Wow. America's Most Wanted host John Walsh has an earful about cutting the government to spark economic growth this week. He notes letting police and firefighters go is bad for our communities. Flint, MI which laid off two-thirds of its police force, according to Walsh has become a "small city murder capital of the U.S."

But then, Walsh goes full Occupy.

"Who's going to pay for the economic meltdown - the huge debt?" He says, "How about companies? Companies that have made more money than in the whole history of the world and they've done it with less people. Some of the Fortune 500 companies pay no state taxes at all. We all know about GE not paying federal taxes."

And he continues to rail on this conservative cure-all for our economic woes: "It's a quick fix but it's not a good fix. We got to make the corporations pay more money and we can't let these people [police] go. You got to speak up."

Here. Here.

This is a shocking statistic. Nearly a third of young people arrested by age 23? Either something is wrong with our laws or with law enforcement.

Via New York Times:

By age 23, almost a third of Americans have been arrested for a crime, according to a new study that researchers say is a measure of growing exposure to the criminal justice system in everyday life.

The study, the first since the 1960s to look at the arrest histories of a national sample of adolescents and young adults over time, found that 30.2 percent of the 23-year-olds who participated reported having been arrested for an offense other than a minor traffic violation.

That figure is significantly higher than the 22 percent found in a 1965 study that examined the same issue using different methods. The increase may be a reflection of the justice system becoming more punitive and more aggressive in its reach during the last half-century, the researchers said. Arrests for drug-related offenses, for example, have become far more common, as have zero-tolerance policies in schools.

Thirty percent. Nearly one in three. Something is not right, and while this study did not look at racial breakdowns, it's likely the percentage is far higher among minority and poverty-stricken populations. Nick Peart, a young African American student at a New York community college, wrote a heartbreaking column for the New York Times Saturday asking why the NYPD was after him. He says police target black and Latino youth.

Here are a few other facts: last year, the N.Y.P.D. recorded more than 600,000 stops; 84 percent of those stopped were blacks or Latinos. Police are far more likely to use force when stopping blacks or Latinos than whites. In half the stops police cite the vague “furtive movements” as the reason for the stop. Maybe black and brown people just look more furtive, whatever that means. These stops are part of a larger, more widespread problem — a racially discriminatory system of stop-and-frisk in the N.Y.P.D. The police use the excuse that they’re fighting crime to continue the practice, but no one has ever actually proved that it reduces crime or makes the city safer. Those of us who live in the neighborhoods where stop-and-frisks are a basic fact of daily life don’t feel safer as a result.

We need change. When I was young I thought cops were cool. They had a respectable and honorable job to keep people safe and fight crime. Now, I think their tactics are unfair and they abuse their authority. The police should consider the consequences of a generation of young people who want nothing to do with them — distrust, alienation and more crime.

What is happening here?

Check out the scene in Stillwater at the end of Oklahoma State's college football victory against rival Oklahoma Saturday night. Some reports called it as terrifying as a natural disaster. Thousands of crazed fans rushed onto the field. It's a typical response at many college football games, but this one caused massive injuries to people participating in the rioting.

ESPN:

After an annual football game they call Bedlam, thousands of Oklahoma State fans jumped, ran and pushed their way onto the field in joy. The Cowboys had just taken apart the Oklahoma Sooners, their bitter and often more successful rivals. The Cowboys' first national championship suddenly seemed within reach.

But fans were pressing toward the field, which is separated from the stands by an eight-foot stone wall. Some students jumped down, others were pushed. The crowd pulled down the goal posts, and in the 45 minutes or more it took police to restore order Saturday night, some fans were trampled as the crowd struggled to reach the exits.

At least 12 people were injured, including one who was airlifted to a hospital, in the chaos on the field after an emotional win in the heart of football country. "Thousands of people stormed the field. You couldn't move, there were so many people," said Michael Authement, who heads the command post at emergency medical provider LifeNet EMS. "It was a nasty deal."
--
The public address announcer had warned fans not to storm the field, but "we just laughed," said Alex Lillibridge, a 19-year-old freshman from Belton, Texas. Fans started jumping the wall in the last seconds of Oklahoma State's 44-10 win, and Lillibridge said that soon after he followed.

Some people said they were forced to jump because of the crush of fans.

"A girl pushed me over the wall," said 21-year-old Jennifer Payne, a junior from Stillwater. "Luckily, I didn't get injured, but I didn't have control of when I jumped off the wall. You just moved with the crowd."

Oklahoma State spokesman Gary Shutt said two people were airlifted to Oklahoma City for treatment, including one adult who had a medical problem well before the end of the game. Both were listed Sunday in guarded, stable condition. Shutt said the university could not disclose students' injuries because of health privacy laws but that he was "alert."

Eight people were taken to Stillwater Medical Center -- including two who were having surgery Sunday on broken ankles. Three others were treated at the field, he said. University president Burns Hargis praised medical personnel on Sunday night and said stadium security "did everything they possibly could.

Hasn't University president Burns Hargis been checking out Zuccotti Park? Man, there are a ton of things he could have done to the out-of-control mob, which was probably ten times larger than the OccupyLA peaceful protesters. Why was no pepper spray or tasers used to control the violence even after the public address announcer was issuing warnings against them from celebrating on the field? To be clear, I'm not advocating for anti-terror tactics being deployed against a jubilant crowd after a big win, but I'm looking at the amount of money it cost the city to medically transport and treat severely wounded people and clean up after this violent outburst. I haven't heard local news anchors gleefully cheering on a Stasi-type response to an unwarranted outburst of these fans which nearly killed dozens of people.

Well, perhaps because college football is a multi-million dollar business run by the an awful NCAA and they don't want to shut off their cash flow so they lay low as fans destroy the house, burn down the field, and throw people out of the stands, choosing to quietly airlift casualties to hospitals capable of treating severely injured people. It's a calculus that these tepid measures are fine because the football program turns a huge profit in the long run.

That's the problem with the Occupy movement: the OWS protesters just aren't profitable. Speak out against the corporate takeover of the political system and unparalleled economic inequality that's dominating America and you're considered a virtual al-Qaeda cell to the MSM. Mobilize and assault those DFHs, baby, because we thought we smelled a little weed. Did local law enforcement infiltrate the Oklahoma stadium hoping to bust some radicals as well?

Police reportedly went undercover at Occupy LA

Los Angeles police used nearly a dozen undercover detectives to infiltrate the Occupy LA encampment before this week's raid to gather information on the anti-Wall Street protesters' intentions, according to media reports.

None of the officers slept at the camp, but they tried to blend in during the weeks leading up to the raid to learn about plans to resist or use weapons against police, a police source told the Los Angeles Times. The source spoke on the condition of anonymity because the case is ongoing.

The undercover work yielded information that some protesters were preparing bamboo spears and other potentially dangerous weapons in advance of an expected eviction, none of which were used, according to the City News Service, which first reported the story. Police played down the significance of the undercover work since Occupy meetings were public and easily tracked. Police officer Cleon Joseph declined an Associated Press request for comment on the reports.

Occupy LA protester Mario Brito told City News Service he was not surprised by the revelation, but said it was "tantamount to 1950s McCarthyism".

As I was watching FOX 11 in Los Angeles during the raid on OccupyLA, the news anchors were proudly telling their audience that they were coordinating with the police to not bring their audience real coverage because they didn't want to reveal any secrets to the radicals. Hey, Geraldo has apologized already for revealing Iraq war movements on the battle field.

They paint the picture of the protesters as being DFHs too lazy to get a job, but yet deserving to be shot with rubber bullets, pepper spray and tasers. They even had a weapons expert cut into their broadcast to describe the types of munitions the police were preparing to use on #OccupyLA, as if it was magical and enchanting. The expert made sure to tell everyone that if a canister is shot into the crowd there's no telling where it will go. "That's too bad for the crowd." And this sanctimonious jerk made a point to say that having a camera in your phone didn't make all those protesters reporters either. Take that, hippies. You'd think they were covering an operation by the Navy Seals going in to take down a Taliban terrorist cell right in the heart of Los Angeles.

Back to Stillwater:

Before reports of injuries emerged, Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy said he left the field quickly when he saw fans jumping from the wall. "When they started piling over, I got out of there as fast as I could. ... It was scary," he said.

He noted that in OSU's last game, a double-overtime loss at Iowa State on Nov. 18, it was the other team's fans who stormed the field. "We almost got trampled by the other team. And now, we went the other way. It's ironic, and things happen for a reason. Don't know why," Gundy said.

This behavior is more common that you think, but it's permitted at an event that makes the owners lots of money. But please don't try and shake up the Machine that disenfranchises 99 percent of America, because then, you deserve to be taken down.

Many thanks to Adam Green for getting this video together.

I was at this press conference last night with the Assistant DC Police Chief.

The Sippel Family, two mothers, one pregnant and their 13-year-old son in from Dayton, Ohio were mowed down by a driver near a Koch brothers protest at their Americans for Prosperity conference in DC on Friday night. They were taken to the hospital where they were issued citations (while being wheeled into a CT scan) for going against the "don't walk" sign and obstructing an intersection. The driver of the car was let go with no citations at all.

The police admitted they are not aware of a second incident - before the Sippels were hit - involving a young woman who's recovering from her injuries.

What didn't make it into the video is the statement from the police chief: "All we've done in the last 24-hours is to interview two non-involved witnesses."

So really, if you want to plow into pedestrians in DC - apparently you just have to do it in front of "involved witnesses" and no one sees nothing.

The guy hit four people in two separate incidents a block away from each other. He struck a pregnant tourist and her 13-year-old son in front of a hundred witnesses and video cameras. It's injustice and outrageous.

See my exclusive video of the moment police let the driver drive away here.

Previously on Hell's Kitchen my C&L blog, I cooked an absolutely stunning beef wellington wrote about the disturbing trend of Americans being arrested for filming cops.

I happen to be one of the unfortunate saps who's been put in the slam simply for pointing a camera at police. So without further ado, here's the second installment of my own private police state...

“They got me on some straight-up bull----, son!” exclaimed the kid sitting next to me in the bullpen at the Erie County Holding Center. “What they get you on?”

“I shot a cop,” I growled, shooting him an icy stare. “And I’d do it again.”

“Son?!” His face froze in delighted dismay. “Real? That f----- dead?!”

“I really doubt it.”

“Jablaow!” he mimicked a gunshot, aiming his hand at the mucus-encrusted, blood-smeared brick wall.

“What’d you use–a nine, forty-five…”

“A Sony Handycam,” I said with the unflinching nerve of a coldblooded videographer. “It’s the same kind James O’Keefe uses; he told me himself.”

“James who, f-----?” he balked. “Pfft! You on some f-----’ camera shit, son?”

“Yeah,” I said. “I shot a video of a cop.”

“Pfft! That ain’t no law, son. Somebody need to tell them motherfuckers!” he hollered, slapping the cold, metal bench. “We all in here on some bull----!”

***
Bunting swung by my place at about 2pm and we headed to the demonstration downtown. The New York Marriage Equality Act went into effect the previous evening, and the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) was protesting gay marriage throughout the state, for reasons of a religious and hate-filled nature. We wanted to cover the event properly, so we brought along a video camera, a couple bibles, and a massive latex dildo/microphone. The jiggly kind is best for serious journalism.

We circled the block a few times, parked and walked over to the growing crowd at Niagara Square. To our surprise (and because most had been bused in from out of state), the delusional NOM bigots totaled about 250. The righteous counter-protesters were only about a dozen strong. As press, we moved among both factions, asking questions.

“The bible says nothing about gay marriage,” I told a NOM supporter, “and marriage invariably results in less sex, so wouldn’t it stand to reason that, as a Christian, you should support gay marriage?” He was confused.
“Would it be fair to say that you’re doing The Lord’s work here today?” I pressed him. After much squirming, “Yes,” was his answer. I pointed to the bible, politely informed him that he shouldn’t be working on the Sabbath, and told him he was going to hell. It’s in the bible.

We also talked to this hayseed who subsists, ostensibly, on moneys derived from the Tooth Fairy. In a hill-folk whistle, he claimed to be “a low-level politician.” He had glossy, moonshine eyes. And dementia, possibly. “They took our rights!” he claimed. I didn’t bother to ask how.

“Your pants are clearly a poly-cotton blend,” I informed him. “You’re going to hell. It’s in the bible.”

The crowd started chanting, “Let the people vote!” Because social conservatives are not allowed to vote for governor or state legislature. Then they started singing; it was pretty gay. “How great is our God?” went the seemingly endless refrain. Not great enough to stop gay marriage which, for an omnipotent being, should have been pretty easy. One would imagine.

“This here’s a chocolate protest,” I heard one woman say to another. Indeed, most of the NOM supporters were black and, apparently, incapable of detecting the historic irony in their prejudice.

“Excuse me, ma’am,” I beckoned one lady. “Are you menstruating?”

“Well, this is what this is all about,” she inexplicably answered.

I was like, “Whaaaa?”

“He’s trying to say you’re unclean,” her husband chimed in.

“It’s in the bible,” I said. “You’re going to hell.”

She then claimed that the New Testament was her guiding principle. I quickly shot back that in Matthew 5:17-20 Jesus said he didn’t come to change the law. Bunting had made a note of this in anticipation of her predictable nonsense. He spends his spare time studying apologetics. I prefer to stab at my eyes with needles. But to each his own–unless it impinges on the rights of others.

We lingered on the outskirts of the protest. Bunting taped while I interviewed. I snagged a beardy bible-humper, but the noise of the rally was ruining our audio, so I broke out the dildophone. “How do you define marriage?” I asked him, waving the wobbly latex member near his face.

“I hope someone does this to your child,” he said, slowly slinking away.

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Another day and another sex scandal.

Evangelist Tony Alamo was arrested Thursday in Flagstaff, Arizona, on charges related to a child porn investigation, an FBI spokesman said.

The 74-year-old founder and leader of Tony Alamo Christian Ministries was arrested without incident at 2:45 p.m. (4:45 p.m. ET) as he was departing the Little America Hotel with his wife, said Manuel Johnson, spokesman for the FBI in Phoenix, Arizona.

The FBI, the Flagstaff Police Department and the Arizona Department of Public Safety were involved in the arrest, he said.

Alamo was charged under a federal statute with having knowingly transported a minor across state lines with the intent to engage in sexual activity, Johnson said...read on

This story reads like something out of a hard boiled, detective novel.

He met her in the bar of the swank hotel and invited her to his room. Once there, the woman fixed the drinks and told him to get undressed. And that, the delegate to the Republican National Convention told police, was the last thing he remembered. When (Gabriel Nathan Schwartz) awoke, the woman was gone, as was more than $120,000 in money, jewelry and other belongings.

The thief's take stunned cops. "It's very, very, very rare," Minneapolis Police Sgt. William Palmer said. "I can think of a couple of burglaries where we had that much stolen, but it's the first time I've heard of this kind of deal."

"It's embarrassing to admit that I was a target of a crime. I was drugged and had about $50,000 of personal items stolen, not the inflated number that the media is reporting from an inaccurate police report," he said.

Those Republicans sure know how to get involved in some very wild sexual situations. I'm changing my mind now and think that Republicans should go to Hollywood and make movies. They have very active imaginations. Schwartz was interviewed repeatedly and was a real wise guy.

During the convention, Schwartz wasn't shy about talking to the media. In an Associated Press article about Sen. John McCain's acceptance speech, Schwartz was quoted as saying that as far as oratorical skills go, McCain "has more experience in his little pinkie" than Democratic nominee Barack Obama.

In an interview filmed the afternoon of Sept. 3 and posted on the Web site LinkTV.org, Schwartz was candid about how he envisioned change under a McCain presidency. "Less taxes and more war," he said, smiling. He said the U.S. should "bomb the hell" out of Iran because the country threatens Israel.

Asked by the interviewer how America would pay for a military confrontation with Iran, he said the U.S. should take the country's resources. "We should plant a flag. Take the oil, take the money," he said. "We deserve reimbursement.

Sure, just bomb Iran and take their oil. Just brilliant. Well for brilliant republicans like him, there happened to be a story book ending.

A few hours after the interview, an unknown woman helped herself to Schwartz's resources.

Billmon is back!

TBogg; Cry. Wolf.

The Pump Handle: Bayer CropScience officials repeatedly refused to give local emergency responders details about last week's explosion and fire,

Crooked Timber: Presidential speech wordles

OFF THE BEATEN PATH: CharlieHipHop, Mortaljive, Politicker, Olly's Onions

ANNALS OF JOURNALISM: The media's other new crush...ABC, CBS aired no analysis from Dems during RNC...The state of journalism...WaPo death spiral watch...Maverick no matter what...Philly radio talker called NOW the "National Organization for Whores"...Fox recycling 2004 attacks...Obama is winning the Web...Discover what the world thinks about U.S...Al Jazeera covers the conventions...Journos should write what they know and think...How would NPR cover the emergence of a police state?...Covering religious views...Van Susteren plays PR agent for Palin...Brokaw warns Dems to lay off McCain, and tells a lie...Possibly staged news pics...

A St. Paul police officer who was dragging an alleged protester down the street was jumped from behind by what I'm assuming is another protester. The officer quickly sprays the surrounding onlookers who are not involved in the incident and is forced to retreat and loses both men in the process. The angle of the video doesn't show what the alleged protester had done to prompt the officer to drag him down the street.

Note: In posting this video I am not advocating attacks on police, or violence of any kind. But as I heard someone say yesterday, the Denver police prepared for protests, the St. Paul police prepared for the Apocalypse. Glenn Greenwald and Jane Hamsher have been documenting the searches and seizures on peace groups. And the Minnesota Independent documents a 17 year old peace protester and community organizer who was beaten and pepper sprayed by the St. Paul police.

Glenn Greenwald reports:

Beginning last night, St. Paul was the most militarized I have ever seen an American city be, even more so than Manhattan in the week of 9/11 -- with troops of federal, state and local law enforcement agents marching around with riot gear, machine guns, and tear gas canisters, shouting military chants and marching in military formations. Humvees and law enforcement officers with rifles were posted on various buildings and balconies. Numerous protesters and observers were tear gassed and injured.

... Perhaps most extraordinarily, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now -- the radio and TV broadcaster who has been a working journalist for close to 20 years -- was arrested on the street and charged with "conspiracy to riot." Audio of her arrest, which truly shocked and angered the crowd of observers, is here. I just attended a Press Conference with St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman and Police Chief John M. Harrington and -- after they boasted of how "restrained" their police actions were -- asked about the journalists and lawyers who had been detained and/or arrested both today and over the weekend. They said they wouldn't give any information about journalists who had been arrested today, though they said they believed that "one journalist" had been, and that she "was a participant in the riots, not simply a non-participant."

Tear gas has also been used.

Do you think maybe that events in St. Paul would have gotten more attention already if we weren't all distracted by the Palin circus show?

Update: Amy has been released, but her two producers, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar, are still being held.

"I was down on the convention floor interviewing delegates when I heard that two of our producers had been arrested," said Goodman. "I ran down to Jackson and 7th Street, where the police had moved in."

Goodman said that when she ran up to find out what was going on, she was also arrested.

"They seriously manhandled me and handcuffed my hands behind my back. The top ID [at the convention] is to get on the floor and the Secret Service ripped that off me. I had my Democracy Now! ID too. I was clearly a reporter."

Goodman, who was released after being charged with a misdemeanor, said that Salazar had been hurt in the face, while Kouddous had been thrown up against a wall and hurt his elbow.

"Nicole told me that as they moved in on three sides, she asked them 'How do I get away from this?' and they jumped on her."

Both Kouddous and Salazar could be held for up to 36 hours.

"One of the police kept shouting at me 'Shut up, shut up," she said. "It was extremely threatening."

Update 2: Democracy Now! reports that both Kouddous and Salazar have now been released too. (H/t Kat)

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