Tag Archives: killing

Activism, Civil Liberties, Police Accountability, Videos

Cincinnati Activists Unite For ‘March for Justice’ With Families Of Those Killed By Police

Video Leave a comment

On Saturday, Sept. 19th, activists from around the Cincinnati area will gather for a march for justice with family members of individuals who have been killed at the hands of the police.

The United March for Justice is being organized by the group Awakened Cincinnatians and will have support from the families of Samuel DuBose, Samantha Ramsey, Tamir Rice, and John Crawford III. The peaceful march will take place at 6 p.m. Saturday night in front of the University of Cincinnati Police Department.

“Stand for justice by marching arm in arm with the families of Samuel DuBose, Samantha Ramsey, Tamir Rice and John Crawford III,” Awakened Cincinnatians stated. “Families and friends of the fallen will be traveling from all over the country to participate in this historic event.”

Family members of the deceased are expected to speak before the march begins. The facebook page for the event calls for “indictments not just charges.” The event will begin at the corner of Rice and Valencia streets, the spot where Samuel DuBose was killed two months ago.

In July Truth In Media reported that DuBose, 43, was shot and killed by former officer Ray Tensing, 25, after Tensing pulled DuBose over for driving without a front license plate on July 19. While Tensing claimed that he opened fire because he feared for his life after his hand was caught on DuBose’s vehicle, and DuBose started accelerating, footage from the body camera Tensing was wearing revealed that his hand was placed on the car door and that DuBose’s vehicle only started moving after Tensing shot DuBose in the head.

Two University of Cincinnati police officers, who arrived on the scene when former officer Ray Tensing shot Samuel DuBose during a routine traffic stop, face no charges for supporting Tensing’s false claims of being dragged by DuBose’s vehicle.

Samantha Ramsey was a 19-year-old preschool teacher from Kentucky who was killed on April 26 by sheriff’s deputy Tyler Brockman after he jumped on the hood of her car and fired four times into the vehicle. The deputy avoided charges but is facing a lawsuit by Ramsey’s family who say that the officer is lying about how the events unfolded.

In November 2014, Officer Timothy Loehman shot and killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice while he was playing in a park. According to the autopsy report, Rice died from a gunshot wound to the torso with “injuries of major vessel, intestines and pelvis.”

According to reports and video surveillance, Rice was playing in the park with a toy airsoft gun that shoots plastic pellets. Rice was shot less than two seconds after the police car pulled up beside him in the park.

Twenty-two year old John Crawford III was shot by a Beavercreek police officer after being seen holding a BB gun inside the Wal-Mart near Dayton, Ohio. A grand jury would later find the officer innocent of murder.

The United March for Justice is not the first time that Cincinnati activists have rallied diverse groups together to focus on common ground. On August 5th, activists in Ohio with Greene County Black Lives Matter, Anonymous #OpJohnCrawford, Beavercreek CopBlock and Ohio Open Carry marked the one year anniversary of John Crawford III’s death.

Perhaps more activists can learn a lesson from Cincinnati’s efforts to build alliances rather than focus on division. Only by being willing to set aside our dogmas and work together in the interest of Liberty can we begin to repeal the tyranny of government and create a more free world.

Disclosure, Featured, Foreign Policy, International, Politics, US

Report: At Least 1.3 Million People Killed In US War On Terror

29 Comments

A recent report found that in the estimated number of casualties from the United States’ “War on Terror,” at least 1.3 million people were killed in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan. While the report emphasizes that this is a “conservative estimate,” 1.3 million is 10 times higher than the number of casualties previously reported by mainstream media in the US.

The report, titled Body Count: Casualty Figures after 10 Years of the War on Terror, was put together by the groups Physicians for Social Responsibility, Physicians for Global Survival and International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. They recorded the lives taken in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan from 2003 to 2013 which occurred as a result of the “War on Terror” declared by the United States in the aftermath of September 11, 2001.

“This investigation comes to the conclusion that the war has, directly or indirectly, killed around 1 million people in Iraq, 220,000 in Afghanistan and 80,000 in Pakistan,” stated the report. “Not included in this figure are further war zones such as Yemen. The figure is approximately 10 times greater than that of which the public, experts and decision makers are aware of and propagated by the media and major NGOs.”

The report claimed that while the US-led Multinational Force in Iraq and the NATO International Security Assistance Force and US Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan have kept a total of casualties, the military’s only interest has been in counting “their” bodies.

According to the report, the total estimate of 1.3 million casualties was a “conservative estimate,” due to the fact that the total number of deaths in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan “could also be in excess of 2 million, whereas a figure below 1 million is extremely unlikely.”

The report cited multiple studies, which claimed that by 2008, there were already “over one million Iraqis” that had died as a result of war, occupation and indirect consequences.

In Afghanistan, the report found that from Oct. 2001 to Dec. 2013, 55,000 individuals defined as members of the “Taliban” were killed, along with 22 journalists, 281 NGO workers, 1,700 civilian employees of the US government, 3,000 private US security forces, 3,409 ISAF and OEF solders, 15,000 Afghan security forces, and between 106,000 and 170,000 Afghan civilians.

The report stated that in Pakistan, from 2004 to 2013, while 26,862 individuals described as “militants” were killed, 45 journalists, 5,498 Pakistani security forces and 48,504 Pakistani civilians were also killed. Between 416 and 951 civilians were killed by drone strikes.

Politics, US

Eric Frein wanted a ‘revolution’ and was upset with the government

14 Comments

A new document obtained by the court in the Eric Frein shooting case in Pennsylvania, shows Frein was distraught by the direction he thought the US was heading and wanted to “wake people up” by ambushing state troopers outside of their barracks.

“Our nation is far from what it was and what it should be,” Frein allegedly wrote in a letter addressed to his parents.  “There is so much wrong and on so many levels only passing through the crucible of another revolution can get us back the liberties we once had. I do not pretend to know what that revolution will look like or even if it would be successful.”

The night Frein was arrested, he waived his right to remain silent and told officers, according to the Talking Points Memo, he “wanted to make a change  (in government) and that voting was inefficient to do so, because there was no one worth voting for.”

Frein does not talk about what he planned on doing in the letter, but the letter indicates he believed he might die because, as the letter reads, he “knows the odds.”

The letter was found on a portable storage drive within the hangar Frein was using as a shelter while he was on the run.  The file was created last December meaning Frein was potentially planning the shooting for at least nine months.

Frein is already being charged with first-degree murder for the killing of Cpl. Bryon Dickson, but with this new document submitted as evidence, he is also being charged with two counts of terrorism, according to the LA Times.  The one count is for attempting to influence the policy of the government through intimidation and/or coercion, while the other is for trying to affect the conduct of the government.

The prosecution has already said they are seeking the death penalty for Frein.  He is currently held without bond, and Frein’s next court date is Dec. 9.

Police State, Politics, US

Retrial for Officer Joseph Weekly to begin in Detroit

3 Comments

Four years ago, the Detroit Police Department conducted a raid on a home in search of a murder suspect, but a 7-year-old girl was caught in the crossfire.

Aiyana Stanley-Jones was killed during the raid from a gunshot wound to her head.  Aiyana was sleeping on the couch in the living room of the house, when a flash grenade thrown by police crashed through the window.  The police hoped the grenade would render the inhabitants inside the house confused and easy to subdue.  After the grenade went off, police stormed the house, and within seconds, Aiyana was shot and killed.

Officer Joseph Weekly, 38, is being charged with involuntary manslaughter and careless discharge of a firearm which resulted in the death of Aiyana.  Officer Weekly testified in court for his first trial in 2013, according to RT, “I replay this every day in my head… There’s nothing else I could have done differently.”

His first trial ended in a deadlock and was declared a mistrial in June, 2013.

The retrial is set to begin soon as juror selection began this morning despite Officer Weekly’s attorney, Steve Fishman, asking for an adjournment until 2015 following the shooting in Ferguson.  Fishman wrote, according to the Detroit Free Press, the “media frenzy” following the shooting has resulted in the vilification of police officers across the nation, and this would not allow for a fair and unbiased trial for Officer Weekly.

His defense is calling the shooting tragic, but also defending Officer Weekly saying his actions were not grossly negligent.

Officer Weekly is part of the Special Response Team who was carrying out a warrant in search of Chauncey Owens, a suspect in the death of 17-year-old Je’Rean Blake.  Aiyana’s father, Charles, is accused of providing the gun which was used to kill Blake.