America will face Riots, Marches, and Revolution

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I thought firearms were banned there?

Is this what happens when responsible citizens become disarmed?

Evil runs rampant...and for a reason.

Generate a crisis with a preconceived unpopular solution to seize power and bring about radical socialist change to a free society.

[Backstop]

Isn't Obama from Chicago? Or was it some other country?

Yes.

To both.

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A Still Moment

by James Howard Kunstler
on April 25, 2010 1:53 PM

"George W. Bush was onto something in the fall of 2008 when he remarked apropos of the Lehman collapse: "...this sucker could go down."

It's my serene conviction, by the way, that this sucker actually is going down, right now, even as I clatter away at the keys -- perhaps in slow motion, so that not many other bystanders have noticed yet, and the few who have noticed are mostly too crosseyed with nausea to speak.

It's perhaps useful to define even what we mean when we say "this sucker." Everybody knows what a sucker is, of course -- say, a Midwestern public employees' union pension fund snookered into buying a fat slice of equity tranche in a Goldman Sachs-engineered CDO. But "this sucker" is something else: a rather large cargo of commercial relations, entailed obligations, hopes, expectations, habits of daily life -- indeed millions of whole lives -- loaded onto the rather creaky vessel we call modern civilization. "This sucker" was such an apt term coming from someone whose understanding of civilization was like unto that of a boy who found a PlayStation under the Christmas tree.

It's also perhaps useful to define what we mean by "going down." To my mind it means an awful lot of money disappears and nobody can pay for anything and an awful of things that have kept going on promises to pay and to get paid will stop keeping going. I don't think that the idea of money disappears -- that is, paper certificates representing claims on future work -- but there will be a lot less of it to go around. Eventually the idea of money could go, too, at least in its current form as Federal Reserve notes. But mostly for some years it will just be a lot of people, companies, and governments who are broke.

"Going down" will mean a society with no money and an infrastructure for daily life that requires gobs of money to run, and a populace too dazed, confused, and inflamed to do anything useful in the way of organizing new infrastructures for daily life for their new circumstances. In retrospect, the Great Depression of the 1930s will look like "The Philadelphia Story" compared to what we wake up to ten years from now.

President Obama's speech at Cooper Union last week was a remarkable performance. It managed to appear forceful and serious without containing any really serious or forceful proposals to discipline a banking system that is running a hostage-and-ransom racket on civilization. If this is finally what the Obama Experience is all about than his detractors have been right all along: he is a tool. Finance reform aside, there are still plenty of laws left on the statute books that could be applied to the frauds and rackets that ran absolutely amok on Wall Street the past few years. I would still like to know why buying CDS "insurance" against your own issue of bonds deliberately engineered to default is NOT a form of insider trading, to put it as simply as possible.

The SEC action against Goldman Sachs is likely to open a Pandora's box of troubles for that company, and perhaps all of the Too Big To Fail banks. But even so, I believe this sucker is going down before 99.9 percent of it is sorted out. Anyway, there was a lot about the SEC action that seemed curious, to put it mildly, from the timing of it, to the brevity of the document, to the strange fact that it emerged at all from an agency whose principal activity the past few years has been the viewing of internet porn, and which has otherwise behaved so indifferently in the face of numberless offenses to common decency, not to mention the public interest, that it might as well have been staffed by a thousand head of Holstein cows rather than licensed attorneys and graduates of accredited colleges.

This sucker is going down because the train of bankruptcies underway has a remorseless self-reinforcing power to provoke more and more bankruptcies at every stop along the line as every promise to pay is welshed on. The mortgages will not be paid and securities will not pay their investors and the banks will choke on the bad paper promises in their vaults and the pension funds will not pay their beneficiaries and the states and counties and municipalities will go broke and not pay their employees and creditors, and the federal government will not be able to "print" new money in sufficient quantities fast enough to compensate for all the money not being paid up-and-down the line... and one morning we will wake up and discover that all those promises to pay were sham promises based on no productive activity whatsoever... and that will be a sad day. Perhaps the Dow Jones Industrial Average will hit 35,000 on that day.

Nothing can stop this chain of bankruptcy. It's already baked in the cake. There is probably some wish on the part of those in charge, like Mr. Obama, to try everything possible to postpone it. And there is likewise surely a huge effort underway in the banking sector right now to cream off as much cash as possible so that when this sucker does go down they will bethink themselves better positioned to survive the consequences.

Personally, I believe that the damage was mostly done during the tenure of poor dim George W. Bush, and his predecessor Bill Clinton. I suspect that Mr. Obama learned at the height of 2008 election campaign -- during those days of the Lehman collapse and the TARP -- just how completely the government -- and the people of the USA -- were in fact hostage to the banking system, and that it has been his unfortunate role to pretend that there is some other fate to bargain for besides this sucker going down. It is probably why he continues to smoke so much. He must be lighting one Marlboro off the tip of another, one after another, in whatever inner sanctum he repairs to when the midnight chimes toll around the White House. It's sad to think of this graceful, still rather young man going down in history as the chump-of-the-century, a reincarnation of Herbert Hoover on steroids, with sugar on top.

Animosities brewing as they are among the white trash elements of the country, I just hope this sucker doesn't resolve into an ugly bout of attempted ethnic cleansing. Certainly Obama's racial make-up has inspired a revival of the Ku Klux spirit around the Nascar ovals. I'm sincerely worried that the misdeeds of people name Blankfein, Rubin, and Madoff could provoke a red-white-and-blue pogrom.

The big mystery for the moment is how come a few good men of stature in important places have not stepped forward to say the right thing or do the right deed. How come no US congressperson challenged the knavish behavior of Republicans who condone malicious idiocy that they know to be false like the so-called "birther" activity. How come no putative "progressive" has called the Democrats on their disingenuous failure to call illegal immigrants what they are. How come no state attorney general has filed charges against TBTF bank misconduct even if the US attorney general lies in state over at the US DOJ. How come no political figure of any stripe has called for the resignation of Summers, Rubin, Gensler and other Goldman Sachs "sleepers" infesting high levels of government. How come Dylan Ratigan is the only visible figure in any major newsroom willing to identify the precise nature of the meta-swindle.

When this sucker goes down, our primary task will be reorganizing American life on a much more local and de-complexified basis. It's a very big assignment and especially daunting against a possible background of political disorder. The losses will be epic and the changes severe, but it doesn't have to mean the end of recognizably American culture. There will be very little money around, and it may end up being a certificate backed by gold issued by a bank other than the Federal Reserve. Or maybe we'll just be swapping stuff for the makings of dinner.

So many forces are roiling around 'out there' now that it's hard to believe that the authorities in government and banking can keep the illusion of normality going a whole lot longer. The possible litigation against Goldman Sachs-style frauds by a thousand aggrieved victims is enough to paralyze the system. Meanwhile, trillions in credit default swaps are ticking away like dirty bombs. Greece is going down, with Portugal, Spain, Ireland, and the UK standing by to go next. Nobody can pay their bills. Before long, the old folks won't get their checks. Then the poor folks.

Lately, I wonder if there will even be an election six months from now."

[Ryan Ruck]

YouTube: Arizona SB1070 Protest Organizer Assaults Photographer

[American Patriot]

Yes.

To both.

Ah, thought so!

[Ryan Ruck]

Another view of the riot video in Phoenix I posted earlier. Looks to be a pretty sizable crowd.

YouTube: Mexicans Riot in Wake of Arizona Illegal Alien Crackdown

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Video: ABC News Reports on ‘Peaceful’ Immigration Rally vs. ‘Very Ugly’ Tea Party Rallies

By Lonely Conservative

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Dem to Obama: Push immigration or lose Latino voters at polls


By Russell Berman and Bob Cusack - 04/20/10 06:00 AM ET

A congressman from the president’s home state is threatening that he will urge Latino voters to stay home this November if the Democratic Party does not make a concerted effort to pass comprehensive immigration reform.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (Ill.) is arguably President Barack Obama’s biggest Democratic critic in Congress. And he’s not fond of Obama’s top advisers at the White House, either.

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) member has strongly criticized the administration’s policy on deportation and questioned its commitment to far-reaching reform.

Some Democrats have felt little urgency in pursuing the controversial issue, partly because they see no risk that Hispanic voters will bolt the party for the GOP. But Gutierrez says they are missing the real political consequence of inaction.

“We can stay home,” Gutierrez said in an interview with The Hill. “We can say, ‘You know what? There is a third option: We can refuse to participate.’ ”

For Gutierrez, a former cab driver first elected to represent Chicago in 1992, the shift from close Obama ally to ornery critic has been stark. The lawmaker was one of the former Illinois senator’s earliest campaign supporters, and — as Gutierrez is quick to note — he stuck by Obama even as many Hispanic leaders rallied around Hillary Rodham Clinton in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary.

When Gutierrez talks about his old Chicago neighbor, he speaks of “anger, disillusionment, dissatisfaction” and “betrayal.” He says Obama has failed to keep his campaign commitment to immigration reform, and he decries what he calls an “enforcement-only” policy in which the administration has deported more undocumented immigrants than in the final year of the George W. Bush administration.

Gutierrez says Latinos have lost patience with Obama, and he predicts an “escalation” of activism aimed at forcing immigration reform to the fore of the party agenda.

“We’re going to make it uncomfortable for the Democratic Party,” Gutierrez said, adding that immigration advocates would step up the pressure by drawing lessons from the movements for civil rights and women’s suffrage. “There’ll probably be civil disobedience. There will probably be a number of different actions. What we have to do is we have to break through this wall of silence, because we’re invisible.”

Gutierrez is not alone. Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.), a CHC member who serves in the Democratic leadership, said earlier this month that Latinos view the president with “suspicion” for failing to meet expectations.

Firing salvos is nothing new for Gutierrez, a lawmaker known for his singular and strident advocacy of the immigration cause. In 2008, he compared Border Patrol agents to the “Gestapo.” More recently, he made a high-profile threat to vote against the healthcare overhaul at its most critical stage.

Few in Washington believed he would vote no, but Gutierrez managed to wrangle a White House meeting and a public nudge from Obama in support of the comprehensive immigration blueprint being developed by Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

“Would we have liked him to have done more? Yes,” Gutierrez said, acknowledging that Obama’s statement reiterating his support for comprehensive immigration reform “wasn’t the most enthusiastic press release.”

“It’s incremental,” he said. “Before you run, you walk.”

Among his grievances with Obama is the president’s shift in rhetoric. When Obama campaigned, Gutierrez said, he used the phrase “undocumented workers.” When he addressed Congress on healthcare last September, the president referred to “illegal immigrants” in insisting that they would not be covered under the administration’s plan.

“You went from a humanizing definition of the community to a criminalizing definition of the community,” Gutierrez said.

The final straw for immigration advocates came in January, the outspoken legislator said, when Obama barely mentioned the issue in his State of the Union address.

“He said it with so little enthusiasm, and so little commitment, that they didn’t believe him,” Gutierrez said, drawing a direct line between that speech and a large rally of immigration advocates in Washington last month that happened to coincide with the final House vote on healthcare.

“If you only understood how devastating it was to our sense of hope and our sense of commitment of this president,” he said.

Gutierrez, who has not faced a serious electoral challenge since his first term, said he doesn’t lambaste the administration because he likes to.

“It’s very hard. I don’t want you to think that it’s easy,” he said. “I don’t want to pile on. It’s just he’s got to get this done.”

Gutierrez noted that Obama initially promised on the campaign trail that he would pursue immigration reform in 2009, then backtracked. And he vows he will hold the president accountable.

He said, “I meet women who are being raped by their employers. I meet children who the government has come early in the morning and taken their dads. I meet someone dying from cancer, an American citizen, who says … ‘Luis, can I die knowing that the mother of my children is going to raise [them]?’ I can’t give him that, because there’s nothing in the law.”

Despite his criticism of Obama, Gutierrez said he is more optimistic about the chances for progress on immigration.

The president transformed from “Professor Barack Obama” to “Lyndon Johnson Barack Obama” during the healthcare debate, he said.

Gutierrez noted a number of positive gestures from the White House, including an invitation for him to attend a bill-signing for a jobs measure that, he said, “I had nothing to do with.”
“I don’t think I even co-sponsored it. Why did they invite me?” Gutierrez wondered, before answering his own question. “After he signed the bill, [Obama] came up to me, he said, ‘Hey Luis, I appreciate your support. We’re going to work on comprehensive immigration reform.’

Gutierrez also pointed to recent comments by Michelle Obama extolling the contributions of immigrants in the U.S. The first lady on Sunday said immigration reform was “still on the top” of the Obama agenda.

When it comes to a legislative and political path to enacting immigration reform in an election year, Gutierrez is less specific. He grudgingly accepts the consensus opinion that the legislation must start in the Senate, but he makes sure to point out that even there, immigration gets short shrift.

“Every other basic fundamental issue we start in the House,” he said.

The broader journey for a bill that will create a path to citizenship for the nation’s 12 million undocumented immigrants has been years in the making.

Gutierrez was a lead co-sponsor, along with Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), of the sweeping bill that passed the Senate in 2006 before stalling amid a conservative revolt in 2007. He nearly quit the House after the effort failed in 2007, but he changed his mind and decided to stay and pursue what has become the cause of his career.

“This has kept me in Congress,” the 56-year-old lawmaker said.

The House Democrat is not shy in blasting Obama’s closest advisers. Asserting that he is not culpable for what the administration does or does not do, Gutierrez said, “I’m not at the White House. Rahm [Emanuel] is there. [David] Axelrod’s there. And I don’t know that they’re giving him the best advice.”

Gutierrez scoffs when it is pointed out that Obama nominated the first Latina to the Supreme Court and pushed for immigration reform-friendly provisions in the 2009 children’s healthcare insurance law.

“We’re supposed to applaud because they did the right thing? Because they finally acted as Democrats? So big deal. What did they do that was so extraordinary? Oh, a Latina’s on the Supreme Court? About time!”

The White House did not comment for this article.

Gutierrez’s allies in Congress say the congressman’s outbursts have a purpose.

“There’s a difference between being an enemy and a forceful advocate,” Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) said, referring to Gutierrez’s criticism of Obama.

Part of his role as a leader on immigration, Clarke said, was to make sure there’s a spotlight on the issue.

“He’s a pretty smart pol,” said Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.), a leader on immigration in the Irish-American community. Crowley said Gutierrez’s credibility stems from his ability to build unlikely coalitions on immigration and because he is well-liked in the Democratic Caucus.

As for Obama, lawmakers are quick to note a relationship between the two men that goes back years. “Luis is very strategic and he’s very smart, and so is the president,” Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.) said.

Gutierrez, Honda said, “holds no animosity. The heat is about the issue. It’s not about personalities.”

[American Patriot]

This is NOT the Right wing trying to start something.

it IS THE LEFT WING screaming and getting in people's faces.

A few people who are pissed off at a state law are trying to get the Feds to step in.

This is how the Civil War started folks.

READ YOUR HISTORY!

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April 26, 2010
Obama seeks to 'reconnect...young people, African-Americans, Latinos, and women' for 2010

The Democratic National Committee this morning released this clip of the president rallying the troops, if rather coolly, for 2010. Obama's express goal: "reconnecting" with the voters who voted for the first time in 2008, but who may not plan to vote in the lower-profile Congressional elections this year.

Obama speaks with unusual demographic frankness about his coalition in his appeal to "young people, African-Americans, Latinos, and women who powered our victory in 2008 [to] stand together once again."

Turning out those so-called "surge" voters -- who turned out for the first time to back Obama, but who sat out gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia last year -- has become the Democrats' central pre-occupation for the midterm elections, and the new Democratic effort to nationalize the election around Obama and his agenda mark an attempt to energize those voters.

Posted by Ben Smith 08:59 AM

[Ryan Ruck]

It IS THE LEFT WING screaming and getting in people's faces.

They are just following Obama's orders...

YouTube: Obama Says "Argue With Neighbors, Get In Their Face"

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American Military Unit Set to Impose Order in American Towns in Time for November Elections

Written by Joe Wolverton, II

Monday, 26 April 2010 15:20

Within one month of the November midterm elections, a specially tasked unit of the United States Army will be on alert and ready to deploy within the borders of the United States to quell “civil unrest” that some fear may afflict the nation in the summer months prior to the elections. Predictably, advocates of the unlawful deployment of our military use fear to foment support this action. They call to mind the summer of 1968 when riots and demonstrations decrying the country’s prolonged conflict with Viet Nam plagued some of America’s large cities. The summer of 2010, they advert, could be “our long, hot summer of discontent.” In order to prevent that eerie specter from becoming reality, proponents encourage Americans to welcome the calming presence of armed American troops patrolling potential hotspots. The subordination of such an outfit, known as the Consequence Management Response Force (CCMRF), under the command of US Army Northern Command (NORTHCOM) was documented last year by this writer in The New American. Lest any suppose that such an overt act of tyranny be the product of our current President’s fertile fascist imagination, that account related how President Barack Obama was simply carrying out the historic reassignment implemented by President George W. Bush, who in 2008 claimed that as commander-in-chief, the President was authorized by the Constitution to use the armed forces as he saw fit, congressional opposition notwithstanding. In response to the Bush administration’s pronouncement, the Cato Institute published a warning of the dangers of using a brigade of the United States Army as a domestic police force. The Cato Institute article reported that the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team would be brought home from Iraq and combined with 15,000–20,000 other soldiers to form the new unit. NORTHCOM’s website claimed the size of the unit composed of servicemen from all branches of the military would not exceed 4,700 personnel. Typically, that estimate falls far below the actual number of regular army troops assigned to the force. According to reports, the CCMRF is composed of 80,000 troops and has been drilling at Fort Stewart, Georgia (home of the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division) since being redeployed from Iraq. The duration of the CCMRF’s domestic policing assignment is open ended. Army Colonel Louis Vogler, the chief of NORTHCOM future operations, told the Army Times, “Right now, the reponse force requirement will be an enduring mission. How the [Defense Department] chooses to source that and whether or not they continue to assign them to NORTHCOM, that could change in the future. Now, the plan is to assign a force every year.” Every year, year after year in perpetuity, the United States Army will place one of its brigades at the command of NORTHCOM, and by extension of the President, with the power to patrol and quell any flare ups of civil unrest, including “crowd control … or chaos.” With such vague marching orders, there is little wonder that many fear that such a force could be used to support a coup or enforce the executive branch’s will on any gathering deemed “unruly,” “dangerous,” or disruptive of the peace. In a frightening description of the unit’s training and mission directives, Colonel Roger Cloutier, commander of the 1st Brigade Combat Team, practically crows about the arsenal of tactical weapons that will be placed at the unit’s disposal. Colonel Cloutier asserts that his troops are training to use “the first ever nonlethal package” of weapons that will be used to “subdue unruly or dangerous individuals without killing them.” The “package” referred to by Cloutier includes spike strips to slow or stop traffic, bean bag bullets, tasers, shields, and batons. In apparent ignorance of the Posse Comitatus Act, which expressly forbids the armed deployment of federal troops within the borders of the United States, Colonel Cloutier muses that he “can’t think of a more noble mission than this. We’ve been all over the world during this time of conflict, but now our mission is to take care of citizens at home … and depending on where an event occurred, you’re going home to take care of your home town, your loved ones.” He continues in the same lofty spirit, “I don’t know what America’s overall plan is — I just know that 24 hours a day, seven days a week, there are soldiers, airmen and Marines that are standing by to come and help if they are called. It makes me feel good as an American to know that my country has a dedicated force to come in and help the people at home.” It is the very acme of irony that an active duty commander in the United States Army would use such language to exult in the absolutely illegal deployment of his unit as a police force endowed with lethal law-enforcement power within the “home towns” of America. The United States already has a force dedicated to help the American people; as a matter of fact it has thousands of such forces. They are known as the police and they are already lawfully and loyally serving the public good in every small town and sprawling metropolis from coast to coast and border to border. Finally, the citizens of this Republic, the palladium of liberty, must understand the staunch, unwavering opposition of our Founding Fathers to the use of the national armed forces in response to domestic civil unrest. Their words and warnings could be no clearer. From Sir William Blackstone (whose Commentaries on the Laws of England were of unparalleled influence on the Framers) to Thomas Jefferson; from Patrick Henry to James Madison; our learned forbears were unanimously aligned against any use of “standing armies” inside the borders of this nation. Here is but a sampling of their statements, which should serve as testimony against the deployment of any unit of any branch of the United States Armed Forces with the ostensible mission of imposing order in the towns and cities of this nation. Henry St. George Tucker in Blackstone’s Commentaries: “Wherever standing armies are kept up, and when the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any color or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction.” Patrick Henry of Virginia: “A standing army we shall have, also, to execute the execrable commands of tyranny; and how are you to punish them? Will you order them to be punished? Who shall obey these orders? Will your mace-bearer be a match for a disciplined regiment?” The Virginia Ratifying Convention of 1788: “That standing armies in time of peace are dangerous to liberty, and therefore ought to be avoided, as far as the circumstances and protection of the community will admit; and that in all cases the military should be under strict subordination to and governed by the civil power." The Pennsylvania Ratifying Convention: “As standing armies in time of peace are dangerous to liberty, they ought not to be kept up; and that the military shall be kept under strict subordination to and be governed by the civil power.” North Carolina’s Declaration of Rights of 1776: “That the people have a Right to bear Arms for the Defence of the State, and as Standing Armies in Time of Peace are dangerous to Liberty, they ought not to be kept up, and that the military should be kept under strict Subordination to, and governed by the Civil Power.”

[Ryan Ruck]

Chicago Beach Violence Alarms Alderman

Vi Daley wants cameras near Oak St., North Ave.

May 27, 2010

A North Side alderman is calling for police surveillance cameras along a stretch of beach from Oak Street to North Avenue to keep a lid on violence this summer.

"We just don't want any gang problems at the beach," said Ald. Vi Daley (43rd), whose lakefront ward includes North Avenue beach. "Beaches are there for people to enjoy, to play volleyball, swim and walk along the beach. We want to make sure it's a safe place for people to go.''

Several incidents Monday have focused attention on the beach.

Six Chicago teens -- all 15 years old -- were arrested on felony charges of fighting with the police after an 18-year-old northwest suburban Barrington woman -- who is 4 feet 11 inches and 100 pounds -- was beaten on the beach about 8 p.m. Monday after a quarrel, police said.

Officers said they witnessed two of the teens attacking the woman, according to a police report. One of the teens was also charged with aggravated battery on the woman.

About 11 p.m., a teen was shot and critically wounded after he flashed gang signs at other people, police said.

Mayor Daley said Wednesday that he wants the Police Department and Park District to draw a line in the sand -- literally -- because of those incidents.

"The Chicago Police Department is concerned about that, sure," Daley said. "Lighting, safety, things like that you have to look at. Any time you have any [problem], whether it's Humboldt Park or anyplace else, you are concerned about any type of criminal activity or gang activity."

But Daley added that fights inevitably break out when people flock to lakefront beaches during warm weather.

"We're obviously monitoring the activity at these lakefront locations and will be responding appropriately," said Roderick Drew, a spokesman for the Chicago Police Department. "At this point the incidents appear to be isolated."

He added: "Keep in mind that we typically beef up the police presence along the lakefront around Memorial Day anyway, something that is expected with warmer temperatures and increased traffic there. This year will be no exception."

Vi Daley said she's been assured by the district police commander that a "large contingent" of officers -- including bike patrols, vans and tactical teams -- will make their presence known. They'll ask people to leave the beach by 9 p.m.

"We're probably going to be putting cameras at the beach so you'll be able to see Oak Street and Fullerton, the whole stretch," she added.

"We've never had this happen before," the alderman said. "We don't usually have shootings along the beachfront. We need to get on top of it right away."

[Ryan Ruck]

Cop Says Thugs Taking Over At North Avenue Beach

May 25, 2010

A veteran Chicago police officer says North Avenue Beach, one of Chicago's lakefront crown jewels, is turning into a playground for thugs. The officer said the beach has been overrun by gang-bangers and he called the situation the worst he's seen in 20 years.

CBS 2's Mike Puccinelli reports on a recent spate of arrests along the lakefront.

Tuesday was a beautiful day to hit North Avenue Beach, but the trouble has been happening when the sun sets and the sunbathers go home; police sources said that's when the troublemakers have been coming out.

A YouTube video posted on Sunday night showed how tensions simmered between groups of hostile young people on North Avenue Beach.



And a separate home video showed one of eight arrests Chicago police made Monday night on the very same beach.

The arrests followed several fights involving a north suburban woman. Six teenagers were arrested for allegedly battering the woman.

In the home video, you can see her being kicked in the face. But the young woman who shot the video said the girl who police identified as the victim was actually the instigator of the night's violence.

"She was wasted," Amber Pitts said.

Pitts said she doesn't know any of the people involved, but she said she knows a miscarriage of justice when she sees one.

Two other young men were arrested for allegedly assaulting a pair of joggers near the beach.

Kenneth Mitchell's son was arrested and charged in connection with the attack. He decided to talk about his child's arrest because he hopes that this latest brush with the law will cause his only son to have what he calls the courage to change.

"He listens to his mom sometimes, he listens to me sometimes, but he's got to listen to his heart. He's got to know what's right and what's wrong and I hope it ain't too late for him," Mitchell said.

If he doesn't change, Mitchell fears that his son will end up dead or in prison.

"Either he gonna go to jail or he gonna go to college and make something of himself," Mitchell said. "I told him I'm not going to be around forever. I'm getting older and it's his choice."

On a police website, one officer wrote that groups of 50 to 100 gangbangers were fighting on the beach as visitors fled in panic.

Mitchell said he hopes his son can avoid the call of the crew.

Alcohol is believed to have fueled at least one of the violent incidents from Monday night. On Tuesday, for the second straight day, police were arresting people for drinking alcohol on the beach.

But police aren't saying if the stepped-up enforcement has anything to do with the recent spate of lakefront violence.

[Ryan Ruck]

Yeah, I know this happens a lot after sport team wins (and that doesn't mean it should) but, with the pressure cooker bursting at the seams, something like this could blow up into something bigger if the police accidentally kill someone while trying to arrest them or have to use lethal force for some reason.

YouTube: Crowd Vandalizes and Burns Taxi in Los Angeles Following Lakers Victory


ETA: Here's a link to a thread on ARFCOM detailing everything that was going down thanks to users monitoring an online scanner. Attacking bus drivers, fire stations, police officers... Ridiculous.

[Ryan Ruck]

More video:

YouTube: Looting Lakers Fans - Celebration turns to riot at Shell Station

[Ryan Ruck]

L.A. Council Blocks Rent Freeze, Triggering Protests

Police clear unruly crowd after demonstrators disrupt meeting. Lawmakers' 10-5 vote cleared the way for a 3% increase on July 1.

May 22, 2010

The Los Angeles City Council on Friday effectively scuttled a proposed four-month freeze on rent increases in the city, igniting a chaotic protest by tenant rights advocates inside the City Hall chambers that led to three arrests.

The proposed ordinance would have prevented owners of 630,000 rent-controlled apartments from raising rents between now and Oct. 31 to provide a respite for tenants buffeted by the recession. Instead, the council voted 10 to 5 to send the measure to a committee for further study, a procedural move killing the proposed freeze and allowing landlords to raise rents by up to 3% on July 1.

After the vote, outraged tenants and renters rights advocates who had been waiting five hours for the measure to be considered started shouting at the council. The protesters, dominated by members of the Los Angeles Community Action Network, brought the meeting to a standstill with loud, echoing chants of "No justice, no peace!'' and other slogans.

Dozens of officers from the Los Angeles Police Department and the city's General Services Police Department were called in after protesters filled the main aisle of the John Ferraro Council Chamber and refused to leave. Officers holding batons formed a mini skirmish line and began pushing the unruly crowd outside, and tackled and arrested three members of the community group.

"It was obvious that the small group disrupting the meeting wasn't pleased with the vote, and they were displaying their displeasure in a very violent manner," said Councilman Dennis Zine, who was chairing the meeting and ordered officers to "get them out now'' after several protesters ignored pleas for order.

Pete White, founder and co-director of the community group, identified the arrested members as Deanna Weakly, Steve Richardson, and Gerardo Gomez. Gomez was injured when his face smacked into one of the benches as police restrained him, according to White.

White, along with about 40 protesters, said he was en route to LAPD's Central Division station, where the three would be booked. The group planned to remain there until the suspects gained their release, White said.

Councilman Richard Alarcon, who proposed the rent freeze, said that during his years working for Mayor Tom Bradley and serving on the council he had never seen the "council lose control of its chamber'' and called the arrests a sad day in the city's history. But the protest and subsequent clash, he said, were triggered by a council vote that threatens to send some low-income renters onto the streets.

"These people are passionate. It's a very sad day for renters who are going to have to pay more rent when many of them cannot pay their bills now,'' Alarcon said. "What we saw today was an expression of their anger.''

Alarcon's proposal would have imposed a four-month moratorium on rent increases at buildings constructed before 1978 that have six or more units, a group that is governed by the city's rent control law. Under the law, owners of rent-controlled properties are eligible to impose 3% rent increases on July 1.

The freeze would have given the council time to consider rent control reforms and consider a comprehensive study on the issue currently underway by the city's Housing Department, Alarcon said.

However, several landlords testifying before the council said any rent freeze would be financially devastating to them, noting that they were being hit with higher utility bills, insurance costs and property taxes.

The freeze was derailed by a motion from Council President Eric Garcetti, who said it would be wiser for the council to wait and tackle the broader rent control reforms instead of addressing the issue with a piecemeal freeze. Voting against Garcetti's motion were council members Alarcon, Jose Huizar, Herb Wesson and Paul Krekorian.

"Not passing this means that the rent burden will increase here in the city, where 58% are paying unaffordable rents and 31% are paying 50% or more of their income to rent," said Larry Gross, executive director of the Coalition for Economic Survival, a renters rights group. "Not passing this is to side with injustice at a time when people are being laid off, furloughed, foreclosed upon and have to chose between paying rent, medical expenses, food and clothing."

The council on Friday also approved an ordinance that requires lenders to register foreclosed homes and face fines of up to $1,000 per day if foreclosed homes fall into disrepair and become a blight to a neighborhood. The ordinance is expected to raise up to $5 million a year for the city, money the council wants to use to reduce the number of layoffs needed to balance the budget.

[Ryan Ruck]

YouTube: Martial Law Declared In Chester, Pennsylvania By Mayor Wendell N. Butler, Jr.

[Ryan Ruck]

Roanoke, VA Police Respond To Disturbance As Hundreds Seek Housing Help

6/23/2010

Police were called to a Roanoke bingo hall, where hundred of people lined up Tuesday morning to apply for housing assistance.

The disturbance happened in the parking lot at the Voice of the Blue Ridge building on Melrose Avenue. Police responded and quickly restored order.

By mid-morning, more than 900 people had applied for a voucher program that provides rental assistance to low-income families.

This was the first time since 2007 that the Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority has taken applications for the Section 8 Waiting list. The event continues until 7 oclock today, and again tomorrow.

So why were so many people were waiting in line for hours? Hundreds came to apply for a voucher program that will help them afford better housing.

The crowd included families with young children, people with disabilities - even the homeless, all trying to find a better place to live.

Steven Hamilton and Gwen Sinkler and Gwen's grandchildren Tanique and Tayshaun joined several hundred others with similar dreams. "We looked at it and sure we wanted to go back home," Hamilton said, "but you know the bottom line is we won't have no home if we don't come here and get some help."

The Housing Choice Voucher program provides rental assistance for low income families.

The people who filled out forms and stood in line for hours will be placed on a waiting list in the order they applied.

Earl Saunders works for the Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority. "You know it's a stepping stone for them where basically they can actually uplift themselves, get in the program, work and eventually go off the program and somebody else can take their slot," Saunders said.

Daniel Lowry moved to Roanoke two months ago to be near his daughter. He' s been living at the Salvation Army.

"Every day is getting better," Lowry told News7. "God has blessed me and with this situation here i hope i can get some permanent housing."

The housing authority will be accepting applications again on Wednesday, from 9am until 7pm.

[vector7]

Maywood California to lay off all city employees, dismantle Police Department

June 22, 2010 | 10:13 am



The city of Maywood will lay off all city employees and begin contracting police services with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department effective July 1, officials said.

In addition to contracting with the Sheriff's Department, the Maywood City Council voted unanimously Monday night to lay off an estimated 100 employees and contract with neighboring Bell, which will handle other city services such as finance, records management, parks and recreation, street maintenance and others. Maywood will be billed about $50,833 monthly, which officials said will save $164,375 annually.



"We will become 100% a contracted city," said Angela Spaccia, Maywood's interim city manager.

Deputies from the East Los Angeles Sheriff's Station will begin patrolling the 1.2-square-mile city by the end of the month, said Capt. Bruce Fogarty of the Sheriff's Contract Law Enforcement Bureau. The annual cost of providing those services for the small city is estimated at $3.6 million, Fogarty said.

At a council meeting Monday night, city leaders said they were forced to dismantle the Police Department and lay off city workers because they lost insurance coverage as a result of excessive police claims filed against the department. They also blamed years of financial abuse and corruption from the previous council.

"We're limited on our choices and limited on what we can do,"

Councilman Felipe Aguirre told the standing- room-only crowd. Frustrated and enraged residents blame the council for the city's predicament, and for not following an insurance agency's recommendations, which council members had agreed to last August. The recommendations included hiring a permanent city manager.

Some suggested that city leaders should step down.

"You guys had the power to change it and you didn't," said City Treasurer Lizeth Sandoval, 28, who addressed the council as a resident. "You single-handedly destroyed the city."

Sandoval, a city employee, will be laid off as part of the cuts.

Local activists, who refer to themselves as "A Group for a Better Maywood," announced their intention to recall four of the council members: Felipe Aguirre, Edward Varela, Vice Mayor Veronica Guardado and Mayor Ana Rosa Rizo. The same group sought a similar recall in 2008 and failed.

-- Ruben Vives

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