Suspects Resisting Arrests and Cops

     I have been amazed and horrified by the news coming out of Ferguson and other places of late dealing with citizens resisting arrest and their subsequent deaths. I don't really know what happened with Michael Brown or Eric Garner. I suspect that the mainstream media does not tell us everything about anything. 

     Seems to me that cops are allowed to do whatever they can to people who are resisting arrests. That a cop can use an illegal choke hold on someone and not have anything happen to him [or her] as a result makes me question why cops have allowed procedures and procedures that aren't allowed. The choke hold used on Eric Garner is not illegal by the laws of New York State however N.Y.P.D. cops are prohibited from using it. 
[ http://nypost.com/2014/12/04/eric-garner-was-a-victim-of-himself-for-deciding-to-resist/ ]. According to the laws as they exist, the grand jury did not indict the cop. Whether or not the cop is disciplined by his department is up in the air at this time. He is reportedly on modified duty until the internal investigation is completed.

     Michael Brown's legal history referred to at: 
http://www.snopes.com/politics/crime/brown.asp
and at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/04/us/michael-brown-never-faced-serious-felony-charge-st-louis-officials-lawyer-says.html?_r=0
is pretty much unknown. If he was convicted of any serious juvenile offenses, they would have been released. So either he had no juvenile record or one that contains only minor crimes. The family says he had none. I choose to believe the family until I find evidence otherwise.

     Eric Garner's legal history at:
http://www.silive.com/northshore/index.ssf/2014/07/eric_garner_who_died_in_police.html
involves repeatedly selling loosies. He was out on bail for selling loosies or for having [untaxed] cigarettes in his possession during the incident that caused his death. His family says that he didn't have any untaxed cigarettes on him at the time of his death: http://blog.acton.org/archives/74417-explainer-know-eric-garner-case.html

radical sapphoq says:I echo the wise words of Jaleni Cobb at the New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/eric-garner-racial-profiling
There is no such thing as “racial profiling”—there is simply racism. 

Legalese and Threats

     Noted: There's quite a bit of people threatening to sue critics, bloggers, book reviewers and others these days. It appears that within the troubled teen troubled industry, Scott Chandler, who owns Tierra Blanca Ranch is suing people: https://www.kob.com/article/stories/s3591656.shtml#.VFr1dPnF98F  and Diamond Ranch is also suing people: https://jilliestake.blogspot.com/2014/10/diamond-ranch-academy-vs-schofields.html
and https://jilliestake.blogspot.com/2014/11/diamond-ranch-academy-doubles-down-with.html .

     Suing or threatening to sue seems to be a popular notion these days. It is a way of getting people to shut up. That, and telling a critic that files have been forwarded to the F.B.I. 

     As popehat has indicated with a blog post about being threatened with a defamation suit, this particular post is not legal advice. It is not to be construed or imagined to be legal advice. I am a blogger, not an attorney. Period.

     In scouring the Interwebz, I found bunches of sites willing to tell me in simple terms what all the legalese means. First, under defamation of character, I learned that libel refers to written or published material and slander is spoken. I also learned that the material or statement has to be a pack of lies that hurts the plaintiff in some way. If the action concerns alleged defamation of character, standing will also depend upon what states the plaintiff and the defendant live in and whether or not the plaintiff knows people or does business in the state where the defendant lives. 

     Having a bad opinion about a plaintiff or a plaintiff's alleged actions or behavior and publishing one's bad opinion is not equivalent to defamation of character. The criticism in the form of a book review is actually a valid defense to a defamation of character lawsuit. On the other hand, prefacing any statement with "this is my opinion" may not protect the defendant from legal action, especially if the defendant is lying about the plaintiff on purpose and being a big meanie poop-head in the process. Further, if the plaintiff is famous in some way and exposed to the public eye, that plaintiff must prove actual malice in court. The standard is thus higher for plaintiffs who are public figures than for regular folks.

     A demand letter-- so-called because the plaintiff is demanding stuff near as I can figure-- must lay out the facts of the alleged defamation of character, quote relevant laws, state what the plaintiff intends to do and how much money the plaintiff wants. There are sample demand letters to be had on the Interwebz, although one would think that a fancy attorney would do that for his or her plaintifficating client.

     The area of the law referring to trademarks versus trade-names requires close reading. What I got from the sites I checked is that trademarks can involve logos and stuff like that but trade-names cannot. (And a trademark or TM refers to goods like sneakers. A service mark or SM refers to services such as coaching).

     The swoosh on a sneaker is a trademark, the name of the company involved with said sneakers is a trade-name. I cannot reproduce a trademark because a company does have complete control over their logos, slogans, and symbols. This is as it should be.

     A trade-name may be one's legal name or it may be an assumed name. It is the name under which someone is doing business as or d.b.a. One may register a trade-name as limited liability corporation but ought not to use the trade-name in the way that a trademark is used.  An application to register a trade-name that is common may very well be rejected. Thus, wanting to register "John Smith" may be tough to pull off. Wanting to register "John Smith Marijuana Brownie Company" may be more in the realm of probability.

     People such as singers may actually trade-name their own name but it is best to apply for this on the federal level and not just in the state of primary residence. The trade-name of a performer (for example) represents the brand (his or her performing). 

     What is most interesting to me about trade-names is that legally the registrant of a trade-name DOES NOT control all appearances of that name. Thus, it is legal for me-- according to how I read the laws regulating trade-names-- to mention someone's name, even if a registered trade-name, on my blog site. The idea that I am violating copyright law by mentioning the name of an author in the course of a book review is a false idea. Period.

     Furthermore, there is a search engine that will tell me whether or not a specific word or group of words has been registered as either a trademark or a trade-name.

radical sapphoq says: These days, knowledge is power. Or at the very least it can relieve anxiety. Just saying. So who's being a bully? It ain't me.

References:

https://www.chillingeffects.org/topics/1   [*wonderful site]

http://www.popehat.com/2013/09/26/so-youve-been-threatened-with-a-defamation-suit/  [*personal favorite]


https://www.eff.org/issues/bloggers/legal/liability/defamation  [*I love the 

E.F.F.].


https://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/defamation


https://www.bmartin.cc/dissent/documents/defamation.html



defamation of character

https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/defamation-law-made-simple-29718.html 

 https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/defamation-slander-libel

https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/social-media-online-defamation.html

https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/privileges-defenses-defamation-cases.html  

https://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Defamation+of+character
definitions

https://www.alllaw.com/articles/nolo/personal-injury/defamation-character-lawsuit-proving-harm.html  

https://www.alllaw.com/articles/nolo/personal-injury/defamation-character-free-speech.html  

https://www.alllaw.com/articles/nolo/personal-injury/defamation-character.html

https://www.alllaw.com/articles/nolo/personal-injury/demand-letter-defamation-case.html 

https://www.alllaw.com/articles/nolo/personal-injury/sample-demand-letters.html  

https://www.wikihow.com/Sue-for-Defamation 



fair criticism

http://scholarship.law.nd.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4043&context=ndlr&sei-redir=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fcse%3Fq%3Ddefamation%2Bof%2Bcharacter%26cref%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.thesocialsearcher.com%252Fcse%252Fv1.xml#search=%22defamation%20character%22 
examples of authors suing critics page 4



registered trademark trade-name

https://www.sba.gov/blogs/difference-between-trade-name-and-trademark-and-why-you-cant-overlook-either


https://www.veritrademark.com/articles/difference-trademark-tradename

https://www.invention-protection.com/ip/publications/docs/Legal_Name_Trade_Name_Trademark.html

https://biznik.com/articles/the-difference-between-a-trade-name-and-a-trademark-and-why-you-should-care

https://smallbusiness.chron.com/difference-between-trade-name-trademark-3219.html


https://smallbusiness.chron.com/trademark-performers-name-56300.html

https://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=tess&state=4810:zn482m.1.1

https://smallbusiness.chron.com/file-trademark-name-government-60979.html

Stanley L. Cohen

 radical sapphoq says: I dedicate this post to Stanley L. Cohen. He is due in court this week and expects to be sentenced to eighteen months in prison under a plea deal. He has a vast amount of legal bills. Please consider contributing to his defense fund. Stanley has been there for Anonymous, Occupy, and many other people who are part of various movements for change.

     https://istanleycohen.org/index.php/defend

     https://defendstanleycohen.myevent.com/3/donate.htm
      


     Stanley can be found on-line at:
    https://istanleycohen.org/ 
and also at:
    https://twitter.com/StanleyCohenLaw




     Stanley L. Cohen has a long history of defending unpopular defendants. Yes, he has defended accused terrorists in court. Yes, he is currently not able to enter either Israel or Egypt due to his defense work. Yes, he is scheduled to go to prison under a plea deal involving some taxes.

     Stanley has also defended the rights of squatters in New York City, folks who are categorized by the public as hacktivist members of the collective known as Anonymous, and people who have become embroiled in the legal system for exercising their freedom of speech.  

     
     Stanley has been called a terror lawyer, a rip-off, an LOL lawyer, greedy bastard, and other things like that.

        

     Stanley has also been called an internet folk hero, a peoples' lawyer, iconoclast, radical, zealous advocate, political activist. I call him my brother. My e-book Up The Rebels - which I hope will be out soon - is dedicated to Stanley L. Cohen [and Edward J. Snowden]. 

                           #UpTheRebels!


References:

    https://rally.org/covers/3tjDvEYOdLC

https://www.change.org/p/honorable-norman-a-mordue-justice-for-stanley-cohen

https://freestanleycohen.com/

https://freestanleycohen.xs2.net/

https://freeanons.org/freeanons-supports-stanley-cohen/



 https://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2014/10/19/attorney-stanley-l-cohen-guilty-of-doing

 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEQdmmHtZfzQiRj7OsGL7ig/feed
       https://mohsenabdelmoumen.wordpress.com/2014/10/16/urgent-justice-for-stanley-cohen/

    https://60spunk.wordpress.com/2014/10/12/stanley-cohen/

https://www.nationofchange.org/2014/10/07/ordeal-stanley-l-cohen-justice-farce/
and:
https://www.rense.com/general96/atty.html
reprinted this one:
 https://www.truthdig.com/report/item/justice_as_farce_20141005

     https://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/05/13/scorn-icy-stares-are-part-job-for-lawyers-who-represent-despised-terrorism/

     https://thevillager.com/2014/05/01/stanley-cohen-speaks-out-about-taxcharges-as-supporters-rally-to-his-defense/

    https://www.sbnation.com/longform/2014/2/20/5419474/broken-stride-when-runner-ashley-poissant-was-killed-by-an-alleged

     https://revolution-news.com/uptherebels/

    https://www.anarchistnews.org/content/urgent-appeal-defense-attorney-stanley-cohen

    https://www.anonymousvideo.eu/stanley-cohen-defense-fund.html



    https://www.ndtv.com/topic/stanley-cohen

    https://wn.com/stanley_cohen

    https://www.vice.com/read/talking-to-stanley-cohen-terror-lawyer-and-internet-folk-hero

    https://wearelegionthedocumentary.com/videos/attorney-stanley-cohen-talks-over-the-paypal-14-case/

 https://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/the_go_to_lawyer_of_northern_virginiastan

  https://pressroom.blogs.pace.edu/2003/01/16/activist-stanley-l-cohen-to-speak-on-attorney-ethics-at-pace-law-school/




     https://israelbehindthenews.com/profile-of-stanley-cohen-the-jewish-lawyer-for-the-hamas/3769/

https://observer.com/2001/10/kunstler-protege-stanley-cohen-brings-american-rights-to-hamas/





        https://legalinsurrection.com/2014/10/convicted-tax-cheat-stanley-cohen-re-pledges-allegiance-to-hamas/

     https://legalinsurrection.com/2014/04/hamas-attorney-stanley-cohen-pleads-guilty-to-tax-offenses/




    https://www.josephacamp.com/2014/04/stanley-cohen-convicted-felon.html

https://www.ripoffreport.com/r/scammed-by-attorney-stanley-l-cohen/new-york-new-york-10013/scammed-by-attorney-stanley-l-cohen-stanley-cohen-law-office-stanley-l-cohen-law-offic-557005

     https://encyclopediadramatica.se/Joseph_Camp



https://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=627

    https://forward.com/articles/195134/how-stanley-cohen-went-from-orthodox-to-defending/?p=all

    https://bedfordandbowery.com/2014/01/stanley-cohen-defends-himself-one-month-bin-ladens-son-in-law-the-next/

https://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/terrorist-lawyer-stanley-cohen-busted-for-millions-in-tax-evasion/

    https://allergic2bull.blogspot.com/2013/05/stanley-cohen-reveals-waaaay-too-much.html

    https://eastvillage.thelocal.nytimes.com/2012/10/22/landlord-to-embattled-attorney-stanley-cohen-pay-up-or-get-out/

    https://jewishdefenseorganization.net/stanley.htm

Free Tags-- Liars

 

   I'm working on a post for this blog. Meanwhile, enjoy some free tags. Up The Rebels!


     Take 'em if you want 'em. Save 'em to somewhere in your computer. Use 'em on the internet. Credit not necessary. No hot-linking.

It Happens

     Some overly-sensitive/ false egomaniac/ don't-you-know-who-I-am sort of author doesn't like a book review and threatens to sue.

     Some copyright troll/ copyright monopolist/ Big Hollywood type issues a take-down notice and threatens court action.

     Screw the first amendment.

     Screw fair use doctrine.

     What is justice when you don't have money to fight back???




     As for the first example, it has happened to me. I consulted legal counsel and followed their instruction.

     The thing is, if you are going to claim "special" knowledge then at some point you ought to think about how you are going to prove that you have taken courses, gotten a degree and another degree, do indeed possess special knowledge far and above that of most human beings on the planet. 
     Hiding behind the idea of "it was a secret ritual" doesn't cut it. Period.
     A diploma on your wall from a mail-order university that accepted thirty-five pages of your poorly written "thesis" about your personal experiences proves nothing. I can get that same "degree" for fifty bucks from that same company. Yes, I checked. The idea that bunches of people "love" you is not good enough.
     Fraud is fraud. Using your fake degree to charge insurance companies a rate similar to the rate that properly credentialed PhDs charge is fraud. That the insurance companies are too stupid to know it does not excuse your actions. 
     Claiming worldly success and having a lover verbally abuse you on-line does not require that I hang out to watch. Having a lover physically and emotionally abuse you in your home [and you denying that you want help to get out of it] means I excuse myself from your friendship. I refuse to bear witness to something that you feel is "love." I hope you are able to get out someday. Even if we never are able to become friends again, I hope you find the support and courage to split from that scene.

     The second example has not happened to me as of yet. I absolutely refuse to purchase anything with that D.R.M. crap on it. Whatever else I do-- if I do anything else-- to fight the unfair enforcement of copyright laws is not something I will publish here. There are far too many egofags around. And informants. The current number of informants seem to be hovering around twenty-five percent. 


radical sapphoq says: If you are in the fight, then shut up about it. If you aren't, then you may want to consider getting educated. Check out what Anonymous is doing. Check out what Electronic Frontier Foundation is doing. Check out what your lawmakers are doing. If you don't know what is happening around you, then you are subject to the illusion that "all is right with the world." It isn't. Justice is not always just. Word.
     

I Read Banned Books free tags

All tags are free to take and use as you will. Credit not necessary. Right-click and save to your "My Computer." Rename pictures so you can find them again.

I am against DRM, copyright trolls, and other forms of copyright monopoly.

Three sizes: 512x512, 256x256, and 100x100.

Up the Rebels!

~ radical sapphoq

I Remember 9/11

     Some years ago, I almost didn't make it out of a house fire. I did though. The dog woke me. I got across the street and the back of the house blew up.

     Fire alarms, streetlights peeking into bedroom windows, flames from lighters-- all of those things-- and more triggered me. At first whenever I thought about that fire, there were no sounds. My memory was like a silent movie. It was years before I could remember that at the scene of the fire things were pretty noisy.

     I recovered somewhat [from the p.t.s.d.-like symptoms] when the Oklahoma bombing occurred. More of the same.


     On 9/11, I was in the basement of the first group home that I was manager of at a state agency. I had started there as a direct care worker, was promoted. I loved that house. The folks who lived there [that the System euphemistically called "developmentally disabled"] were [with one notable exception] wonderful human beings. 

     But on that particular Tuesday morning, I was in the basement-- in my office-- with the door locked crying because I was having difficulty getting the financial records straightened out. The assistant manager knocked on the door. I told her to go away in polite words. She was not deterred. I wiped my tears and went upstairs. I watched on television as the second tower was hit.

     I called my boss. He was the best boss I ever had in my whole entire working life. I was in a panic. Were some planes going to come here next? No, he said, they would not. Not much work got done that day. I drank coffee which calms me down and waited for my people to come home.

     My people all came home. They came from sheltered workshops and day programs and supported employment. Some knew what had happened. Some didn't. I was utterly horrified to discover that one of my people had spent her day watching all of the television reports and news. Her staff suspended all activities. Had I known that, I would have gone to pick her up and taken her home. I did register a formal complaint the next morning.

     9/11 was all over the television for months afterwards. It was on the televisions at the gym. I do remember that. The people were fascinated at the horror. Over and over again, instant replays. "If we had bombed Iran when those students took over the American Embassy, this would not have happened," I told anyone who listened. "Those people over there would have all figured that we were too crazy to feck around with." 

     Over the years, my thinking about 9/11 has not gotten any saner. C'est la vie. 



     Last night, the traitor-in-chief claimed that "ISIS is not Islamic." I thought to myself, wow. Dude is seriously going to go with that. It is reported that Muhammad himself beheaded people or caused people to be beheaded. The terrorists who belong to The Islamic State may be "extreme Muslims" or "fundamentalist Muslims" but they are Muslims. Muslims who wish to disown those Muslims found in ISIS remind me of the wiccans who deny that Satanic witches do exist. Yes, I know that Satanic witches do exist because I've met bunches of them. Not the baby-killing, child-raping kind belonging to the Satanic Panic. But some ordinary Satanists [both those who believe in a literal Satan as well as those who do not] practice witchcraft. Period. Denying the existence of a bunch of people does not cause them to poof.


     I went to visit my dearly demented dying dad today at his adult supervised living home. The old priest was there. Dad wanted to go to the [much abbreviated] Mass. We went.

     The priest wore sandals with his black socks. He explained that Jesus wore sandals ergo, he could too. It would not have occurred to me that priests wearing sandals is an issue. Hey, that's cool.

     He read from a notebook that particular place in the gospel where Jesus told folks to love their enemies, pray for the nasty ones, and give them more loot when getting robbed. Well, okay. Whatever.

     Then the priest began talking. "Does anyone know what day is today?" he asked. He said we ought to love Al Queda and love ISIS [a.k.a. The Islamic State]. He talked about the recent beheadings and 9/11 and hate is a decision. I said to myself this priest is nutty. I swallowed hard and tried to close my ears. But I could not. These christians are more flocked up than I thought, I told myself. The little prayers he offered were for the terrorists who we should forgive because they don't know what they are doing.

     There was one thing that the priest said which I thought was true. He said some [percentage] of the firefighters involved in 9/11 are still in the same occupation. And cops too. He said that was heroic. I agree. Yes, to have witnessed so much death and then to keep on doing what one was doing before the destruction of the twin towers does demonstrate heroism.


     I was pretty angry about the situation in Ferguson. Still am. I have been around long enough to know that some [percentage of] people working in the criminal justice system do not have our best interests at heart. Police brutality. Check. It happens. Tampered juries. Check. Falsely accused forced to plea down in order to avoid almost certain prison time. Check. Seen that up close and personal. Victims being blamed. With an emphasis on male victims of female abuse as well as on anyone who is perceived of as Other by the System. Check. 

     And yet.

     I still want to believe that there are good cops around. That more often than not, we have justice. And liberty. That the price of what we enjoy as Americans is spilled blood. 

     I choose to honor the honorable. I honor vets. I honor [good] cops. I honor the firefighters of 9/11. And the cops there and the construction workers and all of the volunteers who came to help. I honor the flag because I am an American. 

     I am afraid that Obama has his brain focused on his golf game rather than on the opportunity for true leadership. I hate the ever-widening scope of the N.S.A. surveillance. I suspect that someday I may have to leave my country. But like the Rwandans who remember the genocide that happened there, I too remember 9/11.


     ~ radical sapphoq ~


references:

http://therightscoop.com/obama-isis-is-not-islamic/

http://thinkprogress.org/world/2014/09/11/3566181/why-isis-is-in-fact-not-islamic/

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2014/09/10/obama-calls-says-islamic-state-terrorists-are-not-islamic-n1890155

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Banu_Qurayza

http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/muhammad/myths-mu-qurayza.htm

http://www.mukto-mona.com/Articles/skm/beheading.htm

http://wikiislam.net/wiki/List_of_Killings_Ordered_or_Supported_by_Muhammad


     

Attention CNN

Dear Boss of the technical analyst at CNN who inferred that 4Chan was "the hacker" that hacked into the cloud with his password app,

     I tried gently to tell the technical analyst on ®Twitter® that 4Chan is not the handle of a hacker dude who snooped around the cloud and leaked the pictures of the naked celebrities. He was obviously having a bad day I guess because he promptly b l o c k e d me. Hey, I know it's tough to be wrong. And I understand that budgets sometimes do not allow for fact checkers. Even so, the job title "technical analyst" assumed that the job holder of said job title ought to know that 4Chan is not some systems administrator who hacked into the cloud with his password app.

     And for the record, changing one's password from the word "password" to the more leet "pa$$word" does absolutely nothing for anyone's online or offline security.

     At the very least, please instruct your technical analyst that 4Chan is a website. And that "pa$$word" is not a secure password.

     I would prefer that your man unblock me from following him and that you instruct him about the importance of allowing corrections when it is so obviously needed but I am not holding my breath.

     If you want a real news story, there appears to be a level of interest into the question of why it took the F.B.I. so bloody long to begin to look into the shooting death of a black teen in Ferguson, Missouri but almost immediate attention was given to the question of exactly who hacked into the cloud for those naked photos of famous celebrities.

     Thank-you,

     #Iam4Chan
     #WeAre4Chan

n.b.: Investigators of hackers, I did not hack into anything as I don't give a damn about naked pictures of celebrities. I sign myself the way I did in solidarity with the 4Chan website who suddenly finds itself accused of personhood.

the video, at least until it is taken down:

http://youtu.be/qz5i171h_no

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qz5i171h_no#action=share

references:

http://elitedaily.com/humor/cnn-reporter-thinks-4chan-person/735241/

http://uproxx.com/tv/2014/09/someone-should-tell-cnn-that-4chan-is-a-thing-not-a-person/

http://bullettmedia.com/article/lol-cnn-thinks-celebrity-hacking-site-4chan-dude/

http://www.dailyedge.ie/cnn-who-is-4chan-1652715-Sep2014/

http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2014/09/03/nude_celeb_leaked_photos_hack_cnn_tech_expert_thinks_4chan_is_a_person/

n.b. Stuff is all over the web. Impossible to list all of it.

Police Brutality in Ferguson

     I don't live in Missouri. I'm not there protesting or observing the protest. I am at home, sitting at the computer desk. For the second night in a row, I am watching the live feeds from Ferguson.

     Any mistakes in this account are my own. Here is what I have gathered has been happening in and around Ferguson, Missouri:

On August 9, eighteen year old [?] Michael Brown and a friend were thought to have stolen 48 dollars worth of cigars or cigarellos from a Ferguson convenience store. Several blocks later, an officer in a car stopped the two young men who were on foot. 

Michael did not have a weapon. He possibly was grabbed by the throat by the police officer who was in the car. Michael left and ran off. [I would have ran off too if an officer was wanting to choke me]. The officer maybe gave chase or ordered him to stop or something. Michael did so. The officer thought Michael was acting aggressively even though Michael was unarmed. Michael may have put his hands up. The officer shot him dead six times, including two shots to his head. Michael was dead.

I don't know what happened to his friend.

Ferguson erupted into protests. Included was and is the chant, "Hands Up, Don't Shoot."

The traditional news media typically is portraying the events in Ferguson as being a racial thing-- black versus white.

While it may be true that the police officer is white and Michael was black, bunches of people of all colors are out protesting this police brutality.

Eric Holder said some stuff and has visited or is planning a visit to Ferguson and promises a fair investigation and stuff.

Barack Obama a.k.a. Obummer was going to visit Ferguson but perhaps now is chickening now. Or, he probably ain't coming.

The National Lawyers Guild is in Ferguson. Amnesty was escorted out.

Sunday night, police reported shots fired. The National Guard arrived with heavy duty stuff. On the feeds last night, I saw police in riot gear with riot shields and tasers and stun guns and shooting tear gas and sound cannons. I also saw on the feeds last night a huge black vehicle (a swat tank?).

Cops began to demand that people keep moving and stay off the streets last night on the live feeds.

Then cops reported two shots fired and demanded that the press relocate to a pen near the command post but the road leading to it was blocked. This effectively caused a media blackout. Info from then on came from the cops or from people who were still reporting to the journalists

Some journalists were arrested but later released. 

A bunch of people were arrested. Most of them were arrested for refusing to move.

Reports earlier today[?] that a second black man near Ferguson but not in Ferguson itself was shot by the cops. He stole two drinks from a convenience store and some pastries. The excuse: He was acting erratically.

Things tonight on the feeds are very noisy. Cops are demanding that people stay on the sidewalk, keep moving, and not cross the street.

A grand jury is convening re: the police officer who shot Michael Brown. They do not have to convene in Missouri. I suspect no charges will be brought.

radical sapphoq says: No one deserves to die for stealing small things from a store. The cop couldn't taser Michael Brown or even fire a shot into his kneecap instead of using lethal force???
I am considering taking the professional observer course from the NLG.
To the people of and around Ferguson, Sail Strong. To the family of Michael Brown, I wish you healing and peace.

Three live feeds:

http://www.livestream.com/activistworldnewsnow

http://www.livestream.com/globalrevolution

http://new.livestream.com/accounts/9035483/events/3271930

http://new.livestream.com/accounts/9649227/events/3301474 [must create free account]



Two twitter accounts:

https://twitter.com/AnonOpsPro

https://twitter.com/InsideAnon



Some of the many articles:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/20/us/shooting-accounts-differ-as-holder-schedules-visit.html?_r=0

http://www.ksdk.com/story/news/local/2014/08/19/more-mayhem-in-ferguson/14272717/

http://www.ajc.com/news/news/two-shot-31-arrested-in-another-round-of-violence-/ng5MQ/

http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/19/politics/missouri-teen-shooting-obama/

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/08/19/341574604/fresh-clashes-in-ferguson-mo-as-national-guard-arrives

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/tense-tally-in-ferguson-includes-fires-shootings-and-arrests/article_32463afe-f868-564a-9533-9d8ae0b8df14.html

http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/a-message-to-the-people-of-ferguson/article_ea8b7358-67a3-5187-af8c-169567f27a0d.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/20/world/europe/russia-iran-and-egypt-heckle-us-about-tactics-in-ferguson.html

http://abcnews.go.com/US/ferguson-chants-heard-st-louis-cops-shoot-suspect/story?id=25041218

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/19/police-officer-shooting-st-louis-dead-knife

http://www.ksdk.com/story/news/local/2014/08/19/78-arrests-ferguson-overnight/14290361/

http://time.com/3144985/ferguson-michael-brown-darren-wilson-us-attorney/

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/19/missouri-governor-jay-nixon-shows-us-how-not-to-govern.html

RIP Robin Williams

I made it myself. You can take it and use it if you want to.

     I liked Robin Williams' acting. I thought he was funny. The movies left me rolling in laughter and hiccups [except for Good Will Hunting which was a more serious movie which I enjoyed for other reasons]. Who could forget Mrs. Doubtfire? Or Jack? Or The Bird Cage? Or Happy Feet?

     I didn't find out until the news broke of his suicide by hanging about his past addiction history or the clinical depression. Those things would not have changed my opinion of him as an actor. [I've never met him and I guess I won't meet him now].

     Robin Williams was not the first suicide of a recovering addict that I've known about. I lost a close friend to suicide [she jumped off of a bridge into traffic] some years ago. She did it clean but she was still dead. Two others also suicided that year-- they got drunk before pulling the trigger-- one of those was a severe diabetic who ensured his demise by also taking a bunch of diabetes meds all at once.

     I do not consider my buddies who suicided as being failures. I consider that the system and specifically the mental health treatment industry failed them miserably. This is why I support research and best practices. We need more research into how to provide the best truly individualized treatment for those of us who have addictions and / or mental health problems. We need more effective medications without the troubling side effects. 

     If you are a male teen, would you want to take an anti-psychotic that guarantees that you cannot get it up? If you are a native of India who is told that you "need" E.C.T., would you want it? Especially knowing that because of the shortage of muscle relaxants in your country, you are at high risk of breaking bones and teeth? If you are used to keeping your own counsel, would you be willing to be shuttled off to some group home because some professional decided that your living situation was "unstable?" As an older adult, would you want to sit through a day of a day treatment program where the professionals offer you the latest pop psychology? If you are a lesbian, would you want to sit through a filming and discussion of men and women being from different planets? What makes you think that we want to have those experiences if you don't want to have them?

     When the list of "acceptable" side effects for psych drugs are longer than the list of "acceptable" side effects for all other meds, there is a problem. When an atheist is forced to sit through yet another discussion of peoples' Higher Powers, that sort of treatment does not help. When adults are informed in a day treatment program that they will be expelled from that program for a couple of days because they cursed, something is wrong.

     No one wants to be talked down to. No one enjoys doing something they are forced to do that has no meaning for them. No one wants other people to make decisions for them.

     I can't help but wonder what Robin Williams' experiences were with psych drugs and professionals who claimed to have his best interest at heart.

radical sapphoq says: If you are thinking about killing yourself or about hurting yourself, tell someone. Get some help. If you find yourself stuck in the mental hell system or the addictions treatment industry, go to the National Empowerment Center's website at http://www.power2u.org/ and learn about self-empowerment. That information may not make you a more compliant patient. It may help you to become a more informed consumer. 
     Please stay alive. I've lost enough people to suicide. Thank you.