UPDATE: Black Man Tased and Beaten in Peoria, IL.

Tasing of a Black Man Tased - Beaten in Peoria, IL.
Cross posted on African American Political Pundit and The Post-Racial Blog

---

Indicted Tuesday were, from left, Peoria police Officers Gerald W.Suelter, 39, Andrew R. Smith, 29, and Jeremy Layman, 31. The charges stem from a chase last May of Bryce R. Scott, 34, who claims he was beaten after he stopped his car and put his hands outside his window near the intersection of Abington Street and Perry Avenue.

As reported by PJ Star, Another Peoria police officer has been charged with official misconduct in connection with the pursuit and arrest of a Peoria man last May who was kicked, stomped and Tased after he apparently surrendered.

A Peoria County grand jury on Tuesday returned a five-count indictment against Jeremy J. Layman, 31, of Hanna City. The officer faces four counts of obstructing justice and one count of official misconduct. Layman posted 10 percent of a $15,000 bond Tuesday to remain out of custody.

Two others, Andrew R. Smith, 29, and Gerald W. Suelter, 39, were also indicted Tuesday for their alleged role in the May 3 incident.

Both men face charges of official misconduct, aggravated battery, battery and mob action. They had already been charged by way of a complaint in mid-March and their bonds were set at $10,000.

Smith and Suelter will next appear in court on April 16 for their arraignment. A court date for Layman has not been set. All three face up to five years in prison on each of the official misconduct charges.

The charges stem from an early morning chase of Bryce R. Scott, 34, who claims he was beaten after he stopped his car and put his hands outside his window near the intersection of Abington Street and Perry Avenue.

Scott, who is facing federal and state drug dealing charges, claims he was pepper sprayed, stomped, kicked, tased and punched after he complied with officers’ requests.

A dashboard camera in a squad car recorded what happened next. After Scott stopped his car, he is surrounded by several officers, who shout for him to comply, which he apparently does. Within seconds, Scott is taken to the ground and is out of the camera’s view.

A prosecutors said at a earlier bond hearing for Suelter and Smith that Suelter repeatedly Tased Scott while Smith allegedly stomped and kicked Scott “at least 20 times, at one point repositioning himself for leverage.”

Layman is accused of stopping the squad car camera from recording. The official misconduct charge for him states “he knowingly concealed, altered or disguised physical evidence concerning the stop and apprehension of Bryce Scott.”

When asked if more officers could face charges, State’s Attorney Kevin Lyons said “a review of police officer conduct continues.” More HERE

Killing 'nonwhite people' was motive in Brockton shooting spree...

(AP Photo/The Enterprise, Tim Correira) Brockton, Massachusetts -- The Boston Globe reports: A man accused of a horrific rape and killing spree told investigators that he was "fighting extinction" of the white race and had stockpiled 200 rounds of ammunition to "kill 'nonwhite people' such as African Americans, Hispanics and Jewish people," according to a police report filed today in court.

Selma Goncalves, 20

After forcing his way into a home and raping a 22-year-old woman, the alleged assailant, Keith Luke, shot and killed the woman's younger sister, who tried to help her. Luke, 22, then allegedly turned his fury back on the rape victim, firing his gun through a white teddy bear that she clutched in terror, police said.

Down the street, Luke allegedly opened fire and killed a homeless man who happened by pushing a shopping cart. He told police after his arrest that he had planned to go to a synagogue near his home and, "kill as many Jews as possible during bingo night," according to the report. "Luke told us that he intended to shoot himself in the head when he was through."

Rabbi Joshua Cohen of Temple Beth Emunah, a Conservative synagogue in the neighborhood where Luke lives, said a Massachusetts state trooper and Brockton police officer told him this morning that Luke evidently had planned to continue his rampage at the temple. The synagogue has a bingo night Wednesday starting at 6:30 p.m. More HERE

"Post-Racial" America?

H/T No Bulletin

Pam Spaulding reports on a shocking situation at Algiers Point. Her story is excerpted from an A.C. Thompson article in "The Nation." Is this true, or a spoof? You be the judge:

Facing an influx of refugees, the residents of Algiers Point could have pulled together food, water and medical supplies for the flood victims. Instead, a group of white residents, convinced that crime would arrive with the human exodus, sought to seal off the area, blocking the roads in and out of the neighborhood by dragging lumber and downed trees into the streets. They stockpiled handguns, assault rifles, shotguns and at least one Uzi and began patrolling the streets in pickup trucks and SUVs. The newly formed militia, a loose band of about fifteen to thirty residents, most of them men, all of them white, was looking for thieves, outlaws or, as one member put it, anyone who simply "didn't belong."

...Fellow militia member Wayne Janak, 60, a carpenter and contractor, is more forthcoming with me. "Three people got shot in just one day!" he tells me, laughing. We're sitting in his home, a boxy beige-and-pink structure on a corner about five blocks from Daigle's Grocery. "Three of them got hit right here in this intersection with a riot gun," he says, motioning toward the streets outside his home. Janak tells me he assumed the shooting victims, who were African-American, were looters because they were carrying sneakers and baseball caps with them. He guessed that the property had been stolen from a nearby shopping mall. According to Janak, a neighbor "unloaded a riot gun"--a shotgun--"on them. We chased them down." More HERE

Dispatches from Post-Racial America

Skeptical Brotha says: I’m interrupting your regularly scheduled corporate propaganda to bring some disturbing news from the West Coast. Apparently, the post-racial America that signaled Barack Obama’s election as President of the United States is a fraud. More HERE

Racism In America Is Over

Post-Racial Blog Publisher says: Here is an article that proves that there are some young black folks who can be bought and sold by media. Check out his article:

Racism Is Over

by John McWorter

The question someone like me has been asked to answer several times a week since Nov. 5 has been, "Are we now in a post-racial America?"

Giving an answer requires that we know what the question really refers to: whether America is past racism. Moreover, the point is largely racism against black people, i.e., Barack Obama, i.e., the people who are America's eternal shame, and so on. We are not really thinking about racism against Arabs. Most of us have a sense that the Asian pitching in on how the question applies to her is vaguely beside the point.

So, in answer to the question, "Is America past racism against black people," I say the answer is yes.

Of course, nothing magically changed when Obama was declared president-elect. However, our proper concern is not whether racism still exists, but whether it remains a serious problem. The election of Obama proved, as nothing else could have, that it no longer does.

I make that claim while quite sure that in 2009, a noose or three will be hung somewhere, some employer will be revealed to have used the N-word on tapes of a meeting, and so on. America will remain imperfect, as humans have always been.

It's not an accident, however, that increasingly, alleged cases of racism are tough calls, reflecting the complexity of human affairs rather than the stark injustice of Jim Crow or even redlining. A young black man is shot dead by three police officers and only one of them is white. A white radio host uses a jocular slur against black women--used for decades in the exact same way by black rappers celebrated as bards.

The issue, then, is degree. When it comes to racism, too many suddenly think in the binary fashion of the quantum physicist: either there is no racism or there "is" racism, which, no matter its nature or extent, indicts America as a land with bigotry in its warp and woof.

But anyone who wants to take this line from now on will have to grapple with the elephant in the middle of the room: the president of AmeriKKKa is black. If the racism that America is "all about" is the kind that allows a black man to become president, then I'm afraid the nature of this "all about" is too abstract for me to follow, and most Americans will feel similarly. It's time to change the discussion.

More HERE