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solarbirdThe current end of Greg Doucette's massive thread tracking police violence.
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U.S. Marshals probing protester’s shooting by federal officer in Portland, mayor says
By GILLIAN FLACCUS
July 13, 2020
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/u-s-marshals-probing-protesters-shooting-by-federal-officer-in-portland-mayor-says/
PORTLAND — The U.S. Marshals Service is investigating after a protester was hospitalized in critical condition over the weekend after being hit in the head by an impact munition fired by a federal law enforcement officer, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said.
In a statement late Sunday, Wheeler that he spoke with U.S. Attorney for Oregon Billy J. Williams and learned of the investigation.
“I am calling on the federal government to be thorough and transparent with their findings. I’m concerned that the actions of federal officers last night escalated, rather than de-escalated, already heightened tensions in our city,” said the mayor, a Democrat.
Bystander video shows the protester collapsing to the ground and bleeding profusely from the head after a federal officer outside the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse fired a round at him. The protester was standing with both arms in the air holding a larger speaker across the street from the courthouse when he was hit.
He was identified by Oregon Public Broadcasting as Donavan LaBella, 26. His mother, Desiree LaBella, told the station that he suffered facial and skull fractures. He came out of surgery early Sunday morning and was responding to doctors.
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Off-duty officer who drove car through protest crowd ‘no longer employed’ by Seattle police
July 13, 2020 at 10:11 am Updated July 13, 2020 at 10:14 am
By Mike Carter
Seattle Times staff reporter
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/off-duty-officer-who-drove-car-through-protest-crowd-no-longer-employed-by-seattle-police/
An off-duty Seattle police officer who drove her personal vehicle through a crowd of demonstrators on July 4 “is no longer employed” by the department, officials have confirmed.
It is not clear whether the officer, who has not been identified, was fired or resigned.
Seattle police Detective Mark Jamieson said an Office of Police Accountability internal investigation into the incident is ongoing.
Video footage of the incident shows demonstrators pausing at Boren Avenue and Olive Way in downtown Seattle to eat pizza just after midnight on July 4 when a blue sedan is seen making its way through the crowd. The driver heads east up Olive Way, then appears to circle back before the sedan is rammed by another car.
Organizers of the Black Lives Matter protests that erupted in the city since the police-custody death of George Floyd in Minneapolis said they had seen the officer “circling the protest while yelling hate speech” in the days leading up to the incident.
A post on the Seattle Police Department’s online Blotter said the driver “had attempted to drive through an opening in the crowd when the crowd surrounded their vehicle.”
The incident occurred about 90 minutes before two protesters were struck by a vehicle that entered southbound Interstate 5 going the wrong way, swerved around blocking vehicles, and drove at freeway speeds into a group of protesters, killing 24-year-old Summer Taylor and seriously injuring 32-year-old Diaz Love of Portland. Dawit Kelete, a 27-year-old Burien man, was arrested and charged.
Three weeks ago, a driver injured three protesters in Portland after speeding into a crowd of Black Lives Matter demonstrators. A driver ran his car into a crowd of demonstrators on Capitol Hill in early June, shooting a protester who reached into the vehicle. A DoorDash driver swerved through a crowd of protesters on Capitol Hill on June 30.
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Cop who threatened to kill protesters shoots, kills colleague who knocked on door, affidavit says
By: Crystal Bonvillian, Cox Media Group National Content Desk
Updated: July 14, 2020 - 6:56 AM
https://www.kiro7.com/news/trending/cop-who-threatened-kill-protesters-shoots-kills-colleague-who-knocked-door-affidavit-says/BMAXC27P7FA7LMIAXFQUJAHZJE/
ALEXANDER, Ark. — An Arkansas police officer who told a colleague he would “shoot through the door” any protesters who came to his home has been charged with killing a fellow officer who knocked on his door last month, court records show.
Calvin Nicholas “Nick” Salyers, 33, of Alexander, is charged with manslaughter in the June 3 slaying of 36-year-old Scott Hutton, who was shot through Salyers’ front door.
Salyers turned himself in to state troopers Thursday, according to the Arkansas State Police. He was booked into the Saline County Jail with bail set at $15,000.
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The Police Have Been Spying on Black Reporters and Activists for Years. I Know Because I’m One of Them.
Wendi C. Thomas is a black journalist who has covered police in Memphis. One officer admitted to spying on her. She’s on a long list of prominent black journalists and activists who have been subjected to police surveillance over decades.
by Wendi C. Thomas, MLK50: Justice Through Journalism June 9, 6 a.m. EDT
https://www.propublica.org/article/the-police-have-been-spying-on-black-reporters-and-activists-for-years-i-know-because-im-one-of-them
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — On Aug. 20, 2018, the first day of a federal police surveillance trial, I discovered that the Memphis Police Department was spying on me.
The ACLU of Tennessee had sued the MPD, alleging that the department was in violation of a 1978 consent decree barring surveillance of residents for political purposes.
I’m pretty sure I wore my pink gingham jacket — it’s my summer go-to when I want to look professional. I know I sat on the right side of the courtroom, not far from a former colleague at the city’s daily newspaper. I’d long suspected that I was on law enforcement’s radar, simply because my work tends to center on the most marginalized communities, not institutions with the most power.
One of the first witnesses called to the stand: Sgt. Timothy Reynolds, who is white. To get intel on activists and organizers, including those in the Black Lives Matter movement, he’d posed on Facebook as a “man of color,” befriending people and trying to infiltrate closed circles.
Projected onto a giant screen in the courtroom was a screenshot of people Reynolds followed on Facebook.
My head was bent as I wrote in my reporter’s notebook. “What does this entry indicate?” ACLU attorney Amanda Strickland Floyd asked.
“I was following Wendi Thomas,” Reynolds replied. “Wendi C. Thomas.”
I sat up.
“And who is Wendi Thomas?” Floyd asked.
She, he replied, used to write for The Commercial Appeal. In 2014, I left the paper after being a columnist for 11 years.
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Abigail Hauslohner
twitter.com/ahauslohner
14 July 2020
https://twitter.com/ahauslohner/status/1283042121776275456
Another stunning investigative piece on the protests from the Post's video team: Police partially blinded eight people on the same day of protests after George Floyd's death
[LINKS TO: https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/national/police-partially-blinded-eight-people-on-the-same-day-of-protests-after-george-floyds-death/2020/07/14/6be427dc-436a-4558-bf4d-c9f3c67c3fa5_video.html ]
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Leaked Documents Show Police Knew Far-Right Extremists Were the Real Threat at Protests, not “Antifa”
Ryan Devereaux
July 15 2020
https://theintercept.com/2020/07/15/george-floyd-protests-police-far-right-antifa/
As protests against police violence spread to every state in the U.S. and dramatic images flooded in from cities across the country, President Donald Trump and his attorney general spun an ominous story of opportunistic leftists exploiting a national trauma to sow chaos and disorder. They were the anti-fascists known as “antifa,” and according to the administration they were domestic terrorists who would be policed accordingly.
But while the White House beat the drum for a crackdown on a leaderless movement on the left, law enforcement offices across the country were sharing detailed reports of far-right extremists seeking to attack the protesters and police during the country’s historic demonstrations, a trove of newly leaked documents reveals.
Among the steady stream of threats from the far-right were repeated encounters between law enforcement and heavily armed adherents of the so-called boogaloo movement, which welcomes armed confrontation with cops as means to trigger civil war. With much of the U.S. policing apparatus on the hunt for antifa instigators, those violent aspirations appear to have materialized in a string of targeted attacks in California that left a federal protective services officer and a sheriff’s deputy dead and several other law enforcement officials wounded.
The cache of law enforcement materials was recently hacked and posted online under the title “BlueLeaks,” providing an unprecedented look at the communications between state, local, and federal law enforcement in the face of the nationwide protests. In an analysis of nearly 300 documents that reference “antifa,” The Intercept found repeated instances of antifa and left-wing protesting activities cast in cartoonishly grim terms alongside more substantive reports of lethal right-wing violence and threats that have received scant mention from top Trump administration officials.
- U.S. Marshals probing protester’s shooting by federal officer in Portland, mayor says
- Off-duty officer who drove car through protest crowd ‘no longer employed’ by Seattle police
- Cop who threatened to kill protesters shoots, kills colleague who knocked on door, affidavit says
- MINNEAPOLIS: The Police Have Been Spying on Black Reporters and Activists for Years. I Know Because I’m One of Them.
- Police partially blinded eight people on the same day of protests after George Floyd's death
- Leaked Documents Show Police Knew Far-Right Extremists Were the Real Threat at Protests, not “Antifa”
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U.S. Marshals probing protester’s shooting by federal officer in Portland, mayor says
By GILLIAN FLACCUS
July 13, 2020
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/u-s-marshals-probing-protesters-shooting-by-federal-officer-in-portland-mayor-says/
PORTLAND — The U.S. Marshals Service is investigating after a protester was hospitalized in critical condition over the weekend after being hit in the head by an impact munition fired by a federal law enforcement officer, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said.
In a statement late Sunday, Wheeler that he spoke with U.S. Attorney for Oregon Billy J. Williams and learned of the investigation.
“I am calling on the federal government to be thorough and transparent with their findings. I’m concerned that the actions of federal officers last night escalated, rather than de-escalated, already heightened tensions in our city,” said the mayor, a Democrat.
Bystander video shows the protester collapsing to the ground and bleeding profusely from the head after a federal officer outside the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse fired a round at him. The protester was standing with both arms in the air holding a larger speaker across the street from the courthouse when he was hit.
He was identified by Oregon Public Broadcasting as Donavan LaBella, 26. His mother, Desiree LaBella, told the station that he suffered facial and skull fractures. He came out of surgery early Sunday morning and was responding to doctors.
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Off-duty officer who drove car through protest crowd ‘no longer employed’ by Seattle police
July 13, 2020 at 10:11 am Updated July 13, 2020 at 10:14 am
By Mike Carter
Seattle Times staff reporter
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/off-duty-officer-who-drove-car-through-protest-crowd-no-longer-employed-by-seattle-police/
An off-duty Seattle police officer who drove her personal vehicle through a crowd of demonstrators on July 4 “is no longer employed” by the department, officials have confirmed.
It is not clear whether the officer, who has not been identified, was fired or resigned.
Seattle police Detective Mark Jamieson said an Office of Police Accountability internal investigation into the incident is ongoing.
Video footage of the incident shows demonstrators pausing at Boren Avenue and Olive Way in downtown Seattle to eat pizza just after midnight on July 4 when a blue sedan is seen making its way through the crowd. The driver heads east up Olive Way, then appears to circle back before the sedan is rammed by another car.
Organizers of the Black Lives Matter protests that erupted in the city since the police-custody death of George Floyd in Minneapolis said they had seen the officer “circling the protest while yelling hate speech” in the days leading up to the incident.
A post on the Seattle Police Department’s online Blotter said the driver “had attempted to drive through an opening in the crowd when the crowd surrounded their vehicle.”
The incident occurred about 90 minutes before two protesters were struck by a vehicle that entered southbound Interstate 5 going the wrong way, swerved around blocking vehicles, and drove at freeway speeds into a group of protesters, killing 24-year-old Summer Taylor and seriously injuring 32-year-old Diaz Love of Portland. Dawit Kelete, a 27-year-old Burien man, was arrested and charged.
Three weeks ago, a driver injured three protesters in Portland after speeding into a crowd of Black Lives Matter demonstrators. A driver ran his car into a crowd of demonstrators on Capitol Hill in early June, shooting a protester who reached into the vehicle. A DoorDash driver swerved through a crowd of protesters on Capitol Hill on June 30.
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Cop who threatened to kill protesters shoots, kills colleague who knocked on door, affidavit says
By: Crystal Bonvillian, Cox Media Group National Content Desk
Updated: July 14, 2020 - 6:56 AM
https://www.kiro7.com/news/trending/cop-who-threatened-kill-protesters-shoots-kills-colleague-who-knocked-door-affidavit-says/BMAXC27P7FA7LMIAXFQUJAHZJE/
ALEXANDER, Ark. — An Arkansas police officer who told a colleague he would “shoot through the door” any protesters who came to his home has been charged with killing a fellow officer who knocked on his door last month, court records show.
Calvin Nicholas “Nick” Salyers, 33, of Alexander, is charged with manslaughter in the June 3 slaying of 36-year-old Scott Hutton, who was shot through Salyers’ front door.
Salyers turned himself in to state troopers Thursday, according to the Arkansas State Police. He was booked into the Saline County Jail with bail set at $15,000.
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The Police Have Been Spying on Black Reporters and Activists for Years. I Know Because I’m One of Them.
Wendi C. Thomas is a black journalist who has covered police in Memphis. One officer admitted to spying on her. She’s on a long list of prominent black journalists and activists who have been subjected to police surveillance over decades.
by Wendi C. Thomas, MLK50: Justice Through Journalism June 9, 6 a.m. EDT
https://www.propublica.org/article/the-police-have-been-spying-on-black-reporters-and-activists-for-years-i-know-because-im-one-of-them
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — On Aug. 20, 2018, the first day of a federal police surveillance trial, I discovered that the Memphis Police Department was spying on me.
The ACLU of Tennessee had sued the MPD, alleging that the department was in violation of a 1978 consent decree barring surveillance of residents for political purposes.
I’m pretty sure I wore my pink gingham jacket — it’s my summer go-to when I want to look professional. I know I sat on the right side of the courtroom, not far from a former colleague at the city’s daily newspaper. I’d long suspected that I was on law enforcement’s radar, simply because my work tends to center on the most marginalized communities, not institutions with the most power.
One of the first witnesses called to the stand: Sgt. Timothy Reynolds, who is white. To get intel on activists and organizers, including those in the Black Lives Matter movement, he’d posed on Facebook as a “man of color,” befriending people and trying to infiltrate closed circles.
Projected onto a giant screen in the courtroom was a screenshot of people Reynolds followed on Facebook.
My head was bent as I wrote in my reporter’s notebook. “What does this entry indicate?” ACLU attorney Amanda Strickland Floyd asked.
“I was following Wendi Thomas,” Reynolds replied. “Wendi C. Thomas.”
I sat up.
“And who is Wendi Thomas?” Floyd asked.
She, he replied, used to write for The Commercial Appeal. In 2014, I left the paper after being a columnist for 11 years.
----- 5 -----
Abigail Hauslohner
twitter.com/ahauslohner
14 July 2020
https://twitter.com/ahauslohner/status/1283042121776275456
Another stunning investigative piece on the protests from the Post's video team: Police partially blinded eight people on the same day of protests after George Floyd's death
[LINKS TO: https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/national/police-partially-blinded-eight-people-on-the-same-day-of-protests-after-george-floyds-death/2020/07/14/6be427dc-436a-4558-bf4d-c9f3c67c3fa5_video.html ]
----- 6 -----
Leaked Documents Show Police Knew Far-Right Extremists Were the Real Threat at Protests, not “Antifa”
Ryan Devereaux
July 15 2020
https://theintercept.com/2020/07/15/george-floyd-protests-police-far-right-antifa/
As protests against police violence spread to every state in the U.S. and dramatic images flooded in from cities across the country, President Donald Trump and his attorney general spun an ominous story of opportunistic leftists exploiting a national trauma to sow chaos and disorder. They were the anti-fascists known as “antifa,” and according to the administration they were domestic terrorists who would be policed accordingly.
But while the White House beat the drum for a crackdown on a leaderless movement on the left, law enforcement offices across the country were sharing detailed reports of far-right extremists seeking to attack the protesters and police during the country’s historic demonstrations, a trove of newly leaked documents reveals.
Among the steady stream of threats from the far-right were repeated encounters between law enforcement and heavily armed adherents of the so-called boogaloo movement, which welcomes armed confrontation with cops as means to trigger civil war. With much of the U.S. policing apparatus on the hunt for antifa instigators, those violent aspirations appear to have materialized in a string of targeted attacks in California that left a federal protective services officer and a sheriff’s deputy dead and several other law enforcement officials wounded.
The cache of law enforcement materials was recently hacked and posted online under the title “BlueLeaks,” providing an unprecedented look at the communications between state, local, and federal law enforcement in the face of the nationwide protests. In an analysis of nearly 300 documents that reference “antifa,” The Intercept found repeated instances of antifa and left-wing protesting activities cast in cartoonishly grim terms alongside more substantive reports of lethal right-wing violence and threats that have received scant mention from top Trump administration officials.
