Title: Ferret Mike's friend Videotaped While educating police dumb enough to stop him Source:
You Tube URL Source:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KHd6eAUjGM Published:Sep 27, 2008 Author:Tim Lewis Post Date:2008-09-27 18:23:18 by Ferret Mike Keywords:None Views:1074 Comments:89
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5 EPD vehicles pull over a car in the Whiteaker neighborhood and the cops handcuff the wrong person while they get a ear full.
Poster Comment:
Henry and I go back a long way. He is a hard working woods worker who owns his own home and has spent many years planting trees, doing pre-commercial thinning of tree stands, fire bossing twenty man single resource wild land fire crews, and has been a political activist for many years.
He won a large settlement when railroad dicks slammed him to the ground on tracks near his home accusing him of trespassing the right of way while retrieving his dog so he could go to work.
He also had a memorable moment in Salem with a fellow activist who had hung a dummy of the Children's Service Department director in effigy on the State Capital grounds protesting heavy handed interference in people's lives when they pulled kids, usually because they objected to the parent's political and social outlook on life.
The legislature was in session and the Republicans then and they heard about the dummy, so they came out directly from the House chamber to scream at him and "how dare him" because the then director was an African American woman.
That made the papers at that time, and Henry and I go a long long way back having worked and run together for decades.
His parents were college professors before retiring, and Henry is very politically informed.
Tim Lewis has been the Cop Watch organizer for a long time and has restarted the organization. One I have been arrested doing work observing and videotaping for. The police were very much irritated and intimidated by the camera and this helped convince them to take the cuffs off as you see them do.
Shine On, the woman with the pulled back dreads is a very close friend of mine as well. This is also my neighborhood. We will be producing and posting more Cop Watch videos as we get the organization back up to speed.
Picture Eugene - THE VORTEX Peace loving hippies gather at Maurie Jacobs park to drum, dance, and barter in the summer of 1995. Eugene police arrive to ruin the vibe and drive these loveable folks into a frenzied mass.
Him and Larry, the other involved were so obviously not racially prejudiced when legislators made this play which got the media checking everything out about the protest action.
It created quite a stir when it happened. The Whiteaker neighborhood is the ground zero of the Eugene anarchist and activist community. The police are nervous about anything happening in Whiteaker because they well know how fast we build the kicked hornet's nest effect if need be.
One interesting development in recent months is the halt of police harassment and overt monitoring of Critical mass rides every month. They should of left Critical Mass alone a long time ago, as so this is cynically considered by most people to be a tactical move that will eventually be reversed in a shock fashion using contrived excuses making that a necessary move.
The relationship between police and community is tenuous at best. We are ready to scrap if they push too hard.
The relationship between police and community is tenuous at best. We are ready to scrap if they push too hard.
Most folks are prepared to start taking out Government officials these days.
Critical Mass deserves whatever crap gets thrown at them IMO. Had to deal with them in San Francisco and they lost all support for their cause with their antics back then. Then they got me on the "have them arrested" bandwagon because I had to pepper-spray one of them off of me one day. I can put on a pretty good "mess with me and die" stance. Not so far from the truth actually....
But you and I both know that there is no such thing as a "Real Republican" in the State of Oregon. Gordon Smith is a RINO as is Kevin Mannix. They're just Democrats who don't want to call themselves that.
Critical Mass in Eugene is tighter, calmer and less confrontational then the rides you speak of.
Though one Critical Mass ride I had the cops boiling mad at me when I was quoted in the Register Guard that they had also blocked an ambulance taking a boy who had accidentally shot himself making them take the long way. That it was not necessarily the riders fault, as had the cops not been there, people would of gotten out of the way.
They didn't like to be invited to share the blame. The boy was not as badly injured as had been feared and is alive and well. This was about eight years ago.
It was the ride that changed the nature of Critical Mass rides here to be done responsibly and with regard for others who use the road. Not to mention everyone is used to seeing them the last Friday of every month.