Harris AG service dates are Wikipedia fact. Unlike her "race," where bullshit predominates the issue, The Atlantic publishing, "The
Wikipedia War That Shows How Ugly This Election Will Be - An editing
battle over Kamala Harris’s race is a sign of what’s to come." by Joshua Benton - August 13, 2020.
That is a story in itself, but different from the story posted here today.
Websearch = los angeles sheriff department ink tattoo gang
Over the last several decades, there have been a number of cases that
have led many to believe that there is racial bias within the United
States' police force. From the murder of civilians like Michael Brown
and Trayvon Martin to the racial profiling instituted in stop and
frisk—there have been many instances of police brutality that some
suggest are rooted in systemic racism. In some instances, these acts are
allegedly being committed by neo-nazi and white supremacy gangs that
exist in secret within the LA police force—as seen through the Vikings
gang of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department. Take a look at how a
superior court judge is attempting to find existing gang members at Los
Angeles county's Compton station below and let us know what you think
about this controversial debate in the comments section on Facebook.
The judge is not seeking out officers, like the one above, who are adorned with non-controversial ink.
A
superior court judge has recently ordered the Los Angeles County
Sheriff's department to reveal the names of police deputies who have a
specific skull tattoo design. These tattoos, which feature a skull with a
military helmet, riffle and flames, have been linked to a notorious
neo-nazi gang within the Los Angeles Police Department's Compton
station.
In an effort to crack down on secret societies within the
Los Angeles Police Department, Superior Court Judge Michael P. Vinencia
is pushing have the department interrogate officers about their tattoos
in order to determine which deputies are involved with the gang.
There
have been many people who have fought against Vincencia, including
county attorney Chandler Parker who believes the questioning to be an
inappropriate invasion of an officer's privacy.
The
Vikings gang first surfaced approximately 30 years ago and has been
affiliated with various police stations throughout Los Angeles,
including Lynwood. They've been linked to a number of crimes against the
African-American community, including the 2016 murder of Donta
Taylor.
As concerns over police misconduct and use of force have
drawn increased national attention in recent years, activists have
argued that a key part of the problem is the ability for officers to shield one another from accountability.
But in California, critics of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s
Department have been faced with a unique version of the issue: the
existence of what have been called “deputy gangs”
— cliques of officers who allegedly engage in violent and potentially
criminal behavior while protecting their members and clashing with other
law enforcement officers.
These groups, which have reportedly been around in some form or another in Los Angeles County since the 1970s, have been a frequent topic of local media reporting. Outlets like the Los Angeles Times have highlighted
how other officers have filed formal complaints about the “secretive
groups,” describing them as powerful forces within the sheriff’s
department who beat and harass local residents and, at times, actively
work to intimidate other nonaffiliated officers.
Many of the deputy cliques share common features:
hierarchical structures, intensive recruitment, hazing of younger
officers, and a resistance to outsiders. But one of the features that
has been most commonly cited is tattoos. Members of a specific group
often have a shared “ink” that symbolizes their membership. In some
instances, according to reports, this ink is only granted after a deputy
commits an illegal act or violates department protocol to show their
loyalty to the group. In other cases, deputies allegedly received
additional markings after fulfilling certain conditions, like committing
police brutality or being involved in a shooting.
Such groups are not exclusive to Los Angeles County, but
the area has reportedly had a particularly difficult time dealing with
the groups. “Defenders say the cliques are harmless fraternities,
likening them to close-knit groups in the military,” the LA Times noted in a July article.
“But time and again, the deputy clubs have come under fire for
promoting aggressive tactics and an us-versus-everyone mentality.”
According to the Times, there have been several clubs
that have existed in the various stations under the sheriff’s
department, with some groups becoming defunct, leaving new cliques to
take their place. In late September, eight LASD deputies filed a lawsuit
against one such group, called the “Banditos,” a deputy clique of
several dozen members who operate out of the department’s East Los
Angeles station.
Criminal justice news outlet the Appeal reports
that according to the lawsuit, the group uses violence and intimidation
to maintain a “stranglehold on the unincorporated communities east of
downtown,” with members sporting “tattoos featuring a pistol-wielding,
sombrero- and bandolier-wearing skeleton with a thick mustache and a
unique number for each member.” In 2018, the outlet noted that the
existence of nearly three dozen federal civil rights lawsuits
against the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department pointed to a deputy “gang
culture that encourages excessive force, particularly against
minorities.”
Stomping on parents of truants was low hanging fruit, and an ambitious AG could gain press coverage by such a focus; fiddling while Rome burned.
What was Harris thinking? Didn't she have a clue of what her actual job was? It was more than promoting PR stuff toward Kamala's career advancement goals.
But she had her priorities. And it is not as if police-gang trouble was some big secret. It was there for serious law enforcement professionals to pursue, to investigate and prosecute, as seems to be the case, now.
Yes, all the media coverage listed and quoted is recent. But from the quoting, the problem itself is not. During the Harris AG tenure, it existed - and could have been rooted out by a citizen-friendly top law authority. But not Harris?
And while inaction where action would have helped minority communities facing policing bias is troubling and cause to criticize law-and-order Harris; what about her or her people scurrying to rewrite the record?
Dumb Biden could have had either of two stellar progressive black women, Stacey Abrams or Karen Bass on the ticket second spot where each had better records in support of the black community, fighting voter suppression, etc. (Bass being a Californian like Harris); but each was an older heavier and less physically attractive woman than Harris, who is less well educated and more compromised than either. Biden could have enhanced his credibility among informed progressives and knowledgeable black community members with either as his pick.
Biden likely was told who to pick, and picked who he was told. Glitz over substance. A Senator! End of post.
__________UPDATE_________
A caveat. The Crabgrass understanding is that Harris during her "top cop" tenure prosecuted as many evil police officers as Minnesota's senior Senator, Ms. Klobuchar, which is zero. Both ran law-and-order election campaigns, both stayed away from going after bad cops. Neither is really presidential, but than that puts them in the same box as Trump, Pence and Biden.
TRUMP MUST GO. That said; Biden and Harris will need to be strictly policed. No brutality, no truncheon or chemical weapons, but as Harry Truman said, "They say give 'em hell, but I only tell the truth. When it is about them, they think it's hell."
So - Give 'em hell. The Biden - Harris ticket, put together as it was with key mischief on the eve of Super Tuesday, deserves no mercy. Nor do the band of perps, "The Team" each-and-every who pulled off that Super Tuesday gambit. Biden owned brazenly by the donor class, Harris with career ambition uber alles. Both graceless and neither deservind grace. A pair of losers. About to run the nation for four years. Not eight, not that pair. They'll yield to a second Romney run, or Ted Cruz, or whatever worse slime the Republicans skim off the top of the swamp water, say Pence, and it will be - Trump onward, the fire, the frying pan, the fire again. Our nation, our people, deserve far better. Big money runs the circus freak show, and we have to buy popcorn or cotton candy and watch classless acts.
You can do the websearch, Trump Barr Kenosha [images]
Returned images of the two, Trump and Barr, deplaning and out politicking suggest that Biden and Harris each are trim and in better condition.
That is: Besides Biden and Harris being more decent humans. Besides not being the threat to Democracy that fascism poses. Besides being ahead in the polls. Besides many, many other things.
You'd think a pair of white supremacists would care to look a bit more - supreme.
Fine expensive suits, yes - full of Portly aged overfed Republicans. The slang expression "fat cats" unavoidably applies.
The headline is the opening paragraph of an AP report carried by Strib.
The headline tells it all.
Italics at the end of the headline? TAKE THAT! Chelsea Clinton, Jeb Bush.
An excerpt:
Markey [...] teamed up with a leading progressive, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, on the Green New Deal climate change initiative — and at one point labeled Kennedy "a progressive in name only."
[... Kennedy] sought to cast the 74-year-old Markey as someone out of touch after spending decades in Congress, first in the House before moving to the Senate.
At a victory celebration in his hometown of Malden, Massachusetts, Markey ticked off a series of priorities, from support for the Black Lives Matter movement to a call for Medicare for All, to combating climate change, a signature issue for Markey.
"Every other problem is linked to it. No solution to any challenge will be successful unless we address it. There will be no peace, no justice and no prosperity unless we stop the march to climate destruction," he said. "We must pass a Green New Deal."
To make good on those pledges, Markey said Democrats have to take back control of the U.S. Senate and oust President Donald Trump in November.
"He is the most corrupt, most racist, most incompetent president in American history," Markey said. "We must banish his agenda of division and destruction to the history books."
Markey also credited his win in part to support from younger voters telling them "when they say you're too young, show up with your friends."
[...] "The senator is a good man. You never heard me say otherwise," Kennedy told supporters at an outdoor rally. Kennedy also suggested that the movement of supporters the campaign pulled together would continue past the current election.
"We may have lost the final vote count tonight but we built a coalition that will endure," he said. "I would do this again with all of you in a heartbeat."
[bolding and italics added] Elizabeth Warren, you have a target on your back. A heartbeat away, a non-progressive wants to eat your progressive lunch. Be vigilant.
Be soooooo progressive that the Young Kennedy will have no opportunity to waylay. He argued Markey was too old. Too entrenched. So address it directly, saying, "He's too Kennedy to gain US even a pinch of progress."
And Senator Warren, if you have to go nuclear, remind your sane electorate in Massachusetts that young Kennedy is a Pelosi endorsee. That will end his chances. It did this time, it will again. Entrenchment exists apart from time in office, and Kennedy is entrenched wrongly, no matter how much cashflow he can rain on Pelosi/Perez and consulting entrenched hangers-on.
In the blast of social media messages, Mr. Trump also embraced a call to imprison Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York, threatened to send federal forces against demonstrators outside the White House, attacked CNN and NPR, embraced a supporter charged with murder, mocked his challenger, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., and repeatedly assailed the mayor of Portland, even posting the mayor’s office telephone number so that supporters could call demanding his resignation.
One of the most incendiary messages was a retweet of a program from the One America News Network, a pro-Trump channel that advances extreme theories and that the president has turned to when he feels that Fox News has not been supportive enough. The message he retweeted Saturday night promoted a segment accusing demonstrators of secretly plotting Mr. Trump’s downfall.
“According to the mainstream media, the riots & extreme violence are completely unorganized,” the tweet said. “However, it appears this coup attempt is led by a well funded network of anarchists trying to take down the President.” Accompanying it was an image of a promo for a segment titled “America Under Siege: The Attempt to Overthrow President Trump.”
[...]
Mr. Trump likewise reposted messages asserting that the real death toll from the coronavirus is only around 9,000 — not nearly 183,000 — because the others who died also had other health issues and most were of an advanced age.
[links in original omitted]
Twitter has led to the death of coverage in depth, or at least has that aim.
When it comes to lack of depth, it's Trump's end of the pool. And he wades in that wading pool with gusto, and with no need for water wings. (Actually, deep end of the pool, he's got flotation, his body alone suffices.)
The image is from DWT, posted yesterday, "What Will Joe Kennedy Do After His Congressional Career Ends Tomorrow? A Biden Sub-Cabinet Position?" That item begins:
Ed Markey, is ahead of Joe Kennedy III in the Senate race. Every public poll this summer has shown Markey ahead and the latest-- an Emerson poll released yesterday-- has him beating Kennedy 56-44%, The RealClearPolitics polling average has Markey ahead 52.0% to 40.8%, an 11.2% gap. That's some turn-around since the first poll taken a year ago that showed Kennedy beating Markey 42-25% (a since evaporated 17 point lead for Kennedy). Much of the national coverage of the election has been about endorsements. One way of looking at it is that the entire progressive grassroots movement-- from MoveOn (92% of whose Massachusetts members opted for Markey), Daily Kos, NARAL, Sierra Club, HRC, Peace Action and the Working Families Party to DFA, Indivisible, Our Revolution, Sunrise, Justice Dems, PCCC, PDA and Blue America-- has come out for Markey. But the media is also looking at this as a battle between Pelosi-- who hypocritically endorsed Kennedy, probably doing him more harm than good-- and AOC, who validated Markey as the progressive choice. Kennedy was probably further harmed when the only sitting U.S. senator to endorse him was the most right-wing Democrat in Congress, Arizona crackpot Kyrsten Sinema. Elizabeth Warren, on the other hand, is backing Markey. All the massachusetts members of Congress who have weighed in, have weighed in for Markey. And another major progressive validator, Ro Khanna endorsed Markey. Two other widely mistrusted members of Pelosi's leadership team-- Hoyer and Hakeem Jeffries-- have also come out for Kennedy.
Kennedy's congressional endorsement roster is a good signal to not support him. Some of Congress' most loathsome Wall Street-owned New Dems-- the Republican wing of the Democratic Party-- are on Team Kennedy, from Filemon Vela, Conor Lamb and coke-freak Pete Aguilar to worthless conservative Dems like Gil Cisneros, Juan Vargas, Elissa Slotkin, Xochitl Torres Small, Sharice Davids, Sean Patrick Maloney, Derek Kilmer, Blue Dog chair Stephanie Murphy and David Trone the crooked Maryland businessman who spent a horrific $31,327,397 of his own cash over 2 cycles to buy a seat. Many are hoping to build relationships with the Kennedy Machine [...] Mark Pocan, co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, who imagines himself running for Senate in 2022, has led a number of progressives into the Kennedy tent, putting them in opposition to their own grassroots supporters-- terrible mistake for a movement Pocan has never given a shit about. Meanwhile, Gabe Debenedetti reported for New York Magazine that Bernie"has not endorsed Markey [...]
__________UPDATE___________
Recent DWT posting in addition to what's cited above or elsewhere in Crabgrass posting includes:
Scenes of Trump supporters firing paint and pellet guns at protesters during a “Trump cruise rally” caravan through downtown Portland – a liberal bastion that has been the site of weeks of street demonstrations – raised the specter that the nation’s summer of unrest had entered a new phase in which the president’s backers are rallying to defend businesses and fight back against Black Lives Matter and other groups he has labeled “anarchists” and “terrorists.”
One man, thought to be a member of a pro-Trump group, was shot and killed Saturday night during the Portland unrest.
In tweeting a video of the caravan on the move, Trump called the participants “GREAT PATRIOTS!” The reaction marked a sharp contrast to his silence during a large and peaceful civil rights march on Friday in Washington that drew thousands to the National Mall, where some speakers denounced his leadership.
In a statement Sunday afternoon, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden “unequivocally” condemned the Portland shooting and accused Trump of “fanning the flames of hate and division in our society and using the politics of fear to whip up his supporters.”
[...] The violence has escalated as Trump has seized on the social justice protests as a campaign wedge, attempting to tie Biden to “radical” elements on the left. Eager to shift the political debate from the rising deaths and economic toll of the pandemic, Trump has relentlessly attacked Democratic mayors and governors for failing to quell protests, and he dispatched federal law enforcement authorities into cities to help arrest demonstrators.
[...] Trump on Tuesday is set to travel to Kenosha, Wis., where the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black resident left paralyzed, provoked street protests that culminated in the shooting deaths of two others. Kyle Rittenhouse, a White 17-year-old who had illegally obtained a rifle, was charged with first-degree intentional homicide in the killings, which came after a fledgling militia group had posted a call to arms on Facebook.
[...] White House aides said Trump will tour property damage and meet with law enforcement officials, but they did not disclose any plans for the president to meet with Blake’s family.
[...] Trump’s conservative supporters, including Fox News host Tucker Carlson, have seized on Rittenhouse as a figure of sympathy, suggesting that he acted legally and in self-defense. The president on Sunday appeared to offer his support by liking a tweet from a self-described former liberal activist who cited Rittenhouse as a reason to vote for Trump.
Conservatives also rallied around the Trump caravan in Portland, where the man who was killed was wearing a hat bearing the words “Patriot Prayer,” the name of a far-right group organized in 2016 to bring pro-Trump rallies to liberal strongholds.
[italics added] TRANSITIONING: A press question about "vigilantes" with Trump answering using terms "... a quarter of a second ..." "... make a mistake ..." in this video:
This next:
UPDATE: This link - It includes Tweets from one of the authors of the above quoted WaPo/Seattle Times item.
A new poll by the Military Times of active-duty service members shows Trump job favorability underwater, just 38% saying he's doing a good job. Officers have the most unfavorable view of Trump-- 59.1% disapproving. As for voting... Biden's ahead among all service members by nearly 6 points.
And this was even before it came out that Trump has been knowingly been accepting at least 30 campaign contributions from American Nazi movement leader, Morris Gulett-- and other known Nazis. And before it came out that Trump has been stoking vigilantism and violence in American cities to cause chaos. Washington Post reporters David Nakamura, Matt Viser and Robert Klemko wrote Sunday that Trump spent the weekend fanning the flames of partisan tensions between his supporters and social justice protesters in Portland and Kenosha, underscoring the threat of rising politically motivated violence.
In tweeting a video of the caravan on the move, Trump called the participants “GREAT PATRIOTS!” The reaction marked a sharp contrast to his silence during a large and peaceful civil rights march on Friday in Washington that drew thousands to the Mall, where some speakers denounced his leadership.
In a statement Sunday afternoon, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden “unequivocally” condemned the Portland shooting and accused Trump of “fanning the flames of hate and division in our society and using the politics of fear to whip up his supporters.”
“We must not become a country at war with ourselves; a country that accepts the killing of fellow Americans who do not agree with you; a country that vows vengeance toward one another,” Biden said. “But that is the America that President Trump wants us to be, the America he believes we are.”
The violence has escalated as Trump has seized on the social justice protests as a campaign wedge, attempting to tie Biden to “radical” elements on the left. Eager to shift the political debate from the rising deaths and economic toll of the pandemic, Trump has relentlessly attacked Democratic mayors and governors for failing to quell protests, and he dispatched federal law enforcement authorities into cities to help arrest demonstrators.
...Trump aides, including White House senior adviser Kellyanne Conway, asserted recently that the violence and chaos will help his reelection bid. [...]
What was Biden trying to say? I literally can’t decipher him. When he squints, it’s when he couldn’t read off the teleprompter. That was bad. This is frightening:
“Covid has taken this year, just since the outbreak, has taken more than 100 years, look, here’s, the lives, it’s just, it’s ju-, I mean, you think about it.”
If Biden went to Kenosha, he’d have to answer unscripted questions. That’s the Democrats’ worst nightmare:
His staffers got him out of that Pittsburgh setting fast so he didn’t have to answer questions. How could he handle the responsibilities of being president? I don’t think he could.
Joe Biden’s flip-flop factory worked overtime yesterday. During his speech in Pittsburgh, Biden emphatically stated “I am not banning fracking. Let me say that again: I am not banning fracking no matter how many times Donald Trump lies about me.”
Joe thinks we’re stupid. People paying attention know that he’s repeatedly stated that he’s willing to ban fracking. This video highlights what he said yesterday in Pittsburgh with things he said during the Democrats’ presidential debates: [...]
Slinging it, both ways? Or more one way than the other, during the last couple of months before the election? Who wins a shitstorm, and do we need better "talking points" or will slinging it carry the day?
