Two police officers said they’d bought narcotics at her house. Police broke down the door with a no-knock warrant. The elderly woman inside, thinking she was being attacked (well, she was), opened fire, and police shot her dead.

But another police officer said the cops had no evidence at all, and thus had lied. It is now expected serious charges will be filed against them.

When’s the last time you heard of a no-knock warrant with police smashing down the door without warning being served in a prosperous Anglo neighborhood? Answer, never. Such Gestapo tactics are used only against the oppressed, poor and defenseless, all of which demonstrates the unequal class-based system of justice in the US.

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A reader comments in our post Honoring Hrant Dink

Hrant Dink was an honest intellectual,a man of dignity, a father of three children, a man who has been raised in an orphanage and endured the difficulties of life in an early age.

As a Turk I do not view him from his ethnic origin but as a dignified man who put his views bravely (some of which I disagree)

We are all deeply affected by his death. I happened to be in Istanbul that day and witnessed many people with tears in their eyes.

Let his soul lie in peace.

A 17-year-old has confessed to the murder. His father says “he couldn’t have done this alone.”

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From Green Lisa

Patrick Meighan,longtime LA Greens activist, our PR guy and a writer himself (on a sitcom) has joined Michael Rochmes blog, Green in Los Angeles, and they are going to be updating daily.They’ll be covering local issues (Patrick mainly on social justice issues–he and two other Greens got arrested in the large civil disobedience for hotel workers) and since you’ll be off in New England… we’ll miss you.

Leaving will be hard, so many friends, so much history.

Another great Green resource is Green Bloggers and their webring of Green blogs in the US

Now that the issue of global warming has gone mainstream it’s good to remember that Greens were and are in the forefront of this and were mobilizing on it when few others were.

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LAokay is a directory of things to do, places to see, businesses in LA, and more. It has tens of thousands of entries, arranged in a fast-loading, logical, easy to use manner. It gets a lot of hits, is highly useful, and also covers Orange, San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, Santa Barbara & San Luis Obispo counties.

They are expanding and have just launched sites for New York City, San Francisco, Orlando, and Las Vegas with dozens more cities coming soon.

(Full disclosure, I do database programming for them. However, I’ve used LAOkay for years, long before we had a business relationship.)

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From Hawaiian Independence Blog comes news that Senator Akaka is warning other senators that failure to act on federal recognition for native Hawaiians could lead to a “divided Hawaii.”

The independence movement grows ever stronger. It is homegrown and widespread. You will be increasingly be hearing more about it.

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