The Siege

SMC has a BIG PROBLEM

JUNE 6 UPDATE: Today, The Siege had a wonderful meeting with Dean Judith Penchansky (SMC Disciplinarian) and student Nehasi Lee in response to a false police report that described me as a “disruptive student” at the May 18 event detailed below.

The dean and I had a frank and honest exchange of ideas regarding my encounters with SMC’s police and her office’s duty to follow-up on any complaint lodged by any SMC staff against a student. She came across as reasonable, a good listener and ultimately acknowledged there was nothing for her office to take action over. Hopefully, as a responsible member of the SMC administration, she will relay to others in a position to care and take action, the concerns expressed about pervasive police misconduct at the college.

NEWS: Truly there are many officers of the law, everywhere, who operate day after day as heroes and defenders of the people, protecting our civil and constitutional rights and liberties. They deserve our continual thanks and appreciation for standing between us and the lawless chaos which would ensue without them. This author, on many occasions, has had reason to express appreciation for an officer’s help, especially those from the Los Angeles Police Department.

But there are others who, putting on a badge, believe themselves to be set apart to bully and abuse (click to witness SMC cops in action), at their pleasure, the very citizens they’ve sworn to protect. Usually this bullying happens to those who remain the most unempowered, either by economic class or by education. Students fit in here perfectly. It’s this small percentage of badge-wearers, committing crimes under the color of authority, who deserve our profound contempt and need to be held accountable under the law.

Where are the local demonstrations of outrage over the war crimes presently being perpetrated by the Israeli Goliath against the Lebanese people? Go to Save Lebanon to find out when and where demonstrations will be staged in your community.

And since the Western mainstream media (MSM), particularly in the United States, is compromised in its ability to report the facts regarding the Middle East, truth-seekers must dig elsewhere to find reasoned and detailed information untainted by Cheney Administration-friendly bias. An excellent blog covering the issues pertaining to Israel’s irresponsible reaction to Hezbollah’s killing of eight Israel soldiers and capturing two can be found at Lebanese Blogger Forum.

There’s so much deception, confusion and nonsense spewed forth in the popular media which undermines the notion that global warming is a reality, it’s little wonder that many people remain unconvinced of its immediate threat. Such intentionally-sown confusion allows George W. Bush and those he services (that’s not you and me, by the way) to postpone the critical actions our government so desperately needs to take.

Public relations hacks working for the U.S. auto industry, oil and coal interests; compromised scientists who’ve sold out and will forever lack any credibility amongst their peers; congressmen, senators and presidents who operate by accepting legalized bribes and then paying off those debts by violating the public trust; and certain large corporate interests at odds with life on this planet are just some of those you can thank for the muddying of waters about facts regarding the ecological catastrophe quickly coming our way.

On the other hand, over in the rarefied (and under-reported) world of truth, there is virtually universal agreement amongst credible scientists that global warming is indeed occurring, and to an extent and with rapidness absolutely guaranteeing much more extreme planetary consequences unless we take serious action NOW!

The Union of Concerned Scientists, in an article titled “Global Warming Facts” (which includes many links for the sceptic and the seeker wishing to investigate further), include the following list of the “20 Hottest Years on Record:”

Notice a trend? And 2005 – hottest year on record.

Still not convinced? You’re right, there’s so much more to it. And the rebuttals, you’ve heard ‘em – these things are cyclical, it’s happened before, it undermines the troops, there’s no proof, it’s just progaganda from environmental extremists, the whole thing’s overblown, it’s a ruse by the homosexuals to distract good Christians from the gay-marriage issue, not everyone agrees, If your so smart, how come it’s not in the Bible?, it’s nothing new, Dubya will protect us, blah, blah, blah.

Well, do yourself (and the rest of the planet) a favor and go see the recently released “An Inconvenient Truth,” a film that will blow your mind and bring you up to speed. This documentary, featuring Al Gore delivering an impassioned, funny, fact-filled, and sobering presentation which he has shared thousands of times with audiences across the globe, will fill in all the blanks and put to rest the myths that keep this issue from being tackled in the political arena.

Become informed and help pressure the politicians to exercise their political will to take the necessary actions. We need to come together on this growing peril, and fast!

NEWS: On Thursday last at 11:15 am, there was a “spoken word” event at the Santa Monica College Clocktower, sponsored by the SMC Associated Students, ICC and the campus club A.L.A.S.(Association of Latino American Students). Billed as “Celebrating Spoken Word Through Unity and Diversity” and featuring paid performers “Tiwatunali,” plus unpaid performances by SMC students, the event was a mix of poetry and words of “revolution.” But the real drama featured the repressive and intimidating misconduct of SMC officers Malone, Hearn, and Champagne.

(click to watch)

The video above is just a two and a half minute snippet of footage taken by this author of the three officers. Watch, in particular, how Officer Malone reacts to SMC student Gaily Ezer, 19, as she shares a particular passage (Article 19) from the pocket edition of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Adopted and proclaimed by General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) on December 10, 1948) she had with her.

During the first half of the video, the audio of the exchange between the officers and Ezer is overwhelmed by the public address system amplifying the words of Tiwatunali. But during the second half, you can hear Malone bully and threaten Ezer with arrest, coupled with his unwillingness to respond to her pleas for clarification of his words.

Formal complaints are being filed with the Santa Monica College police department, the Los Angeles District Attorney, and the California Attorney General based on words and actions taken by the aforementioned officers this day.

Furthermore, well-known civil rights and police misconduct expert, attorney Steve Yagman, is being sought for representation.

Note to the Associated Student Board of Directors:

Sure, you’d rather the term was history and you were chillin with your posse on some tropical beach. We get it. But uh, today’s only May 4th and vacation’s a few weeks away. Think maybe you could stay connected and keep updated the mere handful of official campus bulletin boards we have?
Knowing what’s up at this place is tough enough.

UPDATE: The Siege forgot to mention that up until just recently, if you called the Office of Student Life and no one was there to answer, the pre-recorded message you heard let you know about the upcoming Christmas holiday and winter class schedule.

Two of the most influential visionaries and leaders in the political blogosphere, Markos Moulitsas Zuniga (Daily Kos) and Jerome Armstrong (MyDD.com), co-authors of the unflinching “Crashing the Gate: Netroots, Grassroots, and the Rise of People-Powered Politics” - a powerful dissection of today’s political establishment - are coming to town.

On Friday evening, April 21, Zuniga and Armstrong will be at “Club 310″ (3321 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica) from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm, to be followed by an 8:00 pm appearance at “Book Soup” (8818 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles).

NEWS: In an explosive piece entitled "Rewriting the Science" which aired on CBS 60 Minute's Sunday night, the American public had, yet again, another opportunity to peer into the intentionally deceptive workings of the Bush administration, especially when they don't like the conclusions of world-renowned scientists.  "Check out the video."