FBI raided six homes of eight peace activists Mood: energetic Now Playing: Send Letters (links below) to demand justice "Fire FBI Director Mueller" Topic: CIVIL RIGHTS
Dear Joe,
Two days ago the FBI raided six homes of eight peace activists in Minneapolis and Chicago as well as a Minneapolis office of an antiwar group. Agents kicked down doors of homes with guns drawn, smashed furniture, and seized computers, documents, phones, and other materials without making any arrests. These groups do not use guns and bombs. They are not terrorists. Their "weapons" are leaflets, newsletters, and nonviolent demonstrations.
The FBI searches highlight a dangerous trend that has been building for nearly a decade: domestic surveillance of peace activists. We are writing you to put these raids in context and to urge you to take action.
The raids took place just a few days after a report of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Justice examined 8,000 pages of documents from 2001 to 2006. The report blasted the Federal Bureau of Investigation for spying on anti-war activists, animal-rights groups, and environmentalists, calling the improper "terror" investigations "unreasonable and inconsistent with FBI policy." Among those targeted were the anti-war Thomas Merton Center, the Quakers, the Catholic Worker, Greenpeace, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and an individual Quaker peace activist. According to the Inspector General, there was "little or no basis" for the investigations.
Another report found that the Federal Bureau of Investigation used lies and trickery to illegally obtain thousands of records, then issued after-the-fact approvals in an attempt to cover it up. Released in January, this report was the result of another Justice Department investigation which built on a 2007 report covering similar matters. The Inspector General focused on the FBI's unlawful misuse of the already-unconstitutional informal requests known as "exigent letters" to demand information which they knew was illegal. The DOJ report described a "complete breakdown" of procedures within the FBI. According to the report, the "FBI broke law for years in phone record searches." Agents repeatedly and knowingly violated the law by invoking nonexistent "terror emergencies" to get access to information they were not authorized to have.
Nor do these reports cover all the incidences of domestic surveillance of peace advocates. Former FBI special agent and whistleblower, Colleen Rowley, reports that "in 2008, we found out through a Freedom of Information request that there are 300 pages of--I think it was four or five, six agents trailing a group of students in Iowa City to parks, libraries, bars, restaurants. They even went through their trash."
Just today, another Inspector General report found that hundreds of FBI employees cheated on exams related to domestic surveillance. The report described how they consulted with others while taking the exam even though that was forbidden. Others used or distributed answer sheets or study guides that provided test answers. Still others exploited a computer flaw that revealed answers. The agents were being tested on 2008 guidelines that FBI employees must follow when conducting domestic investigations.
There has been a constant battle between the constitution and domestic surveillance of political activists, especially peace advocates, for decades. The FBI has a long history of abusing its authority. If we do not act to curtail these actions we are all in danger of being spied on and added to terrorist watch lists for doing nothing more than attending a rally, signing a petition or holding a sign.
Steps are urgently needed to protect the basic constitutional rights of peace activists and others. These include:
President Obama needs to speak out against the surveillance of Americans who are merely exercising their constitutional rights. As a former law professor he knows the long history of such abuse and how important it is to contain enforcement. Click here to write President Obama.
Removal of FBI director Robert Mueller. His tenure since 2001 has been littered with abuses of domestic spying. The Inspector General has concluded Director Mueller provided "inaccurate and misleading information" to Congress. Mueller also failed to put in place adequate procedures to ensure the law is obeyed and to ensure agents are aware of the laws regarding domestic surveillance. You can write President Obama by clicking here. You can write Director Mueller and urge his resignation by clicking here.
Congress needs to hold hearings to investigate the extent of domestic spying on Americans who are merely exercising the rights to free speech, to assembly, and to petition the government. These fundamental political rights need to be protected by tightening up the laws regarding domestic surveillance which were loosened by the PATRIOT Act. Click here to write your Member of Congress.
The escalation of wars abroad by the Obama administration is moving forward alongside an escalation against antiwar activists at home. The groups targeted in these raids, while Marxist in ideology, endorsed and supported the election of President Obama. Their Political Report noted "Obama's election represents a rejection of the Bush administration policies and a desire amongst the people for a progressive agenda from the government." Now we know that the Obama administration is moving forward with Bush-era policies that target anti-war political dissent at the same time that more Americans oppose Obama's wars. Please act today to stop this from continuing.
Video posted on Labor Beat: Chicago Press Conference Protests FBI Raids Mood: irritated Now Playing: Press Release - On FBI activist who were raided Topic: CIVIL RIGHTS
Progressive Party of Oregon - Register Now Mood: hug me Now Playing: Real Hope and Change - No Bullshit - Ralph Nader recomends it Topic: POLITICS
The Progressive Party of Oregon has some excellent ideas, choices, and a platform that suits all my needs. Forget the 2 party system lets get this party started
Joe Anybody - average daily schedule Mood: caffeinated Now Playing: Where does the time go when your a human rights media actvist? Topic: ANYBODY * ANYDAY
Torture IS an “American” Value: Reality Versus the Rhetoric Mood: don't ask Now Playing: A repost from Brian Wilsons blog - An article he wrote in 2007 Topic: TORTURE
Here is a blog post from a friend of mine {Brian Wilson} who clearly points out the connections and the on going use of torture by the USA throughout history to this present minute.
Torture IS an “American” Value: Reality Versus the Rhetoric
May 1, 2007
I became aware of torture as a U.S. policy in 1969 when I was serving as a USAF combat security officer working near Can Tho City in Viet Nam’s Mekong Delta. I was "informed" about the CIA’s Phong Dinh Province Interrogation Center (PIC) in Can Tho City and a POW camp near the Can Tho Army airfield where supposedly "significant members" of the VCI (Viet Cong Infrastructure) were taken for torture as part of the Phoenix "Pacification" Program. A huge nearby French-built prison was also apparently utilized for torture of "suspects" from the Delta region. The word was that many of the VC suspects were routinely murdered, and subsequent historical accounts confirm this.
Naive, I was shocked! The Agency for International Development (AID) working with Southern Illinois University, for example, trained Vietnamese police and prison officials the "art" of torture ("interrogations") under cover of "Public Safety." U.S. officials believed they were teaching "better methods," often making "suggestions" during torture sessions conducted by Vietnamese police.
Instead of the recent euphemism, "illegal combatants," the U.S. in Viet Nam claimed prisoners were "criminal" thus exempting them from Geneva Convention protections.
Use of torture as a function of terror, or its equivalent in sadistic behavior, has been historic de facto U.S. American policy.
Our European ancestor’s shameful, sadistic treatment of the original Indigenous inhabitants based on an ethos of arrogance and violence has become ingrained in our values. "Manifest Destiny" has rationalized as a religion the elimination or assimilation of those perceived to be blocking "American" progress — at home or abroad — a belief that expansion of the nation, including subjugation of natives and others, is divinely ordained, that our "superior race" is obligated to "civilize" those who stand in the way.
When examining my "roots" in New York and New England, I discovered that Indian captives were skinned alive and dragged through the streets of New Amsterdam (New York City) in the 1640s. Scalping enabled Indian bounty hunters to be paid.
Captains Underhill and Endicott in the Massachusetts Bay Colony governed by John Winthrop spent their time "burning and spoiling the country" of Indians in Rhode Island and Connecticut in 1636-37 while sparing the children and women as slaves.
My hometown of Geneva in the Finger Lakes region of New York State was once home to the Seneca Nation with its flourishing farms, orchards, and sturdy houses. In one two-week period in September 1779, General George Washington’s orders "to lay waste, that the country . . . be . . . destroyed," instilling "terror" among the Indians, were dutifully carried out by General Sullivan who promised that "the Indians shall see that there is malice enough in our hearts to destroy everything that contributes to their support." Sullivan’s campaign has been described as a ruthless policy of scorched earth, bearing comparison with Sherman’s march to the sea or the search-and-destroy missions of U.S. soldiers in Vietnam.
In northern California where I now live the same grueling history exists. Bret Harte wrote in 1860 that little children and old women were mercilessly stabbed and their skulls crushed by axes, "old women . . . lay weltering in blood, their brains dashed out . . . while infants . . . with their faces cloven with hatchets and their bodies ghastly wounds" lay nearby.
In 1920 the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) investigated the conduct of U.S. troops who had occupied Haiti since 1915: More than 3,000 Haitians had been killed by U. S. Marines, many having been tortured.
When Indigenous Nicaragua resistance fought against occupying United States Marines in the late 1920s, the Marines launched counter insurgency war. U.S. policy makers insisted on "stabilizing" the country to enforce loan repayments to U.S. banks. They defined the resistance forces as "bandits," an earlier equivalent to the "criminal prisoners" in Viet Nam and "illegal combatants" in Iraq. Thus, since the U.S. claimed not to be fighting a "legitimate" military force, any Nicaraguan perceived as interfering with the occupiers was commonly subjected to beatings, tortures, and beheadings. When the U.S-installed Somoza dictatorship was overthrown in 1979, the Somoza torture centers were immediately destroyed.
In 1946, the U.S. Army institutionalized teaching torture techniques to Latin American militaries with the opening of its School of the Americas (SOA) which continues today as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISC).
Torture has been an historical U.S. practice in police stations and prisons (and via countless vigilante crimes of sadistic torture and mutilations against Black Americans).
The Wickersham Commission’s 1931 Report on Lawlessness in Law Enforcement, concluded that "The third degree is the employment of methods which inflict suffering, physical or mental, upon a person, in order to obtain from that person information about a crime. . . . The third degree is widespread. The third degree is a secret and illegal practice."
Seventy years later, the 2002 Human Rights Watch World Report documented systematic use of torture by U.S. police: ". . . thousands of allegations of police abuse, including excessive use of force, such as unjustified shootings, beatings, fatal chokings, and rough treatment."
My studies of brutality in Massachusetts prisons in 1981 concluded (in Walpole State Prison, Massachusetts: An Exercise in Torture), "a clear pattern and history of systematic torture including withholding water, heat, bedding, medical care, and showers; imposition of hazards such as flooding cells, placing foreign matter in food, igniting clothes and bedding, spraying with mace and tear gas; regular physical assaults and beatings; and forcing prisoners to lie face down, naked and handcuffed to one another . . . on freezing . . . outdoor ground while being kicked and beaten." This was two decades before the Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo revelations.
Terry Kupers, a psychiatrist has testified about human rights abuses in U.S. prisons: "The plight of prisoners in the USA is strikingly similar to the plight of the Iraqis who were abused by American GIs. Prisoners are maced, raped, beaten, starved, left naked in freezing cold cells and otherwise abused in too many American prisons, as substantiated by findings in many courts. . . ."
It would behoove us to attempt to understand the underlying psychological "defenses" that seem to have afflicted us like a cultural mental illness since our origins.
Lawyers For Guantánamo Prisoner.... Mood: quizzical Now Playing: Court Should Uphold Habeas Ruling In Salahi Case, Says ACLU Topic: TORTURE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 16, 2010 11:51 AM
CONTACT: ACLU Rachel Myers, National ACLU, (212) 549-2689 or 2666; media@aclu.org
Lawyers For Guantánamo Prisoner In Court Friday To Defend Successful Challenge To Detention
Court Should Uphold Habeas Ruling In Salahi Case, Says ACLU
NEW YORK - September 16 - The American Civil Liberties Union and attorneys from the law firm Freedman Boyd Hollander Goldberg Ives & Duncan P.A. will argue Friday, September 17, that a federal appeals court should uphold Guantánamo prisoner Mohamedou Ould Salahi's successful challenge to his unlawful detention. A federal judge ordered Salahi released from Guantánamo in March on the grounds that he was being held unlawfully, but the U.S. government is challenging that ruling.
After being arrested in Mauritania in 2001 on suspicion of ties to al Qaeda, Salahi was rendered by the U.S. government to Jordan, where he was detained, interrogated and abused for eight months. He was then rendered to Bagram, Afghanistan and finally to Guantánamo, where he has been held since August 2002.
WHAT: Arguments in the U.S. government's appeal of a ruling ordering the release of Guantánamo prisoner Mohamedou Ould Salahi
WHO: Theresa Duncan of the law firm Freedman Boyd Hollander Goldberg Ives & Duncan P.A. will argue before Judges Sentelle, Tatel and Brown of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. In addition to Duncan, lawyers on the case are Melissa Goodman and Jonathan Manes of the ACLU National Security Project; Jonathan Hafetz, cooperating attorney with the ACLU; Nancy Hollander of Freedman Boyd Hollander Goldberg Ives & Duncan P.A. and Linda Moreno of Linda Moreno P.A.
WHERE: U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit 333 Constitution Ave. NW Washington, D.C.
WHEN: Friday, September 17, 2010 9:30 a.m. EDT
###
The ACLU conserves America's original civic values working in courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in the United States by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Innocent Videographer Sentenced to 300 Days in Cook County Jail Mood: irritated Now Playing: Journilst gets 300 days in jail Topic: MEDIA
Innocent Videographer Sentenced to 300 Days in Cook County Jail – Free Gregory Koger!
“I am astonished by the extreme measures taken against Gregory Koger, all for misdemeanor charges. This is not justice, especially for a person of his moral standing.” Fr. Robert Bossie, SCJ
“The amount of work and dedication that Gregory has invested in this school and the work he has done with the inner city youth… is beyond measure.”
Chicago inner city high school principal, on behalf of teachers, staff and students
On September 8, Gregory Koger was sentenced to 300 days in jail for videotaping a brief political statement at a public event in Skokie, IL. When Gregory was asked to stop, he put down his video camera. Trespass charges were brought because he started filming with his iPhone. But videotaping is not a crime! Filming has nothing to do with the legal definition of trespass. The trespass law states that you must be ordered to leave, and then show that you intend to remain after you have been given notice to leave. Testimony in court made it clear that Gregory was not ordered to leave until the police were already dragging him out of the auditorium.
Gregory Koger was the only person harmed in this whole episode. He was assaulted and injured by police and then charged – as is often the case for victims of police brutality – with resisting arrest and simple battery. An important issue brief from The American Constitution Society calls these “cover charges” because they are so often used to “cover up” police misconduct. Gregory has maintained his innocence and is appealing his conviction.
As Gregory grew up, he and his family were often homeless. Like millions of others, he got caught up in a life on the streets and was sent to prison at age 17. There he began to question, to study, to understand, and to think beyond himself and beyond the prison walls. Upon his release, Gregory entered college and plunged into social justice activism. He earned his certificate as a paralegal and is employed by a Chicago attorney. Read Gregory’s own words here.
Gregory has inspired many, from current prisoners who see their own potential in him, to people from more privileged backgrounds. Far from being a threat to society, dozens of letters presented to the sentencing judge described Gregory’s contributions to society, as did the testimony of seven character witnesses, including two lawyers, a priest, one of Gregory’s former professors, a businessman, a University of Chicago student whom he mentored, and others. Over 900 people signed a petition urging the judge to give no jail time.
Despite all this favorable testimony, the judge lambasted Gregory, cited his background, and declared that he “absolutely deserved” the maximum sentence. Numerous irregularities in this case have struck many people as politically-driven. Among these were:
-- In April, Gregory was charged with contempt of court because the prosecution objected to his defense committee’s website. Before the written contempt charge was even presented to her, Judge Marguerite Quinn threatened Gregory’s attorney with disbarment two times, because she had heard that his name appeared on that website. A separate hearing was required to defeat this bizarre contempt motion.
-- When the defense submitted evidence before the trial, including Gregory’s video footage from the day of his arrest, the prosecution changed its story. Judge Quinn allowed this, and she also refused to let Gregory’s attorney use the original police report to show the jury that some prosecution witnesses had changed their story.
-- In an extremely irregular move for misdemeanor charges, the judge sent Gregory straight to jail upon conviction, revoking bail even before sentencing. In contrast, the notorious Chicago police detective Jon Burge, who tortured inmates and sent many to death row, and who was found guilty of felonies in June, is free on bond until his sentencing in November.
-- In Illinois the default sentence for misdemeanors is probation. However, Judge Quinn gave Gregory 300 days, claiming he had “chosen the path of violence” and endangered the safety of everyone in the auditorium on the day he was arrested. These claims were never made in the trial by any witness or prosecutor. The judge literally made this up!
What you can do:
Sign the petition below Donate to Gregory’s legal defense (online through PayPal) or checks can be made out to "Gregory Koger Fund" and mailed to: Ad Hoc Committee, 1055 W. Bryn Mawr, #226, Chicago, IL 60660 Join us in court for the appeal of the sentence and reinstating bond on September 22, 9:30am Cook County Courthouse, 5600 W Old Orchard Road, Skokie, IL For more information, see dropthecharges.net Email: adhoc4reason AT gmail.com
The petition below has been signed by:
August Berkshire, President of the Minnesota Atheists* Father Bob Bossie, SCJ Pat Hill, Exec. Director, African-American Police League* Prof. Theodore Jennings, Chicago Theological Seminary* H. Candace Gorman, Attorney for Guantanamo detainees Cynthia McKinney Michael Radzilowsky, Attorney Joann Shapiro Cindy Sheehan David Swanson Debra Sweet Sunsara Taylor Matthis Chiroux, The Disobedient* *For identification purposes only
Ed.: For more memory card performance data, including SDHC and Compact Flash cards, please check out our most updated charts. You can find the SDHC charts here and the Compact Flash charts right here.)
The prices of portable memory cards have decreased to almost ridiculous levels: 8 GB SDHC cards now start at only $12. However, enthusiasts don’t want just any memory card—they want one that delivers high write throughput for their devices such as digital cameras, and fast reads, so they can copy contents to their systems quickly. These elite products are much more expensive, so we invited eight popular brands to a shootout.
The Secure Digital (SD) card was invented by SanDisk in 2001 and was based on the multi-media card (MMC) standard. Technically, SD is similar to MMC, but adds digital rights management based on CPRM. SD cards also feature a write protection switch, but it is not a hardware feature: the client device has to handle both settings appropriately.
SD, SDHD
The 2 GB capacity defined by the SD 1.1 standard wasn’t enough as card sizes grew, so the SD 2.0 or SDHC standard was added. It allows for capacities of up to 32 GB today; the standard is potentially ready for capacities of up to 2 TB. SDXC will follow next year, as 32 GB may remain the limit for the SDHC standard. Note that SDHC and SD cards are identical from the outside, so be sure your device supports SDHC before purchasing such a card (4 GB and up).
Classes 2, 4, 6
The first SD cards could be read at 3.6 MB/s and written at 0.8 MB/s. Faster cards were required by the increasing resolutions of digital cameras, as well as more demanding consumers. As a result, SDHC was divided into three classes: 2, 4 and 6; the numbers represent the minimum sustainable write throughput in MB/s.
Applications
It’s not only high resolution digital SLR cameras that require fast memory cards, allowing them to write several photos per second onto the storage device. Another key application is multi-purpose, high-speed mobile storage, or using these cards as system drives via USB or eSATA card readers.
We asked Kingston, Lexar, OCZ, Patriot, PNY, Sandisk, Silicon Power and Transcend to send us their fastest and highest capacity SD cards for review. Let’s look at the 13 cards between 4 GB and 32 GB that we received.
Declaring red for color values is the lazy man’s #FF0000. By saying:
color: red;
You’re essentially saying that the browser should display what it thinks red is. If you’ve learned anything from making stuff function correctly in all browsers — and the hours of frustration you’ve accumulated because of a stupid list-bullet misalignment that can only be seen in IE7 — it’s that you should never let the browser decide how to display your web pages.
Instead, you should go to the effort to find the actual hex value for the color you’re trying to use. That way, you can make sure it’s the same color displayed across all browsers. You can use a color cheatsheet that provides a preview and the hex value of a color.
This may seem trivial, but when it comes to CSS, it’s the tiny things that often lead to the big gotchas.
Joe Anybody - Filming the Cops "Copwatching in Portland" Mood: chillin' Now Playing: Copwatching in Portland my anaylisis on copwatching Topic: POLICE
First I noticed the 2 bike security patrol officers, there in the south park blocks around noon (waiting for... -->) then 2 Portland cops on bikes show up..... to write a couple tickets.
A "30 day banned from the park" (sic)citation is issued as well.
In this 15 minute video there is "not a lot of drama" or excitement.
Just 2 cops and 2 security patrols standing around ticketing some homeless(?)-(forgive me for assuming) folks.
The charge.... for (assumed) drinking (?) in the park. (I seen no drinking nor containers as I filmed)
The sick irony is that this park is ***surround with alcohol drinking fancy places****** for the rich and middle class to use
Fifty feet away across the street people sit along the sidewalk and drink wine at an expensive restaurant!
YET a poor person in the park is treated as "the town criminal" if they have any kind of an alcoholic drink?
Then for them to be banned for 30 days is a civil rights issue and in my opinion, and is illegal, and shameful, not to mention a BIG WASTE of the cities money enforcing this non criminal act on poor people primarily.
The points of why I filmed (this) the police are:
1) to document what the police are doing in our community and "how they are doing it" <behavior, attitude, lawful, etc>
2) to openly and honestly record the interaction as a witness for the truth and to preserve justice through independent media as to not be manipulated by the corporate media and or official untruthful reports that over ride citizens own words
3) to provide a back up report on truly what happened in a media-format for legal proof
4) to let the police know that the community is "watching them" and that they are "public servants working for the communities interests and safety"
5) to provide a legally available witness to any inappropriate behavior, human rights violations, civil rights violations, inappropriate attitude, or violent attacks on any citizen around me by a police officer or any city government agent, especially on marginalized or minority communities or political activists.
6) to openly let the public know how the police treat people (good or bad the video will record how they interacted with the citizens) as well as to let the city officials see and the appropriate agency oversight committees see as well.
7) to inadvertently help the police, in which by openly filming them, they get to realize that they MUST be accountable to their community and their sworn oaths
8) to provide "police oversight by citizens" due to the pathetic lack of concern by (the) police management and their own department to do this, and especially their union show of blatant disrespect for the rights of the people in this community as well as the continuing battle to correct this "lack of oversight" that the city (does not sufficiently provide) but continues to allow through the years and tolerates to especially but not specifically; not correct rouge cops (behaviors) or discipline / fire the ones that operate "outside" of the communities interest and harm or kill community members.
The facts that police are allowed to act not in the community’s interest, use excessive force, kill, tazer, pepper-spray and all with “full impunity” and no “oversight from within their own rank” is a sham and cover-up tragedy in and by itself.
By filming it becomes a legal document for "real" justice and to hold the police accountable, when need be or when questioned, from a citizens and community position as well as over sight committees and legal inquiries by civil rights and human rights commissions
This 14 minute video is not full of action. But that doesn’t make it unimportant.
Less action is better when it comes to involvement with the police.
By posting this I want to also show ... that "you can film the police".
And how (one of the ways) that it can be done.
First Big Rule à stay out of their way, do not interfere with what they are doing.
Keep (leave) the camera always "turned on" (hence extra batteries and tape is required)
Stay till the end of the engagement.
If anything starts to get "inappropriate" then for sure get the badge numbers or names and witness accounts
I have seen over and over and over ...police behavior, attitudes, respect change the moment they see a camera filming them!
And truthfully I like the way they treat people better when they are being filmed.
As you can see ... filming somewhat irritates them and they would prefer "you leave" or turn your camera away from them.
But don’t be intimidated, don’t stop filming. Maybe step one step back if they are obviously fixating on you filming to deescalate the tension so you can continue filming the original interaction.
As you may of seen in other videos...they sometimes get downright PISSED....so be on high alert.
I have had my camera taken away by a cop in 2008...(returned within hours) wherein I then filed a lawsuit which we all (the city, police, DA and my lawyer) came to the agreement you can film the cops and they now "train their officers to recognize this right" ;-)
The less you become involved in their "operation at hand" the better.
(You be the observer / press / witness)
The (my) camera was turned on when I approached (in advanced, in my hand, out in the open)
When I film …I don’t want to be “in the issue at hand” but involved in so much as "I’m just documenting and witnessing" and I am JUST watching closely this “issue at hand”
On a side note.
I have seen many, many cops, act professional, smile, be polite, and treat people of their communities with respect. Which I do like.
But those videos scenes I am really not out to promote nor am too concerned about that aspect, I do appreciate the civil behavior don’t get me wrong. But in the same breath I shouldn’t think that to treat people with civility and respect needs any special "thanks".
It should be “a given” and is to be "expected"
End note:
I walk by many cops who I don’t need to film.
And I don’t “hate the cops” …I do question their whole role in our society and what exactly are they protecting?
I see the need for safety and the need to have a society where we can call on someone to help protect oneself when its needed.
What angers and motivates me is that in today world especially in my city, we see the rampant abuse by the very people “who we are suppose to call”. The police abuse protesters rights with sprays and bodily force, mentally challenged people are arrested and killed, folks from immigrant backgrounds, color and race see stereotyping, and worst of all the marginalized and CONTINUED harassment of houseless people.
The fact that the police and our city officials would harass and hassle the poorest people in the city is deplorable.
I will film every interaction I see between the police and city agents when they are targeting the houseless or poor. As well as filming for citizen when they are being restricted, ticketed, or violated of their unalienable rights, be it civil rights or human rights.
I am ashamed of the attitude of our police agency (and city’s tolerance and acceptance of it) to the problem being targeted towards the most marginalized folks on earth who have the least if nothing at all.
The police should have nothing to worry about if they see me or anyone filming them, unless they are up to no good.
Then the whole world will be watching. ((( i )))
"Portland Copwatch" is a local group here in Portland --> http://www.portlandcopwatch.org/
Andalso another local group is "Rosecity Copwatch" --> http://rosecitycopwatch.wordpress.com/
energetic
Nor do these reports cover all the incidences of domestic surveillance of peace advocates. Former FBI special agent and whistleblower, Colleen Rowley, reports that "in 2008, we found out through a Freedom of Information request that there are 300 pages of--I think it was four or five, six agents trailing a group of students in Iowa City to parks, libraries, bars, restaurants. They even went through their trash."
irritated
hug me
caffeinated
don't ask
quizzical
“I am astonished by the extreme measures taken against Gregory Koger, all for misdemeanor charges. This is not justice, especially for a person of his moral standing.” 
chillin'