Posts
Bradley Manning Rally in Kansas City – this article can give you a background of this issue if you’re unfamiliar with Bradley Manning, the Army Private in Baghdad who leaked classified files to Wikileaks. He then spent about two years in confinement with no charges, and is currently awaiting court martial.
Another protest this week on Sunday was held near Nichols Fountain on the Plaza against Syria’s Bashar Al-Assad and his government. People from the mideast living in Kansas City have done a good job of holding solidarity protests alongside the overthrow of mid-eastern dictators over the past year.
2-26-12
Saturday afternoon a small protest was held at Mill Creek Park on the Plaza in Kansas City against the fraudulent Russian elections that took place at the end of last year. The group was also joined by some members of the Occupy Kansas City movement for the protest at the corner of 47th and JC Nichols Parkway.
This Saturday 1-28-2012 a small protest took place at 39th and Southwest Trafficway in Kansas City MO. A recent study came out by the Kansas City Police Department indicating that the cameras do nothing for traffic safety except perhaps making it even worse at the intersections where they are installed. Tracy Ward, a local activist was on hand and organized the event. I noticed a couple of news station reporters on the scene as well.
I met up with a few members of the KC-area Russian community at Mill Creek Park on the Plaza Saturday afternoon to get a couple pics at a small protest of the allegedly fraudulent elections recently held back in Russia. Large protests have happened in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Saturday Dec. 10, 2011.
This morning (Saturday June 4) a protest by local Catholics took place across the street from Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception at 11th and Broadway in downtown Kansas City, MO due to revelations of a Kansas City Diocese cover-up and consultation with their own lawyers over the discovery of child pornography on Father Shawn Ratigan’s computer in December 2010. Bishop Finn, who is being called on to resign, was inside ordaining deacons. More info can be found here. I got word of the protest this morning via this article on Tony’s Kansas City.
On Sunday afternoon at Mill Creek Park on the Plaza in Kansas City, a rally was organized encouraging the protesters in Syria currently being fired upon by government forces of Bashar al-Assad.
Press releases were sent to the local KC news stations, but none showed up, backing up my own ongoing question of “what exactly would ya say the news stations do?”
On Saturday night at the Midland Theatre in downtown Kansas City MO there was a pre-screening for the forthcoming film Red State. The barking loons at Topeka’s Westboro Baptist Church didn’t care for that too much (they don’t like much of anything really), so they protested across from the theater, while a larger counter-protest took place directly in front of the doors to the Midland. In this post three shots are of the counter-protest and one is of the Westboro group.
1) Counter Protest of the Westboro Baptist Church
2) Counter Protest of the Westboro Baptist Church
For the next shot featuring the actual Westboro klan, note the counter-protestor with his sign from across the street who snuck behind the stark raving mad Phelps woman in the foreground.
3) Protest by the fringe Westboro Baptist Church
4) Counter Protest of the Westboro Baptist Church
Because the world should know by now that Muammar Gaddafi is a deranged lunatic who happens to command the forces of an entire economically valuable country (Libya and oil supply fears), Libya has its fair share of upset citizenry owing to Gaddafi’s corruption. By virtue of that, a showing Sunday afternoon of Kansas City’s Libyan American and general Arab American community on the Plaza at Mill Creek Park.
1) On a megaphone.
2) Varied Signage.
3) Part of the group of protestors.
4) Get Gaddafi Out
5) Ladies and Signs for Libya.
6) Shout.
7) Muslim Prayer at 4 PM
Photos from the first anti-Gaddafi protest two weeks ago can be seen here. One of those shots was said to have depicted the best Libya protest sign in the world, according to Buzzfeed.com.
Following up on the revolution in Egypt that resulted in a couple of photoblog postings on my part covering rallies here in Kansas City (One and Two), there is now a great deal of protesting and unrest in Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya, enough to bring out the local Libyan community and broader Arab American community in Kansas City for a rally at Mill Creek Park on the Plaza on Saturday. I met a man on Saturday who was actually the focal point in one of my Egypt photos who I learned was imprisoned by Gaddafi for nearly twenty years. The situation in Libya is not receiving the amount of press it should due to the tight reins Gaddafi’s regime keeps on journalists and the news media in Libya.
There aren’t a lot of ways to get information in and out of the country except through Internet social networking, and Gaddafi has been busy shutting off the Internet across Libya during the protests and clashes with Libyan citizenry. And I’m told a great deal of the world remains unaware of the killings of dozens or hundreds of protesters in Libya in recent days by Gaddafi’s military forces. There were some demonstrators present at this rally here in Kansas City living in exile from Libya who cannot return and see close family while Gaddafi is in power, so it is not hard to understand why Libyans would love to see Gaddafi gone.
1) Libyan and American flags flying on the Plaza
2) Gaddafi Sux
3) Libya's Turn - Fisheye Lens photo
4) Mubarak Awaiting Gaddafi
5) Streetscape on The Plaza during the rally.
6) Black and White with the Fisheye lens.
7) Holding a child.
8) Gaddafi's Atrocities - and this list only had room to cover the early part of his career as dictator.
On Sunday afternoon (Feb. 6, 2011) from 2 to 4 pm another large rally was held at Mill Creek Park on the Plaza for Egypt and against the Hosni Mubarak presidency currently under protest back in Egypt. This demonstration in Kansas City is the second in one week as the political situation in Egypt worsens. Those in attendance were primarily Egyptian Americans and other members of the Arab American community in KC.
1) Canon 5D Mark II with Canon EF 16-35 L II lens at 16mm, f/9.0, ISO 160, 1/160 sec.
2) Canon 5D Mark II with Canon EF 100-400 L IS lens at 275 mm, f/9.0, ISO 160, 1/160 sec.
3) Canon 5D Mark II with Canon EF 100-400 L IS lens at 190 mm, f/13, ISO 250, 1/50 sec.
4) Canon 5D Mark II with Canon EF 100-400 L IS lens at 100 mm (cropped), ISO 250, f/8.0, 1/100 sec.
5) Canon 5D Mark II with Canon EF 15 mm Fisheye lens, ISO 250, f/8.0, 1/100 sec.
6) Canon 5D Mark II with Canon EF 15 mm Fisheye lens at ISO 500, f/8.0, 1/160 sec.
7) Canon 5D original version with Canon EF 85 mm prime lens (cropped) at ISO 50, f/1.8, 1/1600 sec.
8) Canon 5D original version with Canon EF 85 mm prime lens at ISO 50, f/4.5, 1/160 sec.
CLICK HERE for my posting from last week on this subject, if you missed it.
A large group of demonstrators came to the Nichols Fountain area on the Plaza in Kansas City, Missouri on Saturday afternoon at 4 PM to demonstrate against the Hosni Mubarak regime in Egypt currently being protested in various forms back in Egypt itself. I am informed many of the group were Egyptian Americans, with good attendance by many other Arab Americans in general as well. As of drafting this post I’ve also heard that Internet access is widely shut down in Egypt at present. The demonstration and protest of Mubarak was organized by the Muslim American Society of KC with support from groups such as Citizens for Justice in the Middle East.
Here are seven photos from the event on the afternoon of Saturday January 29th, 2011. Because I used three different lenses for these seven photos I’m including pertinent lens info underneath each photo, shot with my Canon 5D Mark II camera. A tip of the hat to Heycameraman on twitter for informing me this demonstration/protest was taking place, serving as reminder to check my Facebook Events listings more often.
Demonstrations for Egypt #1, Canon EF 16-35 L II f/2.8 Lens at 16 mm
Demonstrations for Egypt #2, Canon EF 16-35 L II f/2.8 Lens at 16 mm
Demonstrations for Egypt #3, Canon EF 100-400 L f/4.5-5.6 IS Lens at 330 mm
Demonstrations for Egypt #4, Canon EF 100-400 L f/4.5-5.6 IS Lens at 285 mm
Demonstrations for Egypt #5, Canon EF 16-35 L II f/2.8 Lens at 16 mm
Demonstrations for Egypt #6, Canon EF 85 mm prime lens at f/1.8
Demonstrations for Egypt #7, Canon EF 85 mm prime lens at f/1.8
Picketing Jersusalem Cafe on Saturday, Dec 4, 2010
On Friday I saw word of a picketing over allegations of labor violations at a local restaurant just a short trip away from my apartment in midtown Kansas City. Credit to articles on Tony’s Kansas City and The Pitch. The Pitch article mentions a civil suit filed against current and former owners of the restaurant over the alleged mistreatment and non-payment to native Guatemalan workers.
On these kinds of issues, we’re dealing with both the livelihood of a local business as well as workers’ civil and labor rights, and I am of course far from being a bona fide journalist. But for the record, I go get shots of events and dissent like this around Kansas City (or anywhere I can, for that matter) because it’s interesting to me and informative of what’s going on.
The busiest travel day of the year was designated National Opt Out Day at airports around the US, encouraging travelers to forego going through the full body scanning devices implemented by the TSA. The body scanning devices reveal in full detail all of one’s bodily nooks and crannies, but unfortunately the only other alternative in airports is a pat-down that many are describing as intrusive and insulting, given that it gives workers the authority to feel virtually every part of the body, genitalia included.
I went up to Kansas City International Airport earlier today to get some shots of the local opt-out advocates handing out fliers and information at one of the terminals – Wednesday, November 24, 2010.
Reminder: Photography show at The Hook Gallery in Westport on Friday December 3rd. Here are the Facebook and Yelp listings.
I went and photographed a gathering at Mill Creek Park on the Plaza on Monday, this one concerning last January’s Supreme Court decision Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission in that, in what I imagine must have to be a pile of legalese and mumbo-jumbo, it was ruled to expand the legal definition of a corporation into something with the legal rights and status of a sovereign citizen in ways, specifically, this corporate personhood concept arose because now corporations can spend an unlimited amount of money on political campaign donations. Citizens United was a nonprofit 501(C)(4) organization that evidently didn’t do anything else besides distribute TV commercials promoting a film called Hillary: The Movie. I haven’t seen the movie but I’m told it’s not flattering. The breadcrumbs can lead to corporate interests funneling money through nonprofit groups in order to manipulate political campaigns.
Robin and Laird Monahan, brothers and Vietnam veterans are walking across the country, from San Francisco to Washington D.C concerning the Supreme Court decision, and Kansas City was one of the stops. The webpage covering their trip is at MoveToAmend.org.
Link to podcast of Tell Somebody on KKFI 90.1 with discussion of the supreme court case and corporate personhood.
1) Robin and Laird Monahan
2)
3)
4) Laird Monahan
5) Something to end with.
On Tuesday evening (07/13/10) out in south Overland Park, Kris Kobach, the UMKC law professor who helped draft Arizona SB 1070 appeared for a speaking engagement with Maricopa County (Arizona) Sheriff Joe Arpaiobefore a supportive crowd. On the sidewalk out front, a large counter-demonstration was held in opposition to the Arizona law and the impetus to enact similar laws in Missouri, Kansas, and other states. There were some familiar faces as I photo-documented the counter-protest, as the KS/MO Dream Alliance helped organize the demonstration. I have met with them on the Plaza in KCMO two or three times in the past for photography of their demonstrations in favor of the Dream Act – which will help ensure a path to citizenship for the now-adult children of undocumented residents who find themselves also technically ”undocumented” despite having lived their childhood and formative years as Americans, geographically and culturally. It was unfortunate that later on in the evening, after I had left, there turned out to be a bomb scare, though luckily it was just an unattended briefcase. Below are several photos from the demonstration in front of the Ritz Charles meeting facility in Overland Park, Kansas where the Kobach/Arpaio event took place.
