growing alarm at the increasing heroic armed resistance of the people in his state with high-sounding rhetoric on how to go about decimating Maoists. A few days back in the first week of June (within a week of another meeting with the chief ministers of ‘Maoist affected’ states led by the PM and HM) an announcement had already been made by the AP and Odisha governments that a three-month long big offensive is ready to be launched on Andhra-Odisha Border region (AOB) to decimate the Maoists there. They announced that they would use modern technology and new methods and tactics of attacking utilizing ‘water, air and land’. They said paratroopers may also be used. And now the whole country knows that the army had already been deployed in Chhattisgarh under the pretext of ‘training’. Read more »
