Attorney Says a Black Man “Schooled” a WVA Cop After an Unlawful Stop. In Reality, the Black Man Had to Obey Authority b/c There are No Real Choices in the Free Range Prison. "Rights" Protect Nobody

RIGHTS and LEFTS. In the video above The Civil Rights Lawyer claims that the Black man schooled the white cop about his rights. Here, the attorney has confused “freedom” with an authority giving you permission to do something – master’s favors best described as adherent rights.

adherent rights – privileges disguised as so-called “rights” created by men via deceptive word-manipulation in written form called “symbolaeography,” and legal documents. 2) privileges granted by an apparent or putative authority at the expense of one's inherent or unalienable ‘rights.’ (See: Inherent Rights & Rights) - FUNKTIONARY

The Civil Rights Lawyer writes “February 13, 2023, Jacob Jackson is walking down a public sidewalk in Beckley, West Virginia. A uniformed sheriff’s deputy pulls up in a marked police cruiser and activates his emergency lights. The reason? He has civil service papers to serve related to an eviction proceeding. Jacob asserts his rights. The deputy asserts what he believes to be his rights as a police officer. Can a police officer forcibly detain you, ID you, search you, put his hands on you, just because he has civil paperwork to serve on someone? Even if you’ve done nothing illegal?” The attorney goes on to explain that the initial stop was absolutely unlawful because it violated Mr. Jackson’s 4th Amendment Rights - he was not engaged in a crime and the white cop had no rational reason to believe he was. The cop also had no reason to touch him, interrogate him, demand his name and continue to detain the Black man against his volition.

But he did though. His imaginary rights didn’t protect him, nor did they stop the cop. At some point during their forced interaction the Black man realizes that he’s not actually having an arms length conversation with an equal member of society. He’s talking to his public master. The cop will let him go if he so desires and the cop will be the decider of all things decided during their argument and the black man will be required to obey. Mr. Jackson seems aware that he has no meaningful choices and no independent opportunity to secure a different outcome by continuing to talk to the cop. He can either 1) obey authority or 2) go to jail or face physical violence. Within 10 minutes Mr. Jackson is coerced into complying with the cop to avoid the fuckery; he tells the cop his name and accepts service of the court papers.

The Civil Rights Lawyer is correct about Constitutional legal truths inside law books. But all truths must give way to reality. Brazen cops so frequently abuse their power that no Black shopper, pedestrian, motorist, juvenile, adult or Black professional of any kind—could make a rational argument that so-called constitutional rights provide any real protection from cops or the government in general. The only thing upholding the 4th Amendment is your belief in it. You only have rights if an authority says that you do or agrees that you do. Your possession of "rights” given to you by a magical government, which functions as your master, is cult belief. In reality, as explained by Dr. Blynd, “There is no freedom in the presence of so-called authority.” Authority is force. Jeremy Locke explains, “There is no authority on earth that can rightfully govern your life. Born to this world, you and you alone control your eyes, your ears, your tongue, your hands and your mind. All authority which claims to be able to dispose of you and your abilities is deceit. . . Anyone who tells you that you must yield your mind, your body, or your possessions to authority is evil.”

Rights are myths or a device to conceal the true nature of relations between the government and its citizens.

The legal system is based entirely on physical coercion. In general, all laws or commands are backed by the threat of violence against those who do not comply – here, violence means forced confiscation of property [payment of fines] or arrest or prison. Said threat of violence includes the ability and willingness of authorities to use deadly force against those who disobey. Michael Huemer spells out the mechanics of it,

‘force and violence are the final intervention that the individual cannot choose to defy. One can choose not to pay a fine, one can choose to drive without a license, and one can even choose not to walk to a police car to be taken away. But one cannot choose not to be subjected to physical force if the agents of the state decide to impose it.” [MORE]

Citizens can either obey authority or go to jail. The lie of tyranny is that you will maintain your freedom by obeying authority. The choices it offers you are a lifetime of obedience or death.“ [MORE] Government and it’s “services” are not voluntary and individuals cannot opt out or reject government services or choose to live without government – rather, we are born into this involuntary arrangement.

In the video Mr. Jackson knew he couldn’t walk away from the police. He had no choice but to comply with authority and he did. FUNKTIONARY calls this a “Hobson’s Choice – you can either get with this or nothing at all.” Obey or go to jail or die. In fact, The Civil Rights Lawyer would make the same legal arguments about Mr. Jackson’s so-called 4th Amendment rights if he had been paralyzed or shot to death by the cop while resisting the unlawful stop. Said “constitutional rights” protect no one.

The video speaks for itself when it’s viewed through the lens of reality not the abstraction of “authority.” It shows a white man approach and stop a Black man who was minding his own business. The white man wore a blue costume and the Black man did not. The Black man posed no threat to the costumed man. The costumed man was not acting in self-defense of himself or another person or in defense of property when he stopped, non-consensually touched and forcibly controlled the Black man’s freedom of movement. Nor was the interaction voluntary and consensual as the Black man was not free to leave without being subjected to violence. It is obvious that if a non-costumed person had walked up to the Black man and done the same thing -demand identification or face violence- then he would be considered a deranged criminal. Here however, both parties are actually engaged in role play: both pretended that the costumed man, a so-called ‘police officer’ had the power to control and direct the Black man who acted as a ‘citizen,’ a person who voluntarily consented to this “optional” arrangement. Both play out their respective roles no differently than children playing “house” or any other make believe games. Both roles are acted out according to their common agreement about reality or what FUNKTIONARY describes as a “consensus reality” in which; the costumed man had power over the Black man because as a police officer he was a representative of a fiction called government, and thus imagined to have powers to do things that citizens cannot do (such as order you to stop on the street) and are exempt from morality, laws and the normal rules of accountability when they do so. Within this consensus reality the costumed man believes he has the power to stop the Black citizen in the street to give him a document (a summons) and the Black citizen believes that although he has the right to be free from unlawful seizures, he still must comply with police orders. The cop believes there are legal or constitutional boundaries to what he can do, but on the street he is the sole decider of his discretionary power. Legal questions only arise out of these roles as set forth in their consensus reality (the constitution, laws). We already know that if the interaction was between two citizens, Mr. Jackson could simply ignore the white man and/or defend himself if the white man tried to stop or threaten him.

The officer’s implied right to rule over and forcibly control the citizen acted out in the video is called “authority.” All people play out the above roles in their daily relations with government agents or representatives of authority in different contexts. Like Mr. Jackson, citizens dutifully fulfill their roles because they believe there is some substantive, actual and valid unarticulated basis for their belief in authority. That is, they believe there is some solid legitimate reason the government is in charge of citizens and some legitimate reason for them to obey government authorities.

However, what if there is no rational basis for authority? What if there is no legitimate basis for the government to make and enforce rules for the rest of society and no legitimate basis for citizens to obey authority?

If there is no valid basis for authority then when the costumed man interfered with the Black man’s freedom of movement and then detained him against his own volition he was engaged in thuggery, not just bad police work. When the costumed man forcefully touched the Black man he committed a criminal assault and when he prevented him from leaving he committed felony threats to do significant bodily harm. If there is no valid basis for authority then the consensus reality that the costumed man can forcibly control the Black man’s movement within certain bounds is actually a form of slavery. Like a prisoner claiming to be the warden of a prison or a child claiming to be the parent, simply asserting that you are a higher authority cannot somehow legitimately endow you with superior power to rule over others. Nor can putting on a blue costume give an individual an exemption from morality or transform a person’s conduct from unlawful to lawful.

FUNKTIONARY describes this role play as delusional and a “deadly theatrical (tragicomedy) game” because in reality no one has legitimately acquired the right to rule over them. Authority, which is the basis for all governments throughout the world, is a complete farce, make believe. In reality there is no rational basis for the existence of authority,” it is based on brute force and nothing else.

The belief in authority is a farce because people cannot delegate powers to the government that they do not possess.

All persons have the natural right to defend themselves and come to the defense of others if they believe another person is in imminent danger from an aggressor. Private security workers and guards also work under said natural law. In contrast, police officers and other representatives of authority have the extra or added “power” to act offensively as aggressors; they have been granted the power to use force offensively on people or initiate unprovoked acts of violence against people whenever they deem it necessary. As such, police are permitted to do things “citizens” cannot do, such as, stop individuals, touch them against their will, attack (make arrests) people, interfere with their freedoms in many ways, kidnap people (detain and transport) or imprison them all because higher authorities have empowered them to do so. In turn, “citizens” are said to have a moral and legal obligation to obey all government orders, laws and have no right to even resist an unlawful arrest in most states. Authority must be obeyed on a content-neutral basis (regardless of whether citizens agree or not.) [MORE] This hypothesized moral property (authority) is said to make government the supreme authority over human affairs.

However, “authority” does not come from people nor is it derived from any natural source. All governmental power allegedly is said to come exclusively from the people. Citizens delegate their individual power to government and it’s representatives for them to represent citizens and act on their behalf. Such representation works much in the same way agents represent principals in all kinds of business or other contractual relationships. For instance, a manager at McDonalds represents the franchise owner when she carries out his everyday business requests, like ordering inventory and hiring workers, etc. She is the agent, the owner is the principal who empowers and directs her work and is responsible for her conduct. Naturally, an agent only can possess whatever powers the principal gave to her. For instance, the Manager does not have the authority to sell the store unless the owner granted her such power. Similarly, the McDonalds manager could not have the power to do things that the franchise owner has no power to do - such as change the McDonalds logo to a black panther or use another business’ parking lot for storage. Additionally, numbers don’t change anything – a group of McDonald’s owners still don’t have the power to grant an agent the power to use another business’ parking lot either. An agent cannot have more power than the principal because all his/her power necessarily originated exclusively from the principal. Additionally

In the case of government however, the government has somehow granted itself the power to do things that no individual citizen could ever do. While citizens have the inalienable right to act in self-defense or come to the defense of others, citizens have no right to initiate unprovoked acts of violence (use force offensively) on other people and no right to forcibly control other people. As such, it is logically impossible for citizens to delegate the power to forcibly control others to the government - because citizens cannot possibly delegate rights that they don’t have.

Larken Rose explains, ‘the people whom the politicians claim to represent have no right to do anything that politicians do: impose “taxes,” enact “laws,” etc. Average citizens have no right to forcibly control the choices of their neighbors, tell them how to live their lives, and punish them if they disobey, So when a “government” does such things, it is not representing anyone or anything but itself.’ As stated, it is a logical and legal impossibility for a representative to have more power than the person he is representing. Larken Rose explains, “you can’t give someone something you don’t have.” There is nothing complicated about this. Rose states;

“Despite all of the complex rituals and convoluted rationalizations, all modern belief in “government” rests on the notion that mere mortals can, through certain political procedures, bestow upon some people various rights which none of the people possessed to begin with. The inherent lunacy of such a notion should be obvious. There is no ritual or document through which any group of people can delegate to someone else a right which no one in the group possesses. And that self-evident truth, all by itself, demolishes any possibility of legitimate “government.”

Rose further explains if

those in “government” have only those rights possessed by those who elected them, then “government” loses the one ingredient that makes it “government”: the right to rule over others (”authority”). If it has the same rights and powers as everyone else, there is no reason to call it “government.” If the politicians have no more rights than you have, all of their demands and commands, all of their political rituals, “law” books, courts, and so on, amount to nothing more than the symptoms of a profound delusional psychosis. Nothing they do can have any legitimacy, any more than if you did the same thing on your own, unless they somehow acquired rights that you do not have. And that is impossible, since no one on earth, and no group of people on earth, could possibly have given them such superhuman rights.

The point here is not a theoretical discussion about the purpose of government or how it should run. Rather, it is the fact that there is no valid justification for one man (or government) to have supreme authority over another. Although we all assume that there is some valid explanation for why the government should be entitled to engage in behavior that would be deemed to violate individual rights if performed by anyone other than the government, there is none.

Other explanations for authority have been thoroughly debunked.

SOCIAL CONTRACT THEORY. How about the social contract theory - the idea that there is a contract between people and the government in which the government protects the people and enforces the laws, in exchange for citizens obedience and taxes? That is, individuals have contractually agreed to obey the government and must do so and the government is obliged to provide services and protection. However, if such an agreement exists, WHEN DID YOU SIGN IT? We were born into this arrangement, no one signed anything. Yet we are bound to obey authority. Therefore, there is no contract and no social contract exists.

At any rate, the so called “public duty” doctrine renders the “social contract theory” meaningless. Decades ago the Supreme Court ruled that a government and its agents are under no general duty to provide public services, such as police protection, to any particular individual citizen. It means for instance that police have no legal duty to protect any victim from violence by other private parties unless the victim was in police custody. [MORE] and [MORE] This means that police cannot be sued for any federal constitutional claim for a failure to protect citizens. Unless a state negligence law exists allowing such a lawsuit, victims cannot hold police liable for a failure to protect from harm from private parties. [MORE] and [MORE].

Pursuant to the social contract, citizens are contractually obliged to obey all laws and commands and when they fail to do so the government punishes the citizen, usually with fines or imprisonment. However, authorities are bound to do whatever they want to do, whenever they want to do it and to whom they choose, but no one in particular. Dr. Blynd asks “Makes you feel like a fool, doesn’t it?” There is no contract between the individual and the state. It is device or trick to control the populace.

IMPLICIT AGREEMENT. What about an implicit agreement to obey authority - where we are deemed from birth to have agreed to obey authority until we decline, opt out or reject it? This proposition is also an illusion because whether you reject or object to authority you must obey authority regardless. You have no real choice in the matter. Like a plantation system, there is no way to opt out and avoid being a slave subject to another (authority) plantation owner.

AGREEMENT BY ACCEPTING BENEFITS. Perhaps authority is made legitimate when citizens agree to accept the benefits provided by government, such as public schools or police “service?” For the same reasons no one has an implicit contract with the government. Government authority is not made legitimate through acceptance of benefits. Whether a person accepts the benefits of government or not, all persons are still subject to the laws and required to obey authority.

CONSENT BY PRESENCE. How about consent to authority by simply remaining in a particular location - consent by presence on the land? In other words, in order to remain on your own land then you must pay a government and obey laws to do so. Said theory means governments own all land and property everywhere government exists. According to such clogic as stated by Huemer, “Those seeking to avoid all governmental jurisdiction have three options: they may live in the ocean, move to Antarctica, or commit suicide.” [MORE]

Larken Rose explains, “To tell someone that his only valid choices are either to leave the “country” or to abide by whatever commands the politicians issue logically implies that everything in the “country” is the property of the politicians. If a person can spend year after year paying for his home, or even building it himself, and his choices are still to either obey the politicians or get out, that means that his house and the time and effort he invested in the house are the property of the politicians. And for one person’s time and effort to rightfully belong to another is the definition of slavery. That is exactly what the “implied consent” theory means: that every “country” is a huge slave plantation, and that everything and everyone there is the property of the politicians. And, of course, the master does not need the consent of his slave.”

It is also obviously circular thinking to say ‘the government has authority over everything and everybody because it has authority over everything and everybody’ - such statement may indeed be the case but it cannot be a justification for the legitimacy of authority in the first place.

CONSENT THRU PARTICIPATION. Finally, does consent through participation make government authority legitimate or valid? Not at all. “If you didn’t vote in the election, would you then not have to obey the laws made by whoever wins? Of course not. You will be subject to the same laws whether you vote or not.” [MORE]

MAGIC WORDS, CAPES & CEREMONIES. It should also go without saying but there is no magic ceremony, special costumes to put on, voting process or magic statements (oaths) which can grant certain people extra-human powers to rule over other people, exempt them from morality, accountability and do things which no individual or group of individuals can do.

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Therefore, in summary there is no rational basis for authority, the implied right to forcibly control others. No person(s) or entity has the right to rule over other human beings. No one is obliged to obey a command merely because it comes from their government.

FUNKTIONARY explains that government means “control of the mind” and “authority is the means by which society uses to control its population.” Trent Goodbaudy describes this is as a “statist delusion.” Statist, within the meaning of FUNKTIONARY means “the belief “citizens” and “states” exist and the memetic thought patterns supporting such beliefs.” Goodbaudy states, “We are stuck in an illusory construct that only exists in a diseased psyche. There really are no rulers and no masters anyway; just claims of authority, and acceptance of these claims by the brainwashed. There really is no government other than what you choose to be governed by: they only have the authority that you grant them.”

In reality, persons do not actually live under “democracies” or “republics” or monarchies or dictatorships. Said descriptions or characterizations are designed to conceal the reality of an elite ruling class and the master/servant relations it has with its citizens. In the United States and everywhere else government exists, Rose states “there is a ruling class and a subject class, and the differences between them are many and obvious. One group commands, the other obeys. One group demands huge sums of money, the other group pays. One group tells the other group where they can live, where they can work, what they can eat, what they can drink, what they can drive, who they can work for, what work they can do, and so on. One group takes and spends trillions of dollars of what the other group earns. One group consists entirely of economic parasites, while the efforts of the other group produce all the wealth. It is patently obvious who commands and who obeys. The people are not the “government,” by any stretch of the imagination, and it requires profound denial to believe otherwise. For example, it is also claimed that “the government works for us; it is our servant.” Again, such statements does not even remotely match the obvious reality of the situation; it is little more than a cult mantra, a delusion intentionally programmed into the populace in order to twist their view of reality.”

Within the “consensus reality” (a consensus manufactured through programming and the social conditioning of the masses) various other fictions and devices are used to disguise the reality of the master-servant relationship. Devices such as “consent of the governed,” “we are the government,” “democracy,” “representative government,” “majority rule,” and “constitutional rights” etc. According to FUNKTIONARY these ‘fictions lead only to a progressive social, personal, racial and jurisprudential separation from reality.’ Dr. Blynd states, “discussion and debates about fictions such as “rights” merely evades the FAQ, i.e., the frequently avoided question of who is to enforce any “right” and who will benefit from the pretense?”

As explained by FUNKTIONARY,“Government” is simply, unequivocally, and always initiation of force or coercion and nothing else. “While there are varying degrees, “government” very simply is “one man violently controlling the life and property of another man.” Governmental rule based on authority cannot be voluntary or consensual.

The legal discussion of whether Mr. Jackson had any “rights” in his relations on the street with his public master will be ultimately decided by higher authorities (judges, police chief, prosecutors) who are in control of us because they said so. In fact, the head of the state police was forced to resign over the incident and now the Governor and the feds are involved and may take action (to maintain our belief in the existence of rights) as said higher authorities see fit. If you still have doubt about your status as ‘a citizen’ ask yourself the following question: If another person, such as a police officer, is uncontrollable by you, unaccountable to you, can’t be hired or fired by you, has irresponsible power over you and provides a compulsory “service” to you that cannot ever decline, isn’t he your Master? Dr. Blynd states, "The child who is taught to believe the law will be his protection is the child who will become the victim of its own beliefs."  "Unquestioned beliefs own you."

FUNKTIONARY explains that although there are different brands and flavors of “government” across the ideological spectrum, it is more accurate to describe such systems as “free range plantations” or “free range prisons.” The inhabitants of such “jurisdictions” are “free range slaves” or “free range prisoners.” Some prisons or plantations are more restrictive than others but all “citizens” within them are subject to an implied authority. Slaves or prisoners in the Free Range Prison may face greater or lesser restrictions depending upon their income, status or race but none are free.

Whether individuals choose to be willing slaves (citizens) or unwilling slaves (denizens) depends upon how aware they are of their true reality and their response to it.

Nevertheless, there is no need to revolt against authority. Authority is only a belief that must be dropped. FUNKTIONARY states, ‘there are no tyrants only tyranny exists. How can one man or woman rule a multitude against their will except through mind-control and word-conditioning control?’

“The real threat to "authority" is the masses overcoming info-gaps and verigaps through self-knowledge and the proliferation of symbols of opposition, not crime or destruction of property.” FUNKTIONARY explains, “We don’t violently overthrow government, rather we silently and organically outgrow it in its current form as we know it. Where there is no energy for conflict upon which to feed, it starves itself into oblivion or becomes malnourished to the point of ineffectual irrelevance.”

Where a critical mass of individuals see authority for what it is – an irrational, self-contradictory, evil, granfalloon, contrary to civilization and morality that “constitutes the most dangerous, destructive superstition that has ever existed”- they will drop it like a wooden coin or unwanted vaccine.

According to Dr. Blynd:

"rights" - useful fictions declared in order to make agents of another type of fiction ("government") have to play along in their deadly theatrical (tragicomedy) game. 2) mere fictions, the contemplation of which leads only to a progressive social, personal, racial and jurisprudential separation from reality. Discussion and debates about "rights" merely evades the FAQ, i.e., the frequently avoided question of who is to enforce any "right" and who will benefit from the pretense. "Rights" are separated into two categories—those flowing from "negative liberties" and those flowing from "positive liberties." In law, rights are remedies and if a person is without a remedy (as is with citizens of the United States) he is without a right, and only a 'thing' is without rights. (See: Negative Liberties, Positive Liberties, Bill of Rights, Civil Rights, Human Rights, Ma'at & Justice)

rights - fantasmatic or fictitious objects having no reality in actuality by those imagining as an identity being in possession of them. Rights are cultural gratuities perceived through various fantasy frames, recognized, and sometimes even created, by man's system of law to provide a modicum or pretense of civility under a system whereby their very undermining and violation is vouchsafed. Rights are merely rites unless you know how to assert and defend them in order to enjoy them. 2) things people are free to do whether they are able to or not. 3) conditions of existence required by hue-man's nature for their potential survival (primarily against the cartoon that kills, i.e., the wholly unconscionable entity called the "State"). It is a mistaken notion that rights are enjoyed by one at the expense of the many—that is the realm of privilege. Enjoyment of rights in a neo-imperialistic world controlled by Yurugu through the Greater System (Symbolic Order), paradoxically, entails not only a recognition of their inevitability but, equally, their impossibility. How can we be endowed with rights, or even know what rights are when they are based on binary considerations? Rights, as ontological ephemera, cannot be universally observed, recognized, realized or, enforced—and paradoxically, act also as its own eternal source for its assertion and vessel for its fulfillment in our imaginary enjoyment of them. While the law reads rights referentially, what is universally needed in the praxis of rights discourse today is a particular re-inscription, demystification or reontologising of rights (revivified and convivial) by the pan-gendered subject-citizen-decoder—taken symptomatically rather than seriously. Most people rarely experience the cognizance of being property of corporate fictions because as long as you don't violate the rules of society your real status as feudal-property-slave is no: involved or revealed. [MORE]

consensus – the hypnotic communal cultural trance—the collective psychosis. 2) a common agreement about reality. 3) an artificial overlay or semantic screen (filter) that obfuscates the clarity of our subjective reality. 4) a search for an acceptable myth. 5) an opinion or position no one really likes, but everyone is seemingly able to live with it or through it. It is impossible to ever find (or experience) reality by consensus. Consensus is the art of conning the group—Con-Sense-Us— you con. Consensus has nothing to do with census, but with common sense, albeit mostly manufactured through programming and social conditioning of the masses. In consensus, the participants take part in the decision-making process on an ongoing basis and exercise real control over their daily lives. Consensus fosters and upholds freedom and accountability while allowing each participant to retain his or her own autonomy. Autonomous individuals can cooperate without agreeing on a shared agenda, so long as everyone benefits from everyone else’s participation without constraint, coercion, conformity, fear or submission. Consensus can be as repressive as democracy unless the participants retain and exercise their own respective autonomy. (See: Consensus Reality, Symbiocracy, Freedom, Split-Mind, Mirrorealization, Predictive Programming, Conformity, Autonomy, Anarchy, Self-Ownership, Aggression & Funnel Vision)

Using City Cameras NOPD Falsely Arrested a Black Man Minding His Own Business. Initially Police said Cameras Existed to Get Evidence After a Crime Occurs But Now Are Used to Track Residents Movements

MESSAGE TO SLEEPING TOMS AKA THE BLACK VOTARY: YOUR GREAT WHITE LIBERAL FRIENDS ARE SURVEILLING YOU, STOPPING YOU AND TRYING TO LOCK YOU UP EVERYDAY IN PRISONS THEY CONTROL IN CITIES SUCH AS NEW ORLEANS, DC, NEW YORK, CHICAGO ETC.

A MAIN PURPOSE OF POLICE IS TO SURVEIL BLACK PEOPLE ON BEHALF OF ELITE RACISTS. From [HERE] Twenty-five year old Michael Celestine [above] walked outside his friend’s 7th Ward home to take a phone call and smoke a cigarette. Wearing a Tommy Hillfiger puffer jacket on a brisk day in January 2020, he chatted with a friend, walked across the street and then went back inside.

What Celestine didn’t know that is that for the full 15 minutes he was outside, he was being watched by a New Orleans police officer on a monitor about a mile away at the city’s surveillance hub, the Real Time Crime Center, which has access to more than 1,200 live feeds from cameras across the city.

Celestine was the subject of live video surveillance that landed him in jail for more than a year — in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, which hit New Orleans early and hard just two months after he was arrested —  even though all the charges against him were eventually dropped. In 2021, Celestine sued the NOPD with the help of the ACLU of Louisiana for a litany of alleged abuses, including an unlawful stop, false arrest and excessive force. Celestine and the NOPD agreed to a $10,000 settlement last year.

“It’s very egregious,” ACLU of Louisiana staff attorney Meghan Matt told Verite. “It’s a man literally minding his own business outside … and subsequently spends a year in jail on false charges during the height of COVID when hundreds of people in that jail were infected, and people were literally dropping dead.”

When the city’s camera network was first introduced in 2017, officials assured the public that the system was primarily there to gather evidence after a crime occurs, rather than proactively surveil the public for suspicious activity.

But in recent years, the NOPD has increased its use of live surveillance to justify stops and searches, according to local defense attorneys and advocates.

“We’ve seen over the years the increased use of the real-time crime cameras to lead to stop and frisks,” New Orleans Chief Public Defender Danny Engelberg told Verite.

Civil rights advocates say that trend is concerning, escalates the privacy implications of the city’s ever expanding surveillance apparatus and threatens to amplify the worst tendencies of the criminal justice system.

On the day of Celestine’s arrest, NOPD officers on the street were conducting what the police report described as a “proactive patrol in high crime areas” while another, Daniel Grijalva, was monitoring a surveillance feed from a nearby camera in the neighborhood.  The camera shifted  to follow Celestine’s  movements, zooming in to provide a close visual inspection of his clothing and cellphone. Grijalva saw a “bulge” in the puffer jacket, and notified nearby patrols that he believed Celestine had a gun, according to the police report and the lawsuit. Officers did not initially respond while Celestine was in the home.

Grijalva was still watching when Celestine left the house again two hours later, and again called for nearby officers to respond. Justified only by a perceived “bulge” in video surveillance, two NOPD squad cars approached Celestine. He ran away before the officers could say a word. Officer Bryan Bissell chased him on foot into a backyard and pulled out his gun.

“I will f—ing shoot you,” the officer said, body camera footage obtained by Verite shows.

Celestine then hoisted himself halfway over a fence before Bissell shot him with a stun gun. Celestine fell to the ground wailing in pain. As he was being arrested, he told the officers “I can’t breathe.”

“Shut up,” Bissell responded.

After briefly being admitted to the hospital, Celestine was taken to jail on Jan. 13, 2020 on several charges, including possession of a stolen weapon, which officers said they found in his pant leg. The Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office later dropped all charges against him, but not until January 2021. Celestine was kept in jail for the entire year because he was on parole from a previous conviction and was put on a “parole hold” that prevented him from posting bail.

A portion police body camera footage shows Officer Bryan Bissell chase, stun and arrest Michael Celestine on Jan. 13, 2020. Credit: New Orleans Police Department (/customCaption]

“The damage that can happen to a person’s life and livelihood by spending a year in jail without conviction is almost indescribable,” Chris Kaiser, advocacy director of the ACLU of Louisiana, told Verite. Verite was unable to reach Celestine for comment.

Matt, who previously worked as a staff attorney for the Orleans Public Defenders office, said all of the abuses suffered by Celestine stemmed from an initial live video surveillance stakeout — a practice she said is becoming more prevalent in New Orleans.

“As a former public defender, I can tell you this was all the time,” Matt said. “It’s happening multiple times a day, every single day.”

Neither the NOPD nor Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s office responded to requests for comment.

From ‘complaint-based’ system to proactive surveillance

Since the city’s crime camera network launched in 2017 under then-Mayor Mitch Landrieu, city officials have told the public that the system would be largely “complaint-based,” meaning that the footage would primarily be used to gather evidence after an alleged crime was called in.

But it quickly became clear that the cameras were also being used to proactively search live footage for potential suspicious activity.

In 2018, The Lens reported on the case of Clint Carter, who was arrested during a drug bust coordinated through live video surveillance. The cameras caught an interaction that an NOPD officer interpreted to be a drug deal. Carter was swarmed by NOPD squad cars and arrested.

No drugs were recovered from the scene, but the police said they found brass knuckles on him. And one officer claimed that Carter, who was taken for medical treatment after his arrest, tried to take a swing at him from his hospital bed. (The officer later admitted that Carter was shackled to the bed more than five feet away from him.)

Carter was booked with illegally carrying a weapon, simple assault and trespassing — the last charge allegedly stemming from a neighbor’s complaint, though, according to a report by The Lens, video footage did not show Carter entering the property in question.

In November 2018, about four months after the arrest, a judge found Carter not guilty of all charges. But Carter still ended up in prison because the arrest was considered a violation of his parole.

Many criminal justice and privacy advocates object to the city’s crime camera apparatus altogether, saying that it has inadequate guardrails, that the multimillion-dollar investment hasn’t actually helped reduce crime and that it violates people’s privacy. City officials have repeatedly argued that because the cameras are placed on public rights-of-way, the cameras do not present a privacy concern.

“This isn’t making us safer,” Marvin Arnold, an organizer with the privacy advocacy group Eye on Surveillance, told Verite.

But the cases of Celestine and Carter speak to another objection some advocates have to escalating police surveillance — that powerful tools that amplify the police power also amplify the misconduct, abuse and bias in the American criminal justice system.

Kaiser said that while the arrest of Celestine began with invasive surveillance, every other abuse he experienced are issues that have long plagued major police departments: excessive force, racial profiling (Celestine is a Black man), officers lying to justify use of force, unconstitutional stops and the NOPD’s failure to follow its own policies.

“This implicates surveillance technology,” Kaiser said. “But from another angle, this really does boil down to more old-fashioned police misconduct.”

Matt said that the more live surveillance is used, the more opportunity there is for misconduct.

“This happens constantly, and it’s going to be happening more and more the more surveillance is used,” she said. [MORE]

FOIA Documents Reveal the FBI Paid an Informant to Disrupt 2020 BLM Denver Protests

From [HERE] An investigative podcast revealed facts that the Federal Bureau of Investigation hired a violent felon to sow discord at Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020.

A newly released podcast, Alphabet Boys, unveiled information that showed that the FBI paid Michael Adam Windecker II to infiltrate protests organized by the social justice group in Denver, Colorado in 2020. The journalist behind the podcast, Trevor Aaronson, revealed how the agency paid Windecker $20,000 to ingratiate himself with activists on the ground who were protesting police brutality after the deaths of George Floyd and Elijah McClain.

Aaronson utilized documents obtained from the FBI through Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) requests to detail how the former felon agreed to be an informant because he wanted to “fight terrorists” and viewed those protesting as “people who participate in violent civil unrest are terrorists.” Windecker, who is white, would stand out at those protests driving a silver hearse full of weapons.

The podcast goes on to show how Windecker tried to recruit other activists as he got more involved with them over that summer, including Zebbodios “Zebb” Hall. “How extreme do you want it to go? Do you want to learn to shoot a gun and throw someone around, or do you want to go all the way uptown? If that’s what you want to do, I can make it happen,” he was overheard saying on undercover recordings. Windecker would go on to organize demonstrations in August that would lead to assaults against police stations in the city.

The plot became sinister as he coerced Hall to purchase a firearm for him after Hall refused to go along with a plot to assassinate Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser. “I had to get this guy this gun because if I don’t get this guy this gun, he’s got my information. He’s got my family’s information,” Hall said in an interview. Aaronson would relate that Windecker used intimidation on everyone: “Windecker spoke of having killed people. He had a criminal history that was violent.”

The podcast has caused reactions of outrage and demand for accountability, including a statement from Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR). “If the allegations are true, the FBI’s use of an informant to spy on first amendment-protected activity and stoke violence at peaceful protests is an outrageous abuse of law-enforcement resources and authority,”  he said. “I think you’re allowing these tactics to win if ultimately you’re choosing not to exercise your First Amendment rights for fear of government infiltration,” Aaronson said of the podcast.

FBI Director Admits Agency Purchased Geolocation Data of Americans

From [HERE] Privacy advocates on Wednesday said testimony from FBI Director Christopher Wray at a U.S. Senate Select Intelligence Committee hearing offers the latest evidence that Congress must take action to keep the government from performing mass surveillance on people across the United States, as Wray admitted the bureau has purchased cellphone geolocation data from companies.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) asked Wray at a hearing about national security threats whether the FBI purchases “U.S. phone geolocation information,” showing the location of users.

Wray said the bureau does not currently make such purchases, but acknowledged for the first time that it “previously, as in the past, purchased some such information for a specific national security pilot project,” drawing on data “derived from internet advertising.”

He said the project has been inactive “for some time” but said he could only provide more information about it and the past purchase of geolocation data in a closed session with senators, adding that the FBI currently accesses “so-called ad tech location data” through “a court-authorized process.”

“I think its a very important privacy issue that [geolocation data purchases] not take place,” said Wyden, an outspoken advocate for privacy rights.

Grassroots social welfare organization Demand Progress called Wray’s admission “both shocking and further proof of the need for Congress to take immediate action to rein in mass surveillance.”

“This is a policy decision that affects the privacy of every single person in the United States,” said Sean Vitka, the group’s policy counsel. “We should have the right to decide when and how our personal information is shared, but instead intelligence agencies continue to obstruct any accountability or transparency around this surveillance.”

The revelation came as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) is scheduled to expire at the end of the year and as Congress is expected to soon begin debating its reauthorization.

As written, the provision allows the U.S. government to conduct targeted surveillance of people in foreign countries, but intelligence agencies have also used the law to collect data on Americans.

“Congress must fix this before considering any reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act this year,” said Vitka of Wray’s admission.

Vitka and Fight for the Future director Evan Greer were among the critics who demanded to know “who told [Wray] buying Americans’ location info from data brokers would be legal?”

Privacy advocates have long warned that the Supreme Court ruling in the 2018 case Carpenter v. United States, in which the court decided government agencies that accessed location data without a warrant were violating the Fourth Amendment, contains a loophole allowing the government to purchase data that it can’t obtain legally.

See also  19-year-old Hooper Bay Teen Charged with Arson and Murder for Friday Fire

“The public,” Vitka told Wired, “needs to know who gave the go-ahead for this purchase, why, and what other agencies have done or are trying to do the same.”

Supreme Ct Won't Revive Challenge to NSA's Warrantless Surveillance of Americans’ International Email/Phone Calls and Texts. ACLU says Govt Targets Non-Whites for Crimes Unrelated to National Security

From [HERE] The Supreme Court last month declined to revive an ACLU lawsuit challenging a portion of the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance of Americans’ international email and phone communications.

The justices left in place an appeals court ruling against the Wikimedia Foundation, which runs Wikipedia. The organization said that the National Security Agency’s “Upstream” surveillance program violates free-speech rights and protections against unreasonable search and seizure.

Details of the Upstream program are classified, but it collects data from transmissions over high-speed cables that carry electronic communications into and out of the country.

The ACLU explained, “The U.S. government is engaging in the mass, warrantless surveillance of Americans' international phone calls, text messages, emails, and other digital communications using Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act as justification. Under this law, the government can use the information they collect without a warrant to prosecute and imprison people - even for crimes that have nothing to do with national security. Given our nation's history of abusing its surveillance authorities, and the secrecy surrounding the program, I am concerned that Section 702 already is and will continue to be used disproportionately against already targeted groups, including communities of color, immigrants, or political activists.” It also stated

The Supreme Court let us down: They refused to hear Wikimedia v. NSA, the ACLU's lawsuit challenging the NSA's mass surveillance of Americans' online communications with anyone abroad. By declining to hear this case, the Court has slammed shut one of the only doors left to hold the government accountable for surveillance abuses first revealed in 2013 by Edward Snowden.

But we are not powerless. Congress can still fight back against these egregious violations of our privacy. Instead of reauthorizing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the very law used to justify this unconstitutional spying, they can let it expire. This is our chance to begin to end this dystopian chapter of American history.

We must act now. Send a message to your representatives in Congress urging them to vote "NO" on reauthorizing Section 702. [MORE]

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, had ruled that the lawsuit must be dismissed after the government invoked the “state secrets privilege” against the possible damage to national security that might result from a court case. [MORE]

Americans Name the Government as the Nation’s Top Problem in Gallup’s Latest Poll; Inflation Ranks Second

From [HERE] More Americans name the government as the nation’s top problem in Gallup’s latest poll, which encompassed the rocky start of the 118thCongress’ term. With high prices persisting, inflation remains the second most-cited problem (15%), and amid elevated tensions about the southern U.S. border, illegal immigration edged up three percentage points to 11%. Mentions of the economy in general fell six points, to 10%, the lowest reading in a year.  

The poll’s Jan. 2-22 field period included the four-day, 15-vote process in which Republicans, who now hold a slim majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, ultimately elected Kevin McCarthy to be Speaker of the House. Revelations about classified government documents from 2009 to 2017 found in President Joe Biden’s private office and home also surfaced while the poll was in the field. Although mentions of the government as the nation’s top problem rose six points this month to 21%, job approval ratings of Biden (41%) and Congress (21%) remained flat.

The government ranks as the top problem for both Republicans and Republican-leaning independents (24%) and Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents (18%). Inflation and immigration are each cited by 18% of Republicans, while mentions of inflation (11%), the economy in general and race relations (9% each) trail the government among Democrats. Democrats are more likely than Republicans to view unifying the country and the environment as top problems. [MORE]

According to FUNKTIONARY:

Government – (as commonly misunderstood)—a communal exchange of autonomy for appearance of order (peace via coercion), expanded over time, with the option of exercising violence being reserved to those who define and provide an illusion of order through force and fear. 2) a coercive institution—dysfunctional force and veiled violence. 3) the compelled enforcement of involuntary society. The Corporate State)—a fictitious entity (mental aberration or abstraction) and thus a non-producer of wealth, but masquerading as the prime merchant. 4) human failure programs that stay (hold off) maximumissness and depend on the support (stealing then redistributing wealth) of its subject-victims. 5) ‘organized’ coerced support of selected monopolized services. 6) licensed, sanctioned and legalized criminal activity. 7) a sticky residue on your shoe. The whole idea of government is this: If enough people get together and act in concert, they can take some and not pay for it. Any government represents a crucial compromise with freedom and distortion of reality, and no reified abstraction (however crafted by crafty corporate cartoonists) can protect anyone from any and all danger. The feudal subject-King relationship is exactly the same as the federal citizen-Government relationship. “That government is best which governs not at all; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have. Government is at best an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient. The objections that have been brought against a standing army, and they are many and weighty, and deserve to prevail, may also at last be brought against a standing government. The standing army in the U.S. is only an arm of the standing government put into action only after the economic hit men and “jackals” (wet-ops) return home unsuccessful in their missions to earn their booty off dirty intrigue commissions. The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before people can act through it.” ~Henry David Thoreau (slightly adapted). Government was formed with one major and one minor purpose—the major purpose being to protect the wealth of the wealthy; and the minor purpose being to prevent the non-wealthy from becoming wealthy and subjecting them to the dictates of statutes (written laws—not common law). Government is itself an evil—an abstraction given artificial life for the ostensible purpose of preventing certain conditions from arising, these conditions being the product of injurious behavior (actual injury) on the part of other persons as well as autonomous freedom (ownership of one’s body, mind and labor) of those subjugated to force, exploitation, jurisdiction and control. Government is that group of people who hold the generally tolerated monopoly on acceptable violence. “It is a function of government to invent philosophies [and sophistries] to explain the demands of its own convenience.” ~Murray Kempson. Until people wake-the-spell up to a higher level of individual and collective consciousness, government so-called will remain an unnecessary, yet banefully suffered evil to battle the evil that itself breeds as a matter of course. The creation and imposition of government is the compelled pressure to conform to what is common, established, unoriginal, unacceptable, and ultimately inimical to all, whether reinforced by law, lethal force or acculturation. Throughout history many intelligent thinkers all around the world have tried to contemplate or design some way to have “government” and freedom too. Failing miserably and repeatedly to find one either in practice or in theory, it is time for intelligent human beings to give way to beings of higher consciousness using sagacity and sapience to finally realize that: 1) “government” itself is a deadly mental contrivance and immanent threat to their freedom; 2) there is no way to prevent “government” from constantly increasing its power and eroding freedom; 3) “government” itself being a reification (deadly cartoon) will vanish when the illusion on which it rests dissipates. This goes for all brands and flavors of “government” across the ideological spectrum. Violence (against statists) makes government appear legitimate. [MORE]

Fed Appeals Court Upholds Attorney Fees Ruling in Flint Water Case. Gov Authorities Poisoned the Water of Mostly Black City. Attorneys Will Get $200M, Citizens Get $400M

After about $200 million is deducted for attorneys fees, the fund will be split up based on the following terms:

79.5% for children who were minors when Flint pulled drinking water from the Flint River from April 2014 through December 2016. Of that, 64.5% goes to children who were age 6 or younger, 10% for children age 7 to 11 and 5% for children ages 12 to 17.

18% goes to adults for claims or personal injury or property damage. That includes 15% of the settlement fund earmarked for adults and 3% for damage claims.

2% goes toward special education services for children affected by the water crisis.

0.5% is earmarked for businesses that suffered an economic loss during the water crisis. [MORE]

From [HERE] and [MORE] and [MORE] The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit Friday upheld a decision by a lower court over attorney fees in the Flint water crisis $600 million partial settlement.

The lower court previously approved the settlement and awarded attorney fees to the attorneys representing the class action participants. Although the settlement was “record-breaking” at $600 million, many Flint residents were disappointed in the total amount they are entitled to. They argued that the attorneys should receive a lesser amount of compensation.

The court rejected the residents’ arguments who suggested to lower the amount awarded to attorneys under the settlement (about 25 percent). The residents requested a more detailed billing record of the attorney fees in a 2021 appeal and the court denied this based on the plaintiffs’ “lack of standing to appeal the district court’s attorney’s fee award”—which the Sixth Circuit sided with.

However, the review claims process is still ongoing in Flint and at least $400 million will go to the victims of the water crisis who were especially vulnerable to the lead contamination.

Former Michigan Governor Rick Snyder and four other officials were previously required to testify about the water crisis, and Michigan’s attorney general brought charges of criminal neglect against Snyder for his role in the water crisis.

38 Years Ago California DA’s Sought the Death Penalty for Maurice Hastings. Now the Black Man Has Been Found “factually innocent”

From [HERE] In a case that demonstrates the risks inherent in the death penalty, Maurice Hastings was found “factually innocent” in Los Angeles of the crime that could have sent him to death row and eventual execution. On March 1, 2023, Judge William Ryan dismissed all charges and freed Hastings, who was serving a sentence of life without parole.

The District Attorney’s Office had sought the death penalty for Hastings, which enables the prosecution to obtain a jury that is willing to impose a death sentence, and therefore may be more conviction prone. The jury may believe that if the death penalty is being sought, there is probably little doubt about the defendant’s guilt. During his incarceration, Hastings maintained his innocence. The DA’s Office repeatedly denied his request for DNA testing until finally in June of 2022, with the help of the Innocence Project and the DA’s Conviction Integrity Unit, a DNA test essentially excluded him from the murder.

The current DA, George Gascón, commented, “Maurice Hastings survived a nightmare. He spent nearly four decades in prison exhausting every avenue to prove his innocence while being repeatedly denied. But Mr. Hastings has remained steadfast and faithful that one day he would hear a judge proclaim his innocence.”

At a news conference, Hastings, now 69, stated, “I was really overwhelmed. It was kind of unreal. In a sense, you want it to be true, but then you don’t want to be disappointed. I’ve been disappointed. I had tears. I asked, ‘Could this be it? Could this be the end?’ I was very emotional.”

Texas Authorities Postpone Their Scheduled Murder of Andre Thomas to Allow for Mental Competency Consideration. More than 100 religious leaders Asked Gov. Greg Abbott to Stop Black Man's Execution

From [HERE] A Grayson County, Texas court has withdrawn the April 5, 2023 execution date for Andre Thomas (pictured), a seriously mentally ill prisoner whose legal team requested more time to demonstrate that Thomas is incompetent to be executed. While incarcerated, Thomas gouged out his own eyes and claimed divine direction for his crimes. More than 100 religious leaders, along with other experts, had asked Gov. Greg Abbott to halt Thomas’ execution.

“The Court was right to follow the Constitution by withdrawing Andre Thomas’s execution date,” said Maurie Levin, an attorney for Thomas. “The Constitution and Texas law forbid the execution of people who are insane. Mr. Thomas is such a person, as he is not competent to be executed, lacking a rational understanding of the State’s reason for his execution…Mr. Thomas is one of the most mentally ill prisoners in Texas history, having gouged out both of his eyes and eaten one of them. He has endured a profound and lifelong mental illness … Guiding this blind psychotic man to the gurney for execution offends our sense of humanity and serves no legitimate purpose.”

On March 7, 2023, the same day that Thomas’s execution date was withdrawn, Texas executed Gary Green. Green’s attorneys had argued that he was intellectually disabled and that he had schizoaffective disorder. Arthur Brown, Jr., who is scheduled to be executed in Texas on March 9, has also raised intellectual disability claims. Brown maintains his innocence and is seeking DNA testing of evidence. Texas is considering legislation that would bar the execution of those with severe mental illness.

‘It’s Like a Graveyard’: Record Numbers of Non-White Migrants Are Dying at the U.S. Border

From [HERE] A spike in deaths along the most dangerous stretches of the U.S.-Mexico border reflects the escalating number of migrants seeking to cross into the U.S. from troubled home countries. At the same time, U.S. immigration policies are allowing fewer of them legal entry. Many migrants have turned to human smugglers and WhatsApp messages to help them navigate more lightly patrolled—and treacherous—sections of the border to enter illegally, U.S. officials said. 

The bodies of more than 890 migrants, a record number, were recovered by U.S. authorities along the border in the 2022 fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, according to the Biden administration, a 58% increase over 2021. They drowned in fast-moving sections of the Rio Grande or, after successfully crossing, died falling from cliffs along mountain passes or from dehydration while lost, said U.S. border agents and police who recover the bodies. Hundreds more were reported missing. In July, 53 migrants were found dead inside the back of a sweltering tractor trailer found parked in San Antonio. U.S. and Mexican authorities estimate that dozens also died last year on the Mexico side of the border or were lost at sea. [MORE]

In Recent Case Concerning the Right to Carry Guns Clarence Thomas Discussed the Historical Need for Blacks to Vigorously Defend Themselves in Case of Public Confrontation in a Violent, Racist Society

Justice Clarence Thomas destroyed the emotional clogic of freedumb/slavery advocates when he wrote the Court’s opinion in the case New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen. He also dropped a few “revelation sandwich” reminders for serious, responsible Black individuals to consider in light of the facts that the quality of Black citizenship is so low that; no matter what the law says, Blacks are prohibited from possessing guns, Blacks are subject to omnipresent interference by cops with their freedom of movement and their right to be left the fuck alone, Black people are 3 times more likely than whites to be murdered by cops and the police have no legal duty to protect any particular citizen from harm unless they are in custody (“the public duty doctrine”). Said factors exist in a legal context in which law enforcement is uncontrollable by citizens, generally unaccountable to them, can’t be hired or fired by citizens and has irresponsible, limitless power over people to take life on the street as they see fit while providing a compulsoryservice” that citizens have no “right” to decline. While discussing the existence of the right to carry weapons for self-defense against public confrontation during Reconstruction, Justice Thomas discussed the historical need for Blacks to vigorously defend themselves in a violent, racist society:

In the years before the 39th Congress proposed the Fourteenth Amendment, the Freedmen’s Bureau regularly kept it abreast of the dangers to blacks and Union men in the postbellum South. The reports described how blacks used publicly carried weapons to defend themselves and their communities. For example, the Bureau reported that a teacher from a Freedmen’s school in Maryland had written to say that, because of attacks on the school, “[b]oth the mayor and sheriff have warned the colored people to go armed to school, (which they do,)” and that the “[t]he super- intendent of schools came down and brought [the teacher] a revolver” for his protection. Cong. Globe, 39th Cong., 1st Sess., 658 (1866); see also H. R. Exec. Doc. No. 68, 39th Cong., 2d Sess., 91 (1867) (noting how, during the New Or- leans riots, blacks under attack “defended themselves . . . with such pistols as they had”).

Witnesses before the Joint Committee on Reconstruction also described the depredations visited on Southern blacks, and the efforts they made to defend themselves. One Virginia music professor related that when “[t]wo Union men were attacked . . . they drew their revolvers and held their assailants at bay.” H. R. Rep. No. 30, 39th Cong., 1st Sess., pt. 2, p. 110 (1866). An assistant commissioner to the Bureau from Alabama similarly reported that men were “rob- bing and disarming negroes upon the highway,” H. R. Exec. Doc. No. 70, 39th Cong., 1st Sess., 297 (1866), indicating that blacks indeed carried arms publicly for their self- protection, even if not always with success. See also H. R. Exec. Doc. No. 329, 40th Cong., 2d Sess., 41 (1868) (describ- ing a Ku Klux Klan outfit that rode “through the country . . . robbing every one they come across of money, pistols, papers, &c.”); id., at 36 (noting how a black man in Tennes- see had been murdered on his way to get book subscriptions, with the murderer taking, among other things, the man’s pistol).

Blacks had “procured great numbers of old army muskets and revolvers, particularly in Texas,” and “employed them to protect themselves” with “vigor and audacity.” S. Exec. Doc. No. 43, 39th Cong., 1st Sess., at 8. Seeing that government was inadequately protecting them, “there [was] the strongest desire on the part of the freedmen to secure arms, revolvers particularly.” H. R. Rep. No. 30, 39th Cong., 1st Sess., pt. 3, at 102.

On July 6, 1868, Congress extended the 1866 Freedmen’s Bureau Act, see 15 Stat. 83, and reaffirmed that freedmen were entitled to the “full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings concerning personal liberty [and] personal security . . . including the constitutional right to keep and bear arms.” §14, 14 Stat. 176 (1866) (emphasis added). That same day, a Bureau official reported that freedmen in Kentucky and Tennessee were still constantly under threat: “No Union man or negro who attempts to take any active part in politics, or the improvement of his race, is safe a single day; and nearly all sleep upon their arms at night, and carry concealed weapons during the day.” H. R. Exec. Doc. No. 329, 40th Cong., 2d Sess., at 40.

Similarly today, any protection from police is incidental and random - keeping us safe is not their goal. Cops exist primarily to manage the behavior of Blacks & Latinos within a free-range prison. Their goal is to place you in greater confinement. As Dr. Blynd observes, "people who are awake see cops as mercenary guards that remind us daily through acts of force, that we are simultaneously both enemies and slaves of the Corporate State - colonized, surveilled and patrolled by the desensitized and lobotomized drones of the colonizers." Black people need to once again protect themselves, family members and their communities with “vigor and audacity,“ grow up and stop looking for authority to solve the many problems It actually creates and maintains. FUNKTIONARY explains, “only a slave waits for someone else to free him.

Observant Black folks know that propaghandi is not just after Clarence Thomas, its actually also after them and all Black folks. Funky ass white liberals, friendly looking, grimacing racist suspect puppeticians seek an inversion of life. They are a white party also. Their agenda is also not a Black agenda, it is based entirely in fear, obedience to granfalloons and law over humanity. How could being unarmed in dirty ass NYC make you more safe? And for what reason would you want to rely on other people, particularly authoritarians or racists, to protect you or provide for your well being in any area of people activity?

FUNKTIONARY sets forth the following,

UNCLE TOM – Undermining New Consciousness Laminates Enslavement To Omnipresent Matrix. Remember, Uncle Tom was killed for withholding information and emancipating others. Sambo is the hanky-head $nigger on which we should look to pull the trigger and drop. In each documented ‘slave revolt’ on record, there was an enslaved Sambo who exposed the plot and sided with the oppressor. SNAGs and $niggers get dealt with!! (See: Sambo, $niggers, Black-Flask Brigade, The Matrix, Piece-Activist, The OCTOCON, SNAGs, Niggadeemus, Astro Black Futurism, Niggerosity & Coin-Operated)

Endependence – the open declaration of the beginning of self-determination, self-reliance and Self-realization that spells the end to dependence on objective truth, abstractions, reification, granfalloons, father figures and organized religion.

PropaGandhi – passive social non-resistance propaganda. 2) obedience-based servitude to the enforcers of granfalloons uncommonly known as Corporate States and any other group-entities. Mahatma Gandhi mostly walked barefoot which produced calluses on his feet. He also had a very weird diet sprinkled with bouts of fasting which made him rather frail and suffer intermittently from halitosis—this made him… “A super callused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis.” (See: Poser, Class, Mass, Racism White Supremacy, Gun Control & Caste)

freedumb – the state of unrecognized psychological captivity (brain hemispheric hostage) that sheeple remain in because they don’t speak the language of reality nor constantly edit truth from perfecting heart to perfecting power—and when truth is spoken around them, refrain from being open, or impervious to it thus being forever chained to its distortions and limitations. 2) the mindset that proposes “since we are liberated, we are also free.” 3) the mindset that operates upon the notion that you can have individuality without accountability or responsibility. 4) the pretense that reality is truth and viceversa. People cherish unwarranted assumptions and relish their freedumb because they have been socialized into selfcensorship along with misidentification with the ego-mind—the absence of knowledge of Self. (See: Phfreedom, Truth, Unfreedom, Dumbelievers, Self, Belief Systems, Objective Truth, Individuality, Objective Reality, True Self & Reality)

Placebo Syndrome – mindless obedience, commercialism, sinsationalism and servitude to the disco-sadistic purveyors of the spanktronic Death-Force, e.g., CrimethInc., Religious Dogma, and the Corporate State (creating and operating within the zone of zero-funkativity—a metaphor for life-negating impulses, memes and actions). 2) the faceless dull sameness generated by belief, conformity, belonging and fear. The Placebo Syndrome allows / affords one theopportunity to feel the hypocrisy of being someone other than yourself, living another’s script not your own. (See: Sir Nose D’Voidoffunk)

Biden Issues Irrational Order for Background Checks Based on the Unsupported Factual Basis that Criminals 1) Purchase Guns Lawfully and 2) Then Leave Registered Guns at Crime Scenes for Cops to Trace

KEEPING TRACK OF WHO BUYS GUNS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH YOUR SAFETY. From [HERE] President Biden on Tuesday signed an executive order that he said was aimed at reducing gun violence, including changes that could increase the number of gun buyers subjected to background checks, while visiting the area of a January mass shooting in Monterey Park, Calif.

Mr. Biden said his executive actions are designed to move the U.S. as close to universal background checks as possible without the passage of legislation in Congress, where partisan divides have left most gun-safety legislation stalled.

The president, in his Tuesday remarks, said his executive order isn’t a substitute for congressional action. “Enough,” Mr. Biden said, directing his remarks to lawmakers. “Do something. Do something big.”

Under the new order, Mr. Biden directed the Justice Department to clarify the definition of being “engaged in the business” of selling firearms. Currently, a federal background check isn’t required for private sales of firearms between individuals. The change could result in more individuals being classified as firearms dealers who are required to conduct background checks for all sales. [MORE]

Contrary to Media Propaganda New Report Says “Crime rates remain at near historic lows.” Nevertheless Prison Populations are Increasing as the COVID Slowdown Subsides. 1.9M in Prison Most are NonWhite

From [HERE] Last week The Prison Policy Initiative released Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie(link is external). This report provides a comprehensive view of how many people are locked up in the U.S., in what kinds of facilities, and why. It pieces together the most recent national data on state prisons, federal prisons, local jails, and other systems of confinement to provide a snapshot of mass incarceration in the U.S.

Highlights from the report include:

  • Prison populations are starting to rebound. Although prison populations are still lower than they've been in decades, prison populations are beginning to increase as pandemic-related slowdowns in the criminal legal system are no longer driving down prison admissions. Additionally, officials continue to release fewer people from prison than before the pandemic.

  • Recent claims about increasing crime are not supported by data. Crime rates remain at near historic lows. However, some in law enforcement and on the right have sought to blame changes to the criminal legal system -- such as bail reform, changes to police budgets, or electing "progressive" prosecutors -- for increases in some crime rates since the start of the pandemic. However, these claims are not supported by the evidence: murder rates were an average of 40% higher in "red" states compared to blue states in 2020, police budgets have recently increased in the vast majority of cities and counties in the country, and places that did not implement any of these reforms also saw increases in crime rates.

  • In total, roughly 1.9 million people are incarcerated in the United States, 803,000 people are on parole, and a staggering 2.9 million people are on probation.

[A Major Goal of Racism White Supremacy is to Put Non-White People in Greater Confinement] The US Leads the World in Incarceration with 2.2 million people in prisons & jails; 67% are Non-White

DECARCERATION IS INCOMPATIBLE WITH WHITE SUPREMACY’S GOAL OF PLACING LARGE NUMBERS OF NON-WHITE PEOPLE INTO GREATER CONFINEMENT.

Study Shows Black Youth are More than 4X as Likely to be Detained as White Youth. 41% of All Youths Locked Up are Black [a major goal of racism white supremacy is to put blacks in greater confinement]

RWS REQUIRES THE GREATER CONFINEMENT OF SUBSTANTIAL NUMBERS OF NON-WHITE PEOPLE. UNDECEIVER NEELY FULLER MAKES IT PLAIN THAT “THE WHITE SUPREMACISTS KNOW THAT A WORLD SYSTEM BASED ON RACISM WHITE SUPREMACY REQUIRES THAT SUBSTANTIAL NUMBERS OF NON-WHITE PEOPLE BE GREATLY RESTRICTED IN THEIR MOVEMENTS FROM PLACE TO PLACE. THE WHITE SUPREMACISTS RESTRICT THE MOVEMENTS AND ACTIVITIES OF NON-WHITE PEOPLE SO AS TO KEEP THEM IDLE, AND/OR KEEP THEM FROM BECOMING CONSTRUCTIVELY SUFFICIENT.

THE RACISTS MAKE CERTAIN THAT LARGE NUMBERS OF NON-WHITE PEOPLE EXIST UNDER CONDITIONS THAT WILL MOST LIKELY CAUSE THEM TO DO THINGS THAT WILL GIVE RACISTS AN “EXCUSE” TO PUT THEM IN GREATER CONFINEMENT.” [MORE]

PUTTING YOU IN GREATER CONFINEMENT. Racists are obsessed with crime statistics in Black communities. According to the Sentencing Project, “Researchers have shown that crime reporting exaggerates crime rates and exhibits both quantitative and qualitative racial biases. This includes a tendency . . to exaggerate rates of black offending and white victimization and to depict black suspects in a less favorable light than whites.“ Under the pretense of being concerned about the well-being of Black people, the liberal white media in urban areas in particular, sensationalize crime with overblown coverage and hyper alertness. To be explicitly clear, it is a guise because we live in a system of racism/white supremacy in which most white people (or the most powerful white people) seek to dominate or seek cooperative control of non-white people with master-servant relations in all areas of people activity and project and maintain unequal power and conditions in a white over Black system. Racists, either self-described as liberal or conservative, have no intention of changing this arrangement because they are the permanent enemies of non-white people. Belief in the fantasy of “race” and hence their superiority necessitates such a result. White liberals and conservatives spare no cost when it comes to placing Black people in greater confinement. Dr. Amos Wilson states,

"Given the historical and contemporary virulence of White racism in America and the injustice toward Blacks that such racism engenders, the number of arrests, incarcerations, and in many instances, convictions of Black males should be viewed with a jaundiced eye. The willingness of White Americans to heavily tax themselves in order to finance accelerated and increased prison construction, rapidly expanding police forces and so-called criminal justice system personnel, burgeoning private police and security establishments; their willingness to finance the incarcera­tion of a Black male prisoner upwards of $30,000 to $40,000 per year, in sharp contrast to their unwillingness to tax themselves to provide for the appropriate funding of the education of Black children and to commit themselves to the ending of racist employment practices; to provide adequate housing medical care, food and clothing; clearly implies that alleged Black male criminality plays a very important role in defining the collective White American ego and personality.” [MORE]

[ReLIARability=Expect Most Cops to Lie About Details] When a Paterson Cop Told Najee Seabrooks, 'Everybody’s walking out of here Alive, including you,' He Was Lying. Cops Try to Justify Fatal Shooting

From [HERE] and [HERE] For hours, the Paterson police pleaded with Najee Seabrooks to come out of a locked bathroom where he was threatening to kill himself.

“Everybody’s walking out of here, including you,” one of the officers told him, according to video from police body cameras released by the New Jersey attorney general’s office this week.

“I’m dying in this bathroom,” said Mr. Seabrooks, a 31-year-old mentor at an anti-violence organization in Paterson, a city of 158,000 people in northern New Jersey.

“That’s not happening, Najee,” the officer replied. “Not on my watch. Come on. You’re going to live a long time. This ain’t how it ends for you.”

Najee Seabrooks had been feeling the stress of his job, relatives said.

But at 12:51 p.m. on March 3, about five hours after someone called 911 to report a man in distress, Mr. Seabrooks was declared dead. He had been shot by two officers, who fired at him after Mr. Seabrooks came out of the bathroom and “lunged toward the officers with a knife in his hand,” according to a statement by the attorney general’s office, which is investigating the shooting.

The attorney general’s office identified the two officers who fired their weapons as Anzore Tsay and Jose Hernandez, both of whom are members of the department’s emergency response team.

The case has roiled the city, where Mr. Seabrooks’s colleagues and family have demanded to know why mental health specialists were not allowed into the apartment so they could help. Protesters have marched to decry the shooting and to call for the U.S. Justice Department to investigate. One week after Mr. Seabrooks was shot, several dozen people gathered at a restaurant owned by one of the officers involved in the shooting and banged and kicked at the security gate.

A coalition of community organizations is calling for federal authorities to investigate the police department in Paterson, New Jersey, after the fatal police shooting of anti-violence advocate Najee Seabrooks.  

Led by the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, the groups sent the U.S. Attorney General’s Office a letter Monday asking for a federal probe, citing an FBI investigation that resulted in eight convictions of city cops as well as pending criminal cases and civil lawsuits accusing Paterson police officers of misconduct.

“Mr. Seabrooks desperately needed and deserved treatment, which was available to him, not a death sentence imposed upon him by PPD,” the letter said.

Seabrooks, a member of a violence intervention group, was fatally shot by a city police officer on March 3 after a five-hour standoff while an emotionally disturbed Seabrooks was barricaded inside his home. A union leader said officers fired their guns after Seabrooks brandished a knife and moved toward police.

The institute’s letter cited dozens of news stories, government reports and a police department audit conducted by city consultants as examples of why a federal probe is needed.

“Residents of Paterson have lived for years under a police department with a history of excessive force and other abuse, all felt disproportionately by Black and Brown residents in one of the most diverse cities in the country,” said the group’s letter.

Hospital asks why crisis team wasn't called

Meanwhile, the top official at St. Joseph’s University Medical Center is questioning the way authorities responded to the 911 call that resulted in the fatal police shooting.

St. Joseph’s President and CEO Kevin Slavin said the hospital has a “highly skilled and trained” intervention team composed of behavioral health professionals to respond to “individuals in crisis.” But Slavin said that group was never contacted during the Seabrooks police standoff.

“We must ask the question – why were we not called?” Slavin said in comments first reported on nj.com. “And, demand that this valuable community resource be used in the future for other individuals in psychiatric crises.”

Attorney General remains mum

The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office has revealed few details about the incident and released nothing new in the past five days.

The office said the 911 call that brought the Paterson Police Department’s emergency response team to Seabrooks’ home on March 3 involved “an individual in distress” who barricaded himself inside a bathroom and eventually was shot and killed by officers.

Amid the lack of official information, there has been widespread speculation about what took place. Seabrooks’ death has ignited community outrage, resulting in multiple near-miss confrontations between protesters and police in Paterson last week, including a tense standoff in the rain Friday night outside a restaurant owned by the family of one of the officers involved in the incident.

'Many of us continue to struggle'

Paterson law enforcement officials declined to comment about the concerns raised by the hospital president and the Newark-based social justice group, saying the investigation into Seabrooks’ shooting death is being handled by the Attorney General’s Office.

“As we search for answers on the tragic death of Najee Seabrooks, many of us continue to struggle with what more we could have done so this would not have happened,” said Slavin, the hospital president.

Since 2020, St. Joseph’s has had a partnership with the Paterson Healing Collective, the violence intervention group where Seabrooks worked. Seabrooks initially became involved with the Healing Collective when he was shot in 2021, officials said.

Healing Collective members have said Seabrooks called and texted them during the early stages of the police encounter earlier this month, asking them to help him. The group contends Seabrooks would still be alive if its members had been allowed to intervene.

Paterson Superior Officers police union, Mason Maher, said Seabrooks was wielding at least one knife when he came at them. The Attorney General’s Office has said three knives were recovered at the scene.

Hospital says police know about crisis teams

Slavin’s comments point to what could have been a different type of intervention, one by a hospital crisis outreach team that was deployed 379 times in 2022, according to St. Joseph’s. Hospital officials said they do not keep statistics that would show how many of those cases took place in Paterson or how many times the teams worked with Paterson police officers.

“They’re aware of us, they train with us, they work with us all the time,” St. Joseph’s spokesman Tom Casey said about the Paterson police. “It’s a familiar relationship on both sides.”

Casey said the crisis team has responded to cases in which people in distress had weapons. But those calls are handled in conjunction with local police, he said.

The hospital and Paterson are planning to launch a program later this year that would sent counselors with cops to crisis scenes.

Prosecutor Charges Hawaii Cops w/Intentionally Causing a Car to Crash at High Speed and Refusing to Render Aid to Seriously Injured People. Cops Didn't' Use Lights or Sirens and Conspired in Cover Up

From [HERE] Four Hawaii Police Department Officers have been charged for their involvement — or rather their lack of involvement — in a September 2021 car crash on Oahu that injured six people, two of them severely.

The Department of the Prosecuting Attorney filed felony charges against the officers on Thursday, 19 months after the incident. Prosecutors say the officers chased down a vehicle without using their police cars' lights or sirens, and then leaving the injured behind without helping.

Officer Joshua Nahulu. who prosecutors say was the nearest to the vehicle when it crashed, faces the harshest charge — causing a collision involving death or serious injury, a Class B felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Officers Erik Smith, Jake Ryan Bartolome and Robert Gus Lewis III face a charge of hindering prosecution, a Class C felony, and misdemeanor conspiracy to hinder prosecution.

According to charging documents, the four officers responded to a noise complaint at a beach park in West Oahu around 3:30 a.m. The officers followed a white sedan out from the park onto Farrington Highway, where they pursued the car at high speeds without employing either sirens or blue lights at any time during the pursuit as required.

The vehicle later crashed on the side of road and five out of six passengers were ejected. All six sustained some level of injury, with the driver suffering a traumatic brain injury. A 14-year-old passenger was initially paralyzed from the waist down.

Prosecutors say the officers then left the scene without rendering aid, and instead met at a nearby school parking lot where they conspired to fake reports that portrayed the crash as a single car incident. The officers later returned to the crash site after dispatch notified them there had been a massive car collision. According to court documents, they then “comported [themselves] as if [they] had no prior knowledge of the facts that gave rise to the collision.”

Prosecutors also say Smith, Bartolome and Lewis later submitted police reports about the incident that merely indicated that they had responded to the event, without acknowledging their presence during the crash.

An investigation, including video from security cameras that captured the chase, and news reports of the crash eventually revealed that the extent of the four officers' involvement.

“Three of the officers had their police powers removed following the crash, and the fourth officer’s police powers will also be restricted. Along with the collision investigation, an internal administrative investigation was initiated and remains open," acting Hawaii Police Chief Keith Horikawa said in a statement.

Thursday’s charges only revolve around injuries to the driver of the sedan, who sued the officers in April 2022. The charges do not address the 14-year-old boy who had been partially paralyzed by the crash, who sued the officers a week after the crash.

‘At Least 10 People Were On Top of Him:’ VA Prosecutor says Unreleased Video Shows 7 Deputies, Along w/Hospital Workers Smother a Handcuffed Black Man to Death as he Was Restrained with Leg Irons’

From [HERE] Three of the 10 people facing murder charges in the death last week of a 28-year-old Black man at a Virginia mental health facility were security guards at the hospital who watched and then participated in the fatal smothering, the prosecutor told CNN Friday.

The victim’s family wants answers as to how a promising musician having what they called a mental health crisis ended with him dying – and why no one stood up for him and kept him from being killed.

The county prosecutor said seven law enforcement deputies, joined by the hospital workers, “smothered him to death” while restraining him.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Commonwealth’s Attorney Ann Cabell Baskervill said, referring to unreleased video that shows the man’s death.

Baskervill said the hospital security guards passively watched the alleged smothering but eventually joined in and piled on top of the victim along with the deputies.

The local law enforcement officers’ union says they “stand behind” the deputies while an attorney for one of the deputies charged said he looked forward to the full truth being shared in court.

Irvo (pronounced EYE-voh) Otieno was 28. On March 3, Otieno was arrested by Henrico County police who were responding to a report of a possible burglary, according to a police news release. The officers, accompanied by members of the county’s crisis intervention team, placed him under an emergency custody order.

The officers transported him to a hospital where authorities say he assaulted three officers. Police took him to county jail and he was booked.

On March 6, Otieno was taken to a state mental health facility in Dinwiddie County and died during the intake process, according to Baskervill.

“They smothered him to death,” the prosecutor said.

A preliminary report from the Office of Chief Medical Examiner in Richmond identified asphyxiation as a cause of death, the commonwealth attorney’s office said in a statement.

Otieno was held on the ground in handcuffs and leg irons for 12 minutes by seven deputies, Baskervill said.

Baskervill said Friday that video of the apparent smothering shows there were hands over Otieno’s mouth, hands on his head and hands holding his braids back.

At the Henrico County jail, just before Otieno’s transfer to Central State Hospital on March 6, he was naked in his cell, with feces all over, according to Baskervill.

She told CNN the video from his cell, which she viewed, shows Otieno was clearly agitated and in distress. CNN has not seen the video.

Otieno was pepper sprayed before five or six Henrico jail deputies entered the cell and tackled him, Baskervill said.

“He’s on the ground underneath them for several minutes there,” she said. “And blows are sustained at the Henrico county jail.”

Asked if Otieno appeared combative, Baskervill said, “I would really characterize his behavior as being distressed, rather than assaultive, combative.”

Later, at Central State Hospital, Otieno was on the ground at one point with at least 10 people on top of him, Baskervill said.

“They’re putting their back into it, leaning down. And this is from head to toe, from his braids at the top of his head, unfortunately, to his toes,” she said.

Baskervill said Otieno was eventually put on his stomach, with the pressure on him continuing, and he died in that position.

Baskervill believes Otieno was dead before a 911 call was even made. Paramedics left and State Police were not called until 7:28 pm, according to Baskervill.

“The delay in contacting proper authorities is inexplicable. Truly inexplicable,” she said.

Who are the people charged in the case?

The seven sheriff’s deputies and three hospital workers have been charged with second-degree murder.

The seven deputies who were charged were identified in Baskervill’s release Tuesday as Randy Joseph Boyer, 57, of Henrico; Dwayne Alan Bramble, 37, of Sandston; Jermaine Lavar Branch, 45, of Henrico; Bradley Thomas Disse, 43, of Henrico; Tabitha Renee Levere, 50, of Henrico; Brandon Edwards Rodgers, 48, of Henrico; and Kaiyell Dajour Sanders, 30, of North Chesterfield.

The Henrico Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 4, the local law enforcement officers’ union, issued a statement Tuesday saying they “stand behind” the deputies.

“Policing in America today is difficult, made even more so by the possibility of being criminally charged while performing their duty,” the group said. “The death of Mr. Otieno was tragic, and we express our condolences to his family. We also stand behind the seven accused deputies now charged with murder by the Dinwiddie County Commonwealth’s Attorney Ann Baskervill.”

The hospital workers arrested Thursday were identified as Darian M. Blackwell, 23, of Petersburg; Wavie L. Jones, 34, of Chesterfield; and Sadarius D. Williams, 27, of North Dinwiddie.

There is video footage but it will not be released to the public. CNN requested the footage but was told the material is not subject to mandatory disclosure because the investigation is ongoing.

Otieno’s family has viewed the video provided by prosecutors Thursday and his mother says Otieno was tortured.

“My son was treated like a dog, worse than a dog,” she screamed, angry that no one stopped what led to her son’s death. “We have to do better.”

His older brother, Leon Ochieng, said people should be confident in calling for help when their loved ones are in crisis. He did not believe the people he saw on the video cared about preserving a life.

“What I saw was a lifeless human being without any representation,” Ochieng said, adding that his family is now broken and is calling for more awareness on how to treat those with mental illnesses.

“Can someone explain to me why my brother is not here, right now?” Ochieng said.

Family attorneys say Otieno posed no threat to the deputies.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is working on behalf of the family, said Otieno was not violent or aggressive with the deputies.

“You see in the video he is restrained with handcuffs, he has leg irons on, and you see in the majority of the video that he seems to be in between lifelessness and unconsciousness, but yet you see him being restrained so brutally with a knee on his neck,” Crump said Thursday.

Crump said the video is a “commentary on how inhumane law enforcement officials treat people who are having a mental health crisis as criminals rather than treating them as people who are in need of help.”

Much like the arrest and death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020, Otieno was face down and restrained, Crump said.

“Why would anybody not have enough common sense to say we’ve seen this movie before?” he said.

Family attorney Mark Krudys said the deputies had engaged in excessive force.

“His mother was basically crying out for help for her son in a mental health situation. Instead, he was thrust into the criminal justice system, and aggressively treated and treated poorly at the jail,” he said.

The video from the mental health facility shows the charges are appropriate, Krudys said.

“When you see that video … you’re just going to ask yourself, ‘Why?’” he said.

The 10 defendants will appear in court Tuesday before a grand jury, according to online court records. If the case goes to trial and any of them are convicted, the prison sentence for second-degree murder in Virginia is a minimum of five years with a maximum of 40 years.

Crump has called for the US Department of Justice to take part in the investigation.

Memphis Judge Delays Release of Additional Footage of Gang of Cops Beating Tyre Nichols to Death

From [HERE] Additional footage showing police officers as they brutally beat Tyre Nichols to death is forthcoming. Twenty more hours of video and several internal documents related to the Jan. 7 incident were expected to be released last week; however, Shelby County Criminal Court Judge James Jones Jr. issued a court order temporarily blocking the release.

“The court orders that the release of videos, audio, reports, and personnel files of City of Memphis employees related to this indictment and investigation (to include administrative hearings, records, and related files) shall be delayed until such time as the state and the defendants have reviewed this information. The release of this information shall be subject to further orders of this court and, in the public interest, will be ordered as soon as possible,” stated the order that was obtained by CNN on Wednesday (March 8).

As previously reported, protests against police brutality broke out across the country when the Memphis Police Department shared bodycam and surveillance recordings on Jan. 27. The grisly images of the father as he was repeatedly struck drew comparisons to the infamous cop beating of Rodney King and was likened to a modern-day public lynching. The additional video footage will include revealing audio from after the 29-year-old was battered and transported by EMTs to a hospital. Regarding the documents, they include portions of the city’s investigation and the personnel records of 13 officers and four members of the Memphis Fire Department.

Initially, the five disgraced officers — identified as Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Justin Smith, Emmitt Martin III and Desmond Mills Jr.— who attacked Nichols were fired, but terminations have since included two additional members of the force. Bean, Haley, Smith, Martin and Mills have each been charged in connection with the assault that ultimately led to the 29-year-old’s death. Last month, during their first court appearance on Feb. 17, they pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges, which included second-degree murder. The men are due back in court on May 1.