How far will troops/police go before developing the spine to refuse orders?

How to paint a target on Red Cross helicopters everywhere in the world

Use of medical helicopter to target protesters is under investigation, National Guard says
Alex Horton

On the battlefield, the roar of helicopter blades paired with a Red Cross is salvation for wounded troops and civilians.

But the thwomping blades of military helicopters, including one with Red Cross markings, were part of a low-flying show of force over Washington’s streets Monday night — an incident now under investigation.

Numerous videos on social media showed an unarmed Lakota medevac helicopter hovering over demonstrators. Its Red Cross markings, visible on the aircraft’s belly and side, was flown by the Washington D.C. Army National Guard. At least two helicopters roared overhead, sending people and debris flying.

The use of a helicopter with Red Cross markings was an abuse of global norms that could help erode its neutral symbolism, military justice experts said.

“This was a foolish move,” said ...

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vid of helicopter at source

#28

US armed forces medics are armed, unlike most other armed forces. That's why they don't get special consideration. I know, off topic, but...

Police opened fire on a gay bar because the owner was handing out water to protestors
The police shouted, "The game is over!" before they opened fire without warning.
By Alex Bollinger

Police opened fire on an LGBTQ bar in North Carolina after they received an anonymous tip that the bar was giving water bottles to protestors.

Tim Lemuel is the owner of the Ruby Deluxe in Raleigh. He said that on Saturday night, his business was vandalized with a white supremacist symbol and the bar’s glass doors and windows were broken.

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Related: This man brought a gun to a gay bar & shouted slurs

So on Sunday evening he decided to stay at his business, in part to deter vandals. He also set up a first aid station for people who needed medical attention, washing tear gas and pepper spray out of people’s eyes and handing out water bottles and granola bars.

He said that he and some staff were working there for about seven hours before six police officers arrived and told them to move just after midnight.

“This is my business,” Lemuel responded in video that has since been posted online. “I rent this space.”

The police officers again told him to move. “The game is over. Get out.”

Lemuel walked back toward his bar, and police said, “You’ve been told,” and opened fire.

MORE including vid

George Floyd’s smiling daughter, 6, says ‘daddy changed the world’
Dr. Bernice King understands exactly what this young lady is feeling because her daddy's death changed the world too
By Biba Adams

George Floyd’s daughter, Gianna, sitting atop the shoulders of her “uncle” retired NBA star, Stephen Jackson, said, “Daddy changed the world.”

The endearing moment was captured on video and shared widely across social media including the Twitter of Bernice A. King, the youngest daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

READ MORE: Jay-Z takes out full-page ads across the country in dedication to George Floyd

In response to King posting the video, a commenter said ...

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Trump’s press sec falls on her face when confronted with Trump’s Bible photo op

Oh yes, I did like the deranged, foaming-at-the-mouth Rudi video! LOL

Looks like Trump finally got his wall. Wonder if he'd going to try to get Mexico to pay for it?

White House adds fencing around perimeter
The Secret Service said the closed-off areas would remain blocked until Wednesday.
Lauren Egan



After another night of peaceful protests outside Lafayette Square, workers were seen putting up new fencing barriers around the White House complex Thursday morning, adding to the 8-foot fence that was erected around the entrance to Lafayette Square earlier this week.

Reporters arriving at the White House as early as 5:30 a.m. ET Thursday described seeing black fences being put up along the Eisenhower Executive Office Building entrance on 17th Street NW.

By the afternoon, the new fencing could be seen stretching from the back of the White House complex, closing off the entrance to the Ellipse and stretching all the way up 17th Street, blocking off the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

The additional fencing did not have the same slightly sharper edges at the top as the fence blocking off the entrance to Lafayette Square, where the majority of the protests have taken place.

It is unclear why the White House felt the need for additional fencing. Although protests over the weekend in response to George Floyd's death became violent at times, demonstrations have been peaceful since Monday, when police forcibly removed peaceful protesters from the Lafayette Square area using rubber bullets, smoke bombs and pepper balls so President Donald Trump could take a photo in front of St. John's Episcopal Church.

"The White House does not comment on ...

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The Home of the Brave Cpl. Bonespur.
I bet they're right now stocking the bunker with KFC and McD products.

Corporal Coward. He got a promotion.

Hopeful that Minneapolis policing will change? Meet the police union's chief ...
Bob Kroll, who described George Floyd as a ‘violent criminal’, has a history of resisting any reform of a department with a history of racial abuse
Chris McGreal

Amid the worst civil unrest in the US in half a century, there have been notably few Americans willing to speak up on behalf of the man who lit the fuse: Derek Chauvin, the now former police officer charged with the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

The video of Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes seems too clear-cut and painful to try to make excuses.

Step forward Bob Kroll, leader of the Minneapolis police union. Kroll wrote to his members this week describing Floyd as a “violent criminal” because he did prison time, in an apparent attempt to imply Chauvin’s treatment of an unarmed man being arrested on suspicion of a non-violent minor crime was legitimate. The union chief also described those protesting over Floyd’s death as terrorists, and the dismissal of Chauvin and three other officers facing charges as depriving them of their rights.

A former Minneapolis police chief, Janeé Harteau, who battled Kroll in attempting to reform a department with a long history of racial abuse, quickly hit back, saying he was unfit to be a police officer and calling on him to resign from the force.

“A disgrace to the badge! This is the battle that myself and others have been fighting against. Bob Kroll turn in your badge!” she wrote on Twitter.

That will not have bothered Kroll. By Harteau’s own admission, the union chief is in many ways more powerful than the police chief in Minneapolis – as is the case in many other cities across the US.

“The police federation has historically had more influence over police culture than any police chief ever could,” said Harteau. “I was fought at every turn from bringing body cameras to the police department to having implicit bias training to professional development processes and having some more consistency in promotions.”

That power of the union (or federation) has often stood in the way of reform, perpetuating ...

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IMO, any "good cops" defending bad cops aren't "good cops" at all.

Sophie says it as well as anyone

D.C. mayor unveils 'black lives matter' painted on streets of capital
A street was also renamed.
Abby Cruz



Just a few blocks away from the White House, in the heart of Washington D.C, big, bold, bright yellow letters reading “black lives matter” stretch along 16th Street NW between H and K streets.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser also renamed the street in front of the White House "Black Lives Matter PLZ," she said during a press conference on Friday. A new street sign bearing the name has already been put up at 16th and H streets.

The art is located two blocks from Lafayette Square, where on Monday Park Police and other law enforcement agencies used flash-bangs and what protesters described as tear gas to make way for the president's walk to St. John's Episcopal Church. The next day, the U.S. Park Police said it and other agencies had not used the gas, but ...

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vids at source

About those police forces ....

'Toxic Culture' of Police Departments Decried After 57 Buffalo Officers Resign in Support of Two in Unit Who Attacked Elderly Man
"So is 57 officers resigning at once just a few bad apples?"
Eoin Higgins

Fifty-seven officers in the Buffalo Police Department's Emergency Response Team resigned Friday from their positions on the unit in support of two of their colleagues who were suspended for shoving an elderly man onto the ground during a protest Thursday, putting him in the hospital.

"The cops who are resigning over this are proving they shouldn't have been on the force in the first place," tweeted CounterPunch editor Jeffrey St. Clair. "I hope many more of them resign. And soon."



The Buffalo Police Benevolent Association, the department's AFL-CIO-affiliated union, claimed in a statement announcing the mass resignation that the two officers caught on camera shoving 75-year-old Martin Gugino to the ground with no provocation were only following orders.

It's unclear what orders led to the unprovoked assault, after which Gugino lay motionless on the ground, blood pouring out of his ear.

"This is an example of officers doing exactly what they're supposed to," union president John Evans told the Investigative Post Friday.

Gugino, who is undergoing chemotherapy, is in serious but stable condition at a local hospital.

According to the Associated Press:


The officers will remain on the force, making their resignations in effect a refusal to perform "aspects of the job you don't want to do right now (in solidarity with incredible unprovoked violence) while keeping your full paycheck," said writer Nathan Bernhardt.



Rep. Justin Amash (I-Mich.), who introduced a bill to strip police of qualified immunity, which protects them from prosecution, tweeted that the resignations were "disgraceful."

"There's a toxic culture inside many police departments," said Amash.

The ongoing protests and demonstrations over police brutality sparked by last week's killing of unarmed black man George Floyd by four Minneapolis police officers are set to continue through the weekend, with massive crowds expected on Saturday and Sunday in cities and towns around the country.

SOURCE

Good cops who protect bad cops aren't "good cops".

Good cops who protect bad cops aren't "good cops".

You can say that again. And again.

The video of the incident in Buffalo is very interesting.

The 75-year-old man walks up to a group of officers and says something to them.
An officer pushes him back, causing the man to fall backward.
The group of officers begin moving forward.
One officer begins to bend down, as if he's going to check on the man or perhaps help him, but another officer seems to encourage him to keep moving.
A pool of blood forms at the man's head while officers just ignore him.

Seems to me this is a perfect example of typical police behavior where authority overrides decency. It's as if officers are told to control a situation by whatever means necessary. It's as if officers are trained as military personnel confronting an enemy and they are often equipped that way.

Police exist to enforce our laws, but the end doesn't justify the means.