6/17/22: HUMAN WRONGS – THE EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTION OF AARON CAMPBELL W/ MARVA DAVIS AND RAMONE PALMORE
Not only is there a war declared on Black Americans but all colors and creeds are in the middle of the crossfire and in the end, there is no amount of justice that can replace those individuals slain by law enforcement and whose extrajudicial executions become political fodder for national outrage. Before the shooting deaths of Breonna Taylor and Trayvon Martin, there was Aaron Campbell, who was shot in the back and killed by Portland police in 2010. The targeting of Black people as a vulnerable but potentially significant oppositional force to the prevailing U.S. political elite is part of a broader strategy of repression that is slowly permeating all aspects of life in the U.S. Tonight on Ground Zero, Clyde Lewis talks with the mother of Aaron Campbell, Marva Davis and filmmaker, Ramone Palmore about HUMAN WRONGS – THE EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTION OF AARON CAMPBELL.
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During these past couple of years of fear, confusion, and oppression, I have paid attention to find a few reliable and trustworthy writers and thinkers to read, listen to, and consider as they are closely tracking information and developments when sometimes I get overwhelmed and can’t track.
Most mainstream news lately has been worthless and full of lies and propaganda. Major media outlets were paid money from the federal government to advertise their drugs, and vaccines.
They are also in the process of advertising compliance. More and more our leaders are learning that it takes a pounding a yearlong propaganda to tell the American people that they are no longer powerful enough to fight an ever encroaching police state.
One where a disarmed America will create the environment of everyone living under the threat of being a target for extrajudicial executions,.
Historically speaking, we’re witnessing a moment in which the establishment has hijacked the meaning of constitutional law — they are the deciders and their acts of show trial subvert the idea of due process.
Leaving it to its nasty progression we may see a time where political enemies could be executed on television just to make a point that there is no more rebellion against tyranny.
It is then that the military and the police can be called out to be an occupying force rather than to serve and protect.
It is a nightmare proposal as we transform from a nation of laws and a constitution to an unrecognizable gulag where we harass torture and kill what the technocrats call a dangerous and radicalized group.
If you just happen to be the other– you will know how the minorities in this country have felt since the 1960’s since the 2012 observance of Operation Ghetto storm.
We are not only seeing a inordinate amount of black people being killed by police but people of all colors are being killed for their political and religious beliefs.
Months have passed since an unarmed protester named Ashli Babbitt was shot dead inside the US Capitol while attempting to climb through an opening in a glass door.
Seven months after her death, her killer – a police officer who apparently shot her without warning, and certainly without having made any effort to stop her short of putting a fatal bullet through her chest has never been publicly identified, let alone charged or disciplined.
During those same seven months – during which every self-respecting liberal demanded a criminal penalty for the policeman who killed George Floyd – Ashli Babbitt, the victim of an equally questionable police killing, has been the target of an orgy of media character assassination.
There’s no evidence that Babbitt intended to kill anyone, let alone that she actually tried to. And there’s plenty of reason to believe that her fatal shooting was illegal. But facts about Ashli Babbitt have never counted for much–which only goes to show you that you can not only be executed in America for the color of your skin but for your political views as well.
This injustice has always been a bone I like to pick when I hear of extrajudicial executions where people are killed in the streets for suspicion of crime and even though Babbit has been ignored by the media — there have been several cases of black Americans that have been killed accused of crimes where they are deprived of due process.
It is a war declared on Americans and it launches a fear campaign where people feel a bit intimidated when they are being followed by a police car — especially if they are African American –and now you can call attention to yourself because for your political views.
What makes a government different from every other social institution is that it has been given the legal right or insistence to initiate force against you. Our government was organized to protect an uphold the constitution, However the people have opted to negate the constitution in favor of statist operations and plans where the government is in the business of escalating the use of “force” until you comply. Force can now be escalated without due process of law, through extrajudicial execution.
The people have now embraced this in order to avoid the sticky process of trial by court and so trial by force is preferable and in some cases torture till death is also preferable by the court of public consensus – which makes their judgments through the auspices of a controlled media.
Laws have now become death threats, which is why people comply with them..
It appears that in the United States we have lost purpose and so government, which can now be called oligarchy, has replaced it.
We no longer have a government by the people for the people that ship has long since sailed. It has hit an iceberg and sunk with the arrival of the cult of oligarchy.
The truth that is so uncomfortable is that scientists, historians and politicians alike have begun to warn that Western culture is reaching a critical juncture. Cycles of inequality and resource use are heading for a tipping point that in many past civilizations precipitated political unrest, war and finally collapse.
What is left are the cottage industries dedicated to victimhood. They conduct their witch hunts; they erase history and accuse people of improprieties without giving them due process. What they get is trial by media and the public allows it. It is like the people circle around the accused like vultures and yet we point fingers at other countries saying that they are worse than we are.
Half of the US population is reaching poverty, and also reflected in mass incarceration for the prison industry, the housing crisis, the health crisis, police killings, natural catastrophe, loss of legal rights and loss of human rights on many grounds.
Americans have now been programmed to support the militarization of the police, and the unlimited surveillance panopticon that has turned America into a gulag.
But it never fails Americans will be playing this good cop bad cop partisan fight as if it was a football game, even though there is overwhelming evidence that the game is one hundred percent rigged.
We are now witnessing a show that teaches us that a court f law is no longer needed for the condemning of an individual, The powers that be are taking not f hw they can shape the court of public opinion and without due process we see that anyone can be tried in the media and from there we can also see that if we vilify enough people we can put targets on their backs.
We now are learning that we have a government whose agents are spinning a sticky spider-web of threat assessments, behavioral sensing warnings, flagged “words,” and “suspicious” activity reports using automated eyes and ears, social media, behavior sensing software, and citizen spies to identify potential threats.
This is the same government that has a growing list—shared with fusion centers and law enforcement agencies—of ideologies, behaviors, affiliations and other characteristics that could flag someone as suspicious and result in their being labeled potential enemies of the state.
There has been a quite war that has been declared on the American people by the state and as usual the focus is particularly on black communities.
Extrajudicial execution is a term that is not used by the media to describe death by cop — especially when it comes to race or even political affiliation.
The police, as guardians of the State, believe they are simply doing their jobs. They must be right, since they continue to receive praise, protection and overwhelming support for carrying out their mission as an army of occupation in neighborhoods that consist of low income and minority families.
The media chooses to wrap political meaning in everything and they wish to exploit the deaths — not to point out the extrajudicial executions but to push their agendas of systemic racism, and critical race theory.
These political structures to nothing to bring back the lives of those who have been killed — that are unarmed and minding their own business.
Not only is their a war declared on black Americans, but all colors and creeds are in the middle of the crossfire and in the end there is no amount of justice that can replace people like Ashley Babbit and Breana Taylor, Trayvon Martin and others whose extrajudicial executions become political fodder for national outrage.
.The mass shooters that we hear about in the news are learning form militarized agents that shoot to kill and become masters of deceptive practices. these agents harass, harangue and even groom potential shooters that become statistics is the growing death tolls that they create.
The media has created the perception among many African Americans that police violence has dramatically increased in recent years. However, history and irrefutable statistics tell us that the “militarization” of the police and the criminalization of Black people as a group are fundamental aspects of a national mission begun in earnest in the late Sixties.
It is all part of the well oiled machine that has so relentlessly criminalized the Black community that one out of every eight prison inmates on Earth is an African American.
The U.S. government set in motion the mass Black incarceration regime in the late Sixties for the purpose of counter-insurgency. The structures of Black containment, control and incarceration are now central to the workings of criminal justice in the United States – to the misfortune of lots of white youth who get sucked into the system as unintended “collateral damage.”
The logic of the project dictates that those who attempt to dismantle the Black counter-insurgency regime will be treated as insurgents, themselves.
The government will be an equal opportunity executioner when they decide to disarm the population.
The militarized police will become an occupying army where everyone will suffer.
Long before we ever heard of George Floyd, or even he fatal police shooting of Breonna Taylor.– I lived in a community that was devastated by the execution style murder of Aaron Campbell at the hands of the Portland Police.
In January of 2010, it was reported that Aaron Campbell was as distraught young man who after the death of his brother said to his family that he was depressed and family members were concerned for his welfare.
A call went into police from a concerned family member who mentioned that he had a gun in the apartment . Police and SERT teams arrived on the scene.
Aaron Campbell surrendered to police without a fight . As he walked out with his hands in the air, police fired bean bags at him and he ran back to his apartment.
A police officer fired his AR-15 at Campbell and shot him in the back.
The officer was found by a grand jury, “not guilty” of any wrongdoing.
The officer who fatally shot Campbell, Ron Frashour, was fired but then a state arbitrator ordered his return to work with back pay,
It was clear case of extrajudicial execution and police state Corpus Juris.
Campbell emerged from his apartment with his back toward officers and his hands behind his head.
Officer Ryan Lewton, trying to get Campbell to put his hands in the air, fired six beanbag rounds at him. Campbell ran toward a parked car and Frashour, armed with an AR-15 rifle, shot Campbell once in the back, killing him. Campbell wasn’t armed, but Frashour said he thought Campbell was reaching for a gun.
Then-Police Chief Mike Reese called Lewton’s use of a beanbag shotgun unjustified because Campbell’s actions didn’t rise to “aggressive physical resistance” and said Frashour’s deadly shot was unjustified because Campbell didn’t pose an immediate threat.
Frashour’s reinstatement was the outcome of a “flawed arbitration system which interferes with the ability of the city of Portland and its officials to get rid of bad police officers, particularly those involved in costly deaths and intentional shooting deaths.”
Truth is Aaron was unhappy because he just lost a brother Timothy to heart failure. he wanted to be with his children.
Officers made contact in the parking lot with Campbell’s girlfriend. She told officers that Campbell was inside their apartment with three young children. The woman told officers Campbell had been despondent over his brother’s death and was threatening suicide. She stated that she had seen Campbell with a gun and that she had last seen him put the gun in the pocket of his coat.
While talking to officers, the woman continued texting Campbell and a short time later, an officer began communicating with Campbell via text messages.
Officer James Quackenbush, having trouble with cell phone reception, sent text messages to Aaron.
“Aaron, we need to know if you intend on hurting yourself,” Quackenbush texted.
Campbell responded, “Never. Wow you guys text too. You get kudos.”
Thanks Aaron, I appreciate your help. I’m truly sorry about your brother, can you promise me you won’t hurt yourself.
Aaron assured the police that he would surrender the children and himself 11without trouble. The three children came out of the apartment uninjured. The officers continued trying to communicate with Campbell and at 6:07 p.m., Campbell unexpectedly came out the front door of the apartment with his hands on the back of his head.
It was later determined that a crisis negotiator had convinced him to come out, but that was not communicated to all those on-scene.
Officer Ryan Lewton, deployed two less lethal beanbag rounds striking Campbell. Campbell began running back toward the apartment. Officer Lewton deployed four more less lethal beanbag rounds, striking Campbell.
Officer Ron Frashour, fired one AR-15 round, striking Campbell once. Officer Frashour testified he believed Campbell was reaching for a weapon. Campbell fell down behind a vehicle and according to witnesses officers just let him bleed out.
The case created such pain for the community. At the time I lived in a predominantly black neighborhood and could see in the eyes of my neighbors the hurt it caused. The betrayal they felt.
The incident prompted the Reverend Jesse Jackson to speak about how he saw this as an embarrassment and insulting.
He spoke at the Maranatha Church in Northeast Portland. The rally drew a standing-room only crowd in the sanctuary, which seats 1,200 people.
Jackson also criticized that for more than 30 minutes, police left Campbell’s body on the ground “bleeding like a dog.”
Even has was lying on the ground bleeding — they cuffed him and allowed police dogs to attack him.
Jackson said that this treatment was “beneath the dignity of man.”
The reason that I am revisiting this story now is because of how we have been seeing again the obstruction of justice with regards to January 6th and how we continually see the media use shooting events to exploit agendas for gun control.
When people were observing the anniversary of the death of George Floyd around memorial day — I was talking with Wes about case that I felt had been overlooked by the media — on that I felt was a more intriguing tragedy than the sainthood of George Floyd.
I was describing the case to Wes and he told me “This sounds a lot like the Aaron Campbell case” and I said that is exactly the case I am talking about. He had told me that he and a colleague were putting together a movie treatment about the case.
I was amazed to hear that he was just as affected by the case as I was — and that it had such an impact on me that I would support the idea of bringing the story to the screen and that i would encourage my listeners to get behind the project.
There are many reasons why Aaron Campbell’s story should be told.
For those of us who have to live the nightmare of systematic domestic repression and build opposition to it, silence is a luxury we cannot afford. When I saw the faces of my neighbors and the hurt they felt –it rubbed off on to me and when whenever the police would patrol the areas it felt like an occupation.
It was hard to be sympathetic to the police at the time.
Time seems to heal some wounds but not all and Aaron’s mother still suffers the heartbreak of losing two sons at the same time.
The United States finds itself in a lot if contradictions, especially when come to protecting all people and maintaining equal rights.
Intelligence and police agencies are now being used to infiltrate, monitor and disrupt lawful domestic oppositional groups and kills its own citizens.
There is an edifice of control and domination that has been built in the U.S. which functions by criminalizing whole sectors of society it deems to be “dangerous” or “undesirable” — in particular young people, black Americans, and those who speak up politically and wish to take their grievances to the steps of the Capital.
The targeting of Black people, as a vulnerable but potentially significant oppositional force to the prevailing U.S. political elite, is part of a broader strategy of repression that is slowly permeating all aspects of life in the U.S..
The targeting of the right and labeling them as white supremacists breeds racism as well and the hate spreads throughout the country as an air of mistrust dominates civil discourse.
This is the most despicable methods of dividing us. This is what triggers racial triggers and resentment but in the end, all of the fighting hardens the resolve of the out of control police state.
It breeds a systemic response to a social crisis and a surplus population in which the control and containment of that population is the main concern for state forces.
They are the enforcers of state — even if the state is corrupt.
That is why so many, and even many on the left, are sleeping while the foundations and actual practices of a particular “American” form of fascism is developing.
Activism for real equality under the law has always been an enemy of the state.
We now live in a country where the new fascism has the ability to selectively repress dangerous populations– mainly populations that they see as dangerous and that includes any and all Americans that wish to seize the moment and indicate the flaws of the system.
So for us, we will continue resisting and struggling, because we still have a decolonized vision for this territory called the United States and also because we know that if we don’t build an effective movement collectively, the technology of control and terror that this State can deploy will make Stalin’s Russia look like a cake walk.
SHOW GUEST: RAMONE PALMORE
Ramone Isiah Palmore is an American Stage and Film Actor and Producer. He is the founder of Global Millennium Pictures. Ramone started acting with director Beth Harper at the Portland’s Actor’s Conservatory. He studied at the Artist’s Repertory Theatre with Meisner instructor, Chris Harder. Palmore was cast in a Streetcar Named Desire at the SecondStory Repertory Theater with Director Jane Ryan. He was then asked to lead in commercials for KGW News and modus commercials. He produced and played John Pearson in the Independent short film, Saving District, about school shootings in America. Palmore has appeared in Grimm and The Librarians.
