Papers Please? St. Paul Cop Harassed Black Man Waiting For His Kids for ID, Caught on Tape

by Ed Krayewski

While voter identification laws are a hot button issue in national politics, those laws aren't usually discussed in the broader context of identification requirements in various aspects of everyday life.  For starters, border patrol agents dozens of miles away from an international border ask for identification purportedly to root out illegal immigrants. Identification is required at the doctor's office, for increasing amount of medication, at the airport, on trains and now even for some interstate bus trips, for renting a car, getting into most government buildings, and so on in that manner. A mere fifteen years ago much of this may have seemed unthinkable.

So while the debate over whether voter ID laws are effective or whether they infringe on the right to vote (which ought to be universal given citizenship, which should be based on residency and necessary and proper paperwork) continues, it misses the point that citizens and non-citizens alike who don't have identification have a harder time accessing all kinds of goods and services, government and otherwise, often due to government regulations and edicts.

This is not just an issue of taking a bus instead of flying, as former homeland security secretary Janet Napolitano once suggested for those tired of the security theater at the airport. And a bus is increasingly not an option either. In Houston Representative Barbara Jackson Lee (D) lauded the Department of Homeland Security sending TSA agents onto local buses!

Eventually it becomes about the freedom of movement at the most basic level. Witness this interaction between an officer and a man who told them he was waiting to pick up his kids from the local charter school. Note how quickly it escalates despite the man's calm demeanor, all over a demand to produce identification:

Minnesota City Pages identified the man, who spoke to them, as Chris Lollie. He was arrested for "disorderly conduct" and "obstructing the legal process," and was charged with those crimes as well as trespassing. They were, unsurprisingly, all dropped. Police insist they were dealing with an "uncooperative male refusing to leave" and said there were no complaints filed after the incident (many incidents of police brutality can go unreported), which happened in January but video of which only emerged online this month. The YouTube user who posted claims the cellphone was seized for six months (likely the length of time before charges were dropped and the "investigation" ended).

If it's a war zone out there for cops, it's the "civilians" that often seem most at risk.

Sensible rules of engagement for cops, as well as effective disciplinary processes, are needed to attempt to root out behaviors and attitudes like those of the officer's in the video.

Ed Krayewski is an associate editor of Reason 24/7 at Reason.com where this article first appeared.

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It's no longer "hands up, don't shoot" in Ferguson

As reported by Daniel Johnson, Founder of PANDA (People Against the NDAA) moments ago via Ustream (see below), following another police involved shooting earlier today, some protesters in the Northside community of St. Louis (near Ferguson, MO) are saying:  "It's no longer 'hands up, don't shoot'.  It's now 'shoot back'." 




Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream

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St. Louis City police shoot, kill knife-wielding suspect

Fox2Now



ST. LOUIS, MO (KTVI) – Authorities are responding to a report of an officer involved shooting in north St. Louis.  It happened just before 1 p.m. Tuesday at McLaran and Riverview outside a market.

Authorities say a man tried to rob the 5-Star Market  convenience store with a knife.

The store owner says he got into a dispute with the man.

Police were called but the suspect refused to put down the weapon.   He tried to attack police and was shot and killed.

Anonymous Just Released This Powerful Video Statement on the Michael Brown Shooting

Internet "hacktivist" collective Anonymous has released a statement on the Michael Brown shooting.

In the two-minute video posted to YouTube Sunday night, a digitally altered voice delivers a strict list of demands for local police and legislators:



by Zak Cheney-Rice

"Anonymous will not be satisfied this time ... with simply obtaining justice for this young man and his family," the voice says. "Anonymous demands that the Congressional Representatives and Senators from Missouri introduce legislation entitled 'Mike Brown's Law,' that will set strict national standards for police conduct and misbehavior in the USA."

Image Credit: Facebook via NY Daily News

More: The voice adds a motion of support for citizens of Ferguson, Mo., who've taken to the streets in the past two days to express their dissent over Saturday's shooting. "To the good people of Ferguson, take heart and take your streets," it says. "You are not alone."

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.

Police Break Into Private Home Without a Warrant and Tase Residents (Cotati California)

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California dad 'begged for his life' as police beat him to death - witnesses

AFP Photo / Jonathan Alcorn

A California father of four died Wednesday shortly after a group of police allegedly beat him with batons as he lay defenseless on the sidewalk. Cops, before confiscating witness' cameras, also reportedly unleashed a canine unit on him.

David Sal Silva, 33, allegedly resisted when police approached him to ask if he was who neighbors called about to complain of an intoxicated man in the area. The officers called for backup and, witnesses told the Bakersfield Californian, Silva was soon being beaten in the face and upper body by as many as nine policemen and their batons. At least one of the cops reportedly held a German Shepherd on a leash nearby.

Attorney Leaks Dash Cam Video of Police Shooting After DA Rules Shooting Justified

Reason.com

If you ever see a news story about a police shooting that the local district attorney does not rule justified, please e-mail me. For now, the story: Ernest Duenez was a parolee shot to death during a traffic stop a year and a half ago. He was the passenger in a vehicle pulled over because the “officer had knowledge that Duenez, a wanted parolee, was inside the vehicle and considered armed and dangerous,” according to the Modesto Bee. The district attorney ruled the police officer was justified in shooting Duenez 13 times because the parolee brandished a knife at the officer, was wanted and considered armed and dangerous, and had a lengthy criminal record.

While Duenez’ family has been protesting for the last year and a half, with two police officers even getting a temporary restraining order against his brother, the case didn’t receive much attention.  

After the DA ruled the shooting justified, the family’s attorney decided to release the dash cam video on which part of the DA’s conclusions were based. The video, and the case, went viral. Dash cam video in full below:

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Man charged for covering head during police beating

The Raw Story

A Miami man whose beating at the hands of police was captured on cell phone video has been charged with resisting arrest without violence, a charge his lawyer says came from nothing more than the man's attempts to cover his head from the blows.

Gilberto Matamoros, a 21-year-old youth center worker, says he was doing nothing wrong when police arrested him during a brawl in Miami's Coconut Grove neighborhood on Halloween. According to his lawyer, Ricardo Martinez-Cid, Matamoros was picked out of an unruly crowd and beaten unconscious by two Miami police officers. He had to be taken to a nearby hospital.

Cell phone footage of the incident shows a police officer hitting Matamoros five times on or near his head. Miami police launched an investigation into the two officers' actions after the video appeared on local news stations last week.

"This is being investigated at this particular time, and until that investigation is completed, we're really not going to have any comments," Police Chief Miguel Exposito said last week.

Martinez-Cid told CBS in Miami that prosecutors had initially told him that all charges against Matamoros would be dropped, but then suddenly changed their minds earlier this week. A charge of disorderly conduct was dropped, but the resisting arrest charge remained in place.

"All he tried to do is cover his head, until he passed out. They beat him until he was unconscious, and they had to take him to Jackson [Memorial Hospital]," said Martinez-Cid.

He told WPLG channel 10 that if background noise on the cell phone video were reduced, you could hear Matamoros calling for the officers to stop and saying he's not resisting arrest.

"Gilbert is a good kid, he actually mentors kids, he's worked for the police athletic league," Martinez-Cid added.

Matamoros has pleaded not guilty. Martinez-Cid told NBC in Miami that he hasn't filed a lawsuit against the police yet, but is keeping that option open. Matamoros just wants to "get his good name back," he said.

The following video was broadcast on CBS channel 4 in Miami.

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The Largest Street Gang in America

YouTube-AmericanDissent
(from the original creator) .... "BoilingFrogs"

Check them out @
http://www.myspace.com/boilingfrogs101
http://blogs.myspace.com/boilingfrogs101

This was sent to me by way of a message. It was written by an ex-cop shortly after he saw my blog. What follows is a very honest, insightful and terrifying message as he touches on the police perspective and the militarization of the police (which was largely excused as necessary by the War on Drugs).

..........

"When I was a "police officer" back in the early '70s the transformation was just starting to take place from a mentality of a public servant working for the citizens to "law enforcement". The first I noticed of it was when the police departments started preferential hiring of ex-military people returning from Viet Nam. They started introducing military tactics into the department, including the first S.W.A.T. team. They quit referring to people on the street as citizens and started calling them "civilians", or more commonly "assholes".

"They looked for opportunities to use their new toys provided from "federal assistance" monies in the war on drugs. They changed the uniforms from the blue-suited cop with an 8-sided hat with a shield on front to a set of black or navy fatigues and a ball cap. They started shaving their heads and pumping iron. They gave up on the idea that they put themselves in the line of fire to protect and serve the public and took on a combat marine attitude of protect their own above all else. I've known them to murder cop-killers in the street, but have a could-care-less attitude when a civilian is killed."

"I was lied to, lied about and set up when I tried to expose some crooked cops. Things since 1975 have not gotten better. The thugs in uniform now consider themselves to be government agents of a totalitarian regime with limitless authority to enforce the will of the government on all civilian assholes. There are obviously exceptions to that rule, but those would never try to stand in the way of the thugs."

"Sorry, but talk show hosts I have heard that say we don't have to worry about tyranny in this "nation" because our troops would never turn their guns on "Americans". They are wrong. They have never read history. They don't realize the training and brainwashing that takes place in the military now and in the para-military police forces - especially the federales. Just wait until big-O gets his Civilian National Security Force in place and all the local wanna-be LEOs join in with them."

"Buy ammo and remember to aim for the head or neck."


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Police State: Brutality

A clear example of Excessive Force!


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