The notion that putting cameras on cops would be an adequate way to reform the incredible injustice that is the American criminal “justice” system has proven fatally flawed once again with the decision by a New York Grand Jury not to indict New York City Police Officer Daniel “Peckerwood” Pantaleo, even though a video camera clearly captured the exact moment and those leading up to it when he strangled 43 year-old Eric Garner until he was lifeless. Again, the entire scene is on video, and if there is anyone left reading this who has not seen the footage, here it is in all its brutality. Neither Garner’s murderer nor any of his apparent accomplices to murder showed the least amount of concern as Garner desperately pleaded with them as his life was slipping away, “I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. I can breathe. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe.”
But while there wasn’t enough “probable cause” (so we are told) to indict Peckerwood Pantaleo for anything at all, we are asked to believe there is reason to indict Ramsey Orta, the man who filmed Garner’s lynching by police and was responsible for exposing this crime to the world. This is a familiar tactic. Police departments and police unions quite routinely intimidate and target those who speak up against their brutal and racist tactics. On Monday, police in Ferguson announced they might possibly seek charges against Michael Brown’s stepfather of all people after it was announced there would be no indictment of one of that town’s resident pigs Darren Wilson. And now we’re learning that the youngest member of dixiecrat Governor Jay Nixon’s politicized “Ferguson Commission”, 20 year-old Rasheen Aldridge (whose never been in trouble with the law before btw), is being charged with “third-degree assault” on a city marshal, though the video prosecutors claim warrants such a charge shows completely the opposite.
Eric Garner, of course, was killed by a gang of complicit NYPD officers on July 17, though Pantaleo is directly responsible for his death as he was the officer who strangled him to death. Outrage over Garner’s death and the apparent decision not to arrest the cop who killed him spread throughout New York City and the nation as Ramsey Orta’s video went viral. Then suddenly, on the 2nd day of August, NYPD officers locate a gun on a 17 year-old coming from Hotel Richmond in St. George on Staten Island. Somehow they come to the conclusion that the gun is linked to Mr. Ramsey Orta, so they arrest him and charge him with “single felony counts of third-degree criminal weapon possession and criminal firearm possession.” His bail is set at the outrageously high amount of $75,000. Mr. Orta’s wife, Chrissie Ortiz, said the indictment was “total b.s.” and insisted, as has Ramsey Orta himself, that the charges were trumped up and in retaliation for Orta’s video bringing so much scrutiny to the NYPD’s brutal tactics. After Mrs. Ortiz spoke out against what she believed was an NYPD smear campaign against her husband, she was arrested just two days later.
Aside from the motive on the part of the cops to retaliate (Orta says one of the cops who arrested him even said directly to him, “Karma’s a bitch”), another reason for bringing the charges was undoubtedly to discredit Orta as a viable witness in the eyes of the Grand Jury, a jury which was apparently predisposed to believe anything the cops fed them in the first place. According to Ramsey Orta, the grand jury members asked him incessantly about his “criminal” past and how that might’ve played into his motive for filming the police officers as they attempted to arrest Eric Garner. They also kept alluding to Garner’s allegedly having been selling “loosie cigarettes” before. Some of them weren’t even paying attention to him while his was giving his testimony at all, instead fiddling with their phones and having conversations among themselves. And when they did decide to ask him a question, it would always be about his personal life or that of Eric Garner, never about officer Pantaleo.
All around the country we are seeing that the law functions in such a way that police officers, regardless of how vile, inhumane and racist their actions are, are always deemed to be justified and working within the frame of the law. Meanwhile, those who speak out against the unconsciously high amount of police brutality and cruelty, such as the more than 280 people that have been arrested while peacefully protesting the grand jury’s ridiculous decision not to indict Daniel “Peckerwood” Pantaleo, are retaliated against through means of arrest, incarceration, and are saddled with burdensome debt. But what else are we to expect? The American “criminal justice” system has not an ounce of credibility. Those who deserve to be in jail more than anyone else, killer cops, are given complete immunity for just about anything they do, while at the same time an extraordinary number of low-level offenders are locked away in cages though they should never have been sent there in the first place.
United States Hypocrisy 
I am so sorry for this family and other families who have experienced the same loss.
Its truly frightening to see what is happening throughout this entire nation.
As americans black white red yellow or any shade we should be able to put are heads down at night and know the tax money we work so hard for is being used to keep us safe at night instead our money is given to thugs with badges. The brutal force used on every day civilins is appaling.
There is a dark cloud hanging over this country and its not going anywhere.
Sites like this are what we need to keep aware of what is really happening.
I thank you for your response and I agree completely. Everyone should be able to live in a society where their taxes are used to benefit the greater community as a whole and not to empower murderous thugs with badges whose very presence only serves to protect the highest bidder.
Just a couple of days ago at my local Mcdonalds, Bear walks up there sometimes, two other cops shot one another in a parking lot at McDonalds not knowing that the other was also an undercover cop – over a $60 drug bust. There have been numerous shootings here involving the police and citizens as well and a justice dept investigation – but it would seem that use deadly force is frequently the first and final action.
http://news.yahoo.com/lawyers-albuquerque-officers-face-charges-killing-162450244.html
Indeed. It seems that the de-facto policy is “shoot first, ask questions NEVER.”
I hold the truth of these words to be the absolutely self-evident
– Bob Marley’s “WAR”
“War”
Until the philosophy which hold one race superior
And another
Inferior
Is finally
And permanently
Discredited
And abandoned –
Everywhere is war –
Me say war.
That until there no longer
First class and second class citizens of any nation
Until the colour of a man’s skin
Is of no more significance than the colour of his eyes –
Me say war.
That until the basic human rights
Are equally guaranteed to all,
Without regard to race –
Dis a war.
That until that day
The dream of lasting peace,
World citizenship
Rule of international morality
Will remain in but a fleeting illusion to be pursued,
But never attained –
Now everywhere is war – war.
Those lyrics are absolutely beautiful, and will remain relevant for many many years to come.
Authority always argues that it is inviolable. It was the same in 1776. So what
are we to do when it is always right? Revolutions do not occur in a
vacuum neither does injustice. The authorities are trying to conflate
issues – there are still legitimate gripes about real abuses that happen
many thousands more times than cops are killed by some nut, The media
plays along with this trying to shift control
of the public dialogue. But who is the underdog in this relationship?
When authority commits a crime in front of our eyes – when they murder a
man over a misdemeanor and face no punishment – WE ALL FEEL UNSAFE for
AUTHORITY HAS BECOME CRIMINAL. Counterfactual definiteness enters into
the public consciousness by the promotion of distorted reality by the
media’s tendency to distort reality in favour of the ruling classes.
Perhaps police should be trained psychologists, sociologists, etc. by
background. the current concept of policing is rooted in the old German
or Prussian Model of the 19th C. There should be testing for psychopathy
and sociopathy for police as well. Unfortunate about the police shot
in NYC but this is the tip of the ice berg – it shows that the society
is near broken already – when one assaults authority one loses
everything – to do that the state of affairs must already be bad – from a
history of past abuses – an injustice meets an injustice – when the
police turn to abuse and violence – some in society will react in kind –
live by the sword and die by the sword. There is a link between
mistreating citizens like Eric Garner on the streets of our cities and
the way we allow ourselves to allow our leaders to get away with crimes
against humanity. The wealthy, who are in charge, just do not care about
the lives of any of us among the lower classes economically. People
like Cheney who would use torture on our enemies would use it against
Domestic targets as well – against US Citizens at large – for who is to
challenge the CIA and the rest of the government’s definition of who is a
bad guy. Who will know the truth, find the truth, even know that your
neighbour has been picked up and is now being water boarded among other
things. It is rather like the old hot poker up the ass from medieval
England – you there to verify the truth??? Either we are different and
are humane or we are not. The purpose of a civilization is to lift up
all of its members and to
enable them to achieve self actualization and comfort – otherwise, there
is no advantage to the social organization. Not exclusivity but
inclusiveness of benefits and improved quality of life. We must shed
our animal skins in order to save them. Eric Garner was a man and as
such should have been treated with compassion – when we lose our
compassion, our empathy, we lose any right to claim a divine spark.
There is a link to how they, the ruling class, treat prisoners who are
tortured and how the system kills people like Eric Garner on the Streets
– they devalue us – it makes no difference in reality whether we are
citizens or foreigners accused of some crime of terror.
You are an incredibly brilliant and intelligent person Lloyd! What you say makes entirely too much sense. If more people thought and saw things the way you do the world would be a much better place for everyone living on it.
The Soviet poster is right on. According to civil rights attorney Michelle Alexander, African Americans are killed by cops at the same rate (one every 3-4 days) as they were lynched 100 years ago.
According to this May, 2013 report, there is a police lynching of a Black man, woman or child in the U.S. every 28 hours:
http://www.occupy.com/article/black-man-killed-us-every-28-hours-police
All police are my enemy from now on.
I hear you. I know to some that may sound harsh, but it is truly a systematic problem and not at all the case of “a few bad apples” as most people tend to believe. You will often hear people say, “But not all police officers are bad people…”, they do all work in the occupation of serving the oppressive classes and doing their bidding. There may be one or two somewhere who aren’t terrible people, but that doesn’t change who is calling the shots at the end of the day.
Exactly! Not one of the Black communities protesting in 120 US cities has focused on police violence as a single-issue problem. The larger political analysis you reference is essentially universal (as far as my efforts can tell, of course!) and skillfully employed by all, insisting on the state function of the police role as the root of police actions.
As I understand the white attitude you describe, Black people recieve it as a ghoulish message urging a caution that comes across as sequential progressive steps.Good god, that African-Americans use models of oppression doesn’t mean they’ve granted police an extension of some kind! I guess they have the nerve to expect cops to walk and chew gum at the same time.
From the first protest in Ferguson itself, members of the nation’s most damaged Black communities, have shown the world – AGAIN! – that the historic African-American compass is alive, well, and being employed by experts.
I’m glad you wrote.Thanks Caleb.
PS Did you get my email? Maybe you could check? Thanks again.
Hello Marie! I have not received your latest email but I will certainly find it I’ve been so incredibly busy lately with my new job that I haven’t been able to keep up with my website unfortunately ;-/ Once I get in to the routine it will be different though.
We are being herded into laying our heads down and stretching our necks out before we demand it of those who would crush us.
Reblogged this on MrMilitantNegro™.
….and as if this isn’t bad enough, how about getting shot in the chest by cops in Cleveland, then hand-cuffed and fined $100?
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/shot-in-the-chest-by-cleveland-police-%e2%80%93-then-handcuffed-and-fined-dollar100/ar-BBgqHnA
Body camera on those pigs is not going to do a damn thing, they know that. It would be equivalent to putting a band aid on a bullet wound. Why don’t they cut the bullshit and take a serious look at how broken the ‘criminalize the Blacks injustice system’ is? The fact is, they don’t want it ‘fixed’. That’s the whole point. Just take a look around at where this country is headed. The economic situation of many is so bad that hardly anyone at all got trampled over the ‘Thank who?’ holiday. Stores are already bemoaning the fact that there were more people protesting then there were stampeding customers attempting to get at yet another ‘$100 HDTV with tunnel vision, 3D hypnotic mind control on automatic pilot redial’.
This ‘ship’ called “Amurderer” is sinking like the Titanic it is and ” Adios!” to the whores of Babylon. This is their last ditch effort to control us all and it just might not work and then what? There goes their soft, corporate-kickbacks and bribed well cushioned asses.
Thanks Caleb for letting me have my say! I am THAT fed up, I am!
You’re right as usual Courtland, and if there is anything we know for certain about the greedy imperialist snakes who run this show, it’s that there is no act too desperate for them to try if it comes between them and their wealth and control. And somehow I have not even heard about this latest incident in the link you posted. How could this system get any more evil and corrupt than this? To shoot a man obviously with intent to kill, yet the man who was shot and miraculously survived is the one charged?! I guess these greedy violent capitalist pigs figure this is the just punishment for surviving the assassination attempt instead of dying like he was ‘supposed’ to. Shame shame.
Reblogged this on Mavadelo's mindscape and commented:
whadafuq??
Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
This leaves no doubt …. the “system” is beyond broken! “Not letting it go”, he said. Don’t see any stopping it!
IMO, this is all part of a larger transformation occurring throughout the world. Entrenched wealth and power understands it is being existentially threatened by growing economic instability and social unrest. Its reaction, typified by countless examples in human history, is an escalation of authoritarian practices. Democracy, civil liberties, equal justice, and even human rights – or what’s currently left of them – will be sacrificed in the name of preserving the social order. It is modern human civilization in its 21st century death throes. Orwell was right.
Thank you for that historical reminder. The oligarchs are incredibly desperate to crush dissent regardless of whether it is voiced “peacefully” or not. The politicians keep calling for all resistance to remain “peaceful”, yet they make no distinction between peaceful and violent resistance anyway. All of it is seen as a threat to them.