“Just like former Officer Christopher Dorner, I used to smile a lot. I loved everyone. I was voted Friendliest Senior of my Sr. Class in High School. I always believed in the system and never got into any trouble. I loved hard and gave to all I could. After Joining the LAPD in 1989 I quickly found out that the world and society had major flaws. I had flaws as well for ever believing that our system of government was obligated to do the right thing [sic].”
Jones references three incidents of injustice he experienced as an African-American, “I had my Civil Rights violated on several occasions. I was falsely arrested at gunpoint by the Sheriffs as an Officer who ID’d himself and was conspired against by both LAPD and the Sheriffs when my civil case went to trial.
I was falsely accused on more than one occasion and simply placed in a position that the trust was so compromised that I could no longer wear the uniform. Also know there were many more episodes. All of these issues are well documented and I present them not to be a Whistle blower, however to hope that one would not assume that all of what is being said is lies as presented by Dorner.”
Jones told The Weekly that he was emotionally and mentally haunted by his experiences and though he has moved on personally and professionally without resentment, understands why Dorner may have snapped:
“Police work was it for him and that’s what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. And to come up with the reality that he’s supposed to do the right thing and if he does do the right thing he should be vindicated. He felt he did the right thing and you know the repercussions came.”
”
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Two former LAPD officers speak out, not in support of Dorner’s actions, but in support and validation of his experiences of racism in the department.
It’s not my imagination I’ve got a gun on my back! Promises you made Never become fact We’re gonna get revenge You won’t know what hit you We’re tired of being screwed Don’t tell me about tomorrow Don’t tell me what I’ll get I can’t think of progress when Just around the corner There’s a bed of cold pavement Waiting for me Revenge! I’ll watch you bleed Revenge! That’s all I’ll need I won’t cry if you… die! Die! We’re gonna get revenge You won’t know what hit you We’re tired of being screwed Revenge! Revenge!
Something that has always fascinated me when reading about the “harDCore” scene in the 80s was the Meese Is A Pig phenomenon that occurred from the Winter of ‘87, to the Spring of ‘88. For those who don’t know, Jeff Nelson, the former drummer of Minor Threat, organized his own select group of people from within the community’s Positive Force organization to spread simple screen printed posters around the DC area, seemingly overnight. Their plan was to try and put pressure on their corrupt Attorney General, Edwin Meese, but the posters gained an incredible amount of attention, eventually leading to some pretty favorable results.
The phrase “MEESE Is a PIG” materialized quickly. Nelson decided that a huge poster with that simple phrase, rendered in striking letters and colors, would be the perfect instrument. The poster’s designer didn’t realize at the time, but his choice of words was oddly appropriate. For years Meese, an archenemy of 1960s protesters, had been collecting pig statues in an odd personal tribute to law enforcement officers. (taken from Dance of Days: Two Decades of Punk in the Nation’s Capital by Mark Anderson & Mark Jenkins. pg 247)
The movement soon united the local young punks, allowing them to push their way into politics in a much deeper fashion than expressing their distress through lyrics, as they had already done for quite some time. With expanding attention, the poster was redesigned with an added “experts agree!” to showcase the mounting urgency for Meese’s resignation. Nelson eventually created t-shirts to spread the word further, initially as gifts for those involved, and later put up for sale at an independent bookstore.
On July 6th of 1988, Meese resigned.
The shirts are now a rare token from that era, as is the story in itself.
Mother of Stephen Lawrence; a black teenager who was murdered in London (UK) at the age of 18 in a brutal racial attack in 1993
Doreen cited the institutional racism of the Metropolitan Police in light of the treatment of her son’s case. She brought to light the unprofessionalism and incompetence shown by the police that were intrinsically linked to racist presumptions in relation to Stephen.
In 1999, after years of campaigning, and garnering the support of many in the community, the media and politics, a wide-ranging judicial inquiry into the circumstances of Stephen’s death was established, rousing great interest in the Metropolitan Police’s attitude towards PoC.
She helped overturn double jeopardy law in the UK, allowing Stephen’s case to go to trial again and leading to the subsequent imprisonment of two of Stephen’s five attackers; David Norris and Gary Dobson.
Doreen Lawrence continues to campaign for justice for her son as well as for other victims of racist crime. She has worked to secure further reforms of the police service.
She also founded the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust, a charity of a multifarious nature and great community value that started out as means to help underpriveleged aspiring architects, as Stephen dreamt of becoming one himself.
She is a member of both the board and the council of a human rights organisation called Liberty, and is also a patron of hate crime charity Stop Hate UK.
Though Lawrence has recieved much praise and success for her charitable work and campaigning, she often stresses that she would give it all up to have her son back.
I remember this case—the police assumed the parents would be uneducated and docile and this heartbroken woman kicked their asses.
one time my AP English teacher/journalism adviser/pervert from another planet wanted us to come up with a creative slogan/pose/theme/whatever the fuck white liberal dix at affluent high schools do with their spare time for our yearbook ad so I held up a sign that said Kill the pig! Cut his throat! Spill his blood! but he said it was “too aggressive” and I smiled and recycled it
At 10:30 a.m. today, 10/1/12, there was a knock on my closed office door at my job at the Writing Program at Syracuse University. When I opened the door, a man in a suit asked if he could come in and talk to me—without identifying himself in any way.
When I refused, he pulled out an ID/badge container, flipped that open, and flashed a Federal Bureau of Investigation card with shield. He claimed he wanted to question me about a “former student.”
I stated that I did not wish to speak to him, and closed the door. The movements in struggle over the decades have taught me not to speak to the FBI under any circumstance.
For more information about knowing your rights and what to do if the FBI knocks, see the Center for Constitutional Rights guide:
The FBI has targeted progressive activists over many, many decades, including Civil Rights activists such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; the lesbian grand jury resister Susan Saxe; and, more recently, anti-war and labor activists in Minneapolis. (http://www.stopfbi.net/)
I’ve also learned from the struggle over the decades that letting people know what’s happening helps us all be strong and prepared.
But unbeknownst to his fellow activists, Aoki had served as an FBI intelligence informant, covertly filing reports on a wide range of Bay Area political groups, according to the bureau agent who recruited him. That agent, Burney Threadgill Jr., recalled that he approached Aoki in the late 1950s, about the time Aoki was graduating from Berkeley High School. He asked Aoki if he would join left-wing groups and report to the FBI. “He was my informant. I developed him,” Threadgill said in an interview. “He was one of the best sources we had.”
Hoooooooly shit. I need to know more about this bit:
As Black Panther Party co-founder Bobby Seale recalled in his memoir, “Seize the Time,” the group approached Aoki, “a Third World brother we knew, a Japanese radical cat. He had guns … .357 Magnums, 22’s, 9mm’s, what have you.” In early 1967, Aoki joined the Black Panther Party and gave them more guns, Seale wrote. Aoki also gave Panther recruits weapons training, he said in the 2007 interview. Although carrying weapons was legal at the time, there is little doubt their presence contributed to fatal confrontations between the Panthers and the police.
Raise your hand if you’re surprised the feds were arming the Black Panthers through their informant and then using the presence of those weapons to justify murdering BP leaders. Anyone?
Jesus. Didn’t Aoki become friends with Huey Newton in high school? The only thing surprising is that the Feds realized the potential so early on. The story says they found him through a wiretap on a friend’s family phone. Awful is a tiny word for this shit.
It is interesting that all of the news reports I saw yesterday of how the NYPD shot and killed a man in Times square described him as carrying a “machete.” Today the machete has been downgraded to “knife.” Hey, guess if the victim was a POC.
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