Minneapolis Police Brutally Kill Unarmed Man — Caught on Video

Screen grab from video captured on evening of May 25,
2020 by onlooker Darnella Frazier shows Minneapolis police
officer with knee on neck of "forgery" suspect.
Darnella Frazier/ Facebook

"You just really killed that man, Bro." 

Some Summer rituals cannot be curtailed by the coronavirus.

It's early Summer, and it's open season on black and brown men for police.

A black man is his 40s was choked to death by Minneapolis police last night.

The police tried to cover up the killing, falsely declaring a "medical incident" is the culprit.

Minneapolis police, aka pig Derek Chauvin #1087 murdered George Floyd. George was handcuffed and face down on the ground. He was killed in broad daylight in front of people who pleaded for this devil to take his foot off of his neck. Good cop Tou Thao #7162 aided in the murder. pic.twitter.com/Bkpg7KB1L8

— ba4hire (@ba4hire) May 26, 2020

The unarmed man killed by the police matched the description of a non-violent suspected forger in the area.

Naturally, one police killer choked the man to death as another stood by nonchalantly, until the second cop asked objecting passersby to stand further back.

The Facebook video of police choking a man to death, begging for his life as lay in- custody, screaming that he couldn't breathe, is repulsive.

The police who killed the man said, "what do you want?" as he dug his knee into the victim's neck for several minutes.

"Please," the man says. "Please, please I can’t breathe."

Social Media users are incensed:

Forgery is NOT a crime punishable by death. This is not only #POLICEBRUTALITY, it is MURDER! First Eric Garner, now this. We must put an end to the senseless killing of our Black men! #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/oIgyohfDLL

— Benjamin Crump, Esq. (@AttorneyCrump) May 26, 2020

No police will object. Cops are on the side of the killers.

Passerby Darnella Frazier recorded and posted the video of the killing on Facebook, after which the police story radically changed.

CBS This Morning's Gayly King, no stranger to police assaults, was visibly and audibly shaken by the assault in a segment this morning.

Ms Frazier's video is posted below:

American of the Decade — Angela Kamoske of the Madison, Wisconsin Police Department

Remember Philando Castile, human being. Mr. Castile
is pictured above after being gunned down by a Minnesota
cop during a traffic stop. Castile's young daughter was
in the back seat and his spouse was driving during
the execution by police officer Jeronimo Yanez.

"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

Madison, Wisconsin — The police execution of Philando Castile in Minnesota on July 6, 2016 is perhaps the most depraved killing of an innocent man during a period in which police turned into death squads across America.

Naturally, police unions defend the killings.

But amid the public outcry and international protests after the Castile execution, one police officer stood up and said, Philando Castile's life mattered; this should not have happened.

That American is Angela Kamoske of the Madison Police Dept.

Lt Angela Kamoske of the Madison Police
Dept. Alone among every other police
officer in the country, Kamoske spoke out
against the killing of Philando Castile.

Ms. Kamoske is now a Lieutenant working in Madison's south side.

Kamoske listened to audio, watched the cell-phone video and read documents chronicling the killing of Castile with his family in the car.

Kamoske then stood up, spoke out, and acclaimed the humanity of Philando Castile and wrote a letter detailing her broken feeling and stating simply: His life mattered.

Her 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 2020.

Let's hope no more such acts of courage and decency become necessary.

Until that time, I salute Angela Kamoske, a lonely voice for humanity from the ranks of the police.

---
Here are some suggestions from the 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.

Family of Slain Man Stonewalled by Jackson County Sheriff in Wisconsin

Jackson County Wisconsin Sheriff Deputy kills 27-year-old
Lucas De Ford, and Sheriff stonewalls dozens of protesters
demanding answers. They won't get any answers.
Image by Quincy Garvin

Updated - Questions are piling up following press reports citing the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation, (DCI), statement that a police-killing victim was in possession of a gun. Why is DCI releasing information prior to its investigation's conclusion to assist the Jackson County Sheriff's evolving account? If the victim's possession of a gun had any bearing on the shooter's decision to kill the victim, why did the sheriff leave out the fact the man was armed in statements made Sunday through Wednesday? This whole affair stinks, and when DCI finishes its investigation, and the Jackson County District Attorney decides not to file criminal charges against the deputy sheriff, a foregone conclusion, it will stink more.
---
"Dozens of people rallied outside the Jackson County, (Wisconsin), Sheriff's Office Monday morning, protesting the shooting death of 27-year old Lucas De Ford" by a Sheriff's deputy, reports Mal Meyer, (News8000, La Crosse).

People are right to demand answers, and wrong if they expect to get any from Jackson County Sheriff Duane Waldera, who is protecting one of his deputies.

"In this situation, things took its course and ultimately there was a deadly force situation," said Sheriff Waldera.

Well, that clears things up.

The killer cop will ultimately be cleared of any wrongdoing by the Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) which will conduct an investigation, and then clear the deputy.

Cops to Kill 1,000th Human in the Week of October 30

The American police state grows remoter
and remoter from scrutiny. Few dare ask
questions as the death-by-cop numbers
pile up. Even silent protest is vilified
by the highest office in the land as
NFL players object to police violence.
America is now a virtual free-fire zone
for police, by police who lie and kill
with impunity.

Madison, Wisconsin—There are certainties in America.

January-February will be cold in Wisconsin.

And by the end of this week, November 4 on Saturday, police will have killed the 1,000th human being in 2017.

In Black River Falls, Wisconsin in Jackson County this weekend, a Sheriff's deputy bagged the 984th police victim.

Press reports note no facts explaining why one Jackson County Sheriff deputy found it necessary to kill a human being in west-central Wisconsin. Update: Sheriff's department stonewalls community.

No outrage by local officials. No howls of 'what the fuck is the matter with police, and with us, the by-standers?'

No explanation is required in this perverse and anti-human reality of American society, and certainly no explanation is demanded by local Wisconsin media.

No cop in Jackson County will voice protest.

The Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) will conduct an investigation of the Jackson County killer cop, and the DCI will clear the deputy of any wrongdoing.

Some things you can still count on.
---
Consider the spectacular police execution of Philando Castile in neighboring Minnesota in 2016.

In reaction to this caught-on-video killing the Minnesota chapter of the National Lawyers Guild suggested statutory protection for citizens from killer cops. By the way, one police officer, Detective Angela Kamoske of the Madison, Wisconsin Police Department, objected to the Castile execution.

No such protections have been adopted to this date in Minnesota. And certainly no such protections will be adopted in Wisconsin.

Here are some suggestions from the 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.

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.

Lunatics in Louisiana Assault Americans

Humanity meets police hysteria and chaos
A poised, young nurse, Ieshia L. Evans, terrifies
two Louisiana cops in Baton Rouge the week of July 11.
The hysterical, anti-social posture of police toward any
assemblage of people calling for human rights
and civil rights continues the week after police
gunned down two men in Louisiana and Minnesota.
Ms. Evans was arrested on charges claiming she
obstructed the highway, (The Guardian)

Citizens telling the truth in public is human activity cops will not tolerate

In the 1960s-70s Civil Rights protests few asked human rights demonstrators to find common ground, accommodation, and reconciliation with police units and racists who were beating, arresting, taunting, castrating and killing civil rights workers and people breathing while black. Black folks were expected to go back to where they belong— away from decent, white society.

Today, in defiance of reason, police acting
with impunity and the specific support of white liberals and racists alike, are presented as misunderstood, dedicated and honorable people with whom American must unify.

Welcome to America, 2016. President Obama will deliver an address in Dallas today.

The talk will be devoid of demands to stop killing, taunting, arresting, beating and otherwise preventing the lives of black and brown. The talk will be heavy on healing and honoring police.

I'll take a pass on the "interfaith" and unity BS.

Obama and America's failing is the premise that police killing, arresting, beating, assaulting and preventing the lives of Americans is acceptable. It's not.

As Sam Mitrani puts a truism about police:

The police were not created to protect and serve the population. They were not created to stop crime, at least not as most people understand it. And they were certainly not created to promote justice. They were created to protect the new form of wage-labor capitalism that emerged in the mid to late nineteenth century from the threat posed by that system’s offspring, the working class.

Slave patrol badge, 1858. Slave patrols to hunt down
escaped slaves were the original police in the South.

In other words, the money we pay cops to halt social change and terrorize progressives could be used for large capital investments in creating a new society, and empowering the lives of people, for whom our society exists.

Obama will not protect the First, Fourth and 14th Amendment liberties today.

He'll offer his own penned flowery rhetoric, as he runs from meaningful demands that police act as the defenders of liberty, and not the destroyers of liberty.

Why not admit the truth that police are largely composed of panicky, paranoid and dangerous anti-intellectuals? The type of people who make a black father write, "nothing I can teach [my 13-year-old son] will guarantee he won’t become another statistic until we address the institutional and structural racism inherent in policing today."

For every Obama flacking for killer cops, there is a new, young activist spreading hope for change and human rights in America.

One such civil rights workers is DeRay Mckesson, featured on the Chris Hayes Show:

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.