"The Loser" in BLACK CAT MYSTERY MAGAZINE and "Her Wounded Eyes" in NEW READER MAGAZINE!

Thanks to the magic of synchronicity, I have two new stories being released this week. You can read my crime noir novelette "The Loser" (13,000 words) in BLACK CAT MYSTERY MAGAZINE #6 and "Her Wounded Eyes" (3,300 words), a horror story of a kind, in NEW READER MAGAZINE #10, a themed issue about fears, dreams, and the imagination. You can download NEW READER MAGAZINE #10 for free right HERE. NEW READER #10 also features an interview with me, which begins on p. 26. "Her Wounded Eyes" begins on p. 104. 

If you want to order a copy of BLACK CAT MYSTERY MAGAZINE #6, you can do so right HERE. 

The Memphis Shelby Crime Commission

From Wendi C. Thomas' 6-9-20 ProPublica article entitled "The Police Have Been Spying on Black Reporters and Activists for Years. I Know Because I’m One of Them.":

To get intel on activists and organizers, including those in the Black Lives Matter movement, [Sgt. Timothy Reynolds had] posed on Facebook as a “man of color,” befriending people and trying to infiltrate closed circles.

Projected onto a giant screen in the courtroom was a screenshot of people Reynolds followed on Facebook.

My head was bent as I wrote in my reporter’s notebook. “What does this entry indicate?” ACLU attorney Amanda Strickland Floyd asked.

“I was following Wendi Thomas,” Reynolds replied. “Wendi C. Thomas.”

I sat up.

“And who is Wendi Thomas?” Floyd asked.

She, he replied, used to write for The Commercial Appeal. In 2014, I left the paper after being a columnist for 11 years.

It’s been more than a year since a judge ruled against the city, and I’ve never gotten a clear answer on why the [Memphis Police Department] was monitoring me. Law enforcement also was keeping tabs on three other journalists whose names came out during the trial. Reynolds testified he used the fake account to monitor protest activity and follow current events connected to Black Lives Matter.

My sin, as best I can figure, was having good sources who were local organizers and activists, including some of the original plaintiffs in the ACLU’s lawsuit against the city [...].

Two days after Reynolds’ testimony, I filed a public records request with the city of Memphis, asking for all joint intelligence briefings, emails or other documents that referenced me or any of the three other journalists that the MPD was following on social media.

Four hundred and thirty three days later, the city produced the records — and I still don’t understand what would make police see me as a threat worthy of surveillance in the name of public safety [...].

My battles with the city of Memphis didn’t end with the lawsuit, unfortunately.

In 2018, I was trying to figure out which corporations had answered the mayor’s call to financially subsidize police operations by funneling $6.1 million to the city through a secretive nonprofit, the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission.

Strickland wouldn’t divulge the companies’ identities, but he realized that public records I’d requested would. So the mayor’s staff, in conjunction with the Crime Commission and another secretive nonprofit, came up with a plan to release the companies’ names to local journalists before releasing the records to me, I learned through emails released in conjunction with a 2018 public records lawsuit against the Crime Commission.

And this year, I was forced to sue the city after it refused to include me on its media email advisory list despite repeated requests.

To read Thomas' entire article, click HERE.

THE GOON SQUAD FILE

From Jason Leopold and Anthony Cormier's 6-2-20 BuzzFeed article entitled "The DEA Has Been Given Permission To Investigate People Protesting George Floyd’s Death":

The Drug Enforcement Administration has been granted sweeping new authority to “conduct covert surveillance” and collect intelligence on people participating in protests over the police killing of George Floyd, according to a two-page memorandum obtained by BuzzFeed News.

From Dan Friedman's 6-3-20 Mother Jones article entitled "Trump Has Flooded DC With Law Enforcement Officers Who Won’t Identify Themselves":

The Trump administration, in the name of order, is claiming the power to use unidentified federal law enforcement personnel to police protests. On top of the dizzying array of federal law enforcement already out in force this week, these are some of the “federal assets” that Donald Trump said he was deploying in DC in the wake of large protests and substantial looting and property damage on Sunday night. These officers, if that’s what they are, have not only declined to identify themselves, but appear to be actively taking steps to hide their affiliation.

From Katie Bo Williams' 6-3-20 Defense One article entitled "Who Are They? Unmarked Security Forces in DC Spark Fear":  

The presence of unmarked federal law enforcement officers, dressed in paramilitary uniforms and wearing no identifying insignia, quickly spread among protesters marching through Washington, D.C.’s streets on Tuesday and Wednesday, causing concerned protesters and officials to ask: Who are they?

In some locations, security personnel refused to identify themselves to journalists and protesters who asked which agency sent them, answering only that they worked for the federal government. In other places, they identified themselves as working for the Department of Justice. Some carried rifles, or were equipped with body armor, riot shields, and pepper spray canisters.

Two such clad security members in Washington on Tuesday night identified themselves to Defense One as part of a specialized emergency response force run by the Bureau of Prisons — part of the Justice Department — to help maintain security at correctional facilities. They and others are part of what’s known as the bureau’s Special Operations Response Teams, or SORTs. NPR reported on Monday that Attorney General Bill Barr had ordered BOP to send its specialized riot response teams to assist with the local D.C. law enforcement with the civil unrest that has engulfed downtown Washington this week.

From John Boyle and Katie Wadington's 6-3-20 USA Today article entitled "Fact Check: Police Did Destroy a Medic Area During Protests in Asheville, North Carolina":

After protests in Asheville, North Carolina, social media posts that show law enforcement busting water bottles went viral. 

The incident Tuesday was caught on video and described by a medic volunteer.

The protest marked the third day of demonstrations in Asheville in response to the death of a black man, George Floyd, in the custody of Minneapolis police officers.

Video by the Citizen Times shows Asheville police officers in riot gear and holding shields forming a protective circle around officers stomping and stabbing water bottles. Other officers destroyed medical supplies such as bandages and saline solution.

Sean Miller, a UNC-Asheville student who is head of communication for the medical team, said the 10-12 medics present were all clearly marked as such and did not provoke police in any way.

From SBS News' 6-3-20 article entitled "Donald Trump's Press Secretary Says Police Who Attacked Australian Journalists 'Had Right to Defend Themselves'":

Two US police officers have been placed on administrative leave after a Seven Network journalist and cameraman were beaten at a rally outside the White House.

Amelia Brace was struck by a truncheon and Tim Myers punched and hit with a shield when US Park Police in riot gear aggressively cleared Washington DC's Lafayette Square of protesters on Monday ahead of a visit to a church by US President Donald Trump.

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who compared Mr Trump's walk to the church to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill examining bomb damaged London in World War II, defended the actions of the police.

"As is consistent with our established practices and procedures, two US Park Police officers have been assigned to administrative duties, while an investigation takes place regarding the incident with the Australian Press," Park Police acting Chief Gregory Monahan said on Wednesday.

From Swiss Info's 6-5-20 article entitled "US Police Shoot Rubber Bullets at Swiss Journalists":

Three Swiss television journalists say that they were shot at with rubber bullets by police during a demonstration in the United States city of Minneapolis last weekend. Nobody was hurt. The incident is one of many reported press freedom violations amid widespread US protests.

The team made up of Gaspard Kühnexternal link from French-language public television RTS, Max Herber from the Italian-language service RSI and cameraman Jean-Pascal Azaïs was reporting on ongoing anti-racism demonstrations in the city following the death of African-American George Floyd at the hands of a police officer.

According to a report by German-language public television SRF on Fridayexternal link, the incident happened last Saturday, shortly after 8pm. Kühn told the SRF radio programme “Heute Morgen” that the team was trying to leave the area where protests were taking place. They approached the police, showing their press passes and calling out that they were journalists, asking for safe passage. Police told the men to “back up”, Kühn said, and then shot rubber bullets at them. 

From Michael Safi, Caelainn Barr, Niamh McIntyre, Pamela Duncan and Sam Cutler's 6-5-20 Guardian article entitled "'I'm Getting Shot': Attacks on Journalists Surge in US Protests":

Journalists working in conflict zones and authoritarian states have been warning for years: reporting is becoming more dangerous. What little protection a press pass or camera might have afforded in the past has meant less than ever on the battlefields of Syria, in small-town India or on the streets of Hong Kong. This was the week that trend burst into view in US cities.

Reporters in Minneapolis, Louisville or the dozens of other places that witnessed protests and riots in the days after the alleged murder of George Floyd were not killed or prosecuted, as they increasingly are elsewhere in the world. But they were blinded, beaten, maced and arrested by police in numbers never before documented in the US.

Linda Tirado, a photojournalist, was shot with a “less-lethal” round while covering protests in Minneapolis on Saturday, permanently losing vision in her left eye. Michael Adams, a Vice News correspondent, lay down when ordered to do so by police, holding a press pass above his head. He was still pepper sprayed in the face. Kaitlin Rust was broadcasting on WAVE3 News in Kentucky when an officer appear to take aim before hitting her with pepper balls. “I’m getting shot,” she shouted live on air. Police later apologised.

These were just some of the 148 arrests or attacks on journalists in the US between 26 May and 2 June recorded by the Guardian in collaboration with Bellingcat. The figures are based on known incidents and the true total could be higher.

From Jake Johnson's 6-5-20 Common Dreams article entitled "'Deeply Disturbing': New York Supreme Court Judge Rules Protesters Can Be Detained Indefinitely":

A New York State Supreme Court judge on Thursday rejected a petition seeking the immediate release of hundreds of protesters who had been held by the New York Police Department for more than 24 hours, ruling that extraordinary circumstances justify indefinite detention.

"It is a crisis within a crisis," wrote Justice James Burke in his ruling. "All writs are denied."

Burke's decision was met with alarm by New York lawmakers and activists who immediately condemned the ruling as an unlawful suspension of the right of habeas corpus, which requires the government to justify detention of a person before a court.

 
From Dan Mangan's 6-5-20 CNBC article entitled "George Floyd Case: Maryland Man Arrested on Charges of Attacking Group That Was Putting Up Protest Flyers on Bethesda Bike Path":

Police on Friday arrested a Maryland man on charges connected to an attack on a group of young adults posting flyers on a bike trail about protests related to George Floyd, the black man who died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

Anthony Brennan III, a 60-year-old white man from Kensington, was charged with three counts of second-degree assault for the attack on a young man and two young women early Monday afternoon along a bike trail in Bethesda, Maryland, close to the Washington, D.C. border.

Also on Friday, the branding company Made to Order, which Brennan worked for according to information online, said that it fired an employee “for completely unacceptable behavior toward peaceful demonstrators.”

Brennan’s arrest came after the Maryland-Capital National Park Police received hundreds of tips about possible suspects on the heels of the release on social media of a dramatic video that captured an enraged bicyclist who ripped the flyers out of the hands of the three people who were posting flyers on the Capital Crescent Bike Trail.

"Secretary of the Army Reminds Soldiers That They Swore an Oath to Uphold the Constitution"

From Sarah K. Burris' 6-4-20 Rawstory article entitled "Secretary of the Army Reminds Soldiers That They Swore an Oath to Uphold the Constitution — All of It":

The secretary of the U.S. Army was forced to come out and remind soldiers that even if they’re called up [to] supplement police forces in cities around the U.S. that they still must abide by their oath to uphold the Constitution.

In a Twitter statement Thursday, Ryan McCarthy posted a video of himself speaking to troops saying that peaceful protests are fine and that the soldiers are there to “protect that ideal.”

“Every Soldier and Department of the Army Civilian swears an oath to support and defend the Constitution. That includes the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances,” he said in the tweet.

To read Burris' entire article, click HERE.

The Great Brick Conspiracy of 2020 A.D. (or) The Fine Art of Destabilizing Political Protests

What follows is a passage from a 6-2-20 BBC article entitled "George Floyd Protests: Misleading Footage and Conspiracy Theories Spread Online" by Flora Carmichael, Alistair Coleman, Joice Etutu, Jack Goodman, Shayan Sardarizadeh, Marianna Spring, Olga Robinson, and Ben Strick (yes, it took eight journalists to write a 1,400-word article):

The BBC's anti-disinformation team has been tracking misleading videos and conspiracy theories about the protests, which have been circulating online.

So, here's what to look out for - and avoid - on your social media feeds.

Rumours that the protests have been set up with potential projectiles handed out to agitators have gained traction, with thousands of posts referencing "bricks" on social media.

Several videos that show piles of bricks along with claims that they were planted by police or the government have been watched by millions of people [...].

One Police Department in Boston hit back at misleading claims about a viral video of its officers unloading bricks from a van.

Suggestions had been made on social media that the officers were unloading bricks from a vehicle "to use them as an excuse" against protesters.

However, Boston's Northeastern University Police Department has tweeted that the officers had collected them "from a damaged brick sidewalk" and taken them back to the station as they were posing a safety hazard to pedestrians [...].

What follows is the Police Department's aforementioned tweet....

On Monday, June 1, while on a routine patrol of campus, two of our officers came across a damaged brick sidewalk at the corner of Tremont and Coventry streets that posed a safety hazard for pedestrians due to loose, upturned and broken bricks.

Here are choice responses to the Police Department's tweet....

meg

@megansaysso Replying to


@northeasternpd


i will be calling your non-emergency line to detail every single loose brick on campus in the coming days/weeks and will request that you dispatch an officer to assist me, since this is a service you provide.

warren dixon

@warren_dixon Replying to

@northeasternpd


Had to remove the dangerous bricks quickly so they could go shoot rubber bullets and teargas at peaceful protesters. Ya right, sounds plausible...


defiantdamsel


@think_young1 Replying to


@northeasternpd


...those folks at Target were just moving corporate shit from one place to another... #NoJusticeNoPeaceNoracistpolice


Ie Fuchs

@mynameisieReplying to


@northeasternpd


That sidewalk is miserable with sturdy bricks. If you removed loose bricks, you would have holes which would be more hazardous. Can university police spontaneously decide to dismantle a city sidewalk?


@Topdekfireblast Replying to


@northeasternpd


Right, cause I see cops out fixing the sidewalk all the time, try harder

I encourage you to study THIS VIDEO and decide for yourself if the official explanation above actaully matches what's seen on screen. 

Returning to the BBC article:

Another viral video from Fayetteville, North Carolina that has racked up over a million views shows a pile of bricks in the vicinity of protests as a man says there is "no construction" site in the area.

We've been able to geolocate the video and found images from 24 May with the same pile of bricks in the same place, long before any protests took place.

Despite the above sentence, the BBC fails to include these "images" with the article.

Most of the videos and images we've seen don't look particularly suspicious - it's not uncommon to see piles of bricks near building sites.

I've never once seen a pyramid of bricks just left out in the open on a street corner like an all-you-can-eat sample tray at Trader Joe's.

In the final analysis, after one reads this article, one can only conclude that (according to the BBC), the numerous piles of bricks that have conveniently popped up at various protest epicenters scattered throughout the United States each have their own separate explanation, almost none of them the same. Yup.... 

To read the entire BBC article, click HERE.

THE FENTON FILES

Last night I appeared on Lorien Fenton's THE FENTON FILES radio show for a nearly two-hour-long interview during which I discussed the disruptive role of agent provocateurs in the recent protests in Long Beach, Dallas, Seattle, Minnesota, and beyond. Fenton and I also touched on such topics as mass mind control, the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, the films of Bela Lugosi, the hypnotic talents of Manly P. Hall, the strange theories of Stanislav Szukalski, as well as my books BELA LUGOSI AND THE MONOGRAM NINE (co-written with Gary D. Rhodes), UNTIL THE LAST DOG DIES, CHAMELEO, and CRYPTOSCATOLOGY. If you'd like to listen to the interview, just click HERE (I enter the scene at around 19:00):

Blood, Carnage and the Agent Provocateur

"It's a strange world filled with odd-shaped folk."

--Robert Sheckley

Last night, as the National Guard was being deployed near Cryptoscatology Headquarters in Long Beach, California, I searched the words "Long Beach" on Twitter and came across this message. The last sentence stood out to me:

"Long Beach protestors this car is a trap! The p0lice parked the car in front of the convention center bc that’s where they are stationed! Don’t get caught destroying the trap car. Ignore it, walk by it, keep the message going!!! They’ve been planting brick piles on sidewalks too!" 

Then, not long afterwards, I saw this video (from Dallas).  

This video was shot at Ground Zero in Minneapolis. Scroll all the way down to the video entitled "Claims Raised of Cops Provoking Riots" (1:24).

And this video was shot in Seattle.


To put all of this into a historical perspective, I highly recommend reading Alex Constantine's 1993 book entitled Blood, Carnage and the Agent Provocateur: Truth About the Los Angeles Riots and the Secret War Against L.A.'s Minorities.