"Outrage in Oakland: Transit Officer Convicted of Involuntary Manslaughter–Not Murder–in Killing of Unarmed Oscar Grant" (with audio/video)

Democracy Now! with audio/video:

Scores of people were arrested in Oakland, California Thursday night in protests over the verdict in the Oscar Grant shooting. Grant was the unarmed 22-year-old African-American man who was shot dead by Johannes Mehserle, a white transit officer, on an Oakland train platform on New Year’s Day, 2009. A jury in Los Angeles convicted Merserle of involuntary manslaughter but he was acquitted on the more serious charges of second-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter.

Howie P.S.: "Oscar Grant, A Victim Of American Fear."

"Seattle officer punches girl in face during jaywalking stop" (with video)

seattlepi.com with video from KOMO4 (02:28):

Seattle police are investigating what they call an assault of an officer in South Seattle. However, a police officer is seen punching a 17-year-old girl in the face during the incident captured by a video camera on Monday.

According to Seattle police, the incident began when an officer spotted a man jaywalking in the 3100 block of Martin Luther King, Jr. Way S. at approximately 3:10 p.m. The man was some 15 feet away from a pedestrian overpass, police said.

The officer was talking to the man when he saw four young women jaywalk across the same street at the same spot. The officer asked the women to step over to his patrol car, but the women were being "verbally antagonistic toward the officer," according to officials. MORE...

Sable: "Oops We Did It Again: SPD Caught Beating Man In Video" (with video)

Sable Verity, with videos:

It was just last week that I brought you an exclusive interview with Maikoiyo Alley-Barnes, a name synonymous with police brutality.

In 2005 he was savagely beaten by members of the Seattle Police Department…for doing absolutely nothing.

We only ever found out about Maikoiyo’s story because video existed that captured a sliver of what happened to him. It was the video that brought an end to his criminal trial. It was the video.

Without it…who knows.

It’s nearly impossible to count how many times police brutality happens because 99% of the time the stories never come to light.

Now five years after Maikoiyo’s beating was captured on tape, comes another- this time by a freelance journalist.

Howie P.S.: READ MORE, including video of Shandy Cobane, one of the officers involved in the most recently discovered incident.

"It's official, we are police state..."

Larisa Alexandrovna (at-Largely):

“This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector.” - Plato

Thanks to 40 Democratic members of the House and the Democratic leadership in the Senate, the FISA Absolute Power bill has now passed. I promise you that whatever tiny restriction the Congress managed to put on the Absolute Power bill, the Decider will attach a signing statement to it making sure that that he gets every inch that he pretended to give. This Congress is a disgrace. Compared to the Congress before it, which redefined corruption and took it to whole new levels, the Democratic Congress is the culture of cowardice and compromised people.

Thankfully I am an independent, which gives me plenty of room to vote for whomever I choose. Party is not country after all. But those of you who are Democrats, you need to send your party cards back in mass protest and make it clear, that you will make sure that every single person who voted for this horror is not going to be coming back to Congress after the next election. And for the rest of them who did not even attempt to filibuster this, I would urge you to put them on notice. As far as the Conservatives go, they will pick party over country, so there is no point in addressing what they need to do, as they are likely celebrating a big victory as though something this serious were a mere Monday night football game.

Make NO mistake, we are in serious peril when an Attorney General who has subverted the Constitution per request of his boss, lied, obstructed justice, and defended torture, is now in full authority to declare who is going to be a target of warrant-less surveillance.

You may not see this as seriously as I do, but then again, you have not lived under a dictatorship to know the difference. Mostly though, the people who failed most, are the citizens of this country - who should have taken to the streets and shut down all commerce, all traffic, and disengaged from the machine of government. You did not shut it down. You did not even try. You waited as your hopes were put entirely in the hands of cowards.

Howie P.S.: The author is currently Managing Editor for investigative news of Raw Story, Media. I would like to hear Mr. Obama, who is a civil rights attorney, comment on this.