Dissident Veteran For Peace

Labels: class, economics, media, police, police repression, politics, race, Tucker Carlson, video

"[O]ne of the Fifth Amendment's basic functions is to protect innocent men who otherwise might be ensnared by ambiguous circumstances. ... [T]ruthful responses of an innocent witness, as well as those of a wrongdoer, may provide the government with incriminating evidence from the speaker's own mouth."

Source: Ohio v. Reiner, 532 U.S. 17 (2001) (per curiam) as quoted in You Have the Right to Remain Innocent by James Duane (Little A, 2016) p. 63.

As Duane persuasively explains in his book, the 5th Amendment has steadily been hollowed-out with the support of Democrats and Republicans alike and he therefore advises readers: "Don't plead the fifth" but "Plead the sixth".



See also: "Innocent? Don't talk to the police" by James Duane in the Los Angeles Times (Aug. 26, 2015). 

Labels: civil liberties, law, police repression, quotations, United States

Felon (2008), starring Val Kilmer and Stephen Dorff, is certainly not a perfect movie but it is a generally good, if disturbing, film with an important message about America's out of control police-judicial-prison-industrial complex. The film was made in a New Mexico prison and was inspired by actual events. In 1996, the Los Angeles Times published "Tales of Brutality Behind Bars" concerning the brutality of prison guards at the California State Prison, Corcoran; this is the real-life background of Felon. Mark Arax's article and Felon illustrate that there is no shortage of criminal gang members wearing uniforms and badges. Without really trying, I found a more recent example of this in a St. Louis Post-Dispatch article, "Suit says guards made inmates fight 'gladiator-style' in St. Louis jail," from last year. Another point Felon makes is how vulnerable even the most seemingly unlikely people are to being ensnared in the system. Felon writer-director Ric Roman Waugh has followed up Felon with Snitch (2013), starring Dwayne Johnson and also inspired by true events, which deals with much the similar subject matter. At right is an infographic from the Snitch official web site.

Labels: art and literature, film & television, law, police repression, video

John F. Ross' novel Unintended Consequences (St. Louis, MO: Accurate Pr., 1996) is an 861-page monster. It is also a disturbing terrorist revenge fantasy that depicts its protagonists carrying out cold-blooded murders in gruesome detail with little or no remorse or hesitation. It's not a book or a vision I can say I admire or unreservedly recommend. And yet I learned some interesting things from it.

One of the opening vignettes in the novel is the 1932 Battle of Anacostia Flats, i.e. the US Army's assault during the Great Depression on an encampment of impoverished WW I veterans seeking early payment of the bonus promised them for their wartime service. The author returns to this repeatedly in his chronicling of US government assaults on American citizens.

The book left me with a better appreciation of how some conservative, gun-rights advocates view the episode and I also learned that Jim Crow was banned from the encampment though in 1932, Washington, DC was a Jim Crow stronghold. Ross erroneously attributes an article entitled "The Bonuseers [sic] Ban Jim Crow" to the New York Times. It turns out the article was by Roy Wilkins and was published in the NAACP's house magazine The Crisis in October, 1932.

Wilkins' article is quoted in The Bonus Army: An American Epic by Paul Dickson and Thomas B. Allen (Bloomsbury, 2006) on p. 118:

[At Camp Marks in Anacostia] I found black toes and white toes sticking out side by side from a ramshackle town of pup tents, packing crates and tar-paper shacks. Black men and white men, veterans of the segregated army that had fought in World War I, lined up equally, perspired in sick bays, side by side. For years, the U.S. Army had argued that General Jim Crow was its proper commander, but the Bonus marchers gave lie to the notion that Black and white soldiers--ex-soldiers in their case--couldn't live together.

I had either never known or else forgotten about this aspect of the Bonus Army's occupation. I also learned about the inspiring story of the Battle of Athens from Ross' book. In 1946, WW II vets and other locals successfully took up arms against a corrupt, local Democratic Party regime in Athens, TN, the county seat of McMinn County.

Ross' righteous anger about the ambush at Ruby Ridge and the Waco Massacre is refreshing. I remember many of my Liberal and Lefty friends being non-plussed about these two atrocities at the time. Unintended Consequences reveals that infamous FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi was at the scene of both crimes. Other government atrocities featured in the book include the Ken Ballew raid and the MOVE massacre. No government officials were ever held criminally or civilly responsible for any of these crimes.

From Ross' book, I learned of an interesting 1982 report on "The Right to Keep and Bear Arms" from the US Senate's Subcommittee on the Constitution. Here are two paragraphs from the report's "History: Second amendment right to 'keep and bear arms' ":

That the National Guard is not the "Militia" referred to in the second amendment is even clearer today. Congress has organized the National Guard under its power to "raise and support armies" and not its power to "Provide for the organizing, arming and disciplining the Militia". This Congress chose to do in the interests of organizing reserve military units which were not limited in deployment by the strictures of our power over the constitutional militia, which can be called forth only "to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions." The modern National Guard was specifically intended to avoid status as the constitutional militia, a distinction recognized by 10 U.S.C. Sec. 311(a).

The conclusion is thus inescapable that the history, concept, and wording of the second amendment to the Constitution of the United States, as well as its interpretation by every major commentator and court in the first half century after its ratification, indicates that what is protected is an individual right of a private citizen to own and carry firearms in a peaceful manner.

You can read more selections from the report here.

Ross makes the point in the book that early gun control laws were enacted to keep guns out of the hands of free Blacks. A surprising fact mentioned in the book is that Vermont has always permitted the open and concealed carrying of handguns without requiring a permit.

I'll close with two thoughts. One of the ironies of the books is that several of its characters train law enforcement officers in firearms usage and marksmanship as a means to get around gun control laws. The book has conflicted views on law enforcement personnel. Another irony is that the book's author and characters have a blind spot a mile wide. While they can see domestic government repression quite clearly, there is no clear acknowledgment that US government violence against foreigners is unjust and dwarfs domestic repression. Likewise, there is no evident appreciation in Unintended Consequences for the dialectical relationship between the killing of foreigners and the killing of Americans.

Labels: art and literature, civil liberties, guns, police repression, terrorism, violence

"All I wanted was a Snicker's bar." According to one of the seven police officers who helped killed him, those were the last words of Otto Zehm. Zehm was a 36-year-old mentally disabled janitor who died after lingering in a coma for two days after he was beaten with a baton, tasered multiple times, and hogtied on March 20, 2006, by Spokane police for a crime that was not committed. As of this writing, only one cop was charged in the death and although he was convicted by a jury, his sentencing was recently postponed, and the verdict may get tossed out.

Labels: crime, police repression, video, violence

You must realize that when police are ordered to violate your rights, they are not your friends. That brings us to number three: Do not hope police officers will resign instead of carrying out orders they do not like. They will not. The State Police did not resign thirty years ago. Instead, they used tear gas, billy clubs, and German Shepherds on civil rights marchers. Federal police in Waco, Texas last year did not resign. Instead, they used machine guns and tanks on a group of people they suspected had not paid a $200 tax, and they burned all eighty-six of them alive.

Source: John F. Ross. Unintended Consequences. (St. Louis, MO: Accurate Pr., 1996) p. 566.

Labels: art and literature, civil liberties, guns, mass murder, police repression, quotations

Labels: Black America, police repression, political prisoners, race, United States

If you've been following the case of Dr. Catherine Wilkerson then you know what can happen when you criticize the police and paramedics for endangering someone's life. But what might happen if you get upset with a cop hassling you for credit card fraud when you're using your own valid credit card? Elizabeth Beeland of Ormond Beach, FL found out last month and you can, too, by watching the video below. After you've done that, take a look at "Use of Taser on disruptive store customer questioned" in the online edition of the Daytona Beach News-Journal.




See also:

• Don't Tase Me, Bro (YouTube video)
• UCLA Student Tasered by Police (YouTube video)

Labels: civil liberties, crime, police repression, video

This video speaks for itself.

Labels: civil liberties, police repression, video

Reposted from Zionists Out of the Peace Movement:

In a previous post, I mentioned the "trumped up charges against Catherine Wilkerson, MD." Her defense committee now has a petition online and I encourage everyone to sign it and spread the word to friends and allies, especially to folks who live in Washtenaw County, MI. To go to the petition, click here.

Labels: Catherine Wilkerson, civil liberties, police repression

Here's an update from the Committee to Defend Catherine Wilkerson via the group's announcement list. It's been slightly reformatted for readability.

First, apologies for getting this update out rather late. Preparing this report was delayed by the unexpected death of Dr. Wilkerson's father last Friday. You can read the obituary for James Arthur Creamer at <http://www.legacy.com/Link.asp?I=LS000091606300X>.

A hearing was held on July 24th on Dr. Wilkerson's motions to dismiss and for an evidentially hearing. Judge Pollard-Hines ruled against Dr. Wilkerson on both motions and trial was set for October 4, 2007. Although we had hoped for a different outcome, this result was not unexpected and Dr. Wilkerson, her attorneys, and Committee members remain undaunted in their efforts to secure justice and support freedom of expression. In her ruling, the judge left open the possibility that dismissal might be appropriate after evidence is presented at trial and Dr. Wilkerson's attorneys are preparing a defense, including expert testimony, aimed at that very outcome. Defense attorneys will also present evidence about the retaliatory nature of the charges against Dr. Wilkerson; this was bolstered by discrepancies in the remarks of the prosecutor at the recent hearing.

*On the Radio*

Dr. Wilkerson was interviewed by Robert Larson on LUCI radio in late June and that interview is now available online at <http://www.kuci.org/podcasts/?ShowID=668%20>. Also, defense attorney Buck Davis has been asked to speak about Dr Wilkerson's case on an upcoming edition of "Law and Disorder" which airs at 10 AM EDT on Pacifica radio station WBAI 99.5 FM on Mondays. We'll let you know when the recorded interview is available online.

*Keep those Calls and Letters Coming*

Just under two weeks ago we asked you to please call and write to Washtenaw County Prosecutor Brian L. Mackie to ask him to drop the charges against Dr. Wilkerson. Thanks to everyone who has done that and if you haven't gotten around to it yet then it's not too late to do it now. The case number is DR5-07-137 SM. Mr. Mackie's office phone number is 734-222-6620. For your convenience, we have prepared a sample letter below that people can use or alter as they wish.

Your Address
City, State, Zip

Today's Date

Brian L. Mackie,
Washtenaw County Prosecutor
P.O. Box 8645
Ann Arbor, MI 48107

Subj: Case DR5-07-137

Dear Mr. Mackie:

I am writing to urge you to drop your office's charges against Catherine Wilkerson, MD. The police record shows that Dr. Wilkerson did nothing except issue verbal medical directions and necessary criticisms to police and emergency medical personnel regarding the treatment of an arrestee who had become a patient in her care, as acknowledged by University of Michigan police officer West.

During Mr. Blaine Coleman's arrest, there were two instances when Dr. Wilkerson determined that the actions of police or emergency medical personnel placed Coleman in a life-threatening situation. As a physician and a conscientious human being, Dr. Wilkerson had an obligation to protest and advise. No good purpose can be served by prosecuting a medical doctor for doing her duty and nonviolently exercising her First Amendment rights. Please drop the charges.

Sincerely,
Your signature
Your Name

It is NO CRIME to protest against warmongers. It is NO CRIME to complain about police brutality. It is NO CRIME to complain about dangerous medical malpractice. Dr. Catherine Wilkerson will fight back. Will you stand with her?

Committee to Defend Catherine Wilkerson
defendwilkerson.org

Labels: Catherine Wilkerson, civil liberties, police repression

First National Copwatch Conference
July 13-15 2007
Berkeley, California
http://www.copwatchconference.org
(will be up and running soon)

Berkeley Copwatch is working with other groups and individuals to host the first ever National Copwatch Conference dedicated to empowering groups and individuals to be more effective in their efforts to hold police accountable. There will be workshops that focus on sharing practical skills as well as opportunities to discuss theory and strategies for building a broader movement.

Our intent is to strengthen the national network of Copwatches, not create a national or centralized organization. Our greatest strengths are in our local and direct approaches to this many-faceted problem. We want to figure out how to share our experiences, build relationships, and act in support and solidarity with each other.

We invite your group to attend the conference. We also want to include your input in the planning.

The conference will consist of:
Workshops
Panels
Copwatch Shifts
Movie Night
Networking

SURVEY
Deadline: April 26th
To help make the Conference more valuable for you, please go to the link below and fill out the survey.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=594083535357

Labels: civil liberties, police repression