Protests Continue – “So Far the Police Have Been Peaceful”

One of the more interesting news broadcasts this weekend began with “protests against police brutality continue through out the nation for the 12th straight day. So far today, the police have been peaceful.” Finally, they got it right.

The video of the murder of George Floyd made many people aware of the continuing targeting of African-American men, but the flagrant, even defiant, attitude of the police officers suggested a much more profound problem: these officers knew they were being filmed and continued to kill Mr. Floyd anyway because they felt sure they could get away with it.

The law has been perverted to make the successful prosecution of law enforcement officers virtually impossible, and that’s only IF any officer is ever charged. Police violence in response to peaceful demonstrators around the country further documented the issue.

Journalists filmed numerous incidents of police brutality toward peaceful demonstrators. In many instances around the country, including Detroit, peaceful demonstrations turned violent only after police initiated the violence. For example, in Minneapolis the original march to the precinct where the killers of Mr. George worked was peaceful until police in the precinct fired tear gas and two officers on the roof began peppering the demonstrators with rubber bullets.

The march broke up with enraged splinter groups going onto the site of the killing and looting and burning. In Detroit, the largely peaceful protest Friday evening became violent only after police began to randomly strike non-violent protesters with batons telling them “go back to the suburbs.” In New York City, police drove vehicles into protesters and were filmed numerous times beating, spraying and otherwise abusing peaceful protesters while mayor De Blasio claimed they were showing “great restraint.” Only after the media itself began to get targeted did they start to get it right – the violence by police was precipitating most of the unrest.

The video of 75-year-old Martin Gugino, being pushed to the ground by the police and left bleeding from a fractured skull, illustrates one reason why police violence is such a widespread problem that is very rarely investigated. The police said that he “slipped and fell.” A false report is a felony crime, but virtually never pursued by prosecutors.

The murderers of Mr. Floyd reported he had resisted arrest and developed a medical problem. None of them have been charged yet with submitting a false report. These officers knew there was clear video evidence, but also knew they were immunized from perjury. In my previous blog I anticipated the normal pattern after the Minneapolis incident: police would report he “resisted” and developed a “medical problem” while being restrained. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen this pattern. While many, if not most, officers are not perpetrators of criminal violence, the majority of officers in my experience enable killer cops with the “blue line of silence.” More like the blue line of perjury.

The problem doesn’t stop with the blue line of “omerta.” There is a culture of supporting criminal cops. Most of the officers who were present and stepped over the critically injured Gugino, resigned from the rapid deployment unit and were present at court to cheer the officers who were arraigned on third degree assault charges. It’s often said that the worst enemy of good cops are bad cops, but if the measure of a good cop is one who prevents or reports criminal assaults by other officers then good cops are very rare. It’s a culture shared by most paramilitary groups, but unlike the military however, they often feel a loyalty to each other rather than the Constitution. Changing the culture from “law enforcement” to being “peace officers” is one way to change the pandemic of police violence.

March Madness

Don’t you long for the days when the only madness in March was the NCAA Basketball Tournament? In a still young Presidency characterized by a lack of reality perception, March is shaping up to be a constant tournament of turmoil. The Nunez Memo is going to be released, the Democratic response may be released (President Trump will have to approve the release of the memo that exposes the lies in the Nunez Memo, so it’s release is tenuous at best), another possible government shutdown, a crisis with the debt ceiling, threats of military action in Syria… That’s just a partial list!

The Nunez memo is actually the product of a collaboration between Nunez and his staffers with the White House, is a transparent attempt to undermine the investigation into the Trump-Russia collusion. Maybe the most important aspect of the memo may be the longer term consequences to national security and the GOP. The Nunez memo and GOP attacks on the FBI is a godsend for Russian intelligence. Nothing the Russians have been able to do since the early days of the Soviet Union to undermine the counter-intelligence capabilities of the FBI has been nearly as successful as the GOP attempts to protect Trump. Republicans are literally undermining our national security for political gain. They may even force a Constitutional showdown if they attempt to block the Democratic response, let alone the responses of the FBI and the Justice Department.

Also on the table is another government shutdown looming. It’s a well known secret that Republicans allied with Trump don’t want a compromise solution over immigration. There are deals to be made among some rank and file Senators, but Mitch McConnell will not allow a vote on any of the compromises shaping up. Ultimately, they want the adoption of the white nationalist agenda of limiting immigration from Muslim, African and Latin Countries – and “the Wall”.

The Trump tax break – aka the trillion-dollar loan to give to rich people and rich corporations – has had an exponential effect on growing the national debt. The consequences of the rapidly expanding debt is that Congress will have to raise the debt ceiling soon. Of course, this is yet another opportunity for Conservatives to demonstrate their hypocrisy or lack of real principles. Remember, Conservatives have threatened their own government shutdowns in the past to prevent a raise in the debt ceiling.

I haven’t even begun to discuss the reports of imminent military actions in Syria and discussions of military options in the Korean Peninsula. It’s wearying, troubling… Let’s pray for April and Opening Day. Maybe baseball will be a welcome relief. Then again, Republicans will probably fore a controversy over throwing out the first pitch.

 

Happy Anniversary

Friday is the anniversary of the inauguration of Donald J. (“J for genius”) Trump. The plan is for Trump to host a $100,000 per plate gala dinner at his Florida Golf Resort. The optics of a party for the rich at a golf resort while the government is shut down are apparently not daunting for the President. After all, he truly believes he could murder someone in public and not lose support.

However, there is another even more socially and politically significant anniversary that is really is worth celebrating – the Women’s March. The massive, historic march of women across the country and in other countries has been followed by something a bit unusual. The March was not a one-time event and has led to a significant empowerment of women. The movement gave birth (excuse the pun) to significant efforts on behalf of women in our society such as the effort to identify and end sexual harassment, and the record number of women running for political office. It’s a real social and political movement and long overdue.

In the mid seventies the “Women’s Lib” movement emerged. While it did produce some important social changes, it really didn’t translate to economic and political power for women. Wages for women still lag behind men. Women rarely achieved political power. The ultimate confrontation of the women’s liberation movement’s failure to achieve and sustain success was the election of a man who openly bragged about sexually assaulting women. The brutal fact of the electoral college victory sparked the March and one year later, it appears that the massive march is more than a flash in the pan protest.

We can only become a better society as the result.

 

 

Sexual Harassment is Not Politics

Roy Moore may be the drop that burst the dam, but the long sad history of men using power to sexualize and objectify women reaches back millennia. Recently the news about Al Franken broke, signaled by the same man (Roger Stone) using the same language (“time in the barrel”) used to announce the Wikileaks release of hacked e-mails from the Clinton Campaign. There is a political side to this issue, but this is a far more import issue than the election of a Senator (or President for that matter). The fact is that women have been abused subtly and not so subtly in our society and it’s long past the time to end it. The boy’s club should be closed.  It is not enough to reject physical sexual assault of women and tolerate verbal assault, or economic and social assault. But how to change?

Men are getting pretty nervous about now. Welcome to the experience of women. What is harassment and what is not? Is inviting a women coworker out for drinks after work harassment or a good will gesture? When is a joke a joke and when is it an assault? What is OK or not OK? Here are some suggestions guys…

If you want to share a joke, an invitation, or conversation with a woman in the workplace (or anywhere else), how about asking yourself if you would be good with someone doing that to your own daughter? How about treating women respectfully with clear boundaries until the woman knows you well enough to understand your motive? How about questioning your own motives first? How about asking women for permission and respecting their answer?

Of course, it will be hard on men for a while, and why not? It wasn’t men who precipitated this social change – it took the courage of women speaking out. Even now, victims of abuse from men are attacked and risk attempts to smear, shame and bully them into silence. Guess what? It doesn’t work anymore. We men have to change, and if we don’t know how to change then let the women around you define what that change looks like. Wow! You mean let women have some control? Yes, that’s right.

Even now, we can only begin to see the outlines of the path to change. Liberal men do it. Conservative men do it. It is a problem that transcends politics, but political ideology seems to be a defining aspect of responses. Al Franken immediately admitted the truth and apologized for behavior over a decade earlier and before he became a Senator. Trump and Moore attack their victims. Kind of ironic, if not sad, that the Party of Family Values is now becoming the Party of pedophiles. Whether it’s fair or not to be paying the price for behavior done decades ago, there is a moral difference between admitting your behavior was wrong and denying it and attacking the woman involved.

Some well-intentioned men, confused and fearful of their own past behavior being exposed, resent being put in the position where they may be “inconvenienced” by having to question their behavior toward women. Change is never easy, and for men in this society change is long overdue. We can start by rejecting the attempts to victimize women who speak out.

Snipers … When Did It Be Gun ….

Following the weekend box-office success of the Clint Eastwood film <em>Sniper</em>, Michael Moore tweeted that when he was growing up, his father, a WWII Vet, told him that snipers were “cowards” and “they would shoot you in the back if they had to.” Moore stated that this was because a sniper in WWII had killed his uncle. While he didn’t mention the film by name, the media absurdly connected the statement to the movie.

The point here is that snipers are trained to shoot people in order to kill them, in the front or the back or the middle, provided they get the job done. At least snipers trained as soldiers, that is. The soldier featured in the film is U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, who is portrayed saving his own men, and avenging attacks on Americans. Kyle was later fatally shot in America, by another veteran with PTSD; the very disorder that the film alludes to Kyle having overcome.

Moore, in his tweet, used the example of Martin Luther King, Jr. to illustrate his point about snipers not being heroes. He was hopeful that the American public wasn’t viewing them as such, especially at the time of year when we honor and remember Dr. King.

I’m not quite sure that the film shows Kyle as a hero.Rather, it focuses on the point that soldier snipers are human beings. Indeed, there was even some anti-war sentiment in the film.

The sniper who killed Dr. King, and the one who shot JFK, were former Marines. Cowards? Of course. Sociopaths with guns. The man who assassinated John Lennon wasn’t a sniper, he just aimed at close range and landed four of the five bullets into Lennon’s back.

We human beings form opinions and proceed to justify them based upon what is important to us. Moore was taught that snipers were cowards because of his uncle’s death. Oswald and James Earl Ray reinforce that belief. Obviously many regard Chris Kyle as a hero. The difference is which side of the fence you are on when the sniping starts.

GUNS AND COMMON SENSE

Guns have one purpose. To kill.

Four years ago, Representative Gabby Gifford was shot in the head while preparing to give a talk in her hometown. Twelve people were killed in Paris for drawing “offensive” satirical cartoons. Two years ago nearly two dozen children were slaughtered at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Only a year or so before that, a lunatic killed a dozen movie goers in Colorado. It goes on, and on, and on, and on…

Incredibly, the news coverage of these regularly occurring massacres never assesses the deluge of guns in America as a contributing factor. The media doesn’t even explore or report on why we, Americans, mindlessly encourage easy access to guns, or why we are the only country in the world that does so.

And today – right now – there is a bill waiting to be signed by Rick Snyder that will further loosen gun laws in the state of Michigan – because we obviously need looser gun regulations amid the gun violence, don’t we?

This bill would make it possible for people who have been charged with stalking to have a concealed weapons permit, and thus, keep a gun on their person. This means anyone who has a PPO against them could get a gun. The stalkers lobby must be really strong in Michigan.

The bill also shortens the waiting time to get a gun. In the past, people had to go through a background check and get fingerprinted. Sometimes it would take up to 60 days or more for the background check to be cleared. Isn’t that good?

Under the new law, the application process will only be allowed to take 45 days. If the background check isn’t done by then, the applicant will get a temporary permit regardless.

This means that ANYONE — criminals, the insane, lunatics — will be able to get a gun because the bureaucracy may take too long to issue a decision. And the legislature has provided no new funds to speed up the process.

Our bureaucracy takes long to do anything. Look at the thousands of rape kits that haven’t been processed in the city of Detroit. Where is the money going to come from now to pay for this new expedited gun permit process??

Everything costs, everything takes time, but because gun manufacturers want as many people as possible to have guns, our Republican lawmakers are only too happy to oblige.

Does this make sense? Are we crazy?

The only good news is that Snyder hasn’t signed the bill. Yet. Perhaps, if any sense is left in our Republican dominated state, this bill will be left to die. Common sense would dictate that it never sees the light of day. However, if I have learned anything over the last 64 years, it’s that when it comes to guns, America has no common sense.

Labor in America

There was a recent expose on children working in the tobacco fields of the New South in the New York Times yesterday.

Numerous examples of children as young as 10 years old working 10 to 12 hours a day for less than minimum wages have been documented, many of them getting poisoned by the exposure to nicotine. It evokes the images of the antebellum South, but in reality they are a sign of the future to come. They are not an isolated instance of abuse. In fact, they are the new face of labor in America.

All across the Country, including the “Right to Work” Michigan, right wing legislatures are systematically reversing over 100 years of hard-earned labor rights. Right wing politicians, elected through the financial largesse of billionaires such as the Koch brothers are not only attempting to destroy labor unions, they are even attacking basic labor rights such as child labor laws.

So this fall, when you vote, remember the face of those child workers getting those jobs created by your Republican governor and Republican legislators. Snyder and Lynn-Land will put your children to work …

On Being Black in America, Part 1

This past week bore loud witness to one of the most disturbing and ignored aspects of American society: the mortal risk of being a black male in public. A recent study estimated that a black male is shot dead by police or security guards every 28 hours. Many of these victims of homicide will not be guilty of any crime, and unarmed, although virtually every killer will be released claiming they thought their victim was committing a crime and thought they were armed. Many of these homicides are committed in broad daylight in public settings with no criminal prosecutions resulting.

Eric Garner was choked to death on a street in New York City by the police. He was pleading with the officers killing him that he couldn’t breathe. Police later said that he was detained originally because he allegedly selling “loose cigarettes.”

None of the officers have been charged with a murder clearly captured on video. John Crawford was shopping at a Walmart in a predominately white suburb in Ohio, when he made the mistake of picking up a toy gun to buy for a nephew. On seeing a young black man talking on a cell phone and carrying a toy gun, alarmed Ohioans called security and the police. As Mr. Crawford was pleading the toy gun was not real and with his arms up, he was shot dead.

None of the guards or police have been charged. They claim he was not being “compliant” with their commands. The circumstance surrounding the homicide of Michael Brown are still unclear but suspiciously similar to the script. Mr. Brown and a friend were walking down a street when they were detained by an officer who told them to get on the sidewalk and produce IDs. One thing we do know is that he was shot at least several times as he stood holding his hands in the air. The police tell a different story.

They claim after the officer “politely” asked Brown and his friend to get on the sidewalk and wait, Brown charged the police vehicle, began beating the officer and attempted to grab his gun. Why Brown, a young man bound for college would suddenly become a crazed police killer is only one of the absurd questions being investigated by the police, as the officer who killed an unarmed man who was standing still with his arms raised is typical of these killings by the police. These investigations always involve substantiating the claims of the officer that the victim was armed, committing a crime and threatened their life.

Being stopped for no probable cause is an everyday occurrence for black men, and their socio-economic class is no exemption. I speak with African-American attorneys, doctors and other professionals who can all share incidents of police harassment. When I was younger, simply crossing 8 Mile Road as a black man was reason enough to be detained. “Driving while Black” is another well-known cause for harassment. If it’s hard for me as a white man to understand why this doesn’t create a rage, all I need to do is remember their reality: that even the most righteous anger can result in being shot dead.

This is a reality that white America won’t listen to. Martin Luther King once said that “riots were the language of those not being heard.” Eric Garner, John Crawford and Michael Brown will never be heard from again, but at least some people are speaking for them, and thousands like them.

Crisis at the Border

The flood of women and children creating the crisis at the Texas border is not an immigration problem. It is a refugee problem. These children are fleeing countries where there is no rule of law, countries like Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras.

The murder rate in these countries is more akin to a war zone like Syria, which is probably a valid analogy. Like any refugee crisis in any country, they are taxing local resources and the solution requires humanitarian and political efforts. And it’s only right that we do provide humanitarian assistance. These are countries that past U.S. Presidents deliberately destabilized. Remember the death squads Reagan secretly funded in El Salvador and Nicaragua? We sabotaged the legitimate political process in these countries because we didn’t like their politics. This left most Latin American countries hostage to those with the most guns, and today that means drug cartels. 

We should help these children because we helped cause the problems they are fleeing from and because it is the moral thing to do. The immoral thing to do is make them pawns in a cynical political war, or to fan the flames of hatred. Who could look at the scene of the protesters in Texas stopping busses full of terrified children and listen to the hatred spewing from their mouths and not feel ashamed for our country? Apparently, plenty of people who call themselves “patriots” and “Texans.”

Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition!

Some of you may remember the old Monty Python skit. A man is being given the third degree about something minor when, out of exasperation, he says “Well, I didn’t expect the Spanish Inquisition!” Then suddenly a group of men dressed in red cleric robes burst through the door and says “NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition!”

Well, life imitates art sometimes and here we are with the Catholics on the Supreme Court enforcing their religious beliefs on all Americans in the Hobby Lobby case. Make no mistake, the Catholic Church bans the use of contraceptives and the Conservative men on the Supreme Court are intent on enforcing their church’s doctrine in law — so much for separation of church and state.

Justice Scalia has made no secret of his opinion that his religious beliefs should directly affect his rulings, though the other Catholic men are a bit more circumspect.

The Hobby Lobby decision was wrong on many levels and the logic so obviously contrary – and dangerous – to virtually any laws banning discrimination, that Alito went out of his way to say that the decision was a one-time, limited decision (remember Bush v. Gore?). Conservatives hailed the decision as a blow for religious freedom.

The owners of Hobby Lobby consider forms of contraceptives that terminate conception as violating their religious rights so egregiously that it made it an irresolvable crisis of conscience (although they did invest their tax shelter profits in companies that make the “abortion pill”). Historically, religious beliefs have been the rationale for Jim Crow laws and discrimination against any number of groups (including Catholics). That is why allowing one religious group to discriminate is so dangerous.

The truth is that the Catholic men of the Supreme Court are better described as Ayatollahs issuing religious rulings on secular political matters. They ignore the Constitutional mandate separating church from state, let alone legal precedent.

Unlike the Monty Python skit, this is no comedy.