Brokeneck Baal-timore
Someone could make a full time job out of keeping track of all the unarmed African American males being shot by LEO’s (law enforcement Officers.) Yeah that would be a blast. It occurs to me that we haven’t had a mass shooting since the one at that Seatle school last fall. Maybe the recent spate of murder by cops has cooled the murderous outrage of potential mass murderers just a bit or maybe it just seemed to me that about every four months or so another one would take place, but I digress.
Last Sunday in Baltimore a 25 year old man named Freddie Gray died from injuries sustained on April 12th while in police custody where he somehow managed to nearly sever his spinal chord without any assistance, just like that guy a few years ago who while handcuffed in a police cruiser managed to get his previously hidden weapon free and shoot himself in the back of the head, or so we were told. So let’s take a look at the facts as they are currently understood:
According to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required), Gray was in a West Baltimore neighborhood April 12. Shortly after his arrest, he was placed in a police van and reportedly asked for an inhaler because he was having difficulty breathing. It’s unclear whether police attempted to assist Gray, but the Journal notes that officers didn’t call for medical assistance until some 40 minutes after he was arrested. Police records seen by the newspaper also noted that Gray was placed in leg shackles for “acting irate.”
“Acting irate”, heh, nice euphemism you got there, it’d be too bad if something happened to it. Cut to the chase already; his legs were shackled because young, Black and Uppity. And in America today filled with terrified white people, the young uppity negro deserved, no, earned everything he got.
Authorities can’t say if there was a particularly good reason why police arrested Gray. According to the city, an officer made eye contact with Gray, and he took off running, so they pursued him. Though he’d had scrapes with the law before, there’s no indication he was wanted at the time. And though he was found with a switchblade, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said, “We know that having a knife is not necessarily a crime.”
One wonders if there is a police report on file and I know that certain animals consider it a threat to make eye contact with them and among them, is apparently, an animal known as a police officer.
To the list of crimes, add: Running while Black, and making eye contact with your betters. I mean think about it, if this description is accurate, the police acted like a pack of hungry wolves whose chase instinct is activated at the first sight of weakness.
In a country awash in guns and concealed carry morons, a Black dude with a switchblade is “not necessarily a crime.”
“Not necessarily…” What the fuck does that even mean.
Most States and Municipalities have rules regarding length and type of knives that are legal. Surely by now they could have measured the length of the blade, or run a chemical analysis on same just to make sure it wasn’t hollow and filled with cocaine.
They should have just sprinkled some crack on the Freddie while he was prostrate in the holding cell and been done with it.
An attorney retained by Gray’s family, Billy Murphy, described extensive injuries in a statement Sunday.“His spine was 80 percent severed at his neck. He lapsed into a coma, died, was resuscitated, stayed in a coma and on Monday, underwent extensive surgery at Shock Trauma to save his life,” Murphy said. “He clung to life for seven days and died today at approximately 7 a.m.”
Words fail.
Gray’s family said he was treated for three fractured vertebrae and a crushed voice box, the sorts of injuries that doctors say are usually caused by serious car accidents. The van made at least two stops before reaching the police station, but there’s no footage to say what happened during the journey or at those stops.
It’s a baffling conundrum. “None of the officers describe any use of force,” Deputy Police Commissioner Jerry Rodriguez said. “None of the officers describe using any force against Mr. Gray.” And yet somehow Gray was fatally hurt while in police custody.
A baffling conundrum indeed. A real fucking mystery, must have been the aliens, Rosicrucians, or the Illuminati.
Let’s see if this makes sense. You put a guy in hand cuffs and shackled feet into a panel van with no seatbelts, padding, or bench and then you play Baltimore’s Finest’s favorite pinball game. Get up to speed then slam on the breaks, giggle after you hear a defenceless body slam into the back of the van. Rinse, rewind, repeat. After the first time or two the subject is unconscious which makes handling animals or prey all the easier.
Maybe the recent spate of murder by cops has cooled the murderous outrage of potential mass murderers just a bit or maybe it just seemed to me that about every four months or so another one would take place, but I digress.
I bet it’s worse than you think… the would-be shooters are holding off so they can graduate high school and go into the police academy. They’re just deferring the shooting until they can do it often and with impunity.
Why do I have the taste of bile in my mouth?
A truly sickening story.
All the cops who were involved in this outrage should be charged with murder.
BREAKING NEWS: Uganda’s “Eat Da Poo Poo” Pastor hoist on his own pootard.
BBBB, you may very well be on to something. I really wish most of the time that i didnt have to write shit like this…but i had to get ot outta my craw…
Always a pleasure to see you here and abouts.
Also too, dennis is trying to bring his charm back to the hot tub. If you catch any put him in spam. I want to start a collection for janus node and other uses…
…
>the police acted like a pack of hungry wolves whose chase instinct is activated at the first sight of weakness
Dayum. A fine upstanding largely unoppressed white guy (save for when I prance flamingly down the street which I actually did once, couple decades ago, just for fun) like me would never come up with that spot-on analogy on his own. Way to bring it right into the feels.
Who’s policing the police?
Apparently nobody!
So here’s an idea: whenever the cops get slapped with one of those multimillion dollar damages lawsuit, how about the COP UNION is liable for paying it instead of the taxpayer?
Ya think the good cops might stand up to the assholes if they were financially liable for their crimes?
we are only 116 days into the year and 373 people have been killed by cops this year.
51 in the last 2 weeks
This is ridiculous.
http://killedbypolice.net/
You put a guy in hand cuffs and shackled feet into a panel van with no seatbelts
If Gray survived, they would have given him a ticket for not using his seat belt. Heck, they will blame his injuries on his not wearing a seat belt.
Davey said officers had every right to give chase.
“There is a Supreme Court case that states that if you are in a high-crime area, and you flee from the police unprovoked, the police have the legal ability to pursue you, and that’s what they did,” he said.
There are a lot if shady dealings in high finance. So if a white d00d in a fancy suit runs away from police officers on Wall Street, the police have the legal authority to pursue you?
From the looks of the video, he was totally limp when dragged into the van. Care to bet that he was tackled and slammed to the ground, causing spinal injuries which were then worsened by being slammed around in the van?
All of this speculation about being battered around the inside of a van reminds me of the events of the first part of the movie ‘Death Proof’.
Here’s a good perspective
380 killed now… 7 more since I posted the first link a day ago…
Even worse…
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/04/how-baltimore-riots-began-mondawmin-purge
Looks like the police started the riots by blockading a large number of highschoolers and teachers and whoever else just happened to be on the busses that day.
Yeah. Kettle tactics to blame again, police arresting the easy ones, ignoring the actual rioters, gives them a reason to crack heads.
Surely nobody could have predicted that a cultural powder-keg would act like a powder-keg always does.
FNORD
Apparently the word “thug” has become the new racial dog-whistle.
I’ve heard a few of the “enlightened” people I work with use it in that context.
Thanks pup. 🙂
Apparently the word “thug” has become the new racial dog-whistle.
Its the new black
Seriously, WTF happened to this blog?
We have missed your calideco stylings. If you stick around things might pick up a bit. your old buddy has been trying to get back in the hot tub….
Now that I think about it, that old soap opera may have been what held the place together….
…
For the record
387 now, another 7 down.
Nobody has mentioned that he appeared to be riding a bike, and was tackled from a moving bike by bike cops.
he had no helmet on, clearly, not that it would help with a broken neck from being crashed at speed, aka ‘running’
—
Jesus Tittyfucking Christ, people are assholes.
Well, at least they charged the officers involved. That’s a good first step. Of course, they arrested the guy who took the video in the first place, and it took a week of protests and a night of riots to charge the officers, so that doesn’t really speak well of the City’s resolve to see that justice is served.
The situation is way more complicated even then it looks. Remember that the State’s Attorney for Baltimore only received Balitmore PD’s preliminary investigation report yesterday. Yes, it is offensive that the investigation was being conducted by Baltimore PD but if you look at the abomination that is the Maryland LEOBR it’s actually amazing that an investigation was done at all.
I’m actually kind of impressed that the State’s Attorney brought so many charges so quickly, so I did a bit of reading about her. It reads like the plot of a summer blockbuster, only less believable.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-gray-mosby-20150501-story.htm
Wangchuck, your link isn’t working. Did they move it?
D-KW borked it by not picking up the final ‘l’. It’s
.htmlnot.htmhttp://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-gray-mosby-20150501-story.html
Obligatory FYWP
In as we had our corporate prison industry drivers take a 40 year old aboriginal man for a 200km .drive in the back of a divvy (police) van for non payment of fines. In 40 degree Celsius temp they provided no air conditioning or water. The temp in the van rose way beyond 65degrees. The prisoner was literally cooked to death for unpaid fines. Despite this the company kept its bloody contract and the workers just got a little slap.
This is beyond foul!
Yes, the police are very creative about how they torture and murder.
Here in Canada they were giving “Starlight Tours” for years… hopefully the bad publicity has stopped this practice, but I wouldn’t bet money on that.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saskatoon_freezing_deaths
Some apologist “former detective” type guy quoted in the morning parakeet cage liner on the sudden arrests of the murderous cops, how it was a “bad move” It could have a chilling effect.
FROM YOUR FUCKING LIPS TO FSM’S EARS WE FUCKING HOPE IT DOES
“Republicans remind me of fraternity assholes” part MMMDCCCXXXVIII
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/02/nyregion/us-indictment-details-plotting-in-new-jersey-bridge-scandal.html?smid=tw-share
Thanks for the coverage. This sort of thing is critical if we’re to understand what’s happening in Baltimore.
So I used to go to this blog where witty people made all kinds of madcap comments… and then everybody all of a sudden got depressed and went home from the party…
Wit is overrated, Some guy.
Thanx for fixing that link. Dunno how I messed that up.
Hopefully, I won’t bork this one. A really interesting read on Baltimore, surprisingly from the War Criminal Post.
I wonder if Pam Gellar is a moaner or a screamer?
Shorter Pammycakes forever: The Muslims made me do it!
The shrieking harpy strikes again.
Usually Pammycakes’ MO is to take old anti-semitic tracts and tropes and substitute “Muslim” for “Jew”, etc. For example, Pammycakes takes your standard issue rant about Kosher slaughtering of cows and makes it into a rant about Halal slaughtering of cows. I wonder if at some point some anti-Semites had a contest to draw cartoons of Moses?
OTOH, here in NYC Pammycakes has dropped her mask of “I hate Muslims; I am Jewish” and has resorted to out and out provocations against our people. True, she did use a quote attributed to some random person in Hamas in her subway ads and made sure to include that attribution, but essentially now (other than … well what St. Trotsky said) she is out and out calling for the slaughter of Jews.
Hillary to testify.
Surprise, surprise.
You can’t bake a martyr w/o breaking some eggs, right?
Betting the only thing that could have gone better for Pammycakes is if more people had died. A car bomb would have been good.
I am pleasantly surprised the shooting of the two would-be attackers in Texas isn’t getting more national press. Pam is just the sort of person that could use that attention to reach more xenophobic gun-snugglers.
Jesus would be so proud…
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/05/05/1382609/-Christian-game-developer-launches-video-game-to-shoot-LGBT-people
Oh please, WTF are we going to do with these people.
http://journalstar.com/news/state-and-regional/auburn-woman-files-federal-case-against-homosexuals/article_fcf1e8b6-5744-5579-ac38-b19b427b8492.html
When her lawsuit is thrown out, she’ll have fun paying for all the legal and court costs, Pup.
What a whack job.
Sylvia Driskell, 66, said in the suit that she is petitioning the U.S. District Court of Omaha to be heard “in the matter of homosexuality. Is homosexuality a sin, or not a sin?”
You go, girl! And I hope you’ve got a really expensive legal team!
She don’t establishment clause so gud.
An Auburn woman calling herself an ambassador for God and his son, Jesus Christ, filed a federal lawsuit Friday against all homosexuals.
if god is so all-powerful, why would he need an ambassador? also, too…according to the old testament, is it even legal for a woman to speak in a court of law?
I question this woman’s legal standing to represent God and God, Jr.
I would like to call God and God, Jr. to testify in court as to her bona fides.
according to the old testament, is it even legal for a woman to speak in a court of law?
Not sure about the OT, though I think there were some women judges in the late bronze age, as attested in Kings and Judges. Thing is, the New Testament has the ever handy Timothy 2:12: “I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet.” [NIV]
So I believe the proper response is “STFU bitch.”
I hear a comedian the other day on satellite radio with a routine that went something like this—
“You folks ever read the Bible? Well, I been reading it lately, and you know what? I’ve come to the conclusion that God is a woman.”
“She’s jealous of other gods… and she always needs to be be worshipped… and she always wants my money.”
OT News from teh GWN.
Alberta, the Texas of Canada, has replaced its conservative government with a majority government of the most leftist party running. The Progressive Conservatives (I know, there’s history about that name) have run a majority government in Alberta since 1971 and last night they went from 70 seats down to 10. They dropped far enough that they aren’t even the Official Opposition.
The big winner was the Orange Wave known as the NDP. They went from 4 seats to 53. Their popular vote share went from 10% to 42%.
Lots of interesting fallout. One of the Alberta NDP platforms was to review energy royalties for Alberta’s oil and gas sector. Here in LEAFS SUCK, the TSX opened with a big drop as everyone panicked over their energy stocks – but it seems to be holding steady. Also on the energy front and of interest to you Yanks, the Premier Elect says that she won’t lobby for Keystone XL (although the federal Harper government probably still will).
Also in her platform – Corporate taxes going up from 10% to 12%. Also income tax hikes for folks making more than $125K. They won a majority government on a platform of tax hikes.
So ISIS is declaring war on Pammycakes. They should have sent her a thank you note.
So this happened….
Gay Couple Bashed With Chair at Chelsea Dallas BBQ
Assholes.
While sitting on the balcony having a martini with Teh Ho last evening I heard a bit of the Hucksterbee’s announcement speech. It was the bit about how when he is Preznit (as if) he’ll staff up the VA and vets won’t have to wait in lines and … My first thought was that when he is Preznit (as if) he won’t have huge influx of wounded vets coming from the longest wars in US history and having the VA budget cut repeatedly by Congref.
But then it struck me that there ought to be a law requiring all campaign speeches to have an official heckler. “Hucky! How you going to PAY for that, huh?” “Dr. Carson have you ever actually READ the Constitution?”
Gerrit Morris would be ideal for the part.
Sheesh, I didn’t mean to kill it.
HEY!
WAKE THE FUCK UP, EVERYONE!
BESEECH THE FSM FOR A LABOUR MAJORITY!
Sorry, wrong thread!
Last summer, my newly minted teenaged daughter heard about (there are so many it’s hard to keep all their names straight) Michael Brown and Ferguson, MO. Today I saw her tumbler feed and there was one that was about 20 animated gifs of cops attacking people out of nowhere, people just standing around, minding their own business, and cop standing near them just clocks them or attacks them in some way. A paralyzed guy driving his motorized chair through a group of cops, when one of them suddenly shoves the guy sideways and tips him and his chair right over. Another cop sees a bicyclist coming his way, not seeing the cop, and the cop just shoves the biker to the ground. Another where a cop is talking to a group and one turns away, the cop just hits him on the head with a club. The worst was an unconscious man lying there and a cop runs into frame and kicks his head so hard he moves a foot across the ground.
The police are maiming people for life, or killing them outright, administering instant punishment for disobedience or mere ‘disrespect’ (the Baltimore police killed (what’s this one’s name? There are so, so many.) Gray! Right, Freddie Gray was killed because he ‘looked’ at a cop. He dared to look a white man in the eye! (Jim Crow is alive and well.)
DAs always dismiss this behavior by saying that all this is in compliance with their training. Just let that sink in for a minute.
Call the Cops!
Some may find it INTENSE, GRAPHIC, HORRIFYING!