Iraq War Veteran Shot In The Face By Police Projectile

Scott Olsen, 24, remains sedated on a respirator, in stable but critical condition at Oakland’s Highland Hospital after being hit in the head with a police projectile.

NYPD Take A Rain Check On Macing Huge US Military War Veteran

Quick somebody radio in Officer Anthony Bologna

Nobel Peace winner Tawakul Karman talks to Al Jazeera

It's easy to dismiss the Nobel peace prize awarded to Tawakul Karman (and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee) as unconnected to the X Factor and TV dinner lives of the West but this year is a great example of an activist in a part of the world, that along with Bahrain and Syria is buried under a daily dishing of brutality that exists in large part to pipe the oil into the West's vehicles. 

Everything is connected. Listen to her. There's no daylight between her and say the words of John Lennon or any of the other greats that invariably the system seems to find a way to place a bullet in.

Tony Bologna - Crime Doesn't Spray

Jon Stewart's ripping satire into Anthony V Bologna of NYPD. I've yet to see main stream media report that a hundred line officers refused to work in support of the #occupywallstreet movement.

Protect & Serve (Assault & Bully)

Lawrence O'Donnell joins the small list of news professionals prepared to say the truth. Nice guy. Human being.

Police Officer (Supervisor) Anthony V. Bologna NYPD

#occupywallstreet Please call Mayor Bloomberg: 212-772-1081 ext. 12006 and ask if Supervisor Anthony V. Bologna NYPD of Staten Island will face charges for calmly walking up to the two women pictured above and macing them in the face under zero provocation. Don't accept him being taken off duty as that will allow them to kick the ball into the long grass which is how the police deal with these matters.

 #occupywallstreet

Unusual Police Activity Before London Riots

Of course. Population distraction time.

Former Police Speak Up

What a wonderful example of human honesty and connection. Superb people.

Scotland Yard Backhanders

I applaud Hugh Grant and The New Statesman for doing the right thing and should I need to buy a car I will make every effort to make it a Ford, after their withdrawal of advertising from News of the World. I hope people will review their relationship with tabloid media too. It's just not British. Cameron should also set an example and resign.

What other files are Scotland Yard sitting on? Which politicians and media figures also need the disinfectant of sunlight beamed on them? We'll never have a better chance to clean up British life, and now is the chance to call for the 'dawn of a new day'.

Watch the Watchdogs

The police are not paid to be intelligent. They are paid to be loyal. I don't usually post this sort of content as I think that quietly most people know the police are not the public friendly organisation they used to be. It's the system that is broken for sure but my loyalty is to people first and a 15 year old girl and a wheelchair bound guy are not threats to real men. Bill Maloney's work on deaths in British police cells of young people is also where greater attention is sorely needed, and moral and financial support is lacking. Are the serial killers the police?

If you turn the other cheek, one day it will be yours or someone you loves cheek that his hitting the pavement at velocity. Silence is participation. That's what makes us human.

Serpico

There's a definitive Golden Period for movies in American Cinema that roughly extends from the mid to late sixties through to the mid seventies. I got thinking about this again last night as I downloaded Network on the advice of Tariq Ali and at first wasn't convinced but I stuck it out as Faye Dunaway was looking absolutely hot (even in Beige), and then when the Howard Beale (Peter Finch) started to get Messianic I realised that it was going to be some straight shooting commentary on the United States. The feedback on Twitter was very positive and it seems that it's a favourite for many of you. 

It also unveiled a contrast on the other Network movie I coincidentally caught this week which was The Social Network.  A movie I couldn't complete it was so banal, as I could see that it only worked because Facebook is worth Gazillions otherwise it would be a straight to video affair of the 'Breakdance' and 'You've got mail' genre. Generally spindly attempts by Daddy "Capital C" culture to parasitically subsume the stuff we do to break away from it. Also sometimes called 'Counter culture' and which Madison Avenue hoovers up relentlessly.

I've previously written why Culture (capital C) is most definitely not your friend, though recently I listened to the most comprehensive and devastating explanation of why culture is everything we are not, or even as humans. Sounds illogical but the enlightenment is worth a listen from one Joseph Chilton Pearce. I'm going to name check a couple of bloggers I think should listen to this stuff too so Robert and Johnnie please make time to listen to these three podcasts when/if you can: 1, 2, 3.

I really do procrastinate don't I? I haven't even mentioned Al Pacino in Serpico. The reason it's such an iconoclastic movie in Thailand is that the cops are so corrupt that when the movie was aired here in Thailand, it was an incredible success. The real life story of Frank Serpico as played by Pacino was instantly adopted as a folk hero against corruption and greed by the cops. His sticker was mass produced and paraded on pickup trucks and motorbikes because invariably they are the people that the parasitic police most penalise with petty fines, while leaving the better off problem-free for the same minor law transgressions. 

It was a counter culture "fuck you" to the police that a White Boy parachute planner in Thailand would never get to know. Particularly if they're dropping into middle class bourgeoisie planner-land that is telling them a buffalo is an insult in Thailand, when in point of fact to the majority pro red working class, it's like the "nigger" word amongst blacks. 

A point of perverse pride. 

In any case, this is all rather a dramatic build up to "Collapse" which is a documentary Lee Maschemeyer in New York brought my attention to some time back. I didn't download it because, hard to believe, I don't get off on pessimism porn as much as you might expect. But as it resurfaced in my data stream, I put off the washing up, and it's really good. The music is well arranged and poignantly appropriate for a documentary interview style , making it compelling.

Most enjoyable for me was correcting a false perception I'd had for a while now when estimating Michael Ruppert. He's an ex-cop who was hounded out of the force for blowing the whistle on CIA drug dealing (yes they deal drugs, get over it) but I always assumed he was probably not on the smart side of things, and that is why he lost his job. I know from repeated experience that most cops aren't paid because they are clever but instead are paid to be loyal. 

I wrongly assumed Michael was one of those kind of cops, but instead I learned earlier that like Serpico he was one of the finest and bravest cops that the LAPD ever had in their ranks. His academic credentials are excellent, his story telling is blunt and rivetting and even though I don't know any more than you as to precisely what the future holds for us, I do know that if you refuse to see that the times they are 'a changing, then it's highly likely you're planning ability is flawed. Particuarly if you're a planner defending the Corporate Ancien Regime on the flimsy basis that it pays the bills.

Here's the first part. Inform yourself.  Because You're Worth it.

I've had to post the second part seperately for html embed ju jitsu reasons that you don't need to know about. So look above or look to 'newer posts' if you're coming back from the future so to speak.

Real Media

As I've been running on vapours and not always had access to a computer, I've been blogging with paper and pen sometimes in much the same way as I started to write my first post over here, on a flight from New Delhi to Mumbai in 2006.

There's lots of mistakes and chunks missing if you can see at all, but just in case anyone wanted to see how appalling my handwriting is I thought I'd post them anyway. I'll try and get them typed up later this week and really there's a self referential (ooh so po mo) element to this because the longer of the two posts is about Understanding Media from a paper (analogue) to electronic spectrum; or if we include this post it's starting off electronically. You may note that I used the back of the police report for my stolen goods to write this (so some good came out of it) as well as the EMERGENCY number for the British Embassy that the police gave me and which didn't work. Meaning I had to sleep in the police waiting room for the night before borrowing precisely Two dollars to catch the ferry home the next day.

Good News

I've got a New passport *wipes brow* (And biometrics and computer chips and all the other lovely stuff that means I'm real and exist)

Actually the British Embassy were in the end very cooperative and seemed to know who I was, so maybe that journalist interview with the South China Morning Post did the trick but I pity the person who doesn't know how to be a squeaky wheel.

The bad news is I've not heard from Sam since last Thursday, as he's climbing a mountain in Tanzania, and I've had to assume the Punk Kiva funds will take too long to get here  now that I'm now officially a registered human. 

It means I can once again get on with my life.

I guess that Sam will take care of refunding all the wonderful and generous contributions you collectively made. I want to take this opportunity to thank both all of you and Sam for rallying around at a bleak point. You all proved that this isn't just about me, it's about us. It's about what we stand for and how we follow through with our deeds and actions. 

I'm enormously grateful and forever indebted towards your spontaneous kindness, humanity and generosity. To paraphrase Ali G: 'Is it because I is a social object?' 

;)

It's now important for me to get on with my plans for the rest of this year including a much needed trip to Beijing as soon as possible.

Once again Thank you. Hope is fortified by deeds and you just did it.

Hong Kong CID

I'm hoping you might learn that any expectations of high standards from dealing with the Hong Kong Constabulary or the sneaker wearing, high fiving Plain clothes Criminal Investigations Department (apart from two individuals who were cool) will only disappoint you if my experiences are typical.

Last Friday night I caught a taxi with all the important stuff in a suitcase. Usually things like mobile phones, wallets, computers, passports and so forth are separate but in this instance they were packed in various suitcase pockets for reasons such as picking up my laundry on the way. Unfortunately for me the Taxi driver I caught would not listen to my instructions such as "stay here please" and on each successive occasion ignored me until I concluded he was being uncooperative.

I wanted Hong Kong police to deal with him and not me. I said to myself if the police feel I'm being unreasonable I'll pay the fare and accept their judgement. An hour lost is a small price to pay for not getting into an altercation over a fare with a cabbie. (I have to say all of them on Hong Kong apart from the bad person I got have been brilliant and helpful)

Once I finally conveyed to the driver there was no hotel we were going to and I wasn't putting up with feigned stupidity (I was visiting a friend) he took me to the Police Station and I leaped out, pleading with the desk officer to come out and talk to the taxi driver. The desk officer wanted to ask me questions that were beyond irrelevancy and so the taxi driver drove off without payment, and with my suitcase. Fortunately I noted the last four digits of the number plate.

The Police said to me "Don't worry, we will try to return your belongings". While being interviewed by CID I realised that only one officer present grasped I was a victim and that it wasn't a case of an absent minded taxi driving off.

I hadn't paid my fare. Sheer procrastination on the Police's part had led to an even worse scenario.

I'm a resilient character and loss of property doesn't grieve me as much as it does others. Read this to see why. I could howl about the Chanel shades, my Macbook Air the large amount of cash, and the like, but the truth is, some of you have left comments here that have delighted me more than any atoms ever could. Even the emails I'm getting now from the few who know, have been brilliant, including one pal I've only met once in Beijing, who comes from Hong Kong and offered to lend me money, while we laughed about how it was karma for writing my luxury posts including all the luxury shopping which is now stolen. We laugh at the trivial. We value each other. Long may you prosper.

I'm lucky that I still have enough money to do with my life as I wish, but without my wallet and cards; I had 18 HK Dollars in my pocket (1.6 Euros) and the EMERGENCY number for the British Embassy they gave me was a recorded message giving the office hours.

To convey the Kafkaesque nature of the Peter Sellers team let me give you a taster of the conversation I had around 11 PM in the evening while I weighed up my options.

Me: "The Consulate number isn't working. What time is the last ferry please" (thinking I might walk to Central about 40 minutes away and beg for two dollars to make it across the water.

Desk Sergeant (Calls a number) "There's no one answering, have you tried the Consulate?"

So I slept in the waiting room on those ridged seats in viciously cold air conditioning and shorts while drunken and needlessly loud voices pressed charges or had charges pressed against them through the night in what I can only describe as a scene reminiscent of those god awful passages from the Clergy Man's daughter by George Orwell. I shuddered reading it and I shuddered as I awoke each time in the night.

Anyway a week later and basically the British Consulate don't want to know. I'm living off the good will of people I don't really know, while a good friend recuperates from a back operation and I've been calling CID to find out if they've even apprehended the taxi driver of the number plate I gave. I've no money, no Passport, no FAGS, few clothes, no mobile and no computer.

I'm an ILLEGAL alien, with no way of getting my money, and the only people who want to help are my social media gang, most of whom I've not even met.

It's unbelievable, and Hong Kong CID have just put the phone down on me when I asked for the second time today on progress, and how to give them a few more clues like the very memorable T Shirts I have, one of which I wore in San Francisco here and which might be lying around somewhere in the culprits apartment. I don't think they've even followed up what happened last week and now I want to make an official complaint about the police. Probably I'm wasting my time there too.

Hong Kong CID. Is the C for clueless? You suck and you know it. You just don't care. You should have been knocking on the culprits door within 24 hours because by now if he's got any sense he would have SOLD everything I own not on the grounds of GREED but on the grounds of LOGIC.

I hold the police responsible for dawdling at the front desk, dawdling on the investigation and now dawdling and dissembling with EVERY phone call I've made. They just don't care if they've done anything at all. So all I can say to you folks is one thing.

I really like Hong Kong but .......... I've never meet a more feeble, lethargic and unresponsive Cop outfit towards a guest (and I think high spending visitor) as the one I have encountered, and that it's better to take the law into your own hands than report it.

If I'd have done that; I wouldn't be writing this post now and thinking about how I'm going to get a passport and some cash to get back on with my life which means India is definitely off the cards (so sorry about that folks -I'm really sorry)

I'd appreciate any of my readers thoughts on this because right now I'm jumping through hoops with a British Consulate that wont even issue me with a Passport that I need in order to regain my life via banking and so forth, and a Hong Kong CID that wont answer my questions about progress nearly a week later.

Apparently the Consulate says I'm good for 50 quid which wont even cover the cost of a passport or even doing a photo run to apply for one. I'm afraid my winning smile isn't working very much at the moment. But you know what. I still said a little prayer to God and thanked him for all the good stuff I've been given in life because there's been loads and loads of it. Look at that Green revolution kicking off on Twitter logos.

Peace.