Fresno PD: The Most Dangerous Police Force in America

By Kayla Moon | WeaponizedNews.Com | March 3, 2016

Fresno activists John Lang was recently murdered – his death is part of a much larger pattern

The Fresno PD is under sever investigation and speculation within a vast majority of independent sources. An activist by the name of John Lang predicted his own death for speaking out against the corruption of the police force here in Fresno county. His murder is enshrined in mystery to the utmost severity. Drawing international recognition by the strongest hacker force to ever exist; “Anonymous” recently publicly targeted Fresno city’s representatives in claiming they would take down their website for lack of response to John Lang’s death stating “John Lang will not be forgotten”.

John Lang was known as the Fresno activists who publicized information suggesting the Fresno police were capitalizing illegally on Fresno residents by profiling, and scanning license plates of parked cars and then proceeding to stalk those same drivers when they pulled out of the parking lot and started to drive on Fresno streets, where the police would then pull over residents, issue them a ticket and act like they just noticed that Fresnan’s car while casually driving on the streets themselves (by the way this is not legal). Fresno police would then fine the residents, and ultimately would capitalize on a corrupt ticketing system for the sake of monetary gain. John Lang raised awareness about this issue and was a major player in police watch activism. John warned that if he died suddenly it was the direct responsibility and by the murderous hands of the Fresno PD. Recently John Lang’s body was found stabbed to death in a brutal murder while his home was burning to the ground. The investigation is on-going as to who the murderer was.

This is not the only recent scandal involving the Fresno police. The local police have been noted recently for backwardly practicing with a new software program titled “Beware” which profiles local activist and places them in the same category of threat as violent “criminals”. The program has recently stopped categorizing potential offenders with color codings of red, yellow, green yet the program itself using mass data collections to profile literally everyone who lives in Fresno has not been suspended.

In addition to suspecting everyone in Fresno of wrong doing with the software program which scans all social media sites for civilians’ information, the Fresno police department is also implementing a program using a drone for bomb squad operations. With local PD in Georgia and Texas placing drones in use for security measures we must ask ourselves do we want to live and support a community where all local residents are being spied on electronically and watched from drones in the sky? Will drones in Fresno be used only for bomb squad operations or for continuing to expand a technological police state?

Here in Fresno it feels like the people of Fresno are at the mercy of tyrants and are simply bodies used as fuel for product and consumption of the prison industrial complex, which is a form of modern legal slavery. That may sound extreme but there are some things that you should know about Fresno and police practices.

 

To those of you who doubt that law enforcement in Fresno could do something like this:

Consider the detailed timeline review below of news reports from California newspapers and American newspapers where they were shocked by the level of police power that exists in Fresno.  That means news agencies across California and America specifically called out Fresno for the excessive police powers that are routinely used here. Consider the extensive lists of firsts that the Fresno area has achieved in creating and pioneering spying and police state powers also in this timeline. Also consider the list of actions the Fresno police have knowingly taken against those who protest against the Fresno police, again in the timeline below.

 

“In Fresno, more than in any other city, paramilitary police have become a part of everyday life”

– New York Times

 

“Fresno has given local law enforcement officers unprecedented power to peer into the lives of citizens.”

– Washington Post

 

“Far from being seeing the money as skewing… law-enforcement priorities”

– Wall Street Journal

 

“Fresno… has more DUI checkpoints than any other city”

– NBC TV

 

“In the context of a statewide investigation focusing in on four major police departments, the Fresno Police Department stands out in scale.”

– Color Lines

 

“…a prominent San Francisco attorney vowed to put the entire Fresno Police Department on trial over what he said was a pattern of unjustified police shootings.”

– Fresno Bee

 

“Undesirable state of living characterized by the overbearing presence of the civil authorities”

– Wikipedia description of a Police State

 

“Electronic police state is one in which the government aggressively uses electronic technologies to record, organize, search, and distribute forensic evidence against its citizens”

– Wikipedia description of a Police State

 

Consider that Fresno is a police state:

Why do news agencies and people far away from Fresno feel scared when discussing what is happening in Fresno – because it shows a pattern of two things:

1. That community activists who protest the Fresno police or raise awareness about their practices (which is completely legal and necessary to have a thriving democracy) are being targeted and harassed by the Fresno Police. These instances are well documented and go on for years before the mysterious murder of John Lang, which can’t be conclusively attributed to the Fresno police. Yet many other instances of intimidation can be.
2. That new practices and new technologies that strip away the essential rights of citizens enshrined in the Bill of Rights of America are constantly being tested and successfully pioneered in Fresno.

A review of police states, provided at the bottom, shows that these two features are universal in all police states that have existed in history and that exist today. This is how the Stasi handled the East Germans, how the Thought Police of Imperial Japan acted, and how the KGB of the former Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin operated, and how the Chinese government today acts.  In every case where you see the security forces of an area act like this; constantly pushing the boundaries of treating all of its citizens like they are suspects up to no good, and targeting those who would speak out against the acts of the police – you see a police state.

If you look at it this way, the Fresno police are the most dangerous police department in all of California and all of America – because they are at the forefront of these conditions that are universally regarded as the key signs of a police state.  Why do news sources in New York, and Washington DC, and Los Angeles, and San Francisco cover specifically the issue of the police in Fresno – because it scares them and they can see that what is pioneered in Fresno could easily come to their neck of the woods. Is there another explanation for why Fresno a city that is rarely covered in news outside of the Fresno area, has so much attention from news agencies outside of Fresno just on this one theme?

Many American news stations have talked about the dangerous rise of the police state in America. Here is the interesting thing, it is hard to find this issue talked about by America news before 2013. However, between 2013 and 2015, there is a variety of articles bringing attention to the rise of the police state. What is happening in Fresno is not isolated and will not stay isolated. How the people of Fresno are allowed to be treated now will likely be a model of what will become acceptable for all American cities.

 

HISTORY OF FRESNO POLICE

Fresno has a history of pioneering police state tactics:  

The earliest mention found was in 1999, when the New York Times said that Fresno of any city in all of America was the most “paramilitary” in its way of policing. In 2006, NBC TV pointed out that Fresno of any city in all of America has the most DUI checkpoints, where police could pull people over at random throughout the city on any given day they decided to have checkpoints. That same year, the Associated Press remarked on how Fresno was the only city in all of America to try a new program, that was questionably legal, where the police would arrest people for drunk driving before they ever drove a car. Also in 2006, the Fresno police shot and killed a man who was known to have shot a police officer, even though the Fresno police admitted that he had no gun on him and was running away from officers when he was shot. (By the way the United Nations created a resolution in 2012 declaring acts such as this “extrajudicial executions” and pointed out it is a practice found in the worst totalitarian regimes around the World). In 2010, McClatchy DC, the main news source for the capital of all of America, talked about how Fresno has removed its process of automatic review of police shootings. That same year, the CATO institute, a think tank which reviews a range of policy from across America, pointed out that Fresno city was at the top for all cities across America for police misconduct. Another independent study that same year, said that Fresno was at the top of all cities across California for lack of transparency. Also in 2010, the Wall Street Journal questioned if Fresno counties law enforcement had its priorities mixed up, between revenue generation and actually protecting the public.  In 2015, the ACLU noted that Fresno was experimenting with a new way of justice enforcement where it created a system that railroaded immigrants into accepting whatever crime they were accused of.

 

Fresno has a history of pioneering police state technology:

In 2002, Fresno’s airport was the first airport in all of America to implement facial recognition software, which the ACLU immediately said would violate civilians’ rights. The next year Fresno’s main university was one of the first universities in all of America to work with the military to develop drones that could spy on civilian populations. In 2006, the San Francisco Chronicle talked about how the most surveillance heavy city in all of America that it could find was in Fresno county. In 2013 Fresno pioneered a new practice of “predictive policing” where using computer algorithms they would assume who would committee a crime before they did so. In 2014, the Fresno chief of police was noted for traveling to Israel to look at their technology for monitoring the Palestinian population. Only two years later in 2016, Fresno became the first city in all of America to use a software program that monitored all citizens all of the time and gave them threat rankings. (By the way, American Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor said America was in threat of “becoming a police state” if as the LA Times put it “officers can stop every person on the corner, ask for identification, check for warrants and then search them if one is found.” What is the different between this and electronically doing the exact same thing?)

 

Fresno has a history of targeting those who speak out against the Fresno police:

The earliest mention found was in 2006 when the Associated Press noted that Fresno police were willfully ignoring the civil rights of its citizens for arresting them for drunk driving before they ever drove. While that is not a targeting of protestors, it is a sign of a willingness of a police department to flagrantly violate civilians’ civil rights on a mass scale. Next was in 2013, when a Fresno City council member said that African Americans who protest the police are “terrorists”, and the Fresno Police chief laughed along with him. The next year in 2014, the Fresno city manager criticized the media for even questioning the integrity of the Fresno police after a major investigation by the FBI directly targeted the Fresno Police. Looking at these events there seems to be a pattern of the administration of Fresno not feeling that it is an acceptable practice for its citizens to even question the police on their conduct.

But the antagonism towards the civilian population does not end there. In 2014, the Fresno police targeted a local pastor who organized protests against the police destroying camps for the homeless. The next year in 2015, the Fresno police arrested a different pastor who organized protests against police brutality. Also that year another activists who protested Fresno police brutality and wrote on a police memorial in washable chalk that could easily be removed was also arrested by the Fresno police and faced one year in prison for destroying public property. Also that year it came to light that the Fresno police officially labeled the Black Lives Matter protest movement as a “threat”.  Additionally, in 2015 the Fresno chief of police said that all people who participate in protests against the Police will be documented and their information stored in a database, and warned that they could be arrested in the future if they participate in a protest against the Fresno police department. In 2016, John Lang was routinely reported on for being harassed by the Fresno police for his protests of police conduct. Later that same year he was found dead of mysterious circumstances. (By the way the United Nations has repeated criticized the totalitarian regime in China because it routinely arrests activists for trivial acts.)

 

Fresno police can do better – we know that for a fact:

What is disturbing is that it’s not like the police don’t know how to do proper policing by building relations with the communities they want to serve and protect and treating them like citizens who want a safe Fresno rather than as a land of suspects. In 2014 the chief of Fresno police admitted that improving community relations between Fresno police and Fresnans was an issue that still had “much room for improvement”. The following year in 2015, Fresno police had improved relations with many communities through police sponsored bbqs and working with local activists group known as “Fresno boys and men of color”. Also that same year, the Fresno police were noted for being especially patient when dealing with protests on police brutality and were even called by one protestor against police brutality as “working for the people” in dealing with the protests against police misconduct. Why then when the Fresno police have shown that they know how to do proper community policing do they spend what seems to be more effort on creating a police state that assumes everyone is a suspect?

 

This situation is bad for the Fresno police themselves!:

This is increasingly suspicious when it is known that the Fresno police admitted in 2015, that they have a massive problem with recruitment. They need to have more officers, and have a huge problem in recruiting enough cadets and quality cadets to join the police. A major reason for why the Fresno police now have such a huge problem with recruitment, is that  as the Fresno police chief admitted, many applicants “simply are turned off by the national media focus on cases of brutality”. A major part of that American media focus on police misconduct as shown in this article is because of events here in Fresno.  The point is that this situation in Fresno is good for nobody!

   POLICE                          UNDECIDED                                                             PROTESTOR

 

To John’s family this is for you:

Your son was a warrior

A freedom fighter

One who stood holding hands with justice

Allowing that energy to guide his light

 

His sacrifice will be remembered

His life flows into the soil creating new life

 

Something happened when John died

 

We were awoken

Shocked back to life

 

How many more John Lang’s must there be for us to find freedom

He is a part of the moral ancestry as Author Brian Mooney so beautifully puts which ties

human Evolution together

We have evolved from his passing

We will not forget

His light shines on

 

To all those who don’t want to get involved – this is for you:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a Socialist.

 

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

 

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a Jew.

 

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

 

• Martin Niemoller, Church Pastor forced into concentration camp in Nazi Germany

 

DETAILED EVOLUTION OF THE POLICE STATE IN FRESNO

 

1999 – New York Times says that Fresno has the most paramilitary police force of any place in America

 

2002 – FAT was the first airport in America to implement an anti-terrorist facial recognition system, shortly after the September 11th, 2001 attack, which the ACLU said was a major violation of civil rights

 

2003 – Los Angeles Times reports California Attorney General investigates Fresno county sheriffs after they are discovered placing a spy in a local Anti-war peace activists group

 

2003 – Fresno University is one of first to work with military to develop ability to have drones spy on civilian populations

 

2006 – NBC TV talks about how Fresno has more DUI checkpoints than any city in America

 

2006 – Associated Press talks about how Fresno police are violating civil rights in new way arresting people who may be drunk before they even drive

 

2006 – Fresno police admit that they shot an unarmed man and killed him, even though he was unarmed and running away from the police.

 

2006 – San Francisco Chronicle details the Fresno county city of Clovis noted for having massive police state surveillance

 

2009 – Fresno police reach record number of shootings in short time frame

 

2009 – California government’s own law enforcement agency: CHP investigates multiple Fresno police officers for auto theft

 

2010 – McClatchy DC talks about Fresno stops long-standing process of automatic review of police officer shootings

 

2010 – Cato Institute survey of all police across every county in America shows that Fresno police are among the worst offending counties for recorded police misconduct

 

2010 –The Nation Institute’s Investigative Fund independent investigation shows Fresno police have the worst transparency involving officer involved shooting of any large police department in all of California

 

2010 – Federal government investigates Fresno police officers violating civil rights of man by repeatedly shooting him with plastic bullets

 

2010 – Wall Street Journal runs story on how Fresno county noted for taking hundreds of thousands of dollars to arrest marijuana growers by Federal government although legal in California

 

2013 – San Francisco Chronicle reports on Fresno county bans all medical marijuana crops despite the rest of California allowing medical marijuana

 

2013 – Law School professor at University based in Washington DC, points out that the Fresno police have pioneered a new program of “predictive policing” using computer algorithms that could easily destroy the threshold for reasonable suspicion before a citizen could be arrested and result in more racial profiling against African Americans.

 

2013 – Fresno City Council Member says that African American people who protest police brutality are “terrorists” just like the ones in “Iraq”.  Fresno Police chief publicly laughed along with the Fresno City Council member who made the statement.

 

2014 – Fresno police chief visits Israel and studies how the Israeli government monitors the Palestinian population and says “I picked up a few ideas”

 

2014 – Fresno police target civil rights advocate pastor Chris Breedlove who organizes protests against police destroying homeless camps

 

2015 – Fresno police reach record number of shootings in short time frame

 

2015 – Fresno Deputy Police Chief Keith Foster arrested on Federal Drug Trafficking charges

 

2015 – Fresno police chief says that Fresno police looking for officers who don’t agree with the rest of California that marijuana should be legal

 

2015 – Fresno police arrest activists know for highlighting police brutality for writing on memorial with chalk that could be easily washed off. Activist faces one year in prison for protest.

 

2015 – Fresno city manager criticizes media for even questioning the integrity of Fresno police after Federal government investigation

 

2015 – Fresno has record excessive force lawsuits against police

 

2015 – Fresno county sheriff has massive increase in officers

 

2015 – ACLU accuses Fresno police of violating American Supreme Court ruling of 2010 by not treating immigrants fairly and coercing them into being prosecuted

 

2015 – New York Daily News discusses how the ACLU finds that Fresno police have labeled the Black Lives Matter movement as “threat”

 

2015 – Fresno police chief says that all people who participated in previous protests against the police will be identified by the police and their information stored in a database, and warns that they will be potentially arrested if they participate in a protest against the police in the future

 

2016 – Fresno police arrest prominent civil rights activist pastor Floyd Harris who organizes protests against police brutality

 

2016 – Washington Post talks about how Fresno is creating police state of the future with new monitoring program called Beware

 

2016 – International hacking activists group “Anonymous” attacks Fresno city and police online to highlight the mysterious death of Fresno activists John Lang

 

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