Video Of Houston Police Beating Of Chad Holley Needed To Be Seen

It is good that after many months the video of some Houston police officers beating up Chad Holley has finally been released.

(Update 2/8/11—The Houston NAACP will be holding a community meeting on this subject on 2/8 at the Good Hope Missionary Baptist Church at 3015 North MacGregor Way in Houston. The meeting begins at 7:00 PM.)

(Update 5/17-12—My reaction to the innocent verdict in the first Holley beating trial.) 

The people of Houston have the right to see this video.

(Above–Frame from video of Chad Holley beating.)

Here is the link to the video. Also at this link is the reaction of Houston Mayor Annise Parker to the showing of the tape. Mayor Parker had not wanted the video to be released.

Mr. Holley, who was 15 at the time, has since the beating been convicted of burglary.

Mr. Holley had clearly surrendered to police when he was violently punched and kicked by Houston police officers.

Here is what Mayor Parker said after the video was shown for the first time on Houston television station KTRK—

“…. In fact, it will probably go worldwide. it is not reflective of the men and women who serve the city of Houston, that we took action to remove those officers immediately from the Houston Police Department and we will fight to keep those officers from ever coming back to the Houston Police Department”

Well…Maybe the tape does not reflect Houston police conduct. But there do seem to be a number of officers in the tape who were willing to behave in an unnecessarily violent fashion.

Here is a KTRK report on how police officers are disciplined in Houston.

From that report—-

“Seven of the Houston police officers on the tape seen beating Chad Holley were fired for what the police chief saw… But in Houston, firing a police officer doesn’t always mean they stay fired…”

Most Houston police officers are good people and dedicated public servants. People owe police officers every measure of respect.

At the same time, citizens have the right to know when public employees are not doing the job they are paid to do in a correct fashion.

Mayor Parker was wrong from the start to oppose release of the tape.

The video may “go worldwide” as the Mayor says she fears, but she has had every opportunity  since she became Mayor in 2009 to address the underlying social and economic conditions in Houston that help propel young people in our city towards crime.

To my recollection, the Mayor has never taken up that subject.

Let people see the facts as they are in Houston.

Stomped On The Head

I’d be remiss not to run a picture of the woman, Lauren Valle,  who got stomped on the head by supporters of  Kentucky  Republican U.S. Senate nominee Rand Paul.

Ms. Valle was exercising her first amendment rights. She was unarmed. She was a threat to nobody.

This type of act seems not surprising given the consistently angry tone of the Tea Party.

It’s frustrating that we have to live with this kind of thing. Why would you do this to somebody who was vastly outnumbered at a Rand Paul event, and who was not a threat?

What’s in you that this is your response to disagreement? How can this be part of American democracy?

List Of Violent And Terroristic Acts Commited In Name Of So-Called Pro-Life Movement Since 1993

Below is a list from the Associated Press of violent and terroristic acts committed since 1993 against the providers of legal abortion services. The May 31 murder of Dr. George Tiller is the latest addition to this list.  

These acts have been committed in the name of the so-called pro-life movement.

The list—

May 31, 2009: Prominent late-term abortion provider George Tiller is shot and killed in a Wichita church where he was serving as an usher. The gunman fled but a city official said a suspect is in custody.

_ April 25, 2007: Authorities say Paul Ross Evans placed a homemade bomb in the parking lot of the Austin Women’s Health Center in Texas. A bomb squad disposes of the device, which contained two pounds of nails. There are no injuries.

_ Oct. 23, 1998: Dr. Barnett Slepian is fatally shot in his home in a suburb of Buffalo, N.Y. Militant abortion opponent James Kopp is convicted of the murder in 2003 and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

_ Jan. 29, 1998: A bomb explodes just outside a Birmingham, Ala., abortion clinic, killing a police officer and wounding several others. Eric Rudolph later pleads guilty to that incident and the deadly bombing at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. He justifies the Alabama bombing in an essay from prison, writing that Jesus would condone “militant action in defense of the innocent.”

_ Jan. 16, 1997: Two bomb blasts an hour apart rock an Atlanta building containing an abortion clinic. Seven people are injured. Rudolph is charged by federal authorities in October 1998.

_ Dec. 30, 1994: John Salvi opens fire with a rifle inside two Boston-area abortion clinics, killing two receptionists and wounding five others. Sentenced to life without parole, he kills himself in prison in 1996.

Today’s Conservatives Falsely Claiming Boston Tea Party Legacy

Far-right activists are staging so-called “tea parties” on April 15 to protest the fact that in a free society one must pay taxes and abide by the decisions of the electorate.  (Old-time image of tea party above.)

The claim being made by these extreme elements, when they are not advocating violence, is that somehow we are moving towards tyranny.

By trying to steal the symbolism of the Boston Tea Party, Republicans and the extreme right (no distinction appears to exist between the two) are confusing the idea of  no taxation without representation with bitterness about losing last November’s election.

(Here is the link to the Boston Tea Party Historical Society.)

Below is from the web home of a tea party web site. They say here that “Revolution is brewing.” Just what does that mean? Is it violence? What do they think a revolution is in this context?  

The actual New Englanders who were part of the real Boston Tea Party are the same people, or the fathers of the people, who would later become Federalists, Unitarians and abolitionists.  

Today’s Southern-based overwhelmingly white American right has nothing to do with the legacy of the Boston Tea Party.

The only historical  tradition these people are drawing upon is that of the treason of the first shot fired on Fort Sumter in 1861  to begin the Civil War. (Engraving below.)

America does have a visible representative of the best and most inclusive traditions of American History— The America of Thomas Paine, William Lloyd Garrison, Abe Lincoln, Susan B. Anthony, Sitting Bull, Franklin Roosevelt, Martin Luther King and Caesar Chavez. 

That leader is the President of the United States and his name is Barack Hussein Obama. 

Texas Senate Votes 31-0 To Let You Take Your Gun To Work

The Texas State Senate voted by 31-0 to allow people to take guns to work. 

Yep—31-0. The Democrats in the Senate voted for it as well. There are something 11 or 12 Democrats in the Senate. 

Note to Democrats—Thanks for nothing.

At current, employers have the right to ban guns on workplace property.

The measure will allow you take you gun and ammunition to work as long as you leave it in your car and as long as it is not visible in your car.

So after your layoff or after your fight with a co-worker, you’ll have a cooling down period of the time it takes you to get to your parking lot and find your car.

I wish it were so that when this law is passed by the malignancy known as the Texas Legislature and signed by our terrible governor, that every person who voted for it could be prosecuted as an accessory to murder when the first person with access to a gun at work kills somebody.

I would double-charge all the Democrats who voted for the bill since I expect nothing from Republicans in any event.

31-0. Imagine that.