Self-Defense Is a Bitch

Cops don't kill anyone anymore in Humboldt County, they just leave them dead on the street.

Once again, the local newspaper, the Times-Standard soft-pedals the killing by police of another mentally disturbed person. See the front-page Saturday, March 17, 2012, story title: Officer involved shooting leaves Fortuna man dead – REALLY?

Makes it sound like there was some sort of gun battle going on with an officer, or some police officer just happened to be around somewhere when a Fortuna man was found dead. Evestigate the newspaper a little more and you will find that and unknown “26-year-old” was "shot" and “killed.” Why? We quote the newspaper: “[A]s he allegedly attempted to strike officer with a baton” he had taken away from one of the MORE than one officer. Who, apparently, had used all their little toys, to no avail, so they just shot him dead.

In truth, what we simply have here is that, a police officer shot dead a Fortuna man. The bullets that killed the man didn't come out of the blue and somehow “left” the poor guy “dead.” It came from a specific person, a Fortuna police officer. The simple fact is, that an unnamed Fortuna police officer killed that man. NOT some bogus nonsense, "Officer involved shooting leaves Fortuna man dead."

Once again, just like the newspaper's title is misleading, so is their report of the incident. The headline says the dead guy “attempted to strike officer with baton.” So does the reported police news release.

A second officer arrived and joined in the effort to subdue Newmaker in a struggle that became increasingly violent, according to the release, culminating with Mewmaker's allegedly wrestling a baton from one of the officers.
"As the suspect was in the process of attempting to strike the officer with the baton, the other officer fired his weapon at the suspect to stop the atack on his fellow officer," the release states."

Thadeus Greenson, the writer of this news report adds his slant, as tries to justify another police slaying: “Ultimately, an officer fatally shot Newmaker after he took one of the officers' batons and began striking him with it.” This Report has found this kind of biased newspaper reporting from Thadeus Greenson, in particular, to be status quo – NORMAL.

Please note here, the police news release says "As the suspect was in the process of attempting to strike ..." - this is about as remote and ambiguous a NON-THREATENING action as anyone could be involved in that certainly does not pose an eminent threat to anyone's life. "In the process of attempting"? This is total NONSENSE.

The absolute question that begs an answer is, how can “attempting to strike an officer with his, [a police] baton” justify the use of deadly force? Do the police NOT strike, or threaten to strike, people all the time JUST to avoid the use of or the need for or use deadly force? Isn't that why they pack batons?

People need to take a real serious look at what the Fortuna police have done here. When peaceful demonstrators legally exercise their citizen rights and are regularly set upon by the baton-wielding police beating them into submission they are threatening the very lives of these legal, and peaceful demonstrators. Clearly, if the police are justified in this killing under these conditions and stipulated circumstances, then people guilty of NO crime when their lives are threatened by a baton possess the legal right to defend themselves and with lethal force if necessary against any and all criminal assaults. The police in this country and in particular Humboldt County that take great delight brutalizing people, in particular the Occupy Movement people might want to pay close attention to what they are establishing.

--Joe

Personhood and the Police

[UPDATE Below - Recognizing Personhood from little gods - What it means to be an American Elite]

Law enforcement officials frustrated with Occupy signs

This is today's Times-Standard frontpage headline for Friday, March 9, 2012. "Law enforcement" being Humboldt County Sheriff Mike Downey and the so-call "Interim Eureka Police Chief Murl Harpham.

This title actually misrepresents "law enforcement's" real frustration. Their issue is really with the District Attorney and the fact they don't have carte blanche or the full discretionary power and unconditional authority to eradicate the Occupy people from Eureka's streets at will. Be assured they are diligently working on a so-called legal solution to rectify that problem and solidify their State police power authority.

We all know their history dealing with the local Occupy Movements - Brutal, Arbitrary and Perverse in total disregard to any legitimate right to peacefully protest or demonstrate. Which, by the way, is the general public's legally provided way to "give direction" to elected representatives.

The following statement in the Times-Standard by Sheriff Mike Downey sheds some light on why.

Downey said he hopes members of the public fed up with the activities in front of the courthouse will go to the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors with their concerns. 

"The public generally is no longer in support of what's going on" Downey said. "The public needs to give direction to the Board of Supervisors." [Emphasis added]

Who is this "fed up public" Sheriff Downey is speaking for or representing? Is this not what the Occupy Movement is trying to do, speak for the general, fed up public? Or is he talking only about the people that financed his election? Why does he and Murl Harpham make a distinction between the Occupy Movement who purport to represent the 99% of Americans and the so-called general "public" who obviously only make up 1%?

Herein lies the crux of the issue and goes right to the heart of what happened to Felix Omai and why. The general population that votes believes that they have some say in matters relative to their existence. In other words, they believe that their vote guarantees their recognition and general personal representation. Or, at the very least, a hearing ear and at least some consideration for their needs and wants. What the 99% don't or won't accept is that their vote, as such, is both redundant and irrelevant. The only vote that counts to all elected representatives is the dollar; the more dollars, the more personhood. They know that the one with the most dollars usually always gets voted into office. Hence the attitude of the elected representative toward their supposed constituents is disparaging, demeaning and belittling consistent to their lying acts of betrayal. They see, if at all, the general population as sub or non-human, not much better than and subject to about as much consideration as mongrel dogs. Throw them a few scraps, or lying promises and they'll rollover on command.

The problem is that the select class of ruling elites do not see nor do they hear anything from such people as make up the likes of an Occupy Movement - people that believe they actually count in this system. Did you notice that the only people mentioned by Sheriff Downey that matters are the few fed up people like him making complaints about the Occupy people? Accordingly, those of the Occupy Movement that are trying to express the wants and needs of the majority of people are considered nothing more than a gang of trouble-makers that are a blight on the community, interfering in the affairs of normal people.

What the Occupy Movement has proven is that there is no reasoning or communicating with City or County governments regardless of what they are currently doing. There's only one way to communicate with these elite, exceptional oligarchy that presides over an ever constricting police state. They, the police and their masters, must FIRST see you as an equal. For that to happen YOU must see them exactly for who and what they are and deal with them accordingly. This reality was demonstrated in superb form in the movie Avatar. I suggest all wannabe Occupy Movement people go see it or see it again and this time take a realistic lesson into what it means to become and act like a person worthy of being seen and heard.

Currently there are 106 comments on the Humboldt Herald for their Quote of the Day:

So with this I am suspending all efforts to do anything with the continued assault on the courthouse, the employees and the general public due to the immunity given to them by your [the District Attorney's] office. — Humboldt County Sheriff Mike Downey in a letter to DA Paul Gallegos regarding the ongoing Occupy Eureka protest outside the courthouse.

Check out some of the local blog-talkers if you think what they say is representative of local opinion. In particular I recommend the comment by Janell Eggar. As someone in the mix or on the firing line, she makes or proofs my article and reason for writing it. Before you can ever hope to talk to someone, let alone communicate with them, you must FIRST get their attention. Only an authentic, legitimate person can do that.

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[UPDATE :: Thursday, March 15, 2012 – Link to SoHum Parlance II – Estelle Event in Fortuna]

Here is the initial statement I made and Eric's reply. 

March 10, 2012 at 3:56 pm

Joe Blow

Still promoting the auction, I see…

March 10, 2012 at 5:28 pm

Eric Kirk

Voted in every election since I turned 18 Joe. It’s not even just about politics. It’s part of what it means to be American. So yes, I’m still “promoting the auction.” Always.

Currently there are over 70 comments on this thread. Many of the comments associated with the above exchange deal with the issue of "Personhood." Without the acceptance and recognition of EQUAL personhood, whether it be by individuals, communities or nations, there can be no meaningful communication and certainly NO peace. Many of the comments and their writers clearly demonstrate the war-mongering attitude of the elitist bully constantly striving to control everyone and everything. To these people, intellectual and ideological diversity and exchange is their pariah. So, be warned.

Once the difference between the common American individual (one of personhood, that of individual legitimacy and value) and the Elitist American God, so aptly demonstrated in this blog thread, I closed down further conversation on Eric Kirk's blog. The simple truth is, there is absolutely nothing you can say that these kinds of self-centered oligarchic elitist will ever hear as long as they believe they are a god. I found it quite interesting that, with just a little coaxing from me, Ernie Branscomb identified and defined this as the very issue alienating him that he thinks justifies his constant litany of degrading, racist insults. 

--Joe

The Wrath of God - Solar Flares

Wrath? No one seems to know how solar flares affect humans and animals. Scientists claim, as reported in "Solar Storm Shakes Magnetic Field," these magnetic storms only affect electrical systems, such as with magnetic, radio and radiation emissions. Astronomers said this storm was "pretty benign" because it was of a "northern orientation." Interestingly, a southern orientation would have caused the most damaging technological disruption and biggest auroras. It seems this is just an introduction. Scientists say:

The storm is part of the sun's normal 11-year cycle, which is supposed to reach a peak next year. Storms as large as the latest one will probably happen several more times as the cycle ramps up to that peak.  ***  The region of the sun that erupted can still send more blasts our way, Kunches (Joe Kunches, a scientist at the NOAA center) said. Another set of active sunspots is ready to aim at Earth.

Maybe it's time to breakout the tin foil hats.



Wrath? Looks wrathful to me. Guess we'll all find out if the whole world starts acting crazy.

--Joe

Is Silence Really Golden?

[UPDATE Below - Misguided Silence]

Howdy Emerson's Letter to the Editor: “Silent no longer” in the Sunday, March 4, 2012, Times-Standard presents a valid argument to the contrary. Because of the current meeting between U.S. President Barack Obama and Israel’s Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu his concerns are relevant today. The Jerusalem Post reports that the importance of this strategic meeting is detailed in their mutual country's need to be "masters of their own fate."

Silent no longer 

When I heard President Obama say, as he did on Feb. 5th regarding actions against Iran, that the U.S. will “march in lockstep with Israel,” I became extremely concerned. Lockstep is a military term, and Obama knows it. According to my dictionary, when referring to politicians it means, “in perfect or rigid, often mindless conformity or unison.” Come to think of it, rigid and mindless is an apt description of our government's blind support -- political and financial ($30 billion just in military aid in the next 10 years) -- of Israel's illegal occupation of Palestinian land, unrelenting violence toward Palestinian Christians and Muslims, and now perhaps an unprovoked attack on Iran. 

Israeli leaders and our media would have us believe that Israel is the innocent victim of endless attacks. The truth is the opposite -- Israel has the fourth-largest military in the world -- is the only nuclear power that has never allowed inspections -- and is far more powerful than all surrounding nations. The facts on the ground are these: endless mortar fire, military incursions and drone attacks from Israel into Gaza; daily sniper fire from the settlements towards Palestinian farmers in the West Bank; Palestinian homes regularly bulldozed in East Jerusalem to make room for Jewish only settlements; hundreds, including children, jailed without charge or trial; Palestinian land and water regularly stolen for illegal settlements. These are acts of a violent military aggressor, not a victim. Such policies and actions do not make Israel safe. Our “lockstep” support makes neither the U.S. nor Israel safe. 

I have avoided speaking out on this topic for fear of the names I may be called. Such avoidance amounts to tacit agreement with the apartheid policies of Israel and the unquestioning compliance of my own government. My silence does not make Israel safe. My silence does not make the U.S. safe. I can no longer remain silent.

What he says here is well worth repeating, reading and thinking about. Many Americans believe, if the support for Republican presidential bluster is believable, that war is the ultimate panacea. Of course, this is the way of all sociopathic bullies as they enforce their "right" to dominate.

A good update to what Mr. Emerson writes is today's article from Glenn Greenwald: Obama, Iran and preventive war - Who are the real sociopathic “chickenhawks”? Those gutless wonders that speak out.

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[UPDATE :: Thursday, March 8, 2012]
Mr. Emerson had it right when  he said "silence" amounts to a tacit agreement. Even though the uninformed, propagandized misanthropist believers rise out of their crypts to rant and rave. Sure enough, one appeared in Wednesday, March 7, 2012, Letter to the Editor: "Letter misguided on Israel" - Notice Barbara Carnam's deliberate insult. The least she could do was spell the man's name right.

In response to Howdy Epperson [sic] (”No Longer Silent,” March 4, Times-Standard):
You certainly are no longer silent, but I wonder about the point of your letter. Are you trying to keep Israel safe from protecting itself from the shelling from the Gaza strip that Israel vacated and left to the Palestinians? Are you keeping our country safe by distancing itself from the Jewish state so as to avoid the displeasure of the neighboring Arab countries, or from the moral disdain of all of the countries of the world that cede land in hopes of peace?  

I can see why you stayed silent for so long, as your appalling misinterpretation of the facts does leave you open to being called names, but probably not the ones that you imagined.
Barbara Carnam
Fieldbrook

 Israel's record since inception is self-defining - The so-called State of Israel is without legitimacy. Their subjugation of the Palestinian people can not change that reality no matter how many Jew-worshiping  Americans try to make it so.

--Joe

Law and Order Finally Comes to Eureka

[Update below: The Occupy Movement's Real Threat]

This picture should scare the hell out of everyone living in Eureka, California.

Every law-abiding citizen, for sure.
Anyone know why?
SEE the headline: "Thank you for a job well done"!
Does anyone have a clue what kind of policing job these guys were doing in Afghanistan for the past year? Is this what we want brought back to Eureka?

This is exactly how the circle is closed. When you bring debauchery, oppression and death upon an innocent people for ten years you get back, right into the very heart of your society the very same things, but only multiplied many times over, and that for a lifetime. I wonder if in ten years or even one year from now the current City Council will be saying, "Thank you for a job well done?"

As long as Eurekans keep electing Authoritarian Cult members that empower an emboldened City Manager it's a wonder Murl Harpham doesn't stay on for another year or two. Thank god for old age and senility - natural attrition does have its benefits. The question remains, if Harpham gets his way, (Eureka begins police chief hiring process):

Harpham, 78, ... said he likely won't stay too long after that, noting he'd like to help the new  hire with the transition but also wants the new chief to "have a clean slate here."

will, or for that matter, can any new police chief bring actual legal law and order policing to the people of Eureka?

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[UPDATE :: February 24, 2012 - The Occupy Movement's Real Threat]
Latest Update: See comments on Ernie's blog about what happen in Court today]

To the uninitiated, the above headline, "Law and Order Finally Comes to Eureka," is sarcastic or cynical for a reason. There is a difference between mob rule by an Authoritarian Cult and their military police and actual law enforcement. Legitimate law enforcement does not require the people they are entrusted to protect and serve to be brutalized into forced servitude and subjection on a whim. A case in point is illustrated in three local blogs: Humboldt Herald's “Shocking Headlines,” Ernie Branscomb's “Omai, Felix, what have you wrought?” and Kym Kemp's “Bedsheets on aBridge: Protests Meet Police in an Occupied America" – Where Kym Kemp describes it this way: “The Occupy Movement has placed the people’s right to protest in direct juxtaposition with law enforcement’s need to protect the public and themselves.”

How does one's simple existence and their demanding of one's legally established rights threaten the public and the police? REALLY? Only in the mind of the paranoid.

If you want to know where and how such paranoid motivated conclusions originate, I invite you to read Glenn Greenwald's: Those weak losers who care about “law”.

The following article "Sick" listed below shows how bad it's been and how local communities support such sickness.

--Joe

SICK!

This is what happens when you give the police the right to brutalize peaceful protesters.

Of course, in places like Syria, in Palestine's Gaza, and West Bank, and Egypt they just shoot you dead, but this is America. They see peaceful people that dare want what is rightfully theirs in an altogther different way. They teach you lessons you'll remember and suffer with the rest of your miserable lives.

What I'd like to know is where are the REAL MEN protecting this girl? As long as the so-called men are cowing around wringing their hands, shaking in their sneakers, of course, these bullies are going to brutalize and then blame the victim. That's why they're handcuffing her before giving her help.

Only a stupid fool would buy into this game. The only good I can see that comes from something like this picture is a wakeup call. To those would-be demonstraters and protesters, take a good look and ask yourselves, is it worth it? If you are standing up for your legal rights and what you are doing is totally legal, then you have the legal right to defend yourself against the criminal agressor. In other words, you have the moral, ethical and legal responsibility to defend yourselves. Failure to do so is a defacto admission justifying the accusations and consequential actions of the police. The government and their police know this and is why and how they co-opt and justifiably brutalize anyone that would ask them for their permission or legal right to exist or be an equal citizen.

If you're not prepared to take these steps then simply stop cooperating and hold the people that support this kind of police brutality, or "tough cop" mentality accountable. In Eureka that starts with the current crop of City Coucil people and the Eurekan's that voted them in.
[Picture was taken from Facebook]

This incident took place on August 11, 2007. An update three years later, Judge orders new trial for Alexandra Svoboda, is the reason I wrote this article. The kind of support the community employs to justify using the justice system as a further weapon of assault is demonstrated here. This is the reason why accountability starts with these people who find the police are attacked when they physically atetack someone and call it an arrest. There is only one word that describes such people - SICK!

--Joe

Really?

don Miguel Ruiz Jr

"The person next to you has lived an experience that you have no idea about. Our individuality is born of the agreements and experiences that we have had in our life, which makes us who we are. There is no difference between us, except our point of view."

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Man! And some of those points of view are extreme, juvenile and Mickey Mouse. But, is that who we really are? The sum our point of view?


My point of view may vary with who I am. Who I am is certainly NOT defined by my point of view.  Who I am is what speaks for me. My point of view or who and what I think or believe I am certainly does not. Our individuality, based upon our experiences and agreements, makes us distinct different individuals. The value of that individuality, however, is the same. Note: I did not say "individual."

--Joe