Wil Elder on July 4, 2007 Police Riot in Spokane’s Riverfront Park

This is a 5 1/2 minute video taped interview of Wil Elder interviewed on July 9, 2007 at a rally near the headquarters of the Spokane Police Department. At the rally, some 150 Spokane citizens of all ages called for independent oversight of the Spokane Police Department and protested the police assault on July 4th picnickers and protesters at Riverfront Park which resulted in the arrest of 17 young people.

In this video, Spokane activist and organizer Elder vividly describes the events of July 4th. Brother Wil also hosts two very popular locally-produced radio programs — On the Clock and The Breakdown Train — both heard exclusively on KYRS 89.9 and 92.3 FM Thin Air Community Radio.

Reflections on Blogging Down the SPD

WordPress is the blogging platform I have chosen for two of my blogs — SpokanePoliceAbuses and SpankingTheSpokesman. One of the WordPress features I like most is the BlogStats feature. From the BlogStats page, I am able to learn a number of things.

For one, I am able to see that in the 23 days since I began SpokanePoliceAbuses, it has been viewed 1116 times or an average of just under 50 views per day. The best day registered 162 views.

I can also see that the four most frequently selected posts on SpokanePoliceAbuses are “Laying Out the Case“; “Suicide by Cop: I’d Have Jumped Too“; “The Role of Spokane, Fairchild, and the SERE/JPRA Programs in U.S. Torture and Geneva Convention Violations“; and “Color of Law Matters–Spokane FBI Chief Egon ‘Dez’ Dezihan“.

Additionally, I am able to see the combinations of key words that people used in search engines to arrive at my Blog. Some of them include: “taser model ml18″, “40 CALIBRE”, “Spokane JPRA John Bruce Jessen”, “spokane police misconduct attorneys”, “restraint chair”, “how do I know if it is a police officer”, “what is sere resistance training like”, “Otto Zehm”, and “Jay Mehring”.

But the BlogStats data that I have found the most interesting is the Referrer information. This allows me to see from what sites people arrived at my site. In otherwords, someone placed a link for SpokanePoliceAbuse on a website and then someone else clicked on that link to get to SpokanePoliceAbuses.

The most interesting Referrer site so far? The forums section of the Spokane Police Guild website at http://spokanepoliceguild.com/v-web/bulletin/bb/viewtopic.php?t=730 and a similar address http://spokanepoliceguild.com/ipw-web/bulletin/bb/viewtopic.php?t=730. Of course, if you or I click on these links we will not get to the forums but rather we will be redirected to the Spokane Police Guild sign-in page and be unable to go any further. Hits from the Spokane Police Guild forums have now risen to four, including a third Guild site address ending in 730&highlight=

So what does this mean? It means that a police officer or police administrator or police attorney or someone else with password access to the SpokanePoliceGuild website posted my Blog address on one of their forums and others have clicked on that link to get to my Blog.

Would love to see their posts!

Meanwhile, I want to extend a warm welcome to the members of the Spokane Police Guild. Please make yourselves at home here at Spokane Police Abuses: Past to Present. Look around, take your shoes off, light up a stogy, and stay a while. No warrant required.

And remember: without you this Blog would not be possible.

Guns and Policing: Standards to Prevent Misuse — Amnesty International

To read this entire report, go to http://web.amnesty.org/library/print/ENGACT300012004

[Excerpt] The UN Code of Conduct states that every law enforcement agency “should be representative of and responsive and accountable to the community as a whole.” [End excerpt]

[Excerpt] Agreed international standards do exist to control the use of force and firearms by the police. They include the UN Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials and the UN Basic Principles for the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials. At their heart is the question of what constitutes legitimate force. Police must sometimes be permitted to use force or lethal force, in order to do their job of keeping communities safe and protecting people from life-threatening attacks. But the force used must not be arbitrary; it must be proportionate, necessary and lawful. And it must only be used in self defense or against the imminent threat of death or serious injury.

In order to comply with this essential principle, police must know how to assess rapidly when a threat to life is being made. They need to be extremely well trained in tactical threat assessment so that they can judge in each different context whether a use of force, including lethal force, will be proportionate, necessary and lawful. Too many police forces around the world are trained how to fire a gun but not how to decide whether it should be fired, or when. And too few governments have incorporated the UN standards in their national legislation, or show any respect for them in practice. [End excerpt]

Welcome to 1984

(stop video at 0:38) December 1983 meeting between Donald Rumsfeld and Saddam Hussein in Baghdad

**********************************

Lyrics to “War Story”

You thought uncle sam wanted you
But you were used, you were just abused
I try to tell you time and time again
The only war worth winning is the war that’s within

You played right into uncle sam’s hands
Where is the glory in complying with demands
You were used to defend world domination
Where is the honor in being an abomination?

And I don’t see the glory in your war stories
It was just your turn to burn and get burned

You thought that you had something to prove
But yer just seeing colors, not red & white just blue
Your whole life has always been the same
First you were tamed then you were ashamed

You played right into uncle sam’s hands
Where is the glory in complying with demands
You were used to defend world domination
Where is the honor in being an abomination?

And i don’t see the glory in your war stories
It was just your turn to burn and get burned

 

 

War coming home to roost — just the beginning…

On October 26, 2005, NBC reported an armed Gulf War veteran in Spokane’s VA hospital. Armed with an M16 and a hand gun, the vet was reportedly behaving as if he wanted security guards to kill him. He eventually gave up his guns and was arrested.

Two facts are inevitable as the war in Iraq drags into its 16th* year:

1) More and more returned veterans will experience mental health crises and communities will be forced to deal with their tormented violence and acting out, and

2) More and more returned vets and private contractors will enter employment in law enforcement where their military training and war-time experiences will translate into abusive conduct and excessive use of force against citizens of the U.S.

(Daily we are witnessing the sad reality across the country of Vietnam-era vets in law enforcement beating, tasering, hog-tying, and killing other Vietnam-era who have fallen into lives of mental illness, homelessness, drug abuse, desperation, and crime.  The next 40 years will see a repeat of this cycle with Iraq-era vets in law enforcement acting against their fellow former comadres.)

[* You read correctly.  I include the 1991 Gulf War and President Clinton's air war and policy of starvation-by-embargo against the Iraqi people as part of the ongoing war against Iraq.]

In the news story below about this distraught vet at the Spokane VA Hospital, please note that “a pair of doctors and a security officer talked the man into putting down the assault rifle and handgun”.

One thing which can be said with certainty based on history is that had the Spokane Police Department arrived first, this man would have had been shot dead by the SPD.

******************************

October 26, 2005

Man Arrested Near Spokane VA Hospital With Guns

SPOKANE, Wash. — A man armed with three firearms was arrested this morning near the Spokane Veterans Administration hospital.

No one was injured when a pair of doctors and a security officer talked the man into putting down the assault rifle and handgun. Police later found another handgun on the man, who is in his 40s.

He faces a federal charge of bringing a firearm onto federal property.

Police say a doctor first encountered the man in a breezeway at the back of the hospital, near an emergency room. Another doctor and the security officer arrived and the policeman drew his weapon.

The man had previously been treated at the center and reportedly told police he wanted to commit suicide.

(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press)