The People's Record

An ongoing chronicle of communities of resistance around the world: anti-racism, anti-zionism, anti-imperialism, the Arab Spring, anti-austerity protests in Greece and across Europe, student movements all around the world, the Occupy Movement, anti-capitalist movements, anarchist movements, socialist movements, leftist communities and other relevant international news.

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The mother of a man killed by police in Anaheim held a protest after the officer who shot him was unjustly cleared of wrongdoing
March 21, 2013

Genevieve Huizar’s protest was planned for 9:30 a.m. Thursday in front of the central courthouse in Santa Ana. It comes a day after officials decided not to press charges against Anaheim Police Officer Nick Bennallack.

Manuel Diaz, 25, was unarmed when he was shot last July. The Orange County District Attorney’s Office said in its findings that officers recognized Diaz as a gang member who went by the nickname “Stomper.” He and two other men started running when they saw officers approach. Investigators said Diaz ignored commands to stop and appeared to reach into his waistband as though grabbing for a weapon.

Bennallack said he feared for his life and the life of his partner and fired his weapon. Authorities say Diaz was shot twice, including once in the head. It was later determined Diaz was not armed. His cellphone was found nearby.

OCDA investigators interviewed nearly 50 witnesses. After examining all of the evidence, investigators found Bennallack’s actions were justified and he acted in self-defense.

Source

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No charges in police murder case that ignited Anaheim unrest
March 20, 2013

Officer Nick Bennallack was on a gang-enforcement patrol in the Anna Drive neighborhood on the afternoon of July 21 when he pulled up to a small group of men. Manuel Diaz, 25, a convicted gang member, bolted, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office concluded.

The officers gave chase, down an alley and into the front yard of an apartment house. There, Bennallack fired two shots, one hitting Diaz in the back-right side of his head, the other hitting him in his right buttock, District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said.

The police association said shortly after the shooting that officers saw Diaz pull something from his waistband and turn. Diaz was found to be unarmed; investigators found a cell phone registered to Diaz, as well as the two ammunition cartridges from Bennallack’s gun and a drug pipe, the District Attorney’s Office said.

Diaz’s mother, Genevieve Huizar, said she plans to stage a demonstration Thursday morning in front of the courthouse in Santa Ana.

“This is completely unjustified,” Huizar said. “The D.A. appointed himself the judge and jury for this officer. I’m never going to stop fighting until Nick Bennallack is in prison.”

Huizar has sued Anaheim for $50 million. Her attorney, Dana Douglas, said several witnesses reported seeing Diaz hit first in the buttocks. He fell to his knees, she said, and then was hit in the back of the head.

The D.A.’s account of events and his decision not to file charges does not change anything about the family’s civil lawsuit, Douglas said.

“This is exactly the result we unfortunately expected,” she said.

Bennallack said in a statement to investigators that he fired because he thought Diaz had a gun and was about to shoot at him and the officer with him. The other officer, Brett Heitmann, told investigators that he heard Bennallack shout something like “Guhhh!” immediately before the shooting, which he took to be the start of a warning: “Gun!”

The District Attorney’s Office concluded that Bennallack believed he was in imminent danger of being killed by Diaz, Rackauckas said.

“It is our legal opinion that the evidence does not support a finding of criminal culpability on the part of Officer Bennallack,” Assistant District Attorney Dan Wagner said. “There is significant evidence that the officer’s actions were reasonable and justified under the circumstances.”

At the time of the shooting, Bennallack was under investigation in an earlier fatal shooting at an Anaheim apartment building. The District Attorney’s Office cleared him in that unrelated January 2012 shooting a few months ago.

Bennallack is a five-year veteran and a department rookie of the year. He returned to duty two weeks after the shooting of Diaz, after officials reviewed preliminary results of their investigation.

On Anna Drive on Wednesday, few residents wanted to speak about the District Attorney’s Office’s findings, saying they were afraid to give their names after a gang sweep targeted the neighborhood last year.

But Margarita Flores, 42, who runs a produce truck on Anna Drive, said the officer should have faced charges.

“What he did was not right,” she said. “Those who were fond of (Diaz) are going to be mad – against the police, against everybody.”

The Diaz shooting touched off more than a week of unrest in Anaheim and helped expose deep and long-standing divisions in the city.

It started in the hours after the shooting, when residents who knew Diaz from the neighborhood gathered at the site, yelling at officers and demanding answers. Officers fired bean-bag rounds and pepper balls into the crowd at close range; a police dog charged into the crowd, toppling a baby stroller and biting at least one person.

Anaheim police Chief John Welter later apologized, saying the police dog broke loose from its handler.

A few nights later, after another fatal police shooting about which D.A.’s Office has not issued a report, a crowd estimated at 1,000 gathered in front of Anaheim’s City Hall, where a City Council meeting was under way. Some had come to demand greater accountability for police and a greater voice for neighborhoods such as Anna Drive. Others had come from outside of Anaheim to protest police brutality.

Scores of officers in riot gear confronted them and, when they would not disperse, fired pepper balls and bean-bag rounds at them. As the crowd scattered, a few people smashed windows and vandalized storefronts.

Source

Justice for Manuel Diaz, Kimani Gray & all other victims of police murder now!

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Terrorists in blue: How police maintain a system of racism & inequalityJuly 30, 2012 “To some Negroes, police have come to symbolize white power, white racism and white repression. And the fact is that many police do reflect and express these white attitudes. The atmosphere of hostility and cynicism is reinforced by a widespread belief among Negroes in the existence of police brutality and in a ‘double standard’ of justice and protection—one for Negroes and one for whites—a deep hostility between the police and ghetto…was a primary cause of the riots.” The passage quoted above was from a government-commissioned investigation into the causes of urban rebellions throughout the 1960s. For four years, from 1964 through 1968, hundreds of thousands of African Americans rose up against the racism and injustice across the U.S. In dozens of cities, the causes were the same: unemployment, substandard housing, and police brutality among many others. This report was published in 1968, and yet the description of the police’s relationship to Black communities sounds very familiar. The only significant difference now is that in many urban areas, Black and Latino cops make up a larger part of the police forces. WHAT YOU CAN DO Stand with family members of victims of police brutality. Find out more about the National Alliance of Parents Against Police Violence on Facebook. In some cities, there have even been Black police commissioners and superintendents along with Black political representatives, whether it be mayors, city council members or other ranking officials. These changes in the demographics of the police and city administrations that govern them haven’t changed the way that police departments regularly occupy, harass, intimidate and terrorize communities of color. The reason behind this continuity is something that people in these communities already know: the police do not exist to protect and serve but are here to maintain racism and inequality. This isn’t a conspiracy theory but is demonstrated in multiple ways, whether it is the disproportionate way that Blacks are arrested for drug crimes compared to whites or the way in which African Americans and Latinos are “legally” stopped for no reason at all. The New York Police Department’s policy of stopping and frisking young men of color has resulted in literally hundreds of thousands of stops for random searches in hopes of finding contraband. In more than 90 percent of the stops, nothing is ever found, but the possibility of being stopped is a way of intimidating and controlling the movement and presence of Blacks and Latinos outside of spaces they are presumed not to belong. Police operate in Black and brown communities as if the Bill of Rights does not exist—randomly stopping people for no reason, conducting searches without consent, and arresting and holding people with no charges. It is also infuriating because they operate with impunity. It is next to impossible to have a dirty cop charged with a crime or even disciplined for illegal or unethical behavior because the cops police themselves. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - BEYOND THE daily harassment, more than ever, the police are being used to hem in the potential for protest and resistance to the social crisis that is consuming Black communities across the country. Black America is being ravaged by unemployment, growing rates of poverty, public school closures, and rental evictions and home foreclosures, to name only the most extreme conditions. In the absence of any real solutions to the economic crisis in communities hit the hardest, more police violence and intimidation are prescribed to keep them in check. In Chicago, for example, growing poverty and disillusionment with any notion of social mobility in this society has given way to desperation and horrible violence across the city’s Black neighborhoods, but instead of addressing what is painfully obvious—some of the highest rates of poverty and unemployment in the U.S.—local officials periodically suggest new, esoteric policing strategies to address crime. These policies include neighborhood sweeps of young men, a growing number of surveillance cameras, and an increased police presence in these neighborhoods. These measures, of course, do nothing about crime except add to the number of young Black men with criminal records and thus increase the likelihood that they will never get employment, exacerbating the central problems of unemployment and poverty. Not only can’t the police do anything about the conditions that give rise to crime but they actually contribute to it. In Chicago, the police have been found to be involved in crime rings that sell drugs and guns. The combination of growing racial and economic inequality with aggressive policing and the criminalization of Black youth is resulting in even more police violence and even murder at the hand of the cops. According to a report published by the Malcolm X Grassroots Collective, since January 2012, 110 African American men and women have been murdered either by the police, security guards or white vigilantes—almost a person every two days. Despite the continuity over time of police violence, there’s a perception that it’s getting worse. Because of social media and networking, it’s easier for recordings of police terror to “go viral” and be seen across the country in a matter of hours. The media initially ignored the murder of Trayvon Martin, but word of the racist killing of the Florida teenager exploded via social media, and the case morphed into a national symbol of racism and police corruption. Protests against a police riot in Anaheim, Calif., were captured on video, and people around the country were able to see what the police tried to cover up. The mainstream news reported that police offered to buy cell phones from those who recorded the police actions for fear that word would get out. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - THESE ACTIONS point to a greater reality that, while police terrorism is intensifying, so is the willingness to confront it and organize against it. The time is ripe for a movement against the police. In New York City, activist organizing and an emergent movement against stop and frisk has the NYPD on the ropes, and the potential to end that legalized racism is within sight. Earlier in the summer, more than 13,000 people in New York marched silently to dramatically demonstrate against stop and frisk. In Anaheim, where the police executed a young Latino man in cold blood, community members rebelled and lashed out at cop terror. In fact, after an evening of being shot with rubber bullets and arrests, community members demonstrated inside of the police department demanding justice. In Chicago, a “people’s hearing” against police violence brought out more than 100 people, despite city officials’ efforts to thwart the meeting by forcing it to relocate. Across the country, communities large and small are organizing vigils, marches, demonstrations and community organizing meetings to speak out against police violence and murder against African Americans and Latinos. At the center of much of this organizing are the family members of the victims of police murder who bravely and heroically are finding each other across the country and joining forces to demand justice and speak out against this racist terrorism. The outpouring of protest and organizing in response to the lynching of Trayvon Martin showed that the potential for a movement against police brutality, murder and corruption is vast. Police terror may be a permanent feature of a system that is as economically unequal and unjust as this one, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t make demands for police accountability and beyond. Our growing movement should demand an immediate end to the legalized racial profiling of stop-and-frisk programs in New York City and everywhere else variations of it are used. We should call for federal investigations of local police murder and brutality cases because we know that the police can’t police themselves. We should demand elected and accountable police review boards that can independently investigate police crimes. We should demand an end to laws that criminalized the filming or audio recording of police as these are often the only means capture “proof” of their crimes. There has never been a more urgent need to build a movement against racist, police terrorism in the U.S. There is another reality to consider as well. If the police continue to kill Black men and women with impunity, the possibility of the kinds of urban rebellions that shook American society in the 1960s is a distinct possibility. One must consider that this isn’t the 1960s, but it’s the 21st century—and there’s a Black president and a Black attorney general and people surely expect more. Moreover, in just the last several days near- riots have broken out in Southern California and Dallas, Texas, as the police, growing more brazen in their disregard for Black and brown life, have executed young men in broad daylight, out in the open for all to see. In Dallas, people watched the police shoot a man in the back as he was running away. Hundreds of people gathered in response to the Dallas Police Department’s deployment of a SWAT team and riot police. There’s a growing feeling of exhaustion with the vicious racism and brutality of cops across the country and the pervasive silence that shrouds it—and people are beginning to rise against it. Source Written by Keeanga Yamahtta-Taylor, a racial justice activist & author in Chicago. Watch her speak about racial justice here.

Terrorists in blue: How police maintain a system of racism & inequality
July 30, 2012

“To some Negroes, police have come to symbolize white power, white racism and white repression. And the fact is that many police do reflect and express these white attitudes. The atmosphere of hostility and cynicism is reinforced by a widespread belief among Negroes in the existence of police brutality and in a ‘double standard’ of justice and protection—one for Negroes and one for whites—a deep hostility between the police and ghetto…was a primary cause of the riots.”

The passage quoted above was from a government-commissioned investigation into the causes of urban rebellions throughout the 1960s. For four years, from 1964 through 1968, hundreds of thousands of African Americans rose up against the racism and injustice across the U.S. In dozens of cities, the causes were the same: unemployment, substandard housing, and police brutality among many others.

This report was published in 1968, and yet the description of the police’s relationship to Black communities sounds very familiar. The only significant difference now is that in many urban areas, Black and Latino cops make up a larger part of the police forces.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Stand with family members of victims of police brutality. Find out more about the National Alliance of Parents Against Police Violence on Facebook.

In some cities, there have even been Black police commissioners and superintendents along with Black political representatives, whether it be mayors, city council members or other ranking officials. These changes in the demographics of the police and city administrations that govern them haven’t changed the way that police departments regularly occupy, harass, intimidate and terrorize communities of color.

The reason behind this continuity is something that people in these communities already know: the police do not exist to protect and serve but are here to maintain racism and inequality.

This isn’t a conspiracy theory but is demonstrated in multiple ways, whether it is the disproportionate way that Blacks are arrested for drug crimes compared to whites or the way in which African Americans and Latinos are “legally” stopped for no reason at all.

The New York Police Department’s policy of stopping and frisking young men of color has resulted in literally hundreds of thousands of stops for random searches in hopes of finding contraband. In more than 90 percent of the stops, nothing is ever found, but the possibility of being stopped is a way of intimidating and controlling the movement and presence of Blacks and Latinos outside of spaces they are presumed not to belong.

Police operate in Black and brown communities as if the Bill of Rights does not exist—randomly stopping people for no reason, conducting searches without consent, and arresting and holding people with no charges. It is also infuriating because they operate with impunity. It is next to impossible to have a dirty cop charged with a crime or even disciplined for illegal or unethical behavior because the cops police themselves.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

BEYOND THE daily harassment, more than ever, the police are being used to hem in the potential for protest and resistance to the social crisis that is consuming Black communities across the country.

Black America is being ravaged by unemployment, growing rates of poverty, public school closures, and rental evictions and home foreclosures, to name only the most extreme conditions. In the absence of any real solutions to the economic crisis in communities hit the hardest, more police violence and intimidation are prescribed to keep them in check.

In Chicago, for example, growing poverty and disillusionment with any notion of social mobility in this society has given way to desperation and horrible violence across the city’s Black neighborhoods, but instead of addressing what is painfully obvious—some of the highest rates of poverty and unemployment in the U.S.—local officials periodically suggest new, esoteric policing strategies to address crime.

These policies include neighborhood sweeps of young men, a growing number of surveillance cameras, and an increased police presence in these neighborhoods. These measures, of course, do nothing about crime except add to the number of young Black men with criminal records and thus increase the likelihood that they will never get employment, exacerbating the central problems of unemployment and poverty.

Not only can’t the police do anything about the conditions that give rise to crime but they actually contribute to it. In Chicago, the police have been found to be involved in crime rings that sell drugs and guns.

The combination of growing racial and economic inequality with aggressive policing and the criminalization of Black youth is resulting in even more police violence and even murder at the hand of the cops. According to a report published by the Malcolm X Grassroots Collective, since January 2012, 110 African American men and women have been murdered either by the police, security guards or white vigilantes—almost a person every two days.

Despite the continuity over time of police violence, there’s a perception that it’s getting worse. Because of social media and networking, it’s easier for recordings of police terror to “go viral” and be seen across the country in a matter of hours.

The media initially ignored the murder of Trayvon Martin, but word of the racist killing of the Florida teenager exploded via social media, and the case morphed into a national symbol of racism and police corruption.

Protests against a police riot in Anaheim, Calif., were captured on video, and people around the country were able to see what the police tried to cover up. The mainstream news reported that police offered to buy cell phones from those who recorded the police actions for fear that word would get out.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

THESE ACTIONS point to a greater reality that, while police terrorism is intensifying, so is the willingness to confront it and organize against it. The time is ripe for a movement against the police.

In New York City, activist organizing and an emergent movement against stop and frisk has the NYPD on the ropes, and the potential to end that legalized racism is within sight. Earlier in the summer, more than 13,000 people in New York marched silently to dramatically demonstrate against stop and frisk.

In Anaheim, where the police executed a young Latino man in cold blood, community members rebelled and lashed out at cop terror. In fact, after an evening of being shot with rubber bullets and arrests, community members demonstrated inside of the police department demanding justice.

In Chicago, a “people’s hearing” against police violence brought out more than 100 people, despite city officials’ efforts to thwart the meeting by forcing it to relocate. Across the country, communities large and small are organizing vigils, marches, demonstrations and community organizing meetings to speak out against police violence and murder against African Americans and Latinos.

At the center of much of this organizing are the family members of the victims of police murder who bravely and heroically are finding each other across the country and joining forces to demand justice and speak out against this racist terrorism. The outpouring of protest and organizing in response to the lynching of Trayvon Martin showed that the potential for a movement against police brutality, murder and corruption is vast.

Police terror may be a permanent feature of a system that is as economically unequal and unjust as this one, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t make demands for police accountability and beyond. Our growing movement should demand an immediate end to the legalized racial profiling of stop-and-frisk programs in New York City and everywhere else variations of it are used.

We should call for federal investigations of local police murder and brutality cases because we know that the police can’t police themselves. We should demand elected and accountable police review boards that can independently investigate police crimes. We should demand an end to laws that criminalized the filming or audio recording of police as these are often the only means capture “proof” of their crimes.

There has never been a more urgent need to build a movement against racist, police terrorism in the U.S. There is another reality to consider as well. If the police continue to kill Black men and women with impunity, the possibility of the kinds of urban rebellions that shook American society in the 1960s is a distinct possibility.

One must consider that this isn’t the 1960s, but it’s the 21st century—and there’s a Black president and a Black attorney general and people surely expect more. Moreover, in just the last several days near- riots have broken out in Southern California and Dallas, Texas, as the police, growing more brazen in their disregard for Black and brown life, have executed young men in broad daylight, out in the open for all to see.

In Dallas, people watched the police shoot a man in the back as he was running away. Hundreds of people gathered in response to the Dallas Police Department’s deployment of a SWAT team and riot police.

There’s a growing feeling of exhaustion with the vicious racism and brutality of cops across the country and the pervasive silence that shrouds it—and people are beginning to rise against it.

Source

Written by Keeanga Yamahtta-Taylor, a racial justice activist & author in Chicago. Watch her speak about racial justice here.

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Anaheim braces for a weekend of protests over police shootings

July 28, 2012

Residents in Anaheim braced for more street protests Saturday, following a week of unrest linked to several high-profile police-involved shootings in the Southern California city.

The FBI said Friday it would “consider” investigating police tactics in Anaheim, and Mayor Tom Tait announced he had asked for a federal review of the fatal shooting of an unarmed man July 21. Police described the victim as a known member of the city’s notorious street gangs.

That shooting touched off a wave of demonstrations in the Orange County city, famous as the home of Disneyland.

Amid the scrutiny, the Anaheim Police Department has stood behind its officers.

“As the war against street-gang terrorism continues in cities across America, including Anaheim, the fine men and women of the Anaheim Police Department will continue to serve and protect all the residents of Anaheim who live in fear of gang violence,” Police Association President Kerry Condon said in an open letter to the Register.

Source

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Anonymous begins anti-brutality campaign after Anaheim shootingsJuly 25, 2012 Only days after officers with the Anaheim Police Department opened fire killing two men in just two days, members of the hacktivism collective Anonymous are asking people across the globe to ring in and condemn the cops. Self-proclaimed members of the loose-knit Anonymous collective have started a campaign to address the amounting allegations of police brutality coming out of Anaheim, California. In a YouTube video and bulletin circulated on the Web on Wednesday this week, some Anons say that the rest of America need to let their opposition to these ongoing policies known. “We want to inform the citizens of the world that the United States is setting the flames of revolution,” the message begins. “In Anaheim, police shot protesters and bystanders including kids who did nothing wrong. We, Anonymous, are calling yet again to the citizens of the United States, to rise up in unison, and defeat this government which values no lives nor freedom.” Anonymous has called for support before for a number of causes, including other allegations of police brutality that have occurred in other cities across California. The 2009 death of Oscar Grant at the hands of an officer with the Bay Area Rapid Transit police generated country-wide protests, and the city’s attempts to seize service for cell phones users during a demonstration in remembrance of Grant last year spawned a separate campaign against law enforcement in the San Francisco area. . Now Anonymous is setting their sights down the state, though, insisting that others join them to speak out against the Anaheim PD. “Do it for the safety of your families, your homes and your future generations,” the group asks. “The fate of America is in your hands. Do you wish to be oppressed further, or do you wish to obtain freedom and peace?” “The choice is yours. Let beat the drums of war. Operation Anaheim, engaged.” When the video and bulletin were posted to the Web on Wednesday, Anaheim had already experienced four consecutive days of massive protests, with several more expected throughout the week. Only days earlier, several online accounts associated with Anonymous circulated another bulletin that they hope will help raise awareness of another group: the Westboro Baptist Church. Under the banner of #OpFuckWBC, some members of Anonymous are asking for help in eradicating the Topeka, Kansas-based religious group that has become world renowned for picketing the funeral services of iconic American figures. Led by Pastor Fred Phelps, the WBC has made headlines for their anti-homosexual, anti-American slogans and picket signs that they’ve used during memorial services for Michael Jackson, Steve Jobs and Matthew Shepard, the 21-year-old gay man whose 1998 murder kick started a massive campaign for LGBT rights. This time around a WBC-led campaign to protest outside a memorial service for the victims of the recent Aurora, Colorado theater shooting has prompted hacktivists to ask for the help of others in ending the church once and for all. “I think it’s obvious why most people dislike, even DESPISE Westboro Baptist Church,” begins a statement posted on Pastebin.com this week. From there, the anonymous author asks other opponents of the WBC to put an end to the organization. “They have hurt too many people, and letting this go on without any action being taken is not okay,” the message continues. “While, yes, Freedom of Speech is the First Amendment — there are ways to violate it. Which WBC partakes in by: slander; defamation; libel; harassment; verbal abuse; threats.” “They are destroying lives.” Members of the Anonymous collective orchestrated a counter protest earlier this week to keep WBC members from demonstrating against the memorial services for victims of the Aurora massacre. According to the latest communiqué, though, those actions should be taken to the Web. Although the author encourages critics of the church to continue protesting them in real life situations, methods of making their mark over the Web are outlined as well. “If you can hack, hack their website,” the post asks. “If you can DOS, take down their website,” referring to a denial-of-service attack — an online protest of sorts that can temporarily cripple a webpage. “Show Westboro Baptist Church that we will ultimate end their reign of hatred.” SourcePhoto

Anonymous begins anti-brutality campaign after Anaheim shootings
July 25, 2012

Only days after officers with the Anaheim Police Department opened fire killing two men in just two days, members of the hacktivism collective Anonymous are asking people across the globe to ring in and condemn the cops.

Self-proclaimed members of the loose-knit Anonymous collective have started a campaign to address the amounting allegations of police brutality coming out of Anaheim, California. In a YouTube video and bulletin circulated on the Web on Wednesday this week, some Anons say that the rest of America need to let their opposition to these ongoing policies known.

“We want to inform the citizens of the world that the United States is setting the flames of revolution,” the message begins. “In Anaheim, police shot protesters and bystanders including kids who did nothing wrong. We, Anonymous, are calling yet again to the citizens of the United States, to rise up in unison, and defeat this government which values no lives nor freedom.”

Anonymous has called for support before for a number of causes, including other allegations of police brutality that have occurred in other cities across California. The 2009 death of Oscar Grant at the hands of an officer with the Bay Area Rapid Transit police generated country-wide protests, and the city’s attempts to seize service for cell phones users during a demonstration in remembrance of Grant last year spawned a separate campaign against law enforcement in the San Francisco area. . Now Anonymous is setting their sights down the state, though, insisting that others join them to speak out against the Anaheim PD.

“Do it for the safety of your families, your homes and your future generations,” the group asks. “The fate of America is in your hands. Do you wish to be oppressed further, or do you wish to obtain freedom and peace?”

“The choice is yours. Let beat the drums of war. Operation Anaheim, engaged.”

When the video and bulletin were posted to the Web on Wednesday, Anaheim had already experienced four consecutive days of massive protests, with several more expected throughout the week.

Only days earlier, several online accounts associated with Anonymous circulated another bulletin that they hope will help raise awareness of another group: the Westboro Baptist Church. Under the banner of #OpFuckWBC, some members of Anonymous are asking for help in eradicating the Topeka, Kansas-based religious group that has become world renowned for picketing the funeral services of iconic American figures.

Led by Pastor Fred Phelps, the WBC has made headlines for their anti-homosexual, anti-American slogans and picket signs that they’ve used during memorial services for Michael Jackson, Steve Jobs and Matthew Shepard, the 21-year-old gay man whose 1998 murder kick started a massive campaign for LGBT rights. This time around a WBC-led campaign to protest outside a memorial service for the victims of the recent Aurora, Colorado theater shooting has prompted hacktivists to ask for the help of others in ending the church once and for all.

“I think it’s obvious why most people dislike, even DESPISE Westboro Baptist Church,” begins a statement posted on Pastebin.com this week. From there, the anonymous author asks other opponents of the WBC to put an end to the organization.

“They have hurt too many people, and letting this go on without any action being taken is not okay,” the message continues. “While, yes, Freedom of Speech is the First Amendment — there are ways to violate it. Which WBC partakes in by: slander; defamation; libel; harassment; verbal abuse; threats.”

“They are destroying lives.”

Members of the Anonymous collective orchestrated a counter protest earlier this week to keep WBC members from demonstrating against the memorial services for victims of the Aurora massacre. According to the latest communiqué, though, those actions should be taken to the Web. Although the author encourages critics of the church to continue protesting them in real life situations, methods of making their mark over the Web are outlined as well.

“If you can hack, hack their website,” the post asks. “If you can DOS, take down their website,” referring to a denial-of-service attack — an online protest of sorts that can temporarily cripple a webpage.

“Show Westboro Baptist Church that we will ultimate end their reign of hatred.”

Source
Photo

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Two dozen arrested in Anaheim police brutality protests July 25, 2012 Non-lethal projectiles like beanbags, rubber bullets, and pepper balls were fired on hundreds of anti-police brutality protesters on Tuesday and those marks are becoming a large part of the story of Anaheim’s ongoing police brutality protests as people share them on Twitter. Some of the photos circulating most widely appeared on the Los Angeles Times’ blog post about the protest that raged from 4 p.m. Tuesday to about 2 a.m. PST Monday. An AP video showed police opening fire with their non-lethal projectile guns as they stood down protesters. And the AP and CBS reported on Saturday that police fired rubber bullets and released dogs onto a crowd of people that included a woman and her baby. The protesting overnight Tuesday June 24 was some of the most intense yet, as demonstrators broke shop windows, lit fires, and threw rocks, leading to 24 arrests. Police have had to deal with them daily since an officer shot Manuel Diaz during a chase on Saturday. Diaz was reportedly unarmed, but ran when officers tried to question him, and they shot him in the ensuing chase. Since then, the intensity of the protests has grown. Unlike the weekend’s unrest, which saw five arrests as about 100 protesters set fire to dumpsters and threw rocks at police.  Another Latino resident, Joel Acevedo, was shot dead by police the following day. Police say Acevedo was suspected in a car robbery, but the circumstances around his death remain unconfirmed.  The protests on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning involved more than 500 people and 250 police officers, and though most were peaceful, The Associated Press’ Amy Taxin and Gillian Flaccus reported. Police Sgt. Bob Dunn “says a police officer, two members of the media and some protesters were injured, but nobody was hospitalized.” Protesters threw chairs through the window of a Starbucks, NBCNews.com reported, and they smashed other windows in the same strip mall. “At one point, police shut down a gas station when protesters were seen filling canisters with gas,” Dunn told The AP. Source Oakland, Chicago & New York are planning solidarity marches on Friday. If you know of any other events, message us & we will spread the word. 

Two dozen arrested in Anaheim police brutality protests 
July 25, 2012

Non-lethal projectiles like beanbags, rubber bullets, and pepper balls were fired on hundreds of anti-police brutality protesters on Tuesday and those marks are becoming a large part of the story of Anaheim’s ongoing police brutality protests as people share them on Twitter. Some of the photos circulating most widely appeared on the Los Angeles Times’ blog post about the protest that raged from 4 p.m. Tuesday to about 2 a.m. PST Monday. An AP video showed police opening fire with their non-lethal projectile guns as they stood down protesters. And the AP and CBS reported on Saturday that police fired rubber bullets and released dogs onto a crowd of people that included a woman and her baby.

The protesting overnight Tuesday June 24 was some of the most intense yet, as demonstrators broke shop windows, lit fires, and threw rocks, leading to 24 arrests. Police have had to deal with them daily since an officer shot Manuel Diaz during a chase on Saturday. Diaz was reportedly unarmed, but ran when officers tried to question him, and they shot him in the ensuing chase. Since then, the intensity of the protests has grown. Unlike the weekend’s unrest, which saw five arrests as about 100 protesters set fire to dumpsters and threw rocks at police. 

Another Latino resident, Joel Acevedo, was shot dead by police the following day. Police say Acevedo was suspected in a car robbery, but the circumstances around his death remain unconfirmed. 

The protests on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning involved more than 500 people and 250 police officers, and though most were peaceful, The Associated Press’ Amy Taxin and Gillian Flaccus reported. Police Sgt. Bob Dunn “says a police officer, two members of the media and some protesters were injured, but nobody was hospitalized.” Protesters threw chairs through the window of a Starbucks, NBCNews.com reported, and they smashed other windows in the same strip mall. “At one point, police shut down a gas station when protesters were seen filling canisters with gas,” Dunn told The AP.

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Oakland, Chicago & New York are planning solidarity marches on Friday. If you know of any other events, message us & we will spread the word. 

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Protests swell after Anaheim police shootingsJuly 24, 2012 Several leaders in Anaheim’s Latino community are calling for increased scrutiny — including an FBI investigation — of a police shooting Saturday that left one man dead and has since roiled the Orange County city. The death of 25-year-old Manuel Angel Diaz was the first of two fatal officer-involved shootings over the weekend. The man killed Sunday was identified as 21-year-old Joel Mathew Acevedo. Tensions remain high in Diaz’s neighborhood, where many people are critical of officers’ conduct right after the Saturday shooting, when police used pepper balls to disperse an angry crowd of about 100 who  threw bottles and rocks at officers. In addition, a police dog was accidentally released into the group. Two officers have been placed on administrative leave, and Mayor Tom Tait on Monday asked for an independent probe by the state attorney general and the U.S. attorney’s office. The state’s League of United Latin American Citizens has requested the FBI also look into Diaz’s death and events that followed, the organization announced Tuesday. “We feel there are unanswered issues,” league director Benny Diaz, who is no relation to the victim, told The Times. “We feel this is very important to conduct a thorough and effective investigation of the whole police force in Anaheim.” Diaz said the group will also ask the U.S. Department of Justice’s Community Relations Service to facilitate meetings between the community and city officials in an effort to improve what he described as a growing distrust of police — something he said results from incidents like Diaz’s death. “It’s happened so many times already; it’s happening in other cities,” he said. “This would really open an opportunity to find a real, true solution.” Amin David, past president of the organization Los Amigos of Orange County, said the community is “facing a wall in dialogue with the police department,” which is why his group plans to ask the Orange County district attorney’s office to expedite its own investigation “to release the tensions and frustrations of the community.” “We don’t know what happened, why he was killed,” he said of Diaz. “They should have these answers. All they know is what the papers have said: He was killed because he ran away.” Seferino Garcia, executive director of Solevar, an Anaheim community group, said he has met with the mayor about the incidents, but an independent inquiry wasn’t enough. “I told him we’ve got to take a step further,” he said. “We need to do more than that.” Garcia suggested town hall meetings with community members and the formation of a civilian police review board as initial steps toward alleviating tensions within the city, which he said was “up in arms.” “They’ve seen everything on TV — the dogs, the shootings and just a history of brutality,” he said. “Right now, the community is not going to stand idle. We have a job to do.” “It’s like a powder keg,” he continued. “They’re ready to explode, and it’s going to get worse.” Source

Protests swell after Anaheim police shootings
July 24, 2012

Several leaders in Anaheim’s Latino community are calling for increased scrutiny — including an FBI investigation — of a police shooting Saturday that left one man dead and has since roiled the Orange County city.

The death of 25-year-old Manuel Angel Diaz was the first of two fatal officer-involved shootings over the weekend. The man killed Sunday was identified as 21-year-old Joel Mathew Acevedo.

Tensions remain high in Diaz’s neighborhood, where many people are critical of officers’ conduct right after the Saturday shooting, when police used pepper balls to disperse an angry crowd of about 100 who  threw bottles and rocks at officers. In addition, a police dog was accidentally released into the group.

Two officers have been placed on administrative leave, and Mayor Tom Tait on Monday asked for an independent probe by the state attorney general and the U.S. attorney’s office.

The state’s League of United Latin American Citizens has requested the FBI also look into Diaz’s death and events that followed, the organization announced Tuesday.

“We feel there are unanswered issues,” league director Benny Diaz, who is no relation to the victim, told The Times. “We feel this is very important to conduct a thorough and effective investigation of the whole police force in Anaheim.”

Diaz said the group will also ask the U.S. Department of Justice’s Community Relations Service to facilitate meetings between the community and city officials in an effort to improve what he described as a growing distrust of police — something he said results from incidents like Diaz’s death.

“It’s happened so many times already; it’s happening in other cities,” he said. “This would really open an opportunity to find a real, true solution.”

Amin David, past president of the organization Los Amigos of Orange County, said the community is “facing a wall in dialogue with the police department,” which is why his group plans to ask the Orange County district attorney’s office to expedite its own investigation “to release the tensions and frustrations of the community.”

“We don’t know what happened, why he was killed,” he said of Diaz. “They should have these answers. All they know is what the papers have said: He was killed because he ran away.”

Seferino Garcia, executive director of Solevar, an Anaheim community group, said he has met with the mayor about the incidents, but an independent inquiry wasn’t enough.

“I told him we’ve got to take a step further,” he said. “We need to do more than that.”

Garcia suggested town hall meetings with community members and the formation of a civilian police review board as initial steps toward alleviating tensions within the city, which he said was “up in arms.”

“They’ve seen everything on TV — the dogs, the shootings and just a history of brutality,” he said. “Right now, the community is not going to stand idle. We have a job to do.”

“It’s like a powder keg,” he continued. “They’re ready to explode, and it’s going to get worse.”

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Anaheim police kill another man, fire on anti-brutality protestersJuly 23, 2012 Anaheim police have shot dead yet another man just a day after killing 24-year old Manuel Diaz. The previous day’s shooting sparked a protest against police brutality that was violently broken up by authorities. Police say the second shooting took place on Sunday, when anti-gang crime officers spotted a stolen SUV and started chasing it. Three suspects were said to have jumped out of the SUV, with police continuing their pursuit on foot. The men reportedly opened fire at an officer, and the policeman retaliated by shooting dead one of the shooters.   However, eyewitnesses say police shot dead a man who was already handcuffed, OC Weekly reports. Family friends told the Weekly that the victim was Joel Acevedo, a resident of Anaheim. Residents on the scene allegedly tried to take photos from a second floor of an apartment block, but police obscured their view with flash lights. The second alleged killing took place a few blocks away from the place where 24-year-old  Manuel Diaz was gunned down by police on Saturday. In the wake of Diaz’s death, roughly 200 people gathered to protest police brutality and pelted cops with bottles. Police attempted to break up the crowds firing beanbag rounds and tear gas. A shocking video of the riot shows women and children amongst the panicking demonstrator, fleeing for cover. Footage shows a police dog slipping from an officer’s hand and taking down one of the protesters and biting his arm before being brought under control. “They just released the dog, and I had my baby and my stroller,” resident Susan Lopez told local television channel KCAL. Demonstrations have raged in Anaheim since Saturday afternoon when Diaz died of his wounds after being shot by cops. On Sunday enraged protesters stormed the local police station amid chants of “no justice, no peace” and “cops, pigs, murderers.” Two officers spotted three men, one of whom was Diaz, acting suspiciously in an alleyway, the police’s account of the story says. The men tried to run from  police, but one of the officers gave chase and fatally shot Diaz next to an apartment complex. A video showing the moments right after the shooting has emerged on YouTube. The video also shows that Diaz’s head was covered in blood, raising doubts about whether the police’s actions were justified. There have also been complaints online that police did not do enough to help the wounded Diaz, who apparently was still twitching at the beginning of the video. The video’s description says that the witness who took the video has chosen to remain anonymous over fear of reprisals. Source The People’s Record will continue to post updates on this Anaheim police murder case & the protests that have followed Diaz & Acevedo’s murders. 

Anaheim police kill another man, fire on anti-brutality protesters
July 23, 2012

Anaheim police have shot dead yet another man just a day after killing 24-year old Manuel Diaz. The previous day’s shooting sparked a protest against police brutality that was violently broken up by authorities.

Police say the second shooting took place on Sunday, when anti-gang crime officers spotted a stolen SUV and started chasing it. Three suspects were said to have jumped out of the SUV, with police continuing their pursuit on foot. The men reportedly opened fire at an officer, and the policeman retaliated by shooting dead one of the shooters.  

However, eyewitnesses say police shot dead a man who was already handcuffed, OC Weekly reports.

Family friends told the Weekly that the victim was Joel Acevedo, a resident of Anaheim.

Residents on the scene allegedly tried to take photos from a second floor of an apartment block, but police obscured their view with flash lights. The second alleged killing took place a few blocks away from the place where 24-year-old  Manuel Diaz was gunned down by police on Saturday.

In the wake of Diaz’s death, roughly 200 people gathered to protest police brutality and pelted cops with bottles.

Police attempted to break up the crowds firing beanbag rounds and tear gas. A shocking video of the riot shows women and children amongst the panicking demonstrator, fleeing for cover.

Footage shows a police dog slipping from an officer’s hand and taking down one of the protesters and biting his arm before being brought under control.

“They just released the dog, and I had my baby and my stroller,” resident Susan Lopez told local television channel KCAL.

Demonstrations have raged in Anaheim since Saturday afternoon when Diaz died of his wounds after being shot by cops.

On Sunday enraged protesters stormed the local police station amid chants of “no justice, no peace” and “cops, pigs, murderers.”

Two officers spotted three men, one of whom was Diaz, acting suspiciously in an alleyway, the police’s account of the story says. The men tried to run from  police, but one of the officers gave chase and fatally shot Diaz next to an apartment complex.

A video showing the moments right after the shooting has emerged on YouTube. The video also shows that Diaz’s head was covered in blood, raising doubts about whether the police’s actions were justified. There have also been complaints online that police did not do enough to help the wounded Diaz, who apparently was still twitching at the beginning of the video.

The video’s description says that the witness who took the video has chosen to remain anonymous over fear of reprisals.

Source

The People’s Record will continue to post updates on this Anaheim police murder case & the protests that have followed Diaz & Acevedo’s murders. 

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Anaheim police murder sparks protest as officers respond with more brutalityJuly 22, 2012 A police shooting that left a man dead led to a near riot Saturday as angry witnesses threw bottles at officers who responded with tear gas and beanbag rounds. Protesters stormed the police department shouting, “No justice, no peace!” and “Cops, pigs, murderers” as officers stood by. The man was shot around 4 p.m. in front of an apartment complex on the 600 block of North Anna Drive following a foot chase, Anaheim Sgt. Bob Dunn said. He died three hours later at a hospital. The Orange County Register cited family members and neighbors who said the man shot was Manuel Diaz. Dunn said he could not confirm the man’s name early Sunday. His niece, 16-year-old Daisy Gonzalez, said her uncle likely ran away from officers when they approached him because of his past experience with law enforcement. “He (doesn’t) like cops. He never liked them because all they do is harass and arrest anyone,” Gonzalez said. Residents, protesting what they say is an increased police violence against them in the community, started the near riot after the shooting on nearby La Palma. Crystal Ventura, a 17-year-old who witnessed the shooting, told the Register the man had his back to the officer. She said the man was shot in the buttocks area. The man then went down on his knees, and she said he was struck by another bullet in the head. Another officer handcuffed the man who by then was on the ground and not moving, Ventura said. “They searched his pockets, and there was a hole in his head, and I saw blood on his face,” she said. Dunn said he could not comment on these allegations because the shooting is under investigation. Jay Jackson, reporting for CBS2 and KCAL9, said Saturday night’s scene was chaotic. The residents blocked off a street and set fire to at least one dumpster. Earlier in the day, police in riot gear, fired rubber bullets into the crowd. Several protesters lifted their shirts to show large red welts on their torsos and backs. One man said, “They just started shooting.”Residents told Jackson that police overreacted and created the disturbance. Police also set a K-9 officer on one woman and a bystander they said were agitating the situation. Said Susan Lopez, “I had my baby with me. My baby! The dog scratched me and then grabbed me.” She added, “They shot at me while I was holding a baby!” Another woman yelled, “They just shot at us, they shot at a little kid, too.” According to police, two patrol officers observed three male suspects in an alley. Police said the suspects tried to flee on foot when a chase ensued. The shooting reportedly occurred after one of the officers encountered one of the suspects in a courtyard. No officers were injured. The other two suspects are at-large. Dunn said, “What exactly led to the shooting, we don’t know. We’re still investigating. But a shooting did occur. And the male was taken to a hospital.” Authorities said the circumstances regarding the shooting were under investigation by members of the gangs unit and Orange County District Attorney’s office. Four people told Jackson that police offered to buy their cell phone video. SourcePhoto

Anaheim police murder sparks protest as officers respond with more brutality
July 22, 2012

A police shooting that left a man dead led to a near riot Saturday as angry witnesses threw bottles at officers who responded with tear gas and beanbag rounds.

Protesters stormed the police department shouting, “No justice, no peace!” and “Cops, pigs, murderers” as officers stood by.

The man was shot around 4 p.m. in front of an apartment complex on the 600 block of North Anna Drive following a foot chase, Anaheim Sgt. Bob Dunn said. He died three hours later at a hospital.

The Orange County Register cited family members and neighbors who said the man shot was Manuel Diaz. Dunn said he could not confirm the man’s name early Sunday.

His niece, 16-year-old Daisy Gonzalez, said her uncle likely ran away from officers when they approached him because of his past experience with law enforcement. “He (doesn’t) like cops. He never liked them because all they do is harass and arrest anyone,” Gonzalez said.

Residents, protesting what they say is an increased police violence against them in the community, started the near riot after the shooting on nearby La Palma.

Crystal Ventura, a 17-year-old who witnessed the shooting, told the Register the man had his back to the officer. She said the man was shot in the buttocks area. The man then went down on his knees, and she said he was struck by another bullet in the head. Another officer handcuffed the man who by then was on the ground and not moving, Ventura said.

“They searched his pockets, and there was a hole in his head, and I saw blood on his face,” she said.

Dunn said he could not comment on these allegations because the shooting is under investigation.

Jay Jackson, reporting for CBS2 and KCAL9, said Saturday night’s scene was chaotic.

The residents blocked off a street and set fire to at least one dumpster.

Earlier in the day, police in riot gear, fired rubber bullets into the crowd. Several protesters lifted their shirts to show large red welts on their torsos and backs.

One man said, “They just started shooting.”Residents told Jackson that police overreacted and created the disturbance.

Police also set a K-9 officer on one woman and a bystander they said were agitating the situation.

Said Susan Lopez, “I had my baby with me. My baby! The dog scratched me and then grabbed me.” She added, “They shot at me while I was holding a baby!” Another woman yelled, “They just shot at us, they shot at a little kid, too.”

According to police, two patrol officers observed three male suspects in an alley.

Police said the suspects tried to flee on foot when a chase ensued.

The shooting reportedly occurred after one of the officers encountered one of the suspects in a courtyard.

No officers were injured.

The other two suspects are at-large.

Dunn said, “What exactly led to the shooting, we don’t know. We’re still investigating. But a shooting did occur. And the male was taken to a hospital.”

Authorities said the circumstances regarding the shooting were under investigation by members of the gangs unit and Orange County District Attorney’s office.

Four people told Jackson that police offered to buy their cell phone video.

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