A Dallas Police Officer Moonlighting for Bank of America? What’s wrong with that picture?

We have a Congress in Washington DC passing legislation that not only benefits their patrons who contribute to their campaigns, the legislation they pass benefits the elected officials’ own personal stock portfolios  and net worth while those of the majority of their constituents decline.  This is not some paranoid fantasy.  It is verifiable fact that has been published on this site several times.  You can see for yourself by going to Open Secrets and comparing your Senators and Representative’s net worth in 2008 to their net worth in 2009. As millions of Americans were losing their jobs and getting kicked out of their homes, the net worth of these people who are supposed to represent the majority was increasing by hundreds of thousands of dollars and in many cases by millions of dollars.  Now if you don’t see that something is very wrong with this picture, then you are either a member of the 1% or you have been beaten down and propagandized by corporate-owned media  to the point that your self-esteem has gone so far south that it is not even on the map any more.

Our Congress is representing Wall Street to the exclusion of the majority.  Now we see here in Dallas where the members of the Dallas Police Department are representing Wall Street banks to the detriment of the public.  We have a situation where off-duty policemen are guarding private corporations and actually attacking members of the public who are operating well within their rights as citizens.

The following excerpt is from The Dallas Morning News.

Last night, (November 10, 2011) the Dallas Police Department discovered a new video of the Occupy Dallas demonstration that occurred on November 5, 2011. The video shows a Dallas Police Officer, who was working off-duty for Bank of America, push a demonstrator off a planter in front of the building. Chief David Brown has ordered the officer placed on restricted duty and initiated a formal investigation into the officer’s actions. The restricted duty assignment will also prohibit the officer from working off-duty employment until the departmental investigation is complete. In light of this development, the Police Department has requested that the Dallas County District Attorney and the Dallas City Attorney proceed no further with the criminal cases alleged to have occurred until further consultation takes place. These meetings are anticipated to occur next week. The Dallas Police Department is dedicated to the protection of all members of the public. Any allegation of police misconduct is taken seriously and will be vigorously investigated. The Police Department encourages any witnesses who would like to make a statement or who have additional video to contact the Internal Affairs Division at (214) 671-3986.

If you watch this video from frames 25 to frame 32, you can see the officer (a large black man in the upper middle of the screen pushing the protester (Stephen Benavides) did not fall on his own shortly before he was arrested for felony assault on another police officer and resisting arrest. Police had previously said there was no indication Benavides was pushed as he and his supporters have claimed.

Stephen Benavides, the victim of police brutality, was in jail for four days!

Benavides was in the Dallas County Jail until Wednesday night, when he posted more than $50,000 bond on the charges. His confrontation with police last Saturday sparked a riot that included seven other arrests.

Protesters have alleged Dallas police acted overly aggressive in arresting Benavides and others. Dallas police officials said earlier this week that a preliminary review of the handling of the protest revealed no misconduct. [Note:  if we allow this incident to become standard police routine, Stephen Benavides is not the only one in trouble, we all are.]

Chief David Brown has said Benavides was told to get off the planter because it was Bank of America property and that he refused to comply.  As you can see from the video below, that is half a truth which is the same thing as a lie.  Benavides said in a phone interview Friday morning (November 11, 2011) that the officer on the planter, Jimmy Hollis, told him to get off the planter but gave him almost no time to do so. [This is substantiated by the time lapse in the video.]  ”It was not but a split second, a split second reaction by him and he shoves me off the planter,” Benavides said. “I fall down, I land on the curb, I bust my ribs up and eveyrhting else is kind of out there on the videos.

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ILWQ COMMENTS:  This incident and how it is handled is relevant to all people in the USA.  Support Occupy Dallas and stop the scourge of taxpayer-paid employees moonlighting as hired thugs for corporate America.

A citizen who is acting well within his rights as guaranteed by the Constitution of the USA is brutalized by a police officer who is not only being paid by the taxpayers of Dallas, he is also being paid by Bank of America.  If you don’t see a problem with that, then you need to visit Colombia and ask around about the police goon squads called the AUC.  They are paid by U.S. corporations to murder people who want to start unions to protect workers.  Of course then that’s where the hand-in-glove relationship between Washington and Wall Street comes into play.  Just before he went to work for Obama as the Attorney General of the USA, Eric Holder got Chiquita Brands executives off the hook with a fine, even though conclusive evidence (a check signed by Chiquita Brands) pointed to the fact that they paid off the members of the goon squad who murdered the unionist.

In addition to conflict of interest and police brutality, there are other problems with this story as well:  Why does a Dallas Police Officer have to supplement his income by working off-duty?  First of all,this seems to indicate that the officer is not being paid a living wage in the first place.  If so, that needs to be corrected.

Second of all,  we all know that when we work more than 40 hours a week, many aspects of our lives suffer.  Of all people, police officers need a break from the kind of work they do.  All police officers should be paid a living wage and NO police officers should be moonlighting at ANY job for ANYONE.

NOTE:
Base pay for Dallas Police Officers who are trainees is $41,690.  After two years it is $43,754.  At ten years it is $64,651. The 2010 Census reports that in Dallas, Male full-time workers had a median income of $32,265.

SOURCE

Only those who occupy these seats, truly occupy Washington.

Make 2012 The Year of the Independents!  Bust up the Millionaires’ Club!

It is good that we have the Occupy Movements all over the USA and the world and they need to continue their efforts because these groups keep the focus on the real issues and make mainstream corporate-owned media pundits look like the Wall Street stock monkey puppets that they are.  In addition,  the occupy movements reveal members of Congress for what they are–a Wall Street millionaires club who vote to enhance their own positions of power and increase their own personal wealth via their Wall Street stock investments. No, this is not a wild claim. This is fact.  If you research their voting records you will be hard-pressed to find a single time in which any member of Congress voted against an issue that would negatively affect their Wall Street portfolio.

Furthermore, if you look at the increase in net worth of Senators and Representatives from 2008 to 2009 (a period in which 2.6 million Americans lost their jobs) you will find that the majority of them grew their personal wealth during this period by hundreds of thousands of dollars, and many cases, by millions of dollars.  (You can use Open Secrets to assist you in this research.)  And these are the lying hypocrites who speak to the American people, the 99%, of “making sacrifices”?  I say:  ”Let’s sacrifice them in 2012 to the political pasture.  Let’s teach them a lesson first-hand in sacrifice and what it means to lose a job.”

For one example:  Pete Sessions, Republican Representative for the U.S. 32nd District of Texas  reports a net worth of $3,376,000 in 2008 and a net worth of 4,904,000 in 2009.  Thus in the time period in which 2.6 million Americans lost their jobs, Mr. Sessions made $1,528,000 off his Wall Street investments.

I live in the 32nd District of Texas and I will be running against Pete Sessions in 2012 as an Independent from the 99%–a non-millionare who owns no Wall Street stock and who knows first-hand the difficulty and hardship of being unemployed.  I will be filing my intent to run as an Independent with the Texas Secretary of State during the filing period (Nov 12 to Dec 12, 2011).

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It can happen.  The 99% (and especially with the assistance in organizing from the Occupy movements) could  take a few Senate seats and could replace most of the 435 members of the House of Representatives with members of the 99%.

Here is a big overview of a plan that could be followed by Occupy Groups:

1) Make a list of all the US Congressional district that cover the county in which your Occupy Group is located.  For example Occupy Dallas currently has  6 US Congressional Districts that fall within its county borders. (Although District 3 is likely to go away due to redistricting and be limited to Collin County only. The new maps are expected to be released on Oct 31 ahead of candidate filing period.)

District 3 Sam Johnson (But this district will go away from Dallas County with the redistricting)

District 5 is Jeb Hensarling.

District 26 Michael C. Burgess

District 30 – Eddie Bernice Johnson

Congressional District 24- Kenny Marchant

District 32 Pete Sessions

2. Make a list of all the elected offices in Dallas County open in 2012.

3. Make a list of all Texas State Officials to represent ares areas of Dallas County open in 2012.

4. Make a list of all officials from municipalities in Dallas County who are up for election in 2012.

5. If a US Senator is up for re-election and/or a seat is open, meet with the other Occupy groups in your state and  select one Independent to support.

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You must begin to organize these efforts now.  In fact, in many states such as Texas, waiting until 2012 is too late for filing as an Independent for US representative.

Replace U.S. House

Solutions Not Status Quo

Independents Can Win

Replace Wall Street

Local “Cooperations” Now

Solutions–Not Status Quo

The favorite game of Congress these days is to create a gridlock on real solutions that could benefit the majority and then pretend that their hands are tied and that they had nothing to do with creating the mess, as if they are innocent bystanders.  The leadership of the two parties have been playing this good cop/bad cop game for at least 30 years.  It’s time to turn our backs on the leadership of both parties.  Since our elected officials in Washington showed us on Wednesday that they have no intentions to keep their promises to create jobs and rein in the greed of Wall Street, it has become obvious that these tasks are now in the hands of the 99%.  Following are a few suggestions for the 99% to move us in the direction of taking back  our government and creating solutions that work for the 99%.  These suggestions are intended to encourage others to join me in thinking up real solutions for our nation’s problems.  They are, of course, built around the two actions I desire the most at the moment:  Replace the entire House of Representatives in 2012 and work with the people in our communities and those from the United Nations to establish at least one local cooperative in our community by the end of 2012.

1. REPLACE EVERY MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES WITH A NON-MILLIONAIRE INDEPENDENT CANDIDATE FROM THE 99% IN 2012.

One ordinary citizen from each Occupy group can research the requirements for running as an independent in their state and then post an announcement similar to the example found in the link,  Replace U.S. House.  (Practicing what I preach, I have already done this for the people living in the Congressional Districts in and around Dallas and sent out a call to action as seen in the two-page document previously referenced.) It is important to begin this process now as many states, such as Texas, require that Independents file before the end of 2011.  Here are links to assist you:

Replace U.S. House

http://iflizwerequeen.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Replace-US-House.pdf

This two-page document will assist those who want to call together interested citizens from your local area to discuss what actions you need to take to replace all the US representatives in the various districts in your region with Independent non-millionaires from the 99%.

Independents Can Win

http://iflizwerequeen.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/INDEPENDENTS-CAN-WIN.pdf

This document provides an overview of all the steps that those who plan to run as a U.S. Representative for their Congressional District must take prior to the end of December 2011.  It may be  helpful for a first read to provide you with the big picture of what candidates need to do in order to win.  It is generic and applicable for all states and will take less than an hour to read.  You can download it for free from the link provided above.

Platform for U.S. Congressional Representative

http://iflizwerequeen.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Platform-for-US-Congressional-Representative.pdf

This is provided as a sample ONLY.  I’m not suggesting that this platform be adopted by candidates!  All independent candidates need a written platform. This document provides an example.  One idea might be that you use the group that meets with you as a caucus to draft a platform.  Perhaps appoint a secretary to take all the suggestions and then appoint a committee to draft the platform.  At your second meeting you can vote on it.

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2.  REPLACE WALL STREET WITH A BUSINESS SYSTEM THAT WORKS FOR THE 99%

It’s more than obvious that the current members of the US Congress have no interest in doing this.  After all, why should they?  The truth is that Wall Street works very well for them.  Don’t take my word for it,  Go to Open Secrets and look at the increase in their net worth from 2008 to 2009–a time period in which you and I from the 99% were losing our jobs and pensions and homes.

Eric Cantor, for example, the current majority whip of the House of Representatives who sponsored the Korean Trade agreement which will increase the trade deficit by $16 million and ship out 169,000 American jobs: From 2008 to 2009, Cantor increased his net worth by over a million dollars.  It’s not just the Republicans either.  Nancy Pelosi, former House Majority leader, increased her net worth a whooping $28,248,999 from $95,980,989  in 2008 to $124,229,990 in 2009.

It may take two or three years to do this but we, the 99% can begin immediately with a few steps.

1) Do everything you can to remove all money that belongs to you that is invested in Wall Street.  If you own Wall Street stock, you are part of the problem.

2) Remove your money from any too big to fail bank if you have not already done so. Use credit unions and local banks. [Another related step is to work to establish a state owned bank.]

3) Patronize locally owned businesses as much as possible.  Buy used if necessary to avoid supporting foreign imports whose manufacturers are getting a free ride from the American taxpayer thanks to the trade agreements that our elected official pass to support Wall Street corporations and their slave labor.

4) Cooperatives are a democratic model for business.  Create a group in your community to establish cooperatives in your community.  Get involved!  The United Nations have declared 2012 as the “Year of the Cooperatives”.  They have a kickoff meeting in Cancun Mexico November 14-18.

Local “Cooperations” Now

http://iflizwerequeen.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Local-Cooperations-Now.pdf

This is a report that I created and sent to the leaders of all the towns in Dallas County in August of 2010. I never heard one reply from a single municipality.  All of the reports were sent first class, and a few of them I even hand-delivered.  We need to take a look at our local government leadership  as well as our national government leadership because many of our local governments follow the same format for the 1% that our national government does.

International Co-operative Alliance

http://www.ica.coop/al-ica/

This provides information regarding the UN initiative:  2012 Year of Cooperatives.

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Replace Wall Street

http://iflizwerequeen.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/REPLACE-WALL-STREET.pdf
This tw0-page document provides you with just enough information to get you started in gathering the 99% together in your area to discuss creating a “cooperation”/local corporation/cooperative in your home town and how you might get involved with the UN Initiative:  2012 Year of Cooperatives.

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Think about it 99%rs

I am only one member of millions of us and these are two suggestions with supporting documentation that I have gathered and created.  If you want to fully understand the power of the 99%, take my effort and multiply it by millions worldwide.  Congress and other world leaders have solutions–unfortunately these solutions are for the 1%.  It is time for us to push them out of the way with our votes in 2012 and I mean both parties.  We cannot afford to allow the 1% to rule any longer.  They and their greed are destroying not only our nation but our entire planet.  They do not represent the interests of the majority of the USA or the world. They have had their chance and failed us miserably.  It is too late for amends, even if they sincerely tried, I doubt that many of us would believe them.

BTW:  This post is also available as a PDF for your convenience and it’s all free.

Solutions Not Status Quo

http://iflizwerequeen.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Solutions-Not-Status-Quo.pdf

I’m preparing this morning, Oct 15, 2011,  to go down to Occupy Dallas in Pioneer Park.  I hope you will join me if you life live in the Dallas area.  At 1PM we will be marching to Goldman Sachs to protest their actions against the 99%–not only of the USA, but the world.

If you don’t live in the Dallas area, I hope that you will join the Occupy Wall Street movement nearest to you.  Today the majority from all over the world will be standing up and shouting “NO” in many languages to the 1%, their IMF, their World Bank and their Wall Street international bankers who steal from the 99%.

As mentioned in a previous post, we the majority are not only protesting, we are also beginning the planning stage for building solutions to replace the status quo of the 1% with solutions that work for the 99%.

The two that I’m pushing are:  1) Replacement of all members of the House of Representatives with Independents from the 99% in 2012.  It can be done if we begin now.   and 2) Replacement of Wall Street with a business system that works for the 99%.  Here are my recent calls to action on these two initiatives:

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Occupy Dallas, like all Occupy Sites, is a very special Place–a place where history is being made.

As you can see from the photo, the enthusiastic majority at Occupy Dallas have expanded the boundaries to include the majority of the world.

I took off a couple of hours from 11 to 1pm today to check in on the patriots in Dallas who are occupying Pioneer Park in downtown Dallas, Texas.  If you haven’t stopped in to visit the site, I highly recommend that you do.  You’ll find the people friendly, talkative, polite and  yet very engaged and very determined.  You’ll also find them in all ages:  from infants to seniors.

Please Join Occupy Dallas at 1PM in Pioneer Park Sat Oct 15 to March on Goldman Sachs Read the rest of this entry →

It’s Not About Party Politics or Money or “Leaders.”  It’s about participation of the majority.

I just visited a site titled “nation of change” and I will tell you all of the things that are wrong with this site.

1.  It puts money first. First of all as part of its banner across the top of the home page we have “Stand Up to Corporate Power”.  This is good, but just beneath it we see:  ”We have raised $7,075 of our $25,000 Fall fundraising goal.  Make a tax-deductible donation to Nationofchange”  and then underneath it in large letters DONATE NOW.

This is the typical  Democrat/Republican Wall Street approach:  Money first. Give the money to the leaders and then they will decide how it will be spent.  This is part of the broken machine of our government.  Real change is NOT going to result from the side who raises the most money.  Real change is going to come from the MAJORITY who decide on their own and contribute what it is they have to offer–people like the individual citizens I saw yesterday at Occupy Dallas handing out homemade breakfast burritos that they made at home.  Individual citizens–not sponsored by some corporation–handing out extra bottles of water that they had brought to the gathering to share with others.  That is the spirit that will allow the majority to take back our government.

The Nation of Change site is just more of the same in a different wrapper.

2.  The site glorifies one leader, Van Jones.

Again, America does not need one hero telling the rest of us what to do.  We need many heros.  All of us must step up to the plate and become heroes.  No one person should be front and center in this democratic movement.

3,  It promotes Warren Buffett as a supporter of  the people–one of the biggest Wall Street fakes on the planet. If we are looking to ANY corporate CEO for our salvation, we are in trouble.  Buffett is a master of Newspeak.  If he really meant what he said about taxing the rich, five years ago when he first made the comparison of his tax status to that of his administrative assistant, he would have quit using tax loopholes and off shore accounts and would have started paying the full 35% of his income in taxes that he should pay.

One of Buffett’s companies, Clayton Homes is being sued in the USA for providing FEMA with formaldehyde-laced trailers in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.  How about that?  Poison the victims of Katrina.  But if you think that is bad, hang onto your St. Christopher medals.  Bill Clinton’s Foundation bought many of these contaminated trailers from Clayton Homes and had them shipped to Haiti to serve as school houses for children.  The legal suit was already in effect prior to the purchase so it’s not like they didn’t know.

4.  It uses the typical divisive politics of Washington of pitting political ideologies against each other. Here is a quote from Van Jones:  I think everybody should hold onto your seats. October is going to be the turning point when it comes to the “Progressive Fight-Back.”

This is not about Progressives against the Tea Party.  This fight is not a Democrat or a Republican fight.  This fight is not a Tea Party or a Progressive fight.  That is EXACTLY how the rich and powerful minority have wielded control over the majority for years.  Divide and Conquer.  Pit the majority against itself.

To Win, we the people must unite and overwhelm the plutocrats on Wall Street and in Washington.  Putting a label of “progressive” on the movement is one sure-fire way to kill it.  We need all members of the majority with us on this and that includes the Tea Party majority as well.  Yesterday at Occupy Dallas we all stood shoulder to shoulder, Tea Party and Progressives; Democrats and Republicans–all united against the machine of the wealth minority.

2012 should be the year of generics.  Citizens from the majority (non-millionaires, non-Wall Street investors) should rise up in every Congressional District in the nation and take over the House of Representatives.

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Van Jones is just another opportunist who is no different from those who came before him.