Gangsters in Blue

In 1993, I watched the Waco, “Standoff” live on the NBC Nightly News as a young man while eating meatloaf in front of the TV with my family. What exactly is a, “Standoff?” In my early years, I understood a standoff  as an incident which one party was wrong and the State comes in to correct or murder them.  I had a hard time comprehending why the military blazed in with tanks and burned a bunch of kids alive but understood that if the government takes such action, it must be justified. I also vaguely remember, “Ruby Ridge.”

My old man is a Navy Veteran. He served 4 years during the War In Vietnam.  He worked on the ship’s engines to insure plenty of Vietnamese were killed by artillery from the Destroyer he occupied.  He was just under ten when the last known US Civil War Veteran passed. He grew up in a time when government mandated reefer madness prevailed and The US Public Health Service was busy secretly infecting impoverished Black Americans with syphilis. We kept a flag flying on the front porch to show our unwavering support for our government, almost without question.

I’ve attempted to expose my father to the idea that just because this government is ours doesn’t mean it has our best interests in mind, to little avail. I believe he’s too conditioned to understand the idea of True Liberty.

I guess this is why I wasn’t overly surprised when he told me about a standoff a few blocks from his and my mother’s home in Janesville WI. He had told me that the previous evening they were walking the dog when the neighborhood erupted with screeching tires, sirens, and heavily armed men. He of course wasn’t able to walk up the street he’s lived near for almost 40 years because some twenty-something cop said he couldn’t.

We try not to talk about political issues due to our differences but I couldn’t help but notice that after 4 days with nothing in the paper he seemed concerned with what may have happened.  I suggested he call the PD but after a week he hadn’t so I stepped in.

I contacted JPD about the incident in Oct. 2011 on Forest Park Blvd. Robin picked up the phone and I posed my question. She didn’t object to glancing at the log and dismissed it as a potential gun call where no gun was found.  I persisted with questions and she stated that a twelve year old had been taking out the garbage around dusk and saw a person in a car with a gun. He ran back into his home and told his mom who called it in.

In WI concealed carry is legal. Open carry is also legal and it isn’t uncommon to see people on the side of  the State Highways standing around with their shotguns or rifles heading into the fields to hunt wild game.  People occasionally walk the grocery store isles with a sidearm on their hip and there usually aren’t problems.

I continued to question Robin at the PD despite her increasing reluctance to answer my questions.  What’s the big secret? She reiterated that no gun was found and nobody was arrested so it wasn’t a big deal. I asked if the gun, “Suspect” was pulled out at gunpoint or searched. She stated she didn’t know. I asked if the dispatch actually vetted this child personally, again, no apparent answer. She stated I wouldn’t be able to obtain the police reports because none exist. Just a brief dispatch log.

It turned out that the gun was actually a cell phone.  And the two alleged “gunmen” were 17 year old-ish boyfriend and girlfriend stopping by the house quick.  My Dad said the cops were yelling but he couldn’t hear exactly what was being said. I’m guessing this is an experience these young people will never forget. It may seem like a funny story in hindsight but on the other hand, I’ve never had multiple guns pointed at my torso.  I have been inadvertently swept by a live firearms and it really pisses me off.

Waukesha Standoff Society

On a regular basis the Waukesha Police play soldier in our neighborhoods. They call in the county tank and halt our outdoor activities by the sounds of cops yelling on a PA system.  I’ve done several videos of these standoff when I happen upon them. I don’t use a scanner but every month and a half or so I can usually find one by just cruising.

They bring the shields and AR’s but overwhelmingly just hang out and soak up the overtime. I don’t often see anything in the news other than the fact that one of these occurred.  It seems that if the police call these incidents, “Medicals” they can get away without scrutiny or further information.  I’ve taken video of three in the last year or so.

I don’t need to ask what precipitates a standoff. Pretty much anything in this area. Perhaps a neighbor hears an argument and you choose not to answer the door for the cops? Maybe you’ve had a few drinks and throw on your favorite Metallica CD. As we all know the police have no legal duty to, “Protect us.”  What if an, “Emotionally disturbed person who is potentially armed” is greeted by the mom or brother instead of a heavily fortified militarized sect of the police. Perhaps a well known,  friendly, willing,  neighbor would produce better results than flash bang grenades and sub-machine guns.

As is common,  in the video above, no gun, according to local YouTube friends, and no real threat by the female suspect. I’d love to tell you the whole story but it seems to be a secret.

It appears standoffs will be entrenched in Waukesha culture for the time being.

John Freeman – Milwaukee area Copblock

Wisconsin Standoff Society is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

New Kelly Thomas Murder Video

According to the article on The Huffington Post:

 The 33-minute video starts with Thomas being approached by Fullerton Police Department Officer Manuel Ramos, who engages him in conversation. By minute 15, Ramos has already donned latex gloves… “You see my fists?” Ramos asks Thomas. “They’re getting ready to fuck you up.”

It appears to me that this thug could have easily handcuffed Thomas while he was sitting on the curb. He chose to brutally murder him instead.

John Freeman, Copblock Contributer

This Is How You Beat A Man To Death is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

Guest Post by Katie McCall

I must apologize… this story is a little old. But the victims are still suffering and it needs to be told.

Meet the Hendersons: Father, Jeffrey, is a big, intimidating individual but tenderly in love with his children. Mother, Erica, is a very nurturing mother. Together they have six children and lived together without incident in their Pasadena, California home.

Are they typical parents? No. They keep a kosher diet, they homeschool
and breastfeed and homebirth. They follow orthodox Jewish law. But is being “different” a reason to have your rights trampled?

In May 2010, the police were called by a disgruntled neighbor who reported having “heard” Jeffrey slap their oldest child. The police responded by demanding entry. Jeffrey and Erica
refused their requests and instead had the children come to the front window next to their door to show that they had not been harmed. Here you can see Jeffrey and Erica refusing entrance prior to deciding to parade their children’s well being in the window:

The Henderson’s refuse entrance to the police in Pasadena

Apparently, visually seeing the children was not enough for the Pasadena police. Without a warrant they barged into their residence as the family sang Jewish songs of worship. They beat Jeffrey to the point he needed to be hospitalized, removed the children and gave them to DCFS and locked both Jeffrey and Erica in a cage.

Surprise, surprise! The courts eventually found that the accusation that prompted the violence was unfounded and dropped all charges including an obstruction charge for not opening the door to their home.

But the damage control was already insurmountable. Erica spent two months in county jail where she suffered the pains of breast infection and was denied treatment. She was restricted from breastfeeding her two youngest children who had been placed in foster care as a seven month old, and two year old. She was not given access to a breast pump. Jeffrey was held for three months. Both Jeffrey and Erica lost their home and Jeffrey lost his job for being a no show while in jail. When they got out they found themselves penniless and homeless. They shared their story shortly after their release in this interview.

As if that isn’t ugly enough, here’s where it gets really ugly. Because DCFS decided that even though the Henderson’s were not prosecuted and were NOT convicted of any wrong doing by the court, they were somehow entitled to keep their children anyway. According to DCFS, the Henderson’s were abusive because they refused to open the door for police and therefor put their children at risk of being injured by the battering ram the police department used to gain (unlawful) entry to their home. Consider the absurdity that is the state – police are not punished for their violent, unjustified actions; instead, their victims are.

DCFS required them to show up for several visits per week when ordered which were, of course, scheduled in the middle of the work day. These visits needed to be complied with or DCFS would note their disinterest and lack of involvement in resuming custody of their children. And then there were all of the department mandated classes they were ordered to attend. All of this kept them from employment and finding a home. And then the most logical step of all… DCFS also required them to provide “proper” shelter for their
six children, which in their eyes was a lot more lush than they had originally provided their children. Yet still they are attempting to meet every requirement. Even going above and beyond the department’s requests… bending over backwards and jumping through fiery hoops while the department sits and watched, entertained.

So, here we are. It’s now almost one year later. Where are the Hendersons? Well, the children still live in foster care and adoption is being fought for by the couple who have been caring for the youngest child. Most of their children are being held separately, not being fed the kosher diet their family raised them with, not attending the religious observances that are so close to their heart. Basically, the Hendersons are still desperately trying to reunite, despite a million miles of bureaucratic red tape.

Jeffrey has filed a habeas corpus and has made it public for anyone to see and use in their own defenses. He is resisting the assertion that the United States government has rights over his family. Interestingly, the Henderson’s youngest – a seven month old boy — had not yet had his birth registered when he was kidnapped by federal agents. He has no birth certificate and no social security
card. How can the United States government have any kind of say so in his welfare? How do they even know whose baby they took?

Those who believe badges grant extra rights apparently don’t just work in the police force.

In California, the Police are in the Business of Kidnapping Children is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

Guest post by Damon

This is a video of the most reasonable man I know being booked in for “disorderly conduct”. This man has applied for a press pass which was later revoked by the corporate media representatives  in charge of distributing all press passes. He has attempted to use footage from Wisconsin Eye, a government-funded media service. They made him take down the footage because it is the property of said 501c(3) corporation.

He has filmed legislators committing voter fraud through the windows of the gallery. They took that as a sign that they needed to post black plastic over the windows. These are the lengths he has gone to in order to report on the blatant corruption of our State Government during the last session.  In direct contradiction of  State Statute 19.90, which states that we have the right to film our public officials, our legislature has deemed filming a violation of their own rules of conduct and are prosecuting, “Offenders” under disorderly conduct statutes. This day he wasn’t filming.

Being known for excising one’s rights is now enough to warrant detainment in Wisconsin.

This is not my video and I cannot claim credit for it.  I got it off my buddy’s youtube channel(arthurkr222).

Illegal Possession Of A Camera, Disorderly Conduct In The WI Assembly is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

By Guest Writer Jacob Crawfird

Miami’s Homeland Security is keeping tabs on Carlos Miller, why? Not because he is any terrorist threat or some subversive radical. Rather because he runs the website, “Photography Is Not A Crime!” which documents police attacks on copwatchers, journalists, and ordinary citizens who catch heat for filming police interactions. He’s been supportive of my police accountability work with copwatch and I’ve appreciated his coverage of police issues over the last few years.

—Jacob Crawford
ladderfilms@gmail.com

Carlos Miller Under Surveillance for His Website, “Photography is Not a Crime” is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

By DAVY VARA

It’s the Rochester Police department’s latest desperate attempt to gain the trust and respect of Rochester’s African-American and Latino community.

In referring to the billboards, which feature titles such as “We’ve Got Your Back”, and “On The Same Team”, as well as actual R.P.D. officers, Chief Sheppard said, “We’re trying to get the message out to the Rochester community that the R.P.D., one, has their back. We want them to have faith in us. The other message we’re trying to send is to youth. To let them know we’re on the same team. We don’t want them looking at us as the enemy.”

The billboard campaign is expected to last about two months, and Chief Sheppard says he hopes to get feedback from the community.

Well Chief, here is my feedback. It’s going to take alot more than a few cheesy, corny billboards to gain not only the trust, but also the respect of African-Americans and Latinos in Rochester. You can put up billboards at every intersection if you’d like Chief, you can even try to bring back “Officer Friendly”,who many elementary shool children looked up to in the 1980′s when he would visit city schools and talk about safety, but that’s not going to cut it. You can talk the talk the talk, but are you willing to walk the walk Chief?

Until you, the head of the R.P.D., truly take REAL accountability for your rogue officers who are out here abusing their power, and violating the oath they took to “serve and protect”, by abusing innocent minorities ever single day, nothing will change. No matter how many billboards you put up.

Your department has a long history of misconduct and corruption, and billboards are not going to magically erase that. Instead of putting billboards up, if you are truly interested in gaining the community’s respect and trust, then take REAL action Chief. Address the many “problem officers” in your department. Stand up and go on record denouncing abuse by any member of your force. And CLEAN HOUSE!

With these billboards, you are actually doing a disservice to what you claim is your goal, and interest: Gaining the respect and trust of the community. Think about it, what do you think that an innocent youth is going to think, when minutes after they are harassed and/or abused by one of your officers, he or she sees one of your billboards which read: “We’ve Got Your Back” ?

What do you think an innocent family whose home has just been broken into, without a warrant, by your rogue overzealous officers, and then are left with their meager belongings in shambles, detroyed by your boys, what do you think they are going to think when they see a billboard which reads: “On The Same Team” ? Nice try Chief.

Perhaps, I’ll start my own campaign: Let’s see… how should the billboards look? I got it! The billboards would feature photos of unarmed innocent African-Americans shot and killed by Rochester Police officers. Faces like Calvin Greene, Vandy Davis, Craig Heard, and Lawrence Rogers.

Although these killings by Rochester Police officers did not occur under Chief Sheppard’s watch, we will never forget these innocent victims, whose lives were cut short by overzealous, trigger happy, white R.P.D. cops.

Under their faces, the billboard title would read: “What Do They All Have In Common ? … All African-American. All Unarmed. All Killed By The Rochester Police Department!”

When I think of 14 year old Craig Heard, an unarmed African-American teen, scared for his life, cornered in a dead end street, and shot twice in the head and killed by Rochester Police officers Serge Savitcheff and Hector Padgham, I wonder what Craig Heard would say about an R.P.D. billboard that read: “We’ve Got Your Back”?

Respect is earned. To get respect, you have to give respect. And it doesn’t start with billboards Chief. It starts on the streets. It starts with your officers.

Officers like Kevin Mack, who chose to create then escalate a completely unnecessary situation on Dayton Street on a cold January day in 2009. Kevin Mack had a choice. When Mack came in contact with 14 year old Tyquan Rivera, a troubled young man, he could have made it a positive experience. He could have treated that young man with respect. He should have realized that as a police officer, and as an adult, he could have made a positive impression in the life of this young man, but he chose not to.

Instead, Kevin Mack chose to abuse his power, by humiliating and putting his hands on a child, and as a result, Kevin Mack created and escalated a completely unnecessary situation and a chain of events which ultimately led to this troubled young man running in his house and shooting Anthony DiPonzio, an innocent officer.

Chief Sheppard, you just don’t get it do you?

Davy Vara

Rochester, NY Police Tries To Buy Community’s Respect and Trust with Billboards is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

This post was sent to us via CopBlock.org’s Submit Tab.

There are so many people who have said that Marion County, West Virginia’s Justice system is one of the worst places to find yourself in trouble. I agree, based off my own past and current experiences. They seem to do what they want here and ignore where they are wrong.

I was arrested, in January of 2011, on a Malicious Assault charge in which there was no thorough investigation on both parties; there was only consideration on the alleged victims behalf. The alleged victim had no witnesses to the said crime and I, as the defendant, did. How was I accused of Malicious Assault when I was the one who took the alleged victim to the hospital and I signed their hospital release form? What is the definition of MALICIOUS? I was released on bond one month afterwards. I was later arrested again, around 49 days afterwards, for Violation of the Restraining Order. I saw the alleged victim in one store as I entered my appointment in another location. I did not approach or speak, and kept a maximum distance between me and the the alleged victim. The alleged victim wrote in their statement that I had no reason to go into the place I went, when actually I had proof that I did have a reason; in writing and on another document. I was again released on bond. Two months later we went to court for my Bond Revocation which was continued and the “IDEA/SUGGESTION” from an “OUTSIDE SOURCE” to place me on Home Confinement, to “SHUT the ALLEGED VICTIM UP”, was granted in court that day although it was ABSOLUTELY NOT ORIGINALLY part of either one of my bond conditions.

In June of 2011, we went to Family Court and none of us were sworn in! The alleged victim stated that they lived with me in their original Order of Protection court document, yet lied in Family Court stating that they did not live with me prior to and during the alleged criminal accusations filed against me in January of 2011. I was accused of making more than three times more than I did at my job, which I indicated was WRONG. I had documented proof from my legitimate job. Changes were made in Family Court after our hearing and during my absence concerning the Final Court Order. It seems the Judge made a seemingly audible biased cheer toward my absence. I purchased the Family Court DVD Transcript and all I have mentioned concerning that case is on that DVD.

To brings things up to date, the alleged victim has been trying to contact me. They told the Prosecuting Attorney what they were doing, then went as far as filing a Court Petition to dismiss the charges. The Prosecutor was furious more so at me and said I was already indicted and that the State had taken over the case. The Petition to dismiss charges against me by the alleged victim was, of course, denied. What also seems wrong to me, is that the Prosecutor told me that we both violated the restraining order even if she approached me. I also think that it is unfair that if the alleged victim admitted breaking the restraining order, directly to the Prosecuting Attorney, then why didn’t the alleged victim get arrested?

There is more to this case. As with many other cases here, if there was an investigation by the RIGHT authorities or people, they would find so much police misconduct, unjustified cases, violations of ethics, violations of human rights, abuse of power, improperly investigated cases and a lot of  unprofessional conduct within the Justice System in Marion County, West Virginia.

I have filed an appeal in my Family Court case in June of 2011, and haven’t heard anything. I am also still waiting to go to court for my Malicious Assault case. I have a court appointed lawyer whom I had doubts about until recently. I think mine and other’s cases, who obviously seem to get no justice here, need to be urgently looked into and these unfair authorities need to be exposed. I have been trying to get direct and useful help (here and elsewhere online), but haven’t been able find any. Please help us here in WV! Thank you and thank you for this site.

Obvious Unfair Justice System in Marion County, WV is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

Imagine a man threatened to burn your house down with your kids and disabled, elderly mother inside. You call 911, and attempt to continue to the store you were heading for. Less than 2 minutes after the threat, you are being viciously assaulted, kicked, punched, thrown to the ground, hair ripped from the scalp, by the man’s girlfriend, and her friend. Then, just when you finally think all will be well, the cops are there dealing with it, the officer comes over to talk to you, he opens his mouth, and says, “Ok, I’ve talked to my Corporal, and this is what she said we’re doing. You’re being charged with Battery. You’ll receive a notice in the mail to appear for arraignment.” Um, EXCUSE ME?!

Fact is, it happened. It happened to a disabled woman and her husband, Jason, and Geneva Robinson, on a ‘good’ day for her, one where she was walking, and not forced by pain into her wheelchair. The girlfriend mentioned above, Tina Jones, was quite aware of her disability, as she happened to be the assistant manager of the Dollar General store the couple was walking, to purchase food for their 5 young children. So how is it that a disabled woman can be brutalized in such a manner and the police choose to overlook the obvious facts? Quite frankly the answer is found in the officer’s statement, “…talked to my corporal…”.

Back in January, during a different incident, the woman was sexually assaulted (assault: any unwanted, unsolicited touch or strike) by an officer, Officer Procter, under the command of Corporal Melanie Law. When Mrs. Robinson requested of Corporal Law to file a report, and wanted to press charges on the Officer Procter for his actions, Corporal Law outright refused, and ignored Mrs. Robinson’s requests, finally telling her to just ‘file a complaint’ at the department, Panama City Police Department (Panama City, Florida), which she did. There was some harassment from the PCPD after the complaint was made, from bogus traffic stops to code enforcement (commonly called lawn nazi’s). The assault was the first time, however, that Corporal Law had run across Mrs. Robinson herself.

On the scene of the assault, while sitting holding her ribs, mouth bleeding, and clumps of hair in her hand, Mrs. Robinson, after being informed she was to be charged with Battery, repeatedly requested to file a report, as well as victim statements. Under the direction of Corporal Law, per his own statements, the officer refused, and ignored the requests, sending the Robinson’s to walk home.

SEE PICS OF THE EXTENSIVE BRUISING FROM THE ASSAULT

Currently, Mrs. Robinson has been speaking with Corporal Law’s Lieutenant, Lt. Clayton, and Officer McMillan, the ‘investigative officer’ on the case. At first, they tried to pander around and avoid answering questions. After speaking twice with the local prosecutor’s office, and being told to , “go to PCPD, and get in their faces until they let you file the victim statement”, 5 days after the attack, the Robinsons were finally allowed to file their statements. What hasn’t been answered satisfactorily, is why they were refused on the scene, and had to go to such extremes just to be allowed their basic right. At present, PCPD has still not allowed a report to be filed on the initial verbal threats, which were made by Mr. Jimmy F Bailey, the son, and worker, of his parents’ gas station, Bailey’s Gas Station, from which he was yelling the threats. In fact, during the most recent, and voice recorded, phone conversation with Officer McMillan, Mrs. Robinson was asked, “why haven’t you filed a report on the threats of his burning down your house?”. Point in fact, she made the initial 911 call due to those threats, the assault was a secondary issue that occurred after the 911 call was placed.

NOW AVAILABLE!!

Police Report with the Obvious Inconsistencies

911 Call Log Showing ROBINSON Number as the \’Initiating Call\’

MEDICAL DX FROM THE ASSAULT

Prior Report For BATTERY On Initial Attacker, Katherine Ashton

There remain many questions, and few good answers. It seems as though the longer it goes, the harder the questions PCPD has to answer to the Robinsons. This isn’t just a 3rd hand knowledge issue, either. I, the author, personally witnessed it. More than just witnessing, I am Geneva (Eva) Robinson. My hair was ripped out, I was repeatedly kicked, hit, scratched, and thrown to the ground by 2 women, Tina Jones, and Katherine Ashton. My husband and I were verbally assaulted by Ms. Jones’ boyfriend, Jimmy Bailey. Please, I invite you, look at the ‘witness’ statements (2 alleged witnesses were employees of Ms. Jones, the third was her own boyfriend, Mr. Bailey!), the ‘victim’ statements by Ms. Jones, and Ms. Ashton, and the intrepid Officer McMillan’s ‘Investigative Summary’. I will publish a list of various inconsistencies, though it’s hardly necessary, as even my own 10 yr old daughter can see them immediately. Form your opinion, and please, let me know what you think, and how you feel! I will post a separate post with a more detailed account of all that transpired, as well as an account of the initial incident involving Cpl. Law, and her sexual assaulting Officer Procter. I’m far from alone, this is epidemic everywhere. Let’s work together, and stop this from occurring!

To voice your opinion, and ask WHY this incident was handled in such a manner, please call PCPD at (850) 872-3112.

Molon Labe!

Disabled Woman Assaulted, and They’re Charging WHO With Battery?! is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

This post was sent to us via CopBlock.org’s Submit Tab.

In September of 2010, I was arrested. Several months later, I was tried, convicted, and sentenced.

My crime? Resisting arrest.

Here’s the story.

I had recently quit smoking, was irritable, and needed to do something. After drinking a full bottle of ginger-flavored brandy by 9:00pm on this Friday night, I decided to walk to the local bar to get a beer or two. I went in, legally purchased a 12 oz bottle of Samuel Adams, and walked through the room.

The bar was noisy, crowded, and filled with assholes. I felt uncomfortable, even with my buzz, and decided to walk out of the door.

A few seconds after I walked out, I heard noises behind me, which I ignored and walked away. A few seconds later, somebody yanked my beer out of my hand, which I was still apparently carrying in the public parking lot. OK, I thought – no harm done. They took my beer, which I didn’t even have a sip of, but no big deal. I realized I felt more tired than I had originally thought and I continued to walk home; until I met up with officer Jaime Branch of the Manchester Police Department.

“Hey, you!”, he yelled at me. I figured out pretty soon that he was talking to me and I asked him, “Am I being detained?” or “Am I free to go?”.  He said that I was being detained.  I asked him why and he refused to answer. He spoke with the person that had stolen my beer and another employee at the bar, asking them a few questions, investigating why I was being detained. We were both curious, apparently.

The officer asked to see my identification. I told the him that I knew my 4th Amendment rights and told him that I didn’t need to show him my identification as I was not driving a car. I also informed him that he did not have probable cause that I had committed a crime. I asked him for “articulable facts” that I was committing a crime, as well.

He said that he DID have probable cause that I had engaged in, “possessing an open alcohol container”; which is not actually illegal in the state of NH and the closest ordinance it comes to is “public drinking”, an ordinance violation that prohibits CONSUMING alcoholic beverages in a public place. I asked him again if I was being detained or if I was free to go, and he said I was being detained. I exercised my right to remain silent and he continued in his investigation. He talked to the employees (who I believed were cooperating out of fear that they would get in trouble), looked at the bottle (which was technically stolen evidence), and found that it was full. All of them agreeing that I had not consumed any.

He started asking me more questions, and I exercised my right to remain silent. He decided to write me out a ticket for “possessing an open alcohol container”, which I gladly accepted but he insisted that I showed him identification. I asserted my 4th Amendment rights and refused to show him my “papers”. He then asked for a name. I gave him one but it wasn’t good enough for him.

He then stated that if I didn’t show identification, I would be placed under arrest. I believed this to be a clear violation of the 4th Amendment and proceeded to have a half-hour long conversation about the 4th Amendment with the officer, including me giving him a full etymological history of the phrase “probable cause”. During this discussion I found out that the officer; 1) didn’t know what the 4th Amendment was and could not recite it, and 2) told me that the 4th Amendment, in his own words, “doesn’t apply to my job” – which was repeated multiple times, by multiple officers that night.

The officer asked me other questions such as, what my social security number was; to which I replied, “do I have the right to remain silent?”  He said, clearly and emphatically, that I did NOT have that right and that if I didn’t answer the questions, I would be placed under arrest. At this point, I started wondering if he was even a “real” cop.

He then continued his investigation, during which time I continued to ask if I was free to go. At one point, he said “yes, yes, yes”, and motioned for me to leave. I stared walking away and seconds later I was being man-handled by the guy with one hand in handcuffs.

I asked him why violence was necessary. He denied that he was using violence. I thought a demonstration was in order and I moved my free hand to the right side of my body. He told me to move it down behind my back, and I disobeyed his commands. He then yanked my hand down to tie it, at which point I asked a simple question:

“If I did to you what you just did to me, would I be charged with ASSAULTING a police officer?”, simply to show the officer that he was, in fact, using violence.

The question startled him for a second. He said, “yes, but….”, and stood there speechless before he continued his “assault”.  I was sent to Manchester police station where I had some laughably painful conversations, then proceeded to county jail.

When I got there, there was a man I knew only as “Wolfy” who was the most disgusting, depraved human being I’ve ever met in my life. He forced me to answer all kinds of questions, promising that I would be able to sleep in my “nice warm bed” if I did. He asked me what my sexual orientation was, what my religion was, what my political affiliations were, all under the understanding that non-cooperation would be punished with violence. He then forced me to strip naked and checked me for drugs, after which I put on an orange jump suit. He then escorted me to my cell. He and a couple other guys decided to play a joke on me and make it look like I was going to get beaten and raped by a particularly insane inmate. I know, that’s hilarious, isn’t it?

I didn’t sleep or eat for those three days. During “free time”, which lasts about an hour each day, I tried to make a phone call, but they made it difficult to the point of being psychological torture. You need to use your inmate number to make a call, and mine didn’t work ( I think that was deliberate, but I can’t prove anything), so I had to violate the rules and use somebody else’s. You can only call land lines (no cell phones) no more than once, and there is a message being played for the majority of the call, leaving you only 10 seconds out of about a minute and a half to actually say something.

I spent 3 days in jail with my cell mate, who was a heroine addict. He told me how easy it is to get his fix “inside” and how many people who “used to be straight” become heroine addicts after doing some time because it’s easily accessible and there’s nothing else to do. He also told me how most people who meet inside hook up later to hang out, do drugs, and get into other criminal activity.

At the bail hearing (after 3 days without food or sleep), Judge William H. Lyons felt that I was too dangerous to let go on my own reconnaissance, so I was forced to stay there until my “speedy” trial 3 months later. Luckily, I was bailed out.

I had apparently signed up for a public defender when I was scared shitless and had gone without food and sleep for 3 days. Her name was Donna Esposito. She didn’t return my phone calls, didn’t return my emails, and didn’t even bother reading the arrest report. Her incompetence was so great that I got the distinct impression that she was working with the state in an attempt to get a conviction. I called other lawyers, who basically said that I didn’t have a chance; not because of the evidence of the case, but because of the “conservative judges” who would find me guilty regardless of the facts of my case. I soon learned why they said that.

The charges were changed several times, the final change right before the trial. The original charge was “possessing an open alcohol container in a public place”, which was dropped because there wasn’t actually a law against that – the cop either made it up or got the law completely wrong (I found out that the cops around here use a “cheat sheet” that has a mistake on it).

The original charge of “resisting arrest” was changed as well. It was originally because I had lifted my hand up to the side during the arrest, making the officer push it down. In the arrest report it stated that I “struggled” with him as he attempted to handcuff me. That was changed to me walking away when I “wasn’t supposed to” (because I thought I was free to go). The reason for the change was obvious; it is circular reasoning to be arrested for resiting that very same arrest, so they had to arrest me for something else.

During the trial, both the cop and I testified. We gave our stories, which matched perfectly except for a couple of things. According to him, 1) I never asked if I was being detained and he never stated that I was, 2) I never even mentioned the 4th Amendment, 3) He never threatened to arrest me for not showing ID, and 4) He saw me “in violation” BEFORE he detained me, rather than the truth that he had detained me before he even started to investigate what was going on. All four of these statements were lies, made under oath. This means he committed perjury, which is a felony.

The reason why he lied is simple: if he DID threaten to arrest me for not showing ID, it COULD have been considered a violation of the 4th Amendment. If he detained me prior to his investigation, it COULD have been argued that it was an illegal detainment. If I mentioned the 4th Amendment and didn’t like his answer, It COULD have been argued that I did not “recognized him as a law enforcement official”.

Still, this shouldn’t have changed anything, as the only thing left I was charged with was the “resisting arrest” charge; and in order to prove that “beyond a reasonable doubt”, they have to show that I “recognized him as a law enforcement official” (which wasn’t actually true, as I recognized that he was breaking the law). They also had to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that I “willfully and knowingly interfered” with him, which I didn’t as I thought I was free to go at the time.

Since both of these things are describing activity IN MY OWN HEAD rather than what was going on objectively, it makes no sense whatsoever to take the cops word over my own.  While the cop may be a more reliable witness to what was going on around me, he can’t possibly be a better witness to what was going on in my head, can he?

The judge (William H. Lyons) decided that I was guilty. That’s right, the judge said that the cop was a “more credible witness” to what was going on in my own head. The judge said that this was not an illegal detention because, as he stated in his court order, “Where a police officer has reasonable suspicion that a person has been, is being, or is about to commit a crime, he is permitted by the forth amendment to seize or detain an individual”. He later defines crime as, “an offense punishable by a jail sentence”, even though the ordinance violation doesn’t qualify, especially given the fact that the ordinance violation didn’t exist. He was grasping at straws for reasons to convict me. He WANTED to convict me. He was committed to BREAKING the law, not enforcing it.

A couple months after I was sentenced, I received a note that explained that walking out of a bar with a beer is a misdemeanor. It would have been nice to actually be told what crime I was committing BEFORE I was arrested, or at least before the trial or, at the very least, before I was sentenced. Apparently that is too much to ask.

So, in short, I was illegally detained, threatened with an unconstitutional arrest, unlawfully arrested, and sentenced because the judge re-defined the word “crime” so that I would qualify as a criminal.

At that point, I realized a few things.

The first thing I realized is, despite the massive tome of words that is commonly called “the law”, there is really only one law – OBEY THE COMMANDS OF THE STATE. You do what you’re fucking told, or else violence will be used against you. You want a fair trial? Tough shit. You think the constitution protects you? You thought wrong. The constitution is a worthless scrap of paper with meaningless scribbles on it. The people who interpret the law can interpret it any way they like. They can even re-define the word “crime” in order to turn you into a criminal.

I also realized that Judge William H Lyons, Officer Jaime D Branch, and the Manchester Police Department didn’t care about the law they are supposed to enforce or the constitution they were sworn to protect. These people are criminals and should be viewed as such.

That day, something died in me – any hope or faith that I had in my country.

Fuck you, Officer Branch.
Fuck you, Judge Lyons.
Fuck you, Manchester Police Department.

Fuck you for destroying my faith in my country and in the constitution.

Fuck you.
Joshua Jacob Albert Freeman

Judge William H. Lyons re-defined the word “crime” to turn me into a criminal. is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights

Over 30 people were arrested when Occupy Oakland was raided on Monday morning. One of them was Cami G.,  a graduate student and a member of the media committee of OO. This is her account of the experience.

On February 1, 1960, four students from the all-black Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina—Joseph McNeil, Franklin McCain, Ezell Blair, Jr., and David Richmond—strolled into the Woolworth store in downtown Greensboro, North Carolina, sat down at the lunch counter, and ordered coffee. Because of the counter’s “whites only” policy, they were refused. Several employees and a manager asked them to leave, but they remained until the store closed, when they peacefully dispersed.

The next day, the teenagers came back, this time joined by fifteen others. Again, they were refused service, and, again, they stayed until closing time. The next day, there were more than sixty demonstrators, and by the fourth day, over 300 people were participating in sit-ins at lunch counters across the city. By the following week, the movement had spread not only throughout the state but across the entire South. The sit-ins lasted for almost six months, and on July 25, due to boycotts, diminishing profits, and outside pressure prompted by the publicity of the sit-ins, Woolworth desegregated all of its stores, allowing blacks to sit at lunch counters and receive the same service as whites.

There were, of course, difficulties before this victory was achieved. On the very first day, one black employee accused the young men, now called the Greensboro Four, of hurting rather than helping race relations. The demonstrators were heckled and threatened by mobs, with some protests turning violent. Many years later in February of 2008, Franklin McCain discussed the danger of blacks demonstrating in the 1960s South: “I had pre-concluded if I were lucky, I would go to prison for a long, long time. If I were not so lucky, I would come back to my university campus in a pine box.” The four also lamented the difficulty of getting people to commit to sitting in the stores from open to close, to returning day after grueling day. Considering all this, one might ask why the right to be served lunch next to white people was important enough to risk their lives devoting five months to idle loitering. One might ask what sitting passively at a lunch counter was expected to accomplish when the enormity of race problems in the South was so overwhelming.

I would argue that small acts like these are the essential building blocks of successful dissent, but we can’t always see at first how they will factor in the account of history. In retrospect, we understand the impact of the Greensboro sit-ins; we know that four black students sitting at a Woolworth five-and-dime was the first domino in a chain that spread to parks, libraries, museums, beaches, and other facilities across the South. We know that it was the catalyst that led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which desegregated all public spaces. But on February 1, 1960, the Greensboro Four didn’t know that. They only knew that they were tired of talking, tired of waiting for somebody else to do something, and they were going to walk into the store and stand up for themselves by sitting down.

Very early on the morning of November 14, I stood on the edge of the Occupy Oakland encampment in Oscar Grant Plaza and listened to reports that hundreds of riot police were approaching. Admittedly, I was nervous, and I had plans to disappear the moment I faced the possibility of being arrested.

Yet, a few moments later as I watched the police close in, I began to think about what their presence meant, and I began to imagine the disappearance of the camp where I had spent so much of my time and made so many friends in the past weeks. It had all but emptied out as hundreds took to the intersection of 14th and Broadway, drumming and chanting, and the quiet that fell over the vacated tents was eerie. A group of people had silently linked arms at the Interfaith tent, surrounded by candles. Here and there, people sat, meandered aimlessly, packed their belongings, and even slept, but it wasn’t the bustling tent city I had begun to think of as a second home, where I could start a conversation with almost anyone, exchange ideas, hear peoples’ life stories or tell my own, be fed, pick through free books, meditate, learn yoga, listen to people sing and play instruments, and watch children play.

We all knew that there was nothing that we could do to stop what was coming—that we couldn’t defend the camp, and that the police would destroy it no matter what, and they would arrest as many of us as they needed to in the process. We had no choice but to acknowledge that the military arm of the local government was too powerful, and, judging by their billy clubs and tear gas guns, they weren’t afraid to commit violence as they had done before. Many in the camp had already gone to jail and couldn’t risk it again, and still others had jobs, school, and families which they couldn’t abandon to spend a day or more being detained for silly misdemeanors.

All of this led me to a feeling of profound despair. Our reluctant resignation and the imminent dismantling of the camp suddenly represented something more to me. It represented the forced invisibility of millions of people, the overwhelming majority of the planet’s seven billion people, in fact. And it represented the dehumanization of those near and dear to me, too. I thought primarily of my mother, who raised two children in abject poverty, often working more than one job, often tolerating the abuses of an alcoholic husband, often welcoming neighborhood kids into her home when their own homes became too volatile or unstable. This latter detail about my mother is what emerged most prominent in my mind—the fact that despite the obstacles in her way, the stresses of raising children and working constantly, and the paucity of her home and the environment in which we lived, she never closed her arms to anyone who needed her help, no matter their past, their problems, or their ideologies. Maybe it’s melodramatic, but my mother symbolizes for me a vision of Liberty, saying, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free!” Because of her, it is clear to me that Liberty is not a blue-blooded woman doling out charity from a safe distance but a fierce, penniless yet empowered, broken-but-not-beaten mother defending her children against the injustices of a system that functions without conscience or accountability.

I realized that what I had come to appreciate about the people at Occupy Oakland was that many of them shared this same attitude of unabashed goodwill and inclusivity. They were full of optimism and zeal. They often came to the camp with little but freely offered whatever they did have—bread, soup, energy bars, books, clothing, blankets, electronics, artwork, kind words, ideas, laughter, music, and prayers—so many commodified things (because yes, even prayer is a commodity, these days) were given purely out of the kindness of peoples’ hearts. We had begun to build a community, a real community!

Was it muddy and stinky? Sure. Were there disagreements and arguments? Of course. Was there even some drug use and unspeakable violence (which I will still argue was not prompted by the presence of the encampment)? Yes. But these are human problems, not problems exclusive to Occupy Oakland. In fact, the fetishization of these problems by the mainstream media, the government, and detractors is representative of the way in which the problems of the marginalized have always been used by those in power to further alienate and disenfranchise those deemed “undesirable”—as though these same problems don’t exist across socioeconomic boundaries and aren’t often a direct product of a long history of cultural and social denigration. I’ve heard many on the outside call us degenerates, but what I saw at the camp was the extraordinary capacity for human kindness. An incredible passion for justice. Each person made me proud. Each person in some way or another embodied the principles of Liberty that my mother, by her actions, taught me to value.

So when I imagined the cops tearing down those tents, I imagined them tearing down a home like the one my mother had made. Those in power didn’t want the camp gone because it was dangerous or a threat to public health; they wanted it gone because the people there lived their successes and their failures too publicly, right in front of City Hall where they could no longer be ignored. Those in power didn’t want to have to look at, to be forced to deal with the problems of homelessness, joblessness, poverty, and violence endemic to our society, just as they didn’t want to give us the opportunity to congregate and work together to build a new one. Those in power have their own agenda, and the possibility of our uniting against them to address the real, every day issues we face was too great. They’d rather see us disappear and suffer alone in silence and shame.

At that thought, I decided that I couldn’t abandon the camp. I may be one small person, but the very least I could do was try to be like Greensboro Four who decided that a minor act of passive resistance was better than nothing at all. Sitting for two-and-a-half-hours surrounded by riot police isn’t much. Spending ten hours in police custody napping and singing show tunes with a group of cheerful women, many of them clergy members, isn’t much. It isn’t much compared to what those who participated in the Civil Rights Movement faced fifty years ago, nor is it much compared to what protestors in Tunis, Cairo, and across the Middle East and North Africa face today. It isn’t the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi. And it doesn’t seem to do much. It doesn’t do much to actively help the silent peoples from Oakland to Brazil to rural China who daily face the horrors of poverty, exploitation, sickness, and violence, or the middle class citizens who are finding themselves suddenly jobless and homeless. But it’s what I could do in the moment to show how much that camp meant to me, and how tearing it down was another act of aggression by the powers-that-be that was only going to strengthen my resolve. It was my way of extending solidarity to Occupy camps across the globe, which I think of as extended sit-ins. I couldn’t disappear. I refused to be ignored.

We won’t disappear. We must refuse to be ignored.

As Franklin McCain said forty years after he first sat down at the lunch counter at Woolworth in Greensboro, North Carolina: “This is my country… I fought for the chance to make it right. No one’s going to deny me the opportunity. I am going to be a full participant in every aspect of this community.” I think this is the goal of Occupy Oakland, no matter how they try and stop us.

Why I got arrested at Oscar Grant Plaza by Cami G. is a post from Cop Block - Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights