The Try-Works

Try-Works’ favorite member of the MSM (sorry, ma’am) files a great story on the Denver PD’s refusal to disclose what it is they’re gonna be using to wipe their jackboots all over your civil rights come the DNC.

“We’re going to follow our regular processes for any reasonable procurement,” said Jim McIntyre, director of the Denver Purchasing Division, who noted that the city council deals only with purchases totaling $500,000 or more. “I am trying to manage the security concerns of other entities, and just where that line is, that’s a good question.”

Detective John White, a spokesman for the police department, confirmed the Denver police were buying new equipment to “enhance the safety” of convention attendees. White declined to say exactly what and how much was being purchased. He said the total amount of taxpayer money used to buy the equipment might not be known until after the convention.

Colorado Confidential sent an open records request to the Denver Police Department in March, seeking any and all purchase orders, award papers, and contracts regarding security equipment for the convention. A response from the city’s Department of Safety (the parent organization for the police department) denied the request and stated that such information would disclose “tactical information” that is not in the public interest.

The denial of purchasing information drew criticism from the Colorado American Civil Liberties Union and demonstrators planning to protest during the convention.

“Clearly the expenditure of public funds is a matter of public interest and is a matter that is a legitimate subject of public disclosure,” said Mark Silverstein, legal director for the state chapter of the ACLU.

While Silverstein admitted that the police may not want to say how such purchases would be used, he said that is not the same thing as knowing what equipment the department is buying.

“Certainly the knowledge that the police have certain equipment couldn’t be contrary to the public interest,” he said.

The rest.

There’s a word you never thought you’d be reading around here. But, anyway, seeing as how Larry Hales has been a recent target of asshole bigot John Martin’s latest attempt to provoke a confrontation with local activists, here’s one of Mr. Hales’ latest articles. And it’s on a couple of my favorite subjects: our exploding prison population and “broken windows” policing.

By the way, all you young readers: I’ve said this a hundred times, but there’s only one answer for the horseshit, fascist, anti-Constitutional strategy of “broken windows” policing.

It’s easy to do, it can be done in an evening of carousing, and it takes naught but a brick to accomplish.

Well, a brick, and, of course, a window.

Inner city areas are faced with a neoliberal form of ethnic cleansing that has generally become known as gentrification. From San Diego to Los Angeles and San Francisco, to Harlem and New Orleans, inner city areas are being gobbled up by developers. Katrina was the excuse in New Orleans, “blight” in Detroit and other cities.

To pull it off, city administrators beef up police forces in poor, oppressed neighborhoods and institute “zero tolerance” or “broken window” ordinances, such as that in New York under former Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

The theory of “broken windows” was authored by James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling. Wilson, a right-wing policy advisor under Reagan and the first Bush, also believes in dismantling Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare and further privatizing public schools.

The “broken windows” theory is classic: blame the victim for the ravages of the capitalist system. It postulates that ignoring a broken window invites more windows to be broken; in other words, cracking down on petty offenses “decreases crime” and “cleans up the neighborhood.”

In general, most cops placed in oppressed communities are not people from the community, and many times are white.

The inhabitants of the community do not dictate the conditions of the community; the conditions are forced on the inhabitants. Poverty, joblessness, homelessness, the lack of health care, underfunded public education, the lack of after-school activities, poor housing choices, slum lords and the history of racist oppression in the U.S. are to blame.

It is capitalism and the culture that comes with it that are the culprits when it comes to “broken windows;” in fact the imperialist U.S. ruling class is constantly, actively engaged in breaking windows all over the world.

Prisoners super exploited

As prisons are warehouses for the poor and disposed, they are also depositories of a reserve of superexploitable labor.

Not only does the prison industry provide money and jobs to impoverished areas, but it also provide opportunities for industries to take advantage of the prisoners by putting them to work at superlow wages. In turn, the money prisoners earn is shuffled back into the prison system as prisoners purchase necessities and pay exorbitant fees for telephone usage.

Private prison companies house more than 100,000 U.S. prisoners. According to a Centre for Research on Globalization report in 2001, prisoners make on the average $.22 per hour and can work up to 40 hours per week.

The growth of prison labor continues, along with growth in the prison industrial complex as a whole, which is more and more privatized. This crime is perpetrated against workers and oppressed nationalities at alarming rates, and in an era of capitalist decline it will only grow worse.

The rest.

Looks like Denver’s finest have decided the easiest way to address the approaching DNC protests is to terrorize the protest organizers.  Following is an update on Larry Hales, who, you’ll recall, was attacked by Denver pigs for requesting they close his door while wiping their jackboots all over his Constitutional rights.

On Nov. 30, 2007 African-American police brutality and antiwar activist Larry Hales was arrested after 10 cops illegally busted into his home without a warrant and without permission, physically attacked him and handcuffed his partner to a chair. He is facing frame-up charges of “interfering with the police” and faces extended jail time for being the victim of a police attack.

Hales has been a primary organizer of a number of anti-imperialist and antiracist events in Denver. He is a leader of the youth group FIST–Fight Imperialism, Stand Together; a founder of Colorado United Communities Against Police Brutality; and an organizer with the International Action Center and the Troops Out Now Coalition.

Hales is also a principal organizer in the Recreate 68 Committee, which is planning protests to counter the Democratic National Convention to be held in Denver in August.

At the time of the police attack, Hales and his partner Melissa Kleinman were housing a survivor of police brutality who was on parole. The man had been shot in the back by police and had filed a civil case against the Aurora police department. Hales had previously agreed to house visits by the man’s parole officer, but only when the man was home.

However, when Hales told the police officers at his door on Nov. 30 that the parolee wasn’t home, and asked to see the business cards that because of a city ordinance Denver police must carry and surrender upon request, he had badges stuck in his face and told that they didn’t have to give him their cards. Hales told them that they didn’t have permission to come in, that the parolee was not home and that he wanted their cards. One of them scoffed and pushed the door open and him out of the way.

The cops charged into his apartment and ransacked his house. When Hales expressed concern that his cats would escape, he was shoved. When he asserted his rights, the police told him to shut up and violently attacked him, twisting his arm, grabbing him by the back of the neck, ripping out several of his dreadlocks, throwing him against the wall, and tearing off his shirt. He was pushed down the stairs of his apartment building, against the wall and railings and out into the cold night with a half-ripped shirt, socks and thin sweat pants. One officer squeezed his cuffs and the two had an exchange, where the officer remarked that more could be done and that Hales could end up face down on the ground, then he was hit in the stomach and thrown into the car.

The officers rolled the front windows down, left Hales in the car, told him he looked like he might hurt himself and that he would be booked as a “John Doe” and have to spend 72 hours in jail before anyone could find him. He spent the night in a freezing jail cell.

Police brutality is rampant in Denver, and this attack is part of the ongoing attacks on Black youth, from the Jena 6 to Sean Bell and countless cases of police brutality and repression throughout the country.

In addition, the police violence against such a well-known activist can only be seen as part of a continuing attempt to stifle political dissent. At a press conference in the days following the attack, Denver police brutality activist and survivor Shareef Aleem noted that police were attempting to neutralize activists related to the DNC protests. He stated: “In the last couple of years many of us involved in police accountability work have been attacked by the police and we know that when it happens we all have to stand up.”

Hales now faces a pretrial hearing on February 29 and trial on March 12 on police “interference” charges. During the arraignment, the states’ attorney suggested that more charges from the incident may be pending. For the City Attorney to continue to prosecute these charges would constitute a serious miscarriage of justice and state harassment, standing justice on its head by blaming the victim of police misconduct and brutality. It could be seen as an illegal, politically motivated abuse of process to chill political protest both against police brutality and at the upcoming DNC.

To sign an online petition protesting this outrage, go to:

<www.workers.org/2007/us/denver-1213/index.html>

For further information, contact the National Justice for Larry Hales Committee c/o Solidarity Center, 55 W. 17th St. #5C, NY NY 10011.

(212) 633-6646

<www.justice4larryhales@safewebmail.com>

or

<www.TroopsOutNow.org/larryhales>

Another press release that I’m a few days late on. The gentleman making the statement is Larry Hales, a local black activist who recently got a beating from the Denver Police for daring to request they do him the common courtesy of closing his door while wiping their jackboots all over his Constitutional rights. You can watch the press conference here.

Black activist has rights violated and is attacked in home by Denver Police

Melissa and I have taken on a parolee. His was one of the police brutality cases that we and others had worked on. The man had been shot in the back by Denver cops three years ago and he still has the bullet lodged in him. The police broke into a home he was visiting and shot him because he “fit the description” of someone they claimed to have been looking for.

The parolee was released and allowed to stay in our apartment. He was released a few weeks ago. We had spoken with the parole officer sparsely and a verbal agreement was made via the telephone, but nothing written was ever presented to us and we never signed any document. We were told that the parole officer would make unannounced visits and would search the home when the parolee was around, but would search only the parolee’s things.

At 10:30pm on Friday we were watching basketball. There was a very hard knock on the door. We asked who it was and was told that it was a parole visit. I told them the parolee was not home and they said open the door.

I opened the door and there were many cops standing in the hallway. I’d say at this time maybe about five or six. They said they wanted to come in and I repeated that the parolee was not home and that he was probably at work. The parolee did not have a curfew and was only told that he must spend his nights in our home. I asked Melissa to get a pen and a piece of paper. I told the cops I needed to see Identification and that I wanted their business cards.

Denver police have to carry them and surrender them upon request. I had badges stuck in my face but that they didn’t have to give me their cards. I told them that this would go know further, that the parolee was not home and that I wanted their cards. One of them scoffed and pushed the door open and me out of the way.

The cops rushed into the apartment and started rifling through our things and went into our bedroom and asked where the parolee’s bedroom was. We told him he slept on the futon and that his things were in two boxes on the floor.

They then walked through our bedroom, looked through our clothes, walked into our bathroom, our kitchen where they looked in cupboards and the refrigerator and then started dumping the contents out of our suitcases.

We told them to shut the door because our cats might get out. More cops come in and they constantly come in and out. They dumped one of my suitcases out and find bullets that I have had for 8 to 10 years. They had been packed away in a box. We still have yet to move into our place and many things are still packed and the bullets had been put into a suitcase with clothes that were packed away and had yet to be unpacked.

I told them that they were mine and that it was not against the law to possess them and that there was no gun, because there isn’t. I don’t keep any weapons in the apartment.

The cops then continue searching, leaving in and out of the apartment and tell us we have to sit on the futon. The cats hover near the door and so Melissa and I agreed that they should be put in the bedroom. I stand up and then one of the cops shoves me and I tell her that I’m going to get the cats out of the way and that she doesn’t have the right to touch me and that they have violated our rights up to this point.

She says sit down and shut up and I repeat that the cats have to be put away so they don’t run out because the cops won’t shut the door when they come in and out and that they can watch me. She shoves me again, then another cop grabs my arm and twists it and tells me to put it behind my back, which it is at this point. He then throws me down and jumps on top of me. I’m pinned between the futon and the wall and my other arm is pinned underneath me. More cops jump on top of me and they keep repeating stop resisting, stop resisting. These are big cops. I’m a small person. It would be difficult for me to resist when there are three to four cops pushing and pulling at me. One cop grabs the back of my neck and begins pushing my head down and someone is twisting my arm. Then someone starts ripping my hair out and the whole time they are yelling.

I hear Melissa in the background crying and telling them to stop and that I hadn’t done anything. She says over and over please don’t hurt him.

I’m pulled over and my shirt is ripped half off of me, I’m tossed around some more and on to the floor then handcuffed. At this time I’m wearing only socks, a ripped up t-shirt and a pair of sweat pants. I’m pulled on to my feet. My arms are forced up in the air behind my back and I’m pushed down the stairs, stumbling the whole time and shoved against the walls and railings when I stumble.

It is maybe thirty degrees outside and I see more cops as I’m forced to walk on the cold pavement with only socks. I get to the cop car, the door is opened and I’m standing facing the door. Another cop comes up behind me and starts squeezing my cuffs with both his hands. I tell him that it is not necessary, that I’m just standing there and not resisting. My hands go numb. He looks in my face and smirks and says that they can do a lot more to me and that I could end up face down on the cement. I told him he was a pig. He then turns me around, hits me in the stomach and pushes me by the top of my head into the car. I’m made to sit in the car with the windows down.

The cops tell me that they are going to book me as John Doe and that I’d spend at least 72 hours in jail before I’m processed, then told that I’d be put on a psych hold because it seemed like I wanted to hurt myself. I asked if this was a threat.

I was taken to one facility and handcuffed to a metal bench and told I could not make a phone call and that my rights did not entitle me to one. I was not even allowed to use the restroom. I may have been there about one hour to and hour and a half and had to hold my urine.

When I got out, she told me they cuffed her to a chair for over an hour in the apartment and that they ransacked our apartment and joked about letting our cats go. This is why when I asked if she could bring me some shoes and another shirt, before I was driven away from the apartment, that she couldn’t because they had her cuffed to the chair. She says there were 8 to 10 cops altogether.

Following is a press release from the Transform Columbus Day Alliance.  Funny, I recall the Denver City Attorney’s office mangling their case against the protesters in 2000 for nigh the exact same shenanigans.  I’m not sure which is more impressive: TCD’s team of lawyers, which have yet to allow a single conviction in almost a decade of protesting, or the city’s monumental incompetence.

Columbus Day Protesters have charged Denver city officials with acting arrogantly by disrespecting an order from Denver Judge Bohning and by disregarding the constitutional rights of defendants.

Attorneys for Transform Columbus Day Alliance (TCDA) defendants are responding to the willful disobedience of the Denver City Attorney’s office in contempt of the court’s order to comply.

City attorneys were ordered to disclose which, if any, of its attorneys were present at a political protest at the Columbus Day parade October 6, 2007.  They refused to disclose those names, and a motion for contempt of court was filed by the legal team representing 85 defendants in the case.

If city attorneys were present at the parade, their presence may disqualify them from prosecuting the cases, because they could be called as witnesses. They may have assisted Denver Police in orchestrating the arrests of the defendants.

On a motion made October 26 on behalf of the TCDA defendants, the Denver City Court ordered city attorney Daniel Douglas to provide, by November 9, the names of any city attorneys present at the protest. Douglas failed to comply with the court order, and the defendants’ motion to find the city attorney in contempt of court was filed November 15.  A hearing date for this motion is pending in Judge Bohning’s courtroom, 151P.

Instead of complying with the court’s initial disclosure order, the city attorney filed an objection, contending that he is not required to investigate the matter.

The city attorney’s decision to ignore the order was “legally invalid” and “rather disingenuous,” said a member of the TCDA legal defense team.  Ignoring the order represents a “blatant and willful violation” and the city attorney “should be held in contempt until he complies,” he said.

The motion is one of several filed recently in connection with the Columbus Day protest, including a motion for access to Denver Police Internal Affairs documents as well as related e-mails to and from the police or sheriff’s offices and the office of the mayor.

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper has said the police acted “with restraint” at the protest, during which more than 80 arrests took place, some accompanied by the use of pain compliance and other unjustified, violent tactics.

Police officials have referred questions concerning the arrest methods to the Internal Affairs Division or the city’s Office of the Independent Monitor, from which no immediate comment was available.

A police spokesperson said the Internal Affairs Division is “aware of issues (concerning allegations of excessive use of force) brought to the attention of Internal Affairs and is looking diligently into the allegations at this time.”  No further comment will be made at present, the spokesperson said.

One Columbus Day arrestee, a student at the University of Denver, contends his Constitutional rights were violated because he was arrested even though he was simply a bystander at the parade and had pointed out an undercover police officer(s).  He was “plucked from the crowd” and arrested, according to defense attorneys. After he was released from jail, Denver Police contacted the University of Denver to suggest that academic disciplinary action should be brought against the student, despite the fact that he has not been convicted of any crime.

The misdemeanor charges in connection with the political protest on Columbus Day generally allege disrupting a public assembly or blocking a public street.

Defenses to be employed at the trials of the more than 80 defendants focus in part on the right to free speech, to civil and political rights, and to protection under international laws against genocide and racial discrimination, attorneys said. The constitutionality of the ordinances under which most protesters have been charged, will also be challenged.

The folks at Transform Columbus Day have started a blog to compile statements from those who were victims of police brutality at this year’s Columbus Day protest. The first entry comes from Anna Dyne.

Some protesters were roughed up during arrest, with injuries, documented on film, that for one Native man included dark neck bruises from a baton choke-hold and a cut and bloodied mouth. For others, there was tendon, joint, and muscle pain and swelling from the striking, twisting, and contorting of various submission methods used by Denver police, including the SWAT team. An older Native woman in a wheelchair was among those arrested.

The rest.

Now, those fourteen or so of you who actually follow the comments know that Mr. John Martin has been in a month-long tizzy about a post I wrote about the Columbus Day police brutality, and which, after being made aware of the possible negative ramifications of said post for pending legal cases, I removed.

The post was based on a conversation I’d had with a few of the protesters, and was hastily banged out between the protest and a Rockies party. That said, the video and photographs I’ve seen corroborates what I was told, and I stand by it. It is as follows:

Everyone’s out of jail. I just spoke to one of the American Indian men who participated in the final protest. When they locked down, the police rushed in and immediately started a beat-down. One of the female pigs grabbed him by the testicles and started yanking on him. Another got him by his braid, cranked it up in his fist, and was jerking his head around. Then they laid into them with their nightsticks, destroying one of the men’s faces. When they were arrested, the pigs ground the cuffs on and left them cuffed in the holding cells; their hands were swollen and turning purple by the time they were released. It was a fucking bloodbath, but they’re all out of jail at least.

(And by the way, Mr. Martin, the incident happened in the street, not at the Denver courthouse. To “lock down” is fairly common vernacular for locking together in the street to make removal by the cops that much the harder to achieve. I do apologize for the confusion)

There will be plenty more on this story, and I’ll continue to track developments.

I won’t be able to make this — besides which, I’ve already seen most of it — however the rest of you really should attend.

Special Viewing
Police Actions At 2007 Columbus Day Protest
Denver Copwatch

Friday, November 16, 2007, 8pm
Crossroads Theater
27th & Welton -
East Point Of Historic Five Points
Denver, Colorado

On October 6, 2007 in downtown Denver, Denver Police moved against non-violent protesters blocking the Columbus Day Parade.  Denver CopWatch has reviewed video and photos taken by CopWatch observers and has identified a number of serious examples of excessive force by police.  Police used pain holds on protesters who were already in police custody.  The deliberate infliction of pain on compliant prisoners is a clear violation of international human rights standards.

On Friday, November 16, 2007, Denver CopWatch will show video and still photos from the Columbus Day protests to make public this deliberate use of pain and violence against non-violent demonstrators.  This event will begin at 8PM at Crossroads Theater, 2590 Washington St., Denver, CO.  The Crossroads is a new theater located on the East point of the Five Points intersection in the historic Five Points neighborhood.

Denver CopWatch is a local grass roots human rights group working for police accountability.  Come to 5 Points on November 16 and judge for yourself.

No matter what the Colorado Daily says in their caption (.pdf of the front page here, just in case it disappears) the blood is real. I don’t know if they’re lying intentionally, or if they’re just hacks, but there’s no way they should have mistaken this.

The blood is real. That’s demonstrable, that’s fact.

More to come.

Update: For all those doubting whether the blood in the above picture is real, the Colorado Daily offered the following in today’s edition.

The caption of the front-page photograph of yesterday’s Colorado Daily was inaccurate. The source of the caption revealed later that, while the protester depicted had contact with the fake blood poured on the street in front of the parade in Denver on Oct. 6, the blood on his face was, unfortunately, his own. The Colorado Daily regrets the incompleteness of the information provided to readers.

Update II: As I’m sure most of our readers know, Colorado AIM held a press conference today, announcing several civil lawsuits against the Denver Police. The allegations include straight brutality, sure: kicking protesters in the genitals, yanking American Indian men around by their hair, taking batons to protesters’ faces, using pain holds on a female Methodist clergyperson while addressing sexual slurs at her, dropping a female protester on her head and then refusing her medical treatment, keeping Russell Means in isolation without his heart medication for 14 hours after he’d posted bond. Y’know, the usual. But they also include the, well, piggish sublime: stealing $1,100 one protester brought for bond, and, better, taking a blind man’s cane, refusing him a sight guide, and then mocking him as he tried to make his way around the station.

Update III: Rocky Mountain News hack Berny Morson already has a piece up on the AIM press conference, doing his best to minimize the allegations. Perhaps, had Mr. Morson not stepped outside for half to three-quarters of the press conference to chat on his cell phone, he might’ve caught a little more of what was actually being alleged. Hell, he might’ve even pulled his notebook out of his pants and cracked the thing. I understand journalists are notoriously a couple of knights short of a Crusade, but good Christ, one does expect them to at least fucking pretend to pay attention to the news events they’re covering.

Update IV: Oops, forgot one of the allegations of police brutality: using batons to choke protesters into unconsciousness. Don’t wanna forget that one.

Update V: Super-attorney Walter Gerash was on Caplis and Silverman, discussing the Columbus Day protest trials. You can get the .mp3 here. Don’t miss, at 6:03, when Mr. Gerash mentions both video and photographs of the police brutality. Can’t wait for the trial, kids.

Thanks to the Ward Churchill Solidarity Network.

Mr. Aleem was facing sixteen years for standing up for the right to free speech. I was there, and the charges were a joke. This is one of the best days to come out of this whole mess.

Almost exactly two years ago, Shareef Aleem attended the public meeting called by the CU Board of Regents to discuss Ward Churchill’s criticisms of U.S. foreign policy. When the Regents refused to let the students speak, Shareef demanded to know why. He was arrested and charged with assaulting an officer, a felony for which he faced up to 16 years imprisonment.

In 2006 Shareef’s first trial resulted in a hung jury, and the Adams County prosecutor insisted on re-trying the case. In the second trial, which began last week, the jury deliberated most of the day Thursday and was sent home over the weekend. This morning, they returned a verdict of NOT guilty.

Keep reading.

Looks like Shareef Aleem won’t be doing any time for wearing a T-shirt.

Of course he might still be facing years for refusing to submit voluntarily to being gang-tackled by the Denver PD.

But not for wearing a T-shirt.

Because that would be a fucking arbitrary display of power.