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