Category Archives: loco

As Tip O’Neill never said, “All politics is loco.”

Stop the bad cops TODAY

I am sick with sorrow and rage. Sorrow over the endless cruelty of others (in particular, white men), sick of a lifetime witnessing people hate, abuse, rape, torment, and murder other human beings they don’t like.

 

I’m enraged by the certainty that today, more than one cop will murder more than one black person under circumstance in which a white person might not even be inconvenienced. Guaranteed. The people who could stop that — the bad cops’ coworkers, supervisors, friends, and family — know these future killers but will do NOTHING to stop them. Tomorrow, the bystanders may share our shock and dismay but today they wait, as we all do, for the next murder, and the one after that, and again and again and again. It could be stopped but we won’t stop it. I’m sorry.

 

I’m an old white guy who literally could not be more comfortable or secure, if not for my humanity and empathy. I can only imagine the dread that hangs over black people, has hung over them for centuries. How has that not ground them to a pulp? Even if the pressure made them into diamonds, it wasn’t worth it for any of us.

 

This has to STOP today, not tomorrow, not after the election or a study, TODAY. No more abuse, no more murder. If you live with a bad cop, a racist, a dick, do something: report them, fire them, break their gun hand — I stop myself short of saying kill them, even though I know they will not stop themselves. We must stop them together NOW.

 

Scan, bag, NO!

Recently, our neighborhood Smith’s doubled the number of self-check lines as part of a new program called Scan, Bag, Go. The new system allows a customer to carry a scanner through the store, scanning items as they pick them up. At self-check, the scanner can total the selections, “sparing” the customer the need to scan there.

I’m not opposed to this program, per se. If a customer likes this redistribution of labor, fine.

I’m opposed to the abrupt reduction in the number of cashiers working at any given time. I’ve seen only one or two cashiers at the regular checkout while lines grow.

Self-check was originally sold as reducing checkout time. To force more of us to do the labor of scanning and bagging, Kroger (the parent of Smith’s) has cut back on people in favor of machines.

Many people don’t realize that supermarket cashiers are usually union workers. These people work hard and endure standing and repetitive stress for hours in exchange for decent wages and benefits (I hope). These are our neighbors, families, and friends, taking care of us, and bargaining collectively. Unions are our last, dwindling hope for standing up to corporate profiteers.

This new program takes money out of our community and sends it out-of-state. Now, I’m a shareholder in Kroger and I like dividends and profits. However, I will not see my community impoverished for corporate profit. Kroger — all corporations — must support the communities and workers who support them or there will be hell to pay.

AP Investigation Finds 1,000 Predator Police Officers — clean house! #policebrutalitymatters

Protect and Serve? Investigation Finds 1,000 Predator Police Officers – The Takeaway

From Ferguson, Missouri to Baltimore, Maryland, policing across the country has fallen under a microscope over the past year. But today the Associated Press releases part three of a year-long investigation into a rarely discussed issue of policing: Sexual misconduct by law enforcement.

According to the AP’s investigation, over the last six years, at least 1,000 police officers across 41 states were stripped of their badges for offenses like rape, sexual assault, and other sex crimes.

The 41 states examined by the AP all willingly provided this information and participated in the decertification process. The nine remaining states either would not provide information or do not revoke their officers licenses.

While 1,000 officers committing these offenses may not seem like a lot when compared with the nearly 480,000 personnel nationwide, a quarter of the nation’s police officers work in states that do not decertify officers for wrongdoing, like New York and California. For those states, there is little information on these crimes.

Protect and Serve? Investigation Finds 1,000 Predator Police Officers – The Takeaway

Not ‘us’ vs cops, everyone vs police brutality #blacklivesmatter #blackwomenmatter #policebrutalitymatters

Police have harassed, frightened, hassled, falsely arrested, beaten, and killed people of every description. We have turned law enforcement into an occupying army, not the beat cop or bobby walking the street. Most cops, like most people, are decent and hardworking. Some cops are poorly trained and poorly supervised. A few are sociopaths who don’t belong on the force (or armed on the street).

All this is true. The brunt of this truth hits non-whites hardest. Whites need to acknowledge this. All people of all colors, including all cops, need to oppose, root-out, and stop police brutality of all kinds everywhere. We’re in this together.

Half of black millennials know victim of police violence

WASHINGTON (AP) — Years before the high-profile deaths of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Freddie Gray, more than half of African-American millennials indicated they, or someone they knew, had been victimized by violence or harassment from law enforcement, a new report says. …

In the 2009 Mobilization and Change Survey, 54.4 percent of black millennials answered yes to the question “Have you or anyone you know experienced harassment or violence at the hands of the police?” Almost one-third of whites, 1 in 4 Latinos and 28 percent of Asian-Americans surveyed said yes to the same question.

This study, released to The Associated Press on Wednesday, comes as the United States grapples with concerns over policing in minority communities following the deaths of Martin, 17, in Florida three years ago, Brown, 18, in Ferguson, Missouri, last year and Gray, 25, in Baltimore earlier this year. Their deaths, as well as those of other black men and women, have inspired nationwide protests under the “Black Lives Matter” and “Say Her Name” monikers.

But even while being the wellspring of those movements, a clear majority of black millennials — 71 percent — said in that same survey they believe police in their neighborhood were “there to protect you.” Eighty-five percent of whites, 76 percent of Hispanics and 89 percent of Asians also said police were in their neighborhood to protect them.

“We know that young blacks are more likely to be harassed by the police. We know that they are more likely to mistrust their encounters with the police,” said Cathy Cohen, chair of the political science department at the University of Chicago and leader of the Black Youth Project. “But we also know from actually collecting data that a majority of them believe that police in their neighborhood are actually there to protect them, so I think it provides us with more complexity.”

Another survey done by the project in 2013, the Black Youth Project Quarterly Survey, showed that the percentage of blacks and Latinos who said they knew people who carried guns had declined, but more of them knew someone who was the victim of gun violence. Twenty-four percent of blacks and 22 percent of Latino millennials said they or someone they knew “carried a gun in the last month.” Almost half of white millennials — 46 percent — said they knew of someone who carried a gun.

However, 22 percent of black millennials and 14 percent of Latino millennials said they or someone they knew were the victim of gun violence in the last year, compared to 8 percent of white millennials.

It’s not surprising that young blacks and whites feel differently on these issues, given the different experiences the groups are reporting, said Jon Rogowski, an assistant political science professor at Washington University in St. Louis. For example, white millennials don’t report having to explain themselves to police, while millennials of color report that officers stopped them simply to question them about what they were up to, he said. …

After arrest, black millennials also don’t believe everyone gets fair treatment from the legal system in the United States. They’re not alone in this feeling, with only 38 percent of all millennials agreeing with the statement that “the American legal system treats all groups fairly” in the 2014 Black Youth Project survey.

Black millennials are the most pessimistic about the American legal system, with only a little more than 1 in 4 — 26.8 percent — agreeing that the legal system is fair to all. More than a third of other young Americans surveyed — 41 percent for whites, 36.7 percent for Latinos and 38.1 percent for Asians — agreed that everyone gets treated fairly by the legal system.

But they are also the most optimistic about bringing about change through politics.

More black millennials — 71 percent — believe that they can make a difference through participating in politics than whites at 52 percent or Latinos at 56 percent, according to their June 2014 survey.

__

Jesse J. Holland covers race, ethnicity and demographics for The Associated Press. Contact him at jholland@ap.org, on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/jessejholland and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/jessejholland .

Half of black millennials know victim of police violence

Police brutality matters

The cops have a tough job, both boring and dangerous. However, they have to police themselves, too. Too many cops overreact and escalate situations. Too many citizens have been injured or killed by the police. Clean house. Get rid of the thugs in blue.

Albuquerque Journal | Appeals court rules arrest of ABQ family was illegal

By Scott Sandlin / Journal Staff Writer
Monday, November 2nd, 2015 at 12:05am

Copyright © 2015 Albuquerque Journal

Elementary school principal Stephen Maresca was heading home from hiking in the Sandias with his wife, three children and their dog when the family was arrested by armed deputies after a rookie Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office deputy typed in a wrong license plate number.

Stephen Maresca, center, is shown in this photo with his wife, Heather, and their children. At the time of a March 2013 arrest, he was serving as principal of the Arroyo del Oso Elementary School in Albuquerque. He died unexpectedly from a heart attack earlier this year at the age of 53. (Courtesy of Heather Maresca)

Stephen Maresca, center, is shown in this photo with his wife, Heather, and their children. At the time of a March 2013 arrest, he was serving as principal of the Arroyo del Oso Elementary School in Albuquerque. He died unexpectedly from a heart attack earlier this year at the age of 53. (Courtesy of Heather Maresca)

Responding officers had the couple and their children exit the truck, walk backward with their hands up and lie face-down on the pavement. The officers aimed firearms at the parents and children, including two boys ages 17 and 14 and a 9-year-old girl, according to a summary of evidence in an opinion by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.

The court ruled last month that the arrest was illegal – reversing an earlier decision that gave the arresting officer, Deputy J. Fuentes, immunity.

The county is now on the hook for that 2013 arrest by Fuentes.

Albuquerque Journal | Appeals court rules arrest of ABQ family was illegal

The Game Commission must go – fire every one of them

This is the second time in a week that the Albuquerque Journal has opposed Game Commission actions. (Previously, it was the approval of mountain lion traps that any decent human being would oppose.)

This is the same Game Commission whose head participated in the slaughter of a cornered mountain lion by a disgustingly privileged Texas attorney for a wheel barrel full of cash. These spoiled frat boys need to go. Fire them. Chase them down the street with sticks. Find someone with heart and sense to serve on the commission.

Editorial: Game board unfairly takes aim at gray wolf protector | Albuquerque Journal News

Unlike the Bill Richardson administration, which supported the program, Gov. Susana Martinez has not been friendly to it – even though it has been popular with many New Mexicans. A 2008 survey by Research & Polling found 69 percent either strongly supported or somewhat supported the program. In 2011, the governor-appointed Game Commission suspended state participation.

Editorial: Game board unfairly takes aim at gray wolf protector | Albuquerque Journal News

Chaco: A World Heritage site faces fracking | Albuquerque Journal News

The profiteers will sell anything for a buck. They only see money. They are broken people and they break everything they touch. And the rest of us let them have their way every time.

Chaco: A World Heritage site faces fracking | Albuquerque Journal News By Andy Gulliford / Writers On The Range PUBLISHED: Friday, March 20, 2015 at 12:05 am

We are preparing to ravage a place before we know all its archaeological secrets. Every decade, more is revealed about Chaco’s complex culture. In the 1970s, for example, low-flying reconnaissance flights gave us the first hints of a vast Chaco road system, with well-made roads about 30 feet wide and laid out in straight lines for miles. And yet the Chacoans had no draft animals or wheeled carts. In the 1980s, scientists proved that one of the world’s only lunar calendars set to the 18.6-year cycle of the moon had been etched on boulders near the top of Chaco’s Fajada Butte.

In the 1990s, Anna Sofaer and the Solstice Project verified that Chaco’s buildings had been constructed to align with solstices and equinoxes of the sun, as well as to lunar cycles. In the past decade, using electron microscopes to analyze smashed pottery sherds from drinking vessels, scientists determined that, during ceremonies, Chacoans drank chocolate from cacao beans traded on foot north from Meso-America.

Who knows what else we might learn about one of the world’s great cultures? Unfortunately, our modern addiction to oil is damaging the landscape faster than it can be studied. Sofaer is creating a new film about these ecological threats. She says, “We filmed on the ground the ravages of many newly constructed roads, pipelines and well pads transforming the landscape east and north of Chaco Canyon. Some sites were within 15 miles of the canyon, where we found archaeological artifacts. On overcast nights, the skies above this area are invaded by an eerie reddish glow from the fracking rigs.”

With oil and gas revenues falling, this is a good time for Congress to draw a protective boundary around Chaco, and agree to full mineral withdrawal of adjacent oil and gas leases on BLM and Navajo allotment lands.

Chaco: A World Heritage site faces fracking | Albuquerque Journal News