Former California Cop Who Sued over Antigay Abuse Wins $2.2 Million

ADVOCATE: Jay Brome said he was subjected to homophobic harassment throughout his 20 years with the California Highway Patrol.

Former California Highway Patrol officer Jay Brome has received a settlement of $2.2 million in a lawsuit he brought against the CHP, saying his coworkers made his life on the job miserable because he’s gay.

Brome was a CHP officer from 1996 until 2015, when he took medical leave due to the stress of the homophobia he encountered. It began when he was in the police academy and continued throughout his CHP career.

“There was bullying or name-calling — ‘fag,’ ‘gay,’’’ Brome told The Sacramento Bee in 2018. “I had an instructor that told me … to take my skirt off and start acting like a man.”

At one point at the academy, according to his lawsuit, a fellow cadet aimed a training gun at his head and said, “I know you’re gay, tell me you’re gay or I’ll pull the trigger.” » | Trudy Ring | Monday, October 4, 2021

‘Kill the Bill’ Protesters Rally across England and Wales on Saturday

THE GUARDIAN: Demonstrations against crackdown on right to protest are organised in 25 cities including London

Protesters are rallying in central London and 24 other towns and cities in England and Wales on Saturday against a crime bill that critics say will severely restrict the right to stage demonstrations.

The police, crime, sentencing and courts bill, which passed its second reading in parliament last month, will modify existing public order legislation to make it easier for police to ban or shut down peaceful protests if they are considered too disruptive or likely to lead to disorder.

Opponents of the bill have called it an attack on the right to protest and a step towards authoritarianism. They warn that in conjunction with new laws giving agents of the state licence to commit crimes while undercover and changes to the judicial system, the balance of power is being tipped towards the authorities, eroding individual freedoms. » | Damien Gayle | Saturday, April 3, 2021

Obama’s Beer Fails to Cool Fiery Race Row
THE SUNDAY TIMES: The president’s reaction to the arrest of a black scholar has dented his reputation and distracted Obama during a tough week

THEY are calling it bar-stool diplomacy – a novel attempt by President Barack Obama to cool a heated racial controversy by inviting the offended parties to settle their differences over a beer at the White House.

Yet the president’s efforts to limit the fallout from a row over the arrest last week of Henry Louis Gates Jr, a black Harvard professor, may serve to extend a furore that has shaken the White House and raised questions about Obama’s vaunted leadership skills.

The row showed no sign of diminishing yesterday as Massachusetts media pressed for the release of police tapes that could shed new light on the angry exchanges between Gates and Sergeant James Crowley, a white officer who arrived at the professor’s Cambridge home to investigate a report of a break-in.

The incident led to a rare breakdown of Obama’s previously impressive political judgment. Having spent much of the past two years steering clear of racial controversy and nurturing an image of so-called “postracial” conciliation, the president plunged unexpectedly into the Gates affair.

He declared on Wednesday, when it was still far from clear what had happened, that the Massachusetts police had “acted stupidly” by arresting Gates, whom Obama described as a personal friend.

By Friday evening, Obama was back-pedalling furiously and his invitation to Gates and Crowley to join him for a beer was interpreted as an acknowledgment by the president that he had spoken too hastily in “maligning” the police. “I could have calibrated those words differently,” he said. >>> Tony Allen-Mills in Washington | Sunday, July 26, 2009

Cambridge Police Demand Apology from Barack Obama Over 'Stupid' Comments
THE TELEGRAPH: American police unions have demanded an apology from Barack Obama after he accused an officer of "acting stupidly" by arresting leading black scholar, Prof Henry Louis Gates.

Police representatives queued up at a press conference to insist race had played no part in the incident and the president should retract his "disgraceful" comments and apologise to Sgt James Crowley.

However Mr Obama refused to apologise at a hastily arranged White House press conference where he said: "In my choice of words, I unfortunately gave the impression that I was maligning the Cambridge Police Department or Sergeant Crowley specifically."

"My words didn't illuminate they only added to the media attention," he added.

He also revealed that he had telephoned Sgt Crowley.

Mr Obama criticised police earlier this week after the incident involving Prof Henry Louis Gates who was arrested after trying to force a jammed front door at his home near Harvard University. >>> Alex Spillius in Washington | Friday, July 24, 2009

Muslims Could Get Own Police
DAILY EXPRESS: MUSLIM crime victims could gain the right to have their cases overseen by police from their own religion, it emerged last night.

Police in London already give victims the right to ask for a Sikh officer to be involved in an investigation but the scheme could be introduced for other religions elsewhere.

Chief Supt Joanna Young, from the Met’s Criminal Justice Policy Unit, said: “If it’s a success, I would encourage the other (police) associations to do likewise.”

The project is intended to help investigate “honour” killings and forced marriages but Metropolitan Police Federation chairman Peter Smyth said: “We’re stretched thin enough already. Are Sikh officers going to have their rotas changed so there’s always one on duty?

“It’s political correctness gone mad. We talking about the creation of a separate force within a force.”

But Palbinder Singh, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Sikh Association, said: “I don’t believe a white officer is ever going to be fully conversant with a Sikh.” [Source: Daily Express] | Katherine Fenech | Thursday, July 23, 2009

Tehran: Army of Police and Militiamen Attack Unarmed Protesters
TIMES ONLINE: The Iranian regime warned that any demonstrations would be mercilessly crushed, and meant it. As darkness fell on baking, dust-shrouded Tehran last night an army of riot police and hardline basiji militiamen used batons, gun butts and tear gas to beat back thousands of Iranians converging on the city centre.

"The security presence was massive. It was like a military occupation," one witness told The Times. "They were clubbing the hell out of people."

The greater victory belonged to the demonstrators, however. Male and female, some quite old, they came armed with nothing more than a burning sense of injustice. They defied the risk of serious physical injury, and the very real possibility of arrest, incarceration and torture. They did this to show the world that their resistance to Iran's brutal and illegitimate government has not been extinguished.

"We went today to show them that we are still here and are not going away and they can’t talk or scare us away. And we'll be back every time there is an occasion to commemorate or when we're asked to," said Maryam, a young female office worker nursing an arm injured by a baton blow. “We want to be heard. We are not going to let the regime ignore us,” said Ahmad, a young man in his twenties. >>> Martin Fletcher | Friday, July 10, 2009

Injuries at Monday's Tehran Rally

BBC: Police on Bikes Charge Protesters

Rape, Beatings and Bribery: Iraqi Police Out of Control
Photo courtesy of TimesOnline
TIMESONLINE: The brief film is deeply disturbing, even in a country famed for its al-Qaeda beheading videos and sniper snuff movies. The young woman, evidently drugged, vomiting and occasionally calling for her mother, tries weakly to stop the grinning man in a white T-shirt and boxer shorts from pulling off her underwear.

She fails. The man, instructing the cameraman to shoot the scene with his mobile phone from various angles, rapes her.

That is not the only shocking aspect of the film, according to Jassim al-Bidawi, former Mayor of Fallujah and now a human rights activist. He has identified the rapist as an Iraqi police officer, and says that the cameraman is one, too. They are thought to have drugged the woman as she visited her husband in a detention centre in Ramadi. Since the rapist's uncle is a senior policeman in the city the attacker is all but untouchable, Mr al-Bidawi says.

In the desperate rush to drag Iraq back from civil war, sweeping powers were granted to its new security forces. Human rights workers, MPs and American officials now believe that they are all too often a law unto themselves: admired when they defeat terrorists but also feared for their widespread abuse of power.

In this vast and largely unaccountable security apparatus, with almost a million people in uniform, corruption is rife. One of the most common ploys is to arrest innocent people and then charge hundreds or even thousands of dollars for them to be released. >>> James Hider in Fallujah | Friday, April 24, 2009

Strasbourg : nouveaux heurts entre police et manifestants
Vingt-cinq personnes ont été interpellées, samedi matin. Photo grâce au Figaro
LE FIGARO: Samedi matin, les forces de l'ordre ont fait usage de gaz lacrymogène pour repousser environ 1.800 personnes qui tentaient de pénétrer dans le centre-ville. Vingt-cinq personnes ont été interpellées.

De nouveaux heurts ont opposé samedi matin des manifestants anti-Otan aux forces de l'ordre, à Strasbourg, quelques heures avant une manifestation «monstre». Environ 1.800 personnes dispersées en plusieurs groupes ont tenté de pénétrer dans le centre-ville, et les policiers ont fait usage de gaz lacrymogène pour les repousser. Aucun blessé n'était signalé. Vingt-cinq personnes ont été interpellées.

Les manifestants qui espèrent encercler la zone d'accès restreint autour des sites du sommet pour en perturber le déroulement, se déplaçaient très rapidement d'un carrefour à l'autre, tentant de surprendre les forces de l'ordre. Parmi eux, il y a beaucoup de filles, de jeunes, beaucoup d'Allemands, avec des casquettes, des cagoules, des lunettes de soleil ou des masques respiratoires.

Un groupe d'une trentaine de personnes ayant réussi à franchir un pont sur un canal en direction du centre historique de la ville a été refoulé par des gendarmes mobiles qui ont tiré des gaz lacrymogènes. Ils ont retraversé le pont dans le calme, les mains levées en scandant «No NATO» («non à l'Otan»), avant de courir vers un autre carrefour, imités de l'autre côté du canal par les gendarmes.

«On est en train de gagner la guerre», s'est félicité un CRS en référence au succès des forces de l'ordre à maintenir, jusqu'ici, les militants en dehors de la ceinture strasbourgeoise. >>> lefigaro.fr avec AFP et AP | Samedi 04 Avril 2009

Christian Preachers Face Arrest in Birmingham
THE TELEGRAPH: A police community support officer ordered two Christian preachers to stop handing out gospel leaflets in a predominantly Muslim area of Birmingham.

The evangelists say they were threatened with arrest for committing a "hate crime" and were told they risked being beaten up if they returned. The incident will fuel fears that "no-go areas" for Christians are emerging in British towns and cities, as the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, claimed in The Sunday Telegraph this year.

Arthur Cunningham, 48, and Joseph Abraham, 65, both full-time evangelical ministers, have launched legal action against West Midlands Police, claiming the officer infringed their right to profess their religion.

Mr Abraham said: "I couldn't believe this was happening in Britain. The Bishop of Rochester was criticised by the Church of England recently when he said there were no-go areas in Britain but he was right; there are certainly no-go areas for Christians who want to share the gospel."

Last night, Christian campaigners described the officer's behaviour as "deeply alarming". Christian Preachers Face Arrest in Birmingham >>> By David Harrison

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)

It Wouldn’t Be Muslims the Police Were Afraid of Upsetting, Would It?
Photo courtesy of The Mail on Sunday
THE MAIL ON SUNDAY: A St George's Day parade through an inner-city area hit by race riots has been cancelled following police advice.

Community groups had planned to stage the multi-cultural event in Bradford and 1,500 schoolchildren were due to take part.

Many of the youngsters had already made flags of St George to carry on the parade on April 23, which was designed to boost community cohesion.

But last week police and council chiefs told the organisers that the event could not go ahead as planned for 'health and safety' reasons. At a meeting, police demanded a shorter route which avoided two streets at the centre of the race riots in 2001.

As a result, organisers have decided to call off the event, which was due to attract more than 10,000 people.

Bradford City councillor Quasim Khan said: "We were told by the police at the meeting that the original route had not been risk assessed and if we wanted a march to go ahead on that date, St George's Day, we would have to accept a smaller, different route.

"The police officers were getting quite animated, saying things like 'look, this just isn't going to happen'." Police and council officials said they did not have sufficient warning of the event.

However, community leaders planning the parade said the event was blighted because of fears it could stoke up violence. They claimed a police inspector had actually begun the plans for the parade nine months ago. Cancelled on Police Advice: St George's Day Parade through the Bradford Race-Riot Zone >>> By Martin Smith | April 19, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)