Being a child of the '60s, I strongly identify with "protest movements" ~ and I strongly support peaceful protest movements ~ I know the problem is not all police, but we DO have a problem with far too many "over-zealous" police here in the US ~ and that problem is not limited to the US ~ and we have to ask, and deserve an answer to the question of, who is policing the police? ~ there are "live links" to more/corroborating information in the original ~ Sooz

AlterNet / By Steven Rosenfeld, Alyssa Figueroa
Exploding Protest Movement Goes National as Citizens Demand an End to Era of Brutal, Racist Policing
This is about changing policing as we know it.

December 8, 2014 | Late Saturday, hours into a protest march over police brutality in Berkeley, Calif., police were looking to make arrests and spotted Kyle McCoy.

The young black man, a well-known racial justice activist and University of California-Berkeley alum was arrested on suspicion for felony assault with a deadly weapon. He was taken away and booked, but by Sunday morning he was free on bail. On Monday afternoon, when he was scheduled to be arraigned in court, a bailiff announced the criminal charge had been dropped.

That kind of routine police harrassment is partly why protests over police brutality and institutional racism continue nationwide. It is not just because ongoing deaths of unarmed black men and youths at the hands of police have struck a deep chord across America. The more you talk to protesters the more it becomes clear that this movement’s goals are crystalized by racist policing but do not stop there.

“Everyone out there is saying they can’t breathe for a lot of reasons,” said one protester who came to the courthouse to support McCoy, referring to Eric Garner’s last words before dying from a chokeheld during his arrest in New York City. “I know a lot of people who are out there [protesting]. It’s a lot of issues.”

In the Bay Area, today’s protesters are a mix of newcomers and veterans. There have been massive protests in recent years over other police killings of black men, notably Oscar Grant. There has been the Oakland-centered Occupy movement, protests over urban gentrification, rising higher education costs, and other issues with racial and economic justice underpinnings. But Cynthia Morse, an older white woman and longtime protester who came to the court to support those arrested this weekend, said police brutality was unlike other issues, especially if your family has been victimized.

“This whole issue has got to be a black people’s movement. It’s theirs. They want it. They don’t need direction from us. They need our support and that’s what most of us are really trying to do,” Morse said. “The institutional racism, the overt racism, the police brutality against young black men has been very real to us because we are part of Oakland and they have been so many of us [seeking justice] who are black, and mothers with children who have been killed, and friends—it’s really personal. This is a life and death issue.”

Morse said she was sickened by the outsiders who used the protests to vandalize local stores. “It’s such a disgusting lack of respect for the people who have died,” Morse said. “It is just the most incredible disrespect to them and their families.”

Protesters Demands

Across the country, the core demands of protesters following the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York, have been to end the institutionalized racism in policing. This means ending racial profiling, changing the police practices and grand jury process that allow officers who use excessive force to evade accountability. It means taking a range of militarized weapons out of police hands in non-emergency contexts, such as at protests.

But as demonstrations continue, there also are related concerns. In Berkeley, some leaders of the weekend marches said their demands included ending the “new Jim Crow,” the lack of educational and economic opportunities. They want to restore affirmative action on UC campuses and double non-white enrollment, said Yvette Felarca, a leader of the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration, and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN).

In Detroit, Michigan, Jose Alvarenga, another BAMN organizer, said their top agenda is to “connect the fight against police brutality to what’s going on in Detroit….We have been having marches on every Saturday in the east side of Detroit against police brutality. They definitely have been bigger now after the two [grand jury] decisions.”

“It comes down to the same line of growing inequality across the country,” he said. “In some instances, like with K-12 education and universities, it’s very clear who has more opportunities and resources. You have bitterness and anger in the communities that don’t have those opportunities. If you include violent police brutality and repression, then you will have the responses that Ferguson has had and now Berkeley, rightly so, is having.”

Coast to Coast Activism

In New York City, protesters have staged a mass die-in at Grand Central Terminal on Sunday. They also disrupted shoppers in Macy’s and H&M, tweeting “no justice, no shopping.” They swarmed Toys ‘R’ Us and held up toy guns in memory of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old who was shot and killed by a rookie officer in Cleveland. Some protesters went to Penn Station to sing “justice carols.” On Monday, protesters blocked traffic on the Verrazano Bridge during morning rush hour.

In Philadelphia, about 200 protesters held a die-in outside the Philadelphia Eagles’ stadium blocking cars from leaving following the game. Some pro athletes held their own form of protest by writing “I can’t breathe” on their clothing. NBA player Derrick Rose and NFL players Reggie Bush and Johnson Bademosi wore the message on their warmup shirts. NFL player David Joseph wrote it on his cleats. LeBron James is expected to wear one during Monday’s game in Brooklyn.

The District of Columbia has also seen protesters rising up. On Saturday, dozens staged a die-in at Washington’s Union Station and blocked a bridge in nearby Arlington, Virginia. Elsewhere in the south, more than 200 demonstrators staged a die-in in North Carolina at a holiday event. In Miami, protesters blocked a major freeway and sustained protests for three days. Protesters sang, “We who believe in freedom cannot rest, until it comes.”

In Chicago, religious leaders from about 100 churches led a rally on Sunday. “The enemy might choke the breath out of our bodies but they cannot choke the breath out of our spirit,” said Rev. Michael Pfleger during a morning service.

In Los Angeles on Saturday, protesters held a “Blackout Hollywood” in which hundreds staged a die-in, shutting down a popular intersection where an allegedly armed black man was recently killed by police on Friday. Protests also unfolded in Anchorage, Alaska, and in Phoenix where police killed Rumain Brisbon, an unarmed black man, last week.

The international community also held actions this weekend, with protests in Tokyo, Paris, Melbourne, and Hannover, Germany.

Meanwhile, back in the San Francisco Bay Area, protests spread outward from Berkeley. In Oakland, protesters entered a popular restaurant on Sunday and sang the old pro-labor song, “Which side are you on, friends? Which side are you on?” They then read a list of names of black people killed by police officers, saying, “Justice for Mike Brown is justice for us all. I will fight for freedom until justice is won.”

The caption on a video of their action reads, “We interrupt your regularly scheduled brunch to bring you #blackbrunch….No business as usual. Shut it down because #blacklivesmatter.”

http://www.alternet.org/activism/exploding-protest-movement-goes-national-citizens-demand-end-era-brutal-racist-policing?paging=off&current_page=1#bookmark

Too bad there isn't marches and protests for the cops killed/injured on the job. Go call a St Louis panther the next time you have an emergency

i would love it if something happened. this crap has bothered me my entire life.

Oops! The "you" not aimed at you personally Sooz but the anti-police movement in general.

Cannalee, it's NOT an "anti-police movement" ~ it's an "anti-police brutality and racism movement" ~ two entirely different scopes ~

Serious question for Cannalee: I know you [and I think Perry too] worked as police for some time and I can understand why your dander gets raised over brutality charges ~ but can you admit/accept that SOME cops over-react with brutality and racism?

Sooz

Lol! Oh yeah! If you only knew! Suffice it to say we were good cops--not always an appreciated presence in some quarters.

You know, race just doesn't occur to me when I hear these stories. Clearly, it should, it's likely a factor in many of them. I just can't accept police killing unarmed people. My dad was a cop. He responded to many volatile situations, like anti vietnam protests at the airport where the protesters would try to stop the draftees from boarding the planes in the 70's and racial desegregation of the Boston schools in the 70s. He would leave the house in full riot gear and I would see him on the news. He took the use of his weapon very seriously, and would not even allow us to joke about shooting people when we were kids.

A few years ago, a woman called the Baltimore Police for help with her 12 year old mentally ill son. He needed to be taken to a hospital as he was out of control. The police went into a room with the kid and 5 minutes later the kid was dead. The mom did not call the police to come and kill her child.

Also a few years ago, a mom in Pasadena, MD called the police because her adult son was trying to kill himself with scissors. The police shot and killed him when he wouldn't put the scissors down, even though he continued to try to hurt himself and did not attack the police.

i know these are difficult circumstances for law enforcement, but police need to know how to do the job, which includes handling these situations and not killing unarmed people.

There is one thing I despise more than brutality and that is corruption neither of which belong in law enforcement but which both sadly do exist. It was common years ago and apparently is common today.

The people from those quarters might be a tad suspicious after decades of experience with not so good cops.

And now for counterpoint, there's "Chris Magnus, chief of Richmond police ..." and the mayor and city council members showing support ~ what a MEGA COOL mindset and attitude ~ ~ Sooz

‘We get it’: Cops join protest against police brutality in California city
Travis Gettys | 11 Dec 2014 at 08:02 ET



A northern California police chief joined a protest Tuesday against police brutality.

Chris Magnus, chief of Richmond police, held a sign that read “#BlackLivesMatter,” a Twitter hashtag used by civil rights advocates, as other officers joined in the peaceful protest, reported the Contra Costa Times.

“I’ve never seen anything like it, not in Richmond, not anywhere,” said resident Mary Square. “All these police, and the police chief, holding signs calling for an end to police violence.”

Magnus has been hailed for his approach to community policing, which has helped reduce the city’s crime rate and the use of force by police.

“I spoke with my command staff, and we agreed it would be nice to convey our commitment to peaceful protest and that black and brown lives do matter,” Magnus said. “And to help bridge the gap that we understand sometimes exists between police and community around certain issues.”

The protest, which was organized by members of the RYSE Youth Center, was relatively calm in comparison to demonstrations in nearby Berkeley and elsewhere.

The demonstrators were joined by Mayor Gayle McLaughlin and City Council members Jael Myrick, Jovanka Beckles and Tom Butt.

The police department’s deputy chief said officers understand the anger fueling the protests.

“We get the conversation about use of force, we get it,” said Deputy Chief Allwyn Brown. “This is an opportunity for all police departments, including ours, to look inward and examine our approaches and get better.”

Watch this video report posted online by KTVU-TV: [video accessible via end link]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/12/we-get-it-cops-join-protest-against-police-brutality-in-california-city/

Intelligent conversation! Cool rational response to the public outrage. That doesn't mean force sometimes even deadly force isn't necessary but the response shows an empathy which was sadly lacking in the initial response of Ferguson PD.

One Troubling Statistic Shows Just How Racist America's Police Brutality Problem Is

The statistics: White officers kill black suspects twice a week in the United States, or an average of 96 times a year.

Those are the findings of a USA Today analysis of seven years of FBI data, which claims around a quarter of the 400 annual deaths reported to federal authorities by local police departments were white-on-black shootings. What's more, the analysis indicates that 18% of the black suspects were under the age of 21 when killed by the police, as opposed to just 8.7% of white suspects.

Throughout much if not all of America, black people are disproportionately more likely to be killed by the police.

The background: Statistics like these may help explain why Pew polls have demonstrated continued low confidence among non-whites in the police and justice systems. Police in general, and white cops in particular, have a pattern of disproportionately directing force against black people. All too often, cases of abuse and excessive force are simply swept under the rug.

University of Nebraska criminologist Samuel Walker told USA Today that the lack of a comprehensive national repository on use of force has been a "major failure" for oversight, while USC colleague Geoff Alpert pointed out that around 98.9% of excessive force allegations are ultimately ruled as justified. In just one of many examples, NYPD almost exclusively shoots black or Hispanic suspects.

Protests involving black people are also more likely to attract police attention and use of force to disperse them. The ACLU has intensely documented an immensely troubling pattern of police militarization and found SWAT teams and other heavy-handed tactics are much more likely to be used against minority suspects than white ones:

In Ferguson, where community members are currently protesting deeply entrenched, racially discriminatory policing, 92% of all people arrested in 2013 were black. The community as a whole, however, is 65% black.

It's not just the police, either — the Urban Institute estimates that white-on-black homicides in states with Stand Your Ground laws are 354% more likely to be ruled justifiable than white-on-white ones. The State's Warren Bolton describes how black men in America "endure a lifetime of suspicion," both from the authorities and people of other races.

The statistics are clear. Being the disproportionate target of violence by the police and white people in general is a systemic problem for black people across America.

Why you should care: The statistic on white-cop-on-black-suspect shootings is alarming in and of itself. But while race plays a critical role, the number of white cops shooting black people is just part of a larger problem. Black people across the United States are more likely to face discrimination in the criminal justice system and be harassed, arrested and shot by police. Sadly, even the most extreme cases of police excess often end in little punishment.

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Cleveland police's fatal shooting of Tamir Rice ruled a homicide
By Laura Ly and Jason Hanna, CNN
updated 1:26 PM EST, Fri December 12, 2014

(CNN) -- The death of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old boy who was shot last month by a Cleveland police officer who authorities say mistook the child's air gun for a real firearm, has been ruled a homicide, the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office said Friday.

The November 22 shooting outside a Cleveland recreation center is under investigation, and Tamir's family has filed a lawsuit against two officers and the city over his death.

The cause of death was a "gunshot wound of the torso with injuries of major vessel, intestines and pelvis," according to paperwork provided by Christopher Harris in the medical examiner's communications office.

Rice was pointing a pellet gun at people outside the recreation center before he was shot, police say. A witness called 911 to say that a black male -- "probably a juvenile" -- was pointing "a pistol" at people, but added twice that the gun was "probably" fake.

A dispatcher asked officers to respond, but it doesn't appear the dispatcher told them of the caller's suspicions that the gun was probably fake or that the person was probably a minor.

Two officers arrived in a police car. Within two seconds of exiting the car, Officer Timothy Loehmann shot Tamir, and the boy died the next day, police say.

Police have said that Loehmann opened fire after Tamir reached for the gun in his waistband and that an orange tip indicating the gun was a toy had been removed.

Tamir's mother, Samaria Rice, has said she didn't allow her son to play with toy guns, and one of his friends gave the air gun to him.

Loehmann, 26, and the car's driver, Officer Frank Garmback, 46, are on paid leave as the investigation is conducted.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/12/justice/c ... index.html?

GMTA, oskar ~ I just posted that same CNN article in the original Tamir Rice thread ~ but we won't know if ANY charges will be filed until after the "ongoing investigation" closes ~ so I'm stuck between being cautiously optimistic and thinking "oh shit" ~

Sooz

"Oh shit" is likely if history is anything to go by.

Can you move these to the proper thread? No point in duplications.

It really fits snugly into both locations, which are kinda/sorta 2 different discussions, oskar ~ I'm okay with leaving it both here and there, but thanks for the offer ~

Sooz