One Cop, and Only One, Objects to Murder of Philando Castile

Remember Philando Castile, human being

"I watched the dash cam video. And it broke me. ... So today, I stand up and speak out, even if it means standing alone. To the family of Philando Castile, to those that loved him, and to everyone who watched that video and felt broken inside, I am sorry. This shouldn’t have happened. His life mattered."
-  Detective Angela Kamoske of the Madison, Wisconsin Police Department

Among the 1,000s of people cops have killed the last few years, the utter disregard for human life remains a constant over time.

On June 22, Mal Contends notes 569 people were killed by cop to that day. That's eight days ago.

As of June 29, 595 people were killed, (Killed by Police). By the end of the July 4 holiday weekend, well over 600 people will have been killed by cops.

What type of person is capable of aiming a weapon at someone and then pulling the trigger of a pistol with the intent of killing a human being in cold blood?

The truth is, from a first-person perspective, I will never understand the savage cowardice and anti-human psychology of a cop. So, I don't know the answer to this question.

One cannot reason and emphasize with killers. I mean I watch Dirty Harry and Tarantino movies and enjoy them, but not to the extent of running out and buying a 44 and killing somebody. The phantasm of achievement in film is fantasy. Most cops don't understand this.

More disturbing are the by-standers. Cops can do anything, anything, and the vast majority of people will watch silently or turn away, or meow that images of Mr. Castile shot dead, for example, are distasteful.

After the acquittal of the killer cop who gunned down Philando Castile, one cop objected publicly. One decent woman hurt by the reality that a family has been devastated.

Below is the text of the letter from Angela Kamoske, detective with the Madison, Wisconsin Police Department. The words of Ms. Kamoske offer hope decency will prevail.

The letter appeared in the St. Paul Pioneer Press on June 25, 2017:

Philando Castile's Life Mattered

By Angela Kamoske

I have been a police officer for 19 years. I love my job and serving my community. I have learned over the course of my career to never assume anything. As I watched the events unfold on July 6, 2016, on a Facebook Live feed, I thought that there must be more that happened. There must have been such a threat that wasn’t captured on this video, that forced Officer Yanez to feel his only option was to shoot into a vehicle with a child in the back seat.

Over the past two days, I have listened to the audio interviews. I have read the documents. And then I watched the dash cam video. And it broke me. Officer Yanez was in a position that if he perceived a threat, he could have disengaged. He could have taken other steps to ensure everyone’s safety, and not have forced this outcome.

Shooting a seat-belted man, with a child in the back seat, was not the only option. Until those of us who wear the badge are willing to stand up and speak out when we see things that are wrong, and lead hard conversations, how can we ever expect change? How can we ever expect to rebuild trust within our communities? Barbecues and pick-up basketball games are nice, but that’s not going to do it. So today, I stand up and speak out, even if it means standing alone. To the family of Philando Castile, to those that loved him, and to everyone who watched that video and felt broken inside, I am sorry. This shouldn’t have happened. His life mattered.

Have a fun and safe holiday.

NYT Video Shows Police Execution of Philando Castile—Watch, Bear Witness, then Summer Fun

Four-year-old girl tried to calm her distraught mother,
Diamond Reynolds, after killer cop, Jeronimo Yanez,
gunned down Philando Castile in 2016 in Minnesota, (CNN).
Yanez was acquitted in June 2017.

Why victims of American police state don't take to local paper or social media and complain: Fear of the police

Update: Madison, Wisconsin police officer, Angela Kamoske, reacts in Minnesota paper.
---
There is embedded in our political culture a fascistic character of the American citizenry.

This unthinking tendency manifests post-911 as the cult of the police—an evangelical, ideological deference to law enforcement that is so powerful, police can execute a citizen in cold blood on video and the majority of the white populace will applaud or look away.

But this cult is of the most insidious strain, mutated into unacknowledged fear of the police and a pathological aversion to thinking.

I joined a small, local Facebook group in Fitchburg, Wisconsin, curious to see how this liberal segregated community of 25,000 would respond to an image of the police killing of Philando Castile from Minnesota in the days following the acquittal of the killer cop, Jeronimo Yanez.

The Castile image is of the man's blood staining a white t-shirt, presumably exit wounds sustained after bullets pierced Castile's heart.

Facebook comments ranged from an admonishing complaint that the Castile image is "distasteful" to a demand, (subsequently granted), that the image of Philando Castile be taken down.

Distasteful. No comments were posted criticizing this murder, the killer cop, acclaiming the humanity of Castile or expressing sympathy for the Castile family.

This is roughly what I expected.

This Summer Americans will witness 100s of new police killings of the citizenry, most of which will meet with the overwhelming approval of white America, cheered on by the Trump administration, (Cop Block, Killed by Police).

Ever wonder why victims of the American police state do not take to the local paper or social media and complain? The answer is fear of the police in the land of the free and home of the brave, a well-founded fear.

Consider. Would anyone after being terrorized or witnessing terror inflicted by the police complain to the local Fusion Center that police are terrorizing innocents? How about a young, black woman profiled, harassed, demeaned, arrested and traumatized by police? Now, consider a complaint to the Fusion Center: Hey, the police are terrorizing me, what can you do about it?

Is this really the only possible society attainable? Orwell would puke were he alive.

Today is June 25, Sunday. Over the weekend four more people were killed by cops, (Killed by Police).

One hopes the American people live life happy and have a great Summer. It's truly beautiful outside.

But please first bare witness and view Yousur Al-hlou's narrative video in the New York Times of the police execution of Philando Castile, then rock out the Summer.

Consider as well, reading two of the great anti-fascist works of the 20th century: They Thought They Were FreeThe Germans, 1933-45 by Milton Mayer, (University of Chicago Press. ©1955), Warrant for Genocide: the Myth of the Jewish World-conspiracy and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, (Harper and Row, 1967), by Norman Cohn.

From Milton Mayer:

'What no one seemed to notice,' said a colleague of mine, a philologist, 'was the ever widening gap, after 1933, between the government and the people. Just think how very wide this gap was to begin with, here in Germany. And it became always wider. You know, it doesn’t make people close to their government to be told that this is a people’s government, a true democracy, or to be enrolled in civilian defense, or even to vote. All this has little, really nothing, to do with knowing one is governing.

'What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could not understand it, it could not be released because of national security. And their sense of identification with Hitler, their trust in him, made it easier to widen this gap and reassured those who would otherwise have worried about it.

'This separation of government from people, this widening of the gap, took place so gradually and so insensibly, each step disguised (perhaps not even intentionally) as a temporary emergency measure or associated with true patriotic allegiance or with real social purposes. And all the crises and reforms (real reforms, too) so occupied the people that they did not see the slow motion underneath, of the whole process of government growing remoter and remoter.'

Consider as well Glenn Greenwald's  No Place to Hide, Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State.

Eliminationist Rhetoric of the Most Deadly

Four-year-old girl tried to calm her distraught mother,
Diamond Reynolds, after cop, Jeronimo Yanez, gunned
down Philando Castile in July 2016 in Minnesota, (CNN).
Yanez was acquitted in June 2017.

Stop police death squads. How many must die?

No doubt the Minnesota cop unions got a nice laugh out of the acquittal of killer cop, Jeronimo Yanez.

Sick, heartless killer cops like Yanez walk away from the shattered lives of their brutality and a well-vetted collection of jurors watch a black man, Philando Castile, murdered on video and inform black Americans: Tough, your lives don't matter.

This is the verdict from Minnesota. Few minority Americans were surprised.

If you were a cop in Minnesota, what would you do? Would you speak up, write a letter to the editor of the local newspaper and say: 'Philando Castile was not killed in my name, I do not support the killer, Jeronimo Yanez. My heart and my support go to the family of Philando Castile?'

Such decency is unthinkable from a cop, but how about us? Who will condemn killing of our fellows?

If you are a cop anywhere, what would you do? Speak out? Any cop reading this piece today. Put your name to text, identify yourself as a cop, and compose a comment. I'll run it.

Today is June 22, 2017, roughly half-way through the calendar year. As of this date, 569 people have been killed by cops. By Dec. 31, 2017 people killed by cops will exceed 1,000. You can count on it.

Philando Castile was shot through the chest and killed by cop
to the approval of fellow cops and Minnesota jury. Cops
got another one.
Remember Philando Castile, human being.

From the Minnesota chapter of the National Lawyers Guild suggesting protection from killer cops in 2016. No such protection has been adopted to this date:

By National Lawyers Guild - Minnesota Chapter:

The National Lawyers Guild - Minnesota Chapter unconditionally condemns in the strongest possible terms the murder of Philando Castile by St. Anthony Village police officer Jeronimo Yanez. The NLG expresses its deepest sympathy and condolences to Mr. Castile’s family and loved ones.

It is a tremendous outrage that the repeated unjustifiable police killings, especially of African American males, have become such common knowledge yet continue unabated. While no one deserves to die at the hands of law enforcement, there is no pretext for police to attempt to rationalize the murder of Mr. Castile because he had so clearly done nothing wrong, was an exemplary citizen, and the horrendous death and police indifference to the effects of their actions was so painfully captured on cell phone video.

The NLG demands that government leaders end their pattern of enforcing the continued deadly status quo by failing to take any concrete action to hold police accountable or enact any meaningful reforms. The salience of this latest atrocity must spur immediate action to hold the responsible police officer accountable and initiate systemic change to end the serial police killings as well as the larger dynamic of police abuse and oppression in communities of color. The NLG recognizes that the most affected communities must have a voice in the specific changes to made, but calls for the following actions to be taken immediately:

1. A special independent prosecutor must be appointed to investigate and bring criminal charges against the murderer in this case. The special prosecutor must be independent of police influence, and have access to funding needed to hire investigators, experts, associates and cover other expenses needed to conduct a full investigation and prosecution. Responses to previous police shootings have repeatedly and invariably demonstrated that elected and career prosecutors are too beholden to police interests to be capable to delivering justice. The Ramsey County Attorney, the governor, and other appropriate officials must collaborate to make the special independent prosecutor a reality.

2. The office of an independent prosecutor must be permanently established to investigate and prosecute cases of deadly force and other abusive police conduct.

3. Minnesota law must be amended so that police officers have no more authority to use deadly force than other citizens. Specifically, Minnesota Statute § 609.066 which authorizes use of deadly force by peace officers must be repealed.

4. A special civilian commission must be established to propose specific, comprehensive and systemic reforms to police powers, policies, and governance. A majority of the commission must include representatives of communities disproportionately harmed by police abuse.

Houston Police Gun Down Another Black Man, and Lie about It

Credit: Facebook, Alva Braziel

American police officers killing black men and lying about it is nothing new.

It happened again this weekend in Houston when police gunned down Alva Braziel.

The killer cops will be cleared of any wrongdoing.

From ThinkProgress:

Another black man was shot and killed by police in Texas early Saturday morning.

Houston Police said Alva Braziel was waving a gun around and pointed it at them when they opened fire. But surveillance footage from a nearby gas station suggests otherwise.

Going to make a prediction: The Houston Police Department and police union will not release a follow-up statement admitting the cops wrongfully killed another black man.

I'll make another prediction: There will be many more such killings of people by police.

Set yourself a Google alert using the keywords, Officer Involved Shooting, make the results comprehensive and you'll see what I mean.

Police do love shooting their weapons at black folks. Good sport.

Civil Liberties Are Still Not a Big Concern

ACLU is still obsessed with civil liberties

Thank a cop for not killing you

The Sunday network news show featured some Movement guests today.

Missing is any mention of the First, Fourth and 14th Amendments, vestiges of the Constitutional republic launched in theory in the late 18th century.

Don't look for ACLU, National Lawyers Guild, or CCR attorneys dominating network guest lists in the coming weeks.

I've talked to and read these guys' work; they extol civil liberties with ready intelligence used to criticize police encroachments on humanity, never prepared to thank police for not killing them. [Ungrateful bastards are likely as not to reminize about the Kerner Commission.]

What you will find is any assembly of American citizens met with large police forces, with appropriate commentary from corporate 'journalism' reporting with no follow-through the number of people arrested, as though assembling in itself suggests likely criminality.

"[B]lack people can be killed with impunity since the police in the United States are rarely held accountable for such crimes," notes an insightful piece in CounterPunch this weekend.

That's a fact, CounterPunch.

On an up note, the spectacular, (as opposed to the banal), killing of black folks does provide openings for those steeped into the whole we-are-human-with-rights thing.

Vox has a must-read piece by ex-St. Louis cop, Redditt Hudson: "I worked with people like the president of my police academy class, who sent out an email after President Obama won the 2008 election that included the statement, 'I can't believe I live in a country full of nigger lovers!!!!!!!!' He patrolled the streets in St. Louis in a number of black communities with the authority to act under the color of law."

Hudson's former colleague is right about nigger lovers, they're everywhere, thankfully. On a given day, I can count on a friend's old friend to post daily links to 10s of civil liberties-loving, nigger-loving pieces. [Thanks Rebecca and your immediate family. Jackie and I will take you up some time on your standing invitation to northern Minnesota, and we really want meet some folks on the res, if your husband can help.]

Suggestions for Local Media

Local media in whatever city can do a human service by visiting a laundry mat or other social center in respective segregated communities and ask folks what they think.

In Madison, Wisconsin, I suggest the Meadowood laundry on the near west-south side. Ask the mostly black and brown folks what they think, with the assurance they won't bite and their dark complexions with black hair won't get you irretrievably dirty.  [Maybe take a gun just in case though and watch their hands, very quick these people.]

Ask local police forces and fusion centers what is the precise extent of local monitoring of the media, especially social media, and to what extent police surveil and harass writers for pro-civil liberties work. Answers may surprise.

Warnings

Watch for deceitful police unions and opportunistic politicians who trade on racist fears of the other.

From liberal and rightwing municipalities to a more crass racist like Wisconsin legislative Republicans and Scott Walker, the culture is ripe for exploitation.

Joe Robinson has a killer piece in the Wisconsin State Journal entitled "Why I won't bring my black sons to Madison.," Jesse Opoien in the Capital Times has a must-read on Wisconsin Republicans' newest taunt to black folks by the introduction of legislation, Blue Lives Matter.

Poor police forces, the recipients of public salary, health care, and pension, with a license to lie and kill without consequences. Even Scott Walker's anti-labor initiatives spared the police unions, as Walker knows better than to mess with the local police power centers.

Never forget

Amid the nonsensical, ahistorical twaddle about common ground, reconciliation and on and on, make it known in your community that your rights to life and liberty are not negotiable, not ever.

National Lawyers Guild - Minnesota Chapter: End Killer Cops

'Peace' Officers Surely Do Kill Often

By National Lawyers Guild - Minnesota Chapter:

The National Lawyers Guild - Minnesota Chapter unconditionally condemns in the strongest possible terms the murder of Philando Castile by St. Anthony Village police officer Jeronimo Yanez. The NLG expresses its deepest sympathy and condolences to Mr. Castile’s family and loved ones.

It is a tremendous outrage that the repeated unjustifiable police killings, especially of African American males, have become such common knowledge yet continue unabated. While no one deserves to die at the hands of law enforcement, there is no pretext for police to attempt to rationalize the murder of Mr. Castile because he had so clearly done nothing wrong, was an exemplary citizen, and the horrendous death and police indifference to the effects of their actions was so painfully captured on cell phone video.

The NLG demands that government leaders end their pattern of enforcing the continued deadly status quo by failing to take any concrete action to hold police accountable or enact any meaningful reforms. The salience of this latest atrocity must spur immediate action to hold the responsible police officer accountable and initiate systemic change to end the serial police killings as well as the larger dynamic of police abuse and oppression in communities of color. The NLG recognizes that the most affected communities must have a voice in the specific changes to made, but calls for the following actions to be taken immediately:

1. A special independent prosecutor must be appointed to investigate and bring criminal charges against the murderer in this case. The special prosecutor must be independent of police influence, and have access to funding needed to hire investigators, experts, associates and cover other expenses needed to conduct a full investigation and prosecution. Responses to previous police shootings have repeatedly and invariably demonstrated that elected and career prosecutors are too beholden to police interests to be capable to delivering justice. The Ramsey County Attorney, the governor, and other appropriate officials must collaborate to make the special independent prosecutor a reality.

2. The office of an independent prosecutor must be permanently established to investigate and prosecute cases of deadly force and other abusive police conduct.

3. Minnesota law must be amended so that police officers have no more authority to use deadly force than other citizens. Specifically, Minnesota Statute § 609.066 which authorizes use of deadly force by peace officers must be repealed.

4. A special civilian commission must be established to propose specific, comprehensive and systemic reforms to police powers, policies, and governance. A majority of the commission must include representatives of communities disproportionately harmed by police abuse.

Killer Cop in Minnesota Says Through Atty, He's "Sad"

Commenting through his police union and lawyer while on paid tax payer-financed vacation, (in cop-speak paid administrative leave), the Minnesota killer cop, one Jeronimo Yanez, said he is "sad" for the family of Philando Castile, whom Yanez shot and killed Wednesday night, (WCCO-TV (Minneapolis)).

Yanez will be cleared of any wrongdoing after the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) submits its investigative findings of the killing to the Ramsey County Attorney.

Yanez' police union, the Minnesota Law Enforcement Labor Services, released a statement by its executive director Sean Gormley, noting the killing is a tragedy and is emotional. The statement also expressed support of due process for the killer cop.

The statement reads in full:

The death of Philando Castile is a terrible tragedy for all involved, especially for the family and loved ones of the deceased.

The video being shown in the media is graphic. It’s emotional. And for some it may be hard to watch.

We support an open, thorough, and objective investigation that we believe will, in time, provide the answers to the questions we all have.

We also support the officers’ right to due process. The right of due process is afforded to all Americans.

How about a revised statement from the cop union such as: Murder by cop is unjust and indecent?

Just kidding, we all know that will never happen.

Black Life Can Mean So Little

Michael Eric Dyson:

We don’t want the cops to kill us without fear that they will ever face a jury, much less go to jail, even as the world watches our death on a homemade video recording.

You will never understand the helplessness we feel in watching these events unfold, violently, time and again, as shaky images tell a story more sobering than your eyes are willing to believe: that black life can mean so little.

Life is cheap in America.

Retaliation in Dallas Against Police Terrorism

Update: This is what white people can do to support #BlackLivesMatter, (Washington Post).

Updated - Five police were killed, and six wounded last night in an apparent retaliatory citizen response against police terrorism of Americans, (Dallas Morning News), (New York Times).

No surprise.

The most dense municipal mayor, the most callous police department and the mindless rah-rah police 'supporters' likely will draw bone-headed conclusions about Dallas.

They should wake up.

Police and their political supporters cannot preach and inflict hatred against blacks and Latinos and hope to see no response.

The days of shaking down minority populations have to end, today.

The premise of Madison Mayor Paul Soglin and other anti-minority forces in our society that police should not be challenged is a dangerous position, normalizing killer cops and their dangerous sense of entitlement.

Police today surveil, harass, intimidate, play judge and jury, terrorize, kill, destroy liberty, and work to marginalize entire swaths of human beings. Violence and terror are an every day part of life.

This is routine, and no police officer ever publicly challenges SOP.

This is wrong and should change.

So, what do you expect?

Dallas came from nowhere?

If not for the brave actions of citizens using their cell phone to record police killings, recent police killings in Louisiana and Minnesota would be just another black man killed, covered up by the blue blanket.

I don't shed a tear for dead cops. Not anymore

Madison, Wisc Boys and Girls Club Is Normalizing Police Killing

Institutionalizing Killing Black People Is Not Creeping Fascism, Fascism Is Here

Blaming black folks for being beaten and killed by cops is like blaming women for being raped for the way they dress.

Days after Madison, Wisconsin Mayor Paul Soglin publicly gave the green light to cops killing citizens, news is the Boys and Girls Club of Dane County will offer children advice on how to deal with police and not be killed.

This is really happening and is not the plot for some dystopian movie.

From WISC-TV (Madison):

Following two fatal officer-involved shootings of African-American men in Louisiana and in Minnesota within the last 24 hours, local community leaders are taking action today. The Boys and Girls Club is hosting a discussion for teens to teach them how to interact with police. The teens will receive 10 rules that can help them deal with police encounters. Law enforcement officers have also been invited to join the conversation to talk about the importance of de-escalation tactics and how they respond to these incidents without taking someone's life.

What the fuck?

What is The Boys and Girls Club doing normalizing killer cops when it and other community institutions should be teaching teens that cops' killing and beating and terrorizing black folks or anyone is wrong and should be challenged over and over.

Something is very wrong here.