Letter to the Leaves

Originally posted on Saturday, October 22, by Bermuda at www.afewlinesmagazine.com

My Fellow Contributors,

On my drive home the other day, I was listening to John and Ken on AM 640. They were in downtown Fullerton that day helping the Friends for Fullerton gather signatures to recall three members of Fullerton's city council. These government officials are to said to have tried to sweep the police killing of Kelly Thomas under the carpet. On July 5th of this year, Thomas was beaten to death by Fullerton police after there was a report that someone was breaking into cars near a bus depot. Thomas was homeless, and was staying in the area when he was approached by two officers and questioned. What eventually took place can be seen here in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ljYNgLnpxM

One officer has been charged with second-degree murder and another officer has been charged with involuntary manslaughter for their parts in the death of Thomas (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/09/da-announces-kelly-thomas-murder-charges.html).

I was intrigued by this story because in the fours months since this incident had taken place I hadn't really heard a lot about it. So I took some time to look through Youtube and found several videos related to the Thomas story. I found one of the actual beating with subtitles, which I have listed above and I found another that was a television news report.

One video that I found stood out from the rest because it delivered much more than a news report. It commented upon the importance of personal video cameras and social media in getting news stories out to the public and keeping our government officials and police in check. The video, which was posted by ReasonTv, is entitled Cops vs. Cameras: The Killing of Kelly Thomas and The Power of New Media.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7YFKm9gnKo

The video begins by paralleling the beating of Rodney King to the beating of Thomas and how important video has been in both. The video also chronicles the development of the Kelly Thomas news story and how it eventually made its way to the national news circuit. It also shows the grassroots movement that has started as a result of this and interviews several people who are seen protesting outside of the Fullerton police station.

The video ends with an emotionally charged statement from Thomas's father, Ron Thomas, to the members of the city council. In just a few lines he delivers a powerful statement in which he calls upon those members who tried to cover up this tragedy, to remember his son's dying words for the rest of their lives, "Dad! Dad!".

Because I was so captivated by this documentary I went to ReasonTv's Youtube page where I found several other videos that piqued my interest. One that I found especially insightful was the video Gov. Gary Johnson Among the Occupy Wall Street Protesters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7YFKm9gnKo

And with that I leave you with the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that"

Undoubtedly Yours,

Bermuda