Brother Dean Busted.

Dean Frederick Saxton, who made a name for himself by telling women they 'deserve' rape (Screen cap).

Dean Frederick Saxton, who made a name for himself by telling women they ‘deserve’ rape (Screen cap).

Finally, this asshole has been arrested. It’s about damn time. Unfortunately, this plague on the UofA campus saw a slap given, banning Saxton from the campus for one year, and he has 10 days to contest this. Why not go for a permanent ban, UofA? How about letting your students know they are most important, rather than supplying targets for Saxton’s brand of hatred and harm? Grow a bloody spine, and ban this asshole forever, take out a restraining order, whatever you have to do, because do you really want to be known as the adult leaders who thought it was okay to have a man on campus, yelling at students that they deserved to be raped? How about all the students who agree with him, and might take this as encouragement to act?

bro

TUCSON, AZ (Tucson News Now) –

A controversial street preacher known as Brother Dean has been accused of assaulting a University of Arizona student, authorities said.

Rene Hernandez, a spokesperson for the University of Arizona Police Department, said Dean Frederick Saxton was arrested around 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 20.

Saxton has been accused of kicking a woman in the chest and has been banned from the UA campus for one year.

Sgt. Filbert Barrera, spokesman for the UAPD, said Saxon was given an one-year exclusionary order and has 10 days to contest it.

Saxton was booked into the Pima County Jail on an assault charge. Bond was set at $641 and he is expected to appear in court.

Via Tucson News Now.

“Locked the Black Bitch Out”

bb

I’m so livid!! We all know Racism is alive and well (whether you like to admit it or not). When said acts of racism happen at your school, it is infuriating and heart breaking. My friend left her phone in her room and the three kids pictured below took her phone and took the snapchat pictured below. The captioned it “locked the black bitch out”. My friend was not aware that they had done this and didn’t even realize they had put this on her snapchat story until another friend of ours pointed it out. The University of North Dakota needs to take action against these students for this blatant act of racism.

Once again, Ndakota demonstrates its jolly spirit of racism and sexism. Hey, girls – that’s not a joke. That’s not a prank. It’s rank racism and the vile stench is now wafting across the internet. Supposedly, you’re in university to learn something, not be caught up in toxic arrested development. Supposedly, you’re women now, and you should be forging chains of solidarity with other women. But no, you chose the racist, sexist idiot route. Thanks ever for making the place I live even worse.

Naturally, UND made some understated noises, all of which amounted to “in the process of gathering information.” Not much different from “well, we need to investigate.”  Christ on a stick, I’m tired of those bloody shopworn phrases. I’ll hope something is done, but it will be a small hope. After all, this is Ndakota, where racism is considered a lively and cherished sport.

This was UND’s response:

Have a care reading the comments, because there’s a healthy amount of racist stupid on display:

Oh look, once again we see anything a white student does being relegated to a harmless mistake. FFS.

Via Raw Story.

Facebook, Oh Facebook VIII.

State Sen. Jason Rapert (Facebook).

State Sen. Jason Rapert (Facebook).

Arkansas Senator Jason Rapert went on another screedfest on facebook, had his posts removed, and the Bully of Bigelow proceeded to whine about it so much that FB restored his nasty bigotry rants. Mr. Rapert isn’t like very much by his constituents, who appear disgusted but not in the least surprised.

Arkansas Times reports that Rapert is claiming vindication after Facebook has decided to restore posts he wrote over the weekend where he declared his support for rounding up and deporting not just Muslim extremists, but “every single Muslim extremist sympathizer and other anti-American crazies.”

“Regardless of who is responsible for these events today – we need to round up every single Muslim extremist sympathizer and other anti-American crazies and detain them or deport them,” wrote Rapert in response to the mass stabbing that occurred in a Minnesota mall and the dumpster bombing in Manhattan. “And for goodness sake – stop bringing more Muslims into this nation.”

Rapert also said that Muslims “wait for every opportunity to convert Americans to Islam or kill the infidels — that is what their holy book the Koran instructs them to do.”

I can’t even work up an eyeroll for this isht anymore. Just what does your bible tell you to do, Mr. Rapert? It wouldn’t have anything at all to do with converting people, preaching that gospel, saving souls or constantly committing genocide on people who were somewhat different (or had something “god’s people” wanted). It’s the same fucking religion, you idiot! Same god! Oh, and I’m fairly sure the Quran doesn’t specifically mention America, anymore than any version of the bible, you flaming idiot.

Well, in the end, FB caved to this genocidally minded puffbag of idiocy. Shame, that, because I think these posts are terror-focused. They are certainly filled with hate and the desire to harm.

Via Arkansas Times, Arkansas Online, and Raw Story.

No DAPL: The Optics Say Birmingham 1963…

Stand with Standing Rock #No DAPL

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Alex Jacobs has an excellent column up at ICTMN.

The Optics Say Birmingham 1963, but It’s Standing Rock 2016, Or could it be Selma 1965, Bloody Sunday, when the President had to federalize the National Guard. Many of the water and land protectors may feel it’s like the Greasy Grass Fight in 1876, Alcatraz 1969 or Wounded Knee 1973. A new generation of activists are being passed the drums and pipes. But right now they need lawyers and funds to bail them out of North Dakota jails. Dozens more were arrested at the Red Warrior Camp including media with their cameras (probably to be used as evidence). If hundreds of the protectors went in to get arrested that would shut down the system. Perhaps shut down the camps too, but more people will come to sneak past the checkpoints, just like 1973.

The land they are on, folks keep calling it private property or Army Corps of Engineers land. But the Oceti Sakowin say the land was theirs until the Army Corps of Engineers at the behest of North Dakota politicians came in and flooded Standing Rock and Cheyenne River lands where Lake Oahe is now. There was no consultation and no compensation for their homelands, for this violation of the Ft. Laramie Treaty of 1868. Now it’s where the Dakota Access Pipeline threatens to be built 100 feet below, crossing the Missouri River three times. The Indians say the whites flooded the river, stole their land and left them nothing but poverty.

What we Natives are fighting, among many things, is the perceived numbers against us. We cannot deny that we are the very bottom 2% of the population. For every person talking about #NoDAPL and #Standing Rock, nine are arguing over various media distractions. But don’t get mad, just get even. Keep talking, texting, tweeting, posting, writing about #NoDAPL, Sacred Stone, Red Warrior, the indigenous activists coming from around the world and Lawrence O’Donnell too. Billionaire Kelcy Warren set-up his Energy Transfer Partners as a Master Limited Partnership (MLP) company which does not pay taxes. North Dakota politicians are in lock step with the oil & gas industries, Congressman Kevin Cramer as an energy advisor – and climate change denier – to Donald Trump (see no evil), Senator John Hoeven who sits on both Native American and Energy Committees (hear no evil), and Senator Heidi Heitcamp’s non-sequitur responses who also sits on a Native American Committee (say no evil). Is this a pattern of conflict of interests in North Dakota?

Natives are told to go home, do your protest legally, petition the government as citizens do and depend on the courts. Sovereignty, treaties, environmental justice?

Kelcy Warren and the ETP strategy is to keep buying up weaker pipeline, oil & gas companies, because the price of oil is low. The plan for DAPL/ETP in Iowa was all this dirty fracked Bakken oil in the pipelines was for domestic consumption. But Congress changed the 40 year ban to allow U.S. companies to export crude oil, this dirty fracked Bakken oil, to counter the oil price war the Saudis have unleashed on the world. All thanks to Warren’s friend, ex-Texas Governor Rick Perry who joined the board of ETP and lobbied to end the ban.

It’s no longer about American Energy Independence but outright profits for the U.S. and foreign banks who’ve invested in a futures deal to get cheap oil to their countries. The biggest problem for the citizenry (and for ETP) is that these huge pipelines need to be full to maximize profits. Bakken crude is dirty and needs to be heated to move better. This bakes the soil and along with oil and brine spills, the once black fertile land becomes useless. ETP heats, cools, or liquefies the oil & gas for its 70,000 miles of pipelines and is aiming for a goal of 150,000 miles. ETP says, “this is a growth project” and they are “exceptionally well positioned to capitalize on U.S. energy exports.” So forget any carbon reduction and pollution treaties, this sets the stage for more fracking and environmental degradation for years.

[…]

But the nation and the world is watching now. I remember the story, the Crow scouts told Lt. Col. Custer the day they looked down at the biggest gathering of Indians anyone had seen. You don’t have enough bullets for all the Indians down there. Custer didn’t believe, didn’t care about those numbers.

We got to think like that, that whatever they think they got, we got more. They fight for a paycheck. We fight for all we got and all we will have and all that we lost. We got them now. Now it’s them stuck in the past trying to impose a nationwide system of pipelines that will degrade the environment for the next 50 years. The Native water and land protectors, #NoDAPL, the Raging Grannies, farmers and ranchers of Iowa, Bold Nebraska now Bold Alliance that took down Keystone XL, all need to prepare to fight for the future. The country needs to rebuild its infrastructure, go into debt if need be to create millions of jobs not just thousands, with new transmission lines for all manner of green energy projects and not just pipelines. This is the time to start the switch to renewables.

Remember The Greasy Grass River 140 years ago. They don’t have enough “bullets” if we all stand up.

I’m just going to add a reminder here: when you read or hear “light and sweet” or “like olive oil” in regard to oil, remember that you’re drinking oil’s kool-aid. It’s marketing. They want people to think of honey or other food, because in our minds, we consign honey, syrup, or plant oils to the good category. If this oil was that manner of good, it wouldn’t poison land and water. If this oil was that manner of good, the white people of Bismarck wouldn’t have gotten upset about the pipeline running north of them. It’s toxic. It’s poison. It kills. It renders water into death, not life. It is inimical to life. Oil is invested in this type of marketing so that people won’t question, won’t try to stop them. They count on such marketing to keep the majority of people on their side of things.

Via ICTMN.

Priorities.

From DL Hughley: Another unarmed black man gunned down by police on video, but Zika is an Epidemic? I’ll worry about a mosquito when it can carry a badge!

All I can say to that is word. A word that needs to spread and spread and spread, until we are all screaming for accountability. The murders must stop.

I saw this in Mr. Hughley’s twitter stream, and laughed:

Donald Trump: Why isn’t President Obama working instead of campaigning for Hillary Clinton?

George Takei: As Commander-in-Chief, he is sworn to protect us from threats both foreign and domestic. You, sir, are the latter.

Via https://twitter.com/RealDLHughley

Scalp the Indians.

Via Twitter.

Via Twitter.

 

A miniature float designed for Coweta High School’s indoor homecoming parade has sparked outrage with Native Americans across the community that has spread to include a national audience.

A photo of the float appeared on social media Thursday afternoon. It was a covered wagon with the words “Scalp the Indians” on the side, with a mannequin of a Native American man hanging out from the back end.

The Coweta Tigers are hosting the Catoosa Indians in homecoming football action Friday night.

In a Facebook message to the Wagoner County American-Tribune, Sierra Bowen said she was “completely disgusted at the fact that Coweta High School has decorated this wagon for their homecoming.”

“I grew up in and graduated from Coweta and I was raised much better than this,” Bowen wrote. “I did not want to come home to my home school for homecoming and see something like this on the field. This is so disrespectful.”

Katrina Jacuk posted a similar sentiment on the Coweta American Facebook page.

“Leadership at Coweta High School has permitted this to be displayed at the high school. How ignorant are these educators and students as to the history of our town, Koweta, along with the genocide of Natives that have been murdered since 1491?” Jacuk wrote in her post. “This is disgraceful and morally repugnant and creates a hostile environment for Native students at our school.”

[…]

Friday morning, Coweta Superintendent Jeff Holmes told the newspaper the homecoming float issue was brought to his attention after school on Thursday.

“The high school principal (Gary Ellis) was notified via social media and he immediately took action to find out about the float and investigate,” Holmes told the American-Tribune in an exclusive interview. “He let me know that he immediately disassembled the float. As soon as he found about it, he was taking action.”

The superintendent said students have been making floats all week throughout the entire school. Investigation continues to determine who was involved in making the float and its theme.

Early Friday via internet and social media, Holmes released a statement addressed to Coweta Public School students, families, friends and neighbors.
“I am very sorry that this happened as there is no excuse for this in our school. Please know that this does not reflect the values of our school district,” Holmes wrote. “I offer my most sincere apology to all who were offended and want to assure that we will use this situation to educate our students regarding the importance of respecting all cultures.”

“We have been getting phone calls and emails from across the country. People are offended and rightfully so,” Holmes said. “The high school principal and I are visiting to make sure that everything is double and triple checked to make sure there are no negative meanings on any of the floats, that no signs that will be offensive at the ballgame or that our student section will be doing anything that will be offensive.”

“We have a lot of great kids. This is not a school-wide activity where everyone was trying to offend someone,” Holmes said. “This one particular float is very offensive. It was never part of a parade and we caught it before the parade happened. But we didn’t know about it until then, and we have no excuses. No excuses.”

The superintendent said there will be training for students and staff as needed, and “if disciplinary action is needed, that will take place as well.”

“It’s totally disrupted the school day for hundreds of students, and it’s been very offensive to the people inside Coweta and to people around the world and in our great state,” Holmes said.

The superintendent said he has reached out to leaders within the Muscogee (Creek) nation and the Cherokee Nation about the matter. As of 12 noon, he was still waiting to speak with them directly.

As Simon Moya-Smith said, It’s a putrid effigy of the dehumanization of Native Americans, the result of a ubiquitous colonial narrative. I’m glad the school has responded the way it did, but someone had this idea, someone put this float together, and there had to be an adult floating about somewhere, who saw and did not stop this. Seeing something like this is a bone deep shock, and this is not a matter of sniffy offense, it’s a matter of trauma. Think of the Native kids who saw this, think of what something like this does to their world, what it does to any sense of trust they may have had. Whoever was responsible for this, every person responsible, including those who turned a blind eye and kept silent, you should be shamed, loudly and openly. It’s of little moment that this float didn’t make their parade, because it did make the internet, and whatever damage the person responsible wanted to do was done. And no, this was not a fucking joke, of any kind, in any way, I don’t care if it had to do with precious sportsball. This is fucking poison. *spits*

Story here.

Hands Up, Shot to Death.

Dash cam video shows Terence Crutcher with hands above his head (screen grab)

Dash cam video shows Terence Crutcher with hands above his head (screen grab)

It is with queasy despair followed by anger that I see yet another person dead, murdered by cops.

Dash cam video released by the Tulsa Police Department on Monday showed 40-year-old Terence Crutcher with his hands above his head moments before he was shot and killed by one of the officers at the scene.

At a press conference on Monday, Chief Chuck Jordan explained that the video was “very disturbing — very difficult to watch.”

The video shows multiple police cruisers approach Crutcher’s vehicle, which appears to be broken down in the middle of the road. Crutcher is seen with his hands in the air. Both hands appear to be empty.

Pastor Rodney Goss of Morning Star Baptist Church, who was able to view the dash cam video as well as video from other department vehicles, said that all views showed Crutcher’s hands in the air.

Goss also denied claims made by a police spokesperson that suggested Crutcher was shot because he refused to obey commands.

“It was not apparent at any angle from any point that he lunged, came toward, aggressively attacked, or made any sudden movements that would have been considered a threat or life-threatening toward the officer,” Goss told Tulsa World.

The article at Tulsa World is full of assurances that justice will be done, and the cop who murdered Mr. Crutcher, Betty Shelby, has been placed on administrative leave. I have to question those assurances of justice, because we’ve all heard that one before, over way too many corpses. There’s also much murmuring about “can’t talk about it yet” “might be criminal charges, we need to investigate” and “we don’t know how long an investigation will last”.

We have to stop asking what the dead person may or may not have done. This is akin to justifying rape as something caused by the victim. We need to be asking, in our shoutiest voices, why cops are murdering, and why they are allowed to get away with it. I don’t much care what any ‘suspect’ does, it’s going to be a very rare case indeed which actually calls for being gunned to death. There are plenty of examples of cops handling highly dangerous people, and everyone gets through it alive. We need to asking why, if cops are so darned scared, why are they being allowed to wander about with weapons, and interacting with people? This has to stop, and if police, as they have so far shown, continue to be unwilling and unable to police their own, we will have to do it for them.

My heart and thoughts go out to Mr. Crutcher’s family and friends, who must be lost in shock and grief.

Via Tulsa World and Raw Story. There’s ground and air video at Tulsa World.

And then you have things like this, a cop viciously assaulting a person on the ground, and who was left to carry on as a cop until late August (the assault took place in April this year) because

“It all had been documented,” Lawson said. “It just did not move as quickly as it should have.”

Via Raw Story.

Marc Jacobs Apologizes. Sorta.

FILE - In this Sept. 15, 2016, file photo, the Marc Jacobs Spring 2017 collection is modeled during Fashion Week in New York. Jacobs was criticized for showcasing white models in dreadlocks during the show. A screengrab showed Jacobs later responding on Instagram that he doesn’t see color or race. In a separate post on Sunday, Sept. 18, 2016, Jacobs said he was sorry for “the lack of sensitivity” in responding to critics. (Mary Altaffer, File/Associated Press).

FILE – In this Sept. 15, 2016, file photo, the Marc Jacobs Spring 2017 collection is modeled during Fashion Week in New York. Jacobs was criticized for showcasing white models in dreadlocks during the show. A screengrab showed Jacobs later responding on Instagram that he doesn’t see color or race. In a separate post on Sunday, Sept. 18, 2016, Jacobs said he was sorry for “the lack of sensitivity” in responding to critics. (Mary Altaffer, File/Associated Press).

NEW YORK — Marc Jacobs has apologized for his response to criticism over showcasing his models in dreadlocks during the final day of New York Fashion Week.

The white designer was criticized on social media after his mostly white lineup of models was outfitted with rainbow dreadlocks for his Thursday show. Some accused Jacobs of appropriating black culture.

A screengrab shows Jacobs responding to his critics on Instagram by saying it was “funny” that they don’t “criticize women of color for straightening their hair.” Jacobs also wrote that he doesn’t see color or race and that he was “sorry to read that so many people are narrow minded.”

Jacobs apologized Sunday on Instagram for what he called “the lack of sensitivity unintentionally expressed by my brevity.”

“Unintentionally expressed by my brevity”? Really? There wasn’t much brevity to Mr. Jacobs’s initial bristly response, which was very defensive and disrespectful. Oh, he’s another one of those magical white people who don’t see colour or race. Thanks for another stroke of the eraser, Marc. In a world which is seeing its 21st century, women of colour around the world are still being horribly punished for daring to sport natural hair. So, here we get another white male idiot, who thinks they are far above such nonsense, floating about on lofty ideals. No. I can say exactly what was going on – Marc Jacobs liked the look of dreadlocks, thought they suited his clothing designs, and didn’t think even once about doing what he wanted. If Mr. Jacobs knows any people of colour, he certainly didn’t ask them their opinion about freely appropriating a cultural style. Apparently, there’s not going to be any actual apology, either. I fully expect that sometime in the future, Mr. Jacobs will do something equally boneheaded.

While we were still in the camp, I noticed, among a new influx of people, a number of young, obviously privileged, blonde white people, sporting dreadlocks. After I made sure I wasn’t going to choke on my coffee, I spent time being stunned over this arrogant display of privilege. There’s no blindness quite like privilege blindness. Please, white people, check your privilege. Stop appropriating bits of other peoples’ cultures, and if you’re going to pretend to care about the problems that indigenous people face, it might be a really great idea to not wander in advertising your arrogant appropriation on your head.

Via The Washington Post.

McCrory: Nthing Down.

Credit: Youtube.

Credit: Youtube.

You really can’t say that McCrory is doubling down at this point. It’s gone far beyond that. He hangs onto HB 2 like it was a life preserver and he a drowning man. I don’t know why he clings so very hard to this hateful bigotry, especially in the face of so much opposition, not only from people all over the States, but from his own constituency. The majority of people in NC are not invested in this legalization of hate and fear; they don’t want this enacted. [See the full article for stats.] Surely, it must have occurred to McCrory that he could salvage at least a part of his reputation if he stepped back and killed HB 2. People might not like him, but he would at least get grudging respect for doing the right thing, for once. Unfortunately, McCrory is still McCrory, and he’s busy spreading his hate, fear, and bigotry as far as he can. Beware, there’s a major irony hazard coming up:

A new campaign ad from North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory released Wednesday defends his anti-trans bathroom bill on the basis of “privacy and safety.”

The 30-second spot is intended to answer criticisms of House Bill 2, the controversial legislation that effectively forces trans people to use public restrooms (in government buildings) that do not correspond with their gender identity; it also invalidated all municipal protections for LGBT people, and makes it impossible to pass future pro-LGBT housing and employment laws. In the ad, McCrory stands by the embattled bill, which was introduced, debated, and signed into law in a single day.

“You know, when we were raising average teacher pay, creating new jobs, and cutting taxes, other folks were actually pushing to make our schools allow boys to use the girls’ locker rooms and showers,” McCrory claims. “Are we really talking about this? Does the desire to be politically correct outweigh our children’s privacy and safety? Not on my watch. Our kids and teachers are my priority.

“This is North Carolina,” he concludes. “Let’s do what’s right.”

Wouldn’t that be something, seeing McCrory doing something right? As for his “watch”, from what I understand, there’s hardly a thing McCrory has touched that hasn’t been a major fuck up. By this time, McCrory knows about trans* peoples, and how they work, so he has zero excuses for this “oh no, boys in the girl’s locker room!” nonsense. This has been ceaselessly debunked, and yet he carries on. He is an excellent example of someone who holds up hate and bigotry as virtues, I’ll give him that much. Content Note: contains lies, bigotry, and hate.

Full Story at The Advocate.

Sunday Facepalm.

billboard

When, oh when is this utter bullshit going to die? No, no, no, no, there’s no such thing as ex-gay. You are what you are, and while people everywhere have their own ways of dealing with who they are, this ex-gay business is not only toxic, it causes a great deal of harm, and way too many deaths lay at the door of this religiously fueled poison. This is yet another vehicle for hatred, fear, and bigotry. Instilling a sense of worthlessness in people is not a good. Telling people that they cannot live at all unless they are in the confines of a religiously defined prison is not a good. Telling people they deserve hatred, bigotry, and bullying is not a good. These so-called therapies are torture, a torture which often leads to suicide. Very young people are often the target of such programs. As with most of these programs, this one teaches that all queerness comes from a traumatic event in a person’s life, promoting the lie that gay people are predators.

Groups are still pushing “conversion” or “ex-gay” therapy — which attempts to turn LGBT people straight or cisgender — and pouring money into promoting the dangerous practice.

The latest billboard appeared this week in Waco, Tex., according to the Houston Chronicle. “Ex-Gays prove change is possible,” the billboard reads, with a beaming man’s face appearing next to the words.

Numerous mental health groups have condemned “conversion therapy,” including the American Psychological Association, and warned it can contribute to depression, anxiety, drug abuse, homelessness, and suicidal ideation. California, Illinois, New Jersey, Oregon, and Vermont have all made it illegal for minors to be exposed to the fradulent practice.

The Waco billboard was not greeted warmly by everyone in the conservative central Texas city. Charley Garrison, a minister of the LGBT-affirming Central Texas Metropolitan Community Church, vowed to hold a Pride event at the site of the sign. Others have countered “ex-gay” billboards by erecting affirming signs challenging the message of “ex-gay” supporters.

If you’re in the area where this is happening, try and join up for any Pride event held, let people know this is a horror happening in too many lives, preaching the worthlessness of queer lives. This needs to be countered at every level, and queer folk, especially the youth, need to know they are okay, they are whole, they are fine being who they are, and that they are not some broken thing which needs to be fixed.

Full story here.

Indicting Cops: Racism is alive and well.

police-officer-shutterstock-800x430

Ohio, which has a very bad record when it comes to violent cops is once again in the spotlight. One Cleveland officer has been indicted for negligent homicide, and two former officers have been indicted for kidnapping and assault (East Cleveland). What’s different in these cases is that all three officers are black men. Because of that, I expect there will be convictions in these cases. This comes after a very long string of white cops being kinda sorta indicted, then allowed to walk. That was certainly what happened in the case of Tamir Rice. So far, there’s been precious little justice to be had in all the cases of white cops viciously beating and murdering non-white people. People come oozing out of the woodwork to defend one white cop after another. It will be interesting to see if that holds true in the case of non-white cops.

In Columbus, Ohio, cops shot an innocent 13 year old to death, and they are busy blaming another black youth for that murder. If the cops who gunned Tyre King down are white, I expect nothing will happen. Okay, back to Cleveland.

In the Cleveland case, officer Alan Buford, who is black, was indicted for misdemeanor negligent homicide in the 2015 death of unarmed-breaking and entering suspect Brandon Jones, 18, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty said in a statement Friday.

“It is not reasonable for a police officer to use deadly force if he or she does not believe a suspect poses a threat of death or serious bodily harm to the police or the public,” McGinty said.

Interesting how using deadly force against a suspect who does not pose a threat of death or serious bodily harm is all manner of reasonable when the cop in question is white.

In the East Cleveland case, two former officers, Denayne R. Davidson-Dixon and Gerald A. Spencer II, were indicted on three counts of kidnapping, two counts of dereliction of duty and one count each of felonious assault, conspiracy, obstructing official business and interfering with civil rights for the July 2016 beating of Jesse R. Nickerson, a prisoner in their custody.

The two officers are black, as is Nickerson.

According to prosecutors the officers arrested Nickerson and after arguing with him drove to a park near the police station, pulled him from the squad car and assaulted him.

Davidson-Dixon and Spencer were fired shortly after the incident.

Oh look, some cops were actually fired! Ah, but they are black. White cops, no matter how vicious, bigoted, and violent they are, seem to manage to hang onto their jobs without much problem. Oh yes, I know two or three are fired now and then, but most aren’t. They are allowed to keep their job, so they can murder again. So as non-white people continue to die at the hands of cops, it’s been confirmed that the only way there might be justice is if the bad cops happened to be people of colour too.

Via Raw Story.

Standing Rock Seeks TRO.

Tim Mentz.

Tim Mentz.

CANNON BALL, ND—The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe filed an emergency motion Sunday for a temporary restraining order to prevent further destruction of the Tribe’s sacred sites by Dakota Access Pipeline.

“On Saturday, Dakota Access Pipeline and Energy Transfer Partners brazenly used bulldozers to destroy our burial sites, prayer sites and culturally significant artifacts,” Tribal Chairman David Archambault II said. “They did this on a holiday weekend, one day after we filed court papers identifying these sacred sites. The desecration of these ancient places has already caused the Standing Rock Sioux irreparable harm. We’re asking the court to halt this path of destruction.”

After the initial destruction Saturday, Dakota Access Pipeline returned to the area and dug up additional grounds in the pre-dawn hours Sunday, Archambault said.

The motion seeks to prevent additional construction work on an area two miles west of North Dakota Highway 1806, and within 20 miles of Lake Oahe until a judge rules on the Tribe’s previous motion to stop construction.

That motion is based on the Standing Rock Sioux’s assertion that it was not properly consulted before the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers fast-tracked approval of the pipeline project.

A decision on the case, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, is expected by Sept. 9.

“Destroying the Tribe’s sacred places over a holiday weekend, while the judge is considering whether to block the pipeline, shows a flagrant disregard for the legal process,” said Jan Hasselman, attorney for the Standing Rock Sioux. “The Tribe has been seeking to vindicate its rights peacefully through the courts. But Dakota Access Pipeline used evidence submitted to the Court as their roadmap for what to bulldoze. That’s just wrong.”

Via ICTMN.