Category: Police State

She rolled up her window

~ susie ~ 3 Comments

http://youtu.be/BSPhC916GQM

So he killed her. Now he’s on paid leave:

CULPEPER, Va. (WUSA) — An eyewitness to a fatal police shooting in Culpeper, Virginia is contradicting the State Police version of the story.

Kris Buchele says he saw a Culpeper Town Police officer shoot 54-year-old Patricia Cook to death in the Epiphany Catholic School parking lot at around 10 a.m. Thursday, February 9.

Buchele is a carpenter who was working on the house next door. He says he heard loud arguing outside and looked through a window where he had a clear view of the school parking lot. Cook was in her Jeep Wrangler .

State police say Cook rolled up the window, catching the officer’s arm inside, and then dragged him.

Buchele says it didn’t happen that way. He describes an encounter which looked and sounded like the officer shooting a person a point blank range, not because he feared for his life, but because the woman did not obey his order to stop rolling up the window.

“He was right next to the vehicle. He had one hand on the door handle and one hand on his weapon. And she was rolling the window up. And they were exiting out of the parkng lot.

The window was half way up he said ‘stop or I’ll shoot.’ I really didn’t think he was going to do it. But she got the window all the way up and that’s when he shot. And then she took a left out of the parking lot here and he stepped out in the street and fired five more times,” said Buchele.

Suicide watch

~ susie ~ 4 Comments

Justin Carter, that teenager who was charged and jailed after making sarcastic remarks on Facebook, is reportedly on suicide watch. I’m so tired of what passes for a justice system coming down hard on ordinary people for these imaginary infractions (like chalking on the sidewalks). I find it hard to believe that someone, somewhere (like the Reddit community) hasn’t started a bail fund for this kid:

“He’s very depressed, very scared, and … concerned that he’s not going to get out,” Carter’s father, Jack, said in an interview with CNN Tuesday. “He’s pretty much lost all hope.”

Carter, 19, was arrested in February of this year following an argument he had on Facebook regarding “League of Legends,” an online video game.”[S]omeone had said something to the effect of ‘Oh you’re insane, you’re crazy, you’re messed up in the head,’” Jack recalled to ABC affiliate KVUE in an earlier interview.

“To which [Justin] replied ‘Oh yeah, I’m real messed up in the head, I’m going to go shoot up a school full of kids and eat their still, beating hearts,’ and the next two lines were ‘lol and jk’ [all sic].”

Despite the teen’s insistence of “lol” and “jk” — internet shorthand for “laughing out loud” and “just kidding,” respectively — a woman who came across the comment on Facebook failed to see the humor. She alerted police after realizing Carter lived near an elementary school. On February 13, a judge authorized a search warrant.
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Worse than the Stasi

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

Today’s NSA.

Our movements as we walk about in the city are traced, tracked and recorded – almost down to the footstep level. Every step you take, they’ll be watching you. If you deviate more than 100 meters from your usual path, that can be noted and flagged. The first time you see your own movement maps, and realize that somebody else is gather this information to use it against you, sends shivers down your spine. Where were you on April 17, 2012, at 13:21 European time? You were on the move, but at what speed? Whence and whither? Somebody has an answer to that question, and it’s not you.

This leads us to the key difference between the Stasi horror dystopia and the worse society today. Those of us who have read or seen 1984 recall that if the government didn’t catch what you were saying at the time you said it, you had gotten away. Words disappeared as fast as they were spoken and heard, or not heard.

That’s different today. In those dystopias, anything you said could and would be used against you. In our today, anything you say can and will be used against you, today or decades into the future. Everything is recorded. Everything.

If you’re redflagged for some stupid reason one year from today, what you were saying just five minutes ago will come under scrutiny, and whom you spoke them to. If the laws or social norms change to make the things you do right now suspicious in a decade, you’re going to be seen as a suspicious individual if somebody finds out – for everything is recorded.

Thanks to Ed Tayter.

Occupy Brazil

~ susie ~ 3 Comments

It sure seems contagious, doesn’t it? Everywhere but here:

SÃO PAULO, Brazil — Protesters showed up by the thousands in Brazil’s largest cities on Monday night in a remarkable display of strength for an agitation that had begun with small protests against bus-fare increases, then evolved into a broader movement by groups and individuals irate over a range of issues including the country’s high cost of living and lavish new stadium projects.

The growing protests rank among the largest and most resonant since the nation’s military dictatorship ended in 1985, with demonstrators numbering into the tens of thousands gathered here in São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, and other large protests unfolding in cities like Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Curitiba, Belém and Brasília, the capital, where marchers made their way to the roof of Congress.

Sharing a parallel with the antigovernment protests in Turkey, the demonstrations in Brazil intensified after a harsh police crackdown last week stunned many citizens. In images shared widely on social media, the police here were seen beating unarmed protesters with batons and dispersing crowds by firing rubber bullets and tear gas into their midst.

“The violence has come from the government,” said Mariana Toledo, 27, a graduate student at the University of São Paulo who was among the protesters on Monday. “Such violent acts by the police instill fear, and at the same time the need to keep protesting.”

‘Trust me’

~ susie ~ 4 Comments

http://youtu.be/02ea3dBJAuI

The real problem continues to be that secret programs leave the American public out of the conversation, and many of us would gladly trade a little less security for a little less intrusion. But how would we know? In a speech today, Obama defended the latest surveillance news:

SAN JOSE, Calif. – President Obama strongly defended the government’s secret surveillance of people’s phone records and Internet activities, saying there are “a whole bunch of safeguards involved” and that Congress has repeatedly authorized the programs.

“You could complain about big brother and how this is a potential program run amok,” Obama said, “but when you actually look at the details, I think we strike the right balance.”

He thinks we trust contribution-addicted members of Congress? Really?

Commenting on the surveillance for the first time since news organizations revealed the sweeping National Security Agency programs this week, Obama highlighted limits to the programs to protect the privacy of U.S. citizens and said the surveillance has helped the government anticipate and prevent terrorist attacks.

“They make a difference in our capacity to anticipate and prevent possible terrorist activity,” Obama said. He added that the programs are “under very strict supervision by all three branches of government and they do not involve listening to people’s phone calls, do not involve reading the e-mails of U.S. citizens and U.S. residents.”
Continue reading “‘Trust me’” →

A ‘dehumanizing stare’

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

Hmm. What do you suppose this incident has in common with so many others? Let me think…

A 14-year-old was reportedly choked by Miami-Dade police and charged with a felony count of resisting arrest with violence and disorderly conduct, all for giving police “dehumanizing stares,” clenching his fists and appearing threatening.

Unfortunately, it’s not all that rare for teens to be brutalized or even killed by police in the United States. There also seems to be something about police in Florida being especially violent for no apparent reason as they were when they beat a 66-year-old and when they murdered Nick Christie.

The incident occurred on Haulover Beach in Miami, Florida on Memorial Day morning after police said they saw Tremaine McMillian slamming another teenager on the sand.

“They told him that behavior was unacceptable,” Miami-Dade Police Detective Alvaro Zabaleta said to CBS Miami. “He walked away and officers followed him. They asked where his parents were. He said he was not going to take them to them.

“When he started to leave the beach area, officers had to get off their ATVs to detain him,” Zabaleta continued. “He had closed arms, clenched fists and pulled his arm away.”

“Once he was approaching the road, the officers restrained him. Again his body language was that he was stiffening up and pulling away,” Zabaleta said. “Now you’re resisting officers at that point and when the hands are swinging and you are resisting officers, at that point you have to be taken into custody.”