Look what we're up against in Baton Rouge, Louisiana: image via Hal Dockins @HalDockins, 10 July 2016
This isn't Baghdad. It's #BatonRouge. What militarized police looks like.: image via Khaled Bey @KhaledBeydoun, 10 July 2016
A man protesting the shooting death of Alton Sterling is detained by law enforcement near the headquarters of the Baton Rouge Police Department as clashes between police and demonstrators intensified on Sunday: photo by Jonathan Bachman/Reuters, 10 July 2016
A man protesting the shooting death of Alton
Sterling is detained by law enforcement near the headquarters of the
Baton Rouge Police Department as clashes between police and
demonstrators intensified.: photo by Jonathan Bachman/Reuters, 10 July 2016
Police were choking a protestor today in #BatonRouge: image via DNC Philly @dncphilly, 10 July 2016
At least a dozen protesters were arrested
Sunday in Baton Rouge, following the detainment of more than 100 earlier
in the weekend: photo by Shannon Stapleton/Reuters, 10 July 2016
Dozens more arrested in Louisiana after leaders warn against protest violence: image via Reuters Top News @Reuters, 10 July 2016
Dozens more arrested in Louisiana after leaders warn against protest violence: image via Reuters Top News @Reuters, 10 July 2016
Police order peaceful demonstrators in Baton Rouge to disperse: photo by Jonathan Bachman / Reuters, 10 July 2016
Baton Rouge PD looks ridiculous. I never wore so much armor in combat. This is their own community. (Photo: Reuters): image via Brandon Friedman @BFriedmanDC, 10 July 2016
A group of demonstrators had formed a blockade -- blocked Airline
Highway, which runs in front of Baton Rouge Police headquarters. So law
enforcement came out, consisting of several departments within Louisiana
… they had come out in riot gear to clear the protestors off to the
side of the road. In that attempt, they arrested three to four people as
some of the demonstrators confronted the line that the police had
created, but for the most part they were able to move everyone off to
the side of the road.
I had my attention on people confronting the police on the side of
the road … I had turned to look over my right shoulder, I think that I
had heard this women say something about she was going to be arrested,
and I saw this woman, and she was standing in the first lane in that
road.
It happened quickly, but I could tell that she wasn’t going to move,
and it seemed like she was making her stand. To me it seemed like: You’re going to have to come and get me.
And I just thought it seemed like this was a good place to get in
position and make an image, just because she was there in her dress and
you have two police officers in full riot gear.
It wasn’t very violent. She didn’t say anything. She didn’t resist...
-- Jonathan Bachman, freelance photographer, interviewed by The Atlantic, 10 June 2016
Just spoke to one of her best friends. She's still in jail after this arrest in Baton Rouge. A mother to a 5 y/o son. [photo Jonathan Bachman/Reuters]: image via Shaun King @ShaunKing, 10 July 2016
Robert Frost: Never Again Would Birds' Song Be the Same
He would declare and could himself believe
That the birds there in all the garden round
From having heard the daylong voice of Eve
Had added to their own an oversound,
Her tone of meaning but without the words.
Admittedly an eloquence so soft
Could only have had an influence on birds
When call or laughter carried it aloft.
Be that as may be, she was in their song.
Moreover her voice upon their voices crossed
Had now persisted in the woods so long
That probably it never would be lost.
Never again would birds' song be the same.
And to do that to birds was why she came.
Robert Frost (1874-1963): Never Again Would Birds' Song Be the Same, from A Witness Tree, 1942
Hint: Guys! You really don't need to handcuff this lovely and powerful lady to get her phone number. Prolly just ask.: image via Cornelia @PaladinCornelia, 10 July 2016
There are images which capture us and haunt us. #BatonRouge lady has been added to my list of unforgettable images.: image via Cornelia @PaladinCornelia, 10 July 2016
There are images which capture us and haunt us. #BatonRouge lady has been added to my list of unforgettable images.: image via Cornelia @PaladinCornelia, 10 July 2016
There are images which capture us and haunt us. #BatonRouge lady has been added to my list of unforgettable images.: image via Cornelia @PaladinCornelia, 10 July 2016
If I were one of those cops I would TOTALLY ask that lovely lady for a dance... but that's just me. #BatonRouge: image via Cornelia @PaladinCornelia, 10 July 2016
Other side of the street. Been like this about an hour. Neither side backing down. #AltonSterling: image via Rebekah Allen Verified account @rebekahallaen, 10 July 2016
Baton Rouge Cops Throw Protesters Into Street, Arrest Them for Being There: Zack Kopplin, Daily Beast, 10 July 2016
BATON
ROUGE, Louisiana -- Hundreds of people peacefully protesting on private
property Sunday evening were thrown into the street by police, and
several were then arrested for being on the street.
Approximately 500 people had gathered at France and East in downtown Baton Rouge after first coming together at a nearby Methodist church to protest the police killing of Alton Sterling. Meeting the protesters were about 100 officers in riot gear. A homeowner gave the protesters safe refuge on her front lawn so they would not be arrested for being in the street.
“No justice, no peace!” they yelled.
After 90 minutes of peaceful assembly, police charged the crowd for no clear reason. Protesters scattered, many running down a side street. Those protesters were then arrested for obstruction of a highway.
A wall of riot police
then pushed the scattered protesters further away, block by block, and
arrested some at the front of the crowd. “Clear the streets and leave
the area!” one officer shouted through a bullhorn. “This is an unlawful
assembly!”
Several protesters threw water bottles and rocks at cops as they retreated.
The homeowner told CBS News she was "stunned" by police behavior.
"I kept telling them:
'This is my property, please do not do that, I live here,'" she said.
"They just looked at me and ignored the things I was saying."
Police confront protestors in Baton Rouge, Louisiana: photo by AP, 10 July 2016
Scenes from the protest held in downtown #BatonRouge earlier this evening. #AltonSterling: image via Brianna Paciorka @bpaciorka, 10 July 2016
Scenes from the protest held in downtown #BatonRouge earlier this evening. Here, protestors seeking refuge are pursued by police into the yard of a private home, whose owner had offered sanctuary. #AltonSterling: image via Brianna Paciorka @bpaciorka, 10 July 2016
Scenes from the protest held in downtown #BatonRouge earlier this evening. #AltonSterling: image via Brianna Paciorka @bpaciorka, 10 July 2016
Arrests are made on the lawn of a private residence whose owner had offered sanctuary to those fleeing police after the protest held in downtown #BatonRouge earlier this evening. #AltonSterling: image via Brianna Paciorka @bpaciorka, 10 July 2016
A demonstrator protests the shooting death of Alton Sterling near the headquarters of the Baton Rouge Police Department in Baton Rouge, Louisiana: photo by Jonathan Bachman / Reuters, 10 July 2016
Louisiana has no money for schools and children's services but #BatonRouge has a small army: image via Mike @thedecider99, 10 July 2016
Louisiana is ranked 26th in per-pupil education spending, but they can afford tanks and assault gear. #BatonRouge: image via Capt. Jake Ballard @kidnoble, 10 July 2016
Man brings mirror to #BlackLivesMatter protest via @choudychouds: image via Calestous Juma @calestous, 10 July 2016
Take a look at the questions raised by the people of Baton Rouge at the #AltonSterling memorial. Thx, @BrotherJesse: Look what we're up against in Baton Rouge, Louisiana: image via Hal Dockins @HalDockins, 9 July 2016
Man who posted Alton Sterling shooting video has been arrested by police: image via The Source Magazine, 10 July 2016
#BREAKING: BRPD says 48 people arrested during evening protest downtown near Government Street: image via WAFB @WAFB, 10 July 2016
After spending the majority of his bday locked up, @Deray is free but we cant stop until everyone is out! #FreeDeray: image via CHERNO BIKO @ChernoBiko, 10 July 2016 Baton Rouge, LA
A Donald Trump henchman. Hmmm...he seems nice. NOT!!!! #BLM #Baton Rouge: image via Cornelia @PaladinCornelia, 10 July 2016
#AltonSterling #BatonRouge: image via deray mckesson @deray, 10 July 2016
Protest has reached the State Capitol #WaveMarchforJustice #AltonSterling: image via Terry L Jones Verified account @tjonesreporter, 10 July 2016
What about this #BatonRouge cop?: image via Chuck Modi @ChuckModi1, 10 July 2016
Ray Albers "resigned" after pointing rifle and threatening protesters in #Ferguson: image via Chuck Modi @ChuckModi1, 10 July 2016
What about this #BatonRouge cop?: image via Chuck Modi @ChuckModi1, 10 July 2016
Louisiana Gov after #AltonSterling shooting: “We have to reevaluate where we are, how we recruit and train officers”: image via BuzzFeed News Verified account @BuzzFeed News, 10 July 2016
Three countries urge caution traveling to U.S. amid protests, violence: image via Reuters Top News @Reuters, 10 July 2016
9 comments:
The demonstrator being hogtied by two scrambling police in the sixth and seventh photos is wearing a shirt bearing the logo of this international campaign against dehumanization and political oppression. Thus the title of the post.
If you're alive and in America and enjoy the adrenalin secretion that comes with vicarious participation in full-on contemporary trumpoid murican pandemoniac madness (a barely perceptible bitter taste at the back of the throat), you might want to check this action out.
Militarized goon police in blue pork phalanx storm Baton Rouge private home in pursuit of fleeing protestors as terrified owner screams "This is private property!"
Tom, if you live almost anywhere in the Middle (Muddled) East where American shock and awe ended life as you knew it, Baton Rouge would be a Baghdad wannabe. More than 2.5m Americans have served in unwinnable brutal wars in Afghanistan and Iraq with 800,000 of them now officially disabled vets. Maybe some of the enabled returned to jobs as policemen in places where they saw themselves as members of races, classes and groups as oppressed as the Arabs they attacked and killed. Maybe some found a new use of their military training and redefined civilian life as a form of redeployment in another war zone. Get ready for more sniper fire as long as America sees itself as an "indispensable nation." Reichs are always wrong.
It's always been the case in this country for as long as I can remember that cops are not subject to the laws they're supposed to enforce. They trespass against us.
Tom, jeeze, these photos give new meaning to "busted flat in Baton Rouge" -- bird song never again the same indeed . . . .
David, in my primitive understanding of history, based on my alas all too extensive personal experience and observation and beginning with the one in Southeast Asia that changed the psychic map of this country forever, every American war has been a bad thing, and as in recent memory, the maintaining of permanent war is the closest we have come to a societal tenet, not to mention an economic necessity, the question of how the world must deal with the consequences almost seems moot. Either of the two major party candidates would tell anybody who doesn't like it: Get used to it. And the world must take it from there.
But then again, an awfully large share of the cops I'm seeing in action on murican streets right now don't look like they'd make very good soldiers. Bearing a hundred pounds of surplus animal fat within your body may prove a useful strategy if you're living in the Arctic 200 years ago, but maybe on the battlefield, not so much. And beneath all that armour, the lard would tend to expand, exude dissolved plasm and so on, not practicable in battle really, unless of course you're sitting in a command bunker miles away. We see some very messy tactics going on now, in the pleasant little streets of Our Town, and yours, and yours.
Terry, whoa, well said and ditto I'm sure... and with every additional robot bomb and attack weapon and visor and shield and layer of armour they lay on, they get farther out of reach...
Can't help recalling a conversation I overheard, not all that many years ago, in America, two lawyers talking about cops, how much they envy the varied and complex perks cops get as a kind of unspoken entitlement, how much wink-wink side money and privilege comes with being The Law... when the lawyers are envious of you, I dimly figured at the time, you must be doing something wrong, er right.
People from elsewhere sometimes profess puzzlement if not outright disdain for the fear and anger reaped by the practises of the OPD. Right. And how many chiefs have they had so far this year? Three, was it? Can't be any problems there.
Steve, thanks for remembering the song, I did too. Don't like to post a cover before a version by the original writer, but/and in this case, fair is fair, and as the shades of evening come down...
"Busted flat in Baton Rouge...": Waylon Jennings cover, Me and Bobby McGee (live)
"Busted flat in Baton Rouge...": Me and Bobby McGee: Kris Kristofferson & Rita Coolidge (live, 1978)
Ieshia Evans, the woman in the photo, is a 35 year old licensed practical nurse who lives in Pennsylvania, according to her FB page, where, after her arrest, she wrote: "This is the work of God... I am a vessel! Glory to the most high!"
One R. Alex Haynes, who said on FB he has known Evans since childhood, also said she went to Baton Rouge so that she would be able "to look her [five-year-old] son in the eyes to tell him she fought for his freedom and rights."
After her arrest, Evans ended another Facebook post with, "Peace, love, blk power! #blacklivesmatter."
She asked friends not to give interviews on her behalf, saying she wanted to tell her own story, but said later she was not ready to speak to reporters.
"I want to get home to my son," she wrote. "I've been through a lot."
After the arrest in Baton Rouge Evans was booked on a charge of simple obstruction of a highway. She has now been released from custody.
That "simple obstruction" charge may not sound like much, but for law enforcement in BR, it ultimately proved a more effective weapon than a whole battalion of robo bombs.
Protestors around the county aren't the only people who saw the televised images of freeways being shut down in Oakland. When the cops finally closed down Baton Rouge, in the exquisite way they did, they were stopping protestors from accessing a highway.
The lesson to be had from Oakland is simple enough. Shutting down a highway or freeway is serious business. It takes Strength in Numbers. As in, not hundreds but thousands. Walking on water was not built in a day.
Bridges are the only way to walk on water. But the waters below the bridge we have to cross are troubled and rising fast. With Bernie Sanders' capitulation to the Democratic Machine this morning, I have no answers or anti-depressants.
The Zen Masters warned of minds that become dragons devouring everything in sight. They said the only cure was to recapture the original considerably calmer mind.
I as yet don't know how to slay the dragon mind that is breathing a dragon fire of rage. So I'll just stay indoors today and try to remember the mind behested by Rumi and Kabir--and that I am told by them to call my own.
In the mean time, pray--if not to God (which is understandably not an option for many) but to prayer itself, to the power vouchsafed by it to stand alone. Right now, we are alone. But as an ancient Greek philosopher said, the job is to travel from being alone to The Alone. Hence, as a Zen college friend told me, "Some of us have got to make careers of becoming bodhisattvas." I quote Lew Welch:
COURSE COLLEGE GRADUATION ADDRESS
(1) Freak out.
(2) Come back.
(3) Bandage the wounded and feed however many you can.
(4) Never cheat.
--Lew Welch, Ring of Bone, p. 117
There's clearly a breach between the Political Class and the rest of us (whatever that us may be). What's happening in America communicates that breach with force and contrast.
If change is to come, it will be through people like Iesha Evans.
I'm very grateful the police over here aren't armed.
The woman's composure suggest a self-containment and discipline that might well embarrass poetry, and does surely project a power that in the moment overwhelms the storm troopers, even as they advance; indeed they almost seem to be falling back, before it.
A was remarking also upon that last point you've made -- the gratitude at least matters aren't even worse, there, without the Total Weaponization that prevails and increases over here... Perhaps it's the advantage the two of you have, of having grown up in a place where police weren't armed. For an American a feat of the imagination is required, to make that leap away from the automatic acceptance of what is so familiar as to almost comprise a "heritage" (!!). The gun like the gas in the tank are meant to be part of the package.
Always bracing to hear your mind at work, Duncan... perhaps we make up a sort of microscopic accidental "us", representative atomized specimens of some hopeful larger "rest of us", on a good day.
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