Friday, November 28, 2014

In the heat of the moment, the officer who was packing heat.....

In the heat of the moment, Darrell Wilson,


the officer who was packing heat--the officer

wasn't thinking clearly. In this his first

use of his "weapon", it sounds like he was

quite flustered. Whether or not his testimony

about Brown trying to seize his gun in the

vehicle is credible--there are no witnesses

for that part of the narrative--even giving

him the benefit of the doubt .... But I

suspect that once you start shooting, the 

urge to continue shooting until your target 

falls takes over. It's as though he were a 

hunter and shooting game. It's as though his

gun were making the decisions for him 

instead of his brain. That's not in the 

least to excuse his conduct, far from it, but


an argument against cops on the beat having


lethal weapons. Especially young cops.


Perhaps a stun gun would be sufficient to


 do his rounds? Even that seems excessive.

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Ferguson Non-Indict Decision: Protests in New York City

Activists assembled at Union Square at



 

 7pm and marches branched out in several directions. 7th AVe & 49th St around 10:30pm on Tuesday Nov 25, the day after the Grand Jury decision not to indict Darrell Wilson in the killing by gunfire of 18-year-old high-school graduate Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. as the result of an altercation in which Brown was unarmed. Photos: Liza Bear

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Danette Chavis: Stop Police Brutality

New York, October 22--Danette Chavis tells it 
like it is at a Union Square rally, part of 
the National Day of Action to Stop Police Brutality. 
At least 261 people have been killed by NYPD 
since Amadou Diallo; 129 since Sean Bell. 
After the rally, a permitted march 
proceeded westwards along 14th Street 
to Sixth Avenue and north to Times Square.. 



Thursday, November 13, 2014

The Circle's Ernst Ostertag and Robi Rapp at the Swiss Consulate, New York


New York, November 12 2014--A reception was held this morning for award-winning film The Circle, directed by Stefan Haupt, at the Swiss Consulate. The film, a blend of documentary and re-enactment, is about the lives of Ernst Ostertag (Matthias Hungerbühler), a teacher, and Robi Rapp (Sven Schelker), a cabaret dancer and female impersonator, and their fight for gay rights in Switzerland throughout decades of repression. Ostertag met Rapp in the mid-fifties when he joined the then secret gay organization DER KREIS (The Circle). By the age of 73, in 2003--the year the film was made-- they were to become the first gay couple to form a civil union in Switzerland. The Circle is Switzerland's nomination for the Oscar Foreign Film category, and opens theatrically in New York on November 21. Photos: Liza Béar




Robi Rapp, cabaret dancer ; female impersonator, The Circle
Ernst Ostertag, teacher, The Circle


Stefan Haupt, director, The Circle