Las Vegas Anarchoblogs

We received the following from our comrades via email, and decided to repost it here: Nevada Jurisprudence and Prison Report Vol. 4, No 1      “Veritas in Caritatis”               Winter Issue 2014 THEME: “Audi alterum partem”: Listen to the other side!  “Voice of the Nevada Jurisprudence and Prison Report” E-mail:  nvjprudence@gmail.com    http://nvjprudence.wordpress.com

This should be repeated and repeated until it is heard and changed by the legislature! Torture has no place in Nevada. Reblogged from: Nevada Cure Ely State Prison is a prison with most of its units on a permanent lockdown. Most prisoners are being kept in solitary confinement for years, which has been defined as possible torture, by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture. We

How many more people must die alone, unexplained, without medical care, after very long time inside Nevada's prisons? Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2014, by Ana Ley, Las Vegas Sun State corrections officials are investigating the death of an Ely State Prison inmate who was found unconscious inside his cell earlier this week. Paul Skinner, 53, was discovered by prison staff on Tuesday.

Not once, in the entire 40 year history of the LVMPD, has a cop EVER been charged for killing someone, Even when that person was unarmed and or completely innocent.

The video at the bottom of this post, consisting of a compilation of various videos showing past instances of police brutality by members of the LVMPD, was submitted by Jason Nellis and uploaded to his YouTube channel in order to encourage Las Vegas residents to attend a January 21, 2014 Clark County Commission meeting, in which a vote will be held regarding Sheriff Doug Gillespie’s and Commissioner Tom Collins’ continued attempts to force through an increase in the county sales tax to hire even more cops. In the description for the video Jason writes:

“A video made especially to oppose the “More Cops Tax” being pushed at the County Commission, to be voted on by the Commission on Tuesday, January 21st, 2014. A compilation of clips, news headlines, and a personal account of police brutality and police shootings of innocent people. Please watch all the way through as, even if you still think more cops will keep us safer, you will see that this new tax won’t be all it’s cracked up to be.

Facebook event page for the “More Cops Tax” hearing: https://www.facebook.com/events/23882…

Community opposition page, with facts and figures: http://www.snwatchdog.org/images/more…
Southern Nevada Watchdogs: http://www.snwatchdog.org
Nevada Cop Block Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/NVCopBlock.org
“More Cops Tax” related videos: http://jazoovian.wordpress.com/2014/0…
An article I recently wrote on Vegas cops: http://jazoovian.wordpress.com/2013/1…

Also, for one stranger’s backup to my story toward the end (I have found no videos, after lots of searching, unfortunately), here is a comment on a Las Vegas Sun story that made no mention of the events even though the reporter was supposedly there:

‘I was present downtown on friday night. I saw people being harassed VIOLENTLY by police without provocation. It honestly appeared as if a riot response was what they were attempting to incite from the peaceful but incredibly confused crowd. My friends & I were almost trampled by a horse as the officer astride it charged a man whom another officer told to put his bottle on the cruiser next to me. The city of Las Vegas is known THE WORLD over for being a city in which open container drinking is not only allowed but encouraged as a lynchpin of our economy. Now all of a sudden it’s a law thats ONLY enforced on locals. As I type this, I am standing next to 4 men with 3foot margaritas & a police officer. They are certainly not being treated as I was when I was simply moving down the sidewalk.’”

Everyone certainly should come to the “More Cops” tax hearing, but even if you don’t see this post until after the vote has already been held, this video is well worth watching to see just how corrupt, violent, and completely unaccountable for their actions Las Vegas area police are. Among the notable clips included within this video are the case of a group of innocent and non-violent tourists that were attacked by Metro cops after they (the tourists) actually broke up a fight during New Years on the Strip, a Henderson motorist; who was repeatedly kicked in the head after falling asleep while driving; as a result of low blood sugar from being diabetic, the murder of Gulf War vet Stanley Gibson; who was suffering PTSD induced panic attack and completely innocent; as well as unarmed; when he was shot by Ofc. Jesus Arevalo, the murder of another veteran; Erik Scott; outside a local Costco store; in which the store’s surveillance camera somehow happened to be malfunctioning that day, and a recent case where an unarmed; innocent man was shot while attempting to walk out of a store; because a Metro cop mistook him for a suspect they were looking for.

Thanks for reading. A Video Compilation of Las Vegas Police Brutality via Submission is a post from Nevada CopBlock

No “More Cops”

Centuries upon centuries ago, the Roman philosopher Cicero boldly stated that the more laws that exist, the less justice there will be for the people. Hundreds of years later, we still, by the bounds of our own willful shackles, continue to misbelieve that every time a new law is enforced, and the more the individuals trained to do the enforcing uphold it, that we’re going to be given a sense of safety.

This coming Tuesday, January 21st, the Clark County (NV) Commission will vote on a highly publicized and controversial new tax initiative known as the More Cops Tax. As one might expect, the bill is pretty self explanatory:

More revenue from the citizens generates more funding and more police officers on the road. The average informed citizen may wonder why this would need to be placed on the altar for dissection. “Why, more cops means more protection for the people!”, has been the most habitual, emotional based response from the collective of the American populace. Yet, as scientific research has shown us, possible correlations do not spell out causation. I want to make one thing clear to all of my readers right now: regardless as to whether or not you’re a republican, democrat, or libertarian, conservative, liberal, or voluntaryist, we cannot continue to hold the misconception that putting more police officers on the streets is going to endow us with a more solid feeling of protection.

Don’t believe me? Well, I’m sure Kelly Thomas, if he were still with us right now, would have something to say after he was beaten to death by two officers as he was crying out for his dad. Or what about the individuals who are falsely arrested or attacked by officers for videotaping arrests, an act which has been deemed legal by courts? Or, more importantly, what about the seemingly expanding list of individuals who have been assaulted, threatened, forced to watch in agony as their pets are shot, or even killed by officers for absolutely no reason? Are we really willing to continually delude ourselves into thinking that we’re being well protected?

Beyond the abuses, scandals, and deaths, there is another disturbing question about this More Cops Tax that seems to be largely ignored by the media and the commission. That inquiry is whether or not the appropriated funds (which we’ve been told will be spent rationally) could add to militarization of the LVMPD. Over the course of the last few years, the line between police officers and soldiers has become less noticeable. Armored vehicles resembling tanks, assault rifles, and fully equipped armor is becoming a standard norm in many states. The question, of course, is why? I’m not trying to make the argument that cops shouldn’t have equipment. What I would like to know, however, is why every police officer in the country now has to look like a member of S.W.A.T when they go through a neighborhood to settle a dispute.

Some of you probably think that I’m being slightly paranoid about all this, or that I’m simply being too pessimistic about this situation. Perhaps you’re right. However, I want you to consider this: every founder, from Washington to Madison, warned us about the consequences that unfettered militarization could have upon our country. James Madison, the father of the United States Constitution, stated that a country with the elements of a standing army would no longer have the capacity to breed liberty. Posse Comitatus, one of the most important acts in properly defining the limits of military use, forbids the use of the military to handle police actions. If this tax does clear the commission, and ends up creating an environment where militarization and abuse at the hands of the police could fundamentally take root in Metro like it has in other parts of the country, when will we be finally willing to allow reality to slap us in the face and give us the motivation to draw a line in the sand? I want to make it fully clear that I’m not trying to say that every cop is an immoral abuser. I fully recognize that there are cops out there who are well intentioned and do their best to defend and secure our rights. Sadly, there is an epidemic of the uncaring aforementioned that have been detailed in this article, and the media seems to make it clear that they’re growing by the day.

If the commission really wants to make a real change among our police officers, then maybe they should look into how they can re appropriate funds to teach new cadets about the importance of upholding the Constitution, and not using their badge to as an excuse to lay abuse on others.

The above post was submitted by Adam Sanacore, originally via Facebook.

Thanks for reading. More Cops Does Not Mean More Justice For Las Vegas – Submitted by Adam Sanacore is a post from Nevada CopBlock

We received per email the following: Nevada Jurisprudence and Prison Report Vol. 3, No 4     “Veritas in Caritatis”              Fall Issue 2013 THEME: “Audi alterum partem” Listen to the other side! “Voice of the Nevada Jurisprudence and Prison Report” E-mail:  nvjprudence@gmail.com   

 In: Las Vegas Sun, Dec. 16, 2013 By: Ana Ley More than two months after prison inmate Richard Ferst’s corpse was discovered inside a cell at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center, it remains unexamined inside a cold chamber at a funeral home in Carson City. Ferst’s mother, Sandy Morningstar of Las Vegas, hopes preserving the body will help reveal how her son died — something

We just posted issue nr 14 of the NPN (Nevada Prisoners' Newsletter) online. You can read, print and send to your loved one / download it here.

Doug Gillespie,

Two years ago today, Stanley Gibson was murdered by Ofc. Jesus Arevalo of the LVMPD

I know your name. It’s a name I will never forget and, along with Jesus Avalero, one of the two names I can NEVER FORGET. My name is Rondha Gibson. I’m sure you remember my name too, but do you remember what today’s date represents? For me, it’s something else I can never, ever forget.

Today marks two years since Stanley Gibson was shot and killed while sitting unarmed and incapacitated in his car on December 12, 2011.

He was my husband and he was murdered by Officer Jesus Avalero, who you once called dependable and stated you would stand behind. Fortunately, two years later your opinion about that has seemingly changed. Now you say he is responsible for my husband’s death, although you still refuse to call it murder. While you finally had the decency to at least fire him, you still haven’t held him accountable for his actions that day in any legal manner.

Essentially, his “punishment” for shooting my husband, who was both unarmed and innocent, is to have to find another job (after having spent slightly less than two years sitting at home collecting a full paycheck). I don’t doubt that he will cash in on some connections he made while with Metro to get some cushy security job or something such as that. That’s not a true punishment, it’s an inconvenience.

Meanwhile, the last 23 months of my life have been nothing but hell. While Jesus Arevalo was on a paid vacation (AKA “administrative leave”), I was struggling just to pay my rent and other bills. In all that time, I’ve hardly even really had a chance to grieve for my murdered husband amidst all the calls from collection agencies wanting me to pay for Stanley’s funeral, which I couldn’t even afford.

You once claimed at the inquest that you were in contact with me everyday and that you publicly apologized to me, calling Stan’s death a mistake. Even that’s a lie. We had never even talked until after that inquest and that only happened because Steve Sanson of VIPI asked you to come and talk to me. That was the first and only time we ever spoke and the apology you gave then was not worth the breath it took to deliver the fake sentiments it represented.

In the 23 months since Stanley was taken from me by Jesus Arevalo and the culture of lawlessness that you continue to enable within Metro by refusing to hold anyone accountable for their actions, no matter how heinous, I had only two requests for you:

That Stan’s medals and other personal belongings from that day be returned to me.
And that someone be held accountable for his murder.

Finally, his medals came home after a lot of unnecessary stalling, but still nobody has actually been held accountable for Stanley’s murder. Simply being fired isn’t punishment enough for taking the life of another person. I will not just be standing back and accepting that, either. My third demand is your immediate resignation as sheriff and I will renew that demand for every one of your successors until they create true accountability within the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

No more members of this community should have to walk around in fear that they will be shot down in cold blood by cops, who know they have no chance of being punished for their actions. No more families should have to deal with the loss of loved ones and the knowledge that accountability is not even an option for Las Vegas area cops, as I and way too many others have had to. I will not rest until genuine changes are made.

I am Rondha Gibson, widow of Stanley L Gibson, a Disabled Veteran murdered by LVMPD Ofc. Jesus Arevalo. I was victimized by members of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, but I am finished being a victim.

Rondha G.
NEVER FORGET STANLEY L. GIBSON

Thanks for reading. An Open Letter to LVMPD Sheriff Doug Gillespie From Stanley Gibson’s Widow is a post from Nevada CopBlock

Metro displaying just how shorthanded they are on Fremont Street. (Notice the massive, unruly crowd being held back behind them.)

This was received via submission after originally being posted at the website of the Sunset Activist Collective.

Once again, Sheriff Gillespie and County Commissioner Tom Collins are trying to push the “More Cops” sales tax down the throats of the people of Las Vegas to fill the self-inflicted gaps in Metro’s already bloated budget and hire even more cops to harass and abuse the members of that very community.

Yet another sales tax is wrong from a practical standpoint in a time when the Las Vegas economy consistently ranks at or near the bottom in every financial category and most local residents are already just barely hanging on. By nature, sales taxes are regressive. Unlike wealthy people that have the capability of stashing most of their income in the bank, poor people generally have to spend most, if not all, of their money on the basic necessities of life. It’s not a coincidence that crime rates have increased as the economy has tanked. People that have little or no other options resort to whatever they have to do to survive. Taking even more from people that are already struggling just to keep their head above water is not the way to “take a bite out of crime.” It’s an unarguable fact that poverty leads to even more crime.

Beyond the basic economics it’s wrong on an ethical level to expect poor residents to fund their own abuse at the hands of the LVMPD. People in poor and/or minority neighborhoods are routinely stopped, searched, abused, and humiliated by the police. In fact, Metro employs several “saturation units,” whose stated function is to descend upon certain neighborhoods en masse seeking any excuse they can to stop, interrogate, and arrest residents of that community. And those many, many abuses don’t end with harassment and wrongful arrests, either. The victims of police beatings and outright murder are predominantly members of the poor/ minority classes.

Not surprisingly, it has also been explicitly stated that these “select’ neighborhoods don’t include the ones in Summerlin. Many of the proponents of the “More Cops” tax increase are, in fact, residents of Summerlin and other wealthy neighborhoods, who have expressed the desire to have a cop in their neighborhood because it makes them feel safe. I have very little doubt that the residents of poor neighborhoods would have no qualms about letting them have some of the cops terrorizing their neighborhoods. They rarely make them feel safe, especially within the Las Vegas area, since there is absolutely no hope that any sort of accountability will ever be imposed upon the perpetrators of injustices against them.

Metro isn’t short on cops, they’re short on priorities. Anyone who has witnessed the massive East German style check point erected on Fremont St. every First Friday or the continual harassment of water vendors and buskers on the Strip, both of whom are just trying to earn a living during tough economic times, would have to question the claims of personnel shortages within the LVMPD. When you can afford to employ undercover cops to ensure tourists don’t have the chance to buy water at a cheaper price than the casinos sell it, then maybe you have a few people to spare for other things. Perhaps those plain clothes cops using official Metro vehicles to escort Zappos employees to their parking garage so they don’t have to look at poor people along the way, could be better utilized, as well.

Gillespie and the rest of his mafia dons have expended their budget on raises for an already overpaid police force, shiny new headquarters buildings that they insisted on pushing forward with in the middle of the worst recession in history, and million dollar settlements to the victims of their abuses and murders. Now they want the poorest people within this community to bail them out so that they can hire more cops even while absolutely refusing to do anything to hold them responsible for the crimes they continue to commit against their own neighbors and families.

Just say NO to more thugs!

Thanks for reading. No “More Cops” for the LVMPD. They Aren’t Needed and They Aren’t Wanted. is a post from Nevada CopBlock