Pop Culture Link Round Up 12.31.14

Ever have the thought, while waiting in line to board a plane, that the process could be revamped to make it more efficient?  Vox has the answer:  the outside-in method.

Having everyone with window seats board first, regardless of row, then all people with middle seats, then all people with aisle seats is much faster.

United Airlines switched to this method in June 2013 (although they make an exception for families, allowing them to board together).

This method cuts down on the total amount of congestionbecause each time a passenger sits down, no one is already sitting in their row, so they don’t have to wait for someone to get up to allow them in. Because everyone isn’t trying to get in the same few rows at the same time, many different passengers can access the overhead bins and enter their seats simultaneously.

The small downside is that people who are sitting together can’t board together, a problem for families with children and couples who inexplicably require continuous physical contact.

* * * *

Those wacky xenomorphs are celebrating their 35th anniversary and here are some commemorative posters

Of the 11 posters, here are my favorites:

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‘Lord of the Rings’ litter box and ‘Eye of Sauron’ scratching post

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Every Christmas, photographer turns his dog into different animals

Bristol-based photographer Peter Thorpe has a great little tradition that he started 20 years ago. For his annual holiday card, he transforms Raggle, his dog, into various animals. He started this tradition with Paddy, and now continues with Raggle.

Other photographers would often turn to Photoshop, but Peter uses real props instead. When the photos are finished, he sends these cards to his family, friends and clients.

Sadly, this awesome tradition is coming to an end as Raggle is growing older and weaker every day. This year’s card is going to be the last one before her retirement.

2014
2012
2007

2007 is my favorite.  Click the link to see other years.

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Move over Angry Birds, here comes Drunken Birds

 

Humans are not the only animals to get drunk, and the symptoms can be remarkably similar in other species. The latest example is that zebra finches, after hitting the bottle too hard, can’t stick to their melody any more than the karaoke enthusiast who had a few too many waiting their turn for the mike.

“Speech impairment is one of the most intriguing and least understood effects of alcohol on cognitive function, largely due to the lack of data on alcohol effects on vocalizations in the context of an appropriate experimental model organism,” write a team led by Dr Claudio Mello of Oregon Health and Science University in PloS ONE. The authors decided to see if zebra finches could fill the gap. While not capable human sounds lile parrots, or lyrebird level mimicry, male zebra finches are enthusiastic singers

Finches keep the same song from adulthood, often with similarities to those they heard growing up. This, along with their easiness to breed, have made them a popular animal forstudying speech acquisition.

Being native to the central Australian deserts, zebra finches like a drink and the researchers found that this applies to alcohol as much as water. Once drunk, their song takes on an “altered acoustic structure.” The authors note, “The most pronounced effects were decreased amplitude and increased entropy, the latter likely reflecting a disruption in the birds’ ability to maintain the spectral structure of song under alcohol.” So while the notes became more random, they also became softer – something many of us might have wished for when the neighbors got into Bohemian Rhapsody towards the end of a well lubricated party.

Mello and colleagues add, ”Furthermore, specific syllables, which have distinct acoustic structures, were differentially influenced by alcohol, likely reflecting a diversity in the neural mechanisms required for their production.” Yep shlurring those esshes ish not jusht for humansh.

Pop Culture Link Round Up 12.31.14
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Le Chat Noir is displeased (video)

A new four-legged addition to the household has made famous Internet cat Henri le Chat Noir quite unhappy:

I don’t know who Henri’s owner is, but xe may want to keep an eye on that dog. There’s no telling what Henri is teaching it (one of the lessons has got to be ‘Lounging on laptops’).

(via Neatorama)

Le Chat Noir is displeased (video)

Muslim writer ‘insulted Islam’ and will go to trial for it

In October, Egyptian columnist Fatima Naoot wrote several Facebook posts referring to the Muslim sacrificial feast Eid al-Adha. Controversy quickly arose, and she opted to delete the posts. Unfortunately that was not the end of her troubles:

“Happy massacre,” Fatima Naoot wrote on her Facebook page in October during Eid al-Adha, the Muslim feast of sacrifice.

Animals are slaughtered during Eid to commemorate the willingness of Abraham to fulfil God’s command to sacrifice his own son, although in the end God provided him with a sheep.

“Massacre committed by men over the past 10 centuries and followed by men each year with a smile,” Naoot wrote at the time.

“Annual massacre observed because of a nightmare of one (prophet) about his son… ,” she wrote in Arabic.

“Although the nightmare has passed for the prophet and his son, each year helpless animals pay with their lives the price of this sacred nightmare.”

Naoot, who is Muslim, deleted her posts from Facebook after controversy erupted about them.

But a judicial official said on Saturday that she admitted during questioning that she had written them.

The 50-year-old columnist denied she had any intention to insult Islam, the official told AFP, adding she had also been charged with “making fun of the right to sacrifice”.

“It is the price paid by those who carry torches of enlightenment at every age,” Naoot wrote on Friday after having been informed of her trial which is due to start on January 28.

She said that in October she had posted messages on Facebook to congratulate Muslims for Eid al-Adha but “urged them to respect the offering and not humiliate it by flooding the ground with animal blood”.

Egypt‘s constitution outlaws insults against the three monotheist religions recognised by the state — Islam, Christianity and Judaism.

I’m glad we have the separation of church and state as much as we do in the United States, bc I could easily imagine nationwide blasphemy laws were that not the case. And I loathe blasphemy laws. Walling religious institutions and ideas off from humor, mockery, or criticism while simultaneously harming human beings is immoral.  Ideas and institutions are things. They aren’t people, they cannot be hurt, and they should not be elevated in importance above humanity.  When religious beliefs and ideas are treated as more important than the well-being of humans, we suffer and die.

Oh, and I find it amusing that you cannot criticize Islam, Christianity, or Judaism in Egypt, but presumably it is A-OK to criticize other religions.

* * * *

With regard to the Muslim celebration…da fuq? Celebrating a fictional character who was going to kill his child? It’s like they think the only important element of that scenario is Abraham’s devotion to God. What about the damn child?! I don’t think it’s outrageous to suggest that most moral people would consider a real-world father like Abraham to be a reprehensible scumbag who should lose all parental rights.  As well as go to jail. But because he’s a reprehensible scumbag devoted to God, it’s different.

Muslim writer ‘insulted Islam’ and will go to trial for it

Muslim writer 'insulted Islam' and will go to trial for it

In October, Egyptian columnist Fatima Naoot wrote several Facebook posts referring to the Muslim sacrificial feast Eid al-Adha. Controversy quickly arose, and she opted to delete the posts. Unfortunately that was not the end of her troubles:

“Happy massacre,” Fatima Naoot wrote on her Facebook page in October during Eid al-Adha, the Muslim feast of sacrifice.

Animals are slaughtered during Eid to commemorate the willingness of Abraham to fulfil God’s command to sacrifice his own son, although in the end God provided him with a sheep.

“Massacre committed by men over the past 10 centuries and followed by men each year with a smile,” Naoot wrote at the time.

“Annual massacre observed because of a nightmare of one (prophet) about his son… ,” she wrote in Arabic.

“Although the nightmare has passed for the prophet and his son, each year helpless animals pay with their lives the price of this sacred nightmare.”

Naoot, who is Muslim, deleted her posts from Facebook after controversy erupted about them.

But a judicial official said on Saturday that she admitted during questioning that she had written them.

The 50-year-old columnist denied she had any intention to insult Islam, the official told AFP, adding she had also been charged with “making fun of the right to sacrifice”.

“It is the price paid by those who carry torches of enlightenment at every age,” Naoot wrote on Friday after having been informed of her trial which is due to start on January 28.

She said that in October she had posted messages on Facebook to congratulate Muslims for Eid al-Adha but “urged them to respect the offering and not humiliate it by flooding the ground with animal blood”.

Egypt‘s constitution outlaws insults against the three monotheist religions recognised by the state — Islam, Christianity and Judaism.

I’m glad we have the separation of church and state as much as we do in the United States, bc I could easily imagine nationwide blasphemy laws were that not the case. And I loathe blasphemy laws. Walling religious institutions and ideas off from humor, mockery, or criticism while simultaneously harming human beings is immoral.  Ideas and institutions are things. They aren’t people, they cannot be hurt, and they should not be elevated in importance above humanity.  When religious beliefs and ideas are treated as more important than the well-being of humans, we suffer and die.

Oh, and I find it amusing that you cannot criticize Islam, Christianity, or Judaism in Egypt, but presumably it is A-OK to criticize other religions.

* * * *

With regard to the Muslim celebration…da fuq? Celebrating a fictional character who was going to kill his child? It’s like they think the only important element of that scenario is Abraham’s devotion to God. What about the damn child?! I don’t think it’s outrageous to suggest that most moral people would consider a real-world father like Abraham to be a reprehensible scumbag who should lose all parental rights.  As well as go to jail. But because he’s a reprehensible scumbag devoted to God, it’s different.

Muslim writer 'insulted Islam' and will go to trial for it

French town displays lack of compassion for homeless people

The benches were used “pretty much exclusively by drunks every day.”  Those were the words of a spokesperson for the French city of Angoulême in the wake of the town’s decision to erect metallic cages around public benches to prevent homeless people from sleeping on them.

In southwest France, the holiday season was marked by an alarmingly inhumane addition to the city of Angoulême. The city’s conservative Mayor, Xavier Bonnefont, decided to put a damper on everyone’s spirit by installing metal cages around public benches – an eyesore with an even uglier message.

Installed on Christmas Eve, Bonnefont had the cages put up to discourage homeless people from hanging around Angoulême, giving them less options to sit and sleep on. This was not only cruel to the homeless – thanks to Bonnefont, no one could use the benches! Surrounded on all sides by the metal fencing, the benches became impossible to access.

Looking at those cages, my first thought is “what kind of asshole thinks it’s a good idea to make the lives of homeless people MORE DIFFICULT?” (and my second thought is what a darn eyesore those cages are). The cages send {at least} two messages-

1: You may be a human being with rights and yeah, maybe we should show you some dignity, such as by not preventing you from finding a place to sleep, but we really don’t care about you

and

2: Not only do we not care about your human rights…not only would we never deign to treat you with dignity…but we also don’t want to look at you.

This vile idea of conservative Mayor Xavier Bonnefont would probably be embraced by many right-wingers here in the United States. Thankfully there was a public outcry against the benches and they’ve been removed (although the Mayor says this is temporary and a final decision on the matter will come in January).

French town displays lack of compassion for homeless people

Interesting Eats

San Franciscans are lining up to eat this sushi-burrito hybrid

“Mutant foods” appear to be all the rage right now, from Dominique Ansel’s cronut to Keizo Shimamoto’s Ramen Burger. San Francisco-based Sushirrito, which serves a “sushi burrito” is a natural evolution of that trend, one born from necessity.

Years ago, founder Peter Yen worked downtown in San Francisco and found himself craving sushi for lunch, but did not have time for a sit-down meal. Nagged by a growing concern about overfishing that was decimating the seafood population, Yen began to dream up a new way to consume sushi that was fast, fresh, affordable, portable, and environmentally conscious. The sushi burrito was born.

We stopped by Sushirrito’s Union Square and FiDi locations in San Francisco to try the latest culinary phenomenon.

[…]

Though it takes the shape of a burrito, the sushi burrito definitely tasted like a fresh sushi roll. It was served chilled, for one thing. And each bite offered a distinct flavor and texture. The oven-baked salmon fell apart in my mouth, the pickled cucumbers burst with juiciness, and the rice and avocado provided a welcomed blandness.

The sushi burrito wasn’t the easiest food to wolf down, however. “The seaweed wrapper started breaking down almost immediately,” my coworker Levy noted. “But it’s cool, that’s why forks are available.”

* * * *

This may look like a typical cinnamon roll found in the States, but don’t be fooled.

If you’re like me, your mouth salivates at the thought of a delicious cinnamon roll (fresh and warm out of the oven…cooled just enough for the glaze to not drip off…I really want one now). The above cinnamon roll, however, is not something many people in the U.S. are familiar with. That’s because it’s a Swedish cinnamon roll. And it has cardamom. And less sugar. And no frosting.

Wait. Hold up a sec.

No frosting?

Not as witty as “I’m sick of  these motherfucking pastries without the motherfucking glaze”, but it still works.

If you think Swedish cinnamon buns are the icing-covered monstrosities at Ann Sather’s, you’re sadly missing out. Sweden’s cinnamon buns, known as kanelbullar, are far more delicious in more complex and subtle ways completely missing from American imitations. The main differences are:

Cardamom– Yes, they are cinnamon buns, but most Swedish recipes call for an absurd amount of fragrant cardamom as well.
Less sugar– much of flavor in the kanelbullar comes from great butter and high-quality spices, so less sugar is needed
No icing– Too much sugar also drowns out the butter and spice flavors and in American buns this often comes from icing. Swedes opt for little crystals of what’s known as pearl sugar instead, which looks suspiciously like pretzel salt.

I’m not totally knocking the American buns, which are good in their own way if done right, but the Swedish kanelbullar are delicious on a whole different level.

The pearl sugar and cardamom can present an obstacle, as cardamom is often sold in pods here and pearl sugar simply doesn’t exist in most American grocery stores. I suggest heading to your local spice shop and pick up either high quality ground cardamom or the seeds to grind at home. I get mine at Epic Spices. It goes without saying that good-quality cinnamon will make a difference as well. The pearl sugar can be acquired online or at the Swedish-American Museum. The Lars’ Own one also has a simple recipe with cup measurements and only two rises if this one is too complicated for you.

The recipe for these blasphemous pastries can be found at the link.

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Chicagoist Cheese of the Month:  Rogue River Blue

The cheese comes from Rogue Creamery in Oregon. While inspired by the practices in Basque and Provencal, Rogue Creamery has made something entirely their own. Rogue River Blue is made only with summer milk, which many find superior in flavor and texture for certain cheeses because of the animals’ fresh diet. The cheese is decked out with local Oregon offerings, wrapped in Carpenter Hill Vineyard Syrah leaves that have been macerated in Clear Creek pear brandy, imparting a rich, boozy savor. After being lovingly hand-wrapped, the cheeses are aged in facilities built to simulate the Roquefort caves in France, but imparting molds local to Rogue River Valley’s terroir. This cheese isn’t kidding around. This cheese is here to party.

Because of its seasonal nature, Rogue River Blue makes its annual debut in early autumn. The festive leaves and bright paste of this beautiful cheese call for celebration and indulgence, as does the hefty price tag of $42.99 per pound and up. Take your jaw off the floor: this cheese is worth it. The aroma is boozy and fruity, while the paste is velvety and soft like set buttercream frosting but with crunchy granules within the pockets of blue. It tastes like lemony fudge, with secondary flavors of yeast, spices and mission figs. Serve it with something a little sweet, like local honey, fig jam and port or barley wine.

Photography by Erika Kubick

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An edible Santa Sandwich that may be a tad creepy

Pepper-HO-HO-HO-ni // Oscar Mayer Heritage Recipe Pepperoni with cheese, marinara, and cream cheese.

Dibs on the arms!

And will someone eat those nasty eyes? Olives. Blech!

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Avicenna ate durian fruit

On a recent trip to Malaysia, Avicenna (one of the many great bloggers at Freethought Blogs) set out to find and eat durian fruit.  

For those unfamiliar with this fruit (me me me), durian is a fruit native to Southeast Asia. Apparently it has a distinctive, strong, and (for many) highly unpleasant odor.  Le Wiki has this to say about the fruit:

Regarded by many people in southeast Asia as the “king of fruits”,[3] the durian is distinctive for its large size, strong odour, and formidable thorn-covered husk. The fruit can grow as large as 30 centimetres (12 in) long and 15 centimetres (6 in) in diameter, and it typically weighs one to three kilograms (2 to 7 lb). Its shape ranges from oblong to round, the colour of its husk green to brown, and its flesh pale yellow to red, depending on the species.

The edible flesh emits a distinctive odour that is strong and penetrating even when the husk is intact. Some people regard the durian as having a pleasantly sweet fragrance; others find the aroma overpowering and revolting. The smell evokes reactions from deep appreciation to intense disgust, and has been described variously as rotten onions, turpentine, and raw sewage. The persistence of its odour has led to the fruit’s banishment from certain hotels and public transportation in Southeast Asia.

After a bit of searching, Avicenna succeeded in finding and eating some of the fruit (it is currently out of season):

Yep. I ate Durian. And here is the thing?

It wasn’t that bad. Okay the smell was strong. It wasn’t nauseating but it smelt a bit like rotting vegetation. It was pervasive. Just having it in the car had me go “that’s a strong smell”. It managed to get everyone in the house realise we had bought a durian and indeed come down to eat it.

Let us just say Hera and her family REALLY like the fruit and I can see why.

So in this trip I ate a Durian Custard Pastry, Some Durian in a Roll and a fresh Durian.

The smell was strong in all of them. You could tell it was durian and I have a strange feeling Hera wanted me to try it so had told various people to get me anything durian to try.

But the taste. The smell is a little off putting but I had one advantage. I had smelt worse things. Much much worse things and we will look at those things on a later date. A little sweet and cloying and strong, but the taste.

It tastes amazing. It’s like a custard tart type of texture and sweet but not too sweet. There is a slight savoury taste to boot. I was sold on the prepared stuff and I am sold on the actual fruit. I would encourage everyone to try it, but I know the problem is the smell.

India’s various odours may have helped inured me to the fragrance and the taste may put people off. Maybe some people are sensitive to it.

IF you would like to reward my culinary foolhardiness then please do so by donating to ASTI. We are donating as open atheists and skeptics from FTB so if you wish to be seen and heard as atheists who do charity then pass the word. Sadly there are no videos of me eating Durian but if I do go in season? We can do that too!

If you have some spare cash, maybe you can donate.

Interesting Eats

Police Behaving Badly 12.28.14

Another day, another law enforcement officer gets pissy about being filmed

In the video recorded by John Houghtaling, the trooper — identified as Officer Rosenblatt — walks up to the car and immediately holds his hand up to block the view of his face from the camera.

“Put the phone down,” The trooper tells Houghtaling, who asks the officer “why?” adding, “Am I not allowed to record, officer?”

After asking the trooper for his badge number, Houghtaling asks, “Am I being detained?”

The officer claims he stopped the car for a traffic violation and requests Houghtailing’s license and registration, before once again complaining about being filmed and threatening Houghtaling.

“How about if I see you post this on Youtube, I’ll find a way for the D.A.s office to arrest you,” asks the trooper.

“Is it illegal to record police officers?”  Houghtaling replies.

“When I tell you to put the phone down and you disregard what I’m telling you, yes, it is,” said Rosenblatt.

Respect my authority. Or else.  That’s authoritarian thinking in action. Such thinking seeps into the minds of people everywhere.  When it crops up in law enforcement officials, the results can range from unfortunate to deadly.

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Pastor files federal civil rights lawsuit after being brutally beaten by police

A Seattle pastor, Reverend John Michael Helmiere, who was brutally beaten during a protest, has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit alleging his First Amendment rights were violated, that he was subjected to excessive force, and that he was subjected to a wrongful arrest and malicious prosecution.

The lawsuit stems from an incident during a protest outside of Harbor Island pier in December of 2011. Helmiere, a United Methodist pastor who leads Valley & Mountain Fellowship in Seattle’s Hillman City neighborhood, was dragged from the crowd by cops during the protest, then thrown to the ground and viciously assaulted by an officer, leaving him bloodied, with cuts and bruises on his face.

Helmiere, a Yale Divinity School graduate, believes his constitutional rights were violated, and filed the federal suit in hopes of changing the way Seattle cops treat the public they are alleged to serve.

On the evening in question, roughly 300 to 400 demonstrators were gathered outside of Terminal 18 to take part in an act of civil disobedience, with the intention of blocking traffic and temporarily closing the port.

Helmiere was in attendance as a chaplain and was wearing his clerical collar, while calling for peaceful action, as bicycle police began to clash with protestors. The cops began using their bicycles to shove people back as they attempted to clear the street, at which point an officer grabbed him from behind and threw him to the ground, according to Helmiere.

After being thrown to the ground, the officer then began to beat Helmiere, punching him repeatedly in the face. The attack left the pastor bloodied, as the beating split his forehead open and left numerous bruises as a reminder of his victimization at the hands of Seattle’s finest.

In typical cop fashion, police claim Helmiere was ordered by officers to “get out of the street” and upon refusal to comply was arrested for suspicion of obstructing justice. He was then held overnight and charged with pedestrian interference and obstruction, both of which were dismissed in August 2013.

In the federal court filings however, attorneys representing Helmiere – Kenan Isitt, Christopher Carney and Sean Gillespie – contend that officers lied about the events that transpired regarding Helmiere’s arrest to cover for their brutal actions.

In a blog post shortly after the incident, the pastor spoke about the incident:

“An officer pulled me down from behind and threw me to the asphalt. Between my cries of pain and shouts of “I’m a man of peace!” he pressed a knee to my spine and immobilized my arms behind my back, crushing me against the ground. With the right side of my face pressed to the street, he repeatedly punched the left side of my face for long enough that I had time to pray that the crunching sounds I heard were not damaging my brain. I was cuffed and pulled off the ground by a different officer who seemed genuinely appalled when he saw my face and clerical collar. He asked who I was and why I was here, to which I replied, “I’m a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ, I believe another world is possible.” He led me shaking to a police van where began a 12-hour journey of incarcerated misery.”

* * * *

In a case of Police Behaving Badly meets Irresponsible Gun Owner, an off-duty sheriff’s deputy in Palm Beach, FL shot and killed his 21-year-old son on Christmas Eve:

According to the Broward-Palm Beach New Times‘ Pulp blog, Khamis Shatara was shot and killed by his father, a Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office deputy, in a dispute that took place on Wednesday.

The deputy’s name is Shatara K. Shatara, who has been with the sheriff’s department since 2006.

Khamis Shatara was a criminal justice major at Palm Beach State College and a staunch supporter of the police. He intended to enroll in the police force after graduation to follow in his father’s footsteps.

Police were called to the apartment complex shortly before 8 a.m. on Wednesday. When they arrived they found Deputy Shatara and his son, who was dead of a single gunshot wound.

There are minimal details at the moment, but it appears the shooting occurred over some type of dispute. Once again, the presence of a gun in a household has led to a tragedy. And once again, someone turns to a gun to resolve a conflict.

* * * *

 Former NYPD cop ‘We planted evidence, framed innocent people’ to meet arrest quotas

It’s not your imagination: the New York Police Department has been planing evidence and framing innocent people all in order to meet arrest quotes.

This comes as an a former New York City narcotics detective, Stephen Anderson, testified in court that the NYPD routinely plants drugs on innocent people. He described this as a “common practice,” a “quick and easy” way for officers to reach arrest quotas.

The practice is known among NYPD cops as “flaking.”

Anderson was busted, along with four other officers, “flaking” four men in Queens back in 2008. He has cooperated with prosecutors, and is admitting that far from a few “bad apples,” this is the modus operandi of the NYPD.

“It was something I was seeing a lot of, whether it was from supervisors or undercovers and even investigators,” Anderson testified.

“It’s almost like you have no emotion with it, that they attach the bodies to it, they’re going to be out of jail tomorrow anyway; nothing is going to happen to them anyway.”

The NYPD arrested over 50,000 people last year for low-level marijuana offenses.

As it turns out 86% of them are African American and Latino.

* * * *

Beavercreek police shove, then threaten woman in wheelchair at protest for not leaving quickly enough

A woman in a wheelchair was threatened at Wednesday’s Beavercreek protest, at the mall across the street from where John Crawford was gunned down.

She tells us that she was physically shoved while in her wheelchair, by officers. That’s when she decided to start recording the police.

Suddenly, officers got just a little bit more polite, but not much more…

Her husband was threatened by an aggressive Beavercreek police officer who didn’t think they were moving to their vehicle quickly enough. They pointed out that the mall had not been closed, and that they had been there to go to other stores as well as to show support for John Crawford. There was nothing illegal about their being there as shoppers.

A statement from the woman, Christine Wade, is as follows:

I was there to shop but help protest for the human rights we all was there doing what was right for the victims of police brutality when the officers came in to force everyone out the door we all started moving in single file line I started rolling as I waited for my husband to push me when the officer came to me asked me to move I said I am he touched me I warned him not to touch me and pushed me in my back as I was trying to move out my husband had to argue with the officers to get me out he wasn’t there to protest but make sure nothing happens to me.

He got me outside out of the way of the crowed sitting there taken video footage on how the police was being rude a demanding my husband was simply standing off the side and a officer order him to leave with me as we walked we saw a man being drug by his back for no reason

The mall had not prevented them from this, nor banned them from their property. One African American officer finally admitted that they were in fact allowed to reenter through another door. Other officers continued to perpetuate the lie that the mall had instructed them to force “everyone” off of this “private property.”

But that simply was not a true reflection of what the mall said. The mall only authorized arrest for people who were blocking shoppers, stores or entrances. There was no order to arrest people in the parking lot, nor if they reentered to go shopping. The police made this up and decided to enforce their own fabricated laws. That makes every arrest that took place in the park lot, a false arrest and a crime committed by the Beavercreek Police Department. But this wouldn’t be the first time that police officers demonstrated their embarrassing ignorance of the law

Police Behaving Badly 12.28.14

Police Behaving Badly 12.27.14

Police in Beavercreek, OH act like authoritarian thugs

The Beavercreek, Ohio Police Department has once again escalated force, making an already volatile situation volcanically erupt all over the parking lot of the Fairfield Commons Mall.

The site of today’s protest, organized by Ohio Student Association, is situation directly across the street from the Walmart where John Crawford was shot and killed last August.

[…]

Members of the media were threatened with arrest from the start for doing nothing other than photographing and recording the police abusing citizens.

[…]

Virgil Vaduva of the Greene County Herald was arrested for “displacing” an orange cone in the parking lot of the mall while he was photographing. Police were asked repeatedly what law he had broken. After being asked no less than two dozen times, one officer replied “I don’t know.”

Other Beavercreek officers were seen violently pushing children as young as 8-years-old, and threatening to arrest a 14-year-old boy for taking pictures in the parking lot with his iPhone. Once they were informed that they were being video recorded by several others, they backed off of him and threatened to arrest those filming their advances towards that juvenile.

Officers also attempted to handcuff a mother pushing a stroller who was simply going to her minivan in the parking lot.

Click the link for two videos showing the cops engaged in their bad behavior.

* * * *

Beavercreek police arrest retired law professor at John Crawford protest

The Beavercreek Police also arrested well-known former University of Dayton Law Professor and protester Vernellia R. Randall, said she was arrested by police because police were pushing her and she was not able to get out of the mall when they told her and others to leave.

Video at the link

* * * *

Beavercreek police officer stomps on Eric Garner banner

This tells us all we need to know about where this guy’s sympathies lie. #solidaritywithmurderouscops

Beavercreek Police showed solidarity with Garner’s killer, by joyfully stomping on his name, then violently pushing shoppers and protesters alike, even though the exit they were being forced against was clearly blocked by masses of people.

We spoke with several people who witnessed this. The woman who took the pictures of him stomping on it says that she saw the officer approach the banner that said something supportive of Eric Garner.

She asked him, sarcastically “Oh, did you want me to take your picture with this?”

He responded by deliberately stomping on it repeatedly, to answer what he thought about the innocent, unarmed man who was killed for not paying a few pennies of tax on lose cigarettes.

* * * *

 TX SWAT team brutalizes innocent man in no-knock wellness check, concocts charges

Chad Chadwick is the man who fell victim to the horrific series of events, which began on the night of September 27, 2011.  Mr. Chadwick was home alone that evening and feeling distraught.  A concerned friend eventually phoned the police to check on Mr. Chadwick’s emotional well-being.  Mr. Chadwick had consumed some alcohol and had fallen asleep in the bathtub in his apartment.

Mr. Chadwick had not threatened himself or anyone else, and had a spotless criminal record.  Nonetheless, police responded to the concerned friend by sending a paramilitary, multi-jurisdictional SWAT team to conduct a no-knock raid on the man’s apartment.  According to Mr. Chadwick, police lied in order to obtain the warrant.

“They told a judge I had hostages. They lied to a judge and told him I had hostages in my apartment and they needed to enter,” Mr. Chadwick explained to MyFoxHouston.

NO-KNOCK WELLNESS CHECK

The SWAT team arrived in short order and broke down the apartment door without identifying themselves, then quickly made their way to the bathroom where the resident was bathing.  Their first maneuver was to lob a concussion grenade into the bathroom, causing extensive damage to the furnishings and disorienting Mr. Chadwick.

“While I had my hands up naked in the shower they shot me with a 40 [caliber] non-lethal round,” he recalled.

A second concussion grenade detonated, and SWAT officers swarmed in and attacked Mr. Chadwick.

“I turned away, the explosion went off, I opened my eyes the lights are out and here comes a shield with four or five guys behind it. They pinned me against the wall and proceeded to beat the crap out of me,” he said.

Mr. Chadwick went on to explain the extent of his injuries.

The police “claimed [Chadwick] drew down with a shampoo bottle” and proceeded to respond with heightened levels of force.  Mr. Chadwick was accosted and shot in the back of the head with a taser.

“They grabbed me by my one hand that was out of the shower and grabbed me by my testicles slammed me on my face on the floor and proceeded to beat me more,” Mr. Chadwick told FOX 26.

By the end of the ordeal Mr. Chadwick had suffered a broken nose, bruised ribs, multiple lacerations and bruises, a taser barb in the back of his skull, and permanent hearing loss.  He was hauled off to the Fort Bend County Jail, where he was left in an isolation cell for 2 days.

TEXAS WITCH HUNT

Rather than admitting a mistake had taken place, police began to file charges against the man in an apparent effort to cover up the incompetence and justify the brutality.  First, Mr. Chadwick was charged with two felony counts of assaulting police officers.  But a grand-jury found no basis for the charges and declined to indict him.

When that didn’t work, the prosecution filed new charges; this time for misdemeanor resisting arrest.  Those charges were dropped as well.

Then a third round of charges were issued.  In total, the prosecution — led by Ft. Bend County District Attorney John Healy — filed six criminal charges against Mr. Chadwick and eventually put him on trial for “interfering with police.”  After more than three years fighting the corrupt system, Mr. Chadwick was cleared by a jury. He was found not guilty of interfering with police on the night he was attacked in his bathroom.

This is a fucking travesty of justice. The lack of accountability in police departments across the country is appalling.

* * * *

Police taser and arrest severely autistic black man walking down the street at night

An innocent 34-year-old autistic man was tasered and arrested by police on Christmas eve because he was walking down the street at night.

Greenville City Police were in the area responding to reports of gunshots when they came across Tario Anderson and shined a spotlight in the innocent man’s face. Anderson reacted by walking away from this stressful sensory overload.

“When they put their spotlight on him, he immediately put his head down, put his hands in his pockets and began to walk away from him,” Officer Johnathan Bragg with Greenville Police said. “They then got out of the vehicle and approached him and ordered him to stop at which point he did flee from the officers and they pursued him.”

Anderson had committed no crime but since he did not immediately bow down to the police, he was tasered and cops piled on top of him.

His mother, Carolyn Anderson, said he has severe autism, does not understand much and did not need to be arrested or shocked with a Taser.

“Tario can say yes or no, he might ask for a thing or two, but just verbal, no,” Carolyn Anderson said.

According to WYFF, Carolyn Anderson said the family has lived on Sullivan St. her entire life and he often walks most nights to other relatives’ homes on the street. When neighbors saw Tario shocked with the Taser, Carolyn Anderson said they called her to come outside, but officers would not let her near her son.

“If you had seen my baby was out there, laying on that sidewalk and every time he reached for me, I reached for him- [they’d say] ‘Get back, we gonna Tase you,’” Carolyn Anderson said. “I was trying to make them take me to jail. I curse everything, ‘Take me! I’m the one causing trouble! Take me. He’s not doing nothing.’ No matter what I said, it didn’t make no difference to them.”

Bragg callously stated that Tario Anderson deserved the force he received from officers. He said the officers were not aware that Anderson has a mental handicap, and because he broke the law by running and resisting arrest, they arrested him.

I forgot that in this country, citizens are supposed to obey every single thing a police officer says.  Nothing else matters. Not the circumstances. Not one’s mental state. Not the assurance that one hasn’t committed a crime.  Nope. When the police want you to do something, you’d better do it. Otherwise, you get tasered, arrested, choked, raped, or shot. And they really don’t want to do that to people, so they advise us to just listen to them.

Police Behaving Badly 12.27.14

The agenda of the New York Post

That was fast!

I was just musing over what Rich Lowry’s agenda was in writing this New York Post article about the Black Lives Matter Movement.  His disdain for the protesters was apparent in the article. So was his “don’t do it” position on criticism of law enforcement. I suspected there was something…prejudicial or biased going on. Turns out I’m psychic! Well not really. I just came across this 2009 Gawker article:

A former New York Post editor who was fired last month for complaining about a ludicrously racist cartoon has filed a detailed complaint in federal court accusing editor Col Allan of racism, sexism, and all-round dickishiness of the highest order.

Sandra Guzman was an editor at the Post charged with running, among other things, a section aimed at Latino readers. After the paper published a Sean Delonas cartoon depicting President Barack Obama as a chimpanzee being gunned down by white police officers, she complained internally about what she saw as the paper’s persistent and overt racism under the leadership of Australian he-man Col Allan. Then she got fired.

You can read her full complaint here, but here are some of Guzman’s allegations:

  • the Post is a hostile work environment where pervasive sexism and racism are allowed to run unchecked
  • the Post and its parent company maintain, condone, tolerate, and participate in that hostile work environment
  • the Post’s bigotry is directed not just at employees, but PoC and women outside the company
  • complaining about the hostile environment leads to retaliation against the complainant

Rich Lowry’s agenda has become crystal clear.

The agenda of the New York Post

What is Rich Lowry’s agenda?

In a New York Post article, Rich Lowry claims that the national conversation we’re having about race in the wake of Michael Brown’s death at the hands of former officer Darren Wilson is “based on lies”:

The “national conversation” about race and policing we’ve been having ever since Michael Brown was shot by Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Mo., last summer has been based on lies.

The lie that Officer Wilson shot Brown while he had his hands up and was pleading “Don’t shoot.”

The lie that New York City policemen targeted Eric Garner for a violent arrest because he was black.

The lie, peddled especially by the progressive prince of New York City, Mayor de Blasio, that the police are racist.

These are the lies that fuel hatred for the police, because if the police routinely execute black men in cold blood and serve a thoroughly racist system, they deserve to be hated.

That “national conversation” that has been occurring since Ferguson?

It is not based on lies. Yes, there are facts that may be disputed in the specific case of Michael Brown’s EXTRAJUDICIAL death and denial of his rights as a human being and a U.S. citizen at the hands of former officer Darren Wilson. But the Black Lives Matter movement is about addressing the racial disparities in the criminal justice system. The movement is based on the very real experiences of black Americans. It’s based on the fact that black men are 21 times more likely to be shot and killed by police officers than white men. It’s based on the disproportionate presence of Black Americans in prison. It’s based on racist policies like Stop & Frisk. It’s based on the fact that law enforcement officers are just as prone to possessing implicit racial biases as anyone else which leads to them making snap judgments about People of Color that are often based on stereotypes:  

The first step in understanding how implicit racial bias works is to understand the general concept of implicit bias, which can shape the way we think about lots of different qualities: age, gender, nationality, even height.

You can think of it generally as  “thoughts about people you didn’t know you had.”

Two of the leading scholars in the field, Mahzarin Banaji and Anthony G. Greenwald, capture it well in the title of a book they wrote about the concept. It’s called “Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People

What do these “blind spots” look like, and how do they shape behavior?  Well, if you have a stereotype about Asian people that labels them as “foreign,” implicit bias means you might have trouble associating even Asian-American people with speaking fluent English or being American citizens. If you’ve picked up on cultural cues that women are homemakers, it means you might have a harder time connecting women to powerful roles in business despite your conscious belief in gender equality.

Implicit racial bias also means that many people think of African-Americans as prone to violence. Or less educated than Anglo-Americans. Or that African-Americans are mostly criminals. Or the thinking that leads to officers thinking that a Black suspect has a gun when they don’t have any reason to think so.

These biases are present in cops. In lawyers. In judges. In jurists. No matter their intentions, they are still human beings. No matter our desire to be fair and impartial, we humans have prejudices and the criminal justice system doesn’t currently have a means of weeding out or minimizing those biases so that all citizens are treated equally on the streets by police officers and given a chance at a fair hearing in the courtroom. These prejudices are one more thing that people are protesting against. They are one more example of the racial disparities in the U.S. criminal justice system that leads to People of Color being treated differently than white people.

And these disparities?  They did not spring into existence when Darren Wilson decided he had no recourse but to shoot and kill a black man he deemed demonic (no denial of Brown’s basic humanity there). Those disparities were long in existence and the death of Brown brought them to light once more.  National attention is shining on the ugliness of those disparities, which is necessary if we are to ever fix this fucked up system.

Lowry goes on to say:

His rote praise of the police notwithstanding, especially now that he is under so much political pressure after the murders of Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, Mayor de Blasio is deeply invested in this smear.

It is why he has made career anti-police agitator Al Sharpton practically deputy police commissioner.

Smear? It’s a smear to recognize that Black Americans are not treated fairly on the streets or in the courtroom?

Also, Al Sharpton is anti-police? Got a citation for that?  Not a twisting of his words, but actual quotes where he demonstrates that he is anti-police.  Not quotes that call for a reform of law enforcement, but actual quotes where he demonstrates that he is anti-police. I wonder if they’ll be forthcoming.

It is why he considers the police a clear and present danger to his biracial son, Dante.

If it wasn’t already clear, Lowry demonstrates in this one sentence that he doesn’t understand the Black Lives Matter movement AT ALL. The reasons why Mayor de Blasio has talked to his son about police brutality are all over the country. We’re in the middle of having a national conversation about those reasons, remember? Is Lowry’s memory that poor?  I doubt it. What is more likely is that he doesn’t believe the claims of African-Americans across the country.  Or perhaps he simply doesn’t care about the experiences of Black people, which is entirely possible, scary though that may be. Either way, the end result is an article that attempts to undermine the entire Black Lives Matter Movement while not understanding the very reasons the movement exists.

Lowry also takes it as truth that people are lying about aspects of the Brown case. Given that many facts in the case are disputable, he has no reason to be as certain as he is that people are lying. How does he know that? How do we know these “lies” aren’t actual truths? I hope he’s not using Witness #40 as reason to believe people are lying, since she wasn’t even there to witness Wilson’s heartless murder of Brown. As I said above, there are facts that are disputable. Did Brown have his hands up was Wilson shot him? I don’t know. Was he pleading “don’t shoot”?I don’t know. I don’t know how the writer of this article knows either. But whether he was or not doesn’t change what the movement is about. By claiming that the entire Black Lives Matter movement is based on lies, the writer of this New York Post article dismisses the real experiences of countless people across the country. He also demonstrates that he doesn’t understand the complaints of African-Americans across the country as he sets up a massive strawman and sets about burning it to the ground.

I wonder what agenda Rich Lowry has.

What is Rich Lowry’s agenda?