Fuck the police and the New York Yankees

H/t: LGM

The NYCLU is on the case.

Campeau-Laurion, the director of Web productions for a media company, attended the Aug. 26 Yankees-Red Sox game with a friend, who had a ticket package for 11 games at Yankee Stadium during the 2008 season. Campeau-Laurion had attended several of these games with his friend.

Campeau-Laurion quietly watched the game, ate a bag of peanuts and drank two beers. He decided to use the restroom at the start of the seventh-inning stretch – a period when fans often choose to use the restroom. He got up and made his way down the aisle as “God Bless America” began playing. A police officer blocked his path and indicated that he could not leave during the song. Campeau-Laurion explained that he needed to use the restroom and was not concerned about “God Bless America.” Then he attempted to walk past the officer.

Before Campeau-Laurion could take a step, the police officer grabbed his right arm and twisted it behind his back. A second officer twisted Campeau-Laurion’s left arm behind his back, and the two officers then marched him down several ramps to the stadium’s exit with his arms pinned behind his back. The officers refused to ease their grip, even though Campeau-Laurion was not resisting them.

The encounter ended with one of the officers telling Campeau-Laurion to leave the country if he didn’t like it.

What makes this worse - much, much, much worse - is that this is, apparently, the official policy of the NY Yankees.

The Yankees began playing “God Bless America” during games following 9/11, as did all Major League Baseball teams. Unlike most teams, the Yankees also instituted a policy of seeking to prevent fans from moving during the playing of the song. It did so to promote patriotism amongst those attending Yankees games.

They are evil. And so are their fans.

Update on Amy Goodman

Everyone may already be up to date on this (we here in the allegedly progressive Triangle don't get DN! on any local stations, so I am waiting for today's edition on the web)...but just in case you were wondering about Democracy Now!'s Amy Goodman's arrest at the RNC, an update is available here.

Her producers, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar, are facing felony riot charges, which is outrageous. I'll definitely be adding a "fuck the police" tag to this one.

Oh, and by the way: I'm back.

Leave Chief Lehner Alone!

Dear Editor of the Register Guard,

I would like to second Charles R. Williams' call for the citizens of Eugene to stop criticizing Chief Lehner for breaking the law [Letters August 27, 2008]. It is time for all citizens of Eugene to realize that the Police Chief reserves the right to break the law whenever he feels it is necessary. We must also accept that he will do this whenever he feels it is appropriate, and that we will not be notified nor given an explanation when Chief Lehner decides to break the law.

It would probably also be wise of us to assume that District Attorney Doug Harcleroad and City Manager Jon Ruiz will be breaking the law whenever they believe to it to be necessary or expedient. After all, one does not wash a back, unless one expects the same courtesy in return. Additionally, I think the men and women on the police force have made it clear over the past decade that they, too, share their Chief's respect for the law and will be violating it when convenient.

I believe that the people of Eugene are often too quick to criticize our police. Everyday these brave men and women kiss their families goodbye knowing that they maybe called on to tase some hippy who was blocking traffic, write a letter to the editor on behalf of the Torrey campaign, or, heaven forbid, rape a couple of prostitutes in the course of their duties. I think it is time to cut them some slack.

A Timely Reminder

I am not having the best of days. This perked me up considerably. Thank God for youtube.

Alas, Poor Democracy! I Knew It, Horatio

[This post may be missing key links, because the Register Guard doesn't get linky until noon.]

We've discussed on this blog the Eugene police. I am not a big fan. The police in this town make quick use of the TASER, shoot and kill mentally disturbed teenagers, conduct 4 am military raids of people's houses looking for weed (not there), pepper spray environmental protesters who have broken no law, harass the local Critical Mass bike riders, prevent people filming police actions, the arrogant and assholish police union, and then there were the rapes. Ah yes, the rapes while on the job while repeated complaints against the officers went uninvestigated because they came from, you know, women.

Thee years ago, the citizens of Eugene, sick and tired of it, sick and tired of the police covering up/ignoring their own crimes, and sick and tired of the local district attorney providing the police absolution in secret, passed an ordinance establishing a system of citizen review of all complaints against the police.

The auditor's office "conducts the preliminary investigation of all complaints lodged with the auditor's office or internal affairs to appropriately classify and route the complaint." Mind you, this was a law passed by the people of Eugene. Not the City Council, not imposed by the mayor or the city manager. Citizens of Eugene voted the law in two years ago. So, you can imagine why I'm stoked to see this headline in the today's paper:

Police chief accused of violating auditor law

Now, this being Eugene, it's possible that this is just some random crazy hurling accusations, right? Nope, the chief admits he broke the law. He just doesn't think the law is a good one.
From the R-G:

[Chief] Lehner said the ordinance should be rewritten to include language that sets out a process for dealing with complaints that contain information that could interfere with someone's safety if shared with others.

We don't know many details of the complaint, obviously, but the chief is alleging that he did not pass on a complaint against an officer because someone could have been put in jeopardy if the auditor saw and investigated the complaint. Who this "someone" is is very unstated.

But wait! It's not just the Chief of Police for the City of Eugene who thinks this is a bad law, therefore he can break it at will, the District Attorney apparently agrees with him. Even though the complaint was given double-super-secret status, the chief decided he could share with his buddy the District Attorney because it concerned "potential criminal conduct." You'll be relieved to know that according to the chief, the DA gave his thumbs up to the unlawful withholding of the complaint.

Maybe I'm being over-the-top here. Chief Lehner does assure us that the times he will be breaking this particular law will be rare, but he does, apparently, reserve to himself the right to break whichever laws he feels should be rewritten.