Protest Against Police Violence is Monitored From Above by Police Snipers
Via The Agitator, snipers from the Lima SWAT team were perched on the rooftop as citizens gathered to discuss the violent excesses of the Lima SWAT team. Apparently, they think you pose a threat if you protest the threat that they pose:
As residents arrived in the parking lot at the school, several noticed movement on the roof of the buildings. The Lima SWAT team was in position looking down on the gathering speakers. “Here we come in good faith, and they have snipers on the roofs of our school! We came in peace, and they are ready to gun us down like dogs!” Willie Manley vowed to ask them face to face. “How can we trust you, when you can’t trust us?”By what sort of twisted logic was it decided that these peaceful protesters might have to be put down? The whole thing just smacks of intimidation.
The mood seemed to changed as people continued to walk into the school many taking a final glance at the rooftops in disbelief, shaking their heads and commenting to friends. [The Sojourner's Truth]
This is the same SWAT team that had to remove an image from its website shortly after the shooting, which depicted a SWAT officer firing a machine gun straight at you when you opened the site. The graphic made anyone visiting the site feel like a potential target, which was exactly the wrong message to send after killing an innocent mother of six and shooting her baby.
Yet, the decision to post SWAT snipers atop the local high school during a town hall meeting discussing SWAT violence is even more hideous. An act so ironic and inappropriate is an unambiguous statement of contempt towards a confused and grieving community. If the Lima Police Department were even remotely concerned about the widespread public animosity they'd already caused, they would not behave this way. And if they had a plausible explanation for killing an innocent woman and shooting her baby, we'd have heard it by now.
Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to the War on Drugs. You might have heard of it before, but you really don't understand what it is until you've witnessed the spectacle of hundreds of African Americans marching hand in hand against indiscriminate police violence. If you've formed an opinion about drug prohibition without realizing that innocent mothers and babies are getting shot, then please take this opportunity to reassess the situation.
animated graphic from Lima Swat Team web site -- they took it down after killing Tarika Wilson
digg
redditMore police abuse.
Comment posted by Rhubarb Koznowski on Thu, 02/14/2008 - 10:12amIt's Everywhere
Comment posted by Anonymous on Thu, 02/14/2008 - 10:55amAnd it's here to stay , unless these Swatzi's are held legally accountable. This is a federally proclaimed "drug war", and as in any war, there are war criminals.
Publicize the Fiasco in Lima
Comment posted by William Aiken on Thu, 02/14/2008 - 1:06pmWilliam Aiken
People concerned with the crisis in Lima, OH should be E-mailing the national media shows that focus on criminal cases such as Bloom & Politan, The Best Defense and "Banfield & Ford as well as CNN, MSNBC & Foxnews.
A lot of assignment editors operate under the premise that if it bleeds it leads and the case in Lima, OH certainly fits that description. So send this story from the DRCNet page to the media and urge them to cover the growing use of SWAT teams to arrest small time offenders. The Internet can be a powerful tool to expose the failures of the Drug War. Used it!
What? No Helicopters?
Comment posted by Giordano on Thu, 02/14/2008 - 3:16pmFear of dissent and non-conformity by the Lima police should’ve been worth a few helicopter gunships circling overhead, complete with infrared cameras and precisely aimed .50-cal. cannons. The land of the Kent State Massacre must be getting soft.
It’s bad enough that the German immigrants who settled the Ohio valley region contribute to the overall arch conservatism of the area. Adding race and dissent to the equation makes for a very dangerous mix. Ohio state officials will be very much in error if they keep thinking they have no political liability when it comes to police misconduct during an election year. Rather, it would be smart politics for the Ohio governor’s office to intervene in the Lima situation and force the police to stand down.
It’s only the peaceful demeanor of the dissenters with their well-focused civil complaints about police militancy that appears to be keeping Lima from boiling over. The SWATzis and their brain-addled, PR-blind commanders are only making the situation worse for their community and themselves.
Giordano
Trained to NOT see humanity
Comment posted by aahpat on Thu, 02/14/2008 - 7:10pmSWAT snipers are trained/indoctrinated to DE-humanize their targets so that they do not have moral problems about killing people.
The SWAT web site picture reminds me of an experience I had in 1985 in Philadelphia, PA after the MOVE confrontation where police fire bombed a neighborhood in order to annihilate eleven non-conformists including five children. I was a photographer and covered the entire assault. Premeditated mass murder.
Afterward some police union members had buttons and baseball hats with patches on them depicting a helicopter with a bomb being dropped and the words "Philadelphia Police Bomber Squadron".
I first found out about these mementos while covering a ball game where other news photogs were getting their copies from police friends. When I saw what was going on the photogs and police clammed up and hid it all. They knew that I was not sympathetic to police in this issue.
Their hiding it made it clear that they, both police and news people, knew that these things represented an abhorrent lack of morality and humanity but to them it was all a big joke. I tried to expose it and was called a liar to my face in front of editors by the journalists from major newspapers and wire services who all had gotten their hats. Some of these people are today some of the top editorial management of the news media across America.
is this the norm now?
Comment posted by Anonymous on Fri, 02/15/2008 - 12:51pmhow many towns of that size have SWAT teams now i wonder? it's bizarre to me. i grew up in a town that size on long island and we just had a dinky police department. of course that was before the police state economy. it seems really fucked up to me, all of it.
Yes, it's the "norm".
Comment posted by Rhubarb Koznowski on Fri, 02/15/2008 - 3:44pmVirtually every police department in the US today is applying for its share of confiscated drug money forfeitures from the feds, as well as whatever cash they can rip off locally. Our police dept. here (about 15 miles away from Disney World) was on the front page of the local paper last week proudly showing off some new weapon they had bought with a revolving canister of rounds that looked like a grenade launcher or Gatling gun. They are now pushing the local town council to spring for the money to buy a rifle range for their snipers to practice. We have a population of around 28,000 people, so I guess they can find plenty of targets. On any given day the local drug squad can be spotted driving around in plain vehicles with tinted windows, wearing full face black stocking masks (to protect their undercover identities.)
I have come to realize that the war we are in is not about drugs. It is about power. The drug prohibition is just an excuse to seize it.
Just call me paranoid...
Have we no shame...?
Comment posted by Rhubarb Koznowski on Fri, 02/15/2008 - 4:00pmAfter writing the previous note, I saw a sponsored link on this page (from Google) appearing just to the right:
Police Quest Swat 2
GameTap brings 100s of the world's greatest video games to your PC.
www.GameTap.com
I know our site needs the money, but ads like this, and the others for detox programs and drug lawyers are a becoming a little tiresome. Guess I need to reach a little deeper in my pockets for a donation.
Police violence is getting
Comment posted by Tanz on Wed, 09/10/2008 - 7:30amPolice violence is getting ugly and the drugs aren't stopping. Maybe if people could buy generic Viagra online more safely then things can get better for those who are looking for a cheap licensed online pharmacy in the U.S. or the U.K.
Disgusting
Comment posted by Anonymous on Thu, 02/14/2008 - 2:15amThis story should have been on CNN, something is very wrong with the Lima SWAT team. This kind of behavior by a law enforcement agency should not be tolorated anywhere in the USA . This county needs to find some direction, mr. bush can lead us to war , but can't controll law enforcement. I simply don't have the words to explain how disgusted I am to hear that a SWAT team pulled this off .