NEWSPOLICE BRUTALITY

After six Fullerton Police officers beat a mentally ill, homeless man so severely on July 5 that he died from his injuries five days later, outraged residents of the Orange County, Calif., city demanded action—namely that the police chief and officers in question be held responsible. Now, Chief Michael Sellers and the six officers are on leave. But key footage that captured the beating of 37-year-old Kelly Thomas remains under wraps because Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas refuses to release it until an investigation of the beating, likely to take months, is complete.

It’s a move that Fullerton Councilman Bruce Whitaker finds objectionable. “I fully support and urge any efforts which will result in a clear and complete explanation of events which led to the death of Kelly J. Thomas and insist that related evidence, including video and audio recordings be made public,” Whitaker stated.

Whitaker’s far from alone. A Change.org petition demanding that the footage be made public has garnered more than 2,400 signatures. Edward Singh—a resident of La Mirada, Calif., which is near Fullerton—said he launched the petition because the audio he heard of Thomas’ beating left him heartbroken. “I can still to this day hear his voice screaming for his dad while he’s being beaten to death,” Singh said.

The public has rallied around Thomas in death because the homeless man was a familiar face on Fullerton’s streets and a known schizophrenic. Thomas’ mental illness may have led him to allegedly flee from officers when they tried to search his backpack during an investigation of attempted car burglaries at a transit center. The fatal beating ensued. In addition, Thomas was reportedly stunned with an electroshock gun several times.

While the public has organized protests to speak out against the Thomas beating and demand justice, the call to release the video footage has fallen on deaf ears. District Attorney Rackauckas has only stated that the footage he’s seen doesn’t indicate that the officers intentionally tried to kill Thomas. Moreover, when Councilman Whitaker urged for release of the footage, Fullerton Mayor Richard M. Jones stressed that the councilman was only speaking for himself and told a news blog called Fullerton Stories, “It’s just not good to speculate on things until we know all the facts.”

The irony of this, of course, is that withholding the video footage prevents the public from knowing all of the facts.

“By releasing the video people could be made more aware,” Singh said. “The reality is that this (police brutality) happens all too often, and cops get away with a slap on the wrist.”

Don’t let that happen. Demand that the footage of Thomas’ beating be released at once!

Photo Credit: Dave Conner

More than two-and-a-half years have passed since Oscar Grant was fatally shot by a police officer as he lay face down on a train platform in Oakland, California.

Now his family and friends are bracing for the release of his killer from jail.

As soon as June 13, ex-Bay Area Rapid Transit cop Johannes Mehserle may be released from the Men’s Central Jail in Los Angeles. That’s less than a year after he entered the facility in July following a conviction of involuntary manslaughter for killing the 22-year-old Grant early on New Year’s Day 2009 while detaining him and his friends for allegedly fighting on a train.

Why so little time for taking a life?

How many people have Miami Police fatally shot since last July?

Not one, or even two or three, but a shocking seven.

Two of the victims were reportedly unarmed. All were African American, and all of the officers involved in the shootings are Hispanic.

To say that these details have raised eyebrows would be an understatement. The NAACP, the ACLU, People United to Lead the Struggle for Equality, Miami Commissioner Richard P. Dunn II, among many others, joined Florida Congresswoman Frederica Wilson in the charge to prompt the U.S. Justice Department to investigate the series of shootings. Change.org echoed the call for action last week by publishing an article and launching a petition that’s garnered more than 200 supporters calling on US Attorney Gen. Eric Holder to initiate a federal investigation into the Miami Police killings.

In the popular imagination, the Miami Police force has long been linked to the 1980s TV show “Miami Vice” in which two handsome cops - one black, one white - solve crimes wearing flashy, pastel suits. Fast forward to the present: the Miami Police is still leaving its mark on popular culture, but far from the glamorized way that Crockett and Tubbs did. In a pilot for a reality TV show filmed in January called “Miami’s Finest SOS,” officers stalk the streets to round up African Americans, with one policeman declaring, “I like to hunt.”

That remark has raised eyebrows given that a vocal segment of the Miami community has accused the police department of literally hunting down black men and killing them. In an eight-month period ending in February, Miami Police have fatally shot seven black men, two of whom may have been unarmed, according to the New York Times. To boot, these killings appear to be racially charged. While each victim was African American, each of the officers involved is Latino.

Two weeks ago Gigi and Mahmoud, two young Egyptian street activists and Change.org members, called on people all over the world to join their campaign for democracy in Egypt. You answered their call, along with tens of thousands of others from more than 120 countries.

Now we have incredible news: Gigi, Mahmoud and the “Peoples Revolution” have won! Minutes ago Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stepped down, handing power over to a military-led transitional government which will run the country until elections take place in a few months. In just 18 days, a coalition of Muslims and Christians, young, old, rich and poor came together to bring down a dictatorship of 30 years.

Earlier today Gigi and Mahmoud, two young Egyptian street activists and Change.org members, called on all of us to re-up the international pressure and join their campaign for democracy in Egypt.

Many of you answered their call, along with tens of thousands of others from more than 120 countries.

As the day progressed, we started to hear rumors that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was going to resign within hours.

“The people are celebrating everywhere,” Mahmoud told us over the phone. “They’re chanting, they’re jumping up and down, we’re just ecstatic!”

Egypt, the Arab world's most populous nation, has been under a state of emergency for 43 years and run by a dictator for 30.

The government censors the media, bans all demonstrations, forbids the formation of any political parties or organizations and detain citizens indefinitely without charge. Corruption is rife, the judiciary is weak and police brutality is so common it is barely reported anymore.

Six days ago, Egyptians said 'enough', and millions took to the streets all over the country. We've been compiling photos of women in the Egyptian protests from across the net. Click here to view the slideshow.

Imagine this: you turn on the news to find out that your government has sent its special forces to publicly beat up elected officials who were speaking at a political gathering at a private residence. Officers in uniform drag an elected official outside by his feet and then hit at him with clubs and kick him while cameras are rolling and people are watching.

That's what happened in Kuwait last week, and a clip of the incident is below.

Dr. Obaid Al Wasmi is an elected representative with a seat on the Kuwaiti National Assembly. After he was publicly beaten until he lost consciousness, the police arrested him and he currently sits in jail accused of causing political unrest and insulting the monarch, among other vague accusations.

All local media have been instructed to black out any coverage of the controversy. The only news organization to ignore the ban, Al Jazeera, was soon afterwards closed down and its reporters deported.

Why has the government responded in this way to a lone academic? Dr Al Wasmi was part of a campaign whose goal was to question the prime minister on mismanagement of public funds. Some Kuwaiti analysts say that Dr. Al-Wasmi sought out some sort of confrontation with the government and that he used the podium at the political rally to escalate the situation.

But that is no excuse for the actions of the Kuwaiti government, whose main job is to uphold the constitution and maintain the rule of law, not to go around beating up dissenters, especially when the dissenter is a representative of the people.

Last week, a Los Angeles judge sentenced Johannes Mehserle to two years in prison for killing Oscar Grant on New Year’s Day, 2009.

Judge Robert Perry’s decision to give the shortest sentence possible to Mehserle, the white Bay Area Rapid Transit officer who shot Grant, a 22-year-old black man who lay prostrate and weaponless on an Oakland train platform, sparked violent protests in Northern California over the weekend.

To the African-American community, the sentence was just another example of the criminal justice system allowing a white cop to get off virtually scot-free for taking a black life. But Judge Perry says that he chose not to give Mehserle hard time because he believes the former officer is innocent.

In July, Mehserle was convicted by a Los Angeles jury of involuntary manslaughter for killing Grant. He escaped a murder or voluntary manslaughter conviction for a number of reasons. First, the case was moved to southern California to ensure that Mehserle received a fair trial. Second, he claimed that he killed Grant unintentionally, only shooting him after "mistaking" his gun for his Taser, an electro-shock weapon. In short, Mehserle claimed he only meant to shock Grant - whom Merserle characterized as resisting arrest - not kill him.

Witnesses corroborated Mehserle’s account, saying that after his gun fired, they overheard the officer say in shock “Oh s—t, oh s—t, I shot him.”

It was right before the drunk woman vomited on my shoes.

My wife and I were with some friends at a street festival, listening to a crazed indie-rock band. I noticed the inebriated woman, a total stranger, swaying next to me.

But I was more interested in a group of cops who were policing the event. They stood off to the side, laughing among themselves. I’m guessing they thought it was a pretty cushy assignment.

When I first saw them, I was happy they were there. After all, if anyone in the crowd of thousands got out of hand, the cops would spring into action.

Later, however, I found myself getting leery of their proximity. I didn’t like being that close to cops for that long.

But I could not pinpoint why I felt this way. I wonder now if it had something to do with being Latino.

Did I subconsciously think they would get in my face over some minor offense, and so I should watch myself? Or do I just have a problem with authority, and race has nothing to do with it?

It’s perplexing to me that I felt that way, as fleeting as the emotion was. And I’m certainly not proud of the sensation.