Yesterday I found the story about the first completed trial on an Occupy Wall Street protest arrest. The Defendant in that case, Alexander Arbuckle, wasn't even a protester. Instead, he was a student who had set out to document the protests to prove that the claims of police misconduct and brutality were overblown (!). In the old tradition of "no good deed goes unpunished," Mr. Arbuckle was arrested, along with many others, for disorderly conduct overnight on New Years' Eve. He was offered a plea deal where he'd basically get off with no punishment if he admitted guilt (as many of the protesters have done already), but he refused the deal--and this week, he was acquitted of all charges. From the story in the Village Voice:
Among those arrests was Arbuckle, charged with disorderly conduct for standing in the middle of the street blocking traffic, even after police had repeatedly told protesters to get out of the street. That's the story told in the criminal complaint against Arbuckle, and it's the story that the officer who arrested him told again under oath in court on Monday. The protesters, including Arbuckle, were in the street blocking traffic, Officer Elisheba Vera testified. The police, on the sidewalk, had to move in to make arrests to allow blocked traffic to move.
But there was a problem with the police account: it bore no resemblance to photographs and videos taken that night. Arbuckle's own photographs from the evening place him squarely on the sidewalk. All the video from the NYPD's Technical Research Assistance Unit, which follows the protesters with video-cameras (in almost certain violation of a federal consent decree), showed Arbuckle on the sidewalk.
Did you catch that? Not only citizen activist accounts and video disproved the cops' story: the NYPD's own video evidence showed they were lying about the reasons for the arrests. (!) It remains to be seen whether Officer Vera will be disciplined and/or charged with perjury for her clearly false account of the arrest. Shall we hold our breath waiting? Perhaps not, but it's good news nonetheless.
Oddly, try as I might with several different searches, I see no mention of this story on cbsnews.com, foxnews.com, abcnews.com, or cnn.com. In fact, CNN's site actually seemed confused by one search for "Arbuckle trial." It asked me, quizzically, "Did you mean carbuncle trial?" To be clear, CNN, no, I was not searching for a trial about a skin infection involving pus-filled globules surrounding inflamed hair follicles. I was looking for NEWS about the largest protest movement in the United States on a "news" website. Silly me.
They clearly had no room for such trivia, as they needed their front-page space for breaking stories on Angie Harmon's "Dream Role," white babies becoming the minority in the U.S., a horse who ran into the ocean and swam two miles, and a zoo penguin who scaled a 13 foot wall. Notwithstanding the mainstream media's effort to stuff its metaphorical fingers in its equally metaphorical ears (and yours), the truth is out there--it has been proven in court, with video, that NYPD officers falsely arrested dozens of people and then at least one of them lied about it under oath.
Then today, I ran across this story in Rolling Stone, about a lawyer for Goldman Sachs who made a very big no-no in the case filed again Goldman by Overstock.com--he failed to cover up the truth. For those of you who don't know, Overstock has been suing Goldman for some time, alleging that Goldman (along with several of its bankster buddies) has been illegally manipulating the market to devalue Overstock's shares. During the case, Goldman has been doing its darnedest to make sure that none of the evidence or allegations make it into the public venue. But Goldman's attorney this week filed a response in court and failed to "redact" or cover up all the stuff his clients have been trying for years to hide.
And no wonder. The document refers to evidence of a long-term and very intentional campaign by Goldman--executives and traders alike--to "naked short sell" certain stocks, allegedly including Overstock.com. Now, I'm not going to try to explain the exact methodology of all this, but suffice it to say that "naked shorting" is strictly illegal, as it basically amounts to selling stuff you don't own and have no right to sell. In the real world, selling stuff you don't own is either called "theft" or at least "fraud." The evidence is that Goldman has done this routinely.
And once again, searches of cbsnews.com, foxnews.com, cnn.com, and abcnews.com turn up nothing. ABC has a splashy memorial of Donna Summer as its top online header. Clearly the death of an aging disco queen is of more use the the American public than proof that one of the world's largest investment banks (who we paid billions to bail out of their financial woes) has systematically engaged in criminal activity. And of course, they also had to have room for the headlines: "Is Jennifer Lopez Leaving 'Idol'?"; and PHOTOS: Miley Slams Anorexia Rumors.
Between the tightly-drawn curtains put up by the US mainstream media, the truth is squeezing through, waiting to be heard--"Journalists", 0: Truth, 2. Are you ready to hear it?
UPDATE: I don't know why, but it didn't occur to me this morning to check MSNBC for these stories. But for my more liberal-leaning friends, they aren't covering these stories either.
No comments:
Post a Comment