The Ultraviolet Garden

War is now a permanent export of the USA. So are the attendant war crimes.

And anyone who thinks US security interests are being improved by those ghastly facts on the ground is a damned fool. —jk

Read more here.

Youtube pulled the video of Deputy Paul Schene and Travis Brunner. Good thing I downloaded it beforehand.

Again, here’s the video. I reposted it.

If you’d like to d/l it, right click and “save as”.

Unlike the others, this vid has sound. I wouldn’t have it up any other way. See, I don’t think it’s okay to sanitize things so we don’t have to experience any trauma. As long as we, as a collective, support the police/policy; as long as we accept the principle of qualified immunity for cops, then we should be made to witness the results of that mistake.

Sound and all.

“Be made to” isn’t the best way to put it. I’m not talking about forcing anyone to witness anything. I’m referring to its availability to those who actually do want to know what these cretins get up to while they’re supposed to be serving and protecting the public—a public which includes Malika Calhoun. Of course that’s not what this goofy asshole did.

I think it’s pretty obvious that the testimony of the police hasn’t lived up to the good faith and qualified immunity bestowed upon it.

The guy in that video assaulting Malika is the same guy who shot two persons (1 of them to death) in ’02 and ’06. He has been under investigation for those shootings. Might want to look at this guy’s entire career. He’s apparently had it made… like a serial killer in a horror film.

I can’t think of any good reason for giving police officers special privileges. In fact, considering the special powers and resources they already have, it makes sense to hold them to a higher standard than the public at large. A crime committed by a police officer, if treated differently than one committed by anybody else, should carry a tougher penalty, not a lower one.

And we should get rid of those special charges and penalties for people who victimize police officers, too.

Frankly, if regular paychecks, taxpayer-issued guns and armor, and backup a radio call away aren’t enough to keep Paul Schene and his buddies happy in their work, they’re welcome to try their hand at really dangerous jobs, like driving taxis or working on commercial fishing boats. —J.D. Tuccille, Civil Liberties Examiner

You can read the rest of J.D.’s article here.

The house feels empty as hell without Lucky. We’ll always remember her sweetness. She came with her own sound effects. Sometimes she sounded like General Cornrow Wallace! She’d roll up on you like that.

Ptttttttdddddddddrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

That’s when she felt playful.

*sigh*

Onward.

I’ve been piddling around with wordpress themes. I’m using “LightWord” now.

I modified it slightly. I’m actually quite satisfied with it. It meets all of my requirements now. I still don’t understand why so many ppl place the comment section in the byline area.

In this case the theme didn’t even have a byline; it was easy enough to add.

I’ve also added a “like/dislike” plugin but only the comments are showing the rating. I need to figure out how to make it work on posts. If you use wordpress, maybe you’ll find these useful:

Like/Dislike Comment Rating worked for me.

Like/Dislike Post Rating didn’t work for me. I’ll figure it out eventually. Probably something minor.

I never know which plugins I’ll end up keeping. Usually I just play with things, if they are useful they’ll be kept. I liked “The Wall” plugin, but since it had to keep refreshing to load the most recent wall items it made my logs practically useless.

Although a simple filter would fix that problem. I’m just too lazy to do that. Maybe later.

Right now I’m working on the RWA Scale (see “Altemeyer’s Authoritarians“). I can’t use his questions. But if I come up with my own questions it should be fine. Check out his book if you haven’t. (It’s free. Also he prefers that ppl be introduced to his RWA Scale via the book. In this way, they learn that it may—or may not—be useful for individuals; it’s more geared toward getting average trends in groups of persons.)

When he asked me to remove the RWA survey, of course I complied. Nothing to do with copyright it’s just general courtesy. But, as his own survey predicted in my case, I have my own opinion on this.

Given that, do I even really need to take the survey myself? (Of course, I did. I scored very low, obviously.)

I’m also interested in doing an equivalent of the Social Dominance Scale as well. I can’t use his exact questions, but again you can’t copyright an idea, only the expression of it. And as long as I’m not using his questions, I should be okay. I’ve actually got a good idea about this but we’ll see. What I’d like to do is use actual things authoritarians or their followers have said—quotations, in other words—as the items on the survey. Looking at many of these, I could easily come up with quotations from “The Georges”. (Of the Bush persuasion, of course.)

There’s not exactly a shortage of folks who are quotable in this respect.

Have a good day all.

A How-to.

Thanks Ahmed, this is hilarious!

…of that silly Baldwin brother.

More from me later. Thanks Mary for posting the vid!

Officer Paul Schene is 6’2″ and approximately 195 pounds; we’re quite convinced that 194 pounds of that weight is solid ass. The other pound is stupidity. —Danny Vice

Deputy attacks teen girl in holding cell, then blames her for assaulting him.

Thugcops who beat 15 yr old Malika Calhoun were surprised, I bet, when the detective assigned to do a follow-up to the case saw the vid and actually did not think it was okay.

He alerted supervisors. Well. At least that’s the story. I’d actually LIKE to believe that they’re not all like this. So if this is true, then kudos to the detective. I just don’t know if I can trust the information.

Here is the video I posted before, only WITH audio:

The reports filed by the thugs (Paul Schene and Travis Brunner) are pretty infuriating.

Both Schene’s and Brunner’s report on this say that Malika’s shoe hit Schene on the leg, causing “bruising, bleeding and pain”. (I wouldn’t doubt if they used the exact same wording, they usually do because they’re not the smartest beasts around.)

He didn’t look like he was in too much pain when he was dragging this little girl around by the hair and pummeling her head with his fist.

They recommended an assault charge against their victim.

Brunner told investigators that Malika was “real lippy” and that she called them “fat pigs”.

Well. That settles it then. Fuck, you should have given her another wallop to the head. One for “fat” and another for “pigs”, then one for being “lippy”. Add three more, one for the “bruising”, two for the “bleeding” and three for the “pain” and suffering Officer Schene had to endure by this girl.

Right?

Cops are still the biggest BABIES I have ever seen in my life.

*playing a violin for an authoritarian cop’s “bruised” and “bleeding” leg.*

I have a gnawing suspicion that if what they did to Malika were done to them, they’d be crying like little bitches.

Think about this for a moment. Their justification for this is that she called them names and kicked off her shoe toward them (after they’d been exchanging words for awhile, which a cop should avoid, why they thought it was appropriate to ARGUE with anyone is beyond me. They could have—and SHOULD have—ignored it).

What do you even SAY to something like that?

And didn’t their mama ever teach them that folk saying “Sticks and Stones”?

To download this, right click here and “save target as…”.

I’ve got no problem believing that they shoved crack up his ass. That is not as hard to believe as the actual shooting. Dave Chappelle was right… they just sprinkle some crack on them.

It’s not been proven though—that they shoved crack up his ass. That’s its beauty! They know that their supporters are so irrational that they’ll grab onto anything to be able to continue saying that Oscar somehow deserved his fate.

Glad to know that ppl’s fates can be determined on the street, by cops. I guess the cop-groupies don’t really like the justice system like they contend. Otherwise they’d demand its use. Yes, even by cops.

Cophood trumps all. Thanks for the reminder.

God damn. They’re crazy.

Who could deny, now, that we’re living in a police state and have been for quite some time? These goons are true American Nazis.

(That’s not hyperbole. Where do you think the Nazis got their ideas from? We were the originators of those ideas. We already know that Joseph Goebbels was deeply influenced by Edward Bernays—who created our nations first “Public Relations” office, cleverly avoiding the bad word “propaganda”, since the Germans gave it such unpopular connotations. Even Bernays admitted it’s the same thing, relabeled.)

These cops aren’t mentally stable. They’re crazy. Knowing this, how can we protect ourselves from them? I’ve watched the vid repeatedly to see if there were anything, anything at all, that Oscar could have done to save his own life. I can’t see a thing.

That’s scary. Because if that’s the situation—and there is no doubt of that—I’ll die or be beaten to a pulp no matter what I do. And so would you. Even those of you who’ve stupidly defended the criminals with such logic as “he deserved it”—they’d get you too. And ppl just like you would be saying that about you.

And no—I don’t consider twitching as you’re being beaten viciously and choked by the knee of the goon who just punched you so hard that your head bounced off the fuckin’ wall to be anything remotely akin to “resisting”.

First let me tell you that Mehserle’s defense is being paid for by a statewide fund for police officers. I haven’t found out which one yet.

Edit: It’s the California Statewide Law Enforcement Association. Mehserle’s new attorney Michael Rains is listed on that page.

So what’s happened is… a man named Kenneth Carrethers has come forward about Johannes Mehserle, saying that Mehserle and his fellow gang members beat the shit out of him for no relevant reason.

BART spokesprick Linton Johnson said Carrethers’ “story” was “a little strange” and that Carrethers should have gone to the authorities instead of to the media.

Well golly gee, Linton, I’m sure you WOULD have rathered he do that. So you can cover it up. It’s utterly surreal that you would say such a thing with a straight face.

It was not BART—but the publicized VIDEOS—that got Oscar Grant’s case known at all, much less a BART cop on trial for murder. Were it not for the videos, BART’s illegal actions to cover up the crime would never have been known. Yet you want Carrethers—not to speak to the media—but to report the beating to BART? After everyone already knew that BART’s immediate response after Oscar was murdered was criminal?

I’ll say that again. Your advice to Carrethers (and anyone else)… is to report the beating to BART after everyone knew that BART’s immediate response after they murdered Oscar was criminal?

You are either a colossal prick who doesn’t give a fuck if the public knows what mobsters BART is comprised of (I can hear you goons admitting it and asking me, “What are you going to do about it, cunt?”—and you’d be absolutely right)… or you are fucking stupid. I don’t really care which, Linton, because your statement is ridiculous either way.

Especially in light of Oscar Grant’s murder; and the documented evidence of illegal actions taken by BART employees in attempts to cover up the murder they just participated in (and obscured the justice of). Etcetera.

Carrethers’ attorney, John Scott, says that because of his client and probably other incidents of excessive force by Mehserle, Oscar Grant’s murder was predictable and preventable.

Mehserle’s behavior since the murder may be legally favorable to him: as we all know he’s a cop so he knew exactly what to do. And he faithfully executed it without any snags. He has special knowledge of how they falsify reports (he’s probably done it so many times he couldn’t tell you an exact number) as well as what to do if you’re accused of murder. Which is intel that cops prefer us not to know and usually actively HIDE from us. Yes, Mehserle’s choices seem legally smart and sane.

But they also appear methodical and cold. Like he’d already gone through the scenario in his head—which is utterly conceivable since we now know he’s had a history of bullying civilians, probably falsifying reports, etcetera.

The idea that Mehserle approached Carrethers accusing him of “talking about him” is astounding to me.

Is BART a police agency? Or a middle school?

I wasn’t aware that anyone had the right to beat someone down—or even arrest them in the first place—just because they overheard a comment that was critical or derogatory to police in general or to a specific cop.

This makes Mehserle look like a mental adolescent. The man approached a stranger, accused the stranger of “talking about him”, an argument ensues, Mehserle gets physical and the other members of his gang joins him.

We would not approve of this behavior from a neighbor, a friend, a garbage collector, a waitress… why should we think it’s okay if the thug is a cop?

We shouldn’t.