Sunday, October 19, 2014

Ferguson honors John Crawford (and other police brutality news)

I have often written about how when the media covers a story, they focus either only on Americans affected, or direct all their focus onto one "celebrity."  So I was so proud to see Ferguson protesters honor the memory of John Crawford, killed in a Wal-Mart in Ohio by occupying and shutting down 3 Wal-Mart stores in Ferguson during their #FergusonOctober weekend protest.

















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The list of names on the shirt must stop growing.  That is our goal.

“if you look at the very bottom, it’s "to be continued." We want to put a period at the end of that. That is our goal.”


Ezell Ford, mentally ill unarmed black man shot 2 days after Mike Brown
Washginton Post   New York Times      The Root

Ezell's cousin, CeeboThaRapper wrote a song about the murder, and is now on trial for "veiled threats to police"






Also Ramarley Graham shot by police, Lennon Lacey, Kendrick Johnson, Abner Louima was brutally attacked by police.

The list is unfortunately already growing.  Multiple series of the shirts are available, including a women's series featuring the names of Eleanor Bumpurs, Tarika Wilson, Rekia Boyd, Renisha McBride, Yvette Smith

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Kajieme Powell gif of shooting (not graphic but still hard to watch)







There was some good news in the Jordan Davis case though

Other Cases of Police Brutality  (see also VICE News and Democracy Now)

 RIP Christopher Lopez an awful story about a mentally ill patient who died in prison on film, reported by my friend Cassandra, “showing how truly sadistic these monsters in charge of people’s lives really are.”
Dontre Hamilton shot in Red Arrow Park, Milwaukee Wisconsin April 30, 2014

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A veteran Milwaukee police officer on foot patrol shot and killed a man Wednesday afternoon after a struggle in Red Arrow Park downtown, just across from City Hall.
continued
As the officer began patting the man down, a struggle ensued. The officer withdrew his wooden baton and began to defend himself, Flynn said. During the struggle, the man took the baton from the officer and began to beat the officer in the head.
"The officer withdrew his sidearm and fired several shots at the individual, striking him numerous times and ultimately causing his death," Flynn said.
Flynn said he did not know how many of the shots struck the man. An autopsy has been scheduled.
Eyewitnesses, including a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter, said they heard at least five shots fired. Flynn said it could have been as many as 10 shots. 
Officer was fired on October 15th because
he did not follow department procedures for dealing with emotionally disturbed people, Chief Edward Flynn announced Wednesday.
The officer, Christopher Manney, did not use excessive force when he shot Hamilton 14 times, Flynn said; rather, the officer did not follow department rules in the moments leading up to the shooting.
Manney decided Hamilton was dangerous "based solely on observations of apparent mental illness, absent any overt actions on the part of Mr. Hamilton," Flynn said.
Hamilton, an unarmed man with a history of paranoid schizophrenia, was killed April 30.
But now we learn that
Two days before the firing, Manney filed for disability retirement, a program designed as a safety net for Milwaukee police and firefighters who suffer physical or psychological injuries on the job. If approved, Manney's retirement — which would include about 75% of his salary, tax-free — will take precedence over his dismissal because he applied before he was fired.
Manney is among an increasing number of officers suspected of misconduct who have applied for duty disability claiming debilitating stress — sometimes even citing the department's investigation or media coverage as the cause of that stress.
A Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigation published last year found at least five police officers had received duty disability during or after a disciplinary investigation since 2006. Because the former officers don't have to pay taxes on the money, their take-home pay is about the same as when they were working. Manney, who was hired in 2001, received total pay of about $72,000 in 2012.







Misty Upham

Family: Misty Upham 'did not commit suicide'
 Bryan Alexander,2:11 a.m. EDT October 18, 2014

Misty Upham Found Dead: Family Of ‘Frozen River’ Actress Says Police Uncooperative In Search – Update by  and  October 17, 2014 5:02pm
Filmmaker friend Tracy Rector, speaking on behalf of the family, confirmed that the Native American actress was found by a search party led by uncle Robert Upham. She was later identified by family members.  “The main thing her family wants people to know is that the Auburn Police Department would not cooperate in looking for Misty,” Rector told Deadline. “There’s a long history of police harassment and friction between the police and the Muckleshoot community here, and her family feels they dropped the ball and Misty perhaps would have been found if the police had taken it seriously.”
continued
Two years earlier, in a poignant essay for the Native American Indigenous Cinema and Arts, she described the struggles of a minority actress in Hollywood, where at the time she had been “in and out of Hollywood looking for work for the past seven years.”
She wrote: “In a business that has exploited and ignored our people I have only found dead-ends. We need romantic comedies, gross-out and mockery comedies, horror and thrillers, teen movies and love-stories. All these and more will be a positive step towards the future of Native Americans in the world and film industry; an industry that that offers us not only the chance to play the parts of heroes, love interests and warriors, but also of villains, dorks and dangerous, brokenhearted products of circumstance.” 

Friday October 17, 12:48pm
Family statement on Facebook (I edited the format of the paragraph (not the spelling, and added emphasis is mine)
Official Upham Family Press Release:
We would like to provide the following infomation to all of Misty's friends and family. We believe that Misty's death was accidental. She did not commit suicide. We believe she ran into the wooded area behind her apartment to hide from the police. The area in question has a hidden drop off and evidence suggests that she slipped and fell off of the steep embankment when she tried to get out of a view from the road. She simply did not see the drop off. We searched near that area that evening she disappeared and missed seeing her purse by 25 feet. I , Charles, went there after Fire Department officials recovered her body and you just can't see the steep drop until it's to late. Misty was afraid of the Auburn PD officiers with good reason. In an incident prior to her disappearance, the Auburn PD came to pick up Misty on an involuntary transport to the ER. She was cuffed and placed in a police car. Some of the officiers began to taunt and tease her while she was in the car. Because it was dark they couldn't see that we, her family, were outside our apartment just across the street witnessing  this behavior. They were tapping on the window making faces at her. Misty was crying and she told them you can't treat me like this I'm a movie actress and I will use my connections to expose you. Then another officer walked up to her asked "are you a movie star?, then why don't complain to George Clooney!" After Misty arrived at the ER we went to see her and she has a swollen jaw, black eye and scratches and bruises on her shoulder. I asked the ER staff what happened and they said Misty was brought in like that. Misty said she couldn't remember what happened but thats why she feared the police. I asked Misty to call the Auburn PD and ask to speak to the commander. When she was connected to, whom we believe was Commander Stocker she made a verbal complaint. The official asked her "what are you going to do about it?" She replied I'm doing it, I'm telling you so you do something about it." The APD official told her unless she wanted to file a formal complaint the matter would not be pursued. The day the APD was called to do another involuntary transport Misty left the apartment where she was staying. When we tried to follow her Auburn PD officiers told us they wanted to check for inside. We told them that Misty may have walked around the side of the apartment but they made us to go back inside. They asked if we were hiding her and took time to search the apartment and get a description of what she was wearing. By the time they finished Misty was gone. We believe that if we were not otherwise occupied we may have found Misty before she got hurt. It is a tragic that Misty slipped and fell to her death trying avoid the police,  it's tragic that she did not get the proper medication to treat her mental illness from her mental health care givers at Valley Cities Mental Health, it is tragic that the
Auburn PD refused to help offer to find or at least change her Missing status to "Endangered" to allow other agencies to get involved. But the real tragedy is this could have been prevented on a lot of levels. We pleaded with the Auburn Police to help us find Misty but Commander Stocker made the decision that Misty did not fit the criteria of the Washington State Endangered Missing Persons Plan. This became a point of contention between us and the Auburn PD. In a statement he gave to the press he said Auburn PD doesn't have any evidence that Misty is actually missing. He went to say that Misty packed her belonging and left her apartment. This was an inaccurate statement. We believe that Commander Stocker had animosity against Misty due to a previous encounter. Why else would he refuse to allow common sense to prevail? Imagine a 32 year old woman with mental illness, without her medication, imagine she left in an unstable mental state, imagine for the first time in 32 years she lost contact with everyone for 11 days. Now imagine she is Commander Stocker's daughter. Do you think this case would have been handled differently? Misty loved life, she had ambition, vision and a desire to make a difference in the world she lived in. She tried to use her celebrity status to influence positive change and she became a living example of that endeavor. Now press reports are saying that Auburn police department found Misty. The truth is the Native American community formed a search party and found her after several days of searching without the help of the Auburn PD. We would like to thank the  Muckleshoot Tribe and other Tribal volunteers for all their support in our time of desperation. We would like thank all the wonderful supporters who could not be here but offered kind words and prayers. A special thank you to Pastors Kenny and Charolette Williams for opening up the Pentecostal Church for a rescue command Center and providing food, supplies to the volunteers. We will let the family and friends know about her funeral arrangement once medical examiner concludes his investigation.
Thank you
Charles, Mona, Amanda,
Christopher and Alesha.
If you would like to donate to the
Misty Upham Memorial Fund
please follow the link below.

Official Upham Family Press Release: We would like to provide the following infomation to all of Misty's friends and family. We believe that Misty's death was accidental. She did not commit suicide. We believe she ran into the wooded area behind her apartment to hide from the police. The area in question has a hidden drop off and evidence suggests that she slipped and fell off of the steep embankment when she tried to get out of a view from the road. She simply did not see the drop off. We searched near that area that evening she disappeared and missed seeing her purse by 25 feet. I , Charles, went there after Fire Department officials recovered her body and you just can't see the steep drop until it's to late. Misty was afraid of the Auburn PD officiers with good reason. In an incident prior to her disappearance, the Auburn PD came to pick up Misty on an involuntary transport to the ER. She was cuffed and placed in a police car. Some of the officiers began to taunt and tease her while she was in the car. Because it was dark they couldn't see that we, her family, were outside our apartment just across the street witnessing this behavior. They were tapping on the window making faces at her. Misty was crying and she told them you can't treat me like this I'm a movie actress and I will use my connections to expose you. Then another officer walked up to her asked "are you a movie star?, then why don't complain to George Clooney!" After Misty arrived at the ER we went to see her and she has a swollen jaw, black eye and scratches and bruises on her shoulder. I asked the ER staff what happened and they said Misty was brought in like that. Misty said she couldn't remember what happened but thats why she feared the police. I asked Misty to call the Auburn PD and ask to speak to the commander. When she was connected to, whom we believe was Commander Stocker she made a verbal complaint. The official asked her "what are you going to do about it?" She replied I'm doing it, I'm telling you so you do something about it." The APD official told her unless she wanted to file a formal complaint the matter would not be pursued. The day the APD was called to do another Involuntary transport Misty left the apartment where she was staying. When we tried to follow her Auburn PD officiers told us they wanted to check for inside. We told them that Misty may have walked around the side of the apartment but they made us to go back inside. They asked if we were hiding her and took time to search the apartment and get a description of what she was wearing. By the time they finished Misty was gone. We believe that if we were not otherwise occupied we may have found Misty before she got hurt. It is a tragic that Misty slipped and fell to her death trying avoid the police, it's tragic that she did not get the proper medication to treat her mental illness from her mental health care givers at Valley Cities Mental Health, it is tragic that the Auburn PD refused to help offer to find or at least change her Missing status to "Endangered" to allow other agencies to get involved. But the real tragedy is this could have been prevented on a lot of levels. We pleaded with the Auburn Police to help us find Misty but Commander Stocker made the decision that Misty did not fit the criteria of the Washington State Endangered Missing Persons Plan. This became a point of contention between us and the Auburn PD. In a statement he gave to the press he said Auburn PD doesn't have any evidence that Misty is actually missing. He went to say that Misty packed her belonging and left her apartment. This was an inaccurate statement. We believe that Commander Stocker had animosity against Misty due to a previous encounter. Why else would he refuse to allow common sense to prevail? Imagine a 32 year old woman with mental illness, without her medication, imagine she left in an unstable mental state, imagine for the first time in 32 years she lost contact with everyone for 11 days. Now imagine she is Commander Stocker's daughter. Do you think this case would have been handled differently? Misty loved life, she had ambition, vision and a desire to make a difference in the world she lived in. She tried to use her celebrity status to influence positive change and she became a living example of that endeavor. Now press reports are saying that Auburn police department found Misty. The truth is the Native American community formed a search party and found her after several days of searching without the help of the Auburn PD. We would like to thank the Muckleshoot Tribe and other Tribal volunteers for all their support in our time of desperation. We would like thank all the wonderful supporters who could not be here but offered kind words and prayers. A special thank you to Pastors Kenny and Charolette Williams for opening up the Pentecostal Church for a rescue command Center and providing food, supplies to the volunteers. We will let the family and friends know about her funeral arrangement once medical examiner concludes his investigation. Thank you Charles, Mona, Amanda, Christopher and Alesha. If you would like to donate to the Misty Upham Memorial Fund please follow the link below. Fundly.com/m2/misty-upham-memorial
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