Down with Gaddafi!

In a repeat of last weekend's rally, Seattle residents gathered downtown to demonstrate their support for the pro-democracy protests taking place in Libya.

Photo's via flickr:

March to Stop Raids and Deportations / 02-25-2011

Demonstrators gathered Friday to protest SB 5407, a law workings its way through the Washington State Senate requiring proof of citizenship prior to the issuance of a Driver's license, and recent raids by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Ellensburg, Wa.  SB 5407 would effectively make it impossible for undocumented workers to obtain Driver's licenses and auto insurance in Washington State.  Another proposed piece of legislation, HB 1272, would require state employment agencies to verify that workers are qualified to work in the United State prior to referring them to potential employers. While these proposed laws don't rise to the level of the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act (SB 1070) signed into law last April in Arizona, they would contribute to making every day life more difficult for Washington's immigrant communities.

Like most groups that argue from the pro-immigration side of this debate, the activists that gathered friday ignore an essential fact: individuals subject to detention to ICE and deportation are in the United States illegally.  What these activists label "attacks against immigrant communities" are, in fact, lawful arrests.  Given the Republican sweep of the 2010 elections, immigration policy at both the state and federal level is headed towards more, not less, restrictive legislation. While it may be true that Latinos are the fastest growing demographic in Washington, what percentage of this population is in the state illegally? If you're not a citizen and can't vote, you don't represent a political constituency attractive to legislators.  Unless U.S. immigration policy gets in sync with the economic necessity of immigrant labor, through amnesty or guest workers program, Latino workers will continue to face the cost / benefit decisions that come with choosing to work in the U.S. illegally.  Until the U.S. decides to adopt a less schizophrenic attitude on immigration, the risk of deportation is not going away.

Pamphlets

Photos: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

Wheat Paste Goodness

Shepard Fairey style street art posted around Alaska Junction in West Seattle:

Please drop me a line if you can identify the artist.

Render unto Caesar

References to God and debt keep springing up among the evangelical preachers and pamphleteers. Here's a few examples:

Paid in Full

All About the Benjamins

$1 Million

While this isn't surprising, sixteen of thirty-eight parables in the New Testament deal either literally with the subject of money or evoke money as a symbol, it seems less apt in today's cultural and economic climate. The street preachers often speak of humankind's debt to Jesus / God for the gift of salvation. The millions of people who have recently lost this homes or jobs and are dealing with real world debt cannot find this message all that attractive. It feeds into the escapism that's inherent in Christian theology.  Yes, you're poor and miserable, but that doesn't really matter because someday you'll get to die and than everything will be ever-so-much better.

At least this message is consistent with canonical theology -- as opposed to the prosperity theology put forth by many contemporary televangelists. " I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God" would seem to contradict the notion that "God wants us to prosper financially, to have plenty of money, to fulfill the destiny He has laid out for us." If Joel Olsteen ran into Jesus on the street, he'd probably mistake him for a hobo.

Pro-Libyan Democracy Rally, 02-19

 

I headed downtown this afternoon expecting a rally in support of Wiki-leaks and Julian Assange.  At the appointed time, I found Westlake Center empty of protesters -- which is something of a rare sight on a Saturday afternoon.  Fortunately, a group approximately 30 Pro-Libyan democracy activists stepped up to fill the gap later in the afternoon.  I'm guessing this was an unscheduled or non-permitted event, given that the usual Socialist and Anarchist hangers-on were not in attendance.  A protest undiluted by distractions; it's a rare occasion when i find nothing to foster my cynicism.

Photos: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Signal-to-noise

Tensions continue to mount in the streets of Seattle with Wednesday's announcement by King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg that criminal charges will not be charged against SPD officer Ian Birk for the fatal shooting of John T. Williams in August 2010.  Birk subsequently announced his resignation later that afternoon.  While the Native American community has consistently called for solutions to the problems of police brutality from within the system in the aftermath of Williams' death, a variety of voice from the far left have been calling for more racial approaches.  Marches organized on Wednesday (02/16) and Friday (02/18) were composed primarily of Anarchist and Pro-Socialist activists that have co-opted the issue. Friday's march turned violent with police deploying pepper spray after protesters vandalized a squad car.  Unfortunately, this march was scheduled in direct conflict with a more reasoned discussion of the problem hosted at the Chief Seattle Club, with a panel including representatives from the NAACP, ACLU and Seattle City Council.  It's becoming clear that these protesters are more interested in marching, destroying public and private property, and disrupting everyday life than advancing reforms with the Seattle Police Department.

Photos of Wednesday's march via The Stranger. Photos of Friday's march via MyNorthwest.com.

Some pamphlets distributed Friday:

All Cops are Bastards

Justice is Impossible

Fuck the Police

To Protect and Divide

Down with the American criminal injustice system!

Pamphlets from the Chief Seattle Club Forum:

U.S. Department of Justice: Community Relations Service
Know Your Rights!: A People's Council on Social Justice Forum
Respect: Youth Guide to Seattle Laws & Police Procedures

The material being put on by the City and Federal agencies in connection with the Williams shooting remains both non-specific to the problems at hand and tone deaf.  Calling for mutual respect between police and the public, given SPD's well-publicized instances of excessive force, isn't going to win any hearts or minds. 

Harry Potter made me do it

FAITH: 2.b (1) : firm belief in something for which there is no proof

SUPERSTITION: 2. a notion maintained despite evidence to the contrary

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

How do you argue for the validity of one spiritual belief over another spiritual belief when the two concepts are basically equivalent? How is praying to a dead saint any different than talking to your dead mother? How is faith really all that different from superstition?  In this excerpt from the February 2011 issue of "Awake!" the Jehovah Witnesses attempt to address these questions, offering up an amusing bit of religious cognitive dissonance with dashes of western elitism.

For those unfamiliar with Jehovah Witness beliefs, one of their core principals is that the end of days began in 1914, when Jesus returned undetected to the earth and began to separate the saved from the damned. Prophesy indicated that Armageddon would occur "before the generation that was living in 1914 will have died out." A quick review of a life expectancy table will tell you that the Apocalypse is running a little late -- which has lead to a number of revisions to prophesy in recent decades. A comprehensive review of this theological backpedaling can be found here.

"You cannot be partaking of 'the table of Jehovah' and the table of demons." So watch out, fans of young adult fiction. Don't let your love of Harry Potter keep you out of heaven.

A revolution without dancing isn't worth having

Police Brutality Rally / Westlake Center / 02-12-2011

The activists that gathered Saturday afternoon to protest police brutality didn't add much to the on-going debate on how to reform the Seattle Police Department.  The usual cast of Anarchists and Socialist groups made up the majority of the crowd of approximately 100 demonstrators, along with a small contingent from victims advocacy groups such as The October 22nd Coalition.  Speakers took aim against the recent Police Accountability Forum hosted by The Stranger, calling the event a sham, and evoked the recent anti-Mubarak protests in Egypt as proof of the effectiveness of street activism.

The lack of a cohesive message at these events continues to undermine this movement. What are these groups demanding? Beyond the prosecution of Ian Birk for the shooting of John T. Williams, it's difficult to say. Many of these activists are so hostile to even the existence of a police force, it's difficult to find any logical starting point for a dialogue. And many are hostile to the idea of dialogue. When a posed this question to one activist in attendance, who was distributing literature for the Seattle Anti-imperialist Committee, his response was 'there's no dialogue with racist gun thugs."  

Hey, at least this revolution has a band.

Photos: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Lady Paula Merry on the 2012 Presidential Election

(Click for full size)

Looks like Joe Biden's days are numbered.

Damp Solidarity

 

Seattle residents gathered at Westlake Center this afternoon to show their support for Anti-Mubarak demonstrators in Egypt. While the majority of the demonstrators limited their critiques to Mubarak and the oppressive regimes of other dictators throughout North and Central Africa, there was no shortage of far left groups ready to attach themselves to the movement:

Communism: The Beginning of a New Stage

A decisive state in the Egyptian revolution

U.S. Hands Off the Arab Revolution!

Support the Egyptian Revolution

I question the effectiveness of such efforts. They inject additional issues into a debate that is sufficiently complex. They dilute the power of a very simple message: the Egyptian people, after thirty-years of autocratic rule, demand the end of the Mubarak regime. The sign I posted above contains the most succinct summary of the pro-democracy movement I've seen. Most importantly, in terms of U.S. support for a new Egyptian government, they supply ammunition for right-wing commentators like Glenn Beck. Here's a clip from Friday's Rachel Maddow show that demonstrates my point:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Mr. Beck is just doing what he does best, constructing wildly hyperbolic arguments to incite fear against the Islamic world and renew cold war hysteria.  As often as his claims are debunked by the likes of Maddow, Beck's rhetoric still proves persuasive to some. For large segments of the American populace, whose political consciousness evolved during the late 1970s and 1980s, any argument put forward by an organization that self-identifies as communist or socialist will prove to be a non-starter. They see the word "manifesto," images of Stalin and Hitler flood their heads and any chance at reasoned discourse dissolves.

And these groups have arguments worth presenting. U.S. foreign policy, both in the last thirty years of Mubarak's regime and as recently as last week, have backed U.S. economic and military interests over the self-determination of the Egyptian people. U.S. foreign aid to Egypt cemented Mubarak's regime and kept him in power longer. Mubarak's rule has impoverished average Egyptians while enriching Mubarak himself, as he has constructed a golden parachute for himself with financial holdings in the U.S. and abroad.  All these things are true -- but if they're presented from a socialist / communist perspective, they'll largely be ignored by American audiences. On the most basic level, it's a branding problem.

acrimony grief rage

Police Accountability Forum / City Hall / 02-03-2011

An audience of over 350 attended the Police Accountability Forum on Thursday evening to hear public officials and community leaders respond to well-publicized instances of excessive force by SPD officers in the past 18 months -- most notably the fatal shooting of John T. Williams. Dominic Holden, News Editor for The Stranger and organizer for the event, opened the discussion by stating that "We need to be blunt. This is not an event in celebration." Unfortunately, civility was in short supply. Members of the audience began to heckle and make complaints before Holden finished discussing the format. Many in attendance objected to the fact that the event would not be open-mic. Written questions were requested from the audience. For those who showed up to publicly air their grievances with the Seattle Police Department and City Hall, many left disappointed.

Moderator C. R. Douglas was able to keep the conversation on the rails for most of the first hour, even as protesters outside and inside interrupted the speakers on multiple occasions.  At one point, a member of the Williams family left the lecture hall and asked the protesters stop chanting. As interruptions from the crowd grew more frequent, Douglas was often forced to acquiesce to the crowd and allow direct questions to the speakers.

Richard O'Neill, President of the Seattle Police Officer's Guild provided some of the most incendiary comments of the evening.  If the Seattle police needs deescalation training, Mr. O'Neill should be the first officer assigned to attend. O'Neill defended the SPD's record with questionable statistics and offered up accreditation from external review boards as evidence that system-wide problems do not exist within the department. He seemed to be arguing that while recent instances of excess force were inexcusable, it could be much worse. Hey, at least we're not as bad as Detroit, is not an adequate response.
 
At one point O'Neill essentially blamed victims of excessive force for their own attacks and recommended that the best course of action for ensuring an incident free interaction with police was to "comply with their commands." He later remarked, in connection with participating in community policing efforts, that "I did not have to do these things." The 85% of police officers that were so often evoked during the night -- those with no complaints in their service records -- need to step forward and ensure the O'Neill is one of the first officials to lose their jobs. Someone this prone to gaffs, who appears unable to speak in a conciliatory tone, is not someone you want speaking for you.

The "Blue Wall" was in force with many off-duty police officers in attendance sounding their support for O'Neill's positions. Many uniformed officers were also in attendance. Perhaps showing up to a forum on police brutality with a gun on your hip isn't the best idea.

Nicole Gaines, president of the Loren Miller Bar Association, was seated directly to O'Neill's left during the panel and deflated many of his arguments throughout the evening -- casting doubts regarding SPD's statistics regarding interactions with police officers, specifically interactions with minorities. Watching Gaines and O'Neil spar was perhaps the most illustrative part of the evening.  While Gaines attempted to keep the conversation civil and stick to the facts, her body language often got the best of her. Watching her bite her tongue while O'Neill floated one specious argument after another was a sight to be seen.  In the end, she managed to keep to the high road, reminding the audience the police officers take an oath to "protest and serve" and stating that "to ask the public to always take the high road when dealing with officers when it’s the officers job to be professional is absolutely unacceptable."

Major McGinn walked a difficult tightrope between an outraged public and maintaining good relations with a Police union with whom he is currently negotiating a new contract.  While advocating for increased oversight, accountability and transparency, McGinn couldn't offer up much to satisfy SPD critics. Representives of the Office and Professional Accountability and Police Chief John Diaz offered little beyond a discussion of the complexities of the filling a complaint against a police officer.
From their comments, one thing seems clear: it's far too difficult to fire an SPD officer for misconduct and prosecutions are far too rare.

Pamphlets distributed at the event presented a cross-section of rhetorical approaches on the issue:

Brochures from the Office of Professional Accountability offered by typical bureaucratic assurances that procedures are in place to address excessive force by police officers (How Concerns about Police Misconduct are Resolved, Civilian Oversight of Seattle Police). 

City Hall chimed in with their Race and Social Justice Initiative. Sure, equality opportunity programs are great, but these efforts don't speak to what many critics are calling systematic racism in Seattle police department.

Members of the Native American community in attendance kept the focus on the victims (Be Part of the Movement, No Compromise with Justice!)

As seen at other recent protests against police brutality, Anarchists groups continue to glam on to this issue: (Cop on fire, the end of dialogue). 

The Stranger has a photo gallery of the forum posted here.

The Final Call: $1 Buys a Whole Lot of Crazy

The Final Call is a weekly newspaper published by the Nation of Islam. As one might expect from an organization labeled a hate group by both the South Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League, there's some rather kooky stuff passed off as news in this publication. There's also a surprising amount of actual news, including stories that are often neglected or received limited coverage by the mainstream press. This issue included coverage of Jean-Claude Duvalier's return to Haiti, sentencing in the Jon Burge trial, Michael Steele's ouster as RNC chairman, and Charles Taylor's war crimes tribal before the ICC. In general, for a paper aimed at promoting a specific religious and political philosophy, targeted at an African American audience, it does a surprising good job at covering news at regional, national and international levels.  But don't get me wrong, there's still a whole lot of crazy.

I picked up the February 1, 2011 edition from a vendor that distributes outside a McDonald's in downtown Seattle. Choosing this location is a political statement in itself, as the Nation of Islam warns against the evils of "white-flour cake meals" in addition to the more traditional Islamic practice of avoiding pork. The February 1 issue included a reprint from "How to Eat to Live," Elijah Muhammad's two volume treatise on dietary practices for the modern NOI member.  In the reprint, he speaks of the dangers of the fluoride, chloride, sodium and DDT that contaminates the food supply. The Final Calls editors might want to take note that DDT was banned in 1972, and that chlorinated water is the single most effective method for preventing water born diseases, but one should not quibble over facts when receiving the wisdom of the prophet.

Here's another bit of wisdom on dangers of whitey and his white bread:

"Eat whole wheat, but not the whole grain, it is too much for the digestive system. Eat wheat, never white flour, which has been robbed of all its natural vitamins and proteins sold separately as cereals. You know, as well as I that the white race is a commercializing people and they do not worry about the lives they jeopardize so long as the dollar is safe. You might find yourself eating death, if you follow them."

Like other religions manufactured in recent history, the Nation of Islam is trying to sell you something. Like the Mormons and the Scientologists, they want you to make a financial contribution to their organization by either buying their publications or attending their events. In fact, the only advertisements that the paper carries are ads for Nation of Islam publications and DVDs. In the cover story, "Goin' Broke" there's a particular glaring example of news-as-product-placement. This report, discussing the financial crises faced by many state and city governments, non too subtly transitions into a plug for Louis Farrakhan's 1993 book "A Torchlight for America."  Something tells me that Minister Farrakhan's master plan for the U.S. Economy might be a little out of date and not all that germane to the problems at hand.

The big push in this particular issue is the upcoming Savior's Day Convention, where the devoted can shell out up to $100 to hear the latest and greatest in antisemitism from Minister Farrakhan himself (full page ad here).

King is their Jesus in their Kwanzaa church

(Click for full size)

More dispatches from the sage of Pike & Pine, Lady Paula Merry Mayowa.