Our enemies in BLUE
••
Police and power in AMERICA
Kristian WILLIAMS
▻http://www.infoshop.org/pdfs/Our-Enemies-in-Blue.pdf
“OUR ENEMIES IN BLUE HOLDS UP THE MIRROR WITHIN WHICH WE
may see our deepest fault lines, our cracks and fissures.
We’ve the land scaped visage of a war zone. State violence can disfigure the countenance of a democracy
destabilize its bearing, its moral standing and mental
composure.
The most visceral and physical manifestation of state violence is police or military violence. With the current
foreign wars and occupations-as with most American
wars and occupations largely fueled by racially-driven
terrorstechnologies of repression and force migrate back home.
Ironically, tragically, or just stupidly, we rarely recognize
and acknowledge that armed police are both the antecedents and harbingers of war in the American
homeland.”
All the Ways You Can Be Killed During An Encounter with Police : Information Clearing House - ICH
▻http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article45612.htm
Killed for standing in a “shooting stance.” In California, police opened fire on and killed a mentally challenged—unarmed—black man within minutes of arriving on the scene, allegedly because he removed a vape smoking device from his pocket and took a “shooting stance.”
Killed for holding a cell phone. Police in Arizona shot a man who was running away from U.S. Marshals after he refused to drop an object that turned out to be a cellphone.
Killed for behaving oddly and holding a baseball bat. Responding to a domestic disturbance call, Chicago police shot and killed 19-year-old college student Quintonio LeGrier who had reportedly been experiencing mental health problems and was carrying a baseball bat around the apartment where he and his father lived.
Killed for opening the front door. Bettie Jones, who lived on the floor below LeGrier, was also fatally shot—this time, accidentally—when she attempted to open the front door for police.
Killed for being a child in a car pursued by police. Jeremy David Mardis, six years old and autistic, died after being shot multiple times by Louisiana police in the head and torso. Police opened fire on the car—driven by Jeremy’s father, Chris Few, who was also shot—and then allegedly lied, claiming that they were attempting to deliver an outstanding warrant, that Few resisted arrest, that he shot at police (no gun was found), and that he tried to ram his car into a police cruiser. Body camera footage refuted the police’s claims.
Killed for attacking police with a metal spoon. In Alabama, police shot and killed a 50-year-old man who reportedly charged a police officer while holding “a large metal spoon in a threatening manner.”
Killed for running in an aggressive manner holding a tree branch. Georgia police shot and killed a 47-year-old man wearing only shorts and tennis shoes who, when first encountered, was sitting in the woods against a tree, only to start running towards police holding a stick in an “aggressive manner.”
Killed for crawling around naked. Atlanta police shot and killed an unarmed man who was reported to have been “acting deranged, knocking on doors, crawling around on the ground naked.” Police fired two shots at the man after he reportedly starting running towards them.