Saturday, August 8, 2020
Violent, secretive fascistic networks operating inside California police stations
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/08/07/comp-a07.html
By Tom Carter
7 August 2020
A whistleblower in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has exposed a violent right-wing extremist gang operating within the Compton station known as the “Executioners.”
The “Executioners” network, according to a report on July 30 in the Los Angeles Times, is composed of sworn law enforcement officers who all have matching tattoos featuring “a skull with Nazi imagery” and an assault rifle. The gang “celebrates deputy shootings and the induction of new members with ‘inking parties.’”
An estimated 20 deputies are members of the “Executioners” network, most of whom work at night. According to the whistleblower’s claim, which was submitted on June 23 and more recently came to light, the “Executioners do not allow African-American or female members.”
Instead of using official police channels, the gang members communicate with each other through WhatsApp. “Members become inked as ‘Executioners’ after executing members of the public,” the whistleblower complaint states with emphasis, “or otherwise committing acts of violence in furtherance of the gang.”
According to the whistleblower complaint, the gang “wields vast power at the Compton station,” which covers an area of Los Angeles that is historically home to a large proportion of working-class black residents.
The whistleblower, deputy Thomas Banuelos, was targeted, threatened, and attacked by a member of the Executioners. “It was a very serious, violent and bloody assault which could have killed Deputy Banuelos,” the whistleblower’s attorney Alan Romero reported. A member of the Executioners “had him on the ground and was literally just bashing his head in with his elbow over and over and over again.”
When another deputy attempted to anonymously report the attack on Banuelos through an internal tip line, his identity was exposed and turned over to the Executioners, and he found graffiti scrawled on the keypad in front of the station accusing him of being a “rat.”
“I think the scariest thing,” Romero said, “is that he did what he was supposed to do. He called the authorities, and they betrayed him. They turned him right over to the gang. It’s a whistleblower’s worst nightmare.”
On the website WitnessLA, an inside source identified the three deputies in this video as members of the Executioners gang. On the video, which was published in June, the deputies savagely beat a man who is pinned to the ground.
“We have a gang here that has grown to the point where it dominates every aspect of life at the Compton station,” Romero told the Los Angeles Times. “It essentially controls scheduling, the distribution of informant tips, and assignments to deputies in the station with preference shown to members of the gang as well as prospects.”
When members of the right-wing extremist “Executioners” network do not get what they want within the sheriff’s department, the gang members threaten “work slowdowns — which involve ignoring or responding slowly to calls.” In addition, they set illegal “arrest quotas.”
The “Executioners” are only the latest subject of a string of exposures of right-wing extremist gangs, networks, and cliques operating in California police stations.
Also in recent weeks, an occult tradition of “bending badges” by police officers in Vallejo, California was exposed by the website OpenVallejo.
According to the initial report on July 28: “a secretive clique within the Vallejo Police Department has commemorated fatal shootings with beers, backyard barbecues, and by bending the points of their badges each time they kill in the line of duty.” This ritual was considered a “badge of honor” for the police officers in question.
The ritual was exposed when police captain John Whitney tried to put a stop to the practice and was fired, according to an unlawful retaliation claim he filed.
At the time of the captain’s firing, according to the OpenVallejo report, “nearly 40% of officers on the force had been in at least one shooting. .. More than a third of those had participated in two or more. The department employs about 100 sworn personnel.”
According to OpenVallejo, “the department’s most prolific shooters” are officers “Sean Kenney, Joe McCarthy and Steve Darden,” who together account “for nearly a third of the department’s 30 fatal shootings of the past two decades.”
“The cops who shoot someone bend the tabs on their badges,” stated one anonymous message received by OpenVallejo, which is believed to be from a “high-ranking Vallejo official with knowledge of the badge-bending tradition.”
“Kind of like a notch on the bedpost. It’s an indicator to each other how many hoodlums they’ve shot. They think it’s funny.”
According to the report, “For those invited into the group, a fatal shooting — their own or a colleague’s — is often followed by a barbecue or other celebration, according to current and former police department employees. The actual bending of badges occurs there or at roll call, an official law enforcement briefing that takes place at the beginning or end of a shift. Photographs indicate the first bend is often applied at the 4 o’clock point of a new initiate’s badge.”
The fascistic culture that surrounds these secretive networks has deep roots in California police departments. The Vikings police gang, which was exposed in Los Angeles during the 1990s, likewise featured tattooing rituals and was responsible for racist attacks on minorities.
“The Banditos, Spartans, Regulators, and Reapers are literal gangs that are claimed to exist within the Los Angeles law enforcement agency,” according to a 2019 report in Law Enforcement Today. “All members of the Banditos have tattoos of a skeleton wearing a sombrero, bandolier, and pistol.”
Other Los Angeles police gangs that have operated or are currently operating include the Hats, the Little Devils, the Jump Out Boys, the Grim Reapers, the “2000 Boys,” and the “3000 Boys.”
The “Jump Out Boys” were exposed in 2012 and earned international notoriety for their distinctively morbid tattoos and celebration of shootings.
A “Jump Out Boys” leaflet that was distributed to other deputies stated, “We are alpha dogs who think and act like the wolf, but never become the wolf,” and “We are not afraid to get our hands dirty without any disgrace, dishonor or hesitation... sometimes (members) need to do the things they don’t want to in order to get where they want to be.”
When a member of the “Jump Out Boys” shot someone, that member’s tattoos would be modified to feature smoke coming out of a gun.
It is significant that California’s city, county, and state government bodies are generally controlled by the Democratic Party, which has pledged nominal sympathy with the George Floyd protests and with the overwhelming popular sentiments against police brutality and racism.
These same Democrats have failed for years to root out the violent, fascistic, racist networks of police officers operating in their own communities.
The fascistic culture that has developed among police officers alongside the epidemic of brutality is not an accident, but is bound up with the role of the police in capitalist society. These contingents of degraded and desensitized brutes are being recruited and cultivated for a specific purpose: the violent suppression of the class struggle.
According to the whistleblower complaint regarding the Executioners, the members of the fascistic network target other deputies for recruitment “based on the prospect’s use of violence against suspects or other Deputies. Nearly all the CPT [Compton station] Deputies who have been involved in high-profile shootings and out-of-policy beatings at CPT in recent years have been ‘inked’ members of the Executioners.”
The Executioners use “violence against other Deputies and members of the public in order to increase their standing within the criminal organization.”
Emboldened by Trump’s call to “dominate” and to use “overwhelming force,” the police in America constituted the shock troops of the nationwide efforts to suppress the mass demonstrations that broke out following the police murder of Floyd at the end of May.
US retail bankruptcies and closures pile up amid pandemic
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/08/07/rcca-a07.html
By Trévon Austin
7 August 2020
The retail apocalypse continues to unfold in the United States under the economic pressure of the coronavirus pandemic. Since May, multiple well-known and long-established companies have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy including Neiman Marcus, J. Crew, J.C. Penney and Brooks Brothers. Tailored Brands, parent company of Men’s Wearhouse, and Lord & Taylor, along with its parent company Le Tote, became the most recent retail casualties on Sunday.
Prior to filing for bankruptcy, Tailored Brands announced in July that it would close up to 500 stores “over time” and cut about 20 percent of its corporate jobs. According to a public filing, Tailored Brands had about 19,300 employees as of Feb. 1, and 1,274 stores in the US and 125 stores in Canada. The company said it secured a deal with the majority of its senior lenders for a $630 million restructuring plan so it can survive bankruptcy.
The company's filing is partially a consequence of the trend away from business attire and toward more casual clothing during the pandemic. Millions of white-collar workers have shifted to working from home as offices have been closed and meetings moved online.
Founded in 1826, Lord & Taylor is considered America’s oldest retail store. A company official from Lord & Taylor estimated that about 20 of the company's stores are currently in a liquidation sale. The retailer runs 38 stores in the Northeast with a few more locations in the Midwest and Florida.
Lord & Taylor, which was bought by online clothing rental service Le Tote for $100 million last year, has been struggling in recent years. Under its previous owner, the Canadian-based Hudson’s Bay Company, Lord & Taylor’s chief executive complained that the store was in a fraught “middle space” among retailers because it neither sold high-end luxury nor discount apparel.
The latest additions bring the number of US retail bankruptcies this year to 43. According to S&P Global, 2020 has already seen more retail closures than the past eight years, with five months still left in the year. The last time retail companies recorded similar numbers of closures was 2010, with 48 companies filing for bankruptcy.
In 2008, a record 441 retailers filed for bankruptcy in the depths of the Great Recession. This marked the advent of the series of brick-and-mortar bankruptcies and store closures dubbed the retail apocalypse which has wiped out indoor shopping malls and strip malls around the country.
Retailers already faced severe challenges before COVID-19 forced stores to close and sparked a historic contraction in the economy. Not only were retailers struggling to compete with e-commerce stores such as Amazon and Walmart, but also ever-increasing debts threatened their stability. The arrival of the pandemic only accelerated a process that was already underway.
The coronavirus pandemic pushed retailers further into crisis. Shelter-in-place orders keeping people in their homes for weeks and the sudden loss of tens of millions of jobs facilitated a rapid change in spending habits. Shoppers abandoned malls, where many retailers who filed for bankruptcy are concentrated, as social distancing measures were implemented.
Experts also expect the pandemic to weaken the back-to-school shopping season, a typically busy time for retailers. With many schools engaging in remote learning, what families purchase for students is likely to shift towards electronics and away from clothing and other traditional items.
As the economic consequences of the pandemic continue to unfold, more bankruptcy filings are expected. A report from Coresight Research estimated that as many as 25,000 stores could permanently close in 2020, and about a quarter of all malls in the US could shutter their doors within the next three to five years.
‘Taking Taxpayers for a Ride’: Moderna to Charge $32-$37/Dose for Covid-19 Vaccine Developed Entirely With Public Funds
https://citizentruth.org/taking-taxpayers-for-a-ride-moderna-to-charge-32-37-dose-for-covid-19-vaccine-developed-entirely-with-public-funds/
“It ought to be the people’s vaccine, not a new taxpayer burden.”
(By: Jake Johnson, Common Dreams) Consumer advocates warned Wednesday that pharmaceutical giant Moderna is “taking taxpayers for a ride” after the company announced plans to charge between $32 and $37 per dose for a potential Covid-19 vaccine developed entirely with funds from the U.S. federal government.
“Taxpayers are paying for 100% of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine development. All of it,” Peter Maybarduk, director of the Access to Medicines Program at Public Citizen, said in a statement. “Yet taxpayers may wind up paying tens of billions more to Moderna to buy our vaccine back, if it proves safe and effective.”
“The so-called Moderna vaccine belongs in significant part to the people of the U.S,” said Maybarduk. “We paid for it. Federal scientists led the way. It ought to be the people’s vaccine, not a new taxpayer burden.”
The experimental vaccine is currently undergoing a Phase 3 clinical trial that is expected to enroll around 30,000 adult volunteers who do not have Covid-19, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Trial results are expected as early as October.
“Results from early-stage clinical testing indicate the investigational mRNA-1273 vaccine is safe and immunogenic, supporting the initiation of a Phase 3 clinical trial,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in a statement last week.
Under pressure from advocacy groups to publicly disclose how its potential vaccine is being financed, Moderna told Axios Wednesday that U.S. taxpayers are providing “100% funding of the program.”
Since April, the Massachusetts-based pharmaceutical company has received nearly a billion dollars in taxpayer grants to develop a vaccine as part of the Trump administration’s so-called Operation Warp Speed.
“The company received $483 million from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority in April to support its vaccine development,” CNBC reported. “Last month, it announced it received an additional $472 million from the U.S. government.”
Dean Baker, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, wrote in a blog post Wednesday that “this funding paid for the research and testing” and “it also meant that the government took all the risk.”
“If Moderna’s vaccine turns out to be ineffective,” wrote Baker, “the government will be out the money, not Moderna.”
Despite the fact that Moderna’s price tag for its coronavirus vaccine is the highest yet announced by any corporation involved with Operation Warp Speed, Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel on Wednesday characterized the cost as a discount during a conference call announcing the company’s massive second-quarter revenue increase.
But Public Citizen noted the absurdity of charging the public anything at all for a vaccine developed entirely with taxpayer funding.
“They want us to buy back a vaccine developed with our tax dollars,” the group tweeted.
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