Peaceful protester repeatedly PUNCHED in the face AFTER being thrown to the ground

[Matariki]

Last edited Wed Dec 14, 2011, 10:57 PM - Edit history (1)

There is NO excuse for this. It happened in the city I live in and love - but our police, omg. I encourage you to contact Seattle's mayor after reading this: http://www.seattle.gov/mayor/citizen_response.htm

http://valleyandmountain.org/what-we-do/creative-liberation/johns-response-to-police-brutality/

Yesterday evening, I was brutally beaten by my brothers on the Seattle Police force as I stood before an entrance to Pier 18 of the Seattle Port in my clergy garb bellowing, “Keep the Peace! Keep the Peace!” An officer pulled me down from behind and threw me to the asphalt. Between my cries of pain and shouts of “I’m a man of peace!” he pressed a knee to my spine and immobilized my arms behind my back, crushing me against the ground. With the right side of my face pressed to the street, he repeatedly punched the left side of my face for long enough that I had time to pray that the crunching sounds I heard were not damaging my brain. I was cuffed and pulled off the ground by a different officer who seemed genuinely appalled when he saw my face and clerical collar. He asked who I was and why I was here, to which I replied, “I’m a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ, I believe another world is possible.” He led me shaking to a police van where began a 12-hour journey of incarcerated misery.

[link:valleyandmountain.org/what-we-do/creative-liberation/johns-response-to-police-brutality/|more]

[Fumesucker]

1. The people of Egypt have rights that are universal.

That includes the right to peaceful assembly and association, the right to free speech, and the ability to determine their own destiny. These are human rights. And the United States will stand up for them everywhere.

Barack Obama Jan 28, 2011

[gratuitous]

4. Universal rights?

No such thing, according to the official policies and actions of the United States. While I am appalled by what our country does in my name and with my tax dollars, it's the flaming rhetoric mouthed by our elected officials that just puts the cherry on this shit sundae. The United States most certainly does not stand up for human rights, universal rights, everywhere.

[coalition_unwilling]

2. USA! USA! USA! :sarcasm: - n/t

[Fire Walk With Me]

3. EXTEND THE PORT SHUTDOWN

[pinboy3niner]

12. Check this out: The case for making a storm in the ports

Posted in Good Reads by PETRUS:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10161290

[Fire Walk With Me]

13. Thank you, I don't spend enough time there and missed that!

[louslobbs]

5. Another peaceful citizen, brutalized by a militant member of the corporate controlled, tax payer

funded police "force." I feel sorry for those, who under the color of authority, do the bidding of the powerful to silence the majority by using brutal militant tactics. I feel sorry for us all, at this, another ugly time in history created by 1% of the population and those who do their bidding here in Corporate America. It all makes me want to vomit.
Lou

[AnotherMcIntosh]

25. Why feel sorry for any of the lower-level police employees? They know what they're doing, ...

They were educated with public funds and taught civics as classroom students. Some, and a good percentage of them, were supported with public funds when they enlisted in the military and obtained the type of background that could qualify them to be more easily hired in their police departments. They receive publicly-funded medical care and continued employment with public funds, even when their superiors could reasonably suspect by just looking at the size of some of them that they are not just lifting weights but are taking illegal steriods. They received publicly funded salaries while knowing that the banksters are not being prosecuted while free speech to object to the banksters' activities, and other wrongdoing, is being violently suppressed with their help.

Sorry for them?

They are willingly undermining our rule of law and our Constitutional protections. It is a choice that they are making.

[Blue Owl]

6. WTF?

[Matariki]

7. I really don't know if stuff like this is a deliberate effort to scare people against protesting

or if it's the action of individual police who are full of rage and hate who get to act out without any repercussion.

[SammyWinstonJack]

8. Why can't it be both? Sure seems like it

might be.

[Matariki]

9. You're right. It could be both.

The former would certainly encourage and bring out the latter.

[Fire Walk With Me]

14. They see it in terms of a cost/benefit analysis.

If they can make it not worth getting out and protesting, they win. You are correct. Why else use, over and over, across the nation, overwhelming force and tactics against peaceful protests? Because they know the people, united, shall never be defeated.

RISE UP!

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. Yes, yes it is

many of our occupiers have been charged ONLY with resisting arrest... well you cannot resist arrest without ANOTHER charge.

[Warren Stupidity]

26. it is deliberate trained programmed policy to suppress and intimidate.

don't be so naive. The stakes are huge.

[midnight]

10. K&R

[GoneOffShore]

11. What's the difference between the police and criminals?

The uniforms.

[backscatter712]

15. And people wonder why I have such contempt for the pigs.

I'll never forgive America's police for their role in the destruction of liberty in this country.

FUCK THE PIGS!

[Matariki]

16. The whole article is pretty powerful writing. And I admire the man's ability to transform his anger

The piece ends with this:

"By generating love, I mean channeling that passion into creative and liberating action. There are so many excuses to avoid it: “The issues are so complex,” “There are two sides to everything,” “I don’t want to alienate anyone and lose a chance at making an impact later.” But as the great preacher/activist William Sloane Coffin once said, “Not taking sides is effectively to weigh in on the side of the stronger.” As finite creatures, we cannot fight every worthy battle. But refusing to participate in any struggle for a more loving world is a nihilistic rejection of even our very finite power. Right now I am praying for the courage to transform the molecules of my anger and the raw material of my frustration into the greatest, most indestructible, most transformative power on earth: unconditional love in action."

[backscatter712]

17. Fuck forgiveness.

If you ask me, forgiveness is simply opening one's self to further abuse.

[Matariki]

18. I don't see anything about 'forgiveness' in that writing.

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. read though on why YOU ARE PART OF THE 99% is important

regardless of your opinion...

http://www.aeinstein.org/

Gene Sharp gets it.

[Matariki]

31. Which article?

Your link goes to the main page with multiple articles. Were you recommending a particular one, or the whole site?

[nadinbrzezinski]

32. From dictartoship to democracy

here, a link to pubs only

http://www.aeinstein.org/organizations892f.html

The 198 points are also a good primer

[Kaleko]

21. Wow. That priest is a true devotee of what might be called Christ consciousness or enlightenment.

I admire him greatly for attempting to transform his justified anger and vindictiveness (possibly) into the light of pure awareness which is synonymous with love.

[fasttense]

22. That man of the cloth is acting more like Jesus would have

Then a million Pat Robertsons, John Hagees or Oral Roberts put together.

He reminds me of MLK in some respects.

Now that is a man whose church I would visit.

[Bonobo]

23. Fascism. It's fascism.

It is encouraged either explicitly or through tacit acceptance and silence from the top.

It is supporting an oligarchical system.

It is oppressing an entrenched group of lower income people through violence, incarceration, lack of access to good education.

It is not prosecuted or challenged by our "representatives".

It's fascism and Godwin had no fucking idea what was really coming.

[randome]

24. I'm not saying this didn't happen.

But is there any account of this other than the reverend's?

In general, accepting something without corroboration is not a good idea.

In fact, this shouldn't even count as LBN since a news source is not identified.

On edit:
Whoops, It ISN'T in LBN. My bad. But still, any corroboration?

[pinboy3niner]

27. Part of it was captured by AP on video:

Part of the episode was captured in the Associated Press video below. Helmiere (in tan jacket) can be seen 44 seconds into the video as he is pulled to the ground by an officer.

&feature=player_embedded


http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattle911/2011/12/14/minister-says-he-was-beaten-by-police-during-occupy-protests/#more-11574

[Matariki]

28. I'm glad this video exists, thanks for posting it.

Rev. John Helmiere's piece is a powerful bit of writing and the photo of his wounds are, in contrast to his words, shocking and outrageous.

I'm sure as his blog post goes viral that the people who benefit by the current status quo want nothing more than to discredit his trustworthiness in order to undermine the message.

I wasn't even going to answer the post you replied to because I was afraid it would derail the whole thread into an argument over Helmiere's character and honesty - instead of what he wrote.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

30. Now he'll say the video isn't proof enough.

I still wonder how many people who post here are operatives for the Democratic Party. Some I'm convinced are.

[T S Justly]

29. K&R (nt)

[Remember Me]

33. Listen deeply. Get upset. Generate Love. -- that Clergyman's advice, from an article in Yes!

A Lesson in Love From the Protest at the Port
http://www.yesmagazine.org/happiness/a-lesson-in-love-from-the-protest-at-the-port?utm_source=wkly20111216&utm_medium=yesemail&utm_campaign=titleHelmiere