Civil Liberties Under Attack At RNC, St. Paul Police And City Council Disrespect First Amendment

Today is the last day of the RNC and hopefully the brutality shown by St. Paul's police force will end before McCain's last lying remark of the night. Ever since last week, a police state has enveloped the Twin Cities and threatened the rights of Americans to protest their government and those that wish to tear it asunder. Now it seems that local City Council wants to get involved in the process, for better or for worse.

From The Pioneer Press:

The St. Paul City Council issued a joint statement today condemning "an organized group of self-proclaimed 'anarchists' who have come to St. Paul with disruption of our city as its stated goal."

The council also said, "we regret that some peaceful demonstrators got caught in the middle of criminal actions and law enforcement activity trying to stop this activity."

Council members Pat Harris and Dan Bostrom, whose son is in charge of RNC security for the St. Paul Police Department, did not sign the statement.

The council will ask police for an explanation of recent clashes between law enforcement and protesters that have roiled the first two days of the Republican National Convention.

City Council President Kathy Lantry said she will request that St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington address the council, likely sometime this month. Lantry said the topics could include everything from intelligence that led to raids on several Twin Cities home prior to the start of the convention to crowd-control tactics used by police.

Actual anarchists are one thing, but those that wish to assemble and protest must be free to express that right. The Council is right to demand an investigation into the thuggish brutality that their police department has shown those that do not possess RNC credentials. The notable arrest of Amy Goodman made some headlines, but for the most part the media has ignored the problem of abusive police tactics.

Instead of reporting what goes on outside the hall, the traditional media has played off the "terrorism" charges that have been levied at groups that have organized protests and marches. That isn't keeping the peace, it is the use of fear and intimidation, just as the Republicans inside the hall speak out for night after night at the Xcel Center, since the campaign season started and years before that as well. If it weren't for independent reporters, bloggers and YouTube, none of this information would make it past the police barricade line.

NYPD Reacts To Public Panda Party With Their Usual Grace

Whether party goers were standing around having a good time or taking pictures, the NYPD wasn't having any of it, constitutionally-protected freedoms or not.

PandamoniumTV provides footage in regular and slow speed:



Apparently the police do not like people recording their instances of brutality:

NYPD Looks Multicultural On The Outside, But Not Inside

The NYPD has always been a controversial force in New York City. Race and class have been two strong factors about that controversy and it continues on into 2008. The NYCLU released a report today showing how race is really played out in the ranks, how force is used and how it is being kept track of.

From The NYCLU:

• During the last two years the NYPD reported the race of those shot by police, nearly 90 percent of the people shot at by officers were black or Latino. In 1998 the Department stopped reporting the race of civilian targets and started reporting the breed of dogs being shot.
• The NYPD command structure remains almost entirely white. At the end of 2002, 85.3 percent of the 735 members of the NYPD at or above the rank of captain were white males, with blacks holding only 3.9 percent of those positions. At the end of 2007, after five years of a large number of retirements and promotions, 84.3 percent of leadership positions were held by white males, with the numbers of blacks actually shrinking to 3.7 percent.
• In 77 percent of the incidents where officers fired their weapons at civilians between 1999 and 2006, the officers were the only ones shooting, with officers often shooting at unarmed civilians (like Sean Bell and Amadou Diallo).
• In 2006 (the most recent year for which there is information), police officers fired an average of five shots per incident when they were the only ones shooting, which is the highest number for the entire eight years for which these figures have been reported.

Those are serious numbers that, as Donna Lieberman of the NYCLU remarked, scream out for serious review. The police and race relations are as important as they were decades ago. Race is still a problem for the police, and without a serious investigation and enforcement of real reform, we'll be looking at the same numbers in another ten, twenty or thirty years from now.

Why Tasering (An 82 Yr Old Woman) Is Bad News

Police groups argue that tasers are a great way to use non-lethal force to subdue dangerous assailants. How an 82 year old schizophrenic is a danger to society and the Chicago Police is not even up for debate. Yet police used 50,000 volts on her anyway. This is a closed case example of police brutality, but it isn't an isolated incident. Cops love to use these things on whoever they want, and we aren't just talking about Ben Stiller and Robert DeNiro's shocking scene.

From The New York Times:

Officers arrived and in an attempt to subdue Fletcher one of them used their Taser, Bond said. The department is trying to determine if the officer violated department policy regarding the use of stun guns.

On Tuesday, Fletcher said officers had pushed their way into her home. ''They shocked me,'' she said.

Fletcher at times sounded confused during the telephone interview. Her granddaughter Traci Taylor told the Chicago Sun-Times that her grandmother suffers from schizophrenia and dementia.

''My grandmother is easily confused,'' Taylor told the newspaper, adding that the elderly woman can be belligerent but is about 5 feet 1 and no more than 160 pounds.

''I just don't think they should be Tasing 82-year-old women. That's ridiculous,'' Taylor said.

Yes Traci, that is ridiculous.

Yet it is only one example of a growing problem around the country. Those "non-lethal" devices aren't so harmless and have been attributed to over 150 deaths. Perhaps some cops get a kick out of seeing people simultaneously convulsing and glowing with their stun guns, but to human rights groups, it is a tragedy. If you know of anyone being abused by cops in this way, check out this site here. This abuse must stop!

A Dirty Cop That Deserves Justice In The Worst Way

Credit:Indymedia.org

The NYPD's Chief Smolka is retiring after a 32 year career, finishing as the top cop in Manhattan south of 59th St. The position was a sweet one and now he is giving it up for a nice big pension and apparently wants to work for Revlon (Now that is a story on its own merits).

Well that would sound like something from a press release. The facts of the matter are much different. Smolka's past includes supervising the now-closed Street Crimes Unit that was responsible for the death of Amadou Diallo and the piece of news below.

From I-Witness:

Does the timing of Chief Smolka's exit from NYPD have anything to do with his upcoming civil trial for using excessive force against another woman activist? A deeply disturbing video that will be introduced as evidence in the trial shows Chief Smolka kneeing Cynthia Greenberg in the head while she is engaged in passive civil disobedience.

I-Witness Video has obtained the videotape of Chief Smolka personally taking Ms. Greenberg into custody during an anti-war demonstration at the Federal Building in Manhattan on May 5, 2003. The circumstances of the civil disobedience that day were negotiated in advance with the police department, including an understanding that arrested demonstrators would receive "desk appearance tickets" (summonses) rather than being locked up overnight.

Well that doesn't jive with the new and improved NYPD. After all of the mishaps and blatant police brutality seen around the city, it turns out we have another incident on our hands. This one goes almost to the top and it was caught on video too. I don't know about you, but if I was a protester practicing civil disobedience and I was called a c-you-next-tuesday and kneed in the face, I would be pissed. I would be more than pissed, I would want him dishonorably kicked off the force and brought to trial. That is what Cynthia Greenberg is doing.

Thankfully the trial part is already under way. The National Lawyer's Guild legal observer Adrienne Wheeler is bringing an additional suit against the police chief as well. Chief Smolka should also be brought to justice for many other reasons. He was recently named one of the top 50 most loathsome New Yorkers by the New York Press. I hope to see the full letter of the law heaped on top of this criminal with a badge, though you never know in Gotham.