Sunday, July 31, 2016

Top Sanders supporter considering Green Party VP offer: report


Nina Turner, a former Ohio state senator and a prominent surrogate for Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign, is considering an offer to run for vice president on the Green Party's national ticket, cleveland.com reported Sunday night. 
Green Party presumptive nominee Jill Stein reached out to Turner, and she’s expected to make a decision in the new few days. 
Some Sanders supporters wanted to place Turner's name for nomination at last week's Democratic convention as an alternative to Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, whom Hillary Clinton picked as her running mate. 

Friday, July 29, 2016

UNCOUNTED: The True Story of the California Primary




In an extensive mini-documentary by Michelle Boley and Taylor Gill and produced by TYT and Rogue Kite Productions, we tell you the true story of what happened leading up too and after the California Democratic Primary. To check and see if your ballot was counted, go to:http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/ballo...

IT AIN’T RIGHT! A $400 Million Prison While 23 Schools Close! This City NEEDS A Black Protest


400mPrison

Education is one of the keys to reducing crime. Give the young the means and they can fight a lot of the problems they face. The USA does not need more prisons, it does need better education and maybe more schools.
So how on earth does Philedelphia think it’s going to improve the lives of it’s citizens by closing 23 schools and adding salt to the wound by spending $400 million on a gleaming new prison. Seriously!!!!
Your Black World reported:
Pennsylvania’s School Reform Commission voted to approve the budget to close the schools in spite of pleas from parents and students not to do so. A total of 23 schools will be closed, roughly 10 % of those in the city. A stunning 81% of those school closings are going to impact black students, even though they only represent 58% of the student body.
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, students are going to help cover the cities debt by returning to class without new materials for learning. The impact is going to be felt the most in poor communities. A total of 3,000 people are going to lose their jobs, and programs in sports, art and music are going to be cut.

And with the new prison the state is building it looks like they already have plans for the poorly educated students.
Of course, as always, the majority of these school closures will affect the black population. Those rich middle class people can’t be affected right?

BLM and any other advocacy groups need to get on this and get Philly people to the streets.

911 Tapes Released in Charles Kinsey Shooting, Pokes Massive Hole in Police Narrative of What Happened



Miami-Dade police release the original 911 call that eventually led to the shooting of Charles Kinsey.

Empire Files : Inside the UN Fight Against Corporate Impunity




Abby Martin interviews Ecuador's United Nations representative and Chair of negotiations creating a new international instrument to hold transnational corporations accountable for human rights and environmental crimes. 

Transnational corporations--many with larger economies than the countries they operate in--have enjoyed immunity from charges for destroying the environment and taking human lives. 

But Ecuador is leading a fight in the UN to create an international treaty and standards that can change this equation. 

At teleSUR's studios in Quito, Abby Martin interviews Ecuador's Permanent Representative to the UN, MarĂ­a Fernanda Espinosa, about the need for this step.

Monday, July 25, 2016

MICHAEL JORDAN: ‘I CAN NO LONGER STAY SILENT’


As a proud American, a father who lost his own dad in a senseless act of violence, and a black man, I have been deeply troubled by the deaths of African-Americans at the hands of law enforcement and angered by the cowardly and hateful targeting and killing of police officers. I grieve with the families who have lost loved ones, as I know their pain all too well.
“I was raised by parents who taught me to love and respect people regardless of their race or background, so I am saddened and frustrated by the divisive rhetoric and racial tensions that seem to be getting worse as of late. I know this country is better than that, and I can no longer stay silent. We need to find solutions that ensure people of color receive fair and equal treatment AND that police officers – who put their lives on the line every day to protect us all – are respected and supported.
“Over the past three decades I have seen up close the dedication of the law enforcement officers who protect me and my family. I have the greatest respect for their sacrifice and service. I also recognize that for many people of color their experiences with law enforcement have been different than mine. I have decided to speak out in the hope that we can come together as Americans, and through peaceful dialogue and education, achieve constructive change.
“To support that effort, I am making contributions of $1 million each to two organizations, the International Association of Chiefs of Police’s newly established Institute for Community-Police Relations and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. The Institute for Community-Police Relations’ policy and oversight work is focused on building trust and promoting best practices in community policing. My donation to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the nation’s oldest civil rights law organization, will support its ongoing work in support of reforms that will build trust and respect between communities and law enforcement. Although I know these contributions alone are not enough to solve the problem, I hope the resources will help both organizations make a positive difference.
“We are privileged to live in the world’s greatest country – a country that has provided my family and me the greatest of opportunities. The problems we face didn’t happen overnight and they won’t be solved tomorrow, but if we all work together, we can foster greater understanding, positive change and create a more peaceful world for ourselves, our children, our families and our communities.”

Hillary Clinton Is A Threat To All Of Humanity




Hillary Rodham Clinton is a Wall Street-backed warmonger whose potential election as President of the United States this November poses an existential threat not just to Americans but to all of humanity.

Saturday, July 23, 2016

Law Professor Epically Shuts Down Students Bitching About His/Her #BlackLivesMatter T-Shirt



We never got any substantiation for this, but felt that there are some truths shared here. Apparently, this anonymous law professor at an anonymous law school somewhere in America wore a “Black Lives Matter” t-shirt to class. “Concerned students” wrote him/her a memo expressing their disapproval and the professor’s response truly shows who the teacher is. Most importantly, it speaks directly to the events of the past weeks. Check out the letters below:


Professors Response: 








Friday, July 22, 2016

Clinton Email: We Must Destroy Syria For Israel

Leaked Clinton email reveals that Clinton ordered war against Syria to benefit Israel

A leaked Hillary Clinton email confirms that the Obama administration, with Hillary at the helm,  orchestrated a civil war in Syria to benefit Israel. 
The new Wikileaks release shows the then Secretary of State ordering a war in Syria in order to overthrow the government and oust President Assad, claiming it was the “best way to help Israel”.
The document was one of many unclassified by the US Department of State under case number F-2014-20439, Doc No. C05794498, following the uproar over Clinton’s private email server kept at her house while she served as Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013.
Although the Wikileaks transcript dates the email as December 31, 2000, this is an error on their part, as the contents of the email (in particular the reference to May 2012 talks between Iran and the west over its nuclear program in Istanbul) show that the email was in fact sent on December 31, 2012.

The email makes it clear that it has been US policy from the very beginning to violently overthrow the Syrian government—and specifically to do this because it is in Israel’s interests.
clinton-email-syria-israel
“The best way to help Israel deal with Iran’s growing nuclear capability is to help the people of Syria overthrow the regime of Bashar Assad,” Clinton forthrightly starts off by saying.
Even though all US intelligence reports had long dismissed Iran’s “atom bomb” program as a hoax (a conclusion supported by the International Atomic Energy Agency), Clinton continues to use these lies to “justify” destroying Syria in the name of Israel.
She specifically links Iran’s mythical atom bomb program to Syria because, she says, Iran’s “atom bomb” program threatens Israel’s “monopoly” on nuclear weapons in the Middle East.
If Iran were to acquire a nuclear weapon, Clinton asserts, this would allow Syria (and other “adversaries of Israel” such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt) to “go nuclear as well,” all of which would threaten Israel’s interests.
Therefore, Clinton, says, Syria has to be destroyed.
Iran’s nuclear program and Syria’s civil war may seem unconnected, but they are. What Israeli military leaders really worry about — but cannot talk about — is losing their nuclear monopoly.
An Iranian nuclear weapons capability would not only end that nuclear monopoly but could also prompt other adversaries, like Saudi Arabia and Egypt, to go nuclear as well. The result would be a precarious nuclear balance in which Israel could not respond to provocations with conventional military strikes on Syria and Lebanon, as it can today.
If Iran were to reach the threshold of a nuclear weapons state, Tehran would find it much easier to call on its allies in Syria and Hezbollah to strike Israel, knowing that its nuclear weapons would serve as a deterrent to Israel responding against Iran itself.
It is, Clinton continues, the “strategic relationship between Iran and the regime of Bashar Assad in Syria” that makes it possible for Iran to undermine Israel’s security.
This would not come about through a “direct attack,” Clinton admits, because “in the thirty years of hostility between Iran and Israel” this has never occurred, but through its alleged “proxies.”
The end of the Assad regime would end this dangerous alliance. Israel’s leadership understands well why defeating Assad is now in its interests.
Bringing down Assad would not only be a massive boon to Israel’s security, it would also ease Israel’s understandable fear of losing its nuclear monopoly.
Then, Israel and the United States might be able to develop a common view of when the Iranian program is so dangerous that military action could be warranted.
Clinton goes on to asset that directly threatening Bashar Assad “and his family” with violence is the “right thing” to do:
In short, the White House can ease the tension that has developed with Israel over Iran by doing the right thing in Syria.
With his life and his family at risk, only the threat or use of force will change the Syrian dictator Bashar Assad’s mind.
The email proves—as if any more proof was needed—that the US government has been the main sponsor of the growth of terrorism in the Middle East, and all in order to “protect” Israel.
It is also a sobering thought to consider that the “refugee” crisis which currently threatens to destroy Europe, was directly sparked off by this US government action as well, insofar as there are any genuine refugees fleeing the civil war in Syria.
In addition, over 250,000 people have been killed in the Syrian conflict, which has spread to Iraq—all thanks to Clinton and the Obama administration backing the “rebels” and stoking the fires of war in Syria.
The real and disturbing possibility that a psychopath like Clinton—whose policy has inflicted death and misery upon millions of people—could become the next president of America is the most deeply shocking thought of all.
Clinton’s public assertion that, if elected president, she would “take the relationship with Israel to the next level,” would definitively mark her, and Israel, as the enemy of not just some Arab states in the Middle East, but of all peace-loving people on earth.


Jon Stewart to Trump Supporters: ‘You Don’t Own America’


PROTESTERS STAY CHAINED TO DOORS OF POLICE UNION BUILDING IN OAKLAND OVERNIGHT





Black Lives Matter protesters are spending the night outside the Oakland police union headquarters, some are chained to the building.

PHOTOS: Protesters chain themselves to OPD, police union buildings

<div class='meta'><div class='origin-logo' data-origin='none'></div><span class='caption-text' data-credit='Photo submitted to KGO-TV by Lyanne Melendez/Twitter'>This image shows two women who chained themselves to the door of the Oakland Police Department on Thursday July 21, 2016.</span></div>

<div class='meta'><div class='origin-logo' data-origin='none'></div><span class='caption-text' data-credit='KGO-TV'>Black Lives Matter protesters demonstrate outside police headquarters in Oakland, Calif. on Thursday, July 21, 2016.</span></div>
<div class='meta'><div class='origin-logo' data-origin='none'></div><span class='caption-text' data-credit='KGO-TV'>Black Lives Matter protesters demonstrate outside police headquarters in Oakland, Calif. on Thursday, July 21, 2016.</span></div>


Protesters chained themselves to the doors of the Oakland Police Officers' Association Wednesday night. Some secured U-locks around their necks. One demonstrator said this symbolizes how the black community feels.
"We are physically changed as well as metaphorically when we are trying to find jobs. And the continual racism and discrimination we face by just being black, as well as trying to find housing," said protester Frangy Poto.

RELATED: Black Lives Matter demonstrators protest outside OPD HQ, chain themselves to doors

The group took over the police union headquarters and credit union, posting signs that say, "Black Lives Matter."
They want the city to stop funding the police department, and instead use that money to invest in black futures.

"The Oakland budget is drastically weighted toward funding the police department," said protester Karrisa Lewis.

RELATED: Video shows tense moment between Oakland law enforcement and protesters

"We want 50 percent of the of police department funds to go the black community. Specifically, to mental health services, as well as housing, because what's happening is a lot of black people have been displaced," Potos said.

Police were there monitoring the crowd. Protesters say they plan to stay though the night.

Thursday, July 21, 2016

Violent arrest of teacher caught on video; officers face investigation #BlackLivesMatter



Officials are investigating an Austin police officer’s violent arrest of an African-American elementary school teacher who was twice thrown to the ground during a traffic stop for speeding and comments by a second officer who told her police are sometimes wary of blacks because of their “violent tendencies.”
Video from the previously unreported June 2015 incident was obtained by the American-Statesman and KVUE-TV this week. The video shows the traffic stop escalating rapidly in the seven seconds from when officer Bryan Richter, who is white, first gives a command to 26-year-old Breaion King to close her car door to when he forcibly removes her from the driver’s seat, pulls her across a vacant parking space and hurls her to the asphalt.
Violent arrest of teacher caught on video; officers face investigation photo
Richter wrote in his report of the incident that he acted quickly because King demonstrated an “uncooperative attitude” and was “reaching for the front passenger side of the vehicle.” He didn’t know whether she had a weapon, he wrote. He said King resisted by pulling away from him and wrapping her hands and arms around the steering wheel.
Police charged King with resisting arrest, but the Travis County attorney dismissed the case after reviewing the police dashcam video.
As King was being driven to jail, a separate police video recorded a conversation between King and officer Patrick Spradlin in which he said whites may be concerned about interacting with blacks because they can appear “intimidating.”
The Austin Police Department issued the lowest level of discipline to Richter — counseling and additional training — after Richter’s supervisors looked into his use of force, but his conduct was never formally investigated by internal affairs. Spradlin was not punished for his comments because the department only learned about them after the Statesman began inquiring.
In an interview this week, Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said the department has opened an administrative review into how Richter’s supervisors evaluated his actions and a separate criminal investigation. Officials are also investigating Spradlin’s comments. But Acevedo said that, under state civil service law, he cannot take disciplinary action beyond a written reprimand against the officers for this incident because it happened more than six months ago.
Violent arrest of teacher caught on video; officers face investigation photo

“After reviewing both videos, I and our leadership team were highly disturbed and disappointed in both the way Ms. King was approached and handled and in the mindset that we saw on display in those videos,” Acevedo said. “But there is another piece, which has caused concerns as to our review process and the systems we have in place.”
He said he regrets that he didn’t know about the situation sooner and that he is taking renewed steps to help citizens learn how to respond when they feel mistreated by officers.
“We need to help our community overcome the fear or reluctance, which I understand, to file a complaint,” he said. “This is critical if we are to weed out bad officers and bad behavior.”
Violent arrest of teacher caught on video; officers face investigation photo
Neither officer has previous suspensions with the department.
The 2015 case had received no outside scrutiny until prosecutors flagged it in recent weeks.
Travis County Attorney David Escamilla said he ordered a resisting arrest charge against King immediately dropped — King paid a $165 fine and court costs for speeding — once he reviewed the videos earlier this year and sent it to felony prosecutors to review Richter’s actions.
Violent arrest of teacher caught on video; officers face investigation photo

Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg said her office viewed the video about two weeks ago and asked the Austin police Special Investigations Unit, which looks into cases of possible officer misconduct, to assist them. Lehmberg said the case likely will be presented to a grand jury.
The emergence of the video comes at an intensely strained time nationally between police and many in the minority community that has played out over the past two years, marked by protests after high-profile controversial police use of lethal force and the recent killings of police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, La.
Texas officials are still grappling with the aftermath of the Sandra Bland case last year, which made national headlines after she was wrestled to the ground by a state trooper during a traffic stop. Part of the arrest was caught on dashcam video; Bland later committed suicide in a county jail. The officer was fired.
And in Austin, many are still reeling from the February shooting of David Joseph, a naked, unarmed 17-year-old shot and killed by former Officer Geoffrey Freeman after police said Joseph charged at the officer. Freeman was fired, but a grand jury declined to indict him.
In an interview this week, King said she is contemplating a lawsuit against the officer and the Austin Police Department and has hired attorneys Broadus Spivey and Erica Grigg to represent her.
“When I looked at this video, I was heartbroken because I thought, ‘That would never happen to me because I’m white,’ ” Grigg said.
Violent arrest of teacher caught on video; officers face investigation photo
‘It happened really fast’
King’s account, police reports and dash camera videos help provide a narrative from the incident on the afternoon of June 15, 2015.
King, who grew up in Austin and is finishing a master’s degree at Texas State University, said she was driving on a lunch break. Richter said he clocked her Nissan Versa speeding at 50 mph in a 35 mph zone traveling eastbound on Riverside Drive.
King got out of her car in a Wendy’s parking lot, and Richter is seen approaching her in the dashcam video. What’s being said is not entirely clear on the video, but Richter wrote in his report that King told him she was going inside for lunch and that he suspected she was trying to elude him because she didn’t appear to have a wallet. He asked her return to her car.
King sat in the driver’s seat but kept the door of her car open and her legs and feet outside the car. Richter is heard instructing her to sit fully in the car so that he could close the door.
“I did this so that if she decided to exit the vehicle again, it would give me some sort of reaction time to her doing so, versus her being half way out of the vehicle with the door open giving her an easy escape,” he wrote.
“At this point I was worried her uncooperative attitude would only escalate once I returned to my vehicle (to write the ticket),” Richter said in his report.
At that point, the video shows Richter reaching inside and grabbing King, who told police she weighs 112 pounds, as she begins to scream. The car’s horn is blaring during the struggle, and then, King is heard asking Richter, who had been shouting, “Stop resisting!” to allow her to get out on her own.
The struggle then continued, and Richter is seen throwing King to the ground. He yells for her to put her hands behind her back. King said in an interview that she struggled to do so as the two continued tussling.
The officer is then seen throwing her to the ground again.
King said that she did not think Richter gave her an opportunity to respond to his commands.
“It happened really fast,” said King, who suffered minor scrapes and bruises and saw a doctor the following day. “I wasn’t given enough time.”
In subsequent videos, King is seen distraught and handcuffed in the back of a police car, yelling at other officers to keep Richter away from her and her property. Spradlin’s comments came as he and King neared the jail and engaged in a conversation about race and police.
“Why are so many people afraid of black people,” Spradlin asks King.
She replies, “That’s what I want to figure out because I’m not a bad black person.”
“I can give you a really good idea why it might be that way,” the officer tells her. “Violent tendencies.”
When she asks if he thinks racism still exists, he says, “Let me ask you this. Do you believe it goes both ways?”
“Ninety-nine percent of the time, when you hear about stuff like that, it is the black community that is being violent. That’s why a lot of the white people are afraid, and I don’t blame them. There are some guys I look at, and I know it is my job to deal with them, and I know it might go ugly, but that’s the way it goes.
“But yeah, some of them, because of their appearance and whatnot, some of them are very intimidating,” he says.
Austin police policy requires officers to use the minimum amount of force necessary in dealing with suspects. Departmental policy also requires police to maintain an impartial attitude, saying officers “will not express or otherwise manifest any prejudice concerning race, religion, national origin, age, political affiliation, sex or other personal characteristics in the performance of their duties.”
More than a year later, King said she remains distraught about what happened and that it has forever changed how she views police.
“I’ve become fearful to live my life,” she said. “I would rather stay home. I’ve become afraid of the people who are supposed to protect me and take care of me.”


Breaking News: Alex Jones and the Young Turks got into a fight here at the ‪#‎RNC‬

Breaking News: Alex Jones and the Young Turks got into a fight here at the ‪#‎RNC‬.. I was on my way to the restroom when I saw Jones bum rushed the Young Turks in the middle of their show and it was on and popping...I started filming...
Alex Jones has been riding hard for Donald Trump.. ..He's teamed up with Roger Stone who is shown on the side.. The pair have been rolling around the convention going hard..They were just on Sirius XM talking how they are planning to unseat Ted Cruz because he didn't endorse Donald Trump..
They went after the Young Turks bc they be smashing on police.. A lot of Black folks was supporting Jones who is all over this convention doing thug work for Trump... SMDH
Whats crazy is that the Young Turks and Alex Jones rule the social media independent world..Earlier today I videotaped socialist/ anarchist going at with Donald Trump Capitalist...

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

DeRay Mckesson: “I would never go to a breast cancer rally and yell out ‘colon cancer matters.'”



DeRay Mckesson, prominent activist with Black Lives Matter and former mayoral candidate for Baltimore, called out those who say “All Lives Matter” with a simple analogy during an interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo.

Mckesson was brought on to discuss the Black Lives Matter movement following the Baton Rouge shooting by Eric Long, which killed three police officers and wounded three others. Long stated that he was unaffiliated with any movement in a YouTube video posted prior to the shooting, but pundits and commentators were quick to tie his actions to the movement nonetheless.
“The movement began as a call to end violence,” Mckesson states early on in the interview. “And that call remains true today that we fight for a living breathing justice — a justice that would have Alton [Sterling] here, and Philando [Castile], and Rekia [Boyd], and Aiyana [Jones] and so many people.”
“And we know that a just world is a world where people don’t experience a trauma in the first place,” he continued.
“It’s hard because what we’ve seen over the last 24 [hours] is people condemn the movement without knowing any facts,” Mckesson said. “And what we said yesterday was that there was more questions than answers. So, the movement has always been rooted in a call to end violence. And like I said, that call remains the call today.”
When Cuomo asked Mckesson about the “All Lives Matter” response to the movement, Mckesson hit back with a brilliant comparison.
“It’s this interesting thing that people are frustrated that black people are focusing on the unique trauma that black people are facing in this country,” he said. “And I would never go to a breast cancer rally and yell out colon cancer matters. And that’s what people are doing here. They are frustrated by the fact that people are focusing on the inequity in justice specially targeted to black people.”
“I think of ‘All Lives Matter’ as a distraction technique,” he concluded.

The Obama Blacks Hoped For ...........

Sunday, July 17, 2016

#VinegarMother Thurs. July 21st for the amazing Sofar Sounds....



The BAND is BACK! VM is playing Thurs. July 21st for the amazing Sofar Sounds ... It will be at a secret location in Little Italy. Go to sofarsounds.com/nyc sign up, choose NYC Thurs. 21st for a chance to attend. You are missed...




More videos :
YouTube : #VinegarMother

FaceBook : @VinegarMotherMusic 

http://www.vinegarmothermusic.com/

http://www.lvlbestmgmt.com/


FBI-framed “radical imam” blows Orlando Massacre wide open

He refused the CIA's orders to shoot Americans - details remain classified. 

By Kevin BarrettVeterans Today Editor, youtube by John Hankey
Fox News, apparently citing FBI liars and mass murderers, tried to frame “radical imam” Marcus Dwayne Robertson just hours after the Orlando shooting. “Law enforcement sources” (a.k.a. FBI criminals) lied to the media, saying that Omar Mateen had been a student in Robertson’s on-line religious school.
The FBI’s slanderous lie appears to have been part of a pre-scripted attempt to “sell” the Orlando shooting as a “radical Islamic terror” event. And yes, “pre-scripted” means that the FBI was in on the mass killing in advance. There is no way they could have cranked out this kind of propaganda, blaming an innocent former CIA asset, if it wasn’t scripted ahead of time.
To its credit, Fox News gave Robertson a chance to respond. And Robertson made the most of it. Watch the amazing “first draft” youtube above, put together in haste by John Hankey, and offer your feedback in the comments section.
Who is Marcus Dwayne Robertson? A decent guy, it appears, but one who made the mistake of signing on as an asset of the  FBI-CIA/Wackenhut-Mossad terror-industrial complex. He probably thought he was going to “help stop terrorism” and earn a few bucks on the side. Big mistake.
The CIA-FBI-Mossad turned against Robertson when he refused to accept a job that required him to shoot American citizens. That isn’t speculation, that’s on an official court document.
1-shoot-americans
CIA to Robertson: “If you refuse our orders to shoot Americans, we’ll label you a ‘terrorist.'” (This sequence is found after the 17:00 minute mark in the video)
Robertson may have occasionally taken on the theatrical role of a dangerous radical as part of his CIA duties. When he refused to shoot American citizens, they cut him loose, “flagged” him as a “radical terror suspect”…and took revenge by framing him for their own mass shooting in Orlando.
The FBI does terrible things to American Muslims who refuse to cooperate with their dastardly schemes. Tarek Mehanna, for example, was sentenced to seventeen years in prison for refusing to act as an FBI informant. And if the CIA orders you to shoot American citizens, I guess they expect you to do it…or else.
Omar Mateen, a flaming homosexual drunkard not a practicing Muslim, was almost certainly the same kind of FBI-CIA/Wackenhut-Mossad asset. Like Robertson only more so, Mateen’s job was to run around saying crazy radical things and report people’s reaction to FBI-CIA-Mossad. Was he told he would be likewise just playing a part in a theatrical event in the Pulse nightclub? Did other shooters, perhaps including a Mateen look-alike, do the damage?
In the above video, Marcus Dwayne Robertson cuts through the Fox News and FBI BS and tells it like it is. Far from being a radical Islamic terrorist, he appears to be a good person and a sincere Muslim whose only crime was to refuse to carry out a CIA-sponsored terrorist attack on American citizens.

Friday, July 15, 2016

NYPD Cop Secretly Records His Supervisor Telling Him to Racially Profile Black Men — Then Leaks the Tape


A recording of an NYPD officer appearing to pressure a transit officer to specifically target black men has just been released by Gawker.
The recording was provided to the New York Daily News for a story released in January, but the actual audio was not released to the public until now. Although the full recording is 36 minutes long, only a two-minute excerpt has been released.
That recording can be heard here:



New York transit officer Michael Birch said the recording took place in August 2012 during a performance evaluation.
“The conversation just turned completely weird to me,” Birch said. “Because he’s basically telling me it’s OK to racially profile.”
Birch is speaking with then-captain Constantin Tsachas in the recording, who was recently promoted to deputy inspector. An unidentified lieutenant can also be heard during one exchange.
The most damning text from the interview is transcribed below:
Commanding Officer: Who commits the crimes in the city?
Birch: Who commits the crimes? Well, it’s mostly teenagers, anywhere between the ages of 15 and 19, mostly male blacks and Hispanics.
OK. Who are you stopping?
Everybody. I stop everybody.
Fifty-four TABs up to 8/20. Twenty-five of those are female. Half.
Like I said, I stop everybody. I’m not targeting anybody.
You just told me who the bad guys are.
Yeah, I know that. But there’s also other people who are committing violations as well. I’m not saying that there’s not violations being made.
The male blacks, that you told me commit the crimes—
Plenty of people that I write summonses to are male blacks and male Hispanics.
You stopped two male blacks.
Not for the whole year. You’re telling me for the whole year I only stopped two male blacks on summonses?
8/20. From January 1st to August 20th. Fifty-four TABs: two male blacks, seven Hispanics, seven other, ten white, three Asian. So where are you targeting the perps that you just told me?
Like I said, if I don’t see a perp jumping over the turnstile, what am I supposed to do to him?
These people are not going to pop.
How do I know that? A female Hispanic that I stopped in Sheepshead Bay did pop, actually, for a warrant, and I arrested her. Female Hispanic. The Hispanics that we’re supposed to be going after. That are committing the crimes. The people that I—
Did you think that she was going to pop?
Did I think she was going to pop? I didn’t put no thought into it. If you come up for a collar, I’m taking you in.
Here’s what I see. You just described to me who’s committing the crimes. You’re fully aware of it. But you’re not targeting those people.
I am. I’m targeting everybody.
Two male blacks.
Whoever is out there. If I—
So you only saw two male blacks jump the turnstile?
If you’re saying that’s what’s in front of you, then yes, that’s all I saw, is two male blacks for the whole year jumping the turnstile. If you’re saying that’s what’s in front of you, I’m not disputing that. If that’s what I got there.
That is what you have. That is not disputed here.
I’m saying, we’re also talking Hispanics as well. I stopped a lot of Hispanics, too.
Seven male Hispanics. But more than half are female.
And like I said, everybody’s committing violations in front of me.

Birch also filed a federal lawsuit against the city and NYPD officers last January, saying that he was punished for giving his concerns about what he saw as an illegal quota system. Birch claims that he was denied overtime and given less desirable assignments as a result of his “poor performance.”
“It’s very hard to have a job where the whole public is against you, including your bosses. And when you actually try to do something right, they don’t care,” Birch said. “I can’t wait to get away from this place.”
Birch’s case was dismissed by a judge, but he has since appealed to a higher court. He has also joined other officers with the “NYPD 12” in a class-action suit that accuses the NYPD of implementing an illegal quota system that disproportionately targets minorities.