Tuesday, April 01, 2014

Investigations are important, but, the Governor needs to stop the killings.

The police involved in the murder of James Boyd must be put on suspension immediately. The Governor is out of touch with reality. 

Associated Press
 Updated: March 31, 2014 at 1:43 pm 
Published: March 31, 2014

Associated Press Updated: March 31, 2014 at 1:43 pm • Published: March 31, 2014
Read more at http://gazette.com/new-mexico-governor-calls-for-calm-after-protest-1-officer-injured-6-people-arrested/article/1517391#q25iwxTOuBWXhDIQ.99
...Martinez said she watched the protests on television Sunday. (click here)
"Albuquerque is going through a tough time, and they'll figure it out through the investigation," the governor said. "We want that to be thorough. We want confidence in the investigation, but I just don't want to see anyone harmed."
This protest and another last week were in response to the 37 shootings Albuquerque police have been involved in since 2010, 23 of them fatal. The outrage bubbled over recently with the release of a video showing officers fatally shooting 38-year-old James Boyd, a homeless camper, as he appeared to be preparing to surrender on March 16. Ten days later, officers killed another man after they say he shot at them....

I'll go through this second by second if I have to. To begin with there have been innumerable deaths of innocent people unable to protect themselves. I am quite sure, as a homeless man, Mr. Boyd was aware of the danger of being a human being and breathing if an annoyance to police officers.

This video has played over and over in my mind today. I can't get rid of it. It is amazing to me the video is on the net. It indicts these officers and witnesses the murder or an innocent man. Mr. Boyd was asleep and bothering no one. He was homeless because the City of Albuquerque has no adequate homeless policy or shelter secure enough to allow men to feel safe. Additionally, Mr. Boyd didn't want to be in trouble. He was outside the city because he was afraid of trouble with anyone.

James Boyd was not a worldly person, never decided Albuquerque was too dangerous and tried to hitch hike to another city. It is my opinion Mr. Boyd's "Mind Map" was limited to that of Albuquerque and the surrounding area including the foothills. I don't know the man, but, I know the plight of the homeless and how limited their options are. I also know men are men. They take life on the chin and just get on with it. Mr. Boyd was not a violent man. He had a knife like many people do for protection and utility. Being homeless is dangerous.

Everyone has to sleep somewhere. Where was he suppose to sleep in the middle of the road and hope a semi didn't run him over? Seriously. Where does the homeless of New Mexico find respite and a safe environment to work out their problems? Believe it or not living on the street is expensive, too.

It is my estimation Mr. Boyd was so scared of being killed by zealot police officers that he negotiated with officers for three hours before even standing up to become a target. I have this nagging reality that James Boyd knew he was a dead man. 

This video is a training film. Why did they make it at all? Because they knew they were going to kill James Boyd and they wanted it to be a 'kill by the book' so they could not be held responsible for murder. What has astounded me about the news coverage is that the media had no interest in who James Boyd was, except, he was a homeless man THAT was difficult with the police. According to the media, "...being difficult with police..." was enough to murder him. According to the media the police were spot on in their techniques. Now, why would a media be so certain that a man was evil and the police angelical in their professional perfection? Why would that be? It was propaganda. It is 'programming' that is suppose to reassure the public they have a powerful police department and the public is safe. That doesn't seem to be the case, though, now does it?

The camera in this video is placed in an advantageous position. It is nearly Hollywood quality. Everyone can be seen. James Boyd and all the police, the dog and the assassin. They are all in the frame of the video and that quality does not diminish through the entire filming. The person filming this murder was a professional, knew what he or she was doing and knew exactly what was coming. Nothing surprised the videographer. No shaking, nothing blurred, everything comes across extremely clearly. The video was made to exonerate the police from murder. No doubt in my mind. 

Once Mr. Boyd agrees to come out from behind the rock where he was sleeping and not bothering a soul, he was still scared, but believed he had no alternative. He stated to the officer he was talking to, "...don't change the agreement now...."

For three hours James Boyd bargained for his life and when he finally believed he had an agreement that would insure his life and as he surrendered the agreement changed and James Boyd died. 

It is a helmet cam. Amazing. Every bit of what occurred never leaves the frame.  

At 0:45 seconds the officers are talking to him about safety. Safety is a huge problem for James Boyd. He throws his arms in the air as if he was going to be okay and he proceeded to move toward the police because he believed in doing so his safety was assured. 

At 0:53 Mr. Boyd is beginning his walk down the hill toward the police that had just assured him that safety was important. As soon as Mr. Boyd took his first step the police exploded a Stun Grenade. COMPLETELY UNPROVOLKED. Completely unprovoked. The Stun Grenade then BY DESIGN disorients his vision and hearing for AT LEAST 5 seconds. Here is a man surrendering to police and he finds himself disoriented, blinded and deaf. Now, talk about confusion. The police knew exactly what they were doing. They were about kill this man and they wanted to play the hero with all the glitz and glamour afforded their damed egos.  

At 0:56 Mr. Boyd begins to react to the assault. He drops his bags and tries to formulate some kind of defense of himself and is being yelled at to drop to the ground. Now, Mr. Boyd has confusion, deaf and with unclear vision from the Stun Grenade. Was he going to be able to hear those damned bastards? No. He didn't know what happened to him. Not only that but when he became more confused the dog was brought on as if it was necessary and guns were fired.  

At 1:01 as the police assault him, he throws his arms up in the air and then down by his side, he obviously is scared to death for his life and has not formulated what to do. 

At 1:03 Mr. Boyd has already turned to run and he falls to the ground succumbing to the bullets penetrating his body. His movements stopped and he fell to the ground as the goons continued to yell as if they had to.

At 1:12 Mr. Boyd was face down in the dirt, unable to move and the officers are still playing cowboy in their threats and yelling. The dog is still within the methodology of a man face down in the dirt. The assassin by this time had trained a beacon on him because the end was near. Boyd was so dangerous laying face down in the dirt unable to move he was going to die with an flinch.

At 1:17 the asshole police are still yelling about a knife in his hand. Well, if the man couldn't move and was bleeding and becoming weak what difference did any knife make? He was not able to use it, but, the zealot police were going to RUN THEIR GAME to the end. He was a dangerous and out of control man and their lives were in dire danger. Now, does anyone actually expect me and any other same citizen to believe at any point during this murder that the police were in danger. There were three armed and dangerous officers and a dog a moment away from holding that man to the ground or worse and there was a concern about a knife? I could have walked up to him and kicked it away and then called the ambulance and hoped he would not die in transit. But, that isn't what occurred. The cops were 'runnin' game' and it had to be completed.

At 1:35 being shot and unable to stand while the cops are yelling to put his hands up knowing he was face down in the dirt, Mr. Boyd tried to move and his ankles and feet move a few inches. At this point James Boyd still had life in his body and those damn bastards never cared that he did. 

By 1:42 an officer has fired three bullets into James Boyd. James Boyd is face down and the angle of the bullets could easily enter his body and traverse it toward his heart. And the dog keeps moaning to turn him loose on the downed man. Before and while the bullets were entering James Boyd the police are yelling for him to drop the knife. These boys are morons. Nothing short of it. They have not one moral or brave bone in their bodies. 

At 2:11 the dog is NOW biting and tearing at James Boyd and there is blood on the rock. Mr. Boyd is basically lifeless. He more than likely hit his head on the rock when he fell and had a head injury. So even as the Stun Grenade may have been wearing off his head injury was impairing any mentation that might still remain. There was no reason to turn that dog on that man face down in the dirt when there was no overt danger to anyone. They turned the dog loose to let him satisfy the desire he had for attack and maybe some blood. 

The Coroner's Report better have reporting of dog marks on James Boyd's body. 

The lousy assassin still has his beacon trained on the lifeless body. It's all technique. There is no active thought process in any of them. They are on automatic and carrying out TECHNIQUE. James Boyd was as near dead as he could be at that point and RoboCops were still shaking in their shoes. 

At 2:30 there were five officers and a dog (which they could not keep from nipping at the body). Those five officers should have already been carrying James Boyd to a car and racing to take him to the hospital. What do they do? They start to secure his hands. His lifeless hands. At this point James Boyd could not have formulated any movement or begin to realize he had a chance to satisfy those lousy officers intent on killing him. James Boyd was lost to himself and the officers continued to carry out technique. They carried out techniques on a man near death being nipped at by their dog. 

At 2:58 the dog is walked away. Where is James Boyd? On his way to the hospital? No. Still face down in the dirt.

At 3:09 the cops are still running game and 'TAKE ON THE CAMPSITE' where a large ziplock bag holds the only worldly belongings of James Boyd. What did they think they were doing? They just killed a man and now they were hoping to find all kinds of drugs or guns or knives to justify their actions. 

At 3:14 the heroes have their guns trained on the ziplock bag as if it were going to come alive. 

At 3:53 the cops are satisfied there is nothing that is going to come alive and absolutely nothing that James Boyd can jump up and use against them. Brilliant men. Absolute geniuses. Where is James Boyd? Still lying face down in the dirt. 

The tape ends at 3:56.

The Governor needs to turn off her television, take all these men out of the police force, remove their badges and guns until all the investigations are done. And, oh by the way. The Governor should be telling them not to leave town either. The administrators of the  Albuquerque police department should have been fired already and listed as accomplices to murder.

Do I respect these men? Do I respect the Governor? Do I respect the Albuquerque police department? No. And don't expect me to anytime in the near future.

Martinez said she watched the protests on television Sunday.
"Albuquerque is going through a tough time, and they'll figure it out through the investigation," the governor said. "We want that to be thorough. We want confidence in the investigation, but I just don't want to see anyone harmed."
This protest and another last week were in response to the 37 shootings Albuquerque police have been involved in since 2010, 23 of them fatal. The outrage bubbled over recently with the release of a video showing officers fatally shooting 38-year-old James Boyd, a homeless camper, as he appeared to be preparing to surrender on March 16. Ten days later, officers killed another man after they say he shot at them.

Read more at http://gazette.com/new-mexico-governor-calls-for-calm-after-protest-1-officer-injured-6-people-arrested/article/1517391#q25iwxTOuBWXhDIQ.99

Just when there was nothing else that could be a nightmare about private prisons and parole companies, Arizona found a way to make it to "Raw Story."

By Scott Kaufman
Monday, March 31, 2014 9:34 EDT


Lobbyists for the private prison company GEO Group (click here) convinced lawmakers to include almost $1 million extra in funding despite the fact that the Arizona Department of Corrections claimed the money wasn’t needed.

Late last Friday, Arizona House Appropriations Chairman John Kavanagh (R-Fountain Hills) placed the extra funding into the budget because GEO Group’s lobbyists informed him that the company wasn’t profiting enough off of emergency beds it provides Arizona prisons.

“This is somebody getting a handout,” Arizona House Minority Leader Chad Campbell (D-Phoenix) said. “It’s unnecessary. This came out of nowhere — I mean that. No one said a word about it. It wasn’t in the Senate budget, it didn’t come as a request from DOC. There’s something really shady here.”...

Since the late 1990’s, the number of people held in immigration detention has exploded. On any given day, ICE detains over 33,000 immigrants; this is more than triple the number of people detained in 1996. In the last 5 years alone, the annual number of immigrants detained and the costs of detaining them has doubled: in 2009, 383,524 immigrants were detained, costing taxpayers $1.7 billion at an average of $122 a day per bed. Nearly 2.5 million individuals have passed through immigration detention facilities since 2003....
Craig Harris and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez
The Republic
March 31, 2014

Private-prison lobbyists (click here) succeeded in getting state lawmakers to include nearly $1 million in extra funding in the state budget even though the Arizona Department of Corrections says the money isn't needed.

The eleventh-hour funding was placed into the budget by House Appropriations Chairman John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, who said GEO Group Inc. lobbyists informed him the company wasn't making enough money from the emergency beds it provides Arizona at prisons in Phoenix and Florence.

The request came even though GEO bid for its contracts and had agreed to previously negotiated rates with the Corrections Department, which guarantees the company nearly 100 percent occupancy at its prisons....




Stop the ruthlessness.

The article below appeared before the 2012 election. ICE has been doing what is required of them.

Given the dialogue of the right wing it had occurred to me why there has been no immigration reform.

By Suzy Khimm
...As of July, (click here) Obama deported 1.4 million illegal immigrants since the beginning of his administration — that's 1.5 times more immigrants on average than Bush deported every month, according to official numbers from the Department of Homeland Security*. But that's only part of Obama's deportation strategy: The administration's stated goal is to prioritize the deportation of criminal, dangerous illegal immigrants. And it's promised to make a new program called Secure Communities mandatory by 2013, which would force local law enforcement to share fingerprints of those arrested with the Department of Homeland Security, which has immigration records, through the FBI....
I've heard numbers are reaching 2 million of deportations....









It is easy to be a Greenhouse Gas Polluter, it takes character and will to change and invoke the solution.

The illustration to the right is noted by John Cook as the basis of Christian objection to the Climate Crisis.

On February 25, (click here) the White House convened a conference on environmental stewardship and climate change with leaders of religious communities from around the U.S. There was a noticeable absence of panelists representing some groups, such as the Native Americans, the Jews and the Buddhists. There were references to God's Earth and Creation as unifying concepts throughout the event although such concepts are not universally accepted by all religions. Still, the event was highly significant in the consensus it conveyed: The climate is simultaneously an environmental, social justice and moral issue that requires urgent action. The White House is to be commended for convening this timely gathering to mobilize support from faith leaders to address the deepening climate crisis...

I'll be darn. Not all religions in the USA accept the idea of "God's Earth and Creation."

A truly brilliant blogger is John Cook. He takes on the issues of skeptics and deniers of the Climate Crisis. He makes these distinctions.

Our guest blogger is John Cook, (click here) the founder of Skeptical Science and co-author of Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand. This post originally appeared at the Australian Broadcasting Company’s blog The Drum.

Consider the following definitions. 

Genuine skeptics consider all the evidence in their search for the truth. 

Deniers, on the other hand, refuse to accept any evidence that conflicts with their pre-determined views....

So, when John Boehner carries out a bill to deny the existence of the Climate Crisis, he is turning against his own government that has scientific agencies that have collected evidence. Denying the evidence is treason. Why? Because the reason the Republicans are denying the evidence is to serve their cronies, the petroleum industry. A sworn member of any government that puts their political interests ahead of the nation is committing treason.

Massey Energy is a repeat offender. They don't care about safety.

The Marsh Fork Elementary School in Raleigh County with the light green lawn and white buildings is in the foreground at left. Just behind the school is a blue bend in the Marsh Fork of the Little Coal River. Across the river to the right is the coal silo--just 150 feet from the school. Though not readily visible, train tracks run beside the silo. Concerned parents worry that coal dust and the chemicals used in processing coal and loading it from the silo onto the train are drifting onto school grounds. Prove this yourself--walk barefoot through the playground and take a look at your toes.

Blankenship always is the authority. He is always the one who knows best. Everyone else is ignorant. His employees are ignorant, his supervisors are ignorant, the union is ignorant and the government is ignorant, I am ignorant, god is ignorant. The only learned person is Blankenship. Got that? You better.

If he complains about personal attacks, it is because everyone else are defending themselves from his personal attacks. You know, we are all ignorant. 

14 years of work by two Pittsburgh lawyers (click here)
05.11.13
...In February former Massey Energy executive David Hughart stood in a courtroom in Beckley, West Virginia and pleaded guilty to obstructing the work of federal safety inspectors. Massey’s chairman and CEO Donald Blankenship, the most powerful coal baron in the history of the American coal industry, ran the company with an iron fist in an iron glove. He had control over even the smallest detail and most likely would have told his subordinate what to do. Despite that, if events transpired the way they almost always have in the history of coal and power in Appalachia, Blankenship would not be touched or his name even mentioned in the criminal proceedings....

Massey Energy had thousands of violations with the EPA. The EPA just decided to list everyone involved who was ignorant in order to get all the violations addressed.











In all honesty, this isn't worth my time. The documentation that is 'of course, ignorant' is extensive. (click here)

Massey is going  to try to tell the entire country he has no problem managing mines and protecting lives? Really?

Martin County coal slurry spill

Oct. 23 (2011)
By Geraldine Sealey
A gooey gray river of coal waste, (click here) the consistency of soft-serve ice cream, is oozing through waterways in Kentucky and West Virginia, inflicting what officials are calling the worst environmental disaster to hit the region in more than a decade.
So far, more than 100 miles of creeks, streams, and rivers have been affected, despite attempts by federal and state crews to contain the spreading mess. No human injuries have been reported, but the smothering sludge has been deadly to wildlife.
About 250 million gallons of the creeping goo, known as coal slurry, leaked from a Martin County Coal Corp. waste containment pond on Oct. 11 in Inez, Ky., about 140 miles east of Lexington, and has been inching through streams and rivers. The polluting glop meandered from the mine into creeks, then down the Big Sandy River and into the Ohio River last Friday....

Aracoma Alma Mine accident

OVERVIEW (click here) 

At approximately 5:14 p.m. on January 19, 2006, a fire occurred at the  
9 Headgatelongwall belt takeup storage unit of the Aracoma Alma  
Mine #1, resulting in the deaths of two miners. Twenty-nine underground miners were working on this shift. Initial attempts to extinguish the fire failed, and observations at the scene indicated that smoke from the fire was traveling further into the mine via the 2 Section intake air course. Miners in affected areas were neither immediately notified nor withdrawn followingthe initial carbon monoxide (CO) alarm signal from the Atmospheric Monitoring 
System (AMS).... 

Upper Big Branch Report (click here) 

This report is dedicated to the men who lost their lives in the Upper Big Branch mine:

Carl Calvin Acord
Jason Atkins
Christopher Bell
Gregory Steven Brock
Kenneth Allan Chapman
Robert E. Clark
Cory Thomas Davis
Charles Timothy Davis
Michael Lee Elswick
William Ildon Griffith
Steven Harrah
Edward Dean Jones
Richard K. Lane
William Roosevelt Lynch
Joe Marcum 

Ronald Lee Maynor
Nicolas Darrell McCroskey
James E. “Eddie” Mooney
Adam Keith Morgan
Rex L. Mullins
Joshua Scott Napper
Howard D. Payne
Dillard Earl Persinger
Joel R. Price
Gary Wayne Quarles
Deward Allan Scott
Grover Dale Skeens
Benny Ray Willingham
Ricky Workman


There are real people, with real families and had real lives. Now there are memories. There are broken and wounded families and I will not allow that horrible man to celebrate his own cruel managing methodology. He killed people and I suppose that is hard to actually live with, but, that is the truth and there is overwhelming evidence to that reality.

 In memory of THE MEN OF THE UPPER BIG BRANCH MINE (click here)

Carl Calvin “Pee Wee” Acord
Carl Calvin “Pee Wee” Acord, 52, had worked in the mines for 34 years and was a proud member of the “Old Man Crew” at the Upper Big Branch Mine. He enjoyed fishing with his sons, working in his yard, driving his tractor and being “PaPaw” to his two grandchildren, Chase and Cameron. He is survived by his wife, Joyce Lynn, and sons, Cody and Casey.


Don Blankenship never asked one question. He simply believed he had to get on with mining and keeping people employed because of course, his operations were on the verge of bankruptcy at any minute if there wasn't coal coming out of the ground before the blood dried. It was his obligation to make sure there was food on the table of his miners that counted on him.

IN CONCLUSION (click here)

“Some pretty hard questions have got to be asked. The families need answers, and we, as a country, need answers. Something has gone drastically wrong – and we need to find out what it is, what happened, and we need to do our best to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” said Kate Wilkinson, New Zealand Minister of Conservation, on the loss of 29 miners at the Pike River coal mine in November 2010.
“MSHA is launching a full investigation to determine the cause of this tragedy and will take the necessary steps to ensure that this never happens again,” said U.S. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, on the loss of 12 miners in the Sago mine, in Buckhannon, West Virginia, January 4, 2006.
“We just have got to find the answers to what caused this and to make sure whatever it takes that this never happens again,” West Virginia Governor (now U.S. Senator) Joe Manchin III, said on April 11, 2010....

This is illegal camping. On protected wildlife reserves. I doubt that land was even protected.

By Ryan McLaughlin, BDN Staff 
Posted July 13, 2012, at 3:28 p.m.
 
SCARBOROUGH, Maine — A California man (click here) is facing charges after he and several others reportedly were found camping inside a protected nesting area on Thursday.

Cpl. John MacDonald of the Maine Warden Service said wardens were patrolling Higgins Beach when they encountered 11 people camping inside a protected piping plover nesting area.

Game Wardens Jason Scott and Peter Herring saw the campers sitting around a fire in a restricted area, which MacDonald said has been a problem in recent years.

A pair of individuals also reportedly were tampering with enclosures the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife had erected, and when the campers saw the wardens, they took off, according to MacDonald.

James Boyd had a knife BECAUSE he was camping.

...Brazil’s pack contained several spring-loaded knives, newspapers and a trail camera with DIF&W markings on it, according to MacDonald.


Brazil also was found to be in possession of a scanner with Maine State Police and Scarborough police frequencies. He was charged with receiving stolen property and an unpermitted fire in a state wildlife management area.

Boyd was homeless. Where was he suppose to be? Nowhere? What made his camping illegal in the first place, breathing?

They threw a flash grenade at a man that was beginning to walk calmly down a hill. There was no aggression by James Boyd. The flash grenade made it impossible for him to continue to surrender to police. There was no reason for it and the scene escalated from there because of the Pavlov Dog's Reaction of the police.

The flash produced momentarily activates all photoreceptor cells in the eye, making vision impossible for approximately five seconds, until the eye restores itself to its normal, unstimulated state. The loud blast is meant to cause temporary loss of hearing, and also disturbs the fluid in the ear, causing loss of balance.

If these are the foothills where James Boyd found a place to sleep there is nothing special about the area that would justify it being an illegal place to camp. It is outside the city and away from anyone. I imagine he was more in danger of snakes than anyone else. I would think that was more of a safe place for a homeless man than being involved in problems in the city. 

Basically, James Boyd wasn't suppose to be breathing and this all began with harassment of a homeless man that had no alternative.

Well, aren't they just the most wonderful public servants a country can have. 

They murdered that man and they need to be put in prison for it!!!!!!!!