DENVER - A jury of three men and three women reached a verdict on the fate of a Denver Police officer who was videotaped slamming a man's head into the ground during an arrest outside of Coors Field last year on the Opening Day of the Colorado Rockies.
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Cpl. Michael Cordova was found not guilty of the third-degree misdemeanor. Cordova, who was hired in 2001, will be able to continue working in law enforcement.
John Heaney, who was riding his bike past Coors Field on the way to see his mother in a nearby hospice, claims the under officers taunted and challenged him. Not knowing they were cops, Heaney says he tipped off Cordova's hat. After that, the 58-year-old man claims the officers pulled him off his bike, kicked, punched and beat him.
When he was lying on his stomach about to be handcuffed, video shows Cordova pulling Heaney's head up with his ponytail, then slamming his face into the ground.
The arrest was caught on videotape by a local sports production crew.
The jury began deliberating around 11 a.m. Tuesday morning, after hearing closing arguments. Cpl. Cordova did not take the stand in his own defense.
"We feel like we established enough facts to prove our case," Cordova's defense attorney Marc Colin said.
During the trial, Colin argued to jurors that the sound on the videotape and that witnesses say they heard was not the sound of Heaney's two front teeth breaking on the cement, but rather it was the sound of a baseball hitting a bat during batting practice outside of Coors Field.
The defense also called expert witnesses who said it looked like Heaney was resisting arrest on the videotape, and as a result, Cordova and other police officers were legally authorized to use force to take Heaney into custody.
"Cordova acted within the duties of a police officer and within the scope of his training," Colin told jurors.
After DNC Protesters Rock the Streets They Plan to Rock the Courts
by Ringo Kamens
Today, Glenn Spagnuolo of the Recreate 68 Alliance and Attorney David Lane headed off a press conference announcing a major legal offensive against the city of Denver and the police department for violating the constitutional rights of protesters who came to voice their opinions during the DNC.
George Zhibin Gu summarizes the history of China's Communist Dynasty:
(George Zhibin Gu of China is an author of several new books, including: 1. China's global reach, 2. China and the new world order, 3. Made in China.)
The past 60 years of China's Communist history can be divided roughly into two phases.
The first phase, between 1949 and 1978, was this: the Communist bureaucracy had totally destroyed society, the economy and the culture. This was done by a total bureaucratic monopoly over all of nation's wealth, labor, markets, organizations and institutions. Furthermore, it completely destroyed the free press and the law. But this unprecedented bureaucratic domination immediately produced unprecedented man-made disasters in world history, not just China's. The disasters include endless violence and terror, the creation of the state sector and people's communes, the total bureaucratization of media, education, and thought.
In the end, beginning in 1958, the regime wanted to have a total bureaucratic miracle in the so-called Great Leap Forward (1958-60), and record disasters emerged all at once. Record deaths of some 50 million people occurred in the period of 1958-62, killing some 50 million people by an unprecedented famine as well as a record oganized violence.
What is more, these unprecedented miseries turned out to be the very beginning of bureaucratic disasters. Worse than the famine, three bureaucratic wars emerged against society and the people in the period of 1959-78, which ended to destroy countless millions of lives, or even more, by organized violence, not to mention a near total destruction of culture, education, thinking, wealth and all other good things in life.
PETTUS, W. Va. – Early this morning two concerned citizens, Dea Goblirsch and Nick Martin, locked down to a drill rig on Coal River Mountain’s Bee Tree mountaintop removal site, effectively stopping blasting. Two others, Grace Williams and Laura Von Dolen, joined them in direct support, holding a banner with the message “Save Coal River Mountain”.
These nonviolent protestors have taken this action to bring attention to the extreme danger facing residents of the Coal River Valley from blasting near the Brushy Fork Impoundment. They plan to stay locked down until law enforcement removes them.
Resident of Rock Creek, W Va., Delbert Gunnoe, stated his concerns with the blasting, “You know when they put a blast over there, and it shakes the windows over here, at what, ¾-a-mile distance, imagine what it does over there.” Gunnoe continued, “if [the impoundment] did bust…what would be the destruction? The town of Whitesville would no longer exist.”
The four are fearful of the blasting that Massey Energy began in late October. These blasts are 200 feet from the Brushy Fork Impoundment, permitted to hold nine billion gallons of toxic coal slurry. The impoundment sits atop miles of hollow, abounded underground mines, further endangering its integrity. By Massey’s own estimates, roughly 998 people will die should the dam break. The emergency evacuation plan states that a 40-foot wall of sludge, cresting at 72 feet, will flow through the valley, reaching 20-feet-high about 15 miles down the road. Apart from the initial flood, the impact of this potential spill would be felt along the Coal River’s 88 miles.
The universities across the nation (and AG) do more for the fbi/cia than assist in the search for foreign terrorists; today our colleges and universities directly encourage their campus police and civilian employees to engage in unlawful intel operations against whistleblower
GERAL SOSBEE.
In November, 2009, the Texas Attorney General (AG) grants near blanket authority (in Case number OR2009-16316 & Case ID#367454) to the University Of Texas Police (UTP) and Harlingen, Texas (HTP) Police to withhold from Open Records (OR) disclosure the key data in their possession relating to Geral Sosbee. The AG also states in each opinion that the AG has no authority beyond the scope of the OR statutes. The AG thus hides from his responsibility as a citizen and human being for civil and human rights violations behind the the OR guidelines ( which are designed to allow the police to engage in witch hunts, stalking, harassment, fraudulent stings and other crimes as I have documented at many pages of www.sosbeevfbi.com.) I have also provided the AG with evidence of ongoing felonies against my person (continuing in Texas and other locations for the past decade); by the AG letters referenced above the fbi now gains the AG approval and authority to use UT employees (including UTP) in efforts to silence or kill me; see for example the specifics of some of my reports at
An Evening of Solidarity for Mutulu Shakur
Presented by Denver and Aurora CopWatch, Sisters of Color United for Education, and Denver ABC
Saturday, November 28th
Sisters of Color 2895 8th Ave, Denver, CO (8th and federal across the street from the bus yard)
7:30-12ish
Sliding Scale 1-5$ (if you ain't got it don't let it stop you from coming)
Teach-in by Professor Ward Churchill
Live Music by:
Mike Wird
Ietef
Debajito (of Debajo Del Agua)
Hosted by Shareef Aleem
Please join us on Saturday, November 28th to stand in solidarity with Dr Mutulu Shakur before his appeals hearing on Monday, November 30th at the super-maximum Federal prison in Florence, CO.
Dr. Shakur is a New Afrikan (Black) man whose primary work has been in the area of health. He is a doctor of acupuncture and one of the most prolific, committed and conscious freedom fighters and political prisoners to whom the Black liberation struggle has given birth.
Since the age 16, Dr. Shakur has been a part of the New Afrikan
Independence Movement. As a part of this movement Dr. Shakur has been a target of the illegal Counterintelligence Program carried out by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (COINTELPRO). This was a secret police strategy used in the U.S. starting in the 1960's to destroy and neutralize progressive and revolutionary organizations. It is believed that Dr. Shakur's resistance to this program led to his arrest and trial.
Dear Radio Friend,
The latest Shortwave Report (November 20) is up at the website http://www.outfarpress.com/outfa... in both broadcast quality (13.3MB) and quickdownload or streaming form (4.9MB) (28:59)
(NEW! If you have access to Audioport.org there is a higher quality version posted up there {26.7MB} http://www.audioport.org/index.p...)
Water is essential, in various ways, to all human activity. Water is something that humans, literally, cannot do without. Every human needs water in order live and to have a good life. Societies need water in order to be provide for the survival of their populations. Usable water, as a resource, is finite and distributed unevenly across the planet. Most societies have difficulty providing water to their populations, especially in the Third World. The inability to access water is referred to as the water crisis.
LA VIRGEN DE LA GUADALUPE ES DE TODOS LOS MEXICANOS, NO DE LOS CURAS
La Conferencia del Episcopado Mexicano (CEM) no está de acuerdo en que los Mexicanos utilicemos a la Virgen de la Guadalupe, como sucedió en la marcha de SME el pasado 11 de noviembre (2009) por “manipular el sentimiento religioso”, se ha afirmado en varias ocasiones desde que concluyó la 88ª Asamblea Plenaria del CEM. Los curas, junto con los políticos y las grandes transnacionales se han adueñado de nuestro país y de nuestros símbolos.
¿Ya se les olvidó a los curas que la Virgen de Guadalupe es el único símbolo religioso auténticamente Mexicano? ¿Ya se les olvidó que ellos llegaron con Hernán Cortés a robar y a imponernos su cruz a sangre y fuego? La Virgen de Guadalupe es Tonantzin y es nuestra, aunque no les guste a los extranjeros como ellos.
Lo que los curas del CEM no quieren es que el pueblo Mexicano, unido al SME, siga la trayectoria de don Miguel Hidalgo y les arrebate la jugosa ganancia.
Yo les pido a los curas del CEM que ya no nos “salven”.
¡¡Larguense de aquí!! ¡¡Larguense!! ¡¡Larguense!! ¡¡Larguense!! ¡¡Larguense!! ¡¡Larguense de México y de todo este continente!!
Josefa Ortiz http://josefaortiz.hpage.com/sme...
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TAX EXEMPT SLUSH FUND CHARITIES(FOUNDATIONS) FOR OUR U.S. WEALTHY ELITE AMERICANS WE ALL KNOW are QUITE COMMON AND COSTING THE U.S.GOVERNMENT BILLIONS IN POSSIBLE TAX REVENUE.
***MANY OF THESE SAME AMERICAN WEALTHY ELITE NOT ONLY HAVE FULL CONTROL OVER THEIRTX EVADING FOUNDATIONS BILLIONS,BUT ALSO FIND IT NECESSARY TO HIRE LOBBYISTS TO ATTEMPT THE DIRECT CONTROL OVER VARIOUS USES OF AMERICAN TAX PAYERS TAX $$$ ???
WEALTHY ELITE AMERICANS HAVE COMPLETE CONTROL OVER OUR U.S.CONGRESSIONAL TAX DOLLAR SPENDING WITH THEIR BEHIND THE SCENE LOBBY MONIES... AND ARE CONTINUING TO DENY MIDDLE~CLASS AND WORKING POOR AMERICANS PROPER HEALTH ~ CARE , PROPER LEGAL PROTECTIONS IN AMERICAN FAMILY COURTS,CIVIL COURTS,& FEDERAL APPEALS FROM STATE COURTS. **THOUSANDS OF POORER AMERICANS ALL ACROSS AMERICA ARE LOSING PARENTING AND VISITATION RIGHTS WITH THEIR CHILDREN, ARE BEING FALSELY IMPRISONED, WRONGFULY EXECUTED,LOSING THEIR HOMES OR APARTMENTS ETC...
** IS THIS REALLY WHAT MANY SAY APPEARS TO BE THE FORMATION OF A NEW WORLD ORDER IN AMERICA THAT IS ATTEMPTING TO BREAK DOWN AND DESTROY AMERICAN FAMILIES AND ESTABLISHED FAMILY VALUES ACROSS OUR GREAT COUNTRY ???
<p>Compiled by <a href="http://www.nhgazette.com/">The New Hampshire Gazette</a></p>
<p>When an American male (or an especially belligerent female) makes the challenging transition from late adolescence into early adulthood, he is faced with many decisions. One certain, specific combination of choices will result in his becoming a chickenhawk: choosing to “support” war, while also choosing not to serve in the military. His motto becomes: “Let’s you and him go fight; I’ll hold your coat.”</p>
<p>Depending on external circumstances, such an individual may become one of three varieties of chickenhawk:</p>
<p>• If there is no draft, and the nation is at peace, the individual becomes a Common Chickenhawk;</p>
<p>• If there is a draft, and the nation is at peace, the individual becomes a Chickenhawk First Class;</p>
<p>• If the there is a draft, and the nation is at war, the individual becomes a Chickenhawk First Class with Distinguished Fleeing Cross.</p>
<p>We currently have 132 Chickenhawks listed in our database. Here they are, listed chronologically by date of birth. <a href="http://www.nhgazette.com/chickenhawks/?sort_list=0">CLICK HERE</a> to see them listed alphabetically.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nhgazette.com/nominate/?id=-1&action=new">Nominate a Chickenhawk</a></p>
<p>posted by the <a href="http://wintersoldier.org">Thomas Paine Project</a> (FYI: the organization is run by veterans)</p>
Philip Giraldi on Antiwar.com produced an excellent article on J Street, the new “pro-Israel, pro-peace” alternative to AIPAC, which last month held its inaugural conference in Washington. [“My Problem with J Street,” http://original.antiwar.com/giraldi/2009/10/28/my-problem-with-j-street/]
The organization’s name, J Street, a lettered street which does not exist in Washington, DC, is presumably an effort to identify with K Street, which is considered the central location for lobbying firms in Washington, with the “J” presumably standing for “Jewish,” since “J” is not the only unused letter for Washington street names.
J Street has been excoriated by the neocons and other hardline Zionist rightists as being anti-Israel, while it has been hailed as a great hope for the future by many proponents of a more balanced, less pro-Israel, American policy in the Middle East. Giraldi, however, stands virtually alone in seeing things in a much different light. To him, J Street is “just another Israel advocacy group with a slightly more progressive and politically correct and therefore acceptable message.” In short, with its moderate, pro-peace image, J Street can more effectively promote the policies of the Israeli government, to the detriment of the Palestinians and the United States.
