Patriot Games - Bree Newsome's Awesome Act of Non-Violent Protest

Bree Newsome removes the Confederate flag last Saturday

The iconic photo taken on February 23, 1945 by Joe Rosenthal of six US Marines raising the 2nd American flag on Mount Suribachi on the fourth day of the Battle of Iwo Jima became more than a defining image of World War II.

The Pulitzer-Prize winning photograph came to symbolize American determination and sacrifice; 6,800 US servicemen lost their lives during the bloody 36-day assault and more than 26,000 were wounded. 

The massacre of nine innocent worshipers at the Emanuel A.M.E Church has galvanized a nationwide movement to finally ban the Confederate flag from flying above public spaces and government grounds and buildings in all 50 states.

It also inspired President Obama to deliver what could be the most emotionally stirring speech of his presidency during a Eulogy last Friday for South Carolina state Senator Clementa Pinckney; one of the nine victims of the Charleston massacre.

Bree Newsome's arrest photo

The President's words were truly remarkable in scope, content and delivery and, some might say, overdue.

But I'm not sure any one single act in the wake of such an unspeakable horror means as much as 30 year-old African-American social activist Brittany "Bree" Newsome climbing over the fence surrounding the flagpole flying the Confederate flag on the grounds of the state capital building in Charleston, hoisting herself up thirty feet into the air with the aid of climbing gear and removing the flag.

The removal of the flag was planned by a racially diverse group of teachers and other activists who assembled peacefully early Saturday morning, in part, to ensure that the Confederate symbol was not flying over the statehouse during the funerals of victims of the Charleston massacre.

Newsome was helped over the fence by fellow white activist James Tyson, like Newsome a 30 year-old Charlotte, North Carolina resident and both were arrested and taken into custody following the incident.

Sadly, state employees raised the flag back up the flagpole just in time for a scheduled 11am protest held by white supremacist supporters of the Confederate flag; ironically it was a black state employee who raised the Stars and Bars back up the flagpole.

Newsome and Tyson were released from custody not long afterward and it didn't take long for over $120,000 to be raised online to pay for their bail and any legal costs associated with their act of non-violent protest.

Earlier today, Newsome spoke movingly about her "crisis of faith" and the feelings that motivated her to take the course of non-violent protest she took after the massacre in Charleston.

Filmmaker Michael Moore agreed to personally foot the bill for any legal fees associated with a trial, but there's already a petition being circulated by ColorOfChange.org calling for the state of South Carolina and the city of Charleston to drop any trespassing charges or charges associated with defacing government property leveled against Newsome and Tyson.

You can click this link to add your voice to the petition which has already garnered more than 35,000 signatures.

There's also a MoveOn.org petition calling on the South Carolina state legislature to remove the Confederate flag that's attracted almost 570,000 signatures - click here to sign that one too.

Marines raising the 2nd US flag over Mt. Suribachi, 1945

In the same way Joe Rosenthal's iconic photo of US Marines raising the American flag over Iwo Jima in 1945 (pictured left) symbolized the best of what this nation was about in a global conflict to eradicate wide-scale human suffering, I feel the image above of Bree Newsome bravely taking down the Confederate flag in front of the statehouse of South Carolina also defines what the best of this nation is about.

The photo of her climbing that flag pole symbolizes a revitalized national movement to relegate the Confederate flag to the museums where it sat for decades after the Civil War until groups of  pro-segregationists in the south decided to re-adopt it as a symbol of defiance against the Civil Rights movement in the 1950's and 60's.

Bree Newsome's actions symbolize the overwhelming desire of Americans of all racial, ethnic and religious backgrounds to finally banish this symbol of hate, division and oppression from public display in government buildings or facilities.  

In the same way the photo of the Marines raising the American flag during a war for freedom became one of the most famous photographs of the 20th century, perhaps the image of an African-American woman scaling a flagpole to take down the flag of the Confederacy will come to represent the 21st century battle against bigotry, prejudice and racial hatred.

A war of the mind, body and spirit that we as a nation have been fighting for far too long.

Conservatives Can't Change the Subject Anymore

Activist Ryan Toney in front of the Supreme Court in 2013

Every now and then in this country, if you're lucky, you might just be fortunate enough to bear witness to the kind of fundamental change that shifts foundations, alters perceptions, changes the course of our history and reminds us of the kind of nation America can be when it gets it's act together.

Today was just such a day thanks to a landmark Supreme Court decision resulting from years of legal challenges, social activism and lobbying for marriage equality and LGBT rights.

Today was a good day for all Americans.

Yesterday was such a day too, lest we forget that the Affordable Care Act withstood a second major legal challenge and is now one step further towards being firmly cemented as one of those bedrock Roosevelt-ian federal programs that "promote the general welfare" like Social Security or Medicare.

It's not simple to put a finger on it but something has clearly shifted in the collective American
consciousness.

A terrifying chain of events seared into the American mindset; a teenage girl in Texas being physically assaulted by an out of control police officer trying to break up a disturbance at a pool party.

A racist killer brainwashed by right-wing hate propaganda using a legally purchased handgun to murder nine innocent people in a church during a bible study in Charleston, South Carolina.

These events are directly linked to the high-profile police killings that took place in Baltimore, Ferguson, Staten Island, Brooklyn, Cleveland, South Carolina and elsewhere.

After the deaths of Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, Freddie Gray and others, there was no more dismissing the killing of unarmed and innocent people of color as isolated incidents or accidents.

In this technology-driven age of social media, cell-phone video & photos, CCTV cameras and eyewitness accounts have made it clear for those who weren't aware of it before (or denied it) that the state-sponsored brutalization of people (many but not all people of color) by some members of law enforcement is not just systematic.

The scale and frequency of it (the federal government doesn't even keep comprehensive stats on police killings) has branded it as a large-scale human rights violation being committed by the very judicial system tasked with enforcing laws and protecting the public.

The scope of this issue is examined in the June 4th issue of Rolling Stone in Matt Taibbi's searing expose of systematic police violence against communities of color and the origins of "Broken Windows policing" entitled "Why Baltimore Blew Up".  You have to read it if you haven't already.

As Taibbi writes in the opening paragraphs, "Go to any predominantly minority neighborhood in any major American city and you'll hear the same stories: decades of being sworn at, thrown against walls, kicked, searched without cause, stripped naked on busy city streets, threatened with visits from child protective services, chased by dogs, and arrested and jailed not merely on false pretenses, but for reasons that often don't even rise to the level of being stupid."
 
The stark truth of these massive inequities in the justice system are coupled with the issue of the mass incarceration of African-American men, which is so absurd in scope that even in this highly politically-polarized atmosphere, it's now brought together people like Hillary Clinton, the Koch brothers, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and George Soros on the same side. Think about that.

It's creating a groundswell in America, a tidal wave of awareness that is now extending beyond the justice system; I think it's the momentum of that same groundswell that swayed the slim 5 - 4 majority on the Supreme Court to vote in favor of marriage equality.

Though I did study Constitutional law in college, and the SCOTUS majority did rule based in part on an expansive interpretation of the 14th Amendment in granting same-sex couples the right to marry, I think the court's opinion can be traced back to the simple fact those justices are just like us.

They saw what happened to Freddie Gray in Baltimore after he was taken into police custody for a reason that's still not clear.

They watched a South Carolina police officer shoot a black motorist in the back who fled a traffic stop then watched him die before picking up his taser and placing it near the man's body to try and justify his murdering an unarmed man who was running away.

They watched in horror as the reports unfolded of Dylann Roof shooting innocent churchgoers in cold blood based on his twisted interpretation of racist manifestos he'd read online.

We've all watched those things unfold, they may be members of the Supreme Court but in that they are no different than us.

I don't think there's any question that those things impacted their decision to both affirm the Affordable Care Act and to grant marriage equality; not because it's a health issue, or a gay issue, or a black issue, or a white issue, or a religious issue.

It's a human issue. It's a question of what kind of nation we want to be in the 21st century.

This groundswell I spoke of, this tide is going to affect even more change; it's already shifted the tone of the 2016 presidential race as GOP contenders have been forced to confront nationwide calls to remove the Confederate flag from license plates and from the grounds of statehouses in South Carolina, Alabama and elsewhere.

Walmart, Sears, even NASCAR have already called for the removal of the Confederate flag.

Students at the University of Texas are petitioning for the removal of a statue of Confederate president Jefferson Davis from campus. 

That tide is affecting not just race, and sexual orientation but gender too.

As Eriq Gardner reported in the June 5th issue of The Hollywood Reporter, the ACLU targeted the film and television industry with a petition on May 21st calling on Hollywood to request the government (specifically the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) to begin an investigation into why female directors are still so underrepresented in television and film.

It's impacting the conversation on immigration as well.

In the wake of Donald Trump's abhorrent and offensive remarks about Mexicans during his recent presidential announcement, Univision, the nation's largest Spanish-language broadcaster has severed ties with the Miss Universe pageant because of Trump's involvement as a co-producer of the event.

These are all human issues and Americans are not just paying attention; they are calling for changes.

As Matt Taibbi wrote in the opening of his June 4th  Rolling Stone article on systematic police abuse: "When Baltimore exploded in protests a few weeks ago following the unexplained paddy-wagon death of a young African-American man named Freddie Gray, America responded the way it usually does in a race crisis: It changed the subject."

Conservatives in this nation have been changing the subject for decades.

They've tried to convince people the Civil War was about the abstract concept of "States Rights" rather than whether states should decide whether black Americans could be owned as property and held in perpetuity in a state of forced labor and human bondage.

They've tried to frame the right of same-sex American couples to marry in the context of a "States Rights" issue or a "Freedom of religion" issue.

They've tried to frame their desire to suppress the rights of blacks, Hispanics, the elderly, college students, legal immigrants and the poor to exercise their Constitutional right to vote as a "Voter Integrity Issue".

But unfortunately for conservatives in this country, especially the right-wing extremists who now control the Republican party, something has shifted in the collective American consciousness.

A new awareness has taken root and is now growing, and conservatives can't just change the subject anymore - they must now confront the human issue before us all.

My Name is Earl - White Flight From the CCC

Republican supporter and CCC president Earl Holt

As the Republican party scrambles to distance itself from the politically toxic campaign contributions of Earl Holt, III (pictured left), the president of the Council of Conservative Citizens, it's important to remember that this divisive organization based on racial hatred isn't new in the United States - nor was it created in some kind of hermetically-sealed vacuum.

Like the enormous Confederate battle flag flying over the state capital building in South Carolina, White Citizen's Councils emerged as a backlash against the momentum of the Civil Rights movement of the 1950's and remained a dark fixture on the American landscape for decades.

Loosely defined, White Citizens Councils were a network of local community organizations that sprang up mostly across towns and cities in the southern United States in the wake of the Supreme Court's historic decision in 'Brown v Board of Education' that ruled that the legal concept of 'Separate But Equal' established in the case of 'Plessy v Ferguson' was un-Constitutional and opened the path to the large-scale desegregation of public schools, and other public facilities like parks, pools, public transportation, train stations, bus stations and hospitals. 

Dr. Revilo P. Oliver addresses a 1966 CCA conference

The Councils were made up of leading white citizens who conspired to use various means to enforce racial segregation.
 
For example, creating or enforcing local statutes that affected local businesses, or colluding with local banks and real estate agencies to enforce segregated housing - and of course, working with local law enforcement and local courts to ensure that municipal governments effectively functioned as arms of the pro-segregationist movement. 

Take for example the well-known right-wing speaker Dr. Revilo P. Oliver (pictured above), shown delivering an address entitled "Can Liberals Be Educated?" at the 11th Annual Leadership Conference of the Citizen's Councils of America on January 7, 1966.

Want some firsthand insight into the kinds of delusional beliefs espoused by the Citizen's Councils in the 1950's and 1960's? Take some time to visit The National Vanguard Website and listen to selections of Dr. Oliver's speeches on insightful topics like the "pathology of liberalism" or "the biological reality of race". 

That's where people like Earl Holt come from.

His Longview, Texas-based CCC that has now become the focus of mainstream media in recent days is one of the last vestiges of that same system; which once boasted tens of thousands of members across the United States.

So it's interesting to watch Republican politicians who've quietly accepted campaign donations from Earl Holt and his organization for years suddenly feign ignorance and outrage at the racist hand that's been putting bread on their proverbial table as they quickly move to distance themselves from the cash they've been taking since at least 2012; and probably further back than that.
 
The horrific shooting in Charleston and the news that suspect Dylann Roof was partly motivated inspired by the delusional propaganda on the CCC Website has lifted the rock up and revealed the 
CCC as a political organization with an overtly white separatist / white nationalist agenda that has been making campaign contributions to a wide array of Republican candidates for years.

It's kind of pathetic (and frankly offensive) that it took a deranged killer murdering nine innocent people in a church for the GOP to suddenly disassociate their party with the CCC's twisted agenda.

One of the most positive things to come about in the wake of the horrific killings at the Emanuel A.M.E Church in Charleston is that it's quickly forced GOP presidential candidates and other Republican politicians around the country to confront their tacit support for extremist white supremacy organizations.

That support is nothing new for (some) Republican politicians.

Richard Nixon's Southern Strategy in full effect in Georgia

The origins of the "Southern Strategy" reach back to the 50's, 60's and 70's when the GOP's strategy was to actively seek to capitalize on the bigotry and intolerance of some white voters in order to manipulate the outcome of local and national elections.

That same strategy was also widely used in the 1980's as well.

The infamous and notoriously racist "Willie Horton" political attack ad used by Republican President George Bush against Democratic presidential candidate Mike Dukakis during the 1988 Presidential race is just one of many examples of the quiet courting of the extremist vote has been standard operating procedure for Republicans for years.

Let's not forget that the current 2nd-in-command to the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Louisiana Congressman Steve Scalise, actually spoke at a white supremacist event.

Ever since it was revealed that Charleston shooting suspect Dylann Roof cited Earl Holt's CCC Website as a source of inspiration for his racially motivated hate crimes, GOP politicians are scrambling to return political donations received from Holt.

Interestingly it was the UK's The Guardian that first reported that Ted Cruz announced his campaign would be returning $8,500 in donations made to Cruz and a Super PAC that supports him, it's now becoming clear that Holt donated money to the campaigns of a Who's Who of Republicans including Mitt Romney, Michelle Bachmann, Steve King (shocker) and others.

Senator Joni Ernst accepted Earl Holt's donations

Remember Senator Joni Ernst (pictured left) who gave that remarkably substance-free nationally televised Republican rebuttal to President Obama's State of the Union address earlier this year?

The chirpy Tea Party darling bankrolled by Koch brothers money who evoked her traditional American "farm roots" by fondly reflecting back on having to wear bread bags over her school shoes to protect them from the mud on her way to school?

Yup, that Joni Ernst.

She took money from the CCC too; I guess the bread is out of the bag on that one.

Holier-than-thou presidential candidate Rick Santorum, who apparently envisions turning America into some kind of theocracy, yes his campaign received money from Holt too.

I wonder how that fits in with his "Christian values" and his Opus Dei membership? Maybe his wife should make those CCC donations to daddy's campaign a topic for his home-schooled children to discuss.

Idealogical firebrand Rand Paul's campaign took CCC money too, but to me that's less surprising given that the Kentucky Senator's Libertarian power base is a notorious haven for fringe white supremacists.

We'll see how it plays out.

In the wake of Hillary Clinton's progressive policy position statements on race, Republican presidential hopefuls are now being forced to rapidly re-think their stances on race in America in the wake of the Charleston shootings and the national outcry over the Confederate flag.

As was widely reported, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley has done a total 180 on her previous apathy towards the movement to ban the Stars and Bars from flying over the capital of her state and hastily announced yesterday that she will now use her authority to pass legislation calling for the flag to be removed from the capital.

Better late than never I guess but it doesn't exactly reflect well on today's Republican party that the vicious cold-blooded murder of nine innocent African-Americans at a bible study by a deranged racist killer is the motivating factor forcing them to rethink their tacit support of the white supremacist movement in America and how they view race in the 21st Century.

For now don't expect any bold policy statements from any of the GOP front runners, for the time being they're consumed with doing all they can to run from Earl Holt and his CCC just as fast as they can without alienating the support of the divisive Tea Party base which isn't running from anything.

Horror, Healing & Hope

Dylann Roof's booking photo [Charleston County Sheriff]

Like many, it's taken me some time to mentally and emotionally process the unmitigated horror of what took place inside the Emanuel A.M.E Church last Wednesday night.

From the shocking eye-witness accounts of the racially-motivated premeditated savagery committed by suspect Dylann Roof, I can't even begin to fathom what the victim's family members, friends, church members and co-workers must be going through as they try and process this unspeakable act of domestic terrorism that claimed the lives of nine innocent people.

The term "hate crime", while appropriate given the suspect's own statements, actions and beliefs, doesn't even come close to encapsulating the magnitude of this act of violent race hatred.

It's almost as if humanity needs a new word to describe this kind of senseless slaughter of innocents in the same way the word Holocaust (a term first used in the 13th century) became the de facto description of the mass slaughter of Jews and other peoples by the Nazis during World War II.

But if any positives have come out of this tragedy, it's not just the holding up of the scourge of racial hatred to the scrutiny of truth, it's the reaction of the local, national and global community as heroes and healers have stepped forward to counteract the killer's demented desire to spark some kind of conflict based on race.

Debbie Dills helped police capture Dylann Roof [Photo ABC News]

Take Debbie Dills (pictured left), the florist and minister who was running late for work at about 10:30am on the morning after the killing when she spotted the deranged killer in his black Hyundai stopped at a light on Highway 74 in Kings Mountain, North Carolina, turned her vehicle around and followed him for 35 miles to Shelby, North Carolina while she contacted the police with the help of her boss - leading to the quick capture of this monster and assuring he answers for his crimes in a court of law.

There are also the many members of law enforcement and emergency response teams in Charleston, SC who first responded to the shootings and helped get descriptions of the killer and his vehicle out to other police departments and to local media; and the members of the Kings Mountain & Shelby, NC police departments and federal agents of the FBI and BATF who helped apprehend the killer.

Credit must also be given to the many local community leaders in Charleston who called for calm in the wake of the killings, even as some mainstream media outlets began to warn of the rioting that might erupt; which never happened.

Audience members sing "We Shall Overcome" [Getty Images/AFP]

Instead we've watched thousands of South Carolinians from different races, religions and backgrounds come together in prayer services for the nine victims as well as peaceful vigils and prayer services around the nation.

Such as the diverse group of more than 4,000 people (pictured left) who gathered at the College of Charleston TD Arena at an interfaith service of remembrance on Friday to hear appeals for peace and unity from Protestant, Catholic and Jewish clergy and recognize more than 50 relatives of the nine victims of the shooting who attended the ceremony; which opened with a rendition of "Amazing Grace" and culminated in the entire crowd singing "We Shall Overcome". 
 
On the other side of the coin, it's also been quite instructive to observe the reaction of some Republicans and other American conservatives to this tragedy.

As an article on the CrooksAndLiars.com Website reported on Thursday, both FoxNews.com and the Fox Nation television broadcasts completely downplayed the murder of nine innocent people at a bible study by a 21 year-old white supremacist, as such things fall outside the Fox News narrative.

If you can stomach it, click the link above and read a sampling of the comments posted in the aftermath of the murders on the FoxNation thread; which include such insightful observations as: "Are we sure they were black? Or did they just check the box?" And: "Going to be a riot in Charleston, look out liquor stores and cell phone stores and electronic stores."

And we wonder how a depressed, unemployed 21 year-old white kid with substance abuse issues (and a .45 caliber handgun he bought at a gun store with no background check...) became indoctrinated with the delusional half-baked white supremacist theories he espoused; including that black men are raping white women and "taking over" the country.

Sen Lindsey Graham after visiting Emanuel AME memorial

As an article posted on NPR.org reported, reactions from Republican political leaders differed.

South Carolina Senator and 2016 Republican presidential candidate Lindsey Graham attended the Friday interfaith service in Charleston and he appeared visibly shaken (pictured left) as he spoke with members of the media after he payed his respects at the memorial site at the Emanuel A.M.E Church

Senator Ted Cruz addressed the shootings directly and called for a moment of silence in opening remarks before a speech. NJ Governor Chris Christie called the shootings "depraved" but suggested the solution wasn't more laws: "Only the goodwill and the love of the American people can let those folks know that that act was unacceptable, disgraceful, and that we need to do more to show that we love each other."

A law that would've prevented the killer from having a .45 caliber handgun in the first place isn't a solution?

Unfortunately for the optimistic Christie "the goodwill and love of the American people" can't stop a nut-bag with a gun from shooting people.

Jeb Bush stirred a bit of controversy on social media by waffling and refusing to say directly that the shooter's motivations were based on race. Bush stated: "I don't know what was on the mind or the heart of the man who committed these atrocious crimes," Really?

I guess Jeb hadn't read about 26 year-old Tywanza Sanders, who bravely stood up during the shooting and begged the killer to spare the remaining members of the bible study before the killer said that he couldn't stop because black people are raping white women and blacks are taking over the country before shooting and killing Sanders as his wounded mother lay nearby.

Funny how pretty much everyone in America and millions around the world understand exactly what was in the killer's mind when he shot those poor people; everyone except Jeb Bush.

Not the kind of answer I'm looking for in a presidential candidate.

Bush's weak-ass comments seem to typify the tepid Republican response which seems to completely avoid acknowledging the racist beliefs of the killer and focus instead on the concocted conservative issue of "religious liberty" (Republican code for anti-abortion...) and not pissing off the NRA over yet another mass slaughter of innocents by yet another troubled nut-bag with a legally purchased gun. 

Bush's comments reflect his campaign thus far; so not ready for prime time.

Rick Santorum, champion of "religious liberty"

Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum didn't do himself (or his capacity as a potential leader of the free world) any favors when he suggested that the killer chose his victims "indiscriminately" during an interview on the Joe Piscopo Show the day after the shootings took place.

Instead of linking the motivations of the shooter to racial hatred, Santorum had the temerity to make an effort to link the killings to the mythical issue of "religious liberty" Republicans seem to feel is so important.

During the interview Santorum said, "You talk about the importance of prayer at this time, and we're now seeing assaults on religious liberty we've never seen before."

As if America doesn't already have one of the most religiously diverse societies on the planet; and call me crazy but freedom of religion has been enshrined in the Constitution since the 18th century.

Apparently Santorum hasn't figured out that the killer wasn't targeting Christians; he was targeting black people simply because they're black.  

Republican South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley seemed genuinely affected by the brutality of the killings and was quick to wave the pro-capital punishment flag by calling for the death penalty in this case, but like her GOP cohorts she's missing the message too.

She probably would've been better off supporting the long-time organized movement within her own state calling for that huge Confederate flag flying over her own statehouse to be removed.

By not publicly (or intellectually) making the connection between the extremist mindset that cultivated the twisted beliefs someone like Dylann Roof and the statement a huge Confederate flag flying over the building where state lawmakers meet makes, Haley is only demonstrating her willingness to remain detached from the mainstream American mindset which views the flag as a divisive symbol of hate and the pro-slavery movement.

Since the killer is just beginning the long road to his day in court, and the families, friends and co-workers of the victims along with millions of people around the world are still grieving for the heinous deaths of the nine victims inside the Emanuel A.M.E Church - there's much to come regarding this sad chapter in American history.

But for the time being, I think Dylann Roof's 56 year-old uncle Carson Cowles pretty much summed up the thoughts of many on this deranged killer's capture when he told Reuters news agency:
"I will say this, I hope he gets what's coming to him. They got his ass now."  

You got that right Uncle Carson.

Now that the horror is over, let's pray that the healing and hope for positive change as a result of this tragedy can now begin.

Accountability 101

Lawyer Jane Bishkin issues an apology for Eric Casebolt

My efforts to articulate my feelings about corporal David Eric Casebolt's treatment of a 15 year-old girl, his pointing a loaded gun at two unarmed teenage boys, and the two female bystanders seen on video assaulting 19 year-old party host Tatyana Rhodes prompted quite a spike in Web traffic. 

In response to the blog I posted on Tuesday June 9th, titled 'Deep in the Heart of Texas', one concerned reader commented that my criticisms had overlooked the principal of 'Innocent Until Proven Guilty'.

So how do we as a society weigh the innocence or guilt of a police officer who slams an unarmed girl's face to the ground, versus the innocence or guilt of a scared bikini-clad teen running around outside a pool party?

Should Casebolt's actions be examined through the lens of our assuming him to be innocent until he's actually proven guilty?

Casebolt himself has already essentially admitted his own guilt and resigned, but the reader-in-question makes a valid point.

But the harsh reality is that police officers in America rarely see the inside of a courtroom for assaulting or killing someone with dark skin; even when the victim is innocent and unarmed.

Eric Casebolt

Given the high profile nature of this case, it's certainly quite possible that Casebolt (pictured left) will face charges, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for that to happen.

An article in the Dallas Morning News quotes Hannah Stroud, the attorney representing Dajerria Becton (the 15 year-old girl Casebolt slammed to the ground in the video) as saying "Becton attended a pool party Friday to which she was invited and was not trespassing. When she was told to leave by police, she asked for her bag so she could call her aunt. That’s when she was pushed to the ground, grabbed by the hair and had her face shoved into the ground,"

So perhaps the-reader-in-question needs to examine why a police officer would slam a teenage girl to the ground for asking the officer if she could retrieve her bag to get her cell phone so she could call her aunt (with whom she lives) and comply with the officer's request to leave the area.

It goes without saying that a police veteran with 10 years of law enforcement experience like Casebolt bears more responsibility for upholding that principle of American law in a situation like the one that took place last week; even if he did have a rough day before he showed up there.

While subsequent witness interviews suggests the teenagers at the pool party in McKinney, Texas were indeed, not just numerous but extremely rowdy, that doesn't justify Casebolt's behavior at the scene and I don't think I'm the only one who feels that no one was more out of control than Casebolt himself.

That assertion was not only backed up by an analysis of the videotape of the incident by former assistant FBI director Tom Fuentes, but also Casebolt's commanding officer Chief Greg Conley who said in a news conference, "He came into the call out of control, and as the video shows was out of control during the incident." 

In the wake of his resignation, Casebolt admitted in a statement read by Dallas County Police Officer's Association attorney Jane Bishkin (pictured above) that "he allowed his emotions to get the better of him" and that "he apologizes to all who were offended."

It's interesting to consider the concept of innocent until proven guilty given that overwhelming evidence suggests that some members of law enforcement actually believe the total opposite when it comes to encounters with members of racial and ethnic minorities.

As the reader-in-questions suggests, let's look closer at the concept of 'Innocent Until Proven Guilty'.

Consider the case of Amilcar Perez-Lopez, an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala, who is one of 26 Latinos killed by police in 2015.

Amilcar Perez-Lopez's autopsy conflicts with SFPD report

The San Francisco Police Department alleges that Perez-Lopez, described as a hard working family man by those who knew him, had a knife raised and was lunging for two plain clothes SFPD officers back on February 26th when he was shot and killed.

But according to disturbing details revealed in  an investigation by The Guardian, an autopsy report commissioned by the 20 year-old victim's family clearly shows that Perez-Lopez was shot six times in the back; four in the back, once in the head and once in the right arm (pictured above). 

Look closely at the trajectory of the bullets in the autopsy diagram above - the bullets entered Perez-Lopez's body and head from the back - so how could he have been lunging at the undercover SFPD officers when they shot and killed him?

What's clear is that the two SFPD officers saw Perez-Lopez's ethnicity, decided he was guilty and then executed him on the street before he'd been charged with any crime, entered a plea or appeared in court.

The broader growing awareness of the systematic bias inherent in America's judicial system is reflected in the revision of state laws that incarcerate individuals for low-level non-violent offenses, growing demands to ensure that juveniles are not treated as adults and housed in adult correctional facilities - and of course, a growing demand that police officers be held accountable for the unchecked use of excessive physical force - which is overwhelmingly used against racial and ethnic minorities.

Kalief Browder

Speaking of 'Innocent Until Proven Guilty', we should also consider the tragic case of New York resident Kalief Browder (pictured left) who recently took his own life after struggling with effects of three years of incarceration in New York City's Rikers Island correctional facility.

As you may have heard or read, the case against him was dismissed and he was released but only after enduring three years of beatings at the hands of Rikers Island prison guards and other inmates and the psychological torture of solitary confinement.

After Jennifer Gonnerman's story about Browder's experience appeared in The New Yorker there's been a lot of discussion about the dysfunctional nature of New York City's judicial system in which poor defendants who cannot afford bail are often held in jail for years awaiting a trial.

As summarized on the RT.com Website "Kalief Browder was initially arrested on his way home on May 14, 2010, after an unknown individual identified the teenager, then 16 years-old, as the person who robbed him a few weeks prior. Browder was charged with second-degree robbery and, unable to post the $10,000 bail at the time of his arrest, was transferred to Rikers Island. The case never went to trial however, and Browder languished at Rikers Island until the charges were dropped without explanation in June 2013. His stay at the prison included around two years of solitary confinement."

He missed the last two years of high school while languishing in the limbo of a dysfunctional legal system where he was effectively punished from the age of 16 until he was 19 before a court of law actually established his guilt or innocence.

As Browder told WABC-TV in an interview back in November of 2013, "No apology, no nothing. They just said, 'Oh case dismissed. Don't worry about nothing.'What do you mean 'don't worry about nothing? You just took over three years of my life."

And it's important to note that he had a chance to take a plea deal and admit to two lesser misdeameanor charges that would have enabled him to be released, but he was adamant about his innocence and was determined to prove it.

The court system never gave him that chance.

Not unlike the police officers who took the lives of Tamir Rice, Akai Gurley, Amilcar Perez-Lopez or Eric Garner. Or the cop who showed up and slammed a young girl to the ground - the idea of innocence just never entered their minds.

I respect the reader who questioned whether or not I had considered 'Innocent Until Proven Guilty', I certainly wish police in the United States would do that more often when they encounter people of color.

But I'm not sure the massive backlash against Eric Casebolt or any other officer who assaults or kills an innocent person is really about an abstract legal concept that doesn't apply equally in this nation - I think it's more about Accountability 101.

Deep In The Heart of Texas

Eric Casebolt subdues the "threat" of unarmed 15 year-old girl

Is this truly 21st century America? Pinch me please because sometimes I really have to wonder.

In the wake of the shocking videotape of McKinney, Texas police corporal Eric Casebolt (pictured left) violently throwing 15 year-old Dajerria Becton (also pictured left, face down) to the ground and pulling a loaded handgun on two teenage boys who tried to come to her aid, national outrage is once again focused on the violent physical overreaction of a white American police officer in yet another confrontation with unarmed black citizens.

Kudos to Brandon Brooks, the 15 year-old teenager who filmed the incident. According to an article on ThinkProgress.org, Brooks observed, “I think a bunch of white parents were angry that a bunch of black kids who don’t live in the neighborhood were in the pool,” he said. However, he maintains, many of the kids who were handcuffed and told to get on the ground were ‘innocent bystanders.’"

So much already has been, and will be, said about this (latest) incident on mainstream and social media, as well as around water coolers, locker rooms and in homes around the country, that there's nothing I can add other than to say how profoundly shocked I am at the treatment of this child.

It was just last Friday June 5th that I blogged about chicanery in Texas, just hours before a local resident named Sean Toon called 911 in response to a confrontation that broke out at the Craig Ranch North Community Pool between 19 year-old Tatyana Rhodes, who was hosting a barbecue at the pool, and two local white women who allegedly began yelling racial slurs at the guests.

According to reports, the women were upset that a large number of young people of color (including Hispanics and people of Arab descent) had crashed the poolside party by hopping over the fences and began directing derogatory racial slurs at some of the young attendees.

Tracey Carver-Albritton

When Rhodes intervened and confronted the two woman about their words, a woman she identified in a video interview as "Kate" slapped her in the face before the other woman, tentatively identified on Twitter as a Bank of America employee named Tracey Carver-Allbritton (pictured left); physically began attacking Rhodes.

As you likely know by now, it all unraveled from there before corporal Eric Casebolt arrived on the scene; according to an article on Heavy.com, Casebolt was one of a group of officers named in a 2008 federal lawsuit "for racial profiling, harassment, failure to render aid and sexual assault." after he yanked down the pants of a black motorist who'd been stopped at the side of a road and began shining a flash light at his anus to search for contraband. (I guess that's what he was searching for anyway...)

So he does have a documented history of excessive physical confrontation with people of color as a police officer.

According to former FBI Assistant Director Tom Fuentes who reviewed the widely-circulated video of the incident outside the pool in McKinney, in an interview with CNN said Casebolt was, “...out of control. He clearly has no self-discipline. He lost control of his temper. Nothing good can happen at that point. Thankfully he didn’t shoot somebody,”

So for the first time in the brief history of this humble blog, we have a three-way tie for this week's George Lincoln Rockwell Award; which recognizes those distinguished individuals who best emulate the divisive philosophy of the founder of the American Nazi Party.

Corporal Eric Casebolt, the woman identified as "Kate" who slapped Tayana Rhodes, and Tracey Carver-Allbritton who is seen on video joining "Kate" in physically attacking the teenager, will all share in this week's "Rockwell".

The disturbing nature of the incident at the community pool in McKinney, Texas has attracted so much media attention that it seems to have overshadowed the news that former North Charleston South Carolina police officer Michael Slager was indicted on murder charges earlier today by a grand jury after cell phone video of him shooting unarmed Walter Scott in the back after fleeing a traffic stop on foot.

No trial date has been announced and it's obviously a long way before Slager appears in court, but it's important to note the significance of a white police officer facing murder charges for the unjustified use of deadly force to kill an unarmed African-American man in this nation; a country that as of now, does not actually keep accurate records of the number of people killed by police each year.

Eric Casebolt has been placed on leave while the McKinney Police Department conducts an investigation, but time will tell if he actually faces charges for his lapse in professional behavior.

Want to weigh in? Click this link to a petition calling for Casebolt to be fired posted on the ColorOfChange.org Website.

But for now he, "Kate" and Tracey Carver-Allbritton give new meaning to the lyrics, "Deep in the Heart of Texas." 

'Witchcraft and Sodomy' & Other Texas Chicanery

"And I'll flood your little state too!'

The great state of Texas has been featured in the headlines of mainstream American media lately, unfortunately for reasons that are not really all that positive.

While the victims of the massive flooding in Houston, Austin and other parts of Texas have the sympathy of people around the globe, it also offers insight into just how totally detached from reality the extremist conservative mind-set in Texas really is these days.
 
For example, according to RightWingWatch.org, back on Thursday May 28th, eerily conservative talk radio host Bryan Fischer fielded a call from a concerned listener from College Station, Texas named 'Rebecca' who had some interesting theories on the cause of the unprecedented flooding that's taken lives and damaged property.

According to an article by Kyle Mantyla of RightWingWatch.org, "As Rebecca explained, the only parts of Texas that are underwater are the parts "that are overrun with witchcraft and sodomy" like Austin and Houston, which has a "sodomite mayor". On the other hand, the area where Rebecca lives is not underwater, even though she lives in a valley, and that is because "we kicked out abortion" and the people who live there hold conservative views."

Host Bryan Fischer was quick to agree with Rebecca's unusual supernatural explanation, adding that, "If you're going to attribute the flooding in Texas to some kind of supernatural cause, you can make a geographical connection between the flooding and the practice of the occult and witchcraft and the embrace of homosexuality,"

Personally I was unaware of the prevalence of Wiccan activity in Texas, or that sex between same sex couples in said state could affect the weather. Go figure!

Now Texas conservatives aren't the only ones freaking out about same sex couples getting married; or having sex and making it rain a lot.

Joseph Farah of WorldNetDaily

As Brian Tashman of Right Wing Watch reported yesterday, Joseph Farah (pictured left), the founder and editor of WorldNetDaily (which ran a six-part series on how soybeans cause homosexuality), issued an 'emergency plea' to governors and legislatures in all 50 states requesting that they be prepared to secede from the United States if the Supreme Court strikes down state bans on gay marriage.

Farah, who is profiled on the Website of the SPLC, insists that other countries that ban same-sex marriage, like Nigeria, Iran or Russia, should be prepared for "a pilgrimage of millions of Americans" seeking to flee the evils of same sex couples in monogamous long-term relationships.

Yup, I can see millions of right-wing conservatives packing up and heading to foreign countries they already despise. Anyway, let's get back to Texas.

It didn't really make large scale media headlines, but in Huntsville, Texas last Wednesday June 3rd at 6:18pm the state of Texas executed it's oldest death row inmate, Lester Leroy Bower, who'd been on death row for 31 years after being convicted of a quadruple shooting in an airplane hanger at a ranch outside Sherman, Texas in 1983.

Bower and his pro-bono legal team had maintained his innocence for years and claimed the state's case was flawed. Even though a witness has maintained for 26 years that she knew who killed the four men and it was not Bower, the state of Texas went ahead with the execution of the 67 year-old man who used his last words to proclaim his innocence in the death chamber with his wife and two sisters attending.

The strange pride the state of Texas seems to take in executions is ghoulish, but far be it from Texas to let something like facts or eyewitness testimony stand in the way of taking a human life.

Rick Perry rides again!

On a much lighter note our old friend Rick Perry (pictured left) is back in the news too; he hopes the public has forgotten "Niggerhead". We haven't.

The always quotable former Texas governor, who wants to eliminate so many departments from the federal government that he just can't remember them all, announced that he's tossing his own Stetson back into the crowded field of 2016 GOP presidential candidates.

Armed with a stylish new pair of glasses and a bagful of dusted off generic conservative talk-points, Rick is elbowing his way into the already overloaded Republican clown car and joining Senator Ted Cruz as yet another conservative Texan seeking the White House.

Cruz made headlines himself the other week when he weaseled out of answering a question about whether the Texas floods that have dumped trillions of gallons of water on Texas soil, caused the deaths of 28 people and caused billions of dollars in damage had anything to do with global warming.

According to an article by Emily Atkin on ThinkProgress.org, Cruz side-stepped the chance to defend his quasi-delusional beliefs about the 'myth' of global warming by saying, "At a time of tragedy, I think it’s wrong to try to politicize a natural disaster."  

But it's okay for him to use his position as a Senator to try and suppress science while accepting millions in political donations from petrochemical companies that dump millions of tons of toxic greenhouse gases into the atmosphere every year?

So I guess "politicizing" global warming just depends on when you're doing it and who's paying you to do it, right Ted? 

It's often said Texas is like a different country, if you've ever been there you know why.

The Supreme Court is preparing to rule on whether Texas issuing license plates with the Confederate flag on them is protected by free speech in a case brought by the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

Between politicians who deny the science of climate change even as record flood levels devastate their state, nut-bag radio hosts who blame witchcraft and homosexual citizens for the weather and a state legislature who just voted to approve a law that would allow Texans to openly carry loaded handguns in hip or shoulder holsters, Texas is living up to it's reputation as a nation apart.

As I've blogged about before, Texas certainly has it's fair share of progressive locales like Austin, so it's not my intention to lump all Texans into one bin.

But if recent headlines are any measure of the state of the state, there are way too many delusional Texans who openly embrace chicanery.

A Very Disgruntled Crew

New York PBA President Patrick Lynch

Clearly many members of law enforcement in America are just not feeling the love these days.

Just ask Patrick Lynch (pictured left), the perpetually disgruntled and opinionated President of the New York Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, whose highly public divisive tirades against Mayor Bill DeBlasio have begun to rankle members of the NYPD, who believe his partisan petty feuds with everyone from the mayor to local activists reflect a tendency to place his own interests ahead of a membership that is growing tired of his confrontation-driven autocratic leadership style.

In all fairness to the many dedicated police officers in communities around the nation who take their oath to protect and serve seriously (and sometimes risk their lives to do so) we as a society too often place them in impossible situations that are not always "law enforcement issues"; thrusting them into the difficult position of having to balance the role of sociologist, psychologist, babysitter, mediator, savior, protector or soldier. 

In light of the many high-profile cases of excessive use of force or unjustified killings by police spotlighted in mainstream and social media, it begs the question: do we ask too much of police?

Are the politicians and government officials responsible for appropriating funds and approving budgets placing too much of the burden to solve society's problems on police forces?

The palpable deterioration of race relations, civil rights and voting rights, coupled with the growing income gap, stagnant wages for the 99% and chronic under-employment / unemployment that has negatively impacted the US since 1980 (and worsened since the Republican party allowed itself to be hijacked by maniacally partisan extremist ideologues in the early 1990's) are issues that are far too complex to be simply laid at the feet of police.

But far too often, the socioeconomic byproducts of these issues, like poverty, shrinking social services, under-serving public schools and a dysfunctional justice system, end up on the plates of local law enforcement when something (or someone) finally gives; and someone dials 911.

In some cases, the all-too human police officer(s) responding to emergencies don't have the time, patience, experience, training, or emotional control to deescalate a tense situation; or determine whether someone is a danger to themselves, the public, or the officer.

If you read this blog you know I'm one of those citizens who holds police officers to a much higher standard, but in all honesty if we pull up to a curb at night and there's a crazy-looking shirtless guy holding a knife who's yelling to himself; how do you know he's schizophrenic and off his meds, or on a three-day meth bender?

In all fairness to police officers, it is really a cop's responsibility because someone is off his meds and not getting adequate treatment for mental illness? Is it a cop's responsibility that someone has a meth addiction? Where does society's responsibility lie in this age of shrinking social services and Republican politicians in Washington who rail against unions (including police unions) and "Big Government"?

12 year-old Tamir Rice, shot dead in a park last November

Let's imagine the perfect world for a minute.

In that scenario maybe the city of Cleveland has more tax revenue coming in from a workforce that's more gainfully employed, earning wages that are actually pegged to the cost of living, resulting in sufficient municipal funding for an adequate number of properly staffed rec enters and adult-supervised after-school programs for children so 12 year-old Tamir Rice might've had a different option than pacing aimlessly around the park area outside of the Cudell Recreation Center in Cleveland on a cold snowy day on November, 22, 2014 playing with a plastic toy gun.

In that perfect world a poorly-trained 26 year-old Cleveland police officer like Timothy Loehmann with a sketchy record who'd already been dismissed from a municipal police force for being incompetent (and hadn't been properly vetted by CPD's underfunded human resource department) doesn't have cause to drive up and shoot 12 year-old Rice in the torso for doing what 12 year-old American boys have been doing since the 19th century; hanging around outside playing with a fake gun - because maybe Rice would instead be inside a well-funded community recreation center under the supervision of an adult teaching him something productive. 

In a perfect world maybe the economy in Staten Island is better and Eric Garner has a decent job that pays him a living wage so that he doesn't have to wander around the streets selling "loosie" cigarettes for a buck apiece to help support his family; so a group of NYPD cops charged with enforcing a "broken windows" policy don't have to roll up on Garner and arrest him for a minor "quality of life" infraction so he doesn't end up in an illegal choke hold that suffocates the life out of him on the street.

But obviously we're not in a perfect world and lately it seems like there a lot of former police officers appearing on television to complain about the shrinking stature of the American police officer.

Case in point: last Monday evening when I was on the treadmill at the gym watching a debate during a segment on Out Front with Erin Burnett on the recent spike in gun violence in New York and some other major US cities.

The opposing guests were former White House nominee and social activist Van Jones, and a former member of the NYPD who seems to be CNN's latest go-to-guy "Contributor" when they need an outspoken beefy-looking ex-NYPD cop with a New York accent who will pretty much defend anything any cop does and vilify people who peacefully protest excessive use of force by cops.

I can't recall his name but he's got dark hair, says everything with an annoying ingratiating smirk on his face and looks like a character out of 'Goodfellas' or 'The Sopranos'.

It's not Thomas Verni (pictured left), the former NYPD officer who's also a frequent "Contributor" on CNN who caused a stir recently
when he posted a tragic story on his Facebook page about a 14 year-old kid / gang member who was shot and killed on his way to school.

Not long after that, three former members of the NYPD began posting comments on Verni's Facebook page that basically trashed the kid's reputation and blamed him for his own death. (No mention of lax American gun control laws of course.)

Ex-NYPD cop Brian Charles, who in response to the story on Verni's Facebook page about the 14 year-old wrote: "Fuck him. He would have wound up killing someone eventually or wound up in jail. Saved taxpayers a lot of money."

Too bad officer Charles still isn't driving around urban neighborhoods with his gun, badge and that massive chip on his shoulder; I'm sure we'd be so much safer.

At least Verni's a bit more measured and informative than ex-NYPD detective (and yes, CNN "Contributor") Harry Houck (pictured left) who recently got into an on-air shouting match with Marc Lamont Hill back in April over the staggering number of deaths of black men and boys at the hands of the Baltimore Police Department.


Anyway, back to the Van Jones and the other CNN contributor "ex-NYPD guy-whose-name-I-can't-remember" debate on Erin Burnett on Monday afternoon.

Even though the CNN producers probably told him to express the "police officer's perspective" for the segment, the ex-NYPD guy's simplistic Fox News-like approach irked me.

Van Jones is a lawyer (Yale Law School) who was appointed as Special Adviser for Green Jobs to the White House Council on Environmental Quality in 2009 before a Republican smear campaign forced him to resign his position.

He's intelligent, articulate and used reason and facts to make his point that the statistics showing increases in gun violence were being taken out of context by some people and that such increases alone do not invalidate the peaceful nationwide movements calling for police reform, more comprehensive reviews of excessive use of violence by some police; and calls for independent prosecutors to be assigned in cases of police brutality.  

The ex-NYPD guy kept trying to use the statistics showing a rise in gun violence to prove that cops are now "hesitant" to do their jobs in high-crime areas because of the nation-wide backlash against the unchecked use of excessive police force.

As if peaceful protests, demands for better policing and reforms of America's dysfunctional justice system are in themselves, causing increased violence. It was a weak argument considering that more balanced analysis shows that the bulk of the gun violence increases in New York for instance are taking place between gang members in very specific neighborhoods.

CNN's 'Out Front' host Erin Burnett

What irked me about Erin Burnett's questions, which were obviously intended to throw some gas on this debate, was how she asked Van Jones to comment on one of ex-NYPD guy's points then played a short video clip of a small group of black protesters walking down a street yelling some hard to discern anti-cop slogans.

She offered no context to the video clip, no date of when it shot, where it was taken, or what specific incident had sparked the comments.

It was as if she'd offered up the clip as "proof" that all black people are "anti-cop" and that such protests are a direct cause of the spike in gun violence around the nation.

I don't mean to belabor the point, I guess it just got under my skin because the issue of deteriorating police relationships and mistrust with the communities they serve warranted a more rational and balanced response from law enforcement than the ex-NYPD guy she brought on to spar with Jones.

Her interview style can at times be annoyingly chirpy and urgent. As a former television reporter, I sometimes feel like she's staring at a ticking clock behind the camera and is waiting to tick off her points rather than engage in more thoughtful questions.

I have nothing against her but personally I've never been a real big Erin Burnett fan; and I've always been sort of mystified as to why she got the time slot and the show in the first place.

I certainly don't want to come off as dismissively sexist and suggest it's her model-like looks, because she's obviously intelligent and has a quick mind; I guess it's just her style and personae that doesn't click with me.

Besides, CNN has a lot of intelligent female anchors I respect and go out of my way to watch; including Candy Crowley and Dana Bash for their excellent coverage and analysis of politics.

As far as CNN goes, personally I think Brooke Baldwin is a far superior interviewer who's much more natural and instinctual with guests. To me Erin Burnett always seems like she's taking a test that she's determined not to fail.

That said, I'm making an effort to try and understand what police officers are so upset about; particularly all these ex-NYPD guys serving as contributors on CNN.

I lived in New York City during 911 and I remember how people heaped adulation, affection and sympathy upon NYPD officers for months after the Towers came down; even though it was the tail end of the Giuliani era when relations between black New Yorkers and the NYPD were at an all-time low. Any cop in a bar back then could not buy a drink because everyone wanted to buy them one; or several - I know, I was a bartender in an Irish bar on Amsterdam Avenue & 80th street on the Upper West Side and I served plenty of them myself.

When I first moved to Manhattan in the late 90's the papers were full of horrific stories of innocent African-Americans and black New Yorker's killed (Amadou Diallo, Patrick Dorismond) or sadistically abused (Abner Louima) by members of the NYPD.

When 911 happened on September 11, 2001, it sort of had the affect of rehabilitating their public image in the city to a degree. Watching some of these ex-NYPD guys on CNN, I wonder if some of them are having a hard time wrapping their minds around the level of national opposition and outrage at some of the tactics and incidents that have garnered global headlines and tarnished the reputation of the NYPD and other municipal police forces in Ferguson, Chicago, Los Angeles, Cleveland and elsewhere.

Listening to some of these guys on television, they seem genuinely confused at the level of public outrage over the killings of completely innocent people who are unarmed; as if such things are simply part of "the job" and not to be scrutinized by the public police are sworn to protect.

The prevalence and instantaneous nature of social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram along with the reality that almost everyone is now armed with a functioning video camera in their cell phone has forever altered that ability of police to simply slip behind the Blue Wall of silence to avoid public scrutiny of actions that are illegal - or mistakes that turn deadly.

Police have operated that way for a long time in this nation but now technology is altering that faster than their policy and training can keep up with.

The uncomfortable reality is that if it weren't for cell phone video, Eric Garner's death in Staten Island or Freddie Gray's death in police custody in Baltimore would never even have resulted in an indictment of an officer let alone a trial.

Technology and the Internet have had the effect of making policing in America almost like professional sports in the sense that now almost everything they do is seen on some kind of camera; whether it's a dashboard camera mounted in the police vehicle, a CCTV mounted on the street, a bystander on the street with a cell phone, or increasingly, cameras mounted on officers themselves.

The Blue Wall of Silence can no longer shield the actions of police officers as it once did in this country and technology is having the partial effect of eroding the sense of invincibility that so many cops talk about having.

They are being forced to come to grips with the reality that they are not simply licensed to kill like James Bond.

Citizens, journalists and activists are no longer waiting for the Federal Government to create a comprehensive database of police killings in the United States; as I mentioned in my blog about the Oklahoma Highway Patrol's killing of Pastor Nehemiah Fischer on Monday, multiple organizations are now keeping and gathering much more detailed statistics on police killings, leaving American law enforcement under greater public scrutiny than they've ever been before.

To borrow a phrase from writer Flannery O'Connor's December 9, 1956 letter to J.F. Powers, these days American police are "a very disgruntled crew" indeed.

Oklahoma Pastor Nehemiah Fischer Joins 'The Counted'

Victim Nehemiah Fischer and his wife Laura [Photo - Facebook]

At some point you really have to wonder when the slow-moving gears of the US justice system are going to begin a much more comprehensive review of the use of deadly force by some members of American law enforcement.
 
The unsettling news that an assistant pastor from the Faith Bible Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma named Nehemiah Fischer (pictured left) has become the latest high-profile victim to be shot and killed by police comes as civil rights groups, human rights organizations and journalists around the globe are beginning to look closer at the numbers of victims of deadly police force in the United States.

As you may have heard Fischer, a married 35 year-old respected member of the local community who ran a construction company, became one of the approximately 467 people to be killed by police in 2015 after he was shot and killed sometime after 9pm on the night of Friday May 29th following a still murky confrontation with two members of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.

A precise account of the events that led to his death are still unavailable pending a full investigation, but according to an article posted on The Guardian Website on Sunday, Fischer and his brother Brandon were trying get their stalled vehicle out of the rising flood waters that have claimed the lives of at least nine people in Oklahoma when two as-yet unnamed officers arrived in response to a report of a stranded motorist.

Dashcam footage of the incident taken from the police cruiser shows the two Oklahoma Highway Patrol officers apparently yelling at the Fischer brothers, as they both approach the officers moving up a slight slope, it appears one of them physically went after one of the officers and they disappear from view as the other officer draws and points his pistol.

The end result is one we've seen far too many times in 2015. While the mainstream news media often seems to focus on high-profile cases of African-Americans killed by police, an examination of the numbers shows that the use of deadly force by some members of American law enforcement includes members of every major demographic in the US. 

According to data collected in 'The Counted', a database of people killed by police in the US broken down by state and name, Nehemiah Fischer was one of 236 white Americans to loose his life at the hands of American law enforcement this year.

According to 'The Counted' 135 black Americans, 67 Hispanic/Latino Americans, 10 Asian-Americans/Pacific Islanders, 4 Native Americans and 15 who are classified as being from an 'Unknown' demographic (meaning ethnically mixed or unidentifiable) have been killed by police this year.

Obviously some of those were bad guys doing really bad things. But we know some of them were not. Some weren't even armed or committing crimes; Tamir Rice was 12.

Now compare that figure of 467 fatalities (and that's only counting up to June 1st of this year...) to the 55 US service men and women killed in Afghanistan during 2014; according to statistics posted on CNSNEWS.com, 76.4% of those 55 fatalities for US troops in Afghanistan, or 42 casualties, were combat-related.

According to the article on CNSNEWS.com, the deadliest year for US combat deaths in Afghanistan since President Obama took office on January 20, 2009, was 2010 - when 495 US soldiers were killed.  

So let's put this in perspective.

Here we are on June 1st, not quite halfway through 2015, and members of US law enforcement have already killed just 28 fewer civilians on American soil than the total number of US soldiers that were killed by Taliban fighters, Muslim insurgents and terrorists from groups like Al Qaeda (and illness and accidents etc.) in all of 2010.

It's telling that the US Department of Justice does not keep comprehensive figures on the number of victims of deadly police force around the nation. But if you consider the figures above, it's not surprising why.

I wish I could have kicked off June with a more light-hearted blog, but there's a dead pastor in Tulsa, Oklahoma who was shot and killed by members of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol three days ago and we still don't know why.

By accounts given from those who knew him, including his wife Laura and his father, he was a peaceful family man who enjoyed teaching at his church - so why did the police have to kill him? 

We don't yet know that answer, but we do know Nehemiah Fischer's middle name.

It was Blessed. And now he's joined the growing ranks of 'The Counted.'