Author: Oppression Monitor

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Border Patrol killings face renewed scrutiny

He was shot eight times in the back by a U.S. border patrol agent who fired from behind this fence.

“What were they doing?” a Mexican dispatcher asked.

“They were throwing rocks,” a border patrol agent told her.

But other witnesses said Rodriguez was just walking by.

Since 2010, 28 people have died at the hands of border patrol agents.

Jim Tomsheck
 CBS NEWS

Reviewing those fatal force cases was part of Jim Tomsheck’s job as head of internal affairs for Customs and Border Protection

“I am familiar with several incidents where the persons appeared to be fleeing and were shot in the back or the side at some distance from the border patrol agent when the shots were fired,” said Tomsheck.
 

He calls seven of those shootings “highly suspect.” But he told CBS News his bosses ignored his concerns and he did not have authority to punish agents. He was reassigned in June.

“There were certainly many cases where border patrol agents or certainly CBP officers engaged in excessive use of force or abuse of migrants at the border that should have resulted in discipline where it did not,”

Tomsheck says.

Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez was shot eight times in the back by a U.S. border patrol agent.

One of those not disciplined is the agent who shot Rodriguez. He remains on the job.
 

Rodriguez was one of 12 reportedly unarmed people shot by border agents. Autopsies on three of them show they were shot in the back, or the back of the head.

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Source: www.cbsnews.com

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Federal Grand Jury Scheduled To Hear Evidence On George Zimmerman


The other day, a photo of a subpoena made its way around Twitter  from Frank Taaffe to Nancy Grace. I decided to wait for confirmation before reporting it. Today, Orlando Sentinel reports that the federal grand jury is scheduled to hear witnesses, and that Frank Taaffe has indeed, been subpoenaed to testify.

 

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Source: blackbutterfly7.wordpress.com

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One Man Has Rights Under The Castle Doctrine, Another Doesn’t

 

The Texas version of the “castle doctrine permits the use of deadly force when an “actor” believes someone has “unlawfully and with force entered, or was attempting to enter unlawfully and with force, the actor’s occupied habitation. Even when the Castle Doctrine does not apply, there is traditional self-defense law that is deferential to a homeowner.

 

– Click through for to read about the two cases –

 

Source: blackbutterfly7.wordpress.com

 

Can you believe the police just walk into people homes like this?

 

7 year old Aiyana Stanley-Jones was shot dead when police entered a home without permission for their war on drugs.

 

The war on drugs is really a war on people.

 

You cannot have a war on an inanimate object.

 

#NewJimCrow

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The Prison Industry in the United States: Big Business or a New Form of Slavery?

 

Human rights organizations, as well as political and social ones, are condemning what they are calling a new form of inhumane exploitation in the United States, where they say a prison population of up to 2 million – mostly Black and Hispanic – are working for various industries for a pittance. For the tycoons who have invested in the prison industry, it has been like finding a pot of gold. They don’t have to worry about strikes or paying unemployment insurance, vacations or comp time. All of their workers are full-time, and never arrive late or are absent because of family problems; moreover, if they don’t like the pay of 25 cents an hour and refuse to work, they are locked up in isolation cells.

 

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Source: www.globalresearch.ca

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VIDEO: Extended Interview with Mumia Abu-Jamal on New Pennsylvania Law Restricting Prisoners’ Speech

Mumia Abu-Jamal speaks with Democracy Now! about Pennsylvania’s new law that authorizes the censoring of public addresses of prisoners or former offenders if judges agree that allowing them to speak would cause “mental anguish” to the victim.

Source: www.democracynow.org

 

The ‘victim’ could choose to not listen.

 

And the convicted are not always guilty.

 

What happened to the liberty of free speech?

 

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Making Light of Slavery?

 

Recently in the Texas History class I am teaching a student shared an example of how two friends would quasi reenact an enslaved, enslaver situation at the place where they work. The White person would tell the Black person “get to work” and so on.
This student followed up in an email asking my thoughts: “How do you feel about that though, specifically, making a joke out of slavery? Do you think it’s offensive, ignores the plight of the enslaved, or perhaps something I/we haven’t considered? Or is it okay, diminishing the detrimental effects on the psyche of the African Americans by satirizing it?”
I asked if I could have time to think about it and “reply” here. This student said yes, so here goes.

 

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Source: andrewpegoda.com

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CAUGHT ON VIDEO: Crowd Takes Down Homophobic Bully At Dallas Airport

 

An angry man was caught on video last week attacking a fellow passenger at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, apparently because he thought the man was gay. But then, a group of bystanders, including a man in a cowboy hat, quickly took action to bring the man down, according to the video.

 

– Click through for video –

 

Source: www.huffingtonpost.com