URGENT ALERT! This case was TOSSED by the Judge - never made it to trial.
☛ ER http://eurekareporter.com/article/080826-judge-throws-out-douglas-zanotti-case
Feeney said the indictments the grand jury handed down to Douglas and Zanotti in December 2007 weren’t supported by probable cause. Insufficient evidence regarding the former leaders’ alleged failure to oversee other law enforcement was also presented to the grand jury, Feeney said, and instructions given on “exigent circumstances” were inadequate.
The grand jury should have also been instructed on justifiable homicide by law enforcement officials, Feeney said.
***
Original post: EPD SWAT team ordered to stand down
Citing a lack of resources and personnel, Eureka Police Department Chief Garr Nielsen issued an order Tuesday effectively disbanding his department’s Strategic Weapons and Tactics team.
“SWAT has been an issue and a concern for me since I got here,” Nielsen said in an interview Wednesday, noting that at the time of his hiring in May the team had only eight members and had recently dwindled to six.
“That takes us to the point that I do not feel comfortable saying we have a team that could handle a major incident in the city,” he said. “For instance, if I had an officer shot and needed to get him out of a situation, or a barricaded subject, I don’t know that I have the resources myself to be able to handle something like that right now.”
Additionally, Nielsen added, the six remaining SWAT team members “are under a great deal of strain right now” because of the criminal grand jury convened this week to determine whether charges should be filed in the 2006 EPD SWAT team shooting death of Cheri Moore.
“This is very emotional for them. This is very stressful for them. And quite frankly, I’m very concerned about a major incident happening now and having a SWAT situation they would have to take care of.”
Nielsen said repeatedly that he had “absolute confidence” in the team members’ competence and abilities.
“If I were somewhere and needed help, those are the first six people I would call.”...
I didn't do all that well at math in high school and avoided it throughout college.....but....
ReplyDeleteSince when does the logic state that Zero highly trained "good guys" are better in a crisis than Six?
ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ would know....
Wollf
It's a REALLY GOOD QUESTION, Wollf!
ReplyDeleteBut, hey, this is Humboldt County, and I think all the good guys are jumping ship. We've got the whacked out DA looking for a chance to get the cops ("police the police" I think he calls it...
But you know the funny thing - Humboldt County District Attorney Paul Gallegos is spending more than $18,000 for semiautomatic rifles... The request was made in a supplemental budget allocation approved March 6 by the Board of Supervisors for a general list of items commonly used by all law enforcement agencies.
Gallegos requested money from asset forfeiture funds to buy DA investigators “rifles,” “clothing,” “safety equipment” and other miscellaneous items, but several county officials expressed surprise when they learned that the money was intended for eight AR-15 assault rifles, body armor, tactical vests, 5,000 rounds of hollow-point ammunition and matching parkas, polo shirts and pants.
I kid you not.
"Since when does the logic state that Zero highly trained "good guys" are better in a crisis than Six?".
ReplyDeleteI was wondering the same thing. I suspect this might well just be some legal maneuvering, although I certainly can't say for sure.
No SWAT, no one to point fingers at in the future. Yet you could still have the same people show up at an incident and deal with it. They just couldn't be gone after collectively as the SWAT team.
I may be way out there on this but saying that 0 people is better than 6 people makes even less sense.
The community has effectively endorsed cop hating. Whenever a cop has to take extreme action, he or she is vilified, attacked,sued, slandered, all as approved by various elected officials.
ReplyDeleteSo, it is prudent to give the community what it wants. When a crisis finally arrives, outside help can be summoned, and if it arrives in time (assuming anyone wants to help Humboldt) and if drastic action is taken, the officers in question won't be around this nasty little dungheap and won't have to be subjected to the garbage flung by the ignorant, lawless, and politically motivated.
And if no one comes to help, Humboldt can ask how it got itself into this mess. Ten kids killed at school because the officers on patrol lacked the support to go in?
Well, at least no poor misunderstood poorly raised meth heads were harmed. Let's blame the cops anyway.
It's a wonder anyone wants to wear a badge in this county.
"When a crisis finally arrives, outside help can be summoned,".
ReplyDeleteI don't know that all that much will really change, as far as Eureka's concerned. The six remaining SWAT members are still on the force and I suspect they'll still carry most, if not all their tactical gear with them while in the field.
A number of other officers also carry rifles with them in their vehicles and probably carry their own personal tactical gear they feel comfortable with.
So, the cops will still show up and still have plenty of firepower to deal with situations where it's needed. There just won't be a SWAT team to point fingers at.
About the only time outside help might be needed would be for extended incidents lasting for over a day. They already call in outside help for those, though. We saw that in the hotel stand off where the Eureka SWAT was relieved by the Sheriff's SWAT.
The main change will likely be organizational, not anything the average Eureka resident would even notice.
Rose,
ReplyDeleteMost law enforcement agencies have been using "hollow point" ammo since the late 1960s. The reason is that the projectiles are not as prone to ricochet or pass through the intended target and injure an unintended individual. It is the "armor piercing" rounds that recently have become the focus of so much political angst as they are more likely to penetrate body armor. This reminds me of the Christmas night in 1973 that ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ single handedly relieved an LAPD SWAT team in Baldwin Hills. Thanks for the inspiration for my next posting at Fighting in the Shade™.
Yeah - I agree, the hollow point bullets are used for a reason - and I also agree that AR-15s are not exactly "assault rifles" - BUT the idea of a rogue DA assembling his own assault team using semi-automatic weapons, and outside of the regular law-enforcement community is disturbing. Combine that with the fact that the real law enforcement community has effectively issued a resounding vote of no-confidence in the DA, and the DA's own attitutude towards law enforcement, it's beyond troubling.
ReplyDeleteGallegos can't even do his own job. He doesn't need to be stepping into law enforcement's job.
It is funny that he plans to use the "force" for asset forfeiture - ie: against the very people who so substantially funded him. (Or maybe it's to get the ones who didn't pony up - time will tell.)
An AR-15, esp with a 30 or 40 round mag, is a perfectly competent assault weapon, insofar as an assault weapon could be considered capable of laying down a volume of fire intended to kill, wound or compel to take shelter.
ReplyDeleteThis is a good thing.Truly is.These people are stressed and tired,and have been for a long time,and it's what led to the mishaps in the Cherie Moore death.Not placing blame anywhere here,and perhaps this should've happened some time ago.
ReplyDeleteThis group has been too worn out and stressed amongst other things to act effectively.
I disagree. You could say they should have waited longer - days even - but we really don't know what those guys were dealing with.
ReplyDeleteOnce they opened the door, and she pointed a gun at them, the result was inevitable
And you can say it was only a flare gun. But they have no way of knowing that, no way of knowing that it wasn't an AR-15 or a .22. Many people have multiple weapons. How many have flare guns? I don't know any.
They did their job. Period. She didn't do hers.
She asked for help.She asked for her medicine,she had a confidant on the phone with her helping her through,he was ordered to get off of the phone.There are plenty of non-lethal options that could have been used.They used none of them.They entered the building knowing that there was a good possibility that they would end up killing her.They chose to go that route over the obviously more sensible,more humane one.
ReplyDeleteIt was inexperience,stress and lack of instinct that did her in.Things haven't changed yet,and given the same situation again,the result could very well be the same.That's why this decision is a good one.
mresquan, I respectfully disagree.
ReplyDelete"It was inexperience,stress and lack of instinct that did her in."
I should imagine that it was "her" inexperience, stress and lack of instinct that did her in, far more than that of the highly trained, though "stressed" Officers.
Rule One when confronted by armed Officers: Comply. Drop anything that "looks" like a weapon, and comply.
Regards,
Wollf
PS, Rose....I Tolja ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ would know...
Actually,it's pretty undisputed that the officers involved weren't properly trained to deal with her mental illnesses,and mental health in general.The new chief has done a good job of ensuring that officers now receive quality training for dealing with mental illness.I think he's doing a good job.
ReplyDeleteMental illness or not, 16 year old delinquent on meth or not, serial bankrobber resisting arrest or not - point a gun at a policeman, threaten a law enforcment officer with a weapon and you will most likely die, mresquan. It's just as true of you or me or a 5 year old - you do NOT POINT GUNS even toy guns at policemen. If you aren't teaching your kids that simple lesson, you are inviting disaster.
ReplyDeleteAnd I disagree that they were stressed - things were pretty normal up until that day - that's all changed since then. Now they know that they are not safe even from "the good guys" with a DA who would like nothing more than to add one of them to his wall, hoping it will rekindle his mythological status.
Why they even continue to work to protect you and I, mresquan, is beyond me. It's a thankless job in the best of times, now it is a grim and thankless job.
Mark: you have no idea what law enforcement really is or what they do. You sound silly and like you live in a fantasy world. You are the reason why I will never support a police review board. You sir write from such an uninformed position that it is sad. I don't want my police to be mental health workers, they are cops.
ReplyDeleteSo, this is Paul Gallegos' fault?
ReplyDeleteNahhhhh, Eric. He has NOTHING to do with the morale at EPD. I can't imagine what I was thinking when I inferred that he did. Surely the spectre of prosecution in the Cheri Moore case is just overblown hyperbole.
ReplyDeleteWhaddyu think?
ReplyDeleteWell I think that an improperly trained police department making a bad decision had something to do with it.And one could blame Paul because he should have made this recommendation before the Moore incident,and at least immediately after.If he had been more directly involved,he could have seen the bad situation that was brewing within the EPD and the swat team.
ReplyDeleteThe only decision at issue in the Moore case is the decision to enter. When Moore pointed the gun, there was no "decision" to be made.
ReplyDeleteSo, entry decision. Who made it, and was it reasonable? The shoot/no shoot issue is a total red herring. Gun pointed at [anyone] cops OBLIGATION is to shoot.
8:12 am wrote: So, entry decision. Who made it, and was it reasonable? The shoot/no shoot issue is a total red herring.
ReplyDeleteWell, partially correct. BUT the question of whether it was reasonable is way off. The question is whether making that call was a crime. Was it an “unlawful” call? If not Gags has absolutely no business putting this forward to the grand jury at all. The fact that he needs it politically is both irrelevant and grossly unethical. But that is nothing new for him.
the question of whether it was reasonable is way off. The question is whether making that call was a crime. Was it an “unlawful” call? If not Gags has absolutely no business putting this forward to the grand jury at all.
ReplyDeleteThat says it so clearly. The best clarification I have heard. Very simple, very straightforward.
Thanks, Anon 9:00
Oh, I forgot, this is Humboldt. I shouldn't have expected people think through to the realization that since the decision was at least arguably reasonable, it was clearly non-criminal.
ReplyDeleteCan MRESQUAN be more of a putz?
ReplyDelete"an improperly trained police department"
What do you mresquaine know of a "properly" trained police department? Are you on the California Peace Officers Standards of Training (POST) board? Of course you're not. You're just talking out your ass becasue you really know nothing about proper police training but you think you know everything about everything. That makes you just another asshole.
Does anyone wonder why Heraldo, and even Eric Kirk, have not made any comments on the criminal grand jury PVG has going after EPD? Hearldo has been very critical about the EPD yet he makes NO comments?! Why is that? Could it be that Hearldo really is Ken Miller and if so he is in on the case with PVG just like he was on the Palco debacle? Kenny and the other dope growers don't like the EPD so they use their boy PVG to use his office to kept them in line? Teach them a lesson?
ReplyDeleteThe long and short of this is that PVG's use of the grand jury is dirty politics at it's worse. An abuse of power, ie: corruption. Or do you think that PVG will use the grand jury to go after Shectman for conspiracy to grow marijuana and money laundering ?
And what do you think about the timing of the press release/news conference to announce the disabnding of the EPD SWAT unit?
Things are not well in Humboldt County.
Five year olds, Rose? Is it reasonable to draw the line at that age or would you consider a three year old pointing a toy gun at a cop a dangerous criminal that must die? Three hollow point rounds from a Glock forty cal. would probably "get 'er done", eh?
ReplyDeleteI don't know how old the kids were im the tragic situations we have all heard about - a policeman called out to a residence sees a silhoutte with a gun, and reacts, only to find it was a kid with a toy gun
ReplyDeleteThat's why toy guns now have an orange tip - to try to help differentiate them from real ones. But nothing to stop a bad guy from painting an orange tip on a real gun.
Try to distort it if you will - you know my point is that anyone who points a gun at any law enforcement officer is very very likely to be shot. Blaming the policeman in that instance is unfair.
You should teach your kids not to point guns, even toy guns, at people unless they intend to kill them. Plain and simple.
7:20 PM, Congratulations on your argumentum ad absurdum. What do you say to 6yr olds being expelled from the government indoctrination centers for drawing pictures of guns or of their soldier parents?
ReplyDeleteGood point, ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ.
ReplyDeleteTrust me, these guys don't see anything wrong with that.
The odd thing is they also don't blink an eye at the content of the Iraqi/Afghanistan schoolbooks.
Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research editor, 11 May 2005
ReplyDeleteSince 1990, the U.S. has targeted Iraq’s educational system for destruction.
During the 1991 U.S. war, Iraq’s civilian infrastructure was systematically bombed and destroyed.
U.S. aircraft bombed and strafed indiscriminately.
The U.S.-imposed sanctions, which were implemented with severity and disregard to the welfare of the civilian population, destroyed Iraq’s education and health systems.
U.S. strategy against Iraq went beyond "strictly military targets". The aim was the complete destruction of the Iraqi society and its knowledge-based resources.
Prior to the U.S. led war and the imposition of sanctions, Iraq had among the finest educational systems in the Middle East.
Education and health care were free at all levels. In the 1980s, a successful government program to eradicate illiteracy among Iraqi men and women was implemented.
Before the ‘Gulf War’, 92 per cent of all Iraqi school age children attended school. Attendance at school has always been high in Iraq as primary education was compulsory until the U.S. invasion in 2003.
According to UNESCO, until 1989 Iraq had been allocating 5 per cent of its budget to education. This is higher than the maximum rate in developing countries, which stands at 3.8 per cent. Iraq was also the largest and preferred destination for students from the Middle East, Africa and the Muslim world. Thousands of students went to Iraq to study and to better their lives.
In the 1991 War on Iraq, the U.S. deliberately bombed and destroyed vital civilian infrastructure, water-treatment facilities, milk factories, power plants, schools, hospitals, pharmaceutical production facilities, communication centres, mosques, churches, civilian shelters, residential areas, historical sites, roads and bridges, irrigations, private vehicles and civilian government offices. The purpose of these attacks was to destroy life and property, and generally to terrorise the civilian population of Iraq.
In adition, the U.S. and Britain then continued to oppose lifting the sanctions, which were imposed on Iraq in 1990, to ensure that Iraq would be unable to repair or replace most of what has been destroyed. "We are in the process of destroying an entire society. It is as simple and terrifying as that. It is illegal and immoral", elaborated Denis Halliday, former UN Assistant Secretary-General and Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq on his resignation in 1998.
More than 1.5 million Iraqis have died, a third of them children under the age of 5, in this calculated mass murder of innocent people.
As Professor Ward Churchill of the University of Colorado wrote, "we find record of not a single significant demonstration protesting the wholesale destruction of Iraqi children" during the 13 years of genocidal sanctions. As usual, "opposition" to wars of aggression in the West has been passive, and once the criminal bombing of Iraqi cities begun again in 2003, it was "home entertainment" and the silence was deafening.
Iraq’s educational system was the target of U.S-British military action, because education is the backbone of any society. Without an efficient education system, no society can function. Schools and universities were bombed and destroyed.
The Al-Mustansiriyah University, one of the oldest schools in the world with a history that goes back at least 1000 years was bombed and partially destroyed. It was here in 1980 that Iranian agents tried to assassinate Prime Minister Tariq Aziz – a terrorist act that helped precipitate the Iran-Iraq War. After the 1991 war, UNSCOM inspectors, led by Australian Richard Butler, burned all chemistry books of the University Library. All other universities in Iraq have their science books burned by UNSCOM.
Furthermore, the sanctions and U.S. wars forced many Iraqi professionals to leave the country in what is called, Iraqi ‘brain drain’. An estimated 30-40 per cent of Iraq’s best-trained educators left to other countries. Under the sanctions, Iraq’s contact with the rest of the world was also restricted and contributed to the deterioration of Iraq’s educational system. To complete Iraq’s isolation and inflict more harm, the U.S-controlled sanctions committee banned all educational materials (including pencils, which allegedly could be converted to "weapons of mass destruction" by Iraqi children, papers and textbooks) from entering Iraq.
A newly released study by the UN University (UNU) International Leadership Institute in Jordan revealed that: "'The devastation of the Iraqi system of higher education has been overlooked amid other cataclysmic war results but represents an important consequence of the conflicts, economic sanctions, and ongoing turmoil in Iraq" caused by U.S. militaristic policy.
Furthermore, "some 84 percent of Iraq's institutions of higher education have been burnt, looted, or destroyed. Some 2,000 laboratories need to be re-equipped and 30,000 computers need to be procured and installed nationwide, said Jairam Reddy, director of UNU. "The Iraqi Academy of Sciences, founded in 1948 to promote the Arabic language and heritage, saw its digital and traditional library partially looted during the war and it alone needs almost one million dollars in infrastructure repairs to re-establish itself as a leading research centre", the Study revealed.
There was no shortage of bombs to destroy Iraq, but "there weren't enough desks, chairs, or classrooms and most schools lacked even basic water or sanitation facilities", added the report. According to the U.N. children's fund, UNICEF, Iraq's primary and secondary educational systems were further ruined by the war and almost 1 in 4 children has no access to education under U.S. Occupation.
The current Iraq’s school curriculum is a U.S-crafted curriculum to brainwash Iraqi children.
The U.S. Occupation Authority or the (CPA) removed any content considered anti-American, including the 1991 Gulf War, the Iran-Iraq war, and all references to Israel policy in Palestine, and U.S support for Israel. "Entire swaths of 20th-century history have been deleted", said Bill Evers, a U.S. Defence Department employee, and one of three American "advisers" to the Ministry of Education. It should be noted that these U.S. "advisers" are U.S-handpicked proxies who make the major decisions in the Iraqi ministries, (ie. it is not the U.S-appointed quislings, which occupy cabinet positions which make the decisons). "We considered anything anti-American to be propaganda and we took it out, and in some cases, we had to remove entire chapters", said Fuad Hussein, an Iraqi expatriate in the Ministry of Education. In other words, Mr. Hussein made the decision to remove "propaganda" and enforce a "free" curriculum.
Before the staged "handover of sovereignty" in June 2003, Paul Bremer, the former U.S. Proconsul in Baghdad, issued a series of "edicts" that "take away virtually all of the powers once held by several ministries", reported The Wall Street Journal on 13 May, 2004. In addition, Bremer enacted the "Bremer’s Orders", a set of colonial "laws" widely known as the "100 Orders".
"The Bremer orders control every aspect of Iraqi life — from the use of car horns to the privatization of state-owned enterprises. For example, "Order No. 39 alone does no less than ‘transition [Iraq] from a … centrally planned economy to a market economy’ virtually overnight and by U.S. fiat", wrote Antonia Juhasz, a scholar at the International Forum on Globalisation in San Francesco. Order 37 will lower Iraq’s corporate tax rate from about 40 per cent to a flat rate of 15 per cent. The accurate description of Iraq’s economy is a "Capitalism dream" economy. The Virginia-based Corporation, BearingPoint Inc., received 250 million contracts to facilitate the looting.
On May 22, Bush signed Executive Order 13303 granting blanket immunity to any U.S. corporation dealing with Iraqi oil through 2007. The order "unilaterally declares Iraqi oil to be the unassailable province of U.S. corporations.... In other words, if Exxon Mobil or Chevron Texaco touches Iraqi oil, it will be immune from legal proceedings in the United States", said Jim Vallette, research director for the Sustainable Energy and Economy Network. It makes the new "sovereignty" more like a U.S. colonial dictatorship with no "democracy" and no national independence. That is why the January elections were a U.S.-made trap to legitimise the U.S. Occupation of Iraq.
Nonetheless, these U.S-crafted "Orders" and economic therapies are illegal and in violation of the Geneva Conventions and The Hague Regulations, which stipulate that the occupiers ‘must abide by the country exists laws unless prevented’. Under international law, the occupiers are ‘prohibited from selling of state-own assets’ of the occupied country. Further, these "Orders" are illegal because they were enacted without tacit approval of legitimate Iraqi government, but under the threat of U.S. military force.
To make things worse for Iraq’s education, Iraq’s reconstruction has become the "biggest corruption scandal in history". In April 2003, USAID awarded a one-year, $62 million contract to Creative Associates International Inc. (CAII), and $1.8 billion to Bechtel Corporation to build Iraq’s infrastructure, including schools and higher education institutions, without a public tender, a by-invitation-only deal awarded in a secret process. "For this initial round of contracts alone, Bechtel was also guaranteed another $80 million for company profits", wrote Jeffrey St. Claire, author of Grand Theft Pentagon. "While the situation continued to deteriorate for the U.S. military forces in Iraq… Last year Bechtel earned more than $17 billion for the first time", added St. Clair.
Bechtel record of dodgy business does not bode well for the Iraqi people. Its record in Bolivia and India left poor communities without affordable drinking water. U.S. officials often have highlighted their renovation of schools as a success story of Iraq under the Occupation. However, despite the size of contracts, little has been done to rebuild or repair Iraq’s schools and universities. "Schools listed as fully rebuilt are in fact flooded with sewage and lack desks, but are often freshly painted", wrote Christian Parenti of The Nation. Indeed schools were only painted to remove the old regime slogans from the wall and replace them with George Bush’s own lies of "democracy" and "liberation" rhetoric. A propaganda cliché designed to manipulate public opinions in the West (the U.S. in particular), and enhance U.S. imperial agenda of militaristic domination of the world.
In a recent report Antonia Juhasz noted that; "The constant complaints from the Iraqi Ministry of Education officials and principals of schools that Bechtel has worked on, is that the work is either non-existent and shoddy, often putting students health and safety at risk". There is "[n]o improvement to the infrastructure, and no new equipment has been bought", Muzhir Al-Dulaymi, spokesman for the League for the Defence of Iraqi People's Rights, told Aljazeera on 28 May 2004.
Bechtel waves off complaints with: "No matter what we do, the Iraqis will never be on the losing end", reported CorpWatch, a U.S-based anti-corruption organisation. The billion of dollars approved by Congress for the "reconstruction" of Iraq, was simply a "gift" from U.S. taxpayers to U.S. private corporations, not for the Iraqi people. In other word, U.S. citizens are subsidizing Bechtel, Halliburton and other U.S. corporations.
In October 2004, the CPA paid $12 billion to the contractors out of the Development Fund of Iraq (DFI), instead of using the money earmarked by Congress for the "reconstruction" of Iraq. In other words, the CPA used Iraq’s oil revenues to pay off the U.S. contractors – money that before the war was said (by Secretary of State Powell, among others) to be the "Iraqi people’s" money.
According to an independent audit conducted by KPMG for the multilateral International Advisory and Monitoring Board for Iraq (IAMB) (established under UN Security Council Resolution 1483 as an audit oversight board), nearly $1.5 billion was extracted from the DFI to pay Halliburton. While Iraqi children are dropping out of school and dying of malnutrition, Iraqi money nourishes Halliburton executives and friends, including U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney.
The IAMB and auditors working for the United Nation's Iraq Advisory as well as the CPA's own Inspector General have since blasted the occupation authorities for sloppy handling and faulty accounting of the more than $9 billion in seized assets (including Iraqi oil revenues) known as the DFI. The $9 billion simply vanished. They discovered a wide range of irregularities, including the lack of competitive bidding for large contracts, missing contracts information, payments for contracts that had not been supervised, and, in some cases, outright theft. "The billions of dollars of oil money that has already been transferred to the U.S-controlled [CPA] has effectively disappeared into financial black hole", reported Christian Aid, a British humanitarian organisation. Protected by the presence of more than 200,000 U.S-British troops and mercenaries, Iraq is the biggest imperial lootocracy in the history of Western colonialism, and a "capitalism dream" economy.
Iraq’s education system has also fallen victim to the Occupation-instigated violence. School dropouts are very high, particularly among females as a result of violence and kidnappings. Many schools in Iraqi cities and towns have been closed, preventing hundreds of children from receiving basic education. "Approximately 50 percent of children are not going to school because their parents are too scared to send them, having heard these stories about children being kidnapped and held for ransom", a spokesman for Save the Children UK, Paul Hetherington, told IRIN. Moreover, malnutrition amongst Iraqi children has almost doubled from 4 per cent in 2002 to roughly 8 per cent since the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. The ongoing Occupation and associated violence is wreaking havoc on Iraqi children and Iraq long-term future.
Although the UNU report noted briefly that only "[f]our dozens academics have been assassinated", the real number is much higher. In a callous and murderous policy termed "DeBaathification", thousands of academics, scientists and prominent Iraqi politicians have been murdered. Together with the C.I.A., and Israel’s Mossad agents, criminal elements and militia groups including, the Kurdish Peshmerga, the Iranian-trained Badr Brigade, the INA of Iyad Allawi and the INC of Ahmed Chalabi, have terrorised an entire nation and murdered its entire intellectual community.
Two years of continuing Occupation and violence have killed thousands of innocent men, women and children. The November 2004 scientific report by the reputable British medical journal, the Lancet, shows that from March 2003 to October 2004, U.S. forces have killed more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians. The Lancet authors acknowledge that most of the victims were innocent women and children killed by U.S. bombing of population centres. The number of Iraqis killed is increasing daily.
Instead of condemning and exposing the crimes of this illegal Occupation, Western liberal elites and the "anti-war" organisers close ranks with their own governments and have deliberately shifted the blame on the Iraqi Resistance with increasing sophistication. This known falsehood is intended to discredit the Iraqi Resistance and to deny the Iraqi people a legitimate Resistance movement against an illegal foreign Occupation. After all, the U.S. and its collaborators have the most to gain from a divided Iraq embroiled in sectarian violence.
How can the liberal elites and the "anti-war" organisers blame the Iraqi Resistance for the violence?
Who committed the Fallujah atrocity, where more than 6000 innocent men, women and children were slaughtered with napalm and chemical weapons? Where were the liberal elites and the "anti-war" organisers when Iraq’s cultural heritage which stands at the heart of human civilization, was destroyed and looted?
Very few people in the West heard the scream of Fallujah’s victims. The atrocity was sold as a ‘necessary step’ to enforce Western "democracy".
On many occasions, the Iraqi Resistance has rejected violence against civilians, and has called on foreign journalists to stay in Iraq and report honestly. By contrast, U.S. troops have detained and killed journalists who cover the Iraqi Resistance view of the war. Indeed U.S. troops in Iraq have killed more than 13 journalists there. You do not need to do lots of research to find out why U.S. troops targeting independent journalists.
Today, more Iraqi cities and towns are under the same siege as Fallujah. People are not allowed to leave their homes and have no food and medicine. The cities of Ramadi and Qaim in western Iraq, just to mention two, have been under siege by U.S. forces for many days. Hospitals have been destroyed to erase the number of civilians killed by U.S. troops in hospital data banks. Schools, universities and government offices are closed. Random arrests of men, women and children, have resulted in the imprisonment of many young men, women and children. Tens of thousands of Iraqis are now imprisoned and tortured in hundreds of U.S-run prisons throughout Iraq.
Had it not been for the Iraqi Resistance, Iraq would have been sold on the cheap to private U.S. corporations, and Syria and Iran would have been attacked by now in pursuit of U.S. hegemony. As a result of potent Iraqi Resistance, U.S. Army recruitment is at its lowest level, and the war becoming very unpopular among the citizens of the imperial power(s). And the so-called "coalition of the willing" is fleeing and is losing its will. Even U.S. Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Richard Myers acknowledged the presence of an effective Iraqi Resistance against U.S. forces, although the U.S. maybe using the presence of the Resistance as pretext to justify the ongoing Occupation. The liberal elites and the "anti-war" organisers have yet to have an impact on their own government’s policy.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Iraqi children are dropping out of school and experienced Iraqi professionals, who were once called the ‘German of the Middle East’ for their technical prowess, are unemployed. Unemployment rate in Iraq is as high as 70 per cent today. Iraqis are watching their country and their society destroyed and looted by an armed imperial power and its private corporations. They can only be praised for their courage to stay and continue the struggle against the odds. "The bravery and dedication of educators [and other professionals] who remain in a shattered Iraq should inspire the swift, meaningful and practical support of the international academic community," says UN Under Secretary-General Hans van Ginkel, Rector of the Tokyo-based UNU.
The most urgent actions needed in Iraq today are the end of U.S. violence and the revitalisation of Iraq’s education and health systems. "Repairing Iraq's higher education system is in many ways a prerequisite to the long term repair of the country as a whole", said Jairam Reddy of UNU.
World-wide academics and educators should campaign for the end of the Occupation and use the recommendation provided by the authors of the Iraqi Observatory report as a benchmark to assist the Iraqi people in rebuilding their education system. It stated rightly that, "American Universities should refrain from competing for USAID Higher Education grants until the military occupation of Iraq ends and an independent and sovereign government exists in Iraq. That said, institutions should make an effort to build contacts and offer expertise to the Iraqi academic community on an informal basis in preparation for that moment".
The deliberate U.S. strategy targeting anything other than "strictly military targets", including Iraq’s educational system, constitutes a major war crime. In addition, legal evidence has shown that the war on Iraq amounted to a ‘crime of aggression’. Clearly, U.S. wars against Iraq violated the 1923 Hague Rules of Aerial Warfare (Article 22) and the 1949 Geneva Convention IV Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Times of War (Article 3).
A major reason the Nuremberg Tribunal was convened was because Germany had failed to prosecute its own war criminals after World War I. The setting up of an international war crimes tribunal, like the Nuremberg Tribunal, to investigate and prosecute those who committed these crimes against the Iraqi people should be the aim of the world community.
Global Research Contributing Editor Ghali Hassan has written extensively on Iraq under US occupation. He lives in Perth, Western Australia.
I think people who live in fear based realities tend to be overly influenced by areas of the brain that we share with amphibians, reptiles and other mammals. I think some people can be trained to overcome this.
ReplyDeleteSlow down. mresquan - I'm talking about the schools where they recite "hate the infidels" and teach how to kill us - you - and how to blow themselves up in order to do so. It's indoctrination, not education in those schools, which every news network has shown in their reporting.
ReplyDeleteWould that they were teaching all the good stuff your article mentions early on - have to admit I quit reading part way down - but you're right - it's more Afghanistan than Iraq.
As for the rest of it - I don't have the energy right now to delve into the "why Bush is bad, so even Hitler is good" kind of deal. Suffice it to say the rest of the world would be LUCKY beyond imagination if they had it one tenth as good as you and I.
Thanks mresquan!
ReplyDeleteWOW!!! I don't think even I can grasp all of this.I take it Tad doesn't think so highly of Garr Nielsen.
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Thursday, November 08, 2007
SWATting citizens ends, but POPping them will continue
Peace be with you.
Garr Nielsen the bigoted police chief of Eureka announced today that the police death squad called SWAT will “stand down.” Garr feels that six, fully bodied armored, machine gun toting, hitmen are not enough for those situations where landlords need their homeless befriending tenets murdered. Garr must now rely on his POP team to do the dirty work of beating citizens to death by hand.
In Tuesday’s Times-Slanderer’s propaganda piece “my word,” Garr called upon all good nazis to turn in their neighbors. He stressed the point that property ownership by poor people is blight and should not be tolerated. Calling homeless people that neo-n-word “transient,” Garr expressed concern about people sleeping in our community. We need to take cars away from the poor and make it impossible to harbor homeless because of some unspecified “criminal behavior” bred by homeless.
Garr didn’t point out that Humboldt County judge Christopher Wilson ruled “the court finds on the night in question there was not enough bed space available; it [sleeping] was not a willful violation . . . defendant is found not guilty by the court.” Nor did he mention Humboldt County judge Bruce Watson’s ruling that a defendant that “was not . . . causing any of the environmental and other harm the ordinance [sleeping] seeks to prevent” was not guilty. Garr didn’t even mention Humboldt County judge Marilyn Miles’ written quote from In re Eichorn “Necessity does not negate any element of the crime, BUT represents a public policy decision not to punish such an individual despite proof of the crime.” No, he just threw out class slurs like “transients” to somehow justify his loyalties to the KKK ideology of his illegal machine gun toting Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office.
Papa POP in his “my word” claimed he would use his Garr badge to get a permanent slave labor/jail work crew assigned to the City of Eureka. This makes sense seeing how he left a Washington state Sheriff’s department which was run not by a law enforcer but a correction officer. Never even obtaining the position of undersheriff in his last job Garr can guess on how to use the slaves labor he and his murderous gang-bangers at the EPD enslave. Aren’t chain-gangs the way his fellow bigoted nightriders still to this day keep their “undesirables” from being an “eyesore” to the rich, white masters in the south?
In Wednesday’s “my word” one of Garr’s quislings explained how you could turn in your neighbors as a drug house. Rebecca Kimble explained that “drug houses” could be “identified” by the fact that they have friends. Though Ms Kimble lists nine bullets on how to tell if the neighbor you don’t like could be labeled a “drug house,” only one actually points towards “drug houseness,” or criminality. Only the “[illegal drug] transaction” if witnessed would constitute “probable cause,” yet Ms. Kimbles alludes to friends, gifts, music and children all as signs of an invitation for “further crime.”
Ms Kimble advocates not just turn in your neighbor, but keeping logs, getting them evicted, and suing them in court. Ms Kimble wrote that you could get $7,500 for suing them, but didn’t tell you how much it will cost you when you lose the suit and have to pay for your neighbor’s lawyers and possibly a counter suit for invasion of privacy. I couldn’t honestly tell you how much it will cost you, but I know it will be fucking expensive. Hell just having me walk up to your door to serve you with counter suit papers will cost you $100, and the process server is the cheapest person in the whole court gambit. Depositions, lawyers, court reporters, transcripts and professional witnesses all make hundreds of dollars per hour.
These law enforcement people and their minions only tell you their twisted version of freedom and liberty, because they never get stuck paying the tab. It’s you stupid people who listen to Hitler, Stalin, or Nielsen, that end up paying directly for their fascism. It is us the majority though who must pay by having the increased crime, drug use, deaths and all the individual problems that this type of police-state/crypto-eugenics brings with it into what was once safe, friendly small town America.
The 1935-36 attempted fascist coup of the United States by the likes of House of Morgan was defeated, but traitors like Prescott Bush continued their support of fascism and eventually it’s evil seed started choking out the wheat. A quote from FDR I found while reviewing the facts of this attempted coup by corporate interests seems very applicable today:
``In 1776 we sought freedom from the tyranny of a political autocracy--from the eighteenth-century royalists who held special privileges from the crown. It was to perpetuate their privilege that they governed without the consent of the governed; that they denied the right to free assembly and free speech; that they restricted the worship of God; that they put the average man's property and the average man's life in pawn to mercenaries of dynastic power; that they regimented people. And so it was to win freedom from the tyranny of political autocracy that the American Revolution was fought....”
love eternal
tad
I forgot to add that you can access that piece by Tad over at The Plazoid blog.
ReplyDelete"You should teach your kids not to point guns, even toy guns, at people unless they intend to kill them. Plain and simple."
ReplyDeleteAnd if that lesson doesn't stick in your five year old's head and he picks up a toy gun and points it at a policeman, remedial training, beyond that point is probably out of the question.
Simple.
Five year olds are smarter than you think. Smaller doesn't mean dumber. It's the adults you have to worry about.
ReplyDeleteSeems like Tad had a bad day.
ReplyDeleteRose,
ReplyDeleteYou may need to do a little "policing" (pun) of your gigabit commenters. Most of this (trash) is available with links as are their lengthy refutations.
ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ, But it's so much fun to cut and paste rather than create one's own cogent thought.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't really matter anyway. These critics can't even "imagine" the emotions that a Man or Woman suffers after a "justifiable" killing. For Ever.
I don't doubt that any of the Officers involved wouldn't want that day to turn out differently.
Regards, and Happy B-Day to all Semper Fi's....
Wollf
Shooting five a five year old with a toy gun is not justifiable no matter how you spin it.
ReplyDeleteHow do you spin this into anyone thinking shooting a five year old is OK?
ReplyDeleteRose blames the parents when toy gun wielding five year old children are shot by cops.
ReplyDeleteDid I say that? Justifiable is the wrong word. But surely you are able to hold two divergent thoughts, recognize examples as valid and comprehend the point - which is bad things happen if you point a gun at a law enforcement officer.
ReplyDeleteNOBODY celebrates such a tragedy.
Yes! Yes! The data are in and the shooting of 5yr olds by cowardly police officers is definitely an emergent crisis. We must poll the current gaggle of presidential hopefuls on their plans to address this horror. Perhaps we can coax Janet Reno out of a well earned retirement to ship the little folk to the safety of Havana.
ReplyDeleteI recognize that there are times when a police officer has to use deadly force. At no time does that include shooting small children. Of course, nobody celebrates when a small child with a toy gun becomes a victim of deadly fire laid down by a uniformed police officer. Anyone who would suggest that bad parenting is to blame has missed the point by a wide margin. It is remarkable how fast rational thinking degrades to rationalizing when one defends the shooting of Cheri Moore.
ReplyDeleteThe point is - Cheri Moore's mental status does not exempt her from the consequences of pointing a gun at a policeman. The point is that no one is exempt, not you, not me, not a 5 year old. It is an unfortunate fact. There are many unfortunate facts of life - we all wish there weren't.
ReplyDeleteHer mental status doesn't make it any more or less tragic.
This settles one thing for sure, at least in my view, that Mresquan or Mark or whatever he goes by is just another asshole. Sorry for being so blunt but there is no other say to call it.
ReplyDeleteWhen Mresquan gets called on his BS statements, his attactks on the EPD, and his blind defense of Gallegos he spins this thread to some anti Iraq/anti Bush & some crap about police shooting five year olds with a today gun ?!
If this thread is going to go on how about getting back to the issue; Chief Nielson's dismantling of the EPD SWAT team and ( the weak rational for his decision & the timing of making or putting out this decision to the Eureka Reporter). It would appear as if the honeymoon is over. I would be curious what others think of this, and others does not include the idiot Mresquan.
The Cheri Moore shooting was an EPD SWAT team fiasco. Chief Nelson has dismantled the EPD SWAT team. Good!
ReplyDeleteAnd mresquan has not been posting anonymously. If you don't like his point of view, don't read it.
mresquan is welcome here. He knows that. He takes alot of hits for his views - and I confess i am often at a loss to understand how he arrives at some of his conclusions, but I have respect for his intentions. Wish he saw things differently, though.
ReplyDeleteThe Cheri Moore incidnet was a tragic one - and one that was seized upon by political forces who used it for their own purposes.
How many of those who sound the clarion call have taken any steps to help ANY of the other mentally ill people who raom our streets and reside in Eureka apartments, and who are the subject of daily calls by law enforcement agencies that go entirely unnoticed? How many of you have adopted the woman who yells as she walks around Eureka - invited her to dinner, asked whether she has family with whom she should reconcile, who have been ignored by her for 20 years - how many have worked to help the guys who delve into the Old Town dumpsters looking for cans?
All this conern after the fact because it supports your view - how much effort into helping and preventing another tragedy?
Just curious.
"The Cheri Moore incident was a tragic one - and one that was seized upon by political forces who used it for their own purposes."
ReplyDeleteThere was a call for citizen driven police review, more training and higher wages for police. The "political forces" seized upon an opportunity to do good things for cops and the people who live in Eureka, including the mentally ill. Cheri Moore wasn't roaming the streets she was a woman who needed help. What she got was a load of buckshot frontally and a rifle shot from behind. You can go on about how she was dangerous, but there were people who were able to help her -one who was talking to her on the phone. Several poor decisions were made by EPD SWAT team that lead to the Cheri Moore tragedy. And if you are going to bring up the flare gun then then next time call the fire department - storming the apartment with a fire hose always made more sense to me. Nielson made the right decision.
By focusing only on Cheri Moore, you are ignoring the bigger picture.
ReplyDeleteBut your trying to downplay a threat because it was a flare gun - something you know as a Monday morning quarterback - is to be blind. No matter what house they go into - the police do not know what weapons, how many weapons a person may have. Knowing they have a shotgun doesn't mean they don't have a revolver, or even an AR-15 semi-automatic weapon. Assuming she had a flare gun does not preclude the fact that she might have a GLOCK herself. To make an assumption would be foolhardy, and possibly suicidal.
It's the larger picture of what is happening to our community - what prompted EPD's former Chief to call Eureka a "hellhole." - the drug use and anti-police mentality that is having this effect.
Rose, EPD SWAT had a spotter on a roof top across the street. EPD SWAT knew Cheri Moore had a flare gun and the spotter gave the go ahead to enter the apartment when she laid the flare gun down. How can you conclude that she might have a shotgun or a semi-automatic rifle or handgun? She only had a flare gun, if she had a semi-auto she wouldn't have been holding a flare gun.
ReplyDelete"...what prompted EPD's former Chief to call Eureka a "Hellhole".
To cover for poorly trained police officers, and probably the same reason that the current Chief said he had absolute confidence in the SWAT team he just ordered to stand down. The anti-police mentality is just EPD reaping the harvest.
Greetings protagonists,
ReplyDeleteΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ is interested in knowing just how many of the "experts" commenting here have looked down the barrel of a 50mm flare pistol aimed at them by a wild eyed nutcase. How many of you commenters are aware of what such a weapon can due to a human body? Have you ever contemplated being barbecued by flaming phosphorous? At the risk of being accused of "trotting out credentials" allow me to advise you of having arrested an individual who was preparing to do just that to me and my partner in Avalon Harbor. Fortunately we were able to subdue the nut before he was able to bring the weapon to bear. Had he succeeded in doing so we would not have hesitated in terminating him with maximum prejudice. We were not prepared to widow our wives and orphan our children simply because one nut needed the services of a social worker. Call us selfish.
3:06pm, I guess I could say the same to you. If you don't like what I wrote don't read it. ! Sounds just as stupid when I say it. Because how can I tell I don't like some written comment unless I read it? What am I supposed to do ... unread it? 3:06pm you are about as sharp as a marble.
ReplyDeleteTHANK YOU, ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ! A breath of fresh air! Well siad!
ReplyDeleteAND, 5:36, I repeat - they saw a flare gun, so they knew there was at least one weapon. They HAD to operate on the assumption that there MIGHT be more - to do anything less would be foolhardy, and possibly suicidal.
Almost universally, people say they could have waited longer, maybe even days, before going in. On that we might agree. But we are all talking without KNOWING what was involved. IF we were in the same place and time, and had to make a decision, we might have made the same one.
You're willing to give up your police force having a trained team? How "progressive" of you. Once again, people with attitudes like yours et us back 20, 30, 40 years.
6:00, I was referring to your critique of mresquan who was not posting anonymously.
ReplyDelete5:47, unlike EPD SWAT you disarmed that person. I am not without compassion. I was in a similar situation and tackled a guy who was armed with a handgun that was about to kill a co-worker. It was an attempted armed robbery of a Target store. I could have ran. I was convinced that I was going to die. But that is not what this is about. EPD had the time to work out a better solution.
Rose, I am glad that you and I are close to agreeing on something. I do want a skilled EPD SWAT team. There is very little that has not been covered in the Cheri Moore incident. A SWAT team that is worth it's training attempts to resolve a situation where no shots have been fired and no one is held hostage by controlling the situation and seeking a peaceful resolution. It's not just about overwhelming deadly force. I'm not anti cop. I am for a professional police force that only uses deadly force when there is no other option. It would not have taken days to de-escalate the Cheri Moore situation. If EDP SWAT had not rushed that situation to it's deadly conclusion, we wouldn't be talking about this tragedy.
If it was a "regular" firearm, the decision to go in quickly would not have been made. What EPD qualified as the tipping point towards entry was the fact that there was an immobile person living in the same (flammable wood frame) building occupied by the mentally ill, agitated lady with a flare gun. One shot from that, the whole building goes up. One shot from a .38, one hole in the wall. Imagine how Her-dildo and the rest of them would scream if EPD waited until after Ms Moore ignited the building and the poor non-ambulatory neighbor died from smoke inhalation (or worse). You cant win with "experts after the fact" like that.
ReplyDeleteBy pushing as hard as they did, EPD could have caused Cheri Lynn Moore to react and the burning phosphorus flair could have been discharged within that wooden structure. EPD should have been able to secure the area, remove the non-ambulatory neighbor and had the fire department on scene. Your arguments all boil down to, "if you point a gun at a cop, bad things happen". She was mentally ill and wanted her medication. Ya got an argument, but ya got no prescription. And now you have no professional, highly skilled SWAT team. But then you never did. Your arguments only reveal your cynical view and your lack of compassion. The fact that you have those things in common with some police officers is part of what makes the Cheri Lynn Moore case so tragic. Come on, Rose, ya got to draw a line somewhere. Which brings me back to my original question. How can you be so cynical to make the statement that bad things happen when you point a gun at a cop and apply it equally to you, me, Cheri Lynn Moore and a five year old kid with a plastic toy gun?
ReplyDeleteWhat, you want me to be more specific about what happens? You can watch CSI for that.
ReplyDeleteTell you what - go get on an airplane and say "I have a bomb." And see what happens. And I'll say, when you make a statement like that, bad things happen.
That is a pretty clumsy dodge, Rose. The distinction is this; I didn't have to put words your mouth.
ReplyDeleteNo. The distinction is this: I stand beside my words - you do not - anonymous.
ReplyDeleteYour name is not what I'm interested in. You could call yourself enlightenment, but your thoughts would give you away.
ReplyDeleteOk, the last word is yours. But if you get ugly, I'll exercise you every day.
Uh-huh.
ReplyDelete10:38 PM: "But if you get ugly, I'll exercise you every day."
ReplyDeleteWhat? Now these "compassionate" jerks are issuing threats? Time for comment moderation exercise because that's what this cretin implies. As for "exercise", the delete key is a lot less exercise than typing nonsense that no one will be reading unless they visit heraldo. But after all Rose, it's your blog and there are those of us who find idiots amusing.
Amusing is a good word.
ReplyDeleteI haven't figured out quite how to say it - but, while these guys would tell you they are anti-war, you need only look at them to understand why we have wars. They are, in effect, at war, and they are forcing others to take defensive positions, and to go on the offensive. Ken Miller is at war with Palco. He wants their territory. Mark Lovelace is a good soldier in Ken Miller's army. Couched in all the nuances of modern society, it is at its core, war. All the bumper stickers about holding bakesales not withstanding, it is that desire to tell someone else what to do, or take over their territory that is at the root of war and until you stop that, you will always have war.
What makes Ken Miller tick? Is he an environmentalist? Does anyone know? Why does he hate the Eureka Police Department? Why has he toned down his rant and hatred? Is he really Heraldo?
ReplyDeleteWell I do enjoy reading most of the insults hurled back at me for some of my differing views.Some are pleasant surprises.
ReplyDeleteAnd like Rose,I do stand by my words.
HERALDO IS REALLY TWO GAY MEN IN THEIR 50'S!!!! THEY ARE NOT EVEN HISPANIC !!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI'll alert the media.
ReplyDeleteIs Ken ....................
ReplyDelete