4um: Friday, February 22nd, 2013 | Posted by Editor An armed, disposable, and dangerous system 6 To Live and Die in L.A. What’s shocking is that it doesn’t happen more often.

Title: Friday, February 22nd, 2013 | Posted by Editor An armed, disposable, and dangerous system 6 To Live and Die in L.A. What’s shocking is that it doesn’t happen more often.
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URL Source: http://www.veteransnewsnow.com/2013 ... sposable-and-dangerous-system/
Published: Feb 23, 2013
Author: By Ted Rall
Post Date: 2013-02-23 12:33:35 by tom007
Keywords: None
Views: 240
Comments: 14

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Friday, February 22nd, 2013 | Posted by Editor An armed, disposable, and dangerous system 6 To Live and Die in L.A. What’s shocking is that it doesn’t happen more often.

When a heartless system refuses to listen or help, when it crushes and grinds down millions of people day after day, year after year, everywhere, it’s illogical and unreasonable to assume that all its victims will pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and reinvent themselves. (Job retraining! Start a business! Win the lotto!) Some people will crack. Others will explode.

Consider the case of the ex-Los Angeles police officer and Iraq War vet who triggered a massive manhunt after he allegedly shot three people in retaliation for his dismissal in 2008. Based on media accounts so far, Christopher Dorner had reason to be angry. After he reported a partner for assaulting a homeless man, a review board concluded that there wasn’t enough evidence to charge the other cop. Fair enough. Maybe the partner was innocent. But then they went too far, firing the officer who brought the charge for filing a false report.

Officer Dorner had already taken a chance by stepping forward, risking ostracism and the chance to advance in his career. Firing him — even if he was wrong in this case –is heinous.

Anyone familiar with the behavior of white cops in predominantly black neighborhoods and who has seen the LAPD in action has to admit that the accusation — kicking a bum — is well within the realm of plausibility. Anyone who has ever faced off against an arresting officer in court knows that cops lie. And anyone who has filed a complaint against the police and their behavior soon learns that the chances of obtaining redress, much less justice, range from slim to none. (Disclosure: I’ve experienced all three.)

Ruling against Dorner in 2010, a Superior Court judge noted that administrative review panels — in this case, the LAPD itself — enjoy a “presumption of correctness” under state law. Which makes suing pointless.

“I have exhausted all available means at obtaining my name back,” Dorner wrote on Facebook. “I have attempted all legal court efforts within appeals at the Superior Courts and California Appellate courts. This is my last resort. The LAPD has suppressed the truth and it has now led to deadly consequences.”

Los Angeles police officials spun the wanted ex-cop’s Facebook manifesto, which described the force as brutal, corrupt and racist — “The department has not changed since the Rampart and Rodney King days. It has gotten worse” — as out of date, a relic of the 1990s, before the scandal-ridden “old LAPD” got reformed (by good people like them). Unfortunately for their we’re-nice-guys-now messaging, their trigger-happy ground troops were rocking it old-school in their hunt for their former colleague, twice opening fire with assault rifles on vehicles they thought fit the description of the truck driven by the suspect before bothering to take a look at three people inside two cars, none of whom look anything like him yet wound up in the hospital anyway.

To his credit, or at least that of the Police Department’s publicity office, Chief Charlie Beck announced that the LAPD would reexamine Dorner’s dismissal.

How exactly is this going to work? If it turns out the guy was right, and that he never should’ve been let go, he’s dead. He obviously can’t get his job back. But it sounds good. That’s what matters.

Needless to say, a shooting spree is an inappropriate response to injustice. Still, the case of the cop gone rogue is a parable for our time. Authority is unaccountable. Individuals are powerless. Checks and balances, however well they worked in the past, have evaporated. It’s a system doomed to fail.

Fired or laid off? Chances are, you’re an “at will” employee. That means that, no matter how hard you work and how good you are your job, your boss can fire you. There’s nothing you can do about it. Even if you have the money to sue — and if you have that much money, you probably didn’t need the job in the first place — no honest lawyer will take your case. Employers have all the power. Is it any wonder that wages are stagnant or falling? Who would be stupid enough to dare to ask for a raise?

What happens to people like Officer Dorner, who lose everything? The American system — the government, political leaders, gatekeepers in the media — has no answer.

We live in a disposable society. We are disposable. When our skill set or education or personality or serendipity no longer fits the demands of the marketplace, when we suffer an injury to our bodies or our minds that reduces us to uselessness under the cold capitalist calculus of value-added cost-benefit profit-loss, we get turned out. No income, no home. No status, no life. What should you do? Where should you go? Nobody cares, not even about our so-called national heroes, our sainted troops whom the yellow stickers on our SUVs pledged to support. Every day, 22 veterans commit suicide. Tens of thousands are homeless.

Note to the architects of the American political system: if you’re going to build your economy on the blood and crushed bones of powerless citizens, it’s not the smartest idea to pair disposability of the individual with a cult of militarism that sends millions to war. Every now and then, as in the case of fired officer Christopher Dorner, the victims of your brutal slave-labor approach to labor-management relations turn out to be heavily armed, highly trained, out to kill — with nothing left to lose.

Ted Rall is an American columnist, syndicated editorial cartoonist, and author. His political cartoons often appear in a multi-panel comic-strip format and frequently blend comic-strip and editorial-cartoon conventions His book After We Kill You, We Will Welcome You Back as Honored Guests: Unembedded in Afghanistan will be released in November by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Ted Rall’s website is tedrall.com.

“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out... without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable.” ~ H. L. Mencken

Another LA cop burned out by LAPD, in 2001. The incident got covered over by 9/11 a couple of weeks later. The fire dept was hosing down the neighbors houses, but not a drop hit the burning house. A couple of days later the place was bulldozed flat.

Gunman Kills Deputy and Is Believed to Die in Fire

SANTA CLARITA, Calif., Aug. 31— A man sought by federal agents shot and killed a sheriff's deputy today, the authorities said, then barricaded himself inside his home, which caught fire after officers lobbed tear gas inside.

The authorities said they believed that the gunman remained inside as the blaze gutted the house. A search of the rubble was under way this evening, but officers said that although the man was probably dead, they had not yet found his body.

The suspect, James Beck, a 35-year-old former police officer in the nearby town of Arcadia, was wanted by the government on charges of posing as a deputy federal marshal and stockpiling weapons.

When a group of agents and sheriff's deputies tried to serve a warrant this morning at his home here 30 miles northwest of Los Angeles, he began shooting, ultimately firing more than 150 rounds, the authorities said. Deputy Hagop Kuredjian, 40, was killed.

Officers surrounded the house and, hours after the first shots, lobbed tear gas into it. The fire soon broke out, but it was still unclear tonight whether the gas grenades had anything to do with it. Deputy Harry Drucker said initially that the authorities believed Mr. Beck had torched the house.

Firefighters were kept away, because Mr. Beck, described as heavily armed, was believed to be still inside. But as 30-foot flames licked through the collapsing roof, streams of water from fire trucks, parked at least 100 feet away and shielded from the gunman's view by houses on either side of his, were aimed at homes just 30 feet from the blaze. Residents of the neighborhood were evacuated.

Photos: A gunman yesterday killed Hagop Kuredjian, a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy shown at right in a 1987 photograph, then barricaded himself inside his house, which soon burned to the ground. (Associated Press); (Los Angeles County Sheriff, via Associated Press)

I definitely remember when this story broke out in 2001. A friend of mine handed me a news story on it and wrote in a message to me that clearly said: "Sound Familiar? Like another Waco?

Just the same as the way those LAPD did in murdering Dorner...WACO style. I say damn them all and their families to hell.

The following depicts actions of CHP & not LAPD, but illustrates the behavior of the same kind of trash.

Have you ever asked "why am I expected to serve any government" ? What in the world lends creedence to their authority to run my life ? Does it make any sense that a group of folks (voters) that haven't got a clue or even an actual majority can elect some non-representative assholes and give them the power to force me or anyone to go kill children or be killed ?

I mean, honestly, whose life is it anyway ? Just because some woman drops a kid somewhere on the planet, can that make the kid a subject, a slave, a communist, a citizen, a killer ? Really, what a load of poopaganda.

Every "free" individual needs to stop and think about why they accept such treatment from criminals and prolific baby-killing scumbags. Forget the cost. Some would claim that because the miscreants in government offer to baby-sit their kids and at the same time give them an inadequate, sub-standard, education that more closely resembles indoctrination is good cause to pledge your soul to "the man" - I say screw the man.

I suppose in a just system there might exist some reasonable allegiance between the governed and the governors ... but the police state USA doesn't even come close to qualifying.

We should all be livid. Stop acting like docile, mentally castrated pussies and grow a pair. It's time to get in their face. Why should we speak in hushed tones and act all polite when we are being raped every day?

They pulled her over because she was talking on the cellphone which in the State of California is now illegal while driving. Although she was in violation of that law, if you watch the video closely, she did not resist arrest. The officers hogtied her and then falsely claimed on their police report that she resisted arrest. That is false and they be be charged for making up such a report. If a CA citizen were to make up such a false statement like that to those cops they'd go to jail.

Is that an older video, or aren't the cops miked out there? The audio of that incident would be instructive.

I'm surprised that she was not tased or shot when she failed to comply with the order to 'turn around.' (Though why she'd turn her back to those swine defies reason.)

Tamara Gaglione Settlement: Woman Receives $250,000 For Police Hogtying Her While Pregnant (VIDEO, UPDATE)

LOS ANGELES -- When Tamara Gaglione was stopped on the side of a freeway for talking on her cellphone, she had no idea she'd end up hogtied and lying face down in the back of a police car.

But that's exactly what happened to the 30-year-old woman, 2 months pregnant at the time. When California Highway Patrol officers pulled her over to the side of the 110 highway Aug. 30, 2011, they slammed her to the ground, hogtied her and shoved her in the back of their patrol car.

On the way to the station, she could hear officers discussing video of the encounter candidly, said attorney Howard Price to The Huffington Post. But when Price requested the video as evidence for Gaglione's criminal trial, he was told there was no footage of the incident.

"I went back to them, and I said, 'Look, am I stupid? This involved a chase. There must be a videotape,'" said Price. Eventually the prosecutor handed over footage from a backup officer's camera, which showed nothing.

Finally, he was told the footage existed, but that no one could transfer the data to another medium -- so he had to go to the CHP station himself to view it. Price made sure to record the footage for himself, and he uploaded the shocking video to YouTube.

"What you see is a second generation of the original being played for me," Price explained to HuffPost.

The 8-minute video begins with officers trying to apprehend Gaglione for talking on her cellphone. Gaglione weaves back and forth between lanes, trying to stop at one shoulder, then another, before finally settling on the right side of the highway. Price explains on his site, "After first stopping on the right shoulder, she was ordered to not stop there, to go forward and get off freeway [sic]. Because of rush hour traffic noise, she did not hear clearly what she was directed to do."

Once Gaglione stops her car, officers order her to get out and turn around. Gaglione appears not to comply with the final order, and instead stands still with her hands up. Then, at minute 3:52, two officers quickly approach her, slam her to the ground and proceed to handcuff her. Throughout, one officer appears to keep one knee on top of the upper part of her body (Price claims it was her neck). The officer also uses his other knee to kick her in the side at least once. Finally, four more officers arrive and surround Gaglione as her legs are tied.

The Los Angeles Times, who first reported on the case, note that one of the officers admitted in his report that Gaglione told him she was pregnant, but he insists it was only after she was on the ground. Price maintains that it was one of the first things out of Gaglione's mouth when she first got out of the car.

After the violent encounter, Gaglione was initially charged with misdemeanor evading and resisting arrest and driving on a suspended license, according to the Times. But once Price got a hold of the footage, the charges were eventually dropped and Gaglione instead pleaded "no contest" to an infraction -- using her cellphone while driving. The $20 fee for the infraction was also suspended.

Gaglione's criminal case was resolved March 12, 2012, the same month that Gaglione's son was born. In April, Price filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the CHP on Gaglione's behalf.

CHP quickly resolved the suit in August, and Price notes on his site that the damages were settled without "any depositions taken by either side" -- probably because the CHP knew that the video would be admitted into evidence, guessed Price. Gaglione received the check by Christmas time.

Now that the settlement check has been cut, Price is on a mission to make sure the CHP officers involved in Gaglione's case are appropriately disciplined. On behalf of Gaglione, Price filed an internal affairs complaint a few days ago against the men, who are still on the force.

"Yes, we want these officers to be investigated and hopefully disciplined," Price told HuffPost. "It's pretty outrageous conduct."

"I will always be scared of police officers because of these knuckleheads," she said to the Times. Gaglione moved away from Los Angeles after the encounter, and now lives in Pennsylvania with her parents and infant son, Price said to HuffPost. The baby does not appear to be affected by the trauma Gaglione suffered, Price added.

CHP did not return a request for comment before this story's publish time. The entry will be updated if they respond.

UPDATE: The California Highway Patrol sent HuffPost this statement on Tamara Gaglione's settlement:

The parties agreed the settlement was the best way to conclude this matter. The CHP conducted a review of the tactics and, as necessary, took appropriate action. By law, we cannot comment further on matters involving personnel issues.

A spokesperson for CHP also confirmed to HuffPost that the officers depicted in the video are still employed by the department.

Lemme see, taxpayers are hosed for 1/4M and the criminal assailants are still on their mission of terror and getting fat pay-checks for doing so.

As for the cops being miked out there, yes they are! Another reason why to NEVER speak or offer information on yourself to them because to do so you have already WAIVED your Fifth Amendment Right. Anything you say to them will be used against you. They are officers of the court. One time my friend was telling me of his run in with a female standing in the middle of a road in some town in San Fernando Valley trying to get males (like my male friend) to pull over to the side while she would give him a bj. She was trying to con him into asking her "how much for her services". What he did was shrewd. She was working undercover as a prostitute trying to entrap as many as possible. He drove like a bat out of hell away from her. And I knew of her (their) kind because I would sense their presence in the clubs I worked in. And if you really wanna know how corrupt those cops are in L.A., I can tell you that many of those adult strip clubs that have the gals lap dances, the owners have those cops in their pockets. It's called greasing the cops palms.

thank you very much hondo68 for posting the link to that story. Upon further investigation there are many similarities to the dorner case.

The Christopher Dorner saga has an eerie predecessor with many striking similarities, involving a 35-year old former police officer named James Beck. Beck had worked for the Arcadia, CA Police Department for a short period of time (14 months) from June 1987 to August 1988 but was fired for lying to superiors after he had felt he had been treated unfairly by his supervising officer. After a series of various arrests and stints in jail over a number of years following his firing, Beck eventually got into a shootout with police as the ATF executed a warrant on his home. During the standoff, local schools were placed on 'lockdown' mode just as they were in Big Bear during the Dorner seige. Beck reportedly killed an L.A. County Sheriff's Deputy during the shootout and barricaded himself in his house, which was promptly "blasted full of tear gas" and burned to the ground with Beck in it on August 31, 2001. The story was completely overshadowed by the 9/11/01 attacks which occured 11 days later. However, there were skeptics and researchers who questioned whether the official version was the real story. [article continues here.]

"Even to the death fight for truth, and the LORD your God will battle for you". Sirach 4:28

The girlfriend left through the garage door, and disappeared from the face of the earth. His dog was burned.

The neighbor mother and baby survived by lying in a cast iron bathtub, only wounded slightly by flying tile fragments.

This was ALSO that same year that William Milton Cooper was taken out in a similar shootout. He died in November of 2001. I remember reading about it in a Yahoo message stock forum.