C’mon.
Six cop cars one day, four the next, threats of ongoing surveillance—that’s pure intimidation of activists engaged in free assembly and legal photography on public land.
Better be careful, Mr. Tough Guy With Your Badge Taped Over, [thx to commenters for pointing out that the tape might be for mourning, and the cop’s nameplate is over his right pocket] or someone will think you’re there to provide “safety, service, and security” for Big Ag at the expense of ordinary citizens.
SHARK’S a great group, by the way. Their thing is video, and they use it well. They’re also targeting Oklahoma Rethuglican James Inhofe’s canned pigeon hunts, in which big, brave “hunters” shoot pigeons released from cages. In violation of hunting ethics, but apparently in full compliance with GOP ethics, they leave wounded birds behind to suffer and die.
Related: the government’s true terrorist priorities.
And speaking of drones…federal biologists are using them to deliver vaccine-laced M&Ms to endangered black-footed ferrets. “We dropped the vaccine out of a bag while walking around, but that’s very hard to do over thousands of acres,” Randy Machett, a USFWS biologist told The Guardian. “We are working with private contractors to develop equipment to drop the vaccine uniformly across an area, rather than one hog getting to eat a big pile of them.”
Montanans: be on the lookout for one really fat ferret.
rumpole
The FOP just endorsed the Orange one. That is going to work wonders for community relations.
scav
@rumpole: They and Trump have a similar ethos and implementation of community outreach.
(They know very well which “community” they really serve and it’s entirely behind the badge and hairpiece.)
Major Major Major Major
So, uh, what’s in the video? I’m at work.
Hillary Rettig
@Major Major Major Major: just a few activists flying a drone over a feedlot – entirely legally – while cop after cop after cop shows up to harass/intimidate.
Hillary Rettig
@rumpole: a ridiculous move on so many levels.
Poopyman
Yeah, I can’t do the video at work either, but a badge taped over that way usually connotes mourning for a fellow officer.
Just sayin’.
Roger Moore
@rumpole:
They’re showing who they are.
scav
@Poopyman: Just saying as well, it’s not as though cops are killed that often, everywhere, and in such caught-on-camera-proximate areas as well — and mourning for fellow officers can be awfully convenient, almost as convenient as the “my stars! is the body cam on the fritz again! I just can’t figure it out lawzy little-ol-me.” defense.
Keith G
Chris Christie likes M&Ms?
EBT
@Poopyman: Hiding your name or badge number while in uniform should be a criminal act.
JDM
@EBT: I just looked up the Fresno PD rules on that, and they’ve got no such. They certainly should, though
Mike J
Did the drone have its registration number prominently displayed? Flown by a pilot certified under IACRA ?
EBT
I also think we should be mandating body cameras federally, with the priviso that if it’s found out you tampered with it then it’s a federal crime.
Steve in the ATL
@EBT:
I concur. At the least it should create a rebuttable presumption that the officer is in the wrong.
Cacti
@rumpole:
Yep. The national FOP just flipped the bird to people of color in the clearest way they could…short of lighting up a cross.
shecky
The video was kind of a yawn, really. I was expecting something more substantive, but there wasn’t much there.
For those who can’t watch, bored cops show up, shoot the breeze with ranch employees, have some not particularly heated words with the camera folks, and eventually leave. Over a couple days. Nobody seemed to really lose it over anything, let alone a drone.
Villago Delenda Est
@scav: The primary purpose of “peace officers” is to protect the lives and property of the parasite overclass.
Whatever services they provide the general public are just a happy coincidence.
Hillary Rettig
@Poopyman: thanks for pointing that out.
Arclite
@EBT:
+1
Keith G
@rumpole:
That’s a bit ironic since the Trump tax plan would undoubtedly harm the long term financial health of FOP members since local governments losing out on federal spending end up with greater balance sheet issues. Cities like Houston are already finding ways to reduce their obligations to police and fire retirement funds to smooth out future financial shortfalls.
Hillary Rettig
@shecky: substantive enough. think about it this way – a dramatic standoff in such a situation is a police failure. (Think of the guy in NYC who knocked a bicyclist off his bike, or numerous other examples that went viral.) but just putting “undramatic” pressure and intimidation on non-lawbreakers is doin’ it right, if your goal is to get away with chilling dissent.
Hillary Rettig
@Villago Delenda Est: nicely put
Mnemosyne
So we have an interesting and complicated local issue that no one seems to know how to solve that has animal activists on both sides.
Because of our temperate So Cal weather, we have a lot of homeless people. A fair number of them have pets, usually cats or dogs. In fact, it’s not unusual for someone to be homeless *because* they have a pet since a lot of low-income housing bans pets.
A homeless couple who hangs out at the library where G works just had their cat taken away from them because the cat had a benign tumor that they couldn’t afford to have removed. Pasadena Humane Society has gotten vet care for the cat and she will be put up for adoption as soon as she recovers from the tumor removal.
But … the homeless owners love the cat and are devastated that she’s been taken away. She was so friendly that the library staff let her wander the building, so now they’re upset, too.
So, on the surface, this sounds like a happy story: cat taken away from “neglectful” owners, will be getting a new home. But it really isn’t as simple and easy as that. Should we be taking pets away from caring people who can’t afford more than basic vet care? Wouldn’t providing low-cost vet care and pet-friendly low-income housing be better for most people?
Villago Delenda Est
@Keith G: Anything beyond the end of the current fiscal quarter is just too hard to think about .
Hillary Rettig
@Mike J: did you catch the bit where the police were flipping through a giant law code book trying to figure out what they could charge them with? I suspect they were all legit.
raven
My neighbors are about to move to Fresno. He just finished his masters and will be working in some sciencey type of government work. It’s the only option where the salary was close to what they needed.
singfoom
@Mnemosyne: I used to live in Berkeley and I saw plenty of homeless people with pets. I always thought it was odd though I could understand having a dog for security. I understand where you’re coming from but if it’s either cat stays with homeless owners and remains untreated or cat is taken away from homeless owners, treated and then put up for adoption, I choose B.
In a perfect world, they’d be treated and given back but at least this way they get treated. The people have a choice, the pets don’t. My 2 cents.
Mike E
The deputy’s nameplate is over the other pocket, so that mourning band ain’t covering up anything, just sayin’…but yeah. Fuck oppression!
Mnemosyne
@singfoom:
Right, but you don’t want to create a Catch-22 where people don’t want to bring their pets in for routine care because they’re afraid the pet will be taken away. And it seems unnecessarily harsh to tell poor people who need housing assistance that they’re not allowed to have pets.
I think there’s a middle ground here that no one is willing to venture out to. And, frankly, I think there’s some middle-class bias on the part of the humane society here that doesn’t understand why someone would rather remain homeless and keep their beloved pet than give the pet up so they can live in pet-free low income housing.
ETA: The librarians are trying to intervene and see if there’s any way the couple could get their cat back, but they’re getting the cold shoulder from Pasadena Humane.
WaterGirl
@Mnemosyne: maybe the library or a library person can adopt?
Riggsveda
Is it any wonder the FOP endorsed Trump?
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Poopyman:
Also, the cop appears to have an unobscured name tag over his right breast pocket.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
That’s a Fresno County Sheriff uniform, not the Fresno City Police. Minor point, but one should be fair and accurate.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
I dig your work, Hillary, just wanted to help make sure of correctness.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
BTW, the black ribbon is to honor a fallen cop somewhere usually.
Mnemosyne
@WaterGirl:
I don’t think city policy allows the library to adopt the cat. And it doesn’t really solve the underlying problem, which is that the owners didn’t have any options other than giving up the cat when she developed an expensive but not life-threatening health problem. It just seems like humane societies should be able to provide better options to help impoverished people with their pets other than swooping in and taking them away. The owners would have loved to have gotten the tumor removal surgery for their cat, but there was no way to do it unless they gave her up entirely.
I should add that Pasadena Humane is a no-kill shelter, so kitty is in no danger of her life assuming the surgery and recovery goes well. I’m well aware that, in another city or state, she could have been taken away and promptly euthanized as unadoptable, so that’s one small mercy.
Hillary Rettig
@Mnemosyne: @singfoom: Isn’t there a vet clinic or rescue that offers free care to hardship cases? It would seem like indigence would be easy to prove in this case. // Either way it seems really unfair – poverty /= neglect – and the cat, if he/she could speak, would probably want to stay with her person as well. // I agree with you that there seems to be some bias involved.
The cat being a bit of a public figure it seems that at least someone would set up a GoFundMe to cover expenses.
WaterGirl
@Mnemosyne: Sometimes even though you can’t solve the bigger problem, you can help this person who is standing right in front of you. That’s where I’m coming from. I wish the library folks could have paid for the vet care, probably too late for that offer so the homeless person could get their beloved pet back?
Hillary Rettig
@West of the Rockies (been a while): Thanks! I was using the term “Fresno” generically because at least a couple of different types of cops stopped by during the filming (including CHiPs), but you’re right, best to be precise.
NCSteve
Doesn’t chocolate kill ferrets.
Hillary Rettig
@WaterGirl: that would have been an excellent solution
Mnemosyne
@Hillary Rettig:
Sadly for the owners, Karma (the kitty’s name) is already in the system, so they won’t be able to get her back. I think that if the owners had asked, people would have been happy to donate and help them find a vet, but they were afraid that the cat would be taken away anyway since they’re homeless and that alone is often used as proof of neglect.
I’m not actually that worried about the cat because Pasadena Humane is a top-notch place and she’ll get the best of care and a nice new home. I’m sad for her well-meaning owners who felt they didn’t have any options to get her the care she needed because they’re poor and homeless. I know it probably seems like something very far down on the list in other locations that have fewer no-kill options, but it really seems to be needed here since the more pressing issues are mostly under control.
sigaba
@Mnemosyne: Sadly this is how I got Lucy-Dog. My ex was doing her veterinary residency at Tufts and a couple brought Lucy in, she had been in a terrible accident and had degloving injuries to her front paws. The owners couldn’t afford to pay for surgery so they relinquished her and Erin did it herself and covered the costs, and adopted her. They couldn’t find the people that brought her in and they had probably written her off for dead :( I got Lucy in the girlfriend divorce, Lucy likes me better for some reason.
Lucy on the right.
SiubhanDuinne
etv13
“Already in the system” seems like a really stupid reason nothing can be done. The shelter ought to give the cat back to its owners.
Dadadadadadada
@Cacti: Or killing dozens of unarmed black men while suffering no consequences.
Dadadadadadada
@Mnemosyne: Have all your library friends line up to volunteer to be the cat’s new owner. Whoever wins that lottery immediately gives the cat back to its family, and all live happily ever after.
Bill
@Mnemosyne: The real battle is between cat lovers and bird lovers