police brutality

Photos and video courtesy www.Unicornriot.ninja - Despite the Obama administration's half-hearted pledge to review and/or suspend construction on the Dakota Access Pipeline the Oil war against the Lakota Nation continues.

Construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, owned by Energy Transfer Partners of Texas and Marathon Petroleum of Findlay Ohio, has continued. Another Prayer camp near the construction pathway was begun yesterday, September 27, and was attacked by a highly militarized police operation today.

While the rebellious streets in Charlotte seem to have quieted by a curfew and threats of National Guard deployment, and extra security at today's Panther's game against the Vikings hindered a planned protest, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department is no closer to telling the truth.

On August 16th former Miami Chief of Police John Timoney passed away after a brief bout with lung cancer. Prior to serving as Chief of the Miami Police Department he served as Superintendent of Police in Philadelphia. His obituaries in the Miami Herald and other news outlets, despite being laden with praise from his friends and former colleagues, failed to give his record of brutality and repression the spotlight it truly deserves in these trying times. It is rare when the liberal media gives American heroes the respect they have earned from a life time of service.

It seemed like “just” another police shooting of a black person. By the incomplete statistics available, #SylvilleSmith in Milwaukee is number 183 this year. At the time of this writing that number has grown to 185 in 229 days or one every 29 hours. The total number of deaths by police violence will go up from 730 before this article is prosted. A 23 year old man's life would have been condensed to a blip on the late news as a local story.

Calling something a war is often an exercise in hyperbole. The Greek philosopher Aeschylus once said “In war, truth is the first casualty.” This has extended to the naming of wars “police actions” or calling them “operations” with names like “Restore Freedom” and “Inherent Resolve.” To cut through the Public Relations fog, one could define war as the late Jesse Helms defined pornography, “I know it when I see it.” One sees war in terms of casualties, and when using casualties for a lens to describe what American policing is doing the American public, one clearly sees a war.

Rodney King was the first break in the dam. The beating that sparked the rebellion in 1992 was not new. What was new was video cameras. Now everybody could see the unrestrained violence against the defenseless that America calls “law enforcement.” Consumer electronics have advanced. There are cameras in every phone. Video has now recorded the recent deaths Philando Castile and Alton Sterling. It did not record the less nationally known case of Henry Green V here in Columbus.

On July 14 a forum on police community relations was held at the New Birth Christian Ministries on Refugee Road. The turnout, which included City Council Staffers and off duty police was less than half the size of recent local protests against police murder. There was a panel discussion which included a Westerville police department representative, City Council President Zach Klein, three representatives of the Columbus Police Department and Civil Rights Attorney Sean Walton.

The military has been using drones in a lethal capacity for over a decade. The current administration has decided to increase the use of drones, and the number of civilian casualties overseas has increased. Drones have been used for the extrajudicial execution of American citizens overseas without trial. Senator Feinstein profits directly from the drone war.

Jamison Edgerley is in Grant Hospital on the seventh floor. He has had multiple surgeries in the last week. Most of his large intestine has been removed. Police bullets have also shattered his hand, utterly destroying bone and nerves. He may loose complete use of it. He is there because of a volley of police gunfire that struck him through a privacy fence on the night of July 4.

A rally by a white supremacist group known as the Traditionalist Workers Party for “free expression” in Sacremento turned violent as the group, along with their allies the Golden State Skinheads clashed with counter protestors at the State's Capitol Building and the surrounding grounds. Tear gas, mace, sticks and knives were used in combat by multiple sides in the melee.