How New COINTELPRO Is Targeting Nat'l Protest Leaders

America’s new and more deadly COINTELPRO, combining high-tech versions of its yesteryear’s spying, harassing, intimidating and arresting tactics with today’s military-grade weapons, is being used in a campaign against both protest groups en mass and to neutralize high profile civil and human rights protest leaders.

Despite the odds against them, Americans continue protesting the brutal police state, its racism and mounting injustices highlighted by recent police killings of Michael Brown and Eric Gardner, both black and unarmed, and grand jury decisions favoring the white police killers. Buzzfeed mapped the major protests held on Dec. 6 alone.

Where is President Barack Obama as the nation demands an end to justice department and police corruption? Journalist Stephen Lendmen risked his life this week by leaving no stoned unturned to answer that quesiton. Lendmen begins his article Obama: War Criminal, Tyrant, Torturer, Racist, Corporate Tool, World-Class Thug, with the following:

“His record speaks for itself. Ideologically over-the-top. Lawless. Reckless. Ruthless by any standard. Reflecting the worst of rogue leadership.
 

Americans Unable to Breathe Rise From Near Death

“The people are rising. No more compromising!” is the new popular chant heard at demonstrations across the United States since the grand jury announced its decision on police shooting to death unarmed 18-year-old unarmed Michael Brown and choking to death 43-year-old black asthma patient Eric Gardner as he said eight times, “I can’t breathe.” Both police, as usual, were found to have exercised justifiable homicide.

The medical examiner ruled the police killing of Eric Gardner a homicide. A video shows police choking him to death as a police gang jumped him, viewed by tens of millions. His last words, “I can’t breathe,” are cleartly heard. Still, on Dec 3, a white-majority grand jury let the killer cop and his accomplices walk free, same as days before in the Michael Brown case and, as recently revealed, an unreported hundreds before them over the past few years.

Even TV’s conservative Michael Savage says police murdered Gardner.

Human rights organizers have succeeded in leading hundreds of thousands of Americans to hit the streets since Brown’s death. Daily, those numbers of protesters escalate. Thousands swarmed streets of New York, Los Angeles and other major cities for a thrid day to protest death at hands of police. Sunday night and then Sunday night again, West Coast cities braced for more trouble, after Friday night clashes in Berkeley, California, and Seattle, Washington as protests started against police violence.

Miami protesters blocked Interstate 195 Sunday afternoon, clogging traffic to the Art Basel show in Miami Beach, reports CBS-TV Miami.

Coast to coast, people are stirring, no longer willing to accept a racist-based economic and political order suffocating them. The American uprising is also supported by other nations, such as India.

The Ferguson grand jury decision, the Staten Island grand jury decision in the Eric Garner killing, police lies about Tamir Rice’s killing, and ongoing police killings of blacks have created a national eruption calling for justice.

Amid protests, cases of killer police protection by the department of justice continue mounting. Wednesday, Rumain Brisbon, 30, was dropping off food to his children at their Phoenix, Arizona apartment when police shot and killed him with two bullets to the torso. The police “felt threatened.” 

“We all like to believe in the concept of progress, but the fact that hyper-weaponized police forces are laying unarmed Black men low left and right without consequence makes claims there has been progress against racism in this country doubtful,” writes Williams Rivers Pitt On Saturday in his article Trying to Breathe in These “Post-Racial” United States.

As a last resort to decades of unabated racist-based civil and human rights abuses against people of color, Americans shut 170 cities down after the Ferguson grand jury decision.

“Since then, protests have continued, even throughout a holiday weekend,” reports Kevin Zeese, editor of Popular Resistance and co-founder of the Occupy movement, that aimed from its inception to “Stop the Machine.”

“One woman, Knox College Women’s Basketball Player Ariyana Smith, took action by herself, protesting during the Star Spangled Banner at a basketball game with her hands up and then falling to the ground 4.5 minutes. Smith explained that ‘it was a last resort,’” Zeese writes.

Hundreds of protesters along New York’s Fifth Avenue sidewalks and other Manhattan areas have been carrying signs while chanting “Black lives matter” and “I can’t breathe,” both of which have been trending as hashtags on Twitter.

Long Islanders were among groups across the country who have staged a die in to stop traffic.

In Chicago this week, parents of victims of police brutality gace moving speeches at demonstrations. Emmett Farmer spoke about her son Flint, killed by a Chicago police officer in 2011 while lying on his stomach. Bertha Escamilla spoke about her son, Nick, a victim of infamous torturer police officer Jon Burge. Joyce Brown demanded answers about the death of her son Charles, 20 when police shot and killed him in the suburb of Harvey. The Chicago Alliance has gathered over 10,000 signatures for an elected Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC), to hold police accountable for their crimes.

In New Haven, Connecticut, hundreds of demonstrators marched Friday afternoon from Yale University law school to the courthouse. In New Jersey, dozens of Rutgers University students walked through New Brunswick, making downtown rush-hour traffic crawl and forcing the city to postpone its tree lighting ceremony at Monument Square.

In Colorado, students walked out of class Friday to protest the grand jury decisions. In Denver, eighth-grader Bennie Mahonda walked approximately five miles to the municipal center, shouting “Hands up, don’t shoot!” to honks from passing cars. She called her action “social studies outside of class.”

“It makes us kids feel unsafe, that we’re outsiders, enemies of society,” Bennie, who is black, said of the decisions by the grand juries in the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases.

In Florida, marchers streamed through midtown Miami streets and blocked a major causeway connecting to Miami Beach. In Providence, Rhode Island, several hundred people blocked downtown.

Among Chicago protesters leaders was Mark Clement, an Alliance leader and another victim of Jon Burge. Clement spent 27 years in prison after he was tortured into confessing to crimes he didn’t commit. The 3rd District station had been under command of Glenn Evans, the cop indicted for shoving his pistol down an unarmed man’s throat, pressing a Taser against his groin and threatening to kill him. In front of the police station the protesters held die-ins, blocking traffic before covering seven miles, and blocking Lake Shore Drive.

Anchorage protesters turned out for the same cause: justice.

In solidarity with black victims of police killings, St. Louis Rams players began their nationally televised game last week with their hands in the air, ensuring CNN was forced to better cover the protests. They were severely reprimanded. That, however, did not stop them. Sunday, a week after their “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot!” showy, several Rams players made another statement Sunday with the message: “I Can’t Breathe.”

Guard Davin Joseph wrote the words on his cleats he wore during warmups. Tight end Jared Cook had it written on his wrist tape. Receiver Kenny Britt had several names — including Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin — on his blue and gold cleats, names of black men or teens whose deaths led to today’s protests.

“I feel like we should support what we feel is right,” said Joseph. “We should always have an opinion of sticking up for people who don’t have a voice.”

Before the game, he Tweeted an image of his shoes with the message: “R.I.P. Eric Garner.”

The Rams’ non-violent action has spread to other NFL game players. Detroit Lions running back Reggie Bush had “I Can’t Breathe” across his blue warmup shirt.  Cornerback Johnson Bademosi wrote the message on the back of his shirt worn before a game in Cleveland.

Lions coach Jim Caldwell, who supported Bush’s action, said, “I grew up in the ’60s, where everybody was socially conscious,” Caldwell said. “I believe in it. I’d be a hypocrite if I stood up here and told you any differently, because more than likely, some of those protests that Dr. (Martin Luther) King and some of the others that took a part in non-violent protests, is the reason why I’m standing here in front of you today.”

Saturday night, Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose wore on his T-shirt during warmups before an NBA game, “I can’t breathe.”

Outside linebacker Melvin Ingram #54 (below) of the San Diego Chargers wore his “I Can’T Breathe” shirt warms up before a game against the New England Patriots at Qualcomm Stadium on December 7.

In 2009, internationally acclaimed former Catholic priest and human rights activist Blaise Bonpane said in Los Angeles during his birthday celebration presentation that there would be no justice in the United States until America’s peace and justice movement was joined by other major movements, such as the strong workers’ movement and the environmental movement. The Ferguson police killing of Michael Brown was a tipping point for that to happen.

Millions of US workers, mainly people of color, receive poverty wages.  American workers have joined and demonstrated their power. Workers treated unfairly have joined the protests against a rogue government’s apartheid and slavery. Workers are disposables in multi-billion dollar chains where CEOs such as CEOS of McDonalds and Starbucks are paid $9200 an hour. These modern day slaves cannot breathe.

Over the last two weeks, two national days of action have been conducted by thousands of people seeking living wages. Martin Luther King Jr. recognized boycotting to stand against corporate America was one of the most vital ways to change collective behavior of leaders of an unjust system.

“It was not the marching alone that brought about integration of public facilities in 1963,” King said. “The [Birmingham] downtown business establishments suffered for weeks under our unbelievably effective boycott.”

Following King’s sage advice, on Monday, at 1:01 pm, the extact time police killed Michael Brown, thousands walked out of high schools, colleges, work and took to the streets in a national die-in.

“Economic injustice has deep roots but now it is beginning to be addressed,” says Zeese of Popular Resistance.

Thursday, people in over 190 cities walked off their jobs for a $15 an hour living wage and union rights. The movement has grown geographically and now includes more categories of workers. Baggage handlers, skycaps, wheelchair attendants and aircraft cleaners from 10 major airports supported strikers of the Fight for $15.

Number of Targeted Individuals Grows as COINTELPRO Rears Ugly Head

Police are not only having a killing spree against blacks. In conjunction with today’s FBI-CIA partnership, police are also using COINTELPRO tactics to spy on, harass, intimidate and arrest innocent national protest leaders and in some cases, their family members. They are trumping-up charges against these leaders. Added to these tactics also used by counter-intelligence in the civil rights and Viet Nam war era, they are applying militarized “non-lethal” weapons with capacity to cause serious injuries and to kill. Over a decade ago, military leaders claimed that unlike their dismal failure to suppress dissent during the late 60s and 70′s, they would be prepared for the next uprising with new weapons.

For example, Thursday night through Friday morning around 5 am, the New York Police Department (NYPD) used Long Range Accoustic Device (LRAD) in a heavily populated area near Columbus Circle. The military weapon aimed at protesters resulted in some demonstrators fighting back, throwing trash and rocks at police, according to AlterNet.  Other contemporary media outlets have failed to report the military grade weapon assault on the people.

A lengthy list of “less lethal” military grade weaponry used against protesters in Ferguson has been compiled by Robin Jacks @caulkthewagon and Joanne Stocker @sabzbrach for Buzzfeed.

“I thought I was fine until I realized I was becoming dizzy and migraine was spreading to all over my face,” said Moth Dust, a photographer on the scene in New York Thursday night when LRAD was applied.

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty has reported, “The LRAD can reach decibel levels as high as 162. For comparison, a normal conversation is usually 60 decibels, while a lawn mower can reach to 90 decibels. A level of 130 decibels is typically considered the average pain threshold for most humans.”

Informed Health Online notes that a jet engine registers around 140 decibels. Anything at or above this range “is called acoustic trauma. Depending on how long the ears are exposed to the sound and how intense it is, it may damage the eardrum, the middle ear and/or the inner ear. Damage like this is usually temporary, but some hearing loss may remain.”

The head investor and media relations spokesperson for LRAD Corporation in San Diego, California told Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty that the weapon is so precise, those “standing behind or next to” it can hardly hear it. The YouTube footage, however, shows scores of people frantically running almost into traffic away from the sound blasts heard clearly on the video (below).

The already obscenely long list of innocent Targeted Individuals’ (TIs) experiencing these counterintelligence injuries in their homes and communities now grows daily.  Before the recent protests, hundreds of TIs across the nation had reported experienceing serious injuries from covert targeted “non-lethal” weapons in the hands of police and corporate-paid thugs. 

Rasheen Aldridge is among the most recent TI victims of political repression. A prominent youth leader involved in numerous campaigns, Aldridge has met with Mayor Slay to discuss city policy changes in the wake of Michael Brown’s death. He was recently appointed to the Governor’s Ferguson Commission. Monday he traveled to Washington and met with President Obama about conditions in Ferguson.

On November 25, the day after the Grand Jury decision announcement about police officer Darren Wilson killing young Michael Brown, Aldridge was among peaceful protesters who attempted to enter St. Louis City Hall, a public building that should have been open. In response, the City of St. Louis put out a summons for his arrest for allegedly assaulting an officer while attempting to enter City Hall that day.

“Numerous activists in our movement have been followed, harassed and intimidated by St. Louis Metropolitan Police and other local police agencies,” said Michael T. McPhearson, Don’t Shoot co-chair and executive director of Veterans For Peace. “The treatment of Rasheen stands out as politically motivated in response to his leadership on the ground and as a Ferguson Commission member.”

Zach Chasnoff, former organizer of Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment (MORE), was also charged with assautling an officer after attempting to enter City Hall. Eight officers arrested him while he was grocery shopping with his wife days after the protest. After arrested, the officers removed his handcuffs one officer aggressively got in his face, urging Chasnoff to punch him, according to Popular Resistance. Police also intimdated and harassed Chasnoff’s wife inside Schnuck’s grocery store. Chasnoff was put on a 24-hour hold.

Wes McEnany, president of Mid-South Organizing Committee and the Show Me $15 campaign, was arrested this week at the Phillips 66 on N. Broadway. As part of the national fast food strikes, workers were finishing a protest last night when police arrived in riot gear and started to cuff workers. McEnany went to talk to the police, who told him they would arrest everyone unless McEnany would be arrested.He was charged with failure to obey a police officer.

David Whitt, a Canfield Apartments resident and co-founder of the Canfield Watchman Copwatch group, was riding his bike the morning of November 24th, the day the Grand Jury announced its decision regarding Officer Darren Wilson. He pulled over to the side of the road on his bike. Police drove up to him and arrested him, saying they stopped him for failure to wear a bicycle helmet. He was charged, however, with disrupting traffic.

“The Don’t Shoot Coalition calls on Mayor Slay and all law enforcement leaders to control their police forces,” said McPhearson. “Those who ‘serve and protect’ must demonstrate a greater respect for democratic rights.”

In the Bush-Obama police state, however, democratic rights have been replaced with martial law, a police state too many individuals have not understood until recently and too many groups had failed to unite to resist.
 

“It is beautiful to see this rising together for a better world,” says Zeese. “On all of these issues and more, we are united in our desire for justice and together we are a powerful force.”

Whether people can really overpower forces of high-tech military weaponry used against them and COINTELPRO tactics neutralizing their movement leaders is a beauty yet to be seen.

Sources:  www.dontshootcoalition.org, Reuters, Associated Press, Alternet, Huffington Post, CBS, Information Clearinghouse, Russia Today