Across The Country Us Government Experiencing Violence & Civil Uprise

Groups of protesters violently clashed with police in Baltimore before looting businesses and setting fire to cars and structures. At least 15 officers were injured in these confrontations, according to police.

It was the first time the National Guard was called in to quell unrest in Baltimore since 1968, when some of the same neighborhoods were convulsed by violence after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

By the end of the night, almost 200 people had been arrested. Protesters gathered hours after a funeral was held for Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old black man who suffered a fatal injury while in police custody under circumstances that still have not been revealed.

Last night some 71 people were arrested in Cleveland overnight during riot protests that flared after a police officer was found not guilty in the shooting deaths of an unarmed man and a woman following a high-speed car chase in 2012, police said on Sunday.

This comes the same time as New Jersey sets up martial law like curfew as unrest persists.

Similar protest and acts of violence against Police and Government has been occurring in almost every major city across the US in the past few weeks and months getting more violent as they go along like a forest fire with little to no coverage by the mainstream.

"An Uprise in the making." as one bystander from the protest in Cleveland commented.

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In a new study to the recent spate of protests against police & Government brutality have changed the way the left thinks about rioting. The old liberal idea, which distinguished between peaceful protests (good) and rioting (bad), has given way to a more radical analysis. “Riots work,” insists George Ciccariello-Maher in Salon.

“But despite the obviousness of the point, an entire chorus of media, police, and self-appointed community leaders continue to try to convince us otherwise, hammering into our heads a narrative of a nonviolence that has never worked on its own, based on a mythical understanding of the Civil Rights Movement.” Vox’s German Lopez, while acknowledging the downside of random violence, argues, “Riots can lead to real, substantial change.”

In Rolling Stone, Jesse Myerson asserts, “the historical pedigree of property destruction as a tactic of resistance is long and frequently effective.” Darlena Cunha, writing in Time, asks, “Is rioting so wrong?” and proceeds to answer her own question in the negative.

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Recently in San Francisco, San Francisco v. Sheehane, a police-brutality case, made it all the way to the Supreme Court. The case revolved around two San Francisco police officers whom entered a disabled woman's apartment on a report that the woman was suicidal. With a key and with guns drawn the two officers proceed to enter her bedroom and gun her down with two clips of fully loaded ammo as she sat on the bed. The case matters because it’s the first police-shooting incident the court has confronted since Ferguson put policing and excessive use of force on the map. And, as the Supreme Court do in these cases, it handed the cops a win.

Never mind her disability: To the responding officers, that was a “secondary issue.” What truly mattered, one of them testified, was that they were “faced with a violent woman who had already threatened to kill herself.” Sheehan survived her injuries, and later sued the city of San Francisco and the shooting officers for violating her civil rights. She also faulted the city for disregarding her disability under the Americans With Disabilities Act.

You might hope that, in writing the opinion, Justice Samuel Alito would use language that would place the decision in the context of Ferguson. Or at least recognize one of the many instances, caught on video, where police shot and killed a mentally ill person — Jason Harrison, Anthony Hill, and Lavall Hall all come to mind. Or perhaps acknowledge that, according to one estimate, more than half of those killed by police are suffering from mental illness.

Instead, Alito and five other justices ruled that the officers were entitled to a blanket shield from liability, under a doctrine known as qualified immunity. The doctrine is nowhere in the Constitution, yet officers and municipalities invoke it all the time when sued for constitutional violations. And more often than not, courts agree that immunity is proper, so long as the officers’ blunders were “reasonable” under the circumstances. What counts as reasonable? A lot of things, some real, others largely exaggerated. Split-second decision-making. Fear for one’s life. How “dangerous,” “recalcitrant,” and “law-breaking” the victim was. Alito actually used those words to describe Sheehan and found no fault with anything the two officers did in their interactions with her. She was basically asking for it.

 

The rise of Bay Area National Anarchists in America

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What is National Anarchism?

National-Anarchists argue the left–right political spectrum is obsolete and should be replaced with a centralist–decentralist paradigm in light of the fall of communism and the rise of a terrible neoliberal form of globalization. While the combination of post-left-wing anarchist opposition to statism and capitalism, supporting separatism, makes its classification on the left-right political spectrum problematic.

There American Beliefs?

Strong supporters of classical Jeffersonian democracy.

Opposition to the Federalist. The belief in a republic, as form of government, and equality of political opportunity, with a priority for the "yeoman farmer", "planters" and the "plain folk". Antagonistic to the aristocratic elitism of merchants, bankers and manufacturers, distrusted factory workers, and against supporters of the British system of government. Above all, Devoted to the principles of Republicanism, especially civic duty and opposition to privilege, aristocracy, corruption and dictatorship.

The movement is sweeping across the US.

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The movement has spread across the whole western US, hitting Oakland, Seattle, Salt Lake, and now Saint Louis. There is now put in place no go zones in parts of the US for police and government officials.

Ferguson police chief Thomas Jackson blamed much of the mayhem on white anarchists, saying that they were rejecting peace and provoking black youths to violence:

In an exclusive interview with msnbc, Jackson said his fear is not of the understandably angry residents, but “the anarchists that are coming in, the people that don’t want healing, the people that just want to continue to fight.”

“Those are the people I’m concerned about,” he said.

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One commanding officer for BANA an anarchist group leading some of the violence in Ferguson US and are stationed in other command post such as Oakland, and Seattle had this to say to reporters about his anger toward the US government.

"I want to see all the bankers, the government officials, all the foreign elite and there illegal locust strung up on phone lines. I want their wives and mothers brutally raped repeatedly by my comrades. I want to see their children mow my lawn and hear there sweet plea for death.."

Who is financing this group?

Jack Dorsey, an Italian-American billionaire and known anarchist sympathizer who coordinates his activities from a clifftop compound in the San Francisco area. Not content to enjoy his loot, he regards himself as a modern-day warlord.

Many of there recruits in there ranks are street children or otherwise known as gutter punks that they find in homeless communities across cities of Salt Lake and Seattle.


NYC Police Commissioner Bill Bratton Mulls Pardoning 1.2 Million Low-Level Offenders.

New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton has proposed granting amnesty to 1.2 million low-level offenders with open warrants from individuals these include minor offenses, and political. according to CBS New York.

This comes just days after a group of protesters and violent hecklers barged in to City Council that disrupted hearings Police Commissioner Bill Bratton was addressing.

The protesters held a demonstration outside City Hall last Thursday morning. Then forced their way inside wearing shirts that said “Special Police Brutality Unit.” Their mission was to interrupt Bratton’s testimony about the NYPD budget to the Finance and Public Safety committees.

Eventually, the public was cleared from the Council Chamber.

Bratton was remembered after the incident saying “I find it regrettable that the civic disrespect displayed by a few results in the need to eject the many members of the public who are here for civil discourse,” Bratton said. “So the disrespect that’s shown to this council and to their fellow members of the public it’s unfortunate that the few, the selfish few, would seek to interrupt a public process.”

Though unclaimed reports were coming in by Friday morning that Bratton was receiving countless death threats from his home and suspicious individuals who were seen trying to put something under one of Bratton's family vehicles. The Commissioner denies such allegations.

Jon Shane, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told CBS New York. “You always have to be answerable for your behavior and unchecked behavior, we know, leads to larger things and those things manifest themselves in violent crime and property crime, like auto theft and burglary, and things like that,”

Issuing summonses for petty infractions is an element of "broken windows" policing, a strategy that focuses on aggressively enforcing quality-of-life offenses in an effort to deter more serious ones.

That law enforcement philosophy has come under fire, particularly in the wake of the Eric Garner case. Garner, a Staten Island man, died in July 2014 after being put in an apparent chokehold by NYPD officers who were arresting him on suspicion of selling untaxed cigarettes.

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96% of Americans expect more civil unrest this summer: poll

Vast majority of Americans are bracing for a long, hot summer of unrest, a new poll shows. Ninety-six percent of those surveyed said they expect the nation’s problems to continue flaring in the next few months, according to The Wall Street Journal.

"People with longstanding frustrations about police mistreatment of Americans that have not been addressed."

http://www.reddit.com/r/BANA
http://www.the-spearhead.com/2014/08/18/who-are-the-anarchists-in-ferguson-and-whos-funding-them/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffersonian_democracy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National-Anarchism
http://www.national-anarchist.net/

 

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28 shot, 9 dead over weekend alone. Declared a war zone sparks the deadliest month Baltimore has seen in more than 15 years as death tolls continue to rise daily in the city.

From the mass civil unrest and continuous protest against city and government officials by the public and the utter horrific scenes on the streets some say Police have lost control of the entire city fearing they too could be the next victim of the roaring violence that is occurring in Baltimore. From West, to the East Side, Govans, to Reservoir Hill–a spike in weekend violence is plaguing all parts of the city.

One person said "It's like the movie The purge, crazy and there is no police around."

Another commented “If you say something to these young people they’re ready to take your head off.”

Over the Memorial Day Weekend alone– city police report 28 shootings and 9 homicides.

The mayor held an emergency meeting with the police commissioner and his command staff to address the uptick in violence.



New Orleans Police officer ambushed.

A New Orleans housing authority police officer was shot and killed while sitting in a marked patrol car Sunday morning, according to police.

The 45-year-old Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) officer was patrolling a construction site just blocks from the New Orleans Saints' stadium when he was fatally shot, according to a statement from the New Orleans Police Department.

Police were called to the scene at 7:10 a.m., and found the officer in his marked patrol car, which had rolled forward and hit a curb, according to the statement.

No arrests had been made in connection with the shooting, and police had not identified any suspects.

This comes in less then a week after when a Hancock County deputy was ambushed, beaten and cut up with a box cutter in Pearlington last Monday by 3 hooded men, Sheriff Ricky Adam said. If it wasn't for his K9 partner, a black Belgian Malinois named Lucas, they might have succeeded.

"They told him they were going to slit his throat, and they were dragging him toward the woods," Chief Deputy Don Bass said, adding that authorities believe the attackers meant to drag Frazier into the woods, kill him, and dump his body.

Adam said, "but at this point in time I don't care. This kind of attitude has been prevailing in Washington for the last six years and now it's coming home to roost and we're the targets."

 

Oakland



Police officers arrested and cited more protesters after a second night of civil unrest over new police policies that crackdown on night-time demonstrations which for the first time in US history makes it illegal to protest after dark within the city.

Mayor Libby Schaaf and Oakland Police Chief Sean decided to use more aggressive tactics to manage protests, including citing demonstrations that do not have a proper permit.

This faces a dilemma of being bias when it comes to permit authorization by the city.

Such as to get a permit one must ask the city if they can receive a permit, explaining what the protest is they want the permit for. The city then has the authorization too overview if a permit should be given depending on the premises.

This move dictates on what can and cannot be issued as a permit. If a protest was to complain about a Government official such as the Mayor or Police chief the permit could easily be denied by the city preventing a protest otherwise an argument of being challenged and notarized.

Oakland demonstrators call the new policy a “curfew” and claim that it's unconstitutional.

The new laws also force protesters from the street to the sidewalk when they are allowed to protest.

In Oakland on Thursday protesters marched in honor of women killed by police across the nation. But organizers said they were surprised when police pushed them off the streets and onto the sidewalks, citing the mayor's new policy.

Organizers then called for another protest Saturday to demonstrate against the new policy.

"You can't run roughshod over people because they're protesting your oppression," said Cat Brooks, an organizer of both protests. "You can't push us off the streets!"

Further protests over the new policy are planned, Brooks said.

Rachel Lederman, a lawyer with the National Lawyers Guild who helped Oakland craft its crowd-control policies, said the new tactics appear to violate the guidelines.

"It doesn't make any sense because saying that marches have to be on the sidewalk has absolutely no relationship to impending property damage that might occur," Lederman said. "Obviously that would happen on a sidewalk, not a street."

The mayor didn't respond to a request for comment.


Reported Cleveland OH



Cleveland emerged unscathed and intact after a days of civil unrest to the acquittal of a Police Patrolman who had been on trial for the shooting deaths of two unarmed victims killed in a 137-shot barrage of police gunfire.

Officers arrested 71 people the night after the verdict.

But Cleveland is not yet done dealing with deadly police encounters.

Two other high-profile police-involved deaths still hang over the city: a boy holding a pellet gun fatally shot by a rookie patrolman and a mentally ill woman in distress who died after officers brutally took her to the ground and handcuffed her.

Cleveland agreed to overhaul its police department under the supervision of a federal monitor in a settlement announced Tuesday with the U.S. Justice Department over a pattern of excessive force and other abuses by officers.

The announcement comes after growing civil unrest and protest within the city that leave many to fear could turn violent like the ones seen in such cities as Ferguson, Baltimore, Oakland and many others around the US.

A judge must approve the plan, and an independent monitor will oversee it.

The settlement calls for new use-of-force guidelines, a focus on community engagement, accountability reforms, training on bias-free policing and a mental health advisory committee.

The worst examples of excessive force in the Justice Department report involved patrol officers who endangered lives by shooting at suspects and cars, hit people over the head with guns and used stun guns on handcuffed suspects.

The agency said supervisors encouraged some of the bad behavior and often did little to investigate it. Some told the Justice Department that they often wrote their reports to make an officer look as good as possible, the federal agency said. The department found that only six officers had been suspended for improper use of force over a three-year period.

 

People are getting sick and tired of the fucka BS!!!

 

A NEW AMERICA is forming as a result of the afore mentioned chimpouts. Negros are destroying their cities. Cities have become detention centers for negros. They are useless and unprofitable. Hispanics will beat the negro out of the , western US . Whites will and are moveing to a NEW AMERICA ; the middle of the country. Red States . From the Rockies to Appalaichia. OURS. We will control the food chain and power grid. Ge ahead Chimpout , White America is counting on you.

 

Understated. Dude.

 

Baltimore



15 police officers injured, 1 unresponsive, 2 others hospitalized in serious condition. As 15 buildings were set on fire along with 115 vehicles. These also included a Baptist church and a Mosque among the rubble as violence continues to spread from corner to corner in Baltimore.

According to Baltimore Officials, cinder blocks and gun fire were being directed at emergency vehicles as they raced to extinguish the blazes. On the scene rioters were seen slashing fire fighters hoses with knives. Prompting authorities to suspect that these are orchestrated and organized attacks evolving across the city. Injury reports among rescue and service workers have been unconfirmed .

Another account according to officials that fires were sparked to pull emergency services away from the west side of the city, where rioters continued to loot gun stores, check-cashing stores, liquor stores and supermarkets into the early hours of Tuesday. No

Balaclava-clad mobs were seen ripping the doors off one rifle shop and passing weapons to people on the streets.

Medicaid and Medicare facilities were also shut down in Baltimore County as some federal staff have not returned back to their jobs.

Social media experts say they have found a shocking connection between online traffic in Baltimore and activities recorded among the violence in Ferguson, Missouri.

They claim that between 20 and 50 social media accounts active in Baltimore are also being used some 825 miles away in Ferguson. These links suggest the presence of anarchists who are in Baltimore and are taking advantage to incite more violence.

One account - also link's the protests in New York City and other disturbances - tweeted photos of Gray's funeral and used language anticipating violent clashes. The media experts described the discovery of so many of the same social media accounts in the two cities as 'surprising.'

They have also identified a recent social media spike in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York City of protesters looking for rides to Baltimore, suggesting that the situation may not be over just yet.

The high-profile unrest in Baltimore has continued too trigger protests in several American cities Wednesday.

Boston

Protesters marched through Boston on Wednesday evening, the crowd gathered unhappily in front of police headquarters.

Denver

Denver police used pepper spray to subdual the crowds of protesters that gathered downtown Wednesday evening, the Denver Post reported.

Ferguson, Mo.

Rioters seen on West Florissant Avenue in Ferguson, one of the centers of the St. Louis suburb's when protests and rioting first broke out after the police shooting of Michael Brown. Shootouts among rioters and police took hold. At least Three people were shot and wounded including an officer Tuesday, which ended the night of rioting with demonstrators looting a gas station and vandalizing police cars, the Denver newspaper reported.

Houston

Protesters gathered in Houston's south side complaining about local and national Government issues.

Minneapolis

Protesters marched through Minneapolis in solidarity with Baltimore in one of the nation's largest demonstrations Wednesday, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.

“We have a lot of work to do, and we are not immune to the problems that have plagued major cities in the last few months,” Nekima Levy-Pounds, a University of St. Thomas law professor and civil rights activist, told the newspaper.

New York

Protest turn violent as police arrested more than 60 marchers in New York City as the crowd marched through Manhattan, monitored closely by police along with NSA officials.

Seattle

Protesters marched through downtown blocking cars and chanting, "If you're not furious, you're not paying attention."

Washington, D.C.

Thousands of protesters shut down traffic in D.C.'s Chinatown neighborhood and marched to the White House in solidarity with the protests happening in Baltimore about 40 miles to the northeast.

“All night, all day, we’re going to fight!" the crowd chanted.

From around the World

Palestine has offered continued assistance to American pro-democracy activists, sending anti-tear-gas kits to those protesting police brutality in various American cities. Egyptian pro-democracy groups have also said they will be sharing their past experience with U.S.-made counter-protest weapons.

A statement from the United Nations said, “We condemn the militarization and police brutality that we have seen in recent months in America, and we strongly urge American state security forces to launch a full investigation on such acts. There is no excuse for excessive police violence.” The U.N. called on the United States to make a concerted effort to make databases of police violence public to improve transparency and cut down on corruption in the justice system.

International analysts predict the seeds of a so-called “American Spring,” fomented by technology. “It’s amazing what social media is doing for the cause of justice in America,” said a political rights analyst based in Geneva. “The youth of America are showing what 21st-century civil rights activism looks like, using technology, social media and a decentralized organizing strategy to hold authorities accountable and agitate for change. These kids represent what modern-day freedom fighting looks like. The revolution will be tweeted, Periscope-d and Snapchatted.”

More to come later...

 

Recent unrest in Baltimore may be “just the beginning,” One prominent talk show host said America is in the midst of a “civil war.” More violence and rioting, including potentially a so-called “class war,” is likely coming. According to Police Commissioner Anthony Batts, “splinter groups & Anarchist groups” from outside the area “are shooting at officers and burning establishments,” the Baltimore Sun reported.

“Outside agitators continue to be the instigators behind acts of violence and destruction.”

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie “space to destroy” Rawlings-Blake also blamed “outside forces” for looting and aggression against police. Multiple news report gangs declaring open season on law enforcement. "None of these forces are going away."

Activists meanwhile, are saying that “Baltimore is just the beginning.” Jack Dorsey compared the Baltimore protests to the “Boston Tea Party.” Repeatedly referring to what is happening in Baltimore, as an “uprising.”

Gantt quickly proceeds to explain why he believes it is. “If you look at past riots in Los Angeles, in Detroit, in Atlanta and uprisings in hundreds of other cities, when the skies light up and costs go up, things begin to happen,” Gantt said. “Compare Florida, New York City, Ferguson and other areas to Baltimore. In those cities, nothing happened after the non-violent marches called by so-called and politically endorsed leaders. But when flames can be seen from miles and miles away, every resource a city has, is put into action immediately!” He also suggested people should “die fighting for equal rights and justice” rather than be killed by police.

Analysts see Baltimore as a troubling sign of things to come. Firebrand radio talk-show host and Stop the Coming Civil War author Michael Savage, appearing on the Alex Jones show this week, suggested that a “civil war” had already started in America.

“Has there been a civil war?"

"Yeah, it’s a slow-burning civil war."

"What do you think we are looking at here?"

"It’s a class war,” Savage argued.


The usual suspects



Inside the gates of Baltimore's jail, suspects who face charges for murder, manslaughter and other violent crimes typically are escorted from police vehicles in handcuffs. But when three of the city officers charged in Freddie Gray's death arrived, they were not restrained — and one was greeted with a hug and a pat on the back.

Caesar R. Goodson Jr., William G. Porter and Edward M. Nero, three of the six officers who surrendered May 1 to face charges in Gray's death, climbed out of a black police van without handcuffs. As Goodson, who faced a charge of second-degree murder, left the van inside Central Booking, he briefly patted and hugged another man while Porter and Nero stood to the side.

The Sun a local news agency has asked the Police Department for details about the officers' arrests and whether it is standard procedure for suspects to enter the booking facility without being handcuffed.

She confirmed the identities of the three officers shown but would not say where they got into the van or how often suspects who face such charges are taken into custody without handcuffs.

"Members of the department had facilitated those officers who were turning themselves in to that location, at that point of time they were taken into custody," Connolly said.

The six officers, who are free on bail, face charges ranging from reckless endangerment to second-degree murder.

Dayvon Love, one of the activists who recently met with U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch to discuss policing in the city, said the officers received special treatment — something not available to Freddie Gray.

"It further illustrates why there is such a level of distrust with law enforcement here," Love said. "It shows the power of the Fraternal Order of Police and the Police Department. There is no other explanation that would make sense."

Attorneys for Goodson, Porter and Nero either declined to comment or did not respond to a request for comment.





Bloodbath In Baltimore

Baltimore gets bloodier as 31-year-old woman and a young boy were shot execution style in the head Thursday, becoming Baltimore's 37th and 38th homicide victims so far this month. Most rash of recent killings some authorities are claiming come from civilian "hit squads" aiming at fellow citizens who are either close family to police and government officials or supporters of such.

"Within the past few weeks we have been getting calls of homicides that appear execution style" leading some to believe are planned murders and a look into these homicides many of the victims have close ties to officials within the community.

Jennifer Jeffrey and her 7-year-old son, Kester Anthony Browne were identified by Jeffrey's sister, Danielle Wilder.

Jeffrey and her son were found dead early Thursday, each from gunshot wounds to the head.

Wilder said a neighbor called their other sister early Thursday, concerned that she hadn't heard any noise coming from Jeffrey's house: no footsteps, Wilder said, no voices, and no gunshots. But when her brother let himself into the house to check on the mother and son, he discovered their bodies.

"She was in the living room," Wilder said. "The baby was upstairs, in the bed."


Their Two Face Politicians

The leader of the Federal Election Commission, the agency charged with regulating the way political money is raised and spent, says she has largely given up hope of reining in abuses in the 2016 presidential campaign, which could generate a record $10 billion in spending.

“The likelihood of the laws being enforced is slim,” Ann M. Ravel, the chairwoman, said in an interview. “I never want to give up, but I’m not under any illusions. People think the F.E.C. is dysfunctional. It’s worse than dysfunctional.”

Her unusually frank assessment reflects a worsening stalemate among the agency’s six commissioners. They are perpetually locked in 3-to-3 ties along party lines on key votes because of a fundamental disagreement over the mandate of the commission, which was created 40 years ago in response to the political corruption of Watergate.

Some commissioners are barely on speaking terms, cross-aisle negotiations are infrequent, and with no consensus on which rules to enforce, the caseload against violators has plummeted.

The F.E.C.’s paralysis comes at a particularly critical time because of the sea change brought about by the Supreme Court’s decision in 2010 in the Citizens United case, which freed corporations and unions to spend unlimited funds in support of political candidates. Billionaire donors and “super PACs” are already gaining an outsize role in the 2016 campaign, and the lines have become increasingly stretched and blurred over what presidential candidates and political groups are allowed to do.

Watchdog groups have gone to the F.E.C. with complaints that probable presidential candidates like Jeb Bush and Martin O’Malley are skirting finance laws by raising millions without officially declaring that they are considering running.

Ms. Ravel, who led California’s state ethics panel before her appointment as a Democratic member of the commission in 2013, said that when she became chairwoman in December, she was determined to “bridge the partisan gap” and see that the F.E.C. confronted such problems. But after five months, she said she had essentially abandoned efforts to work out agreements on what she saw as much-needed enforcement measures.

Now, she said, she plans on concentrating on getting information out publicly, rather than continuing what she sees as a futile attempt to take action against major violations. She said she was resigned to the fact that “there is not going to be any real enforcement” in the coming election.

“The few rules that are left, people feel free to ignore,” said Ellen L. Weintraub, a Democratic commissioner.

Republican members of the commission see no such crisis. They say they are comfortable with how things are working under the structure that gives each party three votes. No action at all, they say, is better than overly aggressive steps that could chill political speech.

“Congress set this place up to gridlock,” Lee E. Goodman, a Republican commissioner, said in an interview. “This agency is functioning as Congress intended. The democracy isn’t collapsing around us.”

Experts predict that the 2016 race could produce a record fund-raising haul of as much as $10 billion, with the growth fueled by well-financed outside groups. On their own, the conservative billionaires Charles G. and David H. Koch have promised to spend $889 million through their political network.

With the rise of the super PACs and the loosening of legal restrictions on corporate spending, campaigns and groups are turning to creative new methods of raising money. Writing in March in The Washington Post, Ms. Ravel charged that some candidates — she did not name names — appeared to have been amassing large war chests at fund-raisers this year without acknowledging that they were at least considering a presidential run, which would trigger campaign finance limits and disclosure.

She said it was “absurd” to think that such politicians were not at least considering a White House run under federal law.

“It’s the Wild West out there in some ways,” said Kate A. Belinski, a former lawyer at the commission who now works on campaign finance at a law firm. Candidates and political groups are increasingly willing to push the limits, she said, and the F.E.C.’s inaction means that “there’s very little threat of getting caught.”

As a lawyer in Silicon Valley who went after ethics violators in California during her time there, Ms. Ravel brought to Washington both a reformer’s mentality and a tech-savvy background, and she has used Twitter and other media to try to attract young people and women to politics.

But her aggressive efforts have angered some Republicans, who charged that an F.E.C. hearing she scheduled for next week on challenges facing women in politics was not only outside the commission’s jurisdiction but a thinly veiled attempt to help the presidential bid of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Ms. Ravel called the accusations “crazy.”

Some disputes between the commissioners have gotten personal.

A disagreement over how to treat online political ads, for instance, turned tense when Ms. Ravel received anonymous online threats over charges that she was trying to “regulate” the Internet. She angrily confronted Mr. Goodman, charging that he had unfairly “fanned the flames” against her by mischaracterizing her position in an interview he did on Fox News. But Mr. Goodman said he had no regrets about challenging her position, which he saw as opening the door to greater regulation of Internet activities.

Relations between the two have been difficult ever since.

Last fall, Ms. Ravel did join Republicans on the commission — and took some criticism from the left — in a 4-to-2 decision that eased rules growing out of the Citizens United decision and a related case. But she has had little success in persuading Republicans to vote with her on enforcement measures.

She said she was particularly frustrated that Republican commissioners would not support cases against four nonprofit groups — including Crossroads GPS, founded by Karl Rove — accused of improperly using their tax-exempt status for massive and well-financed political campaigns.

A surge in this so-called “dark money” in politics — hundreds of millions of dollars raised by nonprofits, trade associations and other groups that can keep their donations secret — has alarmed campaign-finance reformers who are pushing to make such funding public.

But Mr. Goodman said the problem was exaggerated. He and other Republicans defend their decisions to block many investigations, saying Democrats have pushed cases beyond what the law allows. “We’re not interested in going after people unless the law is fairly clear, and we’re not willing to take the law beyond where it’s written,” said Caroline C. Hunter, a Republican commissioner. Democrats view the law “more broadly,” she said.

The commission has not always been so hamstrung. In 2006, it unanimously imposed major fines against high-profile groups — liberal and conservative — for breaking campaign finance laws two years earlier by misusing their tax-exempt status for political fund-raising and campaigning. The penalties put political groups on notice, and experts credited them with helping curb similar abuses in the 2008 campaign.

These days, the six commissioners hardly ever rule unanimously on major cases, or even on some of the most minor matters. Last month at an event commemorating the commission’s 40th anniversary, even the ceremony proved controversial. Democrats and Republicans skirmished over where to hold it, whom to include and even whether to serve bagels or doughnuts. In a rare compromise, they ended up serving both.

Standing in front of a montage of photos from the F.E.C.’s history, Ms. Ravel told staff members and guests that there was a “crisis” in public confidence, and she stressed the F.E.C’s mandate for “enforcing the law.” But the ranking Republican, Matthew S. Petersen, made no mention of enforcement in his remarks a few minutes later, focusing instead on defending political speech under the First Amendment.

As guests mingled, Ms. Weintraub — the commission’s longest-serving member at 12 years — lamented to a reporter that the days when the panel could work together on important issues were essentially over.

She pointed to a former Republican commissioner standing nearby — Bradley A. Smith, who left the agency in 2005 — and said she used to be able to work with commissioners like him even when they disagreed on ideology.

Laughing, Mr. Smith assumed a fighting stance and yelled at Ms. Weintraub: “Let’s go right now, you speech-hating enemy of the First Amendment!”

A few feet away, Mr. Goodman was not laughing. As Ms. Weintraub condemned the F.E.C.’s inertia, he whispered a point-by-point rebuttal to show that things were not as bad as she made them sound.

With the commission so often deadlocked, the major fines assessed by the commission dropped precipitously last year to $135,813 from $627,408 in 2013. But like most things at the F.E.C., commissioners differ over how to interpret those numbers.

Republicans say they believe the commission’s efforts to work with political groups on training and compliance have kept campaigns within the legal lines and helped to bring down fines.

The drop in fines “could easily be read as a signal that people are following the law,” said Ms. Hunter, the Republican commissioner.

Ms. Ravel scoffed at that explanation.

“What’s really going on,” she said, “is that the Republican commissioners don’t want to enforce the law, except in the most obvious cases. The rules aren’t being followed, and that’s destructive to the political process.”


More to Come...

 

Police State inc.

 

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Baltimore killings soar to a level unseen in 43 years

BALTIMORE (AP) — Baltimore reached a grim milestone on Friday, three months after riots erupted in response to the death of Freddie Gray in police custody: With 45 homicides in July, the city has seen more bloodshed in a single month than it has in 43 years.

Police reported three deaths — two men shot Thursday and one on Friday. The men died at local hospitals.

With their deaths, this year's homicides reached 189, far outpacing the 119 killings by July's end in 2014. Nonfatal shootings have soared to 366, compared to 200 by the same date last year. July's total was the worst since the city recorded 45 killings in August 1972, according to The Baltimore Sun.

The seemingly Sisyphean task of containing the city's violence prompted Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to fire her police commissioner, Anthony Batts, on July 8.

"Too many continue to die on our streets," Rawlings-Blake said then. "Families are tired of dealing with this pain, and so am I. Recent events have placed an intense focus on our police leadership, distracting many from what needs to be our main focus: the fight against crime."

But the killings have not abated under Interim Commissioner Kevin Davis since then.

Baltimore is not unique in its suffering; crimes are spiking in big cities around the country.

But while the city's police are closing cases— Davis announced arrests in three recent murders several days ago — the violence is outpacing their efforts. Davis said Tuesday the "clearance rate" is at 36.6 percent, far lower than the department's mid-40s average.

Crime experts and residents of Baltimore's most dangerous neighborhoods cite a confluence of factors: mistrust of the police; generalized anger and hopelessness over a lack of opportunities for young men; and competition among dealers of illegal drugs, bolstered by the looting of prescription pills from pharmacies during the riot.

Federal drug enforcement agents said gangs targeted 32 pharmacies in the city, taking roughly 300,000 doses of opiates, as the riots caused $9 million in property damage in the city.

Perched on a friend's stoop, Sherry Moore, 55, said she knew "mostly all" of the young men killed recently in West Baltimore, including an 18-year-old fatally shot a half-block away. Moore said many more pills are on the street since the riot, making people wilder than usual.

"The ones doing the violence, the shootings, they're eating Percocet like candy and they're not thinking about consequences. They have no discipline, they have no respect — they think this is a game. How many can I put down on the East side? How many can I put down on the West side?"

The tally of 42 homicides in May included Gray, who died in April after his neck was broken in police custody. The July tally likewise includes a previous death — a baby whose death in June was ruled a homicide in July.

Shawn Ellerman, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Baltimore division of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said May's homicide spike was probably related to the stolen prescription drugs, a supply that is likely exhausted by now. But the drug trade is inherently violent, and turf wars tend to prompt retaliatory killings.

"You can't attribute every murder to narcotics, but I would think a good number" of them are, he said. "You could say it's retaliation from drug trafficking, it's retaliation from gangs moving in from other territories. But there have been drug markets in Baltimore for years."

Across West Baltimore, residents complain that drug addiction and crime are part of a cycle that begins with despair among children who lack educational and recreational opportunities, and extends when people can't find work.

"We need jobs! We need jobs!" a man riding around on a bicycle shouted to anyone who'd listen after four people were shot, three of them fatally, on a street corner in July.

More community engagement, progressive policing policies and opportunities for young people in poverty could help, community activist Munir Bahar said.

"People are focusing on enforcement, not preventing violence. Police enforce a code, a law. Our job as the community is to prevent the violence, and we've failed," said Bahar, who leads the annual 300 Men March against violence in West Baltimore.

"We need anti-violence organizations, we need mentorship programs, we need a long-term solution. But we also need immediate relief," Bahar added. "When we're in something so deep, we have to stop it before you can analyze what the root is."

Strained relationships between police and the public also play a role, according to Eugene O'Donnell, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Arrests plummeted and violence soared after six officers were indicted in Gray's death. Residents accused police of abandoning their posts for fear of facing criminal charges for making arrests, and said emboldened criminals were settling scores with little risk of being caught.

The department denied these claims, and police cars have been evident patrolling West Baltimore's central thoroughfares recently.

But O'Donnell said the perception of lawlessness is just as powerful than the reality.

"We have a national issue where the police feel they are the Public Enemy No. 1," he said, making some officers stand down and criminals become more brazen.

"There's a rhythm to the streets," he added. "And when people get away with gun violence, it has a long-term emboldening effect. And the good people in the neighborhood think, 'Who has the upper hand?'"

 

US cities see homicide rates surge as Lawlessness grows across the nation:

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Houston

The Houston Police Department has released its uniform crime statistics for the first six months of 2015. The data show a 44 percent increase in murder for the first half of 2015, compared with the same time span in 2015.

The spike is due almost entirely to a particularly bloody first quarter: Police responded to 63 murder scenes from January through March — a 58 percent increase over January-March 2014.

St. Louis

A bloody weekend in St. Louis has pushed the city’s unofficial homicide count over 100 for the year, with police investigating seven murders Sunday and early Monday.


New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS —After a violent 24 hours in the Crescent City, the New Orleans Police Department released the latest numbers of murders and shootings so far in 2015.

According to the latest numbers, 98 people have been killed as of Wednesday (July 8).

New York City

NYPD data showed the city recorded shooting incidents totaling 622 and 186 homicides thus far for 2015. Those numbers were the first time the percentages significantly increased since the summer began.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saipRcV9WRs​

Chicago

Three teens and four others were killed across Chicago between Friday afternoon and Monday morning and 35 others survived gunshot wounds during the same period.

The homicides this weekend bring the year's total to 263, according to an analysis of a Chicago Tribune database on city homicides.The city has also seen more shootings, according to a Tribune database on shootings: 1,532 total gunshot victims through Monday morning this year.

Milwaukee

Milwaukee has seen a dramatic surge in murders: 84 so far this year, more than double last year's rate. In two neighborhoods Thursday night, there were vigils for the latest victims of the city's growing lawlessness.

They're two of ten people shot and killed in Milwaukee in just the last week.