As fellow law professor sent me this video of Oakland police shooting a photographer. The video raises serious questions of the unjustified use of force.
In the video, the police appear to be standing without challenge when, around the 33 second mark, an officer suddenly shoot a photographer who is a good distance from the police line.
I cannot imagine the claim of justification in this case when the use of rubber bullets present significant potential harm to citizens, as shown below.
Kudos: Professor Alberto Bernabe (John Marshall Law School)
Source: Lowering Bar
Good example OS.
This reminds me of the British government being afraid of a tiny elderly man walking along a road, going to make salt.
If anyone here has not seen the movie “Gandhi” in a while, I suggest seeing it again.
OS,
The Ghandi comparison is apt. From my perspective OWS has already won the opening battle in what will be a long campaign to reclaim our country from the internationalist corporate plutocracy that is trying to impose modern feudalism. What has been lacking for our years of retreat has been creatively framing a simple concept that resonates with most of the 99%. For too long we have left the articulation of our needs to be presented by political figures and progressive punditry. Even when these people have not been controlled by financial considerations, their articulation of the issues was analogous to the fable of blind men describing an elephant. The issue is simply that the country’s wealth and resultant power must be distributed more equitably. Let the wealthy be wealthy, but also there must be the understanding that the 1% pays its fair share. They can have their properties and their pleasures as long as every other citizen is assured that they can realize their potential and never have to suffer for lack of food, shelter, health care andeducation. The strength of OWS lies in lack of doctrine save for a demand of financial fairness. This doctrinal lack is precisely what makes the so scary to the 1%. Doctrines can be muddled by propaganda. economic fairness is it’s own meme and is thus very hard to counter since the fact of inequality is almost universally understood.
Raff, I was reading a first person account this morning of a police raid on an OWS encampment. The blogger was one of the protesters that went face to face with the police lines. The comment by the blogger was that he/she was a bit taken aback by the outright fear she saw in the police officer’s faces. At least the several officers whose faces could be seen at that spot.
That gives me hope. A line of heavily armed police officers in full riot gear with body armor and full helmets are fearful of obviously unarmed peaceful protesters in a park.
OS,
You are right that the establishment is afraid of OWS.
Mike S:
no worries.
But I do think they have a right to do what they are doing. Wall St. along with government have hurt a good deal of people.
For the most part the middle class are puppets and are ignorant of financial issues. People should be taught economics in high school and college geared toward personal finance.
I see that Occupy Portland had tents removed. There are some injuries, but not clear yet on extent. Also, some figures in black were seen with what may have been Molotov cocktails. Either anarchists or agents provocateurs. After tents ripped down, reports are that fences are going up around the park. So much for the occupiers keeping others from enjoying the park. Mainstream media reporters, as far as I can determine, have not asked officials for an explanation of that tortured logic.
In the midst of all this, in a strange way, OWS is winning the war by losing isolated battles. The fear is palpable. As Lemony Snicket observed, when shouting crowds gather outside imposing edifices, and the people inside taunt them, it seldom ends well.
Shano:
I am well aware of sanitation.
I am also well aware that one doesnt need a shower to remain clean.
But I do know that people in cramped quarters can be exposed to various pathogens and they can spread quickly.
Mike S:
I did not post that.
Bron,
I apologize for my mistake. I’ve been following this thread on an IPhone and I don’t even know how to cut and paste. It’s no excuse though I shouldn’t write something unless I’m positive it’s right.
Geithner is such a tool. A cheerleader, a marketer, who said he had never been a regulator, even though he worked at the NY Fed.
It really is an accident of fate that Obamas mother knew Timmys father when they both worked for a NGO.
Good god, couldnt Obama have had a childhood connection to Stieglitz instead?
AY,
Elizabeth Warren, touted to lead new consumer protection agency, has powerful enemies
The consumer advocate’s blunt questions as head of the TARP watchdog panel have made Wall Street captains squirm. Critics say she favors too much government control.
August 01, 2010|By Jim Puzzanghera, Los Angeles Times
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/aug/01/business/la-fi-elizabeth-warren-20100801
Excerpt:
Reporting from Washington — For a soft-spoken, unfailingly polite university professor, Elizabeth Warren has a surprising knack for making people squirm — particularly on Wall Street.
She’s done it to Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner and other administration officials. As head of the watchdog panel monitoring the $700-billion federal bank bailout fund and a former high school debating champion, Warren often has put them on the defensive with pointed questions, such as: “Do you know where the money went?”
She’s done it to lobbyists and lawmakers who unsuccessfully fought the creation of a new federal agency to protect consumers in the financial marketplace. As a bestselling author who can make complex issues understandable, Warren frustrated opponents by keeping the focus on the industry’s failures.
“I want to turn to these guys sometimes and I want to say, ‘What part of “We bailed you out” do you not get?'” she said on “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” in January.
Now Warren has Wall Street executives, bankers and business groups extremely nervous. As the person to propose such an agency and one of its most outspoken advocates, the Harvard law professor is a leading candidate to be nominated by President Obama as director of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
That would make Warren, 61, one of the most powerful regulators of the financial industry.
Her pro-consumer views on outlawing what she calls the “tricks and traps” in mortgages, credit cards and other financial products — beliefs developed during her three decades of bankruptcy research — have industry officials gearing up for a major confirmation fight if she’s nominated.
They’ve called her an extremist who will put the government in charge of the financial decisions of average Americans, driving up the cost of credit. But Warren’s supporters said Wall Street’s true fear was that she would make the agency a success, eliminating the hidden fees and abusive practices that have been so profitable for the industry.
“There are people who try to portray her as an activist or some sort of ideologue. What they are really troubled by is she communicates very well with the American public,” said Jay L. Westbrook, a University of Texas law professor who has worked with Warren since the early 1980s.
AY,
Warren isn’t afraid to take on the big banks. She fought for the establishment of a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that would help protect consumers against deceptive practices and provide oversight of previously unregulated financial institutions. She hasn’t been intimidated by Washington politicians who have fought her and the creation of the bureau.
It looks like a lot of money is going to be spent in Massachusetts to help make sure Warren isn’t elected to the Senate in 2012.
****
Here are a couple of videos of Warren questioning Timothy Geithner–Wall Street’s man in Washington:
Elizabeth Warren Makes Timmy Geithner Squirm Over AIG and Goldman Sachs Bailouts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pz7ruJw6byQ
Elizabeth Warren to Geithner: It’s called accountability! (4.29.09)
Elaine M.,
Rather than parroting others and saying you are right…Why is Warren Wall Streets worst night mare….
You are right OS!
Otteray,
Karl Rove et al has already targeted Elizabeth Warren. She is one of Wall Street’s worst nightmares.
Mike Spindell
“Thats funny you bring in the jewish people because Occupy has been very anti semitic”
Bron didn’t post that, it came from the ‘Bill Kristol(am I ever right?) of the Turley Blog’ , it’s quite understandable why you would be reticent to engage him
Kook,
And the Bill Kristol of the Turkey blog is……….?
“Thats funny you bring in the jewish people because Occupy has been very anti semitic”
Bron,
Take this to the bank from a known Jew. If the ADL doesn’t think they’re anti-Jewish, they’re not anti-Jewish. Abe Foxman does not let even putative anti Jewishness pass. No matter how much the right wing tries to win over Jewish support, they fail. We Jews know who really are the potential NAZI’s and the Republican Party has harbored them for years. If you’re racist, sexist, homophobic, or have other like beliefs, eventually you will come around to the Jews. That’s sad, but historically unavoidable.
Meant Montana, not Nebraska. I think I watched too much football this afternoon.
raff & shano; It is not about sanitation or disease. It is about creating a strawman. If one does not exist, it is the style of the right wing to make up one. Rush Limbaugh, James O’Keefe, Andrew Breitbart and the disciples of Lee Atwater are masters of that tradecraft.
I see that media in Nebraska are refusing to run a Karl Rove ad against Senator Tester because the content is provable lies. This is a common thread you will see promoted wherever they can get away with it. Have you noticed that when caught, they change the subject?
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/jon-tester-attack-ad-karl-rove-260820
Bron,
The sanitation is better than the founding fathers had so what is your beef?
If you want something better step up and make a donation.
Bron: the Occupy camp has leased porta-potties and has a 24 hour security guard at these toilets. I know people in Manhattan who have volunteered their showers. They have a weekly laundry run, they spend about $500 a week on laundry alone.
I have lived without running water, and you can be clean and disease free with no plumbing. Managing human waste is the key, and the occupy camp has solved that problem.
I know indigenous people who never shower and who are clean people. Imagine that.