The mindless menance of violence in America

RFK, in 1968, on senseless violence.



Happy Independence Day.

Via Crooks and Liars.

the antagonistic character of capitalist accumulation

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Don't worry: he got tazered when it was all said and done. (Plus, it may or may not be staged)

More things to look at instead of writing papers

Jay Reatard punches some dude in the head. Apparently the crowd wasn't too happy about it.

Gitmo

The absolute best/worst part of this article is the rhetoric from the military that suggests that suicide is the prisoners' form of a public relations war against America. Clearly.
Stay classy, Gitmo. Via, again, Harpers.

'Fingernail slash' at Guantanamo

An inmate at the US detention centre in Guantanamo Bay slashed his throat with a sharpened fingernail, US officials have confirmed.

The prisoner, described by his lawyer as an Algerian held for six years, required several stitches and spent a week under psychiatric observation.

US officials characterised the incident as an act of "self-harm" rather than a suicide attempt.

There are just over 300 prisoners still being held in the base in Cuba.

Detention ruling

The latest incident reportedly took place last month in a shower.

US Navy Cmdr Andrew Haynes said there was "an impressive effusion of blood" but the prisoner was treated by guards and taken to the prison clinic.

Officials would give no details of the man but lawyer Zachary Katznelson said the inmate had been held without charge for nearly six years.

Cmdr Haynes said "self-harm" incidents were a tactic to discredit US forces.

There have been four suicides at the camp.

Two Saudis and a Yemeni prisoner were found hanged in June last year.

This May another Saudi was found not breathing in his cell and attempts to revive him failed.

Co-ordinated suicide attempts last May involving hoarded medicine led to tighter rules on the dispensation of pills.

On Wednesday the US Supreme Court is to hold a hearing on whether the inmates at Guantanamo Bay have the right to contest their detention in US civilian courts.

realism

Waiting For The Guards is the first of 3 films commissioned by Amnesty to highlight the enhanced interrogation techniques used by the CIA in the “War on Terror”.

The Directors approached the making of the film in a way that has never been done before, choosing to show the reality of Stress Positions in as authentic a way as possible. They filmed a person being put into Stress Positions over a 6 hour period. There is no acting on the part of the “prisoner” – his pain and anguish is for real.

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In the news

• A flaming object has fallen out of the sky in Peru and is making people ill.
• Yet another fringe benefit for those who will not immediately perish from global warming: the receding ice has opened up the Northwest Passage.
• And, yes, we do live a police state. As I understand it, it's not technically illegal to ask John Kerry a question, but you will be tazed if you go over your allotted time. Yet the latest installment of my favorite youtube video genre, "police go crazy and taze the shit out of a good citizen." Via the Lede.

By the way, does anybody happen to know what happened to the cops who savagely tazed the UCLA student last January?