Slain Dallas Cop Might’ve Been A White Supremacist: Still A Hero?

Weren't both websites militia or not?

You haven't even come up with any militia pieces dissing the AK and claiming that no self respecting lawbreaking militiaman would be caught having one pulled from their cold dead fingers by some mongrol-race police agent of the NWO or the ZOG.

Please. Admit you're wrong. It would be the gentlemanly thing to do.

Hell there's an American company building AK's pretty cheaply. For deer hunters, right?

This post of yours is so far off the mark of what was being discussed.

You first claimed the AK was the most popular rifle with militias. I disagreed with you. You next posted pictures of "militias" holding AK's. I mentioned that there was only 1 or 2 Ak's in the picture, which hardly means they are the most popular. You next posted another picture of "militias" hold more AK's and there were even less AK's in the second set of pictures. So since you can't prove that AK's are the most popular gun with militias, now you turn the subject into how I hate AK's and only commies use them.

Is it really that hard for you to be wrong?

Bob's post only makes sense when he's copying someone else's words.

Whereas your posts make no sense whatsoever regardless their source.

This just in... All charges have been dropped against the police officers in the Freddie gray case... A blind man with a cane could have seen this coming... let the lawsuits for malicious prosecution begin.

SFPD officer arrested for allegedly possessing banned assault rifle

SAN FRANCISCO (KTVU) - San Francisco Police Department says an officer was arrested on firearms charges. 50-year-old Thomas Abrahamsen, a Berkeley resident, surrendered Tuesday for alleged possession of a banned AR-15-style assault weapon and receiver components.

SFPD is said to be investigating the matter based on information gathered from other Department members.

Abrahamsen, an 18-year veteran, was booked on one felony count of manufacture of an assault weapon and one felony count of possession of an assault weapon.

“In the spirit of the Not on My Watch initiative, Department members will continue to hold each other accountable and will act swiftly to report any behavior that might bring dishonor to the Police Department,” said Acting Chief of Police Toney Chaplin.

http://www.ktvu.com/news/181919791-story

Well Bob after all it is San Francisco and I think if you recite the Second Amendment out loud there its a felony.

Oh no, he had scary parts on his AR-15. I'm wondering if it was a full auto or was it just the parts CA politicians think are scary. CA gun laws are only in place to create criminals out of gun owners, they have nothing to do with safety.

Virginia Officer Accused of Murdering Unarmed Black 18-Year-Old Tells Witness, 'This Is My Second One'

Judge rejects request by defense to have this evidence removed from the case.
By Robin Scher / AlterNet
July 27, 2016



“This is my second one” said Virginia police officer Stephen Rankin to a witness after he shot and killed an unarmed black 18-year-old in the town of Portsmouth last year, a court was told Tuesday.

The quote was provided courtesy of a Taser camera attached to Rankin at the time. The officer uttered this sentiment while standing beside a Walmart employee in the store’s parking lot moments after he’d shot the victim, William Chapman, in the head and chest.

As the Guardian reports, this piece of evidence almost never made it to court. During the final pretrial hearing before Rankin stands before a Portsmouth circuit court jury for first-degree murder, his defense team argued that the comment should be censored as it didn’t serve to prove anything. The motion was denied by Judge Johnny E. Morrison.
ADVERTISING

According to the police report, the killing took place after Rankin, a U.S. navy veteran, tried to arrest Chapman on suspicion of shoplifting. Following a brief physical struggle Rankin claims the 18-year-old provoked, the officer fired his gun. Rankin is subsequently denying the charge against him, pleading he acted in self-defense.

Given this version of events, the prosecution argued for the need not to “sanitize the evidence” that could prove Rankin acted otherwise. “The defendant made the comment not just in the presence and earshot of a witness, but to the witness,” said Stephanie Morales, the prosecuting attorney heading up the case against Rankin.

Rankin’s previous use of deadly force was dismissed by a grand jury in 2011. In that instance, Rankin similarly shot an unarmed suspect 11 times, claiming the man had reached into his waistband and charged at him. Morrison has already ruled that prosecutors could not bring up the prior case.

In another ruling Morrison made Tuesday, the defense’s attempts to censor Rankin’s prior shooting may prove null and void. Rankin’s defense attorneys requested that the jurors be sequestered during the trial to ensure they did not have access to external information. Morrison promptly rejected the request.

It was a nice try at least.

Robin Scher is a freelance writer from South Africa currently based in New York. He tweets infrequently @RobScherHimself.

Hey dumbass you forgot to include the witness statement...

"We had looked over and the officer had the man against his car trying to put cuffs on him, I guess. And once he went to put the cuffs on him, the man started resisting and tussled with the cop. He had got away and the cop pulled his Taser gun out, and when he did that the man had swung and knocked the Taser or something out of his hand. When he had done that, the cop had stepped back a couple steps to pull his real gun out and they had a verbal exchange or something. We couldn't hear everything. The cop was saying something to him and the man went to charge at him while he had his gun out and it was like one step, two steps, the cop fired two times, and the man hit the ground. As soon as he hit the ground, the cop put his weapon away and ran over and started giving him CPR."

First degree murder... I don't fucken think so... But isn't it interesting in the climate of black lives matters and the 24-hour news cycle a prosecutor wantint to make a name for myself now considers it possible just like that DA in Baltimore charging the six officers which now all been dismissed.

Police Incitement Against Black Lives Matter Is Putting Protesters in Danger

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/37009-police-incitement-against-black-lives-matter-is-putting-protesters-in-danger


From the floor of the Republican National Convention to the online pages of the Blue Lives Matter Facebook community, it is now commonplace for public officials, police and first responders to openly declare war on Black Lives Matter -- the civil rights movement of our times.
...

Lt. Bob Kroll, the head of the Minneapolis Police Officer's Federation, has ties to a white-power-linked biker gang called City Heat ...

...
Sumaya Moallin, who is 19 years old, was at the occupation outside of the fourth precinct when the shooting took place. She told AlterNet that she witnessed police refuse to help the wounded. "I ran back to the precinct door where police officers were standing in front," she said. "I asked, why isn't there an ambulance, why isn't anyone doing anything? I asked them what's going on, in tears."

"One of them looked at me and said, 'This is what you guys wanted.' And then the police retreated back behind the precinct doors," said Moallin. "I was in complete shock. I had just witnessed someone gun us down because of our skin tone and because of the way we look."
...

Those exercising their right to protest are forced to endure repeated acts of violence. Wronski-Riley reports having seen six separate occasions when cars intentionally drive into the crowd at Black Lives Matter-themed rallies and demonstrations.
...


Does a whole town have to rise up and say they aren't gonna subsidize this? Do they like it?

Seems like there ought to be cops that know this stains their very being...and they have no idea how far the actions of these dishonorable police officers will reach, or how much tragedy it will bring.

So let me get this straight... the people who are protesting the police and advocating for their death are pissed because the police are not protecting them? Now we saw what happened two officers who were trying to protect those scum in Dallas... this is got to be the most idiotic post I've ever seen coming out out of boobsal u1553115.

Not Everyone Thinks Funneling More Resources Into Police ‘Training’ Is Solution to Racist Violence

Human rights advocates say that heavily militarized training can be part of the problem.
By Sarah Lazare / AlterNet
July 25, 2016



A video showing African-American mental health therapist Charles Kinsey lying on the ground with his hands in the air before being shot by a North Miami police officer has rightfully provoked nationwide outrage and horror.

The shooting, which Kinsey survived, has also shined new light on police treatment of disabled people, who are disproportionately likely to be killed by law enforcement. Kinsey was shot while trying to help autistic man Arnaldo Rios-Soto, whose family says has been traumatized by the incident and is now unable to sleep or eat normally.

The outrage has translated into calls from a handful of advocates to boost “federal funding to increase training for police, and for technology that can help locate people with disabilities or dementia who wander away from their caretakers,” according to Miami Herald reporter David Ovalle.
ADVERTISING

But some human rights campaigners argue that now is an important time to scrutinize federal funding of highly-militarized police trainings in the Miami area that may contribute to surrounding police agencies’ aggressive tactics.

During each of the federal years 2015 and 2016, the Miami/Fort Lauderdale area received roughly $5.5 million dollars from a controversial “counter-terror” federal grant program that finances trainings that contribute to the militarization of police forces nationwide.

Known as the Urban Areas Security Initiative, the program has financed a police militarization and weapons expo known as Urban Shield and the training of SWAT teams across the country. In addition, the initiative has bankrolled the dispersal of military equipment to law enforcement agencies, as well as so-called Fusion Centers—intelligence-gathering hubs that have been used to warrantless surveillance on Occupy activists and Muslim-American communities.

Campaigners across the country say that this federal program has financed some of the most blatant examples of law enforcement aggression and overreach that have touched off nationwide protests.

“The police shooting of ‪Charles Kinsey last week exposed the myth of policing as a viable response to crisis scenarios in the United States,” Tara Tabassi, national organizer for theWar Resisters League, told AlterNet. “Policing upholds the current social order: whiteness, neurotypical behavior, and wealth are the markers of who matters in our society. When someone displays neurologically atypical behavior or thoughts, makes unexpected body gestures, or is having a crisis about whether they want to live or not, they are considered suspect, untrustworthy and criminal. When the person is a Black male in a working class neighborhood, existence is often seen as criminal.”

“What matters now,” Tabassi continued, “is that we hear an overwhelming cry for more police trainings, yet the content of current trainings goes unexamined. In the case of North Miami, Florida, families with children or siblings living with autism are asking for more relationship building with the police, and police sensitivity trainings. While sensitivity trainings are a first step, they do not address that fact that policing is built on a foundation of militarism and racism. We need more.”

Notably, the police officer who shot Kinsey, Jonathon Aledda, is a SWAT Team member, according to city manager Larry Spring. Police departments in the Miami area have used the recent massacre at the Pulse LGBTQ club’s Latinx night to justify a rush order of military equipment. In a letter to the city commission sent June 28, Miami Police Chief Rodolfo Llanes argued that the equipment is necessary for the “aid and rescue” of civilians.

This push comes amid a nationwide effort by police departments to invoke the massacre at Orlando’s Pulse LGBTQ nightclub and the killing of five Dallas police officers to ramp up the militarization of their forces and repress demonstrations. This includes the potential reversal of hard-won reforms by the Black Lives Matter movement aimed at partially curbing the distribution of weapons of war to police departments across the country under what is known as the federal 1033 program.

Calls for funneling resources into trainings continue to mount even though police officers behind key, high-profile killings have themselves received training. St. Anthony police officer Jeronimo Yanez, who shot Minnesota man Philandro Castile, in 2014 participated in the “Bulletproof Warrior” training.

Agustina Vidal, an organizer with the Icarus Project, a mental health support network and education project, told AlterNet over email that “SWAT and police team tactics traumatize communities and disproportionately impact people of color, as well as low-income, LGBTQI, and immigrant groups. Disturbingly, many of these raids come as the result of policing mental health, where ‘suspects’ are in fact people experiencing an emotional crisis. People in crisis do not need violence, they need meaningful support and resources.”

“Militarizing the police endangers our communities and heightens risk of injury and death to groups that are already disproportionately impacted by state violence,” Muhammed Malik, long-time resident of North Miami-Dade County and former Racial Justice and Voting Rights Coordinator at ACLU Florida, told AlterNet. “The mentality of militarization within the context of a racist society warps neighborhoods into war zones and views residents as enemy combatants to be subdued by heavy force.”

“This incident in North Miami is not isolated,” Malik continued. “It's part of an ongoing and tragic pattern of militarized violence, which serves as yet another reminder that state funding of police militarization should be opposed in the interest of protecting our residents' right to life and right to live in an environment free of state violence.”

Tabassi urged, “The policing of Charles Kinsey and Arnaldo Eliud Rios Soto makes clear that mental health professionals must be the first option for someone in a moment of crisis--not a militarized SWAT team. SWAT officers often respond to people in moments of crisis or suicide: where are our institutions for de-escalation, emotional support, and safety planning as solutions for crises? Police teams across the country are regularly trained in military tactics, with an array of war weapons. Police are doing exactly what they are trained to do.”

Sarah Lazare is a staff writer for AlterNet. A former staff writer for Common Dreams, she coedited the book About Face: Military Resisters Turn Against War. Follow her on Twitter at @sarahlazare.

Yeah sorry boob that ain't going to fly after Dallas and Baton Rouge with the black life matters fanatics ambushing and assassinating police officers.

Oh you mean when they are blocking the streets and freeways? Causing miles and miles of backups on freeways?

They'd have called it a machine gun if it were full auto. I think we can presume that this is all about harmless cosmetic features.

Do you know why I never trust the police? It's because they lie...
Are police allowed to lie?

Yes. Police can, will, and often do lie -- especially if it helps them make arrests. One obvious example of this is when undercover officers claim not to be police. The rules regarding entrapment usually tip in favor of law-enforcement, so police won't hesitate to trick you into incriminating yourself or others. This is particularly common during interrogations in which officers might tell you that "your friend already gave you up, so you might as well come clean."

The best defense against these manipulative tactics is to avoid saying anything to police without first speaking with an attorney.

http://www.knowmyrights.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=58:are-police-allowed-to-lie&catid=21:police-encounters&Itemid=118



Texas police caught in an enormous lie about their murder of unarmed mother Yvette Smith
By Shaun King
Friday Sep 18, 2015 · 2:02 PM EDT


On February 16, 2014, Yvette Smith, a 47-year-old mother beloved by her family and community, was shot twice by an AR-15 assault rifle and killed on the spot by local police as she opened the front door of her home. A full 18 months later, as her case finally came before a jury, it's disturbingly clear that the police lied, repeatedly, in an attempt to cover up their murder of Smith.
First off, Smith called 911 for help because two men in her home were arguing over a financial dispute and she felt it was getting out of hand. She had nothing to do with the dispute and was an innocent bystander—a victim, even. When the police showed up, both men were already in the front yard and it appeared that the dispute was settled. This should've been case closed, but it wasn't.

When Smith opened the front door of her home, she was shot twice with a high-powered .223 caliber rifle in less than two seconds by Officer Daniel Willis of Bastrop County, Texas, outside of Austin.

The lies and the coverup began immediately. The entire department was involved.

Below, see the initial statement from Sheriff Terry Pickering, issued just hours after Smith died.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/09/18/1422588/-Texas-police-caught-in-an-enormous-lie-about-their-murder-of-an-unarmed-mother-Yvette-Smith#




Why Police Lie Under Oath
By MICHELLE ALEXANDERFEB. 2, 2013

THOUSANDS of people plead guilty to crimes every year in the United States because they know that the odds of a jury’s believing their word over a police officer’s are slim to none. As a juror, whom are you likely to believe: the alleged criminal in an orange jumpsuit or two well-groomed police officers in uniforms who just swore to God they’re telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but? As one of my colleagues recently put it, “Everyone knows you have to be crazy to accuse the police of lying.”

But are police officers necessarily more trustworthy than alleged criminals? I think not. Not just because the police have a special inclination toward confabulation, but because, disturbingly, they have an incentive to lie. In this era of mass incarceration, the police shouldn’t be trusted any more than any other witness, perhaps less so.

That may sound harsh, but numerous law enforcement officials have put the matter more bluntly. Peter Keane, a former San Francisco Police commissioner, wrote an article in The San Francisco Chronicle decrying a police culture that treats lying as the norm: “Police officer perjury in court to justify illegal dope searches is commonplace. One of the dirty little not-so-secret secrets of the criminal justice system is undercover narcotics officers intentionally lying under oath. It is a perversion of the American justice system that strikes directly at the rule of law. Yet it is the routine way of doing business in courtrooms everywhere in America.”

The New York City Police Department is not exempt from this critique. In 2011, hundreds of drug cases were dismissed after several police officers were accused of mishandling evidence. That year, Justice Gustin L. Reichbach of the State Supreme Court in Brooklyn condemned a widespread culture of lying and corruption in the department’s drug enforcement units. “I thought I was not naïve,” he said when announcing a guilty verdict involving a police detective who had planted crack cocaine on a pair of suspects. “But even this court was shocked, not only by the seeming pervasive scope of misconduct but even more distressingly by the seeming casualness by which such conduct is employed.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/03/opinion/sunday/why-police-officers-lie-under-oath.html?_r=0



Never Believe The Police
BY HERSCHEL SMITH

We’ve previously discussed why you should never, ever talk to the police. Unfortunately, we must add to the list of things not to do with the police.

"Several Durham police officers lied about non-existent 911 calls to try to convince residents to allow them to search their homes, a tactic several lawyers say is illegal. The officers targeted residences where individuals with outstanding warrants were thought to be living, and told them that dispatch had received a 911 call from that address, when no such call had been made.

However, Durham Police Chief Jose Lopez says the 911 tactic was never a part of official policy. Last month, the department officially banned the practice, according to a memo from Lopez.

The tactic came to light at a court hearing on May 27, when a Durham Police officer testified it was part of official departmental policy. The hearing involved a defendant who had been charged with marijuana possession. (The INDY is not naming the defendant because the charges against her were dropped.)

In February, Officer A.B. Beck knocked on the door of the defendant’s home in South-Central Durham. When the defendant answered the door, Beck told her—falsely—that someone in her home had called 911 and hung up, and that he wanted to make sure everyone was safe. The defendant permitted Beck to enter her home, where he discovered two marijuana blunts and a marijuana grinder.

When Beck took the witness stand, he admitted to fabricating the 911 story in order to enter the house. Beck testified that his true intent was to serve a warrant, though he never produced the warrant in the courtroom."


http://www.captainsjournal.com/2014/07/13/never-believe-the-police/



Top Ten Reasons Why You Should Not Talk to the Police
Matt Agorist February 16, 2014


REASON #1: Talking to the police CANNOT help you.

If the police are talking to you, it’s because they suspect you have committed a crime. If they have detained you, it’s because they already have enough evidence to arrest you and they want to see if you will admit it and thus, give them an even stronger case against you.If they have evidence to arrest you for a crime, they will. If they don’t, they won’t. It’s as simple as that.Talking to them or not talking to them won’t make a difference! No one has ever “talked his way out of” an arrest. If the police have enough evidence to arrest, they will. If you deny that you committed the crime, they will not believe you. They already have evidence suggesting that you committed the crime. They’ll assume you’re just doing what every criminal does in denying the offense. It will not prevent you from getting arrested.This is completely contrary to popular belief. For some reason, many people think that they are savvy enough or eloquent enough or well educated enough to be able to talk to the police and convince the police not to arrest them. But ask any police officer if because of the eloquence and convincing story of the suspect, they have ever been convinced not to arrest somebody whom they had originally intended to arrest, and they will tell you no. They will tell you that in their experience, no one has ever talked themselves out of getting arrested. Talking to the police cannot help you. It cannot prevent you from getting arrested. It can only hurt.


REASON #2: Even if you’re guilty, and you want to confess and get it off your chest, you still shouldn’t talk to the police.

People plead guilty in America every day. Probably over 90% of defendants in state court plead guilty at some point during their case. There is plenty of time to confess and admit guilt at a later stage of the proceedings. What’s the rush? Get a lawyer first. Let the lawyer set up a deal whereby you get something in exchange for accepting responsibility for the offense. A better plea bargain, or maybe even immunity. If you confess to the police, you get nothing in return. Zero. In fact, you probably get a harsher prosecution because the state’s case is now airtight, now that you have confessed.

Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/top-ten-reasons-talk-police/#Vc4gzHMjegDL48BL.99

Not Everyone Thinks Funneling More Resources Into Police ‘Training’ Is Solution to Racist Violence

Human rights advocates say that heavily militarized training can be part of the problem.

By Sarah Lazare / AlterNet
July 25, 2016

http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/not-everyone-thinks-funneling-more-resources-police-training-solution-racist

A video showing African-American mental health therapist Charles Kinsey lying on the ground with his hands in the air before being shot by a North Miami police officer has rightfully provoked nationwide outrage and horror.

The shooting, which Kinsey survived, has also shined new light on police treatment of disabled people, who are disproportionately likely to be killed by law enforcement. Kinsey was shot while trying to help autistic man Arnaldo Rios-Soto, whose family says has been traumatized by the incident and is now unable to sleep or eat normally.

The outrage has translated into calls from a handful of advocates to boost “federal funding to increase training for police, and for technology that can help locate people with disabilities or dementia who wander away from their caretakers,” according to Miami Herald reporter David Ovalle.

But some human rights campaigners argue that now is an important time to scrutinize federal funding of highly-militarized police trainings in the Miami area that may contribute to surrounding police agencies’ aggressive tactics.

During each of the federal years 2015 and 2016, the Miami/Fort Lauderdale area received roughly $5.5 million dollars from a controversial “counter-terror” federal grant program that finances trainings that contribute to the militarization of police forces nationwide.

Known as the Urban Areas Security Initiative, the program has financed a police militarization and weapons expo known as Urban Shield and the training of SWAT teams across the country. In addition, the initiative has bankrolled the dispersal of military equipment to law enforcement agencies, as well as so-called Fusion Centers—intelligence-gathering hubs that have been used to warrantless surveillance on Occupy activists and Muslim-American communities.

Campaigners across the country say that this federal program has financed some of the most blatant examples of law enforcement aggression and overreach that have touched off nationwide protests.

“The police shooting of ‪Charles Kinsey last week exposed the myth of policing as a viable response to crisis scenarios in the United States,” Tara Tabassi, national organizer for theWar Resisters League, told AlterNet. “Policing upholds the current social order: whiteness, neurotypical behavior, and wealth are the markers of who matters in our society. When someone displays neurologically atypical behavior or thoughts, makes unexpected body gestures, or is having a crisis about whether they want to live or not, they are considered suspect, untrustworthy and criminal. When the person is a Black male in a working class neighborhood, existence is often seen as criminal.”

“What matters now,” Tabassi continued, “is that we hear an overwhelming cry for more police trainings, yet the content of current trainings goes unexamined. In the case of North Miami, Florida, families with children or siblings living with autism are asking for more relationship building with the police, and police sensitivity trainings. While sensitivity trainings are a first step, they do not address that fact that policing is built on a foundation of militarism and racism. We need more.”

Notably, the police officer who shot Kinsey, Jonathon Aledda, is a SWAT Team member, according to city manager Larry Spring. Police departments in the Miami area have used the recent massacre at the Pulse LGBTQ club’s Latinx night to justify a rush order of military equipment. In a letter to the city commission sent June 28, Miami Police Chief Rodolfo Llanes argued that the equipment is necessary for the “aid and rescue” of civilians.

This push comes amid a nationwide effort by police departments to invoke the massacre at Orlando’s Pulse LGBTQ nightclub and the killing of five Dallas police officers to ramp up the militarization of their forces and repress demonstrations. This includes the potential reversal of hard-won reforms by the Black Lives Matter movement aimed at partially curbing the distribution of weapons of war to police departments across the country under what is known as the federal 1033 program.

Calls for funneling resources into trainings continue to mount even though police officers behind key, high-profile killings have themselves received training. St. Anthony police officer Jeronimo Yanez, who shot Minnesota man Philandro Castile, in 2014 participated in the “Bulletproof Warrior” training.

Agustina Vidal, an organizer with the Icarus Project, a mental health support network and education project, told AlterNet over email that “SWAT and police team tactics traumatize communities and disproportionately impact people of color, as well as low-income, LGBTQI, and immigrant groups. Disturbingly, many of these raids come as the result of policing mental health, where ‘suspects’ are in fact people experiencing an emotional crisis. People in crisis do not need violence, they need meaningful support and resources.”

“Militarizing the police endangers our communities and heightens risk of injury and death to groups that are already disproportionately impacted by state violence,” Muhammed Malik, long-time resident of North Miami-Dade County and former Racial Justice and Voting Rights Coordinator at ACLU Florida, told AlterNet. “The mentality of militarization within the context of a racist society warps neighborhoods into war zones and views residents as enemy combatants to be subdued by heavy force.”

“This incident in North Miami is not isolated,” Malik continued. “It's part of an ongoing and tragic pattern of militarized violence, which serves as yet another reminder that state funding of police militarization should be opposed in the interest of protecting our residents' right to life and right to live in an environment free of state violence.”

Tabassi urged, “The policing of Charles Kinsey and Arnaldo Eliud Rios Soto makes clear that mental health professionals must be the first option for someone in a moment of crisis--not a militarized SWAT team. SWAT officers often respond to people in moments of crisis or suicide: where are our institutions for de-escalation, emotional support, and safety planning as solutions for crises? Police teams across the country are regularly trained in military tactics, with an array of war weapons. Police are doing exactly what they are trained to do.”

Sarah Lazare is a staff writer for AlterNet. A former staff writer for Common Dreams, she coedited the book About Face: Military Resisters Turn Against War. Follow her on Twitter at @sarahlazare.

Enough said about this bunch of BS.

Telesur Host Abby Martin's Surprisingly Rough Arrest Ordeal Is a Taste of Police Gone Amok at the DNC

"She grabbed my shirt very aggressively, my dress, ripped it and said 'arrest her' to these other two officers."
By Alexandra Rosenmann / AlterNet
July 27, 2016



In case you were wondering how Philadelphia police compared to those in Cleveland, journalist Abby Martin was willing to share the details of her own arrest at the Democratic National Convention this week.

"They use this tactic of unlawful mass detainment where they can just sweep people up for hours," Martin revealed, regarding the police at the DNC. "They do this for sometimes days and then release people with no charges, essentially other than the citation and then just say no arrests were made, our hands are clean, but at the same time, it's so abusive, what's happening."

Martin is a producer for "The Empire Files." She was arrested on her way to an action and put in custody soon after. Martin described the entire incident as "unreal."

"My partner Mike and I, a producer for 'Empire Files' were trying to get to this action where there was massive civil disobedience arrests happening," Martin began. "It was at a public park away from the convention center. We got dropped off in a parking lot, tried to get to action, roads are blocked, the train stations were closed, the police are making it difficult as possible to even get to this action."

After realizing they were fenced in a parking lot, Martin asked a cop how she could get out.

"He said go to this exit. Completely complying with police orders, we walked toward the exit about five feet from the exit [where] another female police officer came up said, Where's your credentials, you have to have credentials to be in this area. We're credentialed journalists, but we weren't credentialed to be in the DNC," Martin explained.

That didn't seem to fly with the police.

"As my partner was telling her this, she grabbed my shirt very aggressively, my dress, ripped it and said 'arrest her to these other two officers were standing at the entrance, and she said, 'arrest her for disorderly conduct,'" Martin said.

Martin was in shock. But that was just the beginning of her ordeal.

"They twisted my arm extremely hard, my wrists were in excruciating pain, they zip-tied them as close as tget possibly could, very very awful experience aggressively, manhandled by three police officers were on me on this fence," Martin recalled. "I didn't even see any arrests happening, it was just so shocking, it was so random, I was just stunned and I kept saying 'we're credentialed journalists, we were told to come here by another police officer' and so they carry me to the paddy wagon, totally separate from my producer, I had no idea what's going on, I just thought 'I'm spending the night in jail' and I was just trying to accept my fate and how unreal what was happening was."

Watch:

Alexandra Rosenmann is an AlterNet associate editor. Follow her @alexpreditor.