Category: police terrorism
Amid International Outcry, Venezuelan Officials allege Blackwater, U.S. and Canadian Links to Thwarted Coup
| February 17, 2015 | 7:48 pm | Analysis, International, National, police terrorism, political struggle, Venezuela | Comments closed

Source: Venezuelanalysis

By Lucas Koerner
Caracas, February 16, 2015 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – New revelations  in Venezuela have linked U.S. private security firm Blackwater, now known as Academi, to the aircraft that was to be used as part of Thursday’s thwarted “Blue Coup” attempt.
The four-stage plan included economic war, an international media offensive against the Venezuelan government, political destabilization fomenting ungovernability, and finally the use of a Super Tucano aircraft to strike “tactical targets” in the capital, such as the Presidential Palace, teleSur, and military intelligence
The coup was planned for the one-year anniversary of violent opposition protests known as the Guarimba and was to come one day after a public statement by leading opposition leaders calling for a “transition”.
According to U.S. aviation records, the EMB-314B1 or “Super Tucano” aircraft in question was acquired  from Brazilian manufacturer Embraer by the firm Blackwater Worldwide in 2008 allegedly for the purpose of pilot training. Registered under the serial number N314TG, the aircraft is, moreover, the only one of its kind sold by the Brazilian firm to a private company.
The Super Tucano is a light, highly agile Brazilian aircraft designed principally for pilot training and counterinsurgency operations. The aircraft has an operational range that extends from the U.S. to any point in Colombia, and has been widely used in Colombian counterinsurgency operations, including in the 2008 assassination of FARC second-in-command Raul Reyes in violation of Ecuadorian sovereignty.
While Venezuela does have its own fleet of 12 Super Tucanos, all aircraft are currently grounded and undergoing major repairs, stated President Nicolas Maduro, whilst offering further evidence regarding the foreign origin of the aircraft.
Blackwater has a checkered human rights record. Several of its contractors have been indicted in U.S. courts for their role in the 2007 massacre of Iraqi civilians, and Jeremy Scahill, national security correspondent for the Nation, has documented the firm’s role in the CIA’s global assassination program.
National Assembly President Accuses Canadian and UK Officials of Involvement
On Friday, National Assembly President, Diosdado Cabello, alleged that officials at the Canadian and British embassies had links to the failed coup attempt, in a new round of revelations surrounding the attempted putsch.
Cabello claimed that a Canadian official by the name of Nancy Birbek was investigating the contingency plans of the Arturo Michelena airport in Valencia.
“On Monday, together with another Canadian embassy official, this woman identified as Nancy Birbeck, was inquiring about the capacities of that same [airport] for special cases. Is this woman asking about the capacities of the airport for cases of contingency?”
The National Assembly President went on to indicate that he also had evidence that an official from the British embassy as well as a staff member of the U.S. embassy charged with overseeing visas had links to the thwarted coup plot.
For his part, President Nicolas Maduro has alleged that the U.S. government is behind the coup, accusing U.S. embassy personnel of attempting to “bribe” Venezuelan armed forces officials. The Venezuelan head of state also claimed that one unnamed U.S. official was responsible for authoring the “script” that was to be publicly broadcast by military officials on the day of the coup claiming that the armed forces had risen up against the government.
International Outcry 
In the wake of Thursday’s foiled coup plot, the Bolivarian government of Nicolas Maduro has received a raft of messages of support from regional leaders and civil society organizations alike.
On Saturday, the Latin American Parliament, a regional consultative assembly representing the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, issued a statement condemning the thwarted coup attempt. President of the regional body, Angel Rodriguez, called for a comprehensive investigation by Venezuelan prosecutors and advised Venezuelan citizens to remain “alert” in the face of destabilization efforts by “extremist groups” which he indicated were backed by the United States.
Moreover, the Secretary General of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) Ernesto Samper also rejected the coup attempt and expressed support for President Nicolas via his twitter account.
Gang Stalking=Counterintelligence – Did the CIA Drug Paul Robeson – a Look at Mk Ultra
| February 16, 2015 | 9:21 pm | African American Culture, African American history, International, National, Paul Robeson, police terrorism, Struggle for African American equality | Comments closed

The annoying peasant
| February 6, 2015 | 9:29 pm | humor, International, police terrorism, political struggle | Comments closed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAaWvVFERVA&sns=em

Anarchy or Revolution
| January 25, 2015 | 9:31 pm | Anarchism, Frederick Engels, Karl Marx, police terrorism, political struggle, V.I. Lenin | Comments closed

karl marxBy James Thompson

 

Karl Marx writes in the sixth paragraph of the Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (1859):

 

“In the social production of their existence, men inevitably enter into definite relations, which are independent of their will, namely relations of production appropriate to a given stage in the development of their material forces of production. The totality of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on which arises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness. The mode of production of material life conditions the general process of social, political and intellectual life. It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but their social existence that determines their consciousness. At a certain stage of development, the material productive forces of society come into conflict with the existing relations of production or – this merely expresses the same thing in legal terms – with the property relations within the framework of which they have operated hitherto. From forms of development of the productive forces these relations turn into their fetters. Then begins an era of social revolution. The changes in the economic foundation lead sooner or later to the transformation of the whole immense superstructure.”

 

Marx teaches us that “The mode of production of material life conditions the general process of social, political and intellectual life.”

 

In a previous post on this website “Frederick Engels on Bukunin’s School of Anarchy”, A. Shaw notes that Engels made the case that Anarchists view the state as the ultimate evil and routinely abstain from the political struggle in any meaningful way. In short, Anarchists have a phobia of political struggle. They are extremely successful in persuading people on the left, people of conscience and progressives generally from participating fully in the political struggle in the United States. This is easily confirmed by the pathetic numbers of people who vote.

 

According to Time magazine, the 2014 midterm elections voter turnout reached a 72 year low and only 36.4% of eligible voters actually voted. Researchers Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page maintained that the US political system has transformed from a democracy into an oligarchy where wealthy elites control most political power. The researchers maintain

“The central point that emerges from our research is that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy,” they write, “while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence.”

If this is true, then it is obvious that those people who control the means of production in the United States control the political process as well. The people who control the means of production in the United States, obviously, are the capitalist class, commonly referred to as the 1%.

 

Marx taught us and examination of the current mode of production easily reveals that market economies are anarchistic in form and content. In other words, market economies are ideologically anarchistic.

 

Dictionary definitions of anarchism include components such as “rejection of authority” and “absence of government and absolute freedom of the individual, regarded as a political ideal.” Synonyms of anarchy include “lawlessness, nihilism, disorder, chaos, mayhem, tumult, turmoil.” It should be pointed out that nihilism, particularly that form of nihilism expressed by Friedrich Nietzsche, was the dominant ideology of Nazi Germany.

 

Few would argue that there is no worship of the “absolute freedom of the individual” in the US today.

 

Few would argue that the distribution of wealth in the USA is not uneven and that the market economy of the US is not chaotic.

 

An examination of current social relations in the USA reveals absolute anarchy in social, intellectual and political life. Mainstream media conceals the reality of the conduct of the US government every day. Low voter turnout hands elections over to the 1% without a fight. Movies, video games and the Internet have produced a culture based on violence and chaos never before seen in the history of mankind.

 

Lawlessness, including police terrorism, is rampant across the nation.

 

The US military violates international law and terrorizes working people around the globe.

 

Economic warfare waged by the US ruling class creates chaos, anarchy, terror and psychological dysfunction domestically and internationally.

 

Bizarre behavior among humans in the USA has become the new norm. All of this is a reflection of the chaos and anarchy of the mode of production, i.e. the market economy.

 

In his “Letters on Tactics”, Lenin defined revolution as the passing of state power from one class to another.Lenin

 

People on the left in the United States give a lot of lip service to “revolution.” However, all too often people on the left equate revolution with anarchy. They don’t seem to have a clue about how to acquire state power. Of course, by playing into the hands of the anarchists, people on the left play into the hands of the capitalists.

 

Anarchists, because of their phobia of political struggle, routinely abstain from meaningful political activity. Abstention from political activity is abstention from the struggle to acquire state power. Abstention from political activity is therefore abstention from revolution. Abstention from revolution means a free ride for the 1%. Anarchy is therefore antithetical to revolutionary struggle.

 

People in the US have a choice in front of them. They can continue to worship individualism and anarchy and abdicate their political power to the 1% or they can unite, organize and fight for the interests of working people which include accessible education, healthcare, housing, legal justice and freedom from oppression, exploitation and racism in all its forms. So, working people must choose between anarchy or revolution.

Woman Shocked to See Brother’s Mug Shot Used as Police Target Practice
| January 17, 2015 | 8:22 pm | National, police terrorism | Comments closed

http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2015/01/woman_shocked_to_see_brother_s_mug_shot_photo_used_as_police_target_practice.html

NAACP Legal Defense Fund files a potential game changer in the case against Darren Wilson
| January 9, 2015 | 9:59 pm | police terrorism | Comments closed

Tue Jan 06, 2015 at 09:28 AM PST

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/01/06/1355899/-NAACP-Legal-Defense-Fund-files-a-potential-game-changer?showAll=yes

byShaun King

Sherrilyn Ifill

At a time when most people have given up on any semblance of justice for slain Ferguson teenager Mike Brown, Sherrilyn Ifill and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund have made what may be the biggest game changing request in the case yet.According to Missouri law, a Missouri Circuit Court Judge has the power to appoint a Special Prosecutor in any case in which a citizen has not yet been indicted and prosecutorial misconduct is alleged. The judge with jurisdiction in the case against former Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson is Maura McShane.

The NAACP Legal Defense Fund, in their open letter to McShane, makes an extremely compelling case for misconduct by St. Louis Prosecutor Bob McCullough and his staff. In the nine-page letter, Ifill and the NAACP LDF thoroughly detail three instances of misconduct. One is enough to appoint a special prosecutor.

In summary the letter details the following:

1. How prosecutors violated Missouri law and professional ethics for calling a witness they’ve since admitted they knew did not witness the shooting and was not at the scene. They not only called her once, but twice, and encouraged her to bring physical evidence on her second visit. This witness, Sandy McElroy, perjured herself over 100 times.

2. Prosecutors consistently made documented mistakes in the essential instructions they gave to the grand jurors. MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell masterfully details one such mistake here.

3. Legal analysts and now an actual member of the grand jury felt strongly that Bob McCulloch and his team acted as de facto defense attorneys for Darren Wilson and that it often appeared as if Mike Brown was on trial instead of Darren Wilson.

Please read the full letter from Sherrilyn Ifill below.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/01/06/1355899/-NAACP-Legal-Defense-Fund-files-a-potential-game-changer?showAll=yes

90% of NYPD Arrests Unnecessary: Broken Windows Policy A Failure
| January 8, 2015 | 7:38 pm | Analysis, National, police terrorism | Comments closed

  By Angelo | January 8, 2015 – 6:20 PM | Uncategorized

 http://nymetrocommunistparty.org/?p=815

NYPD Protest

by Jessica Coco, PCUSA Women’s Commission

The “Broken Windows” theory of policing has shaped New York City since the 1990’s, with police under tons of pressure to make arrests and issue summonses for nonviolent offenses that aren’t even against the law – anything to get poor people and people of color out of public view, and make the city safe for business and real estate to jack up the rents and make middle- and upper-class New Yorkers feel safer.

Until now. This week, as a political ploy to put pressure on a mayor they say is their enemy, the NYPD has called off business as usual. The leading police union issued a memo telling all officers that “NO enforcement action in the form of arrests and/or summonses” is to be taken “unless absolutely necessary.”

The result? Arrests have dropped by 90%.

Think about that. The NYPD has just let us know that 90% of the arrests they make are unnecessary. “The reported offenses they aren’t enforcing as much are [mostly] not criminal offenses: parking violations, urination in public, public intoxication, as well as some marijuana possession. Do we really want over 4,000 people a week locked up for peeing behind a dumpster?”  asked Marc Krupanski, a program officer at the Open Society Justice Initiative, in an article in Vice Magazine.

Our members are the people who have been hit the hardest by broken windows policing. Homeless people face harassment and ticketing and arrest on a daily basis by the NYPD. The city spends billions of dollars to criminalize and persecute and arrest and try and incarcerate the poorest of the poor – but won’t spend a dime of that on getting people housing.

So we asked our members – what should New Yorkers learn from this work stoppage?

Chris: This NYPD scare tactic is idiotic. They’ve basically just said to us “90% of the work that we do is unnecessary.” All this taxpayer money being wasted to lock someone up for a bag of weed or someone peeing behind a dumpster?

Dave: So all that crap with Broken Windows was unnecessary. That was overkill. The PBA is not the Policemen’s Benevolent Association. It’s PMA – the Policemen’s Malevolent Association.

Thirteen: I talk to cops. I talk to the brass, even. Police are not down with making bogus arrests. That’s why top cops have been quitting. Unnecessary arrests just make people mad at cops. That’s why people hate cops. When I was a kid the police knew everyone in the neighborhood. We need to get back to that model of community policing.

Scott: They can do a lot with the money they save with this. A 90% reduction in the amount taxpayers spend on incarceration could pay for a lot of public restrooms… to say nothing of housing.

Maria: They need to listen to what we have to say. They’re wasting our time in courtrooms, making us miss work, getting us logged out of shelters, and now we see how unnecessary that was.

Sidat: We need to drive home that they’re not supposed to be arresting people in the first place. This is going to end – they’re going to return to business as usual. They don’t . So we need to get the public behind us to say “OK, you’ve admitted how little of what you do is about protecting people, let’s do things differently.”?
NYPD protesters

Andres: We need to hit the streets with cameras. Cop Watch. Keep them behind the law. Let them know someone is watching.

Dave: They need to apply Broken Windows to Wall Street. Everyone who steals a stapler, every banker who gets a bonus for kicking someone out of their home. Send some lawyers to jail, let some rich people feel what it feels like, and you’ll see things change pretty fast. The PBA, and individual officers, should be the ones held financially responsible for settlements of lawsuits. Having taxpayers pick up the bill for cops violating people’s rights creates no incentive on cops to behave.

Nikita: Our communities are missing so many resources. Housing, education – they need to take this money and use it in the neighborhoods they’re systematically depleting through gentrification and overpolicing, so that we can uplift ourselves.

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