The Media Conveniently Focuses on Ferguson Looting Instead of Rampant Police State

And unfortunately a lot of people are falling right into this trap.

Nick Bernabe | The Anti-Media

Following what may be the greatest few weeks in decades of exposure to police brutality, police in Ferguson, Missouri, have now shot and killed an 18 year old unarmed teen who, according to witnesses, was holding his hands in the air when he was shot. Peaceful protests that began shortly after the shooting yesterday were met with full on military style anti-riot police.

What started as a peaceful protest soon turned into a small riot which resulted in some stores being looted and shots being fired at police.

While the riots will not help the cause, they are also not surprising considering the sharp uptick in anti-police sentiment stemming from the massive amount of police violence against the working poor and minorities in America. Police violence which is increasingly being captured on cell phone cameras and posted online daily. We have a whole section on the Police State on our website which can be viewed here.

Cops Kill 8 Times More Americans Than Terrorists Do

Dave Hodges

Many people have noticed that several of the local police officers, particularly the younger ones are more gruff, rude and even abusive as compared to the past. Many veteran officers attribute the shift towards DHS’ training of local police which focuses on teaching the police that the public is their enemy as opposed to the traditional view that teaches that the local population and the police are partners in keeping the community safe.

Whatever happened to the friendly neighborhood cop who walked a beat, was well-known and respected by the local residents and was seen as the protector of the neighborhood? Far too often, that cop has been replaced by thugs wearing camouflage, bank robber type black ski masks who are armed with automatic weapons and sometimes even break down the doors of people who are innocent.

5 Reasons to Expect Police Brutality to Get Worse Before it Gets Better

Isaac Davis

Few things are more disturbing than looking at the news each day to find yet another shocking case of American police officers using excessive brutality and belligerence against the public. There is no justification for this, and as the list of egregious rights violations by the police grows, more Americans may finally be waking up to what many of us have known for years: our nation is becoming a police state. 

With the proliferation of portable handheld and dashboard video cameras, and with the ability to upload and share videos on the Web, people can see for themselves what police brutality really looks and feels like, and tension between police and American citizens is visible. A simple Google or YouTube search quickly reveals hundreds of unique cases of cops brutalizing people, often with insane cruelty and hubris, and the list of abuses grows daily. 

Many of the most shocking incidents are against women, children, the elderly, the handicapped or the mentally ill. In addition to excessive violence, police are also abusing their powers and illegally stealing money and property from everyday people, while admittedly using traffic and drug laws as revenue generating schemes for government coffers. Most shockingly, though, the police are up-arming themselves with military weapons and equipment, seemingly preparing themselves for something apocalyptic, and are increasingly assuming confrontational and threatening postures when dealing with the public.

Is police brutality and misconduct actually getting worse, or are portable video recorders allowing us to just now see what’s been happening all along? More importantly, is this situation going to improve any time soon? 

Will the Ferguson Shooting Mark a Historic Shift in the Police State?

Bernie Suarez

Only time will tell, but is it too soon to guess whether the Ferguson, Missouri shooting of unarmed teenager Michael Brown will mark a turning point in our march toward tyranny in America? There are signs that this could be the case. Yes this could be an overly optimistic assumption about the current direction of the police state in America, but there is a slight chance that the consciousness that came with the Ferguson shooting may have been a badly needed cure to the metastasizing police state problem.

Before anyone makes assumptions of how naive I'm being or overly optimistic, let's clarify. We are in a battle of competing paradigms and competing consciousness. One important thing to note about the police state is that authority, control, intimidation and police state madness is itself a real-time live form of consciousness. In this police state consciousness we can confirm the typical officer becomes consumed in their role. This disconnected behavior had been confirmed in previous psychology experiments, and we know how governments carefully train police to do as they are told. Add to that, the influence of the culture of police and what we see is a group of people acting within their own (twisted) consciousness to oppress others without consequences. We saw this in Nazi Germany and many other examples throughout history.

This powerful competing consciousness, the police consciousness, took a step back after the Ferguson shooting. How do we know?

Local Police Stockpile Weapons Of War

Arkansas Police Accountability Project

All across the country, heavily armed SWAT teams are raiding people’s homes in the middle of the night, often just to search for drugs. It should enrage us that people have needlessly died during these raids, that pets have been shot, and that homes have been ravaged.  

Our neighborhoods are not war zones, and police officers should not be treating us like wartime enemies. And yet, every year, billions of dollars’ worth of military equipment flows from the federal government to state and local police departments. Departments use these wartime weapons in everyday policing, especially to fight the wasteful and failed drug war, which has unfairly targeted people of color.

Thankfully, NewsChannel5 in Nashville Tennessee is willing to sound the alarm.

Unfortunately, most Arkansas news outlets typically either rubber stamp police actions or turn a blind eye.

In May of this year, 7 Arkansas law enforcement agencies received Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles, provided through the military surplus program.

DHS Is Employing Agent Provocateurs and Are Behind the Events In Ferguson

by Dave Hodges

What the mainstream media is not reporting is beginning to leak out from local citizens in St. Louis and from an informant from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) who are all telling a different story that the one you are seeing on Fox, CNN and CBS. First, the locals are reporting that the rioting has spread far beyond the Ferguson city limits. Rioting is taking place as far away as St. Charles which is located approximately 20 miles away from Ferguson. Second, more people are becoming aware that the police chief of Ferguson, Thomas Jackson, is not in control of his own police force as he has relinquished control to DHS.

DHS Is Fanning the Flames of Violence

In the past five days I have been contacted, via one of my most trusted sources, a member of DHS who is opposed to the events and DHS involvement in Ferguson, Missouri. This source stated that DHS is running the Ferguson Police Department and their actions are designed to antagonize and to provoke the locals to violence. He further stated that he believed that the ultimate goal is to inflame the local citizens to such a point martial law will be declared.

In even a more shocking revelation, this DHS source stated that the rioting and looting which followed the shooting death of 18 year old, Michael Brown, was encouraged and exacerbated by undercover DHS agents posing as members of the Black Panthers.

Lending support to this latest accusation of DHS complicity in the rioting was the behavior of the Ferguson Police Department during the looting. During the civil unrest, the behavior of the Ferguson Police was to simply create a perimeter around the looting and allow it to continue. This violates every tenet of law enforcement. It more resembles quarantine procedures practiced by DHS, Northcom and the National Guard. The police should have moved to intervene to stop the looting and prevent the spread of violence. If the situation was beyond the control of the police, then the National Guard should have been brought in. Given the revelation of the DHS source, it seems plausible that his story of wanting the violence to escalate appears to be the case.

Human Rights and Justice Committee Calls for Boycott

"Boycott Now!  We Demand our Human Rights!"

by Mark Daniels

The Human Rights and Justice Committee (HRJC), a grassroots organization in Missouri, is calling for a boycott of corporations and corporate media beginning Monday, August 25, 2014 until specific demands related to the shooting death of Michael Brown are satisfied.

In a Press Release made public via the HRJC Facebook event page, the grassroots organization says: "BOYCOTT NOW! WE DEMAND OUR HUMAN RIGHTS!", announcing a "National Day of Boycott against Banks, Businesses, and Retail stores as an act of solidarity and remembrance of the family of Michael Brown, Jr. and those of Eric Garner, LaVena Johnson, Trayvon Martin, John Crawford, Ezell Ford and countless other families that have had over 5,000 of their loved ones murdered by police, profiled, harassed, robbed, tortured, beaten, lynched, unlawfully arrested and framed by law enforcement officials and courts all over America...HRJC calls for Boycott for Human Rights, Justice, Peace, and Jobs to commence on August 25th, 2014, starting at 8 a.m. (EST), 7 a.m. (CST), and we will not stop until Michael Brown, Jr. gets justice and we make Human Rights, dignity, justice, and freedom the norm for all people In America".

Private Police: Mercenaries for the American Police State

Freda Art

John W. Whitehead 

“Corporate America is using police forces as their mercenaries.”—Ray Lewis, Retired Philadelphia Police Captain

It’s one thing to know and exercise your rights when a police officer pulls you over, but what rights do you have when a private cop—entrusted with all of the powers of a government cop but not held to the same legal standards—pulls you over and subjects you to a stop-and-frisk or, worse, causes you to “disappear” into a Gitmo-esque detention center not unlike the one employed by Chicago police at Homan Square?

For that matter, how do you even begin to know who you’re dealing with, given that these private cops often wear police uniforms, carry police-grade weapons, and perform many of the same duties as public cops, including carrying out SWAT team raids, issuing tickets and firing their weapons.

This is the growing dilemma we now face as private police officers outnumber public officers (more than two to one), and the corporate elite transforms the face of policing in America into a privatized affair that operates beyond the reach of the Fourth Amendment.

From Boston to Ferguson: Have We Reached a Tipping Point in the Police State?

John W. Whitehead

“I thought I was losing my capacity to be shocked -- but events in Missouri over just the last couple of hours have crossed a frightening line, one that makes me pray that this assault on fundamental American values is just the aberration of one rudderless Heartland community, and not the first symptoms of nation gone mad with high-tech weaponry to keep its own citizens in line.”—Journalist Will Bunch

The difference between what happened in Boston in the wake of the Boston Marathon explosion and what is happening now in Ferguson, Missouri, is not in the government’s response but in the community’s response.

This is what happens when you ignore the warning signs.

This is what happens when you fail to take alarm at the first experiment on your liberties.

This is what happens when you fail to challenge injustice and government overreach until the prison doors clang shut behind you.

Consider that it was just a little over a year ago that the city of Boston was locked down while police carried out a military-style manhunt for the suspects in the Boston Marathon explosion. At the time, Americans welcomed the city-wide lockdown, the routine invasion of their privacy, and the dismantling of every constitutional right intended to serve as a bulwark against government abuses.

The World is Waking Up to the Dangers of the Militarized Police State

Written by Nick Bernabe | The Anti-Media

What we are seeing now is a reversal from just a year or so ago when the corporate media glorified the very same tactics being used against the residents of Watertown following the Boston marathon bombing.

I’m sure you remember the pitiful act; video shown by the corporate outlets even depicted residents cheering paramilitary police in armored vehicles in a sort of Orwellian orgy of praise to the state.

While the media glorified the militarized police reaction in Watertown and Boston, many residents told a much more sobering account of the situation.

NY State Candidate for Governor Arrested For Filming Police

image source

Brandon Turbeville 

Despite the Supreme Court having ruled that videotaping police is legal and protected by the 1st Amendment, citizens all across the country continue to be arrested, charged, and abused by police for doing so. 

Generally speaking, those videotaping and subsequently subjected to police harassment or brutality are activists or otherwise concerned and “average” citizens. However, the police state grows bolder and bolder every day in its attempt to crush dissent and instill the concept that challenging the power of the state will not be allowed, regardless of social standing. 

Such is the case with the recent arrest of Randy Credico, a Democratic primary candidate in the New York State Governor’s race who is challenging corrupt New York Governor Cuomo. 

Credico was arrested on August 13, 2014 while on his way to a campaign interview. 

Turkey: Epicenter of Police State Violence

image source

Stephen Lendman

For over two weeks, daily anti-government protests rocked Turkey. Police attacked peaceful demonstrators intermittently. They've done so brutally. Turkey's notorious for police state viciousness.

It's a democracy in name only. Prime Minister Erdogan is thuggish, authoritarian, hardline and despotic. 

Turkey's one of 28 NATO countries. Erdogan partners with Washington's imperial wars. He's unapologetic about neoliberal harshness. More on that below.

He's been prime minister for over 10 years. Why Turks put up with him they'll have to explain. Growing opposition demands he resign. New elections are wanted. Erdogan refuses to call them. If protests continue and grow, parliament may overrule him.

Staten Island Gentle Giant, Eric Garner, Killed by NYPD (Video)

Image Source:  The Daily News

Arkansas Police Accountability Project

New York City police officers killed a man Thursday after he broke up a fight between two other men. The cops suspected him of selling untaxed cigarettes, so they will likely claim that the violent escalation and killing of this man, who has been described by family and friends as a "gentle giant' was justified.

The New York Daily News obtained exclusive video of the incident, which shows Staten Island man Eric Garner, 43, begging officers to let him breathe as he lies on the ground helpless.

Now, his family is demanding accountability from the NYPD.

Police said Garner, who was a married father of six children, died of a heart attack during the arrest, according to The Associated Press. The NYPD said Garner had been seen selling untaxed cigarettes, and that he had been arrested before for the same offense.

In the video, Garner denied the allegations and asked a plainclothes officer why he was stopped.

The Police Murder in St. Louis and the Militarization of American Society

Jerry White

Yet another unarmed young man has been shot to death, execution style, by police on the streets of an American city. In response to demonstrations of popular outrage, riot police have attacked protests with tear gas and rubber bullets and arrested scores of people. A pregnant woman says she was thrown on the ground, maced and held at gunpoint.

The victim this time is 18-year-old Michael Brown, riddled Saturday with a dozen bullets from the gun of a cop in the St. Louis, Missouri suburb of Ferguson.

The anger that has engulfed metropolitan St. Louis is entirely justified. The police put out brazen lies, the standard fare in the string of incidents of homicidal violence against working people and youth. The Ferguson police have chosen to go with the claim, used so often in past killings by police, that Brown “reached for the gun” of the killer cop.

But numerous eyewitnesses describe a wanton and brutal murder. As Brown and a friend walked down the street, they were ordered by a still unnamed police officer to get on the sidewalk.

When the youth failed to respond quickly enough, the cop backed his vehicle into them, grabbed Brown by the neck and shot him. His friend told the media the cop shot again, hitting Brown in the back as he fled for his life. He then shot the youth several times in head and chest as he raised his hands and attempted to kneel to the ground.

Officer Involved Domestic Violence: Little Rock Cop Arrested for Assaulting His Own Son

Mark Daniels

Donald Woods, 51

Arkansas Police Accountability Project

(Little Rock, AR)  As reported by local news affiliates, a fistfight with his 16 year old son led to the arrest of Little Rock Police Officer, Donald Woods.  According to the Pulaski County Sheriff's Office, Woods was arrested after deputies witnessed his son with a ripped t-shirt, an abrasion on his elbow that was bleeding, a cut on his finger, and a red mark on the side of his neck. Details were released this morning about the incident that happened at the home of officer Donald Woods, 51, Sunday morning near Cabot. Woods was charged with domestic battery, third degree.

According to Advocates for Human Rights, officer involved domestic violence is a serious problem.

Individuals who are the victims of domestic violence at the hands of police officer-batterers are often in a unique and particularly vulnerable situation. Unlike most victims of domestic violence, where the success of protective efforts depends on the cooperation of law enforcement, those subject to abuse from a member of the law enforcement community may, for a variety of reasons, be unable to secure the assistance they seek. And, studies indicate that police families are 2-4 times more likely than the general population to experience domestic violence, making the potential for disparities in protective success particularly troubling. 

Unfortunately, the alleged abuse inflicted by Donald Woods against his own teenage son is not uncommon. Just imagine what someone who would do this to his own child would do to someone else. The increase in police brutality in America is a frightening reality.  In the last decade alone the number of people murdered by police in America has reached 5,000. According to the CATO Institute, you are now 8 times more likely to be killed by a law enforcement officer than a terrorist.  What can we do about it?  Educate ourselves and get involved.

Arkansas Police Accountability Project is seeking volunteers who care about the victims of police violence. We do not "hate" cops.  We want to help improve the current system to hold police accountable and restore confidence in those who are charged with the tremendous responsibility of keeping us safe.  We highlight the achievements of police officers who engage in positive policing activities, who do not violate our rights, who are willing to break the Blue Code of Silence, and who only use violence as a last resort  in accordance with the principle of non aggression.  We also highlight abuses of power and police brutality to shine a light in the darkness in an effort to promote transparency and accountability.  That which is hidden in the darkness can be revealed only when light shines on it.  We value life and the principle of non-aggression.  We do not tolerate anyone who wishes harm to the men and women who serve in law enforcement.  Many of them are victims of a flawed system.  We are interested in volunteers who want make the world a better place for everyone. If interested, please send us a private message on Facebook.

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Police Misconduct Costs NYC Taxpayers Nearly $1B to Settle Claims

Activist Post

The increasing militarization of police has had profound social ramifications across the United States, as citizens increasingly feel threatened by those sworn to protect them.  Beyond the social fallout, a recent Associated Press investigation skims the surface of the financial impact of police excesses over the previous decade.  

In typical Associated Press misdirection, a video accompanies the article, which literally has nothing to do with what is written around it.  The original title of the article is ambiguous, "AP Investigation: Nearly $1B in NYC Police Payouts."  If one were only to watch the video, one would assume that the $1B somehow has been paid out in counterterrorism operations, as the video focuses on a "dirty bomb" patrol boat protecting the UN building.  Strange.  However, the article itself does possess a few kernels of truth.

According to the AP investigation into the NYPD:

Nearly $1 billion has been paid over the past decade to resolve claims against the nation's largest police department . . . the total spending outstrips that of other U.S. cities, though some smaller cities and departments also shell out tens of millions of dollars a year in payouts.

These payouts often are due to provable wrongdoing by individuals, yet ultimately fall on the taxpayer according to the report, as "officers themselves don't usually bear personal responsibility."  It is precisely this lack of personal responsibility which contributes to the overall impact on society.  There are countless examples of police who have been repeatedly cited for brutality and other ethics violations being protected by the "thin blue line" of the supposed police honor code that too often protects their fraternity above protecting the public.  

The AP investigation deflects the payouts as being "less than the cost of insurance," but misses the point  that this growing problem threatens to destabilize an already weakened trust in police that has more to do with failed police training and testing requirements than it does the legal system or a "litigious" atmosphere where, "Some law firms have made it their business to sue the city."  

The public has been hoodwinked to believe that an increasing number of violent encounters over non-violent offenses is due to the "heat of the moment" or some type of combat lingo more appropriate to foreign war-time environments.  What would people think if firemen responded to a house fire and instead of putting out the fire, came in with gasoline?  They would rightly think poor training, or psychopathic behavior.  It's a simplistic analogy, but accurate when one considers the AP's own example of police raining 50 bullets on a car carrying an unarmed man and his two friends following a bachelor party.  The justification?  The car didn't stop as ordered, and police "thought the men were armed."  That's it?  Proper hiring and training practices -- physical, emotional, intellectual, and cultural -- never would have permitted this to happen.  Police are supposed to be trained using standard "containment" exercises for both vehicles and domiciles specifically to identify who is armed and who is not.  This particular lapse cost the city (taxpayers) $7 million.  

A recent failed containment of psychopathic proportions just occurred in Phoenix, Arizona that perfectly illustrates both poor training and poor hiring practices.  Officer Richard Chrisman (cited previously for "disciplinary problems") and his partner responded to a domestic dispute.  Not minutes into the encounter, an unarmed man and his dog were both killed, after Chrisman allegedly shouted, "I don't need no warrant mother------."  Phoenix must now wait and see how their tax dollars will be applied to this barbarity.  

Now that police are being equipped with the lastest military gear, even better training is required to temper their new lethality.  As the economy continues to implode, and citizens wish to peaceably assemble and demonstrate their distaste for a wide range of political and economic policies, more high-tension police encounters are inevitable.  This goes far beyond the highlight case of NYC.  An entire YouTube channel is dedicated to Cops Out of Control, with video evidence of horrendous abuse. 

Citizens everywhere should engage their local police to tell them that they unequivocally support their courageous duty to public service, but will hold them personally accountable for any sign of brutality or misconduct.  For those who wish to be active, Citizen Review Boards are gaining support.  If it really is "a few bad apples" as they like to say, then it shouldn't be too difficult to identify and remove them.

The National Police Misconduct Feed is a great source to track daily reports, statistics, settlements, and pending cases.

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Why Have Police In America Turned Into Such Ruthless Thugs?

Michael Snyder

Once upon a time, the police were one of the most respected institutions in America, but now most Americans fear them.  Almost every single day there are multiple stories of police brutality or misconduct that make the national news.

Just this week, there have been stories about police killing a baby deer at an animal shelter, about police killing a 95-year-old World War II veteran in a retirement home, and about police using legal technicalities to “legally” stealmassive amounts of money from innocent citizens.

Why are police acting like this?  Why have police in America turned into such ruthless thugs?  In the case of the baby deer that was killed, 13 armed agents stormed the animal shelter up in Wisconsin where it was being cared for.  Is this really the kind of country that we want our children to grow up in?  A country where Bambi is hunted down by armed thugs working for the government?