Daniel Hodges: "They Called Me a Traitor"

Officer Daniel Hodges of the Washington Metropolitan Police Department, who was severely beaten and nearly crushed to death by J6 rioters four years ago, gives his reaction to Tyrant Trump's pardoning his assailants:

 

Here's the footage of Hodges being attacked and crushed in a doorway, very hard to watch:

 

Officer Hodges, by the way, is back on the job guarding the Capitol and fulfilling his sworn duty to the American public, even after all he's been through. What a man.

Listen to these Republican snakes and slugs brushing off questions about the pardons. And Susan Collins is, of course, concerned. 

   

Rep. Eric Swallwell (D-Calif.) says, "Trump does not back the blue, he backs the coup." (Turn up the volume.)

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Michael Fanone: "I Have Been Betrayed by My Country"

In the wake of Trump's pardon of more than 1500 J6 rioters, Anderson Cooper spoke tonight with Michael Fanone, the D.C. police officer who was savagely beaten and nearly killed during the attack on the Capitol.

"This is what we have become as a nation," Fanone said.  "We are self-centered, we are violent, and we are indifferent to the suffering of our neighbors."

I'm sorry I have lived this long, to see the filthy degradation of my country.  And the long, dark night has only just begun.

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Today's Toon

While Trump is ramping up his deportation force . . .

By Andy Marlette, Pensacola News-Journal, pnj.com

. . . this is happening in Canada:

This Has Got to Stop, NOW

I am steaming mad and deeply, deeply ashamed of Texas and its police.  To the point of nausea, in fact.

I'm not running a daily news blog here, so I don't try to post about everything that happens in the world, and I rarely go on a blog rant anymore (realizing how useless my 2 cents' worth is in the scheme of things) - but among all the other awful things in the news today, this in particular made me lose it.

What the fuck is wrong with these big bruiser cops, throwing a little bitty woman around like a rag doll and slamming her to the ground and sitting on her?  On a simple, petty little traffic stop - which, by the way, is totally discretionary - in broad daylight, in front of hundreds of passing motorists?  Just What.The.Fuck. is wrong with them???

If it had been a white woman, you can damn sure believe the officer's badge would be gone, his career would be toast, and no second chances. And his ass would be sitting in jail for a good long while.

Unlike what happened to the McKinney police officer last year, who showed what a really BIG MAN he was by manhandling and kneeling on a skinny 14-year-old black girl in a bikini - and has now been cleared of all charges by the local grand jury:



What a travesty of justice.  The police are NOT the law.  The police are NOT above the law.  The police are NOT our masters.  They are the servants of the law and of the public, and somebody better get that across to them, pronto. 

I understand that there are times when the police are obliged to use force to preserve the peace, or defend life and property. Of course. But the sword of justice must be wielded wisely, kindly, and judiciously - and there are many, many more times when the police are under an overriding obligation NOT to use force. Something has gone far wrong here, and just what are all our elected leaders doing about it? Where is the corrective action?

This cannot go on.  Nor any of the other godawful things spilling across your TV screen every day, not if civilization is to continue.

And of course Herr Trump is milking it for all it is worth - "Vote for me, I Will Keep You Safe."  Yes, in a police state run for his and his lackeys' goddamn profit, 24/7.  Just like Hitler promised and every other shitheaded dictator you can name.  This is how and where it starts - and don't think it can't happen here.  It can.

Maybe it already has, and we just haven't realized it yet.

I have no answers.  I just say, it all has to stop now, just STOP THE MADNESS before we are all engulfed by a monstrous, evil darkness that will devour feckless liberals and overweening conservatives alike.  And if that comes, don't think for a moment that your white skin or cool clothes or your pretty college diploma will give you any immunity.  The boot will be on everyone's neck.
 
Here's the Washington Post article, if you care to read it:

Austin Police Body-slam Black Teacher

Oh, and of course there's this too, in sunny, laid-back South Florida:



North Miami Police Shoot Black Man with Hands Raised

And no, even this does NOT in any way, shape, or form justify the stupid fuckheads who have been shooting police officers.  Two wrongs do not make a right.

But it all has to STOP.  NOW.  And that means EVERYBODY on all sides.

Race and religion have nothing to do with it. Simple human decency does.

That's all I can say, I'm too upset to carry on further here.

You Have the Right to Remain Silent . . .

Now a howl of anguish is going up among some conservative Congressmen over the so-called "intrusion" of a federal judge on the interrogation of Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.  Last week, early on, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-So. Car.) called for the Tsarnaev brothers, once apprehended, to be held as "enemy combatants" under the Patriot Act and tried by a military tribunal.

However, the Obama Administration decided - quite rightly, your Head Trucker believes - to prosecute Dzokhar, an American citizen, in the usual way through the civilian court system.  And it behooves us all to pay attention to this discussion about civil rights.  Listen to what Judge Napolitano, himself a conservative, has to say about the matter on Fox News:



Why should you care? Because next time it could easily be your ass on the line. As witness what happened to that Elvis impersonator over in Mississippi whom the feds swooped down on last week:

Now mailing poisoned letters to the President is an act of terrorism. Supposing instead of having access to an attorney, who quickly procured a dismissal of charges, Elvis had instead been scooped up from his house, hauled off to Guantanamo, and thrown into some dark hellhole there? Far away from all eyes, out of earshot, without attorney, family, friends, or anyone to help him. And you see how easily it very well could have been you, bud: someone you pissed off online who wanted revenge, or just a careless statement by a friend, relative, or neighbor, and bingo! You're busted. It does happen. All the time.

That's exactly why our English forebears invented such concepts as habeas corpus and trial by jury in open court, to name but two: to ensure that if the cops do make a mistake - and they make plenty, being only human beings, after all - that you won't have to suffer for their mistake.

In this particular bombing case, regardless of what Tsarnaev's mom says about it all being just a big hoax with paint instead of blood, I do think it very likely that the cops got the right man - and he happens to be an American citizen. But it's important to ensure, in fact demand, that he be accorded all the rights that the Constitution guarantees to each of us. Just the same as you would want to be treated. Because that's how the system works. If we let the cops start picking and choosing on their own who gets to be treated fairly and who doesn't - then we will very soon have a police state, where anyone can be arrested at any time and held incommunicado for years, if not for life, at the mere whim of a cop or official. And that's a place you really don't want to go.

Watch this eye-opening, but very entertaining presentation by a law school professor about your civil rights when questioned by police. Pay attention - this is good stuff to know.

Note: I apologize for the spacing errors between paragraphs, caused in some mysterious way whenever I add more than one video to a blog post. Nothing I've tried fixes it. Oh the wonders of technology!

It Gets Better: Austin Police Department

Austin is the state capital, home of the ginormous University of Texas, and a liberal oasis in a desert of hidebound conservatism. But this is amazing to see, a sign that times are changing even down here in Jesusland.




BTW - I would never have spotted any of the officers as family, would you?

What the Hell Goes on Here?

What kind of country has this become? What kind of country is it going to be? When, thanks to the Supreme Court, corporations can spend unlimited sums on campaigning and billionaires are already planning to spend a quarter of a billion dollars to defeat Obama next year and elect a far-right president? Check out what Rachel has dug up:



Meanwhile, bankers are already thinking about a million-dollar media campaign to smear the Occupy movement with "negative narratives" and thereby fend off any unfavorable legislation:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

What does it say about this country that millions of people would vote for pigs - and I use the term advisedly, just look at them - like Karl Rove or Newt Gingrich?  Huh?

But meanwhile the police, who are paid out of the public purse, sworn to protect and serve the public, gaily pepper-spray non-resisting, peaceful protesters on both coasts, defending their casual brutality as being "fairly standard police procedure" necessary to protect themselves and the protesters.  WTF?

84-year-old woman pepper-sprayed at Occupy Seattle, November 15th

Is this the kind of country you want? Ruled by rich, self-satisfied fascists with the jackboot heels of their thugs on the necks of the people?

If not, you better pray the Republicans don't win the next election.

Your Head Trucker agrees with Andrew Tobias, financial advisor and author of a gay classic, The Best Little Boy in the World, among other things, who said this last month:

So the Tea Party folks demonstrate to keep people from having health care, to lay off teachers and police and firefighters, bust unions, keep poor people from voting, and – most important – protect tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires. Pretty neat trick how the billionaires more or less organized and financed their movement and, by harnessing their justifiable fears and concerns, gulled them into doing it. . . . Now come the “Occupiers,” or whatever they will be called, who share many of the same fears and concerns – and a few of the same bogeymen – but seem by and large to be taking the other side of these issues.

Maybe we should put construction workers back to work rebuilding our schools and bridges. Maybe we should pass the American Jobs Act “right away” to help the middle class. Maybe it should be paid for by Warren Buffett and other wealthy folks who are paying taxes at a lower rate than their secretaries. Maybe Paul Krugman knows more about economics – and has the average guy’s interest more sincerely at heart – than Sarah Palin.

Well, it’s about time.

Crowds make me nervous. Simple answers to complex problems make me nervous. But enough is enough.

Update, 6 p.m., 11/21:  Two campus cops and the chief of police at UC Davis have been suspended pending an investigation. The president of the UC system yesterday declared himself appalled by the incident, ordering an immediate review of police procedures on all campuses.

Philip Kennicott writes in the Washington Post on the pepper-spray video:

It looks as though he’s spraying weeds in the garden or coating the oven with caustic cleanser. It’s not just the casual, dispassionate manner in which the University of California at Davis police officer pepper-sprays a line of passive students sitting on the ground. It’s the way the can becomes merely a tool, an implement that diminishes the humanity of the students and widens a terrifying gulf between the police and the people whom they are entrusted to protect.

The video, which shows the officer using the spray against Occupy protesters Friday, went viral over the weekend. On Sunday, the university placed two police officers on administrative leave while a task force investigates. The clip probably will be the defining imagery of the Occupy movement, rivaling in symbolic power, if not in actual violence, images from the Kent State shootings more than 40 years ago.

Although another controversial image, showing an elderly woman hit with pepper spray near an Occupy protest in Seattle, made this nonlethal form of crowd control an iconic part of the new protest movement, the UC-Davis video goes even further in crystallizing an important question: What does the social contract say about nonviolent protest, and what is the role of police in a democratic society?

A prof at UC Davis says what happened after the spraying incident caught on video was even worse:

Without any provocation whatsoever, other than the bodies of these students sitting where they were on the ground, with their arms linked, police pepper-sprayed students. Students remained on the ground, now writhing in pain, with their arms linked.

What happened next?

Police used batons to try to push the students apart. Those they could separate, they arrested, kneeling on their bodies and pushing their heads into the ground. Those they could not separate, they pepper-sprayed directly in the face, holding these students as they did so. When students covered their eyes with their clothing, police forced open their mouths and pepper-sprayed down their throats. Several of these students were hospitalized. Others are seriously injured. One of them, forty-five minutes after being pepper-sprayed down his throat, was still coughing up blood.

More pictures and videos from that and other protests here.

And in case you ever need it, the Air Force has tips on what to do if you get pepper-sprayed.

Also worth reading:

Why I Feel Bad for the Pepper-Spraying Policeman, Lt. John Pike

What George Orwell Can Teach Us About OWS and Police Brutality

Big Brother Just Friended You

FYI:  Your New Facebook Friend May Be a Federal Agent.  Or even the local police.

You have been warned.

Also:  Facebook, Twitter, and Google Are Out to Screw LGBT Privacy. If You Let Them.

Fort Worth Cops Get Off Easy

An official apology:  Fort Worth Police Chief Jeff Halstead admits that his officers "violated the trust of the GLBT community" during a bar raid at the Rainbow Lounge last June that was "perceived to be aggressive, rude, and unprofessional" and left one patron hospitalized with a serious head injury.  Although the officers admittedly created an atmostphere of "fear and confusion," yet "It was very clear from this inquiry that there was no malice or ill will on the part of any officers who entered the Rainbow Lounge," he said.

Video of Chief Halstead's remarks and a response from Fairness Fort Worth as well as bar manager Randy Norman here.

Fort Worth Police released the final report of their internal investigation yesterday:  three officers were given a one or three days' unpaid suspension for not following proper procedures.  Norman calls the light disciplinary actions "a joke, a slap on the hand."  Fairness Fort Worth is calling for an independent investigation of the incident, as are city council members Joel Burns and Kathleen Hicks.

The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, which fired two agents for misconduct during the raid, also released their report (pdf), which nevertheless concluded "no evidence agents used excessive force" although two patrons were injured and six arrested for "public intoxication."

Question:  Is there any other state besides Texas where people are routinely arrested for "intoxication" while in a licensed bar or nightclub?  Because cops barge in and "smell alcohol" on people's breath?  Read the FWPD report (pdf) - I'm not making this up.

How fucked up is this?  Let me know if that happens where you live, guys.

Texas Newsbites

When I write about Texas attitudes, it's from my perspective stuck out here in Bumfuck County, where if you squint and overlook the tatoo parlors, meth labs, and cell phones, it could easily seem nothing has changed since Eisenhower was president.  But in the big cities, I reckon things are loosening up when it comes to the gays . . . and about damn time.  I just don't get to see it happening - as I have to remind myself.

Several good news items today.  As I mentioned yesterday, City Controller Annise Parker may just be the next mayor of Houston, the nation's fourth-largest city; she'll face former City Attorney Gene Locke Parker in a runoff on December 12th:

More Texas gay news from Austin, Fort Worth, and Denton below the jump.

Top Cop Busted in Park

From Cleveland, Ohio, this unfortunate story of a career now perhaps ruined - by the closet:

Olmsted Township Police Chief Charles McNeeley was arrested Tuesday and charged with indecent exposure after he was found with another man in the Memphis area of the Cleveland Metroparks. McNeeley and his companion, Daniel Crown, were both arrested around 8:30am after Metroparks ranger Lisette Gonzalez found them masturbating. . . .

According to a police report, McNeeley and Crown were together in Crown's car when they were approached by the ranger and told to stop what they were doing. . . . McNeeley blamed the incident on the stress of his wife being diagnosed with cancer . . . .

Well, it was a dumb thing to be doing; but I can sympathize with Chief McNeeley, who will no doubt lose his job over something that really ought not to be taken any more seriously than a traffic citation. (Couldn't the ranger have just said, Okay, break it up guys, move along - ?) But of course, that's not how the citizenry will see it, I'm afraid.

So sad, what the closet does to people; that's where the ultimate blame for this lies, in my view.

Interestingly, a Google search turned up this review of a book titled Urban Policing in the 21st Century: A Supervisory Manual by none other than - Chief McNeeley:

Charles McNeeley, always known as a "cop's cop," has spent more than thirty years as an Ohio police officer, first in Cleveland and currently in Olmsted Township. He headed all game day and event security for the Cleveland Browns organization from 1999 to 2002. Throughout his career, he has emphasized both tactical and strategic saftey in law enforcement. As a "hands-on" executive, he carefully blends the intellectual and practical sides of police management and administration with the day-to-day world of policing. He is president of McNeeley and Son Inc., a security-consulting firm.

McNeeley, who graduated with honors from the Police Executive Leadership College, is considered one of the nation's foremost authorities on urban policing. For the past two decades, he has been a student of the assessment center process as it relates to law enforcement and has served as an assessor of police supervisors, including chiefs of police, in more than forty jurisdictions throughout the country. A veteran of the United States army, he holds current membership with American MENSA and the Cleveland Police Historical Society.

He's also the author of Community Policing: Building Inclusive Communities.

Well, after a fine career and excellent service, I hope Chief McNeeley will not be penalized too severely for this lapse in judgment; but I can just imagine what the Righteous Right in Ohio will have to say about it.