#Cop Killer

[rei-ismyname]

Wolverine Failing to Kill a Cop

(Yes, I am leaving out a lot of context to present a situation I think is neat )

It's the effort that counts, I guess.

I avoid bullets when possible too. Not a fan of being destroyed.

Proteus' reality warping is metal as fuck. Looks so damn cool. If I was better at Photoshop I'd edit it into a short comic where Logan, Ororo and Kurt try to kill a cop on acid.

[wiiree]

[rottingangelwings]

[justinsentertainmentcorner]

Aja Romero at Vox:

One of the things that made Macklemore’s Gaza protest rap “Hind’s Hall” so electrifying when it dropped on May 6 is how unexpected it was. It wasn’t just that Macklemore, who hasn’t really seemed culturally relevant since his notorious Grammy win over Kendrick Lamar a decade ago, was suddenly headline news. It was that no one, relevant or not, seemed to be making protest music anymore, least of all about the Israel-Hamas war. Macklemore’s blistering anthem takes aim at Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza, where more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed, following the deadly October 7 Hamas attacks. The song comes at a time when student protests around the country are pushing the conflict and America’s role in it to the forefront of cultural debate. Though Macklemore doesn’t have the reputation for political activism that other artists have, it’s not for lack of trying: He’s been producing politically themed music ever since his debut album in 2005.

Macklemore also occupies a rare position: As he himself says in a “Hind’s Hall” verse, his status as an independent artist, as well as a white one, allows him to take a bold political stance. Most artists would risk career-ending repercussions for speaking out, especially about such a polarized subject as Gaza. The post-Trump era has been a fallow period for protest music, though the current revival of campus activism could usher in an adjacent revival for the genre. But if “Hind’s Hall” hints at a return, there are other complicating factors at play when we think about what protest music even means in contemporary America.

Macklemore, surprisingly political

“Hind’s Hall” doubles as a song of support for student protesters across America and as a form of protest against Israel’s Gaza offensive itself. The song title refers both to an informally renamed building at Columbia University, the nexus of student protests there, and to the hall’s namesake, Hind Rajab, a 6-year-old Palestinian girl who was allegedly killed by Israeli troops in January, along with her family. The Israeli military also allegedly killed the ambulance crew dispatched to rescue her.

The first verse takes aim at US police and features footage of student demonstrations all across the country where law enforcement was summoned to disperse the mostly peaceful protests. Macklemore also implies that speech on social media has been suppressed: “You can pay off Meta, you can’t pay off me,” he sings, referring to Facebook’s reported censorship of pro-Palestinian views (Meta has denied that claim). The third verse takes aim at the Gaza conflict itself as well as President Joe Biden’s unwillingness to pressure Israel to change course. “Where does genocide land in your definition?” he asks. “Destroying every college in Gaza and every mosque? Pushing everyone into Rafah and dropping bombs?” — referring to Israel’s military offensive against the city of Rafah, which was supposed to be a safe zone for over a million civilians.

While protest songs experienced a resurgence in the wake of the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, musical artists have largely stayed silent until now on the subject of Palestine. But while most people know Macklemore mainly from his 2013 hit “Thrift Shop,” a tongue-in-cheek rap glorifying swag finds from Goodwill, he’s not as unlikely a torch-bearer as you might think for this kind of performance. He’s maintained a surprisingly political catalog, starting with his debut album, 2005’s The Language of My World, which included a track called “White Privilege,” years before the concept of white privilege was well-known within the culture. The song addressed Macklemore’s conflicted feelings on the cultural appropriation of hip-hop by white culture, taking aim at everything from white audiences (“White kids with do-rags trying to practice their accents”) to “controlling” music industry corporations and white artists like himself.

Another track on the album, “Bush Song,” was even more overtly political, mocking then-President George W. Bush for everything from bigoted and sexist politics to the economy and war in Iraq. Macklemore’s most notable political move prior to “Hind’s Hall” came with 2012’s “Same Love,” a song that advocated LGBTQ equality and criticized homophobia within hip-hop culture. 2016 saw him return to the theme of racism with “White Privilege II,” a track he recorded with Jamila Woods. The track covers themes of racist police brutality and the 2014 Black Lives Matter protests over the killing of Michael Brown, protests Macklemore himself participated in.

Macklemore hasn’t escaped political controversy in the past, including an incident that complicates his decision to speak out on the Israel-Hamas war. In 2014, he wore the world’s most ill-judged costume during a performance, featuring a bulbous prosthetic nose, a black wig, and fake beard. Macklemore at first called the outfit “random” but eventually apologized for its antisemitism. Macklemore says on the track that anti-Zionism is not antisemitism, but it’s difficult to try to be the one to parse the difference when you’ve previously appeared in this kind of stereotypical getup in public. Still, missteps or not, Macklemore’s status as an independent artist — not to mention a white artist — puts him in a position to take bolder political stances than most artists. Though “Thrift Shop” catapulted him to huge fame, Macklemore primarily used, and still uses, YouTube and social media to reach his core audience. That worked well for “Hind’s Hall,” enabling the track to go viral on Instagram and Twitter before it even landed on streaming services.

[...]

Protest music isn’t what it used to be

We like to think that activism and music have always gone hand in hand, but despite a long legacy of protest music in the US, it’s been decades since we had sustained musical movements of political change and resistance. The ’90s saw plenty of riot grrrls, and the Iraq War generated its fair share of politicized music in response. These days, however, songs like Green Day’s 2004 “American Idiot” or socially conscious rap like Donald Glover’s “This Is America,” 2018’s anti-gun anthem, are rare.

The arguable death knell for protest in pop may have come in 1992, when Ice T’s heavy metal band Body Count released its eponymous debut album, featuring a still-controversial track called “Cop Killer.” The song, which protested racialized police brutality in the era of the police beating of Rodney King, prompted record stores around the country to remove the album from their shelves. It offended law enforcement organizations so much that they successfully pressured Ice T to remove the track and likely influenced Ice T’s label, Warner Bros., to part ways from the rapper at the arguable peak of his success. To this day, authorized versions of the song are difficult to find. “The early ’90s had a lot of really aggressive protest music, and that’s all gone now,” Patch explained in an interview. “And I think a lot of it has to do with the “Cop Killer” case.” He noted that in addition to Warner Bros. severing its contract with Ice T, several other artists lost their contracts in the wake of “Cop Killer” for similar politically incendiary reasons. The backlash created a chilling effect over the entire industry.

Vox takes a look at Macklemore’s anti-Israel apartheid and pro-Palestinian protest song Hind’s Hall and its place in the world of protest songs.

[ente-lab]

[forever09333]

[evilhorse]

This is as far as you git, boys!

[scotianostra]

On December 30th 1969 two police officers died of bullet wounds during a raid on a house in Allison Street, Glasgow; a third was wounded.

It was the darkest day in the history of policing history in Scotland, two officers were shot dead in the line of duty and a third left with crippling injuries.

Shortly after 4pm two officers were shot dead by a man seen acting suspiciously outside a flat in Govanhill on the south side of the city.

Their suspect had just taken part in an armed robbery and was carrying the proceeds into the Allison Street tenement in suitcases.

When the two cops followed their man into the ground floor apartment, unaware of the earlier hold-up, he pulled out a gun and shot them dead.

The double murder was all the more shocking because it was carried out by a former police officer and colleague.

A few hours later Howard Wilson, married with a young family, was sitting in his police cell in nearby Craigie Street Police Office confessing both murders to his bewildered lawyer Joe Beltrami.

Nineteen years later in his memoir Tales of the Suspected, Beltrami wrote:

“As I listened to him. I kept asking myself what could have possessed him. He looked more like a businessman than a criminal.”

Wilson had quit the City of Glasgow police in 1968 after 10 years’ service when he failed to get promotion to sergeant.

Instead he opened a greengrocers, The Orchard in nearby Mount Florida. But the outlet, along with another shop he’d bought, was losing money.

His two best friends former prison officer Ian Donaldson, 31, and ex-cop John Sim, 21, both had young families and were also strapped for cash.  During one late evening drinking session they joked about robbing a bank to solve all their financial worries.

However, the morning after the night before it began to sound like a plan.

Who would suspect two former cops and a prison officer? They had no criminal records and their fingerprints were not on file.

The money would also be used to pay off debts so it would disappear as quickly as it had been stolen.

The trio recruited a fourth man – Archibald McGeachie – to be their getaway driver, and bought a Russian pistol from the president of the Bearsden Shooting Club, of which all three were members.  On July 16, dressed in smart suits and carrying briefcases they walked into the British Linen Bank in Giffnock, East Renfrewshire, and escaped with £20,876 (over £270,000 now).

All three, however, were broke again by Christmas and, having got away with it once, planned another heist – this time a branch of the Clydesdale in Linwood, Renfrewshire on December 30th.

However, McGeachie took cold feet and declined the job of getaway driver, leaving his three pals to do the job on their own.

On December 23, a week before, the second hold up, he disappeared from his home and was never been seen again.

His fellow robbers escaped this time with £14,000 – much of it in silver coins – which later proved significant when they were all spotted by a suspicious Inspector Andrew Hyslop transporting the suitcases.  He recognised Wilson who he had once trained in the use of firearms.

Inspector Hyslop also suspected the trio were carrying stolen whisky, as he didn’t know about the bank robbery.

He confronted all three in Wilson’s ground floor flat, having called in reinforcements from Craigie Street.

When the inspector bent down to open one of the cases, his former colleague shot him in the face.

Detective Constable Angus MacKenzie and PC Edward Barnett, above, were then both shot in the head when they tried to arrest him.

As they fell, Wilson calmly stepped up to DC MacKenzie and shot him again, killing him outright.

His accomplice Donaldson had fled the flat, while Sim watched in horror.

Wilson turned his attention to another former colleague PC John Sellars, who had taken refuge in the bathroom to radio

for help but he couldn’t get through the door.

Wilson then noticed Inspector Hyslop beginning to move on the floor, and went to finish him off.

A fifth officer, Detective Constable John Campbell flung himself across the hall at Wilson before he could fire again, saving his colleagues’ life.

DC Campbell managed to wrestle the gun from Wilson just as his fellow officers alerted by the sound of gunfire rushed into the flat.

There they found a scene of unimaginable horror. DC MacKenzie had been killed outright while PC Barnett would die five days later in hospital.  Wilson only seemed to regret only what he had done to DC MacKenzie, whose wife June he knew personally.  As he was led away, he asked the arresting officers if they  would apologise to her on his behalf.

When the three appeared at Glasgow Sheriff Court on February 6, 1970, Wilson admitted the murders of Detective Constable McKenzie and Constable Barnett, attempting to murder Inspector Hyslop, threatening to shoot Constable Sellars, and to the bank robberies at Giffnock and Linwood.  A week later, at the High Court in Edinburgh, Wilson was sentenced to life, with a recommendation that he should serve a minimum of 25 years. Donaldson and Sim were given 12 years each for their parts in the robberies.

Later that year it was announced that the Queen had approved awards of the George Medal to Inspector Hyslop and Detective Constable Campbell.  Awards of the Queen’s Police Medal for Gallantry were posthumously awarded to Detective Constable McKenzie and Constable Barnett.  In 1971, PC Sellars was awarded the Glasgow Corporation medal for bravery by the Lord Provost.

Detective Constable McKenzie left a widow, June, and Constable Barnett a widow, Margaret, and two children.

Of the three officers who survived, Inspector Hyslop suffered most as bullet parts had been left deeply embedded in his neck. After many months on sick leave Inspector Hyslop returned to duty.  But the shock of his terrible experience had left him unfit to carry on and in June, 1971, he had to  resign from the force and died on the island of Islay in 2000, aged 74.

In 2019 wreaths were laid on their graves on the 50th anniversary of their deaths.

In September 2002, Wilson was finally freed after almost 33 years behind bars despite strenuous objections from the Scottish  Police Federation.

At the time its chairman Norman Flowers, said: “We feel that anyone who murders a police officer should never be released. Life should mean life.”

While incarcerated, he wrote a crime novel entitled Angels of Death which won a Koestler award. The Allison street murders were made into a TV Movie in 2011 called Sgeulachd Howard Wilson - Cop Turned Killer

[darknessillumina]

dale 👁️⃤

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"SLAYERS Held In OAKALLA," Vancouver Sun. July 3, 1934. Page 1 & 2. --- INDIANS ARE FOUND GUILTY ---- EXECUTION DATE SET --- Arrival in Vancouver Sunday of the three Indian brothers condemned to die on the gallows on October 26 for the murder of Dominion Constable Frank Gisborne, was marked by the traditional stoicism of their race. They are Eneas, Richardson and Alex George.

Under heavy guard, they were taken to Oakalla Prison Farm to await their execution.

A fourth brother, Joseph George, still is at Oakalla also charged with the slaying. Joseph was wounded in the melee at Canford Reserve near Merritt on May 23 and has been un- der medical supervision in Vancouver for some time in an endeavor to ascertain whether his deafness is likely to be permanent.

THE VERDICT The three Indian brothers, Richardson, Eneas and Alex George, were found guilty at Vernon on Saturday night of the murder of Dominion Indian Department Constable F. H. Gisborne and were sentenced by Mr. Justice Denis Murphy to hang on October 26.

Gisborne and British Columbia Police Constable Percy Carr were slain on May 23 at Canford Reserve, near Merritt, when they went to apprehend Eneas in Alex George connection with the stabbing of his wife.

According to testimony the bodies of both were thrown into the Nicola river, but only that of Gisborne has been found. Gisborne was battered to death, while, according to witnesses, Carr was still groaning when he disappeared into the fast-running stream.

Alex, the younger brother, who, it is stated, is in an advanced stage of tuberculosis, seemed to deepen in pallor, but Richardson and Eneas displayed no emotion.

From the gallery, how ever, came a hushed cry as the aged mother-in-law of Richarson and Eneas heard the sentence. Her eyes streaming with tears, she later visited the trio in Richardson George the cells, took the hand of each through the heavy bars and, in soft Indian dialect, asked a blessing on them.

EXECUTION HERE Unless an appeal, which is expected, is successful, or executive clemency is shown, the mother-in-law and her husband must now care for the 10 children of Eneas and Richardson.

The execution is scheduled to take place in Oakalla prison, Vancouver.

Mrs. Carr wife of Constable Carr, who maintained a stoic calm while the story of the slaying of her husband and his fellow officer was unfolded in court, Eneas George let loose her repressed emotions after the verdict, and wept. She embraced one of the officers who has been working tirelessly in the investigation of her husband's death.

DEFENSE PLEA Mr. Justice Murphy gave a summing up lasting three hours. The defense called no witnesses. Stuart Henderson, chief defense counsel, pleaded for a reduced verdict and declared there "was not a shred" of evidence to show premeditation. He declared that if Gisborne's gun had not jammed in the fight which ended in the slayings, then he, and not the Indians, would be facing the charge of murder.

"I ask you gentlemen to put yourselves in the place of the Indians," he pleaded, "and see if you would have done anything different than they did when they were under the belief that their brother was dead and that their own lives were in peril."

(Joseph George, a fourth brother, suffered a fractured skull in the fatal fight.)

THE PROSECUTION Attorney General Gordon Sloan declared "Society in general and police officers in particular must be protected from those who would endanger human lives and the structure which society has erected for its own defense." He described the slaying as a cold-blooded murder of a peace officer in discharge of his duty, and asked the extreme penalty.

[wiiree]

[pistolgangmafia]

🤬 dale cregan 🤬

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

Baltimore: Justice for Sonya Massey Thursday, August 1 - 6 pm

Meet 6 pm @ 247 Dallas Court (Orleans & Dallas) March 6:30 pm to BPD Headquarters, 601 E. Fayette Street Wednesday, July 31, 6 pm to 8 pm PPA volunteers meeting and work session at Harriet Tubman Solidarity Center, 2011 N. Charles St, Balto 21218

[ente-lab]