Rad Geek People's Daily

From this morning’s OA News:

Dozens of concerned citizens from all areas of Opelika filled the pews at St. James Missionary Baptist Church Monday evening to discuss an officer-involved shooting that occurred on Oct. 31, claiming the life of 56-year-old Bennie Lee Tignor, and to demand answers to questions posed by community members skeptical of information supplied by law enforcement.

Leading the conversation was St. James Missionary Baptist Church pastor and long-time Opelika politician District 83 Rep. George Bandy, who consistently called into question the transparency of the Opelika Police Department and the City of Opelika.

"There's some questions that I'm raising here tonight, and a statement that I'm trying to make," he said. “When people ask for information, I go ahead and call the mayor or chief of police and they tell me that it's been turned over to the SBI, the State Bureau of Investigations and so, therefore, they don't have any information that they can give out."

Bandy said he was unsure if any city leaders have seen footage of the dash cam recording of the shooting, but he feels, as an elected official, that it would have been beneficial to have had access to it to communicate its contents to his constituents.

"It would've been a great thing if we could've looked at the dash cam and we could've come out here tonight and told the people that what (the OPD) is saying is the truth. But we can't do that," he said, adding he requested to see the video but was turned down by the SBI due to the status of the open investigation.

Information he's received from the two alleged eyewitnesses, Tignor's girlfriend Betty Denson and her daughter, Shikeria Ligon, he said, doesn't match up with that provided by the OPD.

"The information that we've gotten from the two eyewitnesses is that there was no gun seen. So the dash cam needs to show a gun," he said. "(Officer Jared Greer's) word, I don't think, should be good enough." . . .

–Meagan Hurley, Community Wants Answers
Opelika-Auburn News, November 10, 2015.

Remember, remember the Fifth of November 2015 is the fourth anniversary of the publication of Markets Not Capitalism. Many happy returns; and countless thanks to my friend and co-editor Gary Chartier, and to our publishers, Stevphen Shukaitis and Minor Compositions, along with the Autonomedia Collective, for helping to recover and renew a vital conversation within the Anarchist tradition, as well as doing so much to help start so many fascinating new ones.

To all of our contributors, living and late;

To Stephanie Murphy for her amazing work in preparing the free Markets Not Capitalism audio book, and to Nick Ford for his tireless work enthusiastic leisure in bringing the audiobook to Youtube;

To Jason Lee Byas and to all the participants in the SFL Past & Future of the Libertarian Left VRG who hosted a fascinating study and dialogue around several of the essays last fall;

To James Tuttle and C4SS, who have indefatigably and very kindly promoted the book and helped to get it into many new hands;

To the Gnu's Room (Auburn/Opelika), Brave New Books (Austin), MonkeyWrench Books (Austin), Firestorm Books (Asheville), and the folks at AltExpo and Libertopia, who generously provided a forum for book readings and open discussions;

And to all of the contributors, readers, reviewers, interlocutors, friends, and everyone else who's made this such a fascinating exchange. We are immeasurably indebted to you all.