The party of robber barons.
Paramilitary police lead to violence
Our cops are soldiers now. Thanks to the boatload of money and carte blanche after 9/11. Let me see your ID.
ABQJournal Online » Jury Verdict In Excessive Force Case Overturned
By Scott Sandlin / Journal Staff Writeron Thu, Apr 26, 2012
APD’s arrest of an unarmed, 60-year-old intoxicated man by firing numerous bean bags at him, siccing a dog on him and then repeatedly Tasering him was “clearly excessive” force, says a federal judge who took the unusual step of overturning the jury’s verdict in the case …
“No reasonable person could believe that an inhibited, slow-moving 60-year old individual who made no physical or verbal threats and wielded no weapons could constitute a threat to the safety of any of the 47 armed and shielded police officers who stood 20 feet away,” Black wrote, reversing the outcome of the weeklong jury trial last October in Santa Fe.
“Nothing presented at trial showed that the officers’ extraordinary use of force was reasonably necessary to safely arrest (the plaintiff),” said the opinion Black wrote this month.
ABQJournal Online » Jury Verdict In Excessive Force Case Overturned
Couple: SWAT Storming Traumatic
Imagine if this couple had legally possessed a weapon and legally had it in hand against this home invasion. They’d be dead now.
ABQJournal Online » Couple: SWAT Storming Traumatic
By Olivier Uyttebrouck / Journal Staff Writeron Wed, Apr 18, 2012
Bertha and Carlos Gamboa were watching TV in their home last week when SWAT officers with the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office broke through a door and ordered the couple at gunpoint to lie on the floor.
The deputies were executing a search warrant April 10 at an apartment two doors away from the Gamboas’ home in connection with the deaths of two people whose charred remains had been found earlier that day on the West Mesa.
But the Gamboas had no connection with those deaths, the couple said. A week later, the Gamoas remain traumatized that armed men stormed their home and held them at gunpoint for up to 10 minutes. …
Deputies used a battering ram to break through a wooden outer door, she said. When Bertha Gamboa opened her solid wood door, she saw the muzzle of a shotgun thrust toward her.
About seven deputies armed with shotguns entered the apartment and ordered the couple to lie on the floor, she said.
“Carlos was frozen, standing in the living room,” his wife recalled. Carlos Gamboa, who doesn’t speak English fluently, did not understand the deputy’s order. Bertha Gamboa said she told her husband in Spanish to lie down.
For the next five to 10 minutes, armed men stomped around the apartment until one of the deputies explained that they had the wrong apartment, she said.
When did our best and brightest become our worst and crudest? Thank the GOP.
The GOP proves government is a joke by electing punchlines and dolts.
ABQJournal Online » Wiener: ‘Absolutely Nothing Untoward’
Dan McKay / Journal Staff Writeron Thu, Apr 26, 2012
Bernalillo County Commissioner Michael Wiener with several women outside a bar in Angeles City. Wiener said he posed with the women at the photographer’s request. (Photo by John Keatley)
A
The Bright Side
“When he’s dead,”
she says,
“I’ll finally get that dishwasher.”
“And when she’s dead,”
he says,
“I’ll knock a pass-thru to the kitchen.”
Either could have what they want now
but these are little improvements
they can look forward to
as if one day
the end of the world
could have a bright side
like that trip to Europe
after the dog dies. mjh
11/14/2004
There could be an upside to death, at least, for the survivors.
Listen to The Bright Side
My Virtual Chapbook (table of contents)
Update 2012: She got her dishwasher and he got a counter far better than a pass-through and nobody had to die, yet. http://www.edgewiseblog.com/mjh/uncategorized/kitchen-remodeling-for-dummies/
The Heaven of Animals
The meadow is his home now.
Up high in the mountains,
he lies in the shade
in a circle of trees
among the wild iris.
He yawns and stretches,
flips over
and rolls and rolls,
groaning in pleasure
in the tall sweet grass.
At any moment
he will sit up, alert,
ears sharp,
sniffing the air,
eyes intent on something
we can’t see
off under the trees.
His world is perfect now,
though I know he misses
the pats, the belly rubs,
the love in our voices:
lie down.
stay now.
good boy. mjh
7/7/2004
I wrote this five years before Lucky Dog died, remembering a beautiful spot the three of us discovered. And, imagining the inevitable, I sobbed. This supports my hope that “any horror could be faced / and become a poem.”
I borrowed the title from a poem by James Dickey. If you’re looking for that one, here’s a link. And, here’s a poem I wrote soon after Dickey’s death in 1997.
Listen to The Heaven of Animals
My Virtual Chapbook (table of contents)
Dickey
He caught
an adolescent’s mind
with sex
and wreckage,
a tragic fall,
and the grotesque
sheep child.
His was poetry
deformed and twisted
and I could not look away.
I had no words of my own
no tongue for lust
or sorrow
mouth open but mute
horny as hell
afraid I was ugly
sure that the world was.
He confirmed that and
changed it in the process.
The long fall turned beautiful
in the end because
any horror could be faced
and become a poem. mjh
18Apr97 – Las Cruces
I wrote this poem 14 years ago today. James Dickey died January 19, 1997. He was among the first modern poets I studied and enjoyed. I tipped my hat to him with my version of The Heaven of Animals.
Listen to Dickey
My Virtual Chapbook (table of contents)