Cop Arrests Elderly Veteran for Walking with Golf Club as a Cane and Falsely Accuses Him of Swinging It at Her; Cop Randomly Pepper Sprays Pedestrians in Seattle [Video]
Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peace time, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.
Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United State corporations.
This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence-economic, political, even spiritual-is felt in every city, every state house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.
In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.
Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been over shadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.
The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded.
Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.
It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system-ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society.
Transcript of President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Farewell Address, 1961 (Excerpt)
Cop Arrests Elderly Veteran for ‘Walking While Black’ [VIDEO]
January 29, 2015Uptown Magazine - “The allegation that he swung at the police car wasn’t corroborated by any other facts and was not caught on any video,” city council member Bruce Harrell told The Stranger. “What was caught on video was him minding his own business with the golf club at his side.” To many, the only “crime” of which Wingate is guilty is “walking while Black.”
Officer Cynthia Whitlatch called for back up. When Officer Chris Coles asked for Wingate’s club, the senior citizen handed it over. The officers then arrested him, booking him on harassment charges and obstruction.
Whitlach was never disciplined for her actions. Wingate, a local bus driver, has filed a claim seeking damages from the city, saying his crime was “walking in Seattle while black.”
Watch the disturbing video:
SPD Returns Man’s Golf Club, Offers Apology For 2014 Arrest
Photo Courtesy Of Dawn Mason
January 27, 2015
SPD Blotter - SPD Commanders first became aware of the incident in October 2014 after receiving an inquiry from former Washington State Representative Dawn Mason in which she raised questions as to the necessity of the arrest and charges. The 69-year-old man had already accepted a plea offer in this case.
Dawn Mason worked with Chief Kathleen O’Toole and Deputy Chief Carmen Best to broker an organized discussion between residents and police about this case specifically as well as the relationship between the department and the community in general.
The City Attorney’s Office and SPD took a second look at this case and recommended that it be dismissed.
Deputy Chief Best personally met with the man, returned his golf club, and offered an apology for his arrest.
The officer who made the arrest received counseling from her supervisor, a course of action that the department believes to be an appropriate resolution.
Video of the man’s arrest was just released to a media outlet as a result of a public disclosure request. It is being published on the SPD Blotter in the interest of fostering better police transparency.
In the police report for this July 9, 2014 incident, an officer stated she had witnessed the man swing a golf club toward her, striking a stop sign as she drove past him near 11th Avenue and E. Pike Street. The officer then contacted the man and ordered him to surrender his golf club. The man refused and was arrested and booked into the King County Jail for obstruction and harassment.
“Information sources typically highlight the things that go wrong between the community and police,” said Dawn Mason. “I believe that it’s in everyone’s best interest to also highlight the things that go right. That’s what happened here – this one is a win.”
Video: Seattle Cop Goes Nuts, Pepper Sprays People Passing On Sidewalk
January 29, 2015A Seattle teacher has brought a lawsuit against the city of Seattle after he was pepper sprayed in the face by a police officer for no reason whatsoever while walking down the street.
Jesse Hagopian, a history teacher, was attending a peaceful march in Seattle on Martin Luther King Jr. day. He was leaving the event, while speaking with his mother on the phone, when he happened to be passing a police officer who was going nuts. The video shows how Hagopian caught a wash of pepper spray directly in the face.
The cop can be heard yelling “get back! Seattle Police Department,” as people, mostly uninterested and unengaged, walk by minding their own business.
Someone is heard responding “We have a right to walk on the sidewalk.”
“I felt the piercing pain shoot through my eye, my ear drum and my nostril, all over my cheek and face,” Hagopian told local reporters. “I yelled out. My mom was in distress as she heard me yell.”The Seattle Police Department claimed it has not seen the video, despite it being on YouTube, and that it could not comment on the incident.
“The pain that shot through my face only lasted so long,” Hagopian added, “but the painful memory is something that I don’t know when will leave me or my family.”
“(Jesse) was pepper sprayed irrationally by a police officer – no provocation and no reason,” said Hagopian’s attorney, James Bible. “We view this as a challenge to free speech.”
Other videos that have surfaced from the day also show cops pepper spraying peaceful marchers, seemingly for no reason other than they were publicly gathering.
In an email statement, the Seattle Mayor Ed Murray said the incidents are under investigation.
“We have worked to create and implement a comprehensive and transparent police accountability system that will be the most robust in the nation,” Murray wrote, adding that “Under the accountability system that we’ve set up, the uses of force that occurred during the MLK protests are currently under review and being investigated.”Seattle police have a history of eagerly reaching for pepper spray. During the Occupy protests, the police department came under scrutiny for wantonly spraying protesters including old Women, priests, pregnant women and blind people.
The substance is brutal, and can be deadly, which is why its use during peaceful protests is in fact outlawed.
As reported by The ACLU, “An Army study concluded that pepper spray’s active ingredient, “is capable of producing carcinogenic effects, sensitization, cardiovascular toxicity, as well as possible human fatalities.”
Police are generally not authorized to use pepper spray except in circumstances in which it is necessary to prevent physical injury to themselves or others. The videos presented above, clearly show that this was not the case.
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