We Speak For Earth

anarcho-queer:

NYPD Raid Gay Party And Beats Owner While Yelling Homophobic Slurs

A group of homophobic cops committed “a hate crime” at a gay pride party in Brooklyn early Sunday, beating up the host while screaming hateful slurs, the alleged victim told the Daily News.

Officers from the 77th Precinct, responding to reports of noise at the Sterling Place party, “bum-rushed” Jabbar Campbell after he opened the door of his apartment.

“They were screaming and cursing saying things like ‘fag,’ ‘homo,’ ‘a—hole,’ just a bunch of anti-gay slurs,” Campbell, a 32-year-old forensic specialist, told The News.

Campbell said he was beaten by the officers, who bloodied his mouth, split open his lip and caused swelling to his left eye. He was then handcuffed and charged with resisting arrest — and spent 24 hours in police custody.

Campbell filed legal paperwork Wednesday revealing his intention to sue the city.

The incident began around 2:50 a.m. with two cops responding to a noise complaint at Jabbar’s Crown Heights building. The officers told revelers — some dressed in drag — outside Campbell’s home to keep it down.

Those officers left, but about 10 minutes later, another group of cops arrived, Campbell said.

The officers buzzed at the locked door — and one even reached out to disable the surveillance camera in the vestibule.

“They were trying to open the door, but it was locked,” Campbell said. “They were banging with their flashlights.”

After about 10 minutes, Campbell let the officers in.

“They said, ‘Stop resisting arrest.’ I said, ‘I am not resisting.’”

But the cops beat him up anyway, he said.

“I blacked out. I was concerned for my life,” said Campbell.

The victim’s lawyer said the officer’s attempt to disable the camera would be a key part of the case.

“They were trying to conceal the evidence by turning the camera away,” said the lawyer, Herb Subin. “They committed a hate crime inside a gay pride event.”

The NYPD did not respond to an initial request for comment.

Note: A protest will be held on Monday the 21st at 1313 Sterling Place Brooklyn @ 4pm to demand justice for Campbell.

(via inspirement)

anarcho-queer:

Oakland Police Chief Filtered Out Occupy And Police Brutality Emails

People who’ve e-mailed Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan over the past year about Occupy Oakland probably didn’t get much of a response.

That’s because he used a spam filter to dismiss messages sent to him with “Occupy Oakland” in the subject line, according to a federal court filing Monday. Same goes for the phrases “stop the excessive police force,” “respect the press pass” or “police brutality.” Instead of landing in his in-box, those messages went straight into his junk mail folder, which he apparently never looked at.

Because of those filters, Jordan missed e-mails from other city officials and a federal court monitor, who oversees the department’s compliance with court-ordered reforms stemming from a police abuse scandal.

Robert Warshaw, the monitor, had sent Jordan an e-mail with the subject line “Disciplinary Actions-Occupy Oakland.” Jordan told the court on Oct. 18 that he never saw those e-mails, infuriating Thelton Henderson, the federal judge in San Francisco who appointed Warshaw.

Henderson will hear arguments in December about whether to place the Police Department into the hands of a federal receiver, which Oakland officials believe is unprecedented. Henderson was perplexed as to why Jordan could be missing such vital messages and on Oct. 18 ordered the city to investigate.

The city investigation found that Jordan had city staff put in the filters on Oct. 27, 2011 - two days after a violent clash between police and protesters that made international news. He had been inundated with anonymous messages, he said in a declaration to the court.

But he forgot the e-mail filter was still in effect.

At least until Henderson gave his order and the city investigated. All messages to Jordan with the once-banned phrases now go to his inbox, as of Oct. 19. In addition, Jordan now has a special folder for messages from the court monitor, Warshaw.

“It was never my intention to ignore the monitor,” Jordan said in his declaration.

thepeoplesrecord:

NYPD beat homeless man in synagogue outreach center
October 17, 2012

The NYPD beat up a homeless man in Brooklyn last week as he resisted arrest for sleeping in a synagogue outreach center, where he had permission to stay. Surveillance video obtained by local news siteCrownHeights.info shows two officers brutally beating a shoeless and shirtless man, Ehud Halevi, who insisted he had permission to be in the center for troubled youth, ALIYA (Alternative Learning Institute for Young Adults).

Although sources confirmed with CrownHeights.info that Halevi had been sleeping in the space for a month with permission, one security guard, unaware of the arrangement, called the police. The guard later told the New York Daily News that he regretted making the call.

According to Gothamist, “[Halevi] was also pepper sprayed during the arrest, [and] was charged with assaulting a police officer, trespassing, resisting arrest and harassment. He’s currently out on bail and faces up to five years in prison for assaulting an officer.” The NYPD have yet to issue comment.

Watch the graphic video here.

Source

thepeoplesrecord:

NYPD takes the life of another black male
June 18, 2012

On April 12, 2012, Laverne’s son Tamon Robinson, like Trayvon Martin, encountered someone who made a wrong assumption based on his age and the color of his skin. In Tamon’s case, it was a police officer, while in Trayvon’s case, it was a civilian, George Zimmerman. But in both cases, because the young men were African American, their lives were cut tragically short.

Tamon worked in as a barista at the Connecticut Muffin café on Lafayette Avenue in Fort Green, Brooklyn. On the side, he collected bricks, stones and other discarded building materials and sold them for scrap. Around 5:30 a.m., on the way to his car that morning, Tamon stopped to collect some old paving stones that the Seaview Houses were throwing away. He had permission from the building’s management to take them.

Officers in a patrol car spotted him and assumed he was stealing. When two officers began chasing him, Tamon ran toward the building where he had, until recently, lived with his mother. He had moved into his own apartment, but still had a key and stopped by to visit her every day.

He was barely 100 yards away from the entrance when a third officer drove a police cruiser onto the sidewalk and ran him down. A witness reported seeing Tamon fly up into the air and then land on the ground. Officers were overheard telling him to get up before picking him up and throwing the unconscious man onto the hood of the car. When they realized he was not responding, they finally called emergency medical services.

In some twisted irony, during a canvas looking for witnesses, the same officers knocked on Tamon’s mother’s door. Ms. Dobbinson was told there had been an accident and asked if she saw anything. She was unaware that the young man injured in the accident was her son. It was not until later—around 4 p.m.—that officers returned to her door to tell her that her son was in the hospital in a coma.

When Laverne Dobbinson arrived at the hospital, she found Tamon handcuffed to the bed in spite of the fact that he was in a coma. Initially, she was not allowed into the room to be with her son. Officials kept her and other family members from Tamon’s bedside where they could give comfort and talk to him. After two days, the police finally relented. Six days after his encounter with NYPD, his family made the painful decision to end life support.

Speaking with Tamon’s mother after the rally and march, I asked her to tell me about her son. “He was a good son, never got into any trouble,” she told me. “He never was involved in drugs or gangs. He was friendly; it was rare that he ever got angry with anyone. He was a hard worker and was trying to go to college.”

Source

(via ikenbot)

buzzfeed:

So clever, yet so infuriating.

[The UC Davis Pepper Spraying Cop Meme]

Ken, thought you’d particularly like this one =D

(via youthiswasted)