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solarbirdToday we have an edition specifically for police violence. I wasn't going to go though the 200+ item list compiled on twitter and linked here; some of them are items already posted, but many, many are not, like the incident of pepper spraying apartment dwellers in their own elevator while going home.
That thread is still being updated.
----- 1 -----
A protester knelt down to tell police he loves and respects them. They threw him in jail.
By Li Cohen
June 2, 2020
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/protester-knelt-down-to-tell-police-he-loves-and-respects-them-they-threw-him-in-jail-charleston-south-carolina/
Kneeling in front of a group of at least a dozen police officers at a greenspace in Charleston, South Carolina, on Sunday, Givionne "Gee" Jordan Jr. made one thing clear to the officers holding baton sticks, he was "not their enemy." Then moments later, two officers handcuffed him and sent him to jail.
In a video circulating on social media, Jordan can be seen and heard pleading with the officers to consider the perspective of the protesters, saying, "We are all people. All of you are my family."
"I love each and every one of you. I cry at night because I feel your pain. ... I feel the pain of black people. I feel the pain of white people. I feel the pain of innocent cops. We're all scared," he cried. "We gotta stop living in fear. I am not your enemy. You are not my enemy."
...
Then, he was arrested. In a video of the incident, it appears as though the police single out Jordan for the arrest.
----- 2 -----
Acyn Torabi
twitter.com/Acyn
1 June 2020
https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1267673936659021830
[SEE ALSO: longer video in replies]
Crazy video of Jo Ling Kent in what appears to be a war zone but is actually Seattle
----- 3 -----
This tweet:
https://twitter.com/greg_doucette/status/1268235074580987906
...is the current tail of over 200 instances of severe police violence. This one in particular is police pepper spraying into an elevator of apartment dwellers going home, one of whom is a mother carrying a baby. (Cop: "I DON'T CARE! GET OUT!")
If this were propaganda, it would be over-the-top cartoonish, but as it is reality, it is not. It is merely grim.
Scrolling from the first tweet DOES NOT WORK, the thread is too long and has broken Twitter's threading. Scrolling back from the bottom, however, does work.
At the moment, threadroller is apparently keeping up:
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1266751520055459847.html
But there have been reports of issues.
----- 4 -----
Trump and tear gas in Lafayette Square: A memo from the protest front lines
Behind-the-scenes analysis: For one reporter on the ground, the dissonance between the show of civil obedience and the display of state power in Lafayette Square on Monday was unnerving.
By Jonathan Allen
2 June 2020
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/memo-front-lines-different-america-n1222066
WASHINGTON — Official violence creeps up before it explodes.
From my vantage point at the barricade between protesters and Lafayette Square, just north of the White House and a hair west of 16th Street, I could see and feel it moving forward with military precision. Even if I didn't realize at the time that the objective would later turn out to be a presidential photo-op.
Members of the Washington, D.C., National Guard marched up to the front line, joining the ranks of U.S. Park Police and law enforcement officers from various federal agencies to form a wall.
They were all wearing riot gear. But there was no riot.
Around 6:10 p.m., Attorney General Bill Barr, who has repeatedly portrayed the president's critics as dangerous saboteurs of the government, walked briskly between the lines of the interagency police force. But no one was threatening the police. It was an entirely peaceful protest, the kind that occurs in Washington without incident, seemingly every day.
The dissonance between the show of civil obedience — a peaceable assembly petitioning its government for a redress of grievances — and the display of state power was unnerving. It wasn't exactly tanks in Tiananmen Square, but the potential for the armed troops to take what the military likes to call "kinetic" action against a docile crowd grew by the minute.
----- 5 -----
Universal Basic Elainovision
twitter.com/scattermoon
3 June 2020
https://twitter.com/scattermoon/status/1268115580013424640
a) police have basically done the opposite of every warning on this cannister
b) the fact they're using such old stock indicates they're beginning to run out, like when you eat that 4 year old pot noodle at the back of the cupboard cos your fridge is empty. keep up the pressure!
[QUOTED TWEET]
stone cold steve buscemi
twitter.com/hothamms
Jun 2, 2020
It appears that IMPD is using expired tear gas which can be way more lethal due to the chemicals literally breaking down into cyanide oxide. Also expired tear gas canisters are more likely to be faulty and explode when they pop.
[IMAGE OF TEAR GAS CANISTER FROM 2002]
----- 6 -----
Washington State Patrol apologizes for officer’s ‘Don’t kill them, but hit them hard’ instruction regarding Seattle protesters
By Jim Brunner and Christine Clarridge
3 June 2020
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/washington-state-patrol-apologizes-after-officer-tells-his-team-dont-kill-them-but-hit-them-hard-in-reference-to-seattle-protesters/
[EDITOR: I saw this last night on livestreams]
The Washington State Patrol has apologized after video surfaced of an officer telling his team, “Don’t kill them, but hit them hard,” while preparing to clear protesters from the streets in Seattle’s Capitol Hill on Tuesday evening.
The video was taken shortly before 7:45 p.m. Tuesday by Krystal Marx, executive director of Seattle Pride, who had stopped by her office on East Pine Street between 11th and 12th avenues earlier that day to wait for a UPS shipment, only to be trapped inside for a time by the heavy law enforcement presence.
“I had my window open in my office so I could hear what was going on and when it would be safe to go home,” Marx said in an interview Wednesday. “I heard officers beneath me saying, ‘Hit ’em hard, hit ’em hard.'” She grabbed her phone and started recording.
Then, one officer, who appeared to be briefing the troopers on rules of engagement with protesters, made the “Don’t kill them, but hit them hard” comment, said Marx, who also is a Burien City Council member and deputy mayor.
“I remember shaking,” said Marx, who wonders why the officer would need to talk about hitting protesters or feel it necessary to remind troopers not to kill people. “Why not say, ‘Restrain them, calmly’?” she said.
----- 7 -----
Trump’s Handling of the US Protests Plays Right Into China’s Hands
Sending out “heavily armed” forces against angry protesters is exactly what China would do — and is doing in Hong Kong.
By Shannon Tiezzi
4 June 2020
https://thediplomat.com/2020/06/trumps-handling-of-the-us-protests-plays-right-into-chinas-hands/
Tomorrow, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo plans to meet with survivors of China’s violent crackdown on Tiananmen Square protesters, commemorating the 31st anniversary of the bloody event. Whatever Pompeo says will be undercut by the fact that, a few days earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump pledged to “deploy the United States military” against protesters in cities across the country, as a movement demanding justice after yet another murder of a black American by police has morphed into sporadic violence.
Trump, speaking from the White House yard on June 1, promised that he would be sending “heavily armed soldiers, military personnel, and law enforcement officers” to deal with what he characterized as “professional anarchists, violent mobs, arsonists, looters, criminals, rioters, Antifa, and others.” Though Trump attempted to distinguish between those groups and “peaceful protesters,” law enforcement acting at his behest appeared not to differentiate. While Trump spoke, police were firing tear gas and flashbangs at nonviolent protesters gathered outside the White House in Lafayette Square in order to clear a path for Trump to walk to St. John’s, an Episcopal church at which generations of presidents have prayed since it was completed in 1816, for a photo op outside.
With violence flaring up from Minneapolis — where the murder of George Floyd initially sparked the latest wave of outrage over anti-black racism — to Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., Trump and his administration have been quick to pronounce the violence that has accompanied some protests as a threat to law and order. “Mayors and governors must establish an overwhelming law enforcement presence until the violence has been quelled,” Trump said. And if any local leaders drag their feet, he promised to “deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them.”
That is a deeply troubling statement for a U.S. president to make — especially just ahead of the Tiananmen crackdown anniversary. It is also, ironically, music to China’s ears.
China’s reaction to the U.S. protests has been complicated. For one thing, the massive, nationwide outcry against racism provides an obvious opportunity for Beijing to dig at the United States for its flawed human rights record — and make the corresponding, if disingenuous, claim that racism in the U.S. disqualifies Washington from speaking out about China’s own human rights abuses. China has fully embraced that opportunity.
In the past, Chinese officials would refuse to answer questions on domestic turmoil in other countries, in keeping with China’s much-touted principle of “noninterference.” But Beijing seems to have changed tactics this time, with Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian saying at an official press conference that “black lives matter.”
“Racial discrimination against ethnic minorities remains a social ill in the U.S. What is happening right now once again shows the seriousness of racial discrimination and violent law enforcement by the police, and the urgency for the U.S. to address them,” Zhao said. That’s a far cry from what in the past has been the more standard line — “This is an internal affair of the U.S. We have no comments” — and pointedly more in keeping with the United States’ usual approach to human rights abuses overseas.
----- 8 -----
colonizing? in front of my salad?¿
twitter.com/ProbablyAlan
3 June 2020
https://twitter.com/ProbablyAlan/status/1268302697976852480
LAS VEGAS CITY COUNCIL VOTED ON AN ORDINANCE W/ NO NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC WHICH WOULD RESTRICT PROTESTORS FROM BRINGING ITEMS LIKE BACKPACKS, PURSES, FANNYPACKS, AND OTHER ESSENTIAL PROTEST ITEMS
[EMBEDDED IMAGE]
That thread is still being updated.
- A protester knelt down to tell police he loves and respects them. They threw him in jail.
- Crazy video of Jo Ling Kent in what appears to be a war zone but is actually Seattle
- This thread is literally HUNDREDS of sourced and documented grotesque cases of police violence.
- Trump and tear gas in Lafayette Square: A memo from the protest front lines
- Police using expired gas grenades - which makes the more dangerous, not less
- Washington State Patrol apologizes for officer’s ‘Don’t kill them, but hit them hard’ instruction regarding Seattle protesters
- Trump’s Handling of the US Protests Plays Right Into China’s Hands
- LAS VEGAS passes measure without notice banning bags, large purses, camera bags, strollers, and so on, from all demonstrations
----- 1 -----
A protester knelt down to tell police he loves and respects them. They threw him in jail.
By Li Cohen
June 2, 2020
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/protester-knelt-down-to-tell-police-he-loves-and-respects-them-they-threw-him-in-jail-charleston-south-carolina/
Kneeling in front of a group of at least a dozen police officers at a greenspace in Charleston, South Carolina, on Sunday, Givionne "Gee" Jordan Jr. made one thing clear to the officers holding baton sticks, he was "not their enemy." Then moments later, two officers handcuffed him and sent him to jail.
In a video circulating on social media, Jordan can be seen and heard pleading with the officers to consider the perspective of the protesters, saying, "We are all people. All of you are my family."
"I love each and every one of you. I cry at night because I feel your pain. ... I feel the pain of black people. I feel the pain of white people. I feel the pain of innocent cops. We're all scared," he cried. "We gotta stop living in fear. I am not your enemy. You are not my enemy."
...
Then, he was arrested. In a video of the incident, it appears as though the police single out Jordan for the arrest.
----- 2 -----
Acyn Torabi
twitter.com/Acyn
1 June 2020
https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1267673936659021830
[SEE ALSO: longer video in replies]
Crazy video of Jo Ling Kent in what appears to be a war zone but is actually Seattle
----- 3 -----
This tweet:
https://twitter.com/greg_doucette/status/1268235074580987906
...is the current tail of over 200 instances of severe police violence. This one in particular is police pepper spraying into an elevator of apartment dwellers going home, one of whom is a mother carrying a baby. (Cop: "I DON'T CARE! GET OUT!")
If this were propaganda, it would be over-the-top cartoonish, but as it is reality, it is not. It is merely grim.
Scrolling from the first tweet DOES NOT WORK, the thread is too long and has broken Twitter's threading. Scrolling back from the bottom, however, does work.
At the moment, threadroller is apparently keeping up:
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1266751520055459847.html
But there have been reports of issues.
----- 4 -----
Trump and tear gas in Lafayette Square: A memo from the protest front lines
Behind-the-scenes analysis: For one reporter on the ground, the dissonance between the show of civil obedience and the display of state power in Lafayette Square on Monday was unnerving.
By Jonathan Allen
2 June 2020
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/memo-front-lines-different-america-n1222066
WASHINGTON — Official violence creeps up before it explodes.
From my vantage point at the barricade between protesters and Lafayette Square, just north of the White House and a hair west of 16th Street, I could see and feel it moving forward with military precision. Even if I didn't realize at the time that the objective would later turn out to be a presidential photo-op.
Members of the Washington, D.C., National Guard marched up to the front line, joining the ranks of U.S. Park Police and law enforcement officers from various federal agencies to form a wall.
They were all wearing riot gear. But there was no riot.
Around 6:10 p.m., Attorney General Bill Barr, who has repeatedly portrayed the president's critics as dangerous saboteurs of the government, walked briskly between the lines of the interagency police force. But no one was threatening the police. It was an entirely peaceful protest, the kind that occurs in Washington without incident, seemingly every day.
The dissonance between the show of civil obedience — a peaceable assembly petitioning its government for a redress of grievances — and the display of state power was unnerving. It wasn't exactly tanks in Tiananmen Square, but the potential for the armed troops to take what the military likes to call "kinetic" action against a docile crowd grew by the minute.
----- 5 -----
Universal Basic Elainovision
twitter.com/scattermoon
3 June 2020
https://twitter.com/scattermoon/status/1268115580013424640
a) police have basically done the opposite of every warning on this cannister
b) the fact they're using such old stock indicates they're beginning to run out, like when you eat that 4 year old pot noodle at the back of the cupboard cos your fridge is empty. keep up the pressure!
[QUOTED TWEET]
stone cold steve buscemi
twitter.com/hothamms
Jun 2, 2020
It appears that IMPD is using expired tear gas which can be way more lethal due to the chemicals literally breaking down into cyanide oxide. Also expired tear gas canisters are more likely to be faulty and explode when they pop.
[IMAGE OF TEAR GAS CANISTER FROM 2002]
----- 6 -----
Washington State Patrol apologizes for officer’s ‘Don’t kill them, but hit them hard’ instruction regarding Seattle protesters
By Jim Brunner and Christine Clarridge
3 June 2020
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/washington-state-patrol-apologizes-after-officer-tells-his-team-dont-kill-them-but-hit-them-hard-in-reference-to-seattle-protesters/
[EDITOR: I saw this last night on livestreams]
The Washington State Patrol has apologized after video surfaced of an officer telling his team, “Don’t kill them, but hit them hard,” while preparing to clear protesters from the streets in Seattle’s Capitol Hill on Tuesday evening.
The video was taken shortly before 7:45 p.m. Tuesday by Krystal Marx, executive director of Seattle Pride, who had stopped by her office on East Pine Street between 11th and 12th avenues earlier that day to wait for a UPS shipment, only to be trapped inside for a time by the heavy law enforcement presence.
“I had my window open in my office so I could hear what was going on and when it would be safe to go home,” Marx said in an interview Wednesday. “I heard officers beneath me saying, ‘Hit ’em hard, hit ’em hard.'” She grabbed her phone and started recording.
Then, one officer, who appeared to be briefing the troopers on rules of engagement with protesters, made the “Don’t kill them, but hit them hard” comment, said Marx, who also is a Burien City Council member and deputy mayor.
“I remember shaking,” said Marx, who wonders why the officer would need to talk about hitting protesters or feel it necessary to remind troopers not to kill people. “Why not say, ‘Restrain them, calmly’?” she said.
----- 7 -----
Trump’s Handling of the US Protests Plays Right Into China’s Hands
Sending out “heavily armed” forces against angry protesters is exactly what China would do — and is doing in Hong Kong.
By Shannon Tiezzi
4 June 2020
https://thediplomat.com/2020/06/trumps-handling-of-the-us-protests-plays-right-into-chinas-hands/
Tomorrow, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo plans to meet with survivors of China’s violent crackdown on Tiananmen Square protesters, commemorating the 31st anniversary of the bloody event. Whatever Pompeo says will be undercut by the fact that, a few days earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump pledged to “deploy the United States military” against protesters in cities across the country, as a movement demanding justice after yet another murder of a black American by police has morphed into sporadic violence.
Trump, speaking from the White House yard on June 1, promised that he would be sending “heavily armed soldiers, military personnel, and law enforcement officers” to deal with what he characterized as “professional anarchists, violent mobs, arsonists, looters, criminals, rioters, Antifa, and others.” Though Trump attempted to distinguish between those groups and “peaceful protesters,” law enforcement acting at his behest appeared not to differentiate. While Trump spoke, police were firing tear gas and flashbangs at nonviolent protesters gathered outside the White House in Lafayette Square in order to clear a path for Trump to walk to St. John’s, an Episcopal church at which generations of presidents have prayed since it was completed in 1816, for a photo op outside.
With violence flaring up from Minneapolis — where the murder of George Floyd initially sparked the latest wave of outrage over anti-black racism — to Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., Trump and his administration have been quick to pronounce the violence that has accompanied some protests as a threat to law and order. “Mayors and governors must establish an overwhelming law enforcement presence until the violence has been quelled,” Trump said. And if any local leaders drag their feet, he promised to “deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them.”
That is a deeply troubling statement for a U.S. president to make — especially just ahead of the Tiananmen crackdown anniversary. It is also, ironically, music to China’s ears.
China’s reaction to the U.S. protests has been complicated. For one thing, the massive, nationwide outcry against racism provides an obvious opportunity for Beijing to dig at the United States for its flawed human rights record — and make the corresponding, if disingenuous, claim that racism in the U.S. disqualifies Washington from speaking out about China’s own human rights abuses. China has fully embraced that opportunity.
In the past, Chinese officials would refuse to answer questions on domestic turmoil in other countries, in keeping with China’s much-touted principle of “noninterference.” But Beijing seems to have changed tactics this time, with Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian saying at an official press conference that “black lives matter.”
“Racial discrimination against ethnic minorities remains a social ill in the U.S. What is happening right now once again shows the seriousness of racial discrimination and violent law enforcement by the police, and the urgency for the U.S. to address them,” Zhao said. That’s a far cry from what in the past has been the more standard line — “This is an internal affair of the U.S. We have no comments” — and pointedly more in keeping with the United States’ usual approach to human rights abuses overseas.
----- 8 -----
colonizing? in front of my salad?¿
twitter.com/ProbablyAlan
3 June 2020
https://twitter.com/ProbablyAlan/status/1268302697976852480
LAS VEGAS CITY COUNCIL VOTED ON AN ORDINANCE W/ NO NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC WHICH WOULD RESTRICT PROTESTORS FROM BRINGING ITEMS LIKE BACKPACKS, PURSES, FANNYPACKS, AND OTHER ESSENTIAL PROTEST ITEMS
[EMBEDDED IMAGE]
