[written by an ex cop]

IT’S true!  According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting statistics, between January 2010 and September 2010, 31 kops per 100,000 committed homicide and 73 committed sexual assault. In comparison to 100,000 of the general population (this includes blacks, whites, Mexicans, gang members etc) only 5 citizens committed homicide and 29 committed sexual assaults.
 
If you have a choice to mingle with a crowd of 100,000 kops or 100,000 citizens, it’s more dangerous to hang out with the police.
 
I’m still amazed at the number of Americans (mostly the older) who still trust persons wearing a uniform of authority.  The older demographic was brainwashed so well they do whatever their preachers, police officers, politicians or judges tell them to do.  It’s this “authority worshiping” and blind obedience that led America to its current police state that houses 25% of the world’s prisoners but contains only 5% of the world’s population. Our parents and grandparents were duped into giving away our freedoms for a pretended security.

from The Informant:  Cops, Courts & Communities in the Bay Area

December 15, 2010   9:29 AM   By Ali Winston

Documents recently obtained by The Informant reveal the significant involvement of state and federal law enforcement in monitoring the various Oscar Grant protests in Oakland over the past two years.

According to internal Oakland Police Department documents about the July 8^th protests that followed Johannes Mehserle’s involuntary manslaughter conviction, agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency, United States Secret Service, and the California Department of Justice were assigned to monitor crowd activities.

By Paul Boden Organizing Director, Western Regional Advocacy Project

What images do the words "quality of life" bring to mind? A peaceful beach? A beautiful park? A farmers market full of healthy produce? In the realm of policing, the phrase "quality of life" carries different connotations. It means a veteran getting hauled in for sleeping on the sidewalk, a homeless woman being prohibited from resting on a park bench, or even brutal scenes like these from San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Fresno.

This is from a July 6, 2005 PLAZOID. The Plazoid was a brilliant independent, self-published pamphlet/zine that circulated in Arcata in the mid 2000's.

SOON Nazi authorities and the police began to consign members of other groups to the new camps: homosexual men arrested as criminal offenders; Jehovah's Witnesses who refused to obey demands to cease their activities; women accused of prostitution; people labeled "asocial" because they were homeless, begged, or for some other reason did not fit into Nazi society.

Monday, June 14th WHILE a caring community member shared sandwiches with up to 100 hungry people in Redway- on the street- engaging in a responsible and constitutionally protected activity- the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Department drove around photographing the people who were eating lunch. This is INTIMIDATION. This is profiling. There is no good reason for it.

People are scared when the Sheriff’s Department behaves this way because the Sheriff targets anyone who lives outside with very few resources. The Sheriff’s Department hunts people down while they are sleeping -out of sight- and Sheriff Deputies attempt to DISAPPEAR people who are, for instance, sitting under a tree for shade.

Redwood Curtain CopWatch Note:  Albert Leday Sr. is the 21st person killed by cops (officially admitted) in Santa Rosa since 1999.

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20100603/ARTICLES/100609824

Albert Mike Leday, Jr. left, is pictured here holding his grandchild while
standing next to his son, Justin Leday, holding his son, another grandchild.
Albert Leday was shot and killed after fleeing from sheriff's deputies.

Son says his father 'made mistakes' but was a good man

Please post and distribute widely -

A message from the Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal -  

An Injury To One Is An Injury To All -

DROP ALL CHARGES AGAINST HOLLY WORKS!

This message was sent out on March 31,2010 from Project Censored at contact@mediafreedominternational.org

Family Members Needed for Study on Law Enforcement Related Deaths

The Investigative Sociology project at Sonoma State University (SSU) and Media Freedom Foundation are conducting a study on the commonalities of law enforcement related deaths in the United States.

We are seeking to  conduct telephone interviews with individuals in families of people who have died in a law enforcement related incident within the past twenty years.

Students from the spring 2010 SSU Investigative Sociology class will be conducting confidential one-hour interviews with family members in April. The purpose of the study is to evaluate support programs for families who have experienced such a tragedy, and the lowering of the overall number of law enforcement related deaths.   SSU professors supervising the study include: Peter Phillips, Sociology Department, Tryon Woods and Diana Grant in the Criminal Justice Department.  

“So I continue… seeking to make, or to create, revolutionary connections between the full identity of my love, of what hurts me, or fills me with nausea, and the way things are: what we are forced to learn… trained to ignore”
- June Jordan

Feeling for the Edge of your Imagination: finding ways not to call the police http://imaginealternatives.tumblr.com/

Dear friends, family, acquaintances and people with whom I share house party dance floors and supermarket lines,

A few weeks ago, an acquaintance of mine attended a police lineup, pointed at someone, and sent them to jail or prison. Last night, a friend’s roommate called the cops about something happening outside, and the effect of that action was a young man getting tasered.