Epidemic

[Political Waves]

We've got one -- no, it's not stupidity although I know you thought of that first; it's violence of the homegrown kind and it's not just the wingnuts that are indulging, it's also the cops who have a similar intrigue with weapons and authority, and ultimately, misuse ... if you need a rationale, think 'soul level.' The kids are playing with the pop guns again. Still, this is an ancient loop -- live by the sword, die by it.

The wingnuts stand out above the rest, of course -- now we have an 88 year old supremacist wackadoodle and Holocaust denier opening fire in a building dedicated to the memory of millions killed in Hitler's genocide. Gramps with a gun. A security guard was killed, most likely because his employer ... you'll love this ... Wackenhut Security, failed to respond to his union reps request for protective gear. 

A few days ago, a Muslim convert cut down a young Army private and wounded another outside of a recruiting office in Arkansas. Add Dr. Tiller's murder, and we've got a bona fide uptick.

Since FOX is not taking responsibility ... in fact, in pure Orwellian style is pointing to Liberals as the problem and this elder murderer as a "left-winger" ... for their hate talk turned hate crimes, I'd suspect it will get worse. I read an interesting piece that suggested that FOX hasn't just created a separate reality for newscast, but manifested a separate universe for sore losers and hatemongers; we've suspected that for years, but now we're seeing the ramifications.

 

First Amendment rights may or may not cover the kind of screed with which these people ... Beck and O'Reilly and Scarborough ... pollute the airwaves, as yelling fire in a crowded theatre might apply at this point. You have to wonder if muzzling the worst of it would improve a situation gone toxic, but good sense seems beyond these people; they're deeply in their delusions ... they're nuts and they're armed.

It would be lovely, in these dark times of purging and anxiety, if we could be confident that everything was being done to pour soothing oil on these ancient wounds of hatred -- but alas, we still have FOX Infotainment whipping up the blood lust. FOX's Shep Smith, credit where it's due, seems to have a grip and some concern; but since Rush [Himself] chided him to chill, I wouldn't be holding my breath for change or remorse.

James von Brunn [well, of freakin-course] is still alive and will probably, like Tiller's killer, become an anti-hero and mouthpiece for his cause. The spin is tornadic. As Eric Kleefeld quipped, quoted over at TPM, "How long will it be until white supremacists claim that the shooting at the Holocaust Museum never happened?" If you want a little peek at what the skinheads are thinking, go here -- mostly they're just pissed that he bungled so badly.

None of this is random, which is why the FOX daily fare remains so worrisome. Buzz Flash offers books to support their blog, bless 'em -- their latest is Leonard Zeskind's, Blood and Politics: The History of the White Nationalist Movement from the Margins to the Mainstream. Here's what Drew S. Days III, Yale Law professor and former U.S. Solicitor General, had to say about it:

“We are all in Leonard Zeskind's debt. Exhaustively researched, Blood and Politics is not only a brilliant account of the origins, modes of operation, collaborations, and internecine disputes of white supremacist, neo-Nazi, Holocaust-denier, and anti-Semitic groups in America, but alerts us to the fact that despite—or perhaps because of—significant improvements in race relations and changing demographic patterns, we are likely to witness a resurgence of their activities.”

One last comment -- I'm getting vile e-mail ... paranoid and hysterical and apocalyptic ... from otherwise rational Righty friends and family; this influence is not just passing through the darker members of society. This crap is out there; along with an urgency that deems knee-jerk action both 'patriotic' and necessary. I find this trend more than just a little disturbing, especially the fantasy that we want all their guns -- the note von Brunn left in his car started thus: "You want my weapons -- this is how you'll get them."

 

It's all illogical, but that's the way of things -- the Right spent eight years venting its spleen in attack against terror, and now ... without power to terrorize the world ... their extremists are terrorizing us. One way or another, they REALLY want to break this nation, don't they! So, if the weather doesn't get ya, or the economy -- be on the lookout for some old goat with a gun.

Below, a collection on the non-randomness of this violence, including a nice four-paragraph rant from Michael Seitzman entitled, Maybe He's Just a Dick -- updates on the Tiller murder -- and a couple of articles, bottom, that illuminate the growing problems with police brutality, here and in England.

Tip. Iceberg. Yadda. 

 

And speaking of tornado's, I'm [hopefully] on the other side of two straight days of same, along with thunderstorms and deluge; news reported 250,000 lightening strikes one evening, and a tornado tore up ground just six miles from the Patch. This post is tardy ... but getting out and about on-line hasn't been primary in my mind.

Jude


 
Glenn Beck Spins the Holocaust Museum Shooting
Joseph A. Palermo, HuffPo
June 10, 2009
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joseph-a-palermo/glenn-beck-spins-the-holo_b_214118.html

Yesterday afternoon Glenn Beck and two of his guests argued that Adolph Hitler and the Nazi Party were "leftwing"; that "political correctness" led the committed white supremacist, James Von Brunn, to shoot a security guard at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC; and that ultimately President Barack Obama is the one responsible for the violence because his "bailouts" and "Socialistic" policies are engendering widespread anger. Beck denounced those who claim he is "churning the pot" because, he says, "the pot is already boiling."

Seeing this spectacle with subtitles at the gym led me to wonder if there are any laws on the books against using the public airwaves to incite violence. Because that is clearly what Beck is doing. I only caught about ten minutes of the show (about all I can stand) and it was a white reactionary tour de force -- incendiary, stupid, and racist.

In Beck's world President Obama brings "identity politics" and "political correctness" to the White House, and it's the "Left" that is "racist" because unlike conservatives, who judge people only on their individual merits and character (the three white men sitting at Beck's table nodding in agreement), all liberals see is people of different races and classes and genders, which "divides" America. And Obama's "socialistic" policies are leading people of dubious sanity to become unglued, and therefore the outbreak of right-wing violence is Obama's fault. Talk about spin! Only through a conscious and disingenuous effort could anyone link the shooting at the Holocaust Museum to President Obama.

Beck and his guests at the opening of his show all agreed that the Nazis were not rightwing but a bunch of leftwingers (like Obama and Nancy Pelosi). That is pretty weird when you think about how that tidbit of agitprop must disappoint a lot of white supremacists. All those white guys who hail Hitler and the Nazis because they were so good at kicking the crap out of Socialists, labor unionists, Communists and Soviets, women who didn't know their place, and even "degenerate" Dadaists and surrealists, and don't forget the Jews. What self-respecting Neo-Nazi or Ku Klux Klansman (or good ol' boy at the Council of Conservative Citizens) wants to hear that Hitler was like Michael Moore and Al Franken? But it doesn't matter because Beck is not appealing to his viewers' brains but to their guts. And all those "isms" sound the same to 'em anyhow.

And since this James Von Brunn guy targeted a museum where the murder of millions of Jews is memorialized Beck took the opportunity to run a short audio clip of an interview he had with Benjamin Netanyahu three years ago. He then segued into a riff on how our currently tough economic times will lead some people to scapegoat Jews and that means that Israel should bomb Iran right away.

Somewhere behind Beck's talking points there is real thinking going on. No one should dismiss Beck as a hack or "entertainer." He is a propagandist.

It's also clear that Beck and his fans just can't get over the fact that a black man is now their president.

The television and radio producers behind Beck's shows are bright, highly educated Republican strategists at FOX News who are expert at calculating each talking point for the host to pull on the jingoistic heartstrings of his viewers. And it works. Beck's writers are creative people because they've found numerous ingenious ways to denounce Obama because he's black but in ways that don't sound racist.

Beck's good at what he does. I'm sure his viewers get fired up during every show. He's also dangerous. He talks up a grand conspiracy of liberals and "Socialists" who are destroying everything that makes America great and constantly uses alarmist rhetoric as if the whole country is falling apart around us. He does so by emoting on command and with practiced histrionics. If I were Beck I wouldn't have guests who bring up the Third Reich to elucidate their views about what America is currently going through. ++


Conservative Media Freaked Out Over DHS Report On Right Wing Extremists (VIDEO)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/11/conservative-media-freake_n_214227.html

Conservative Group Still Selling Proud "Right-Wing Extremist" Cards
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/11/conservative-group-still_n_214336.html

Falling For Your Own Spin
Josh Marshall, TPM
06.11.09

It is certainly true that white supremacists and neo-Nazis are not simply a more advanced or extreme articulations of what mainstream Republicans or conservatives believe. But it is half bizarre and half comic that in the bubble of the Goldberg-era National Review it has actually become a 'paradox' or a bizarre leap of reasoning to state what everyone else in the world finds transparently obvious and unremarkable -- namely that neo-Nazism and white supremacy are forms of violent extremism of the right.

Here's Andy McCarthy today at the Corner ...

So what does that leave us with? A lunatic who killed an abortion doctor (and was vigorously condemned by conservatives for doing so), and an 88-year-old white supremacist of the Nazi bent (which somehow makes him a rightwing savage -- a paradox Jonah has written a book about) who killed a guard with a shotgun at the Holocaust Museum.

It's always a sign of danger for a political movement when they actually start believing their own agitprop, claptrap and bamboozlement. ++


Maybe He's Just a Dick
Michael Seitzman, Screenwriter, Director, Producer - HuffPo
June 11, 2009
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-seitzman/new-face-same-monster_b_214298.html

Let's get this straight. This guy who walked into the Holocaust Museum and opened fire wasn't "disgruntled," or "frustrated by the economy," or by his "struggles as an artist." This guy is a murderer. He is a racist. He is a monster. Period.

Excuse me if I don't want to hear people explain the "reasons" behind the actions of the profoundly unreasonable. Ever read a book about Hitler? He was a frustrated artist? Hungry for attention? Couldn't get laid? Sorry, but that's a pretty apt description of the average screenwriter in Hollywood and I'm pretty sure none of us have ever invaded Poland.

A few years ago I was overseas at a birthday party for a director I was working with, during which her friends practically attacked me when they heard my American accent -- you know, Bush and Iraq and all the rest. The director explained their appalling behavior by casually remarking that, "It's probably because you're Jewish. " Um, excuse me? She then said, "Everyone knows that most of the people in your government are Jews." Yes, of course everyone knows that... at the Schutstaffel reunion.

This is the problem. This particular brand of imbecile is everywhere. They have children. They vote. Some even have their own radio talk shows and spew their anger and hatred in between commercial breaks and into the ears of some witless scumbag hunched in his dank basement, polishing the gun he fetishizes along with his mother's underwear, the gun he's going to point into a crowd of people in a shopping mall, a college auditorium, or a museum built to honor the innocents who lost their lives to this asshole's heroes. ++


Death at the Holocaust Museum and the Degradation of the American Dialogue
Michael Rowe, HuffPo
6/11/09
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-rowe/the-holocaust-museum-shoo_b_214133.html

Ann Coulter, the self-described "conservative Christian" right-wing talking head, is much on my mind as I contemplate the horrifying images that came out of Washington from the Holocaust Museum, where white supremacist James von Brunn opened fire in an attempted mass-murder of Jews. His killing spree was cut short by security guard Stephen Tyrone Jones who put himself in the line of fire and died so others might live.

I am remembering an October 2007 segment of the Donny Deutsch Show where Coulter asserted that America would be better off if everyone was Christian and that "the Jews" merely needed to be "perfected" through conversion.

Coulter has made her fortune by generating, fanning, and nurturing hatred and contempt for a variety of people, including liberals, Democrats, gays, foreign nationals, 9/11 widows, feminists, single mothers, Muslims, and any other group she could throw to her disenfranchised readership as shark bait.

To Coulter, referring to Jews as "imperfect" on a talk show hosted by an observant Jewish host must have seemed like just another day at the office. Coulter shook her blond hair and tittered, as though waiting to be found witty, charming, and adorably irascible. Oh Ann, you minx! You're just pushing everyone's buttons, aren't you? Shame on you, you dead-sexy fascist pin-up. Stop teasing. You don't really mean that. I mean, not really, right? Right?

Deutsch, clearly appalled, pointed out that the comment was not only patently absurd, but also hateful. Coulter giggled. A gold crucifix gleamed against her bony clavicle. "No," she said, "it's not hateful at all."

This week, nearly two years later, James von Brunn, driven by his own twisted version of Coulter's publicly-proclaimed perspectives regarding the "imperfection" of Jews, entered the Holocaust Museum in Washington and put them into action, with tragic and deadly consequences.

Much the same thing happened on May 31st when Scott Roeder entered the Reformation Lutheran Church during Sunday services and slaughtered abortion provider provider Dr. George Tiller. Media analysts continue to explore a possible continuum between Tiller's murder and FOX host Bill O'Reilly's well-documented on-air tirades against the doctor, whom he repeatedly called "Tiller the Baby Killer." O'Reilly broadcast his vendetta to millions and millions of FOX viewers already infected with evangelical superstitions and a horror of science, especially science as it applies to a woman's right to choose.

If O'Reilly had been a serious journalist or broadcaster instead of a sclerotic, chronically-aggravated right-wing rage pimp, he might have had the professional self-awareness or ethical sense to realize that he was putting George Tiller's life in danger over the more than 28 broadcasts in which he used Tiller's name. But O'Reilly, like, for Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, and indeed Coulter herself (to name only the gratin of that particular food chain) is neither of those things.

As a group, they are the pop culture equivalent of necrotic carrion beetles, crawling with insectile determination from one infected open wound in the American psyche to another. The wounds include fear of race, fear of foreigners, fear of sexuality, fear of difference, hysterical religious fundamentalism, violent nationalism, and paranoia. They lay their eggs in the infected abrasion, then scuttle away. When the eggs hatch, disgorging rage and discontent, they start counting money.

When challenged on the inherently destructive nature of their enterprise, they invariably claim that their First Amendment right to free speech is being abrogated. Or, like Ann Coulter defensively does in those instances, they cite their place on the New York Times bestseller list. Or the ratings. In other words, since people buy it, watch it, or listen to it in huge numbers, it must have merit, and it must be right.

The difference between John McCain and Sarah Palin became clearest to me in the middle of the campaign last summer.

At a town hall meeting, McCain was confronted by an elderly woman who told McCain that she was a supporter of his because Obama was "an Arab." McCain was clearly uncomfortable, and it was patently obvious why. It had nothing to do with McCain's feelings about Arabs. It had to do with an old-school Republican accidentally moving the rock, and coming face to face with what actually lived beneath it. He recognized that the woman was making an unambiguously racist statement about his opponent, and he was mortified to be asked to answer it. Even though McCain famously and horribly bungled his answer ("No ma'am, he isn't. He's a decent family man.") I knew when he meant. He was addressing the intended racial slur and disavowing it, however badly.

In that moment, I felt deeply for my Republican friends who, on some level, must also be experiencing the embarrassment and discontent of recognizing that their party had been hijacked by racists and religious fanatics who derided education and achievement as "elitist."

Sarah "Screw the Political Correctness" Palin, on the other hand, seemed right at home. She marched into those same crowds grinning and winking, and "Yoo betcha-ing" like she was onstage at the Miss Alaska pageant. While her supporters waved watermelon slices and stuffed monkeys, Palin talked about who the "real Americans" were, and who was "palling around with terrorists." She refused to address the blatant racism of her fans, or address the obvious exploitation of Obama's middle name, Hussein, and the implication she herself was making with her "terrorist" comments.

She was, after all, playing to the accurately-named Republican "base," the same crowd to whom George Bush had sold his second presidential term by pandering to their darkest and most cowardly aspect. This time out it was fear of gay marriage and adoption, carefully tended fear of another 9/11, fear of more fallout from a war they still didn't believe he'd lied about.

One can almost appreciate the horrible honesty of the racists among the McCain-Palin supporters who were able to admit what the others obfuscated: that they didn't want a black man in the White House. Certain videos from their rallies are deeply disturbing. They showcase the seething racism of her most ardent followers.

History has already recorded their obsession with Obama's origins, his religious background, and his citizenship, which remains an obsession among them today.

Obama's citizenship was reportedly also something of an obsession for von Brunn, and likely very much on his mind when he walked into the museum and opened fire to make a statement about what "his" America ought to look like. I have no trouble imagining which radio stations he listened to, or which pundits best represented his baseline political ideology. And why. Even FOX's Shep Smith has said he's disturbed by the escalating virulence and menace of the anti-Obama emails the station is receiving.

There was a time when decency, even honor, was an essential part of the American dialogue in its most ideal form, and part of its very identity. There was a time when our culture would have recoiled in horror at the vituperation flowing unchecked from radios, televisions, and the Internet, instead of applauding it as "common sense," "free speech," or "mavericky," or "a spin-free zone."

There was a time when intellectual honesty was not considered unpatriotic; when compassion for, and understanding of, your fellow man was a sign of strength, not weakness. There was a time when the phrase Have you no shame? meant something, and the First Amendment was not used as toilet paper to wipe up the excremental verbal degradation of vulnerable segments of the American population. A time when it was expected that citizens would understand the difference between free speech and irresponsible speech.

There is no Environmental Protection Agency to measure hate pollution in national dialogue, and no mechanism in place to warn us when the poisonous rage spewed into the national consciousness by shock-jocks, poisonous television pundits, megachurch leaders, and oh-so-subtle politicians, has reached dangerously toxic levels.

No, there is only the result: widows, orphans, collective grief, and an absolute refusal on the part of our loudest, coarsest voices to take any responsibility for their part in the carnage. ++


RADICAL RIGHT
The Very Real Threat Of Extremism
Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Matt Corley, Benjamin Armbruster, Ali Frick, Ryan
Powers, and Brad Johnson - Think Progress
June 11, 2009
http://pr.thinkprogress.org/2009/06/pr20090611/index.html

Yesterday's tragic shooting at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, by an "88-year-old white supremacist," is the latest in a string of right-wing extremist attacks. The number of hate groups such as the "Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis, racist skinheads and Black separatists" operating in the United States is at an all-time high, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Moreover, gun purchases since President Obama's election surged. However, when the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) declassified a report "detailing potential increases in right-wing extremism" in April, right-wing commentators and Republican politicians decried the report as a politically motivated attack on all conservatives. They claimed that "the Obama administration is targeting conservatives and others simply
because they disagree with administration policies and proposals." Ignoring that the report -- like a similar one describing the threat of left-wing extremists -- was commissioned by the Bush administration, conservatives called for the resignation of DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano. Media Matters Action Fund's Matt Finkelstein asks, "Will Republicans admit that their partisan 'outrage' was misplaced?"

A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE: The declassified DHS report warned, "Rightwing extremism in the United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely." The report further warned, "The economic downturn and the election of the first African American president present unique drivers for rightwing radicalization and recruitment." This description reflected recent extremist violence, including the July 2008 shooting spree in a Knoxville church "because of its liberal teachings," a thwarted attempt to assassinate Obama in October by two neo-Nazi skinheads, and "a racially motivated rape and murder spree in Brockton, MA" by a 22-year-old white supremacist the "day after Barack Obama was inaugurated." Since the report was issued last April, the trail of death has continued. "We have seen not only the murder of an abortion physician by a member of the radical right, but the murders of five law enforcement officers -- three police officers in Pittsburgh, two sheriff's deputies in Florida by radical right-wing extremists," SPLC's Mark Potok told CNN. "It's really been quite an extraordinary period." The Pittsburgh shooter "feared the Obama administration was poised to ban guns," and the Florida killer was "severely disturbed that Barack Obama had been elected President." In an incident earlier this month, a "lone wolf" American Muslim extremist "shot and killed Army Pvt. William Long" outside a Little Rock, AR, mall in anger over the
Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

CONSERVATIVES VS. EXTREMISTS: Conservative politicians led the attack on the DHS report. Both House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) called it "offensive." Others went further: Gun advocate Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) claimed "the report has no intelligence value and only serves to blur our constitutional protections, such as the Second Amendment," and Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) argued that "it looks like the extremists are those running the DHS." "What is the Department of Homeland Security calling us now?" Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) asked at an April 15 tea party protest. "Extremists? Well, give me a button." "Now if you disagree with that liberal path that President Obama's taken the country down," Fox News' Sean Hannity claimed, "you may soon catch the attention of the Department of Homeland Security." Texas Rep. John Carter (R-TX), after demanding Napolitano's firing on the House floor, told Politico, "Singling out political opponents for working against the ruling party is precisely the tactic of every tyrannical government from Red China to Venezuela." As Mother Jones's James Ridgeway observed, "Conservatives haven't been branded dangerous extremists by DHS or the Obama administration; they've branded themselves."

'WARNING US FOR A REASON': Following the Holocaust Museum shooting, two Fox News personalities, Shepard Smith and Catherine Herridge, suggested that critics of DHS's report on right-wing extremism should re-think their objections. "The right went absolutely bonkers" over the report, said Smith, adding that DHS was "warning us for a reason." Though some conservatives have concluded that the recent string of right-wing violence has "vindicated" the DHS report, many others disagree. Blogger and Fox News contributor Michelle Malkin, who led the charge against the DHS report, approvingly linked to a military blogger that called Smith and Herridge "pathetic." Malkin's Hot Air colleague, Ed Morrissey, defended the criticism of the report by claiming that it didn't "mention anti-semitism at all." But as Huffington Post's Sam Stein points out, the DHS report "warned specifically about an upswing of anti-Semitic behavior." "At this point it's little consolation," CBS News's Charles Cooper observes, "but Department of Homeland Security head Janet Napolitano turned out to be more prescient about domestic extremism than many of her critics." ++


Right-Wing Violence Is Very Real and Very Dangerous
Steve Benen, Washington Monthly
June 10, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/140574/right-wing_violence_is_very_real_and_very_dangerous/

In light of the shootings at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in D.C. this afternoon, allegedly committed by white supremacist James Von Brunn, Matt Yglesias noted, "I hope that everyone who mau-maued the Department of Homeland Security for expressing concern about this kind of thing feel appropriately ashamed of themselves."

It's hardly an unreasonable point. Two months ago, Richard Poplawski, a right-wing extremist, allegedly gunned down three police officers in Pittsburgh, in part because he feared the non-existent "Obama gun ban." A few weeks ago, Scott Roeder, another right-wing extremist, allegedly assassinated Dr. George Tiller in Kansas. A few hours ago, Von Brunn, another right-wing extremist, allegedly opened fire at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

There are other recent examples that bear similar characteristics. This story out of Tennessee from last year continues to haunt:

Knoxville police Sunday evening searched the Levy Drive home of Jim David Adkisson after he allegedly entered the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church and killed two people and wounded six others during the presentation of a children's musical. [...]

Inside the house, officers found "Liberalism is a Mental Health Disorder" by radio talk show host Michael Savage, "Let Freedom Ring" by talk show host Sean Hannity, and "The O'Reilly Factor," by television talk show host Bill O'Reilly.

The shotgun-wielding suspect in Sunday's mass shooting at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church was motivated by a hatred of "the liberal movement," and he planned to shoot until police shot him, Knoxville Police Chief Sterling P. Owen IV said this morning.

Adkisson, 58, of Powell wrote a four-page letter in which he stated his "hatred of the liberal movement," Owen said. "Liberals in general, as well as gays."

Obviously, we're dealing with sick individuals here. There are key differences between violent right-wing radicals and mainstream Americans who happen to be conservative. Indeed, I'm not suggesting that conservative activists are necessarily dangerous, violent people.

I am suggesting that it makes sense of the Department of Homeland Security to coordinate and communicate with law enforcement agencies about potentially violent extremists -- of every ideological stripe -- to help prevent tragedies like the ones we've seen lately.

The DHS report specifically addressed the possibility of violence from anti-abortion radicals and anti-Semitic extremists. And in the last two weeks, Tiller was assassinated and a white supremacist opened fire at the Holocaust Memorial Museum.

The Republican hysteria over the DHS report -- which was, by the way, initiated by a Bush administration official -- was always based more on a partisan scheme than reality, but the incessant complaints look especially misguided today. ++


Ann Telnaes 'toon on Tiller
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/opinions/cartoonsandvideos/telnaes/telnaes06022009.html

George Tiller's Clinic Closing Permanently
Huffpost
June 9, 2009
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/09/george-tillers-clinic-clo_n_213184.html

London's Metropolitan Police accused of waterboarding suspects
Sean O’Neill, Crime Editor, The Times
June 10, 2009
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6466430.ece

 
Metropolitan Police officers subjected suspects to waterboarding, according to allegations at the centre of a major anti-corruption inquiry, The Times has learnt.

The torture claims are part of a wide-ranging investigation which also includes accusations that officers fabricated evidence and stole suspects’ property. It has already led to the abandonment of a drug trial and the suspension of several police officers.

However, senior policing officials are most alarmed by the claim that officers in Enfield, North London, used the controversial CIA interrogation technique to simulate drowning. Scotland Yard is appointing a new borough commander in Enfield in a move that is being seen as an attempt by Sir Paul Stephenson, the Met Commissioner, to enforce a regime of “intrusive supervision”.

The waterboarding claims will fuel the debate about police conduct that has raged in the wake of hundreds of public complaints of brutality at the anti-G20 protests in April.

The part of the inquiry focusing on alleged police brutality has been taken over by the Independent Police Complaints Commission. It is examining the conduct of six officers connected to drug raids in November in which four men and a woman were arrested at addresses in Enfield and Tottenham. Police said they found a large amount of cannabis and the suspects were charged with importation of a Class C drug. The case was abandoned four months later when the Crown Prosecution Service said it would not have been in the public interest to proceed. It is understood that the trial, by revealing the torture claims, would have compromised the criminal investigation into the six officers.

None of the officers under suspicion has been arrested, but the IPCC said last night: “This is an ongoing criminal investigation and as such all six officers will be criminally interviewed under caution.”

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: “Whilst the investigation is ongoing it is not appropriate to make assumptions. These are serious allegations that raise real concern. The Met does not tolerate conduct which falls below the standards that the public and the many outstanding Met officers and staff expect.” ++


New video shows officer shove, then taser 72-year-old great grandmother
David Edwards, Raw Story
June 9, 2009
http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/06/09/new-video-shows-officer-shove-then-taser-72-year-old-grandmother/

Fox News has obtained police dashboard video of the tasering of a 72 year old great grandmother in Travis County, TX.

The police claim that after Kathryn Winkfein was stopped for driving 15 miles over the speed limit in a construction zone, she disobeyed an order to sign the speeding ticker, used profane language, and became “violent.” They say the officer who tasered her and took her to be booked for resisting arrest was completely justified.

However, Winkfein says that’s a lie, and the video appears to back her up.

It shows Constable Richard McCain screaming, “Get over here now!” Winkfein replies, “Give [the ticket] to me and I’ll sign it.” Instead, the officer reaches out and pushes her, and she starts complaining, “Oh, you’re going to shove me? You’re going to shove a seventy-two year old woman?”

McCain then tasers her. As Winkfein lies on the ground screaming, he orders, “Now put your hands behind your back. Put your hands behind your back or you’re going to be tasered again.”

Fox’s Brian Kilmeade commented after running the video, “Officers insisted they acted by the book. What book is that?”

[open for] video from Fox News’ Fox & Friends, broadcast June 9, 2009. ++

"I'm asking you to believe. Not just in my ability to bring about real change in Washington ... I'm asking you to believe in yours."
~ Barack Obama

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