B’Man’s Hypocrite Watch: Preposterously Presumptuous Presidential Pretender Pawns

more about “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Offic…“, posted with vodpod

B’Man’s Patriot Watch: Henry Rollins – Ember of Rage

Henry Rollins speaks in Israel about visiting wounded war vets and offers some excellent advice I wish many Americans would take (at the end).

h/t from one of my favorite fellow Tennessee rednecks tnbob69

Richard Noggin’ Saturday: The Taser Happy Police in America

I put the last police state post together last night and posted it this morning. Already, there is another story breaking forward of even ANOTHER man who has been tasered to death (h/t Jonathon Turley).

Miami Man Pounds on Doors Screaming for Help When Police Arrive and Taser Him to Death

Miami-Dade police officers are being accused of excessive force in the death of Kenneth Oliver, 45, who was repeatedly hit with taser shocks. Witnesses called police to report a drunken Oliver knocking on doors and asking for help. The police arrived and, reportedly over the objections of onlookers, shoot him four times with tasers — killing him. The case is similar to another recent case, below.

Paul Severence insists that when the police arrived, he told police “He’s under the influence, so you guys should be careful.” He and others state that the police overacted when Severence did not put his hands behind his back fast enough. “They Tased him three different times. They just kept Tasing him. I told the police, ‘You’re going to kill that man,’ so after they did it a third time, I just walked away,” said Severence. He says that he saw an officer then hit him a fourth time.

It turns out that Oliver may have pins in his shoulders that restricts his movement and makes it difficult to put his arms behind him. He also had a heart condition. Oliver had a criminal record, though he recently graduated from Small Engine Mechanic School and had a child on the way.

We obviously have to wait for the results of the police investigation. However, the steady stream of deaths as a result of multiple tasers is a very disturbing trend. Despite the witness accounts, the officers may be able to establish that he was threatening them. Yet, the use of three or four tasers seems on its face pretty excessive.

The story is similar to another case where a man was frantically pounding on doors saying that someone was trying to kill him and was tasered and beaten, here.
For the full story, click here. He also died.

America: The Police State

No one can ignore it. It is plastered all over the news and especially on the blogs. I swear that we have become a nation of excessively policed and brutalized citizens. This is nothing new, especially to those who follow closely the militarization of the police forces throughout America since 9/11.

When I was a teen, in a mostly white area, the police could be hard. Real hard. I have had my head hit with a stick… shoved into a cop car… treated like a criminal when innocent. But, it was still few and far between that there was the extent we see today.

There have been cases of murder by stun gun… videos of cops OBVIOUSLY going too far (crazy by any and every measurement)… a seeming uncaring attitude of being caught and prosecuted or even reprimanded. 250# cops running down 130# bikers, gangs of cops tazing individuals…

It has gone way out of hand.

But what gives them the sense that they can get by with it? What laws have been passed? Who is their watchdog, if not us?

I can no longer avoid it and will try my best to keep track and equate it to the lawlessness of the Bush administration and its lackadaisical attitude towards American citizen’s rights. I want to first make mention of Jonathon Turley’s entry regarding ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and how they ‘made a mistake’ that cost a man his life (there have been many killings lately):

The ICE Man Cometh: ICE Sends Notice to Wrong Home, Then Arrests Him for Failiure to Respond, and Holds Him Until He Dies From Untreated Cancer

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has come under increasing attack for the brutish approach that it has taken to deportation cases, often refusing medical care and coercing people to waive their rights. In the case of Chinese computer engineer Hiu Lui Ng, the abuses may have killed him.

Ng came to New York at 17 and later became a computer engineer with a job in the Empire State Building with a U.S. citizen as a wife, two U.S. citizens as children, and a house in Queens. He spent half his life here.

Ng was seeking a green card and went to his final interview with ICE. (The family says that a notice had been sent to the wrong address on his visa earlier). Upon his arrival, he was informed that he had overstayed a visa years earlier and was arrested — staring an ordeal that took him to various jails and three New England states. He ultimately ended up dead after ICE officials indicated that he thought that he was faking his complaints about back pain. It turns out that that he had a fractured back and cancer.

There have been a number of such complaints against ICE. I have personally dealt with ICE officials who simply refuse to respond to counsel on deportation cases, showing open content for both courts and counsel. Earlier this year, ICE was accused of negligence in the cancer death of Francisco Castaneda, 36, a Salvadoran, who was also left without treatment for cancer. There is also Boubacar Bah, 52, a Guinean tailor, who was left in an isolate cell for 13 hours with a skull fracture and brain hemorrhages.

Congress is beginning to express concern over the thuggish and abusive record of ICE in such cases. Yet, it is civil and possibly criminal charged that is needed to hold this agency accountable.

For the full story, click here.