POLICE UNION SMEARS WOMAN WHO POSTED VIDEO OF POLICE BEATING ON FACEBOOK

[Senator Tankerbell]

After video surfaced last night of a Miami police officer beating a man in handcuffs, the Miami Order of the Fraternal Police tried to smear the woman who originally posted the video on her Facebook page. Union President Javier Ortiz blasted out a press release picking images from Smith's Facebook page despite the fact that Smith herself isn't accused of a crime.

"As everyone is aware, social media has placed a very negative tone on law enforcement nationwide. On August 13th, there was a video that was posted in social media that shows an encounter with Miami Police Officers. While the video may seem concerning to some, the FOP is confident that when everything is analyzed with the totality of the circumstance, it will be concluded that the police officer was doing what he is supposed to be doing: Protecting our Community," wrote Oritz.

"What is extremely concerning is that the poster of this video (aka Facebook Marilyn Smith) has photographs of her with young men armed with handguns. It seems that no one cares to address this. Social media has focused so much on #blacklifematters [sic] /alllifematters campaigns, yet nobody targets the root of the problem our community faces today."

Source: http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/police-union-smears-woman-who-posted-video-of-police-beating-on-facebook-7823262

Police all over this country are OUT OF CONTROL. Elected officials need to STEP UP and do something about it right now. I really can't understand why more people aren't angry about the epidemic of police brutality. Fuck all that bullshit about 'most police are good' and 'it's a tough job'. So-called 'good cops' are obviously in the minority in Miami, otherwise they wouldn't allow a racist piece of garbage like Javier Ortiz to represent them.

[Senator Tankerbell]

1. Direct link to video

[awoke_in_2003]

8. Fucking jackbooted thugs

But I wish people would start shooting videos in landscape.

[Gigabear]

2. There is no justification for shit like this

Union President Javier Ortiz needs to be let go and replaced with someone who is actually sane.

[ohheckyeah]

3. As suspected, she's black.

"What is extremely concerning is that the poster of this video (aka Facebook Marilyn Smith) has photographs of her with young men armed with handguns. It seems that no one cares to address this. Social media has focused so much on #blacklifematters /alllifematters campaigns, yet nobody targets the root of the problem our community faces today."



When we try to address the gun problem we are labeled gun grabbers against the second amendment. There are photos of white people with guns all over Facebook and YouTube but that doesn't seem to be a problem. But, it's a problem in this case because of having guns while black.

Fuck Ortiz.

[montana_hazeleyes]

5. You are right on!

He's really letting his bias show big time.

[NBachers]

4. All they had to do is close the door and drive the guy away for processing.

That shit wasn't necessary.

[Whiskeytide]

6. Beating a guy in handcuffs...

... is about as cowardly as it gets.

[Downwinder]

7. Don't want photographs of young men armed with handguns

Complain to the NRA.

[Omaha Steve]

9. Truthout: Black Labor Organizers Urge AFL-CIO to Reexamine Its Ties to the Police

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/32342-black-labor-organizers-urge-afl-cio-to-reexamine-its-ties-to-the-police




(Image: Jared Rodriguez / Truthout)

The news never stops happening, even when the cameras aren't paying attention. Subscribe to our email newsletter to stay in the know! http://www.truth-out.org/about-us/newsletter-signup

The rise of the Movement for Black Lives got Brandon Buchanan and some of his fellow graduate student employees in the University of California system thinking. Many of them had taken part in the protests rippling across the country, and the movement had also inspired them to think about what they could do within their own union, United Auto Workers Local 2865, to deal with questions of racism and anti-Blackness close to home.

"To get our voices heard we realized that we needed to come together to form a committee that specifically addressed the needs of Black workers in the union," Buchanan, a graduate student in sociology at UC Davis, told Truthout.

The Black Interests Coordinating Committee was born out of this effort to "call out our fellow union members, and call them in to an anti-racist union," he added. But the committee's members also wanted to have an impact on the broader conversation in the labor movement around racism, police violence and the role of labor in a racial justice movement.

"We were seeing a number of police unions and associations criticizing Black activists for addressing the needs of their communities, and actively working to cover up and dismiss issues of police brutality in their departments," Buchanan said. Most of those police unions are already outside of the major labor federations, but the International Union of Police Associations (IUPA) is a member of the AFL-CIO, the nation's largest federation of labor unions. And when members of the Black Interests Coordinating Committee did some reading of IUPA leaders' statements on police killings and the union's website, they found what Buchanan describes as "articles in which questions of Black civilian life were downplayed to the benefit of the police officers' narrative."

FULL story at link.

K&R!

OS

[Live and Learn]

10. Gawd I hate this. Something must be done to stop it. nt

[beevul]

11. Dear FOP...

Dear FOP,

Handguns are legal.

Please go soak yourselves.