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#BlackLivesMatter

New Warning Sign For Motorists Where Sandra Bland Was Arrested

July 23, 2015 Jen Hayden, www.dailykos.com , , , , ,
By Scout Finch in Daily Kos - The probe into the jail cell death of Sandra Bland will be treated as thoroughly "as it would be in a murder investigation," a Texas district attorney said Monday. "There are many questions being raised about this case," Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis said during an evening news conference. "It needs a thorough and exhaustive review." Yet, Waller County Sheriff's Office Captain of Patrol Brian Cantrell said at the same press conference that Bland's July 12 death inside a Waller County Jail was already ruled a suicide. "I want to make clear that the death of Ms. Bland was a tragic incident — not one of criminal intent or a criminal act," Cantrell said. Cantrell claimed Bland, 28, strangled herself with a jail cell trash bag, but her family has disputed the very notion that she would kill herself. They have asked for an independent autopsy.

The Value Of Protest

July 22, 2015 Tim Dechristopher, www.timdechristopher.com , , , , ,
By Tim Dechristopher - As a strong supporter of Bernie Sanders, my first reaction to hearing about yesterday’s Black Lives Matter protest at Netroots Nation was disappointment. This looks bad, I thought. Bad for Bernie, who is the only presidential candidate with any chance of challenging structural injustice. Then I watched the video of Sanders responding to the protest, or should I say, failing to respond and instead just speaking over and past them. He tried to just continue with his stump speech and seemed annoyed with the disruption. Several times he looked at moderator Jose Antonio Vargas as if he expected Vargas to control these women, once asking, “Are you in charge here?” The closest he came to discussing policing issues directly was mentioning his success with community policing in Burlington, VT, a city that was pretty much all white and pretty much irrelevant to the discussion of racist policing.

Why I Interrupted The Netroots Presidential Town Hall

July 22, 2015 Tia Oso, www.mic.com , , , , , , ,
By Tia Oso in Mic - I am Tia Oso, the black woman who took to the stage and demanded a microphone on July 18 at the Netroots Nation Presidential Town Hall in Phoenix, Arizona. I did this to focus the attention of the nation's largest gathering of progressive leaders and presidential hopefuls on the death of Sandra Bland and other black women killed while in police custody, because the most important and urgent issue of our day is structural violence and systemic racism that is oppressing and killing black women, men and children. This is an emergency. Sandra Bland and I had a lot in common. We were both black women, active in our communities and the Movement for Black Lives. We both pledged sororities: I'm a Delta, Bland was a member of Sigma Gamma Rho. I have also been harshly confronted by police during "routine" traffic stops and feared for my safety and my life.

Police Target Journalists & Organizers In Police Brutality Protests

July 22, 2015 Unicorn Riot, www.unicornriot.ninja.com , , , , , ,
By Unicorn Riot - Protests in Denver continue in the wake of the killing of Paul Castaway by Denver police officers. Paul Castaway, a 35 year old enrolled member of the Rosebud Lakota nation, was killed July 12, 2015 after his mother called police for “mental help assistance.” His last words were, “What’s wrong with you guys?” as he held a knife to his own neck. Police claimed that Castaway ran at them with a knife, but local witnesses contradict police claims. Also contradicting the police claims is a yet to be released video reviewed by a local reporter who stated that it showed Castaway standing still at a distance when police shot him. On Monday, July 20th, protesters continued to take the streets in Denver demanding justice for Paul Castaway’s death and gathered outside a Police Chiefs meeting.

The Motivating Forces Behind Black Lives Matter

July 21, 2015 Tasbeeh Herwees, www.magazine.good.is , , , , ,
By Tasbeeh Herwees in Magazine Good Is - The names of female victims of police violence—names like Rekia Boyd, Natasha McKenna and Mya Hall—however, remained unknown to most people. Cullors, Garza, and Tometi have been tireless in their campaign to change that, using Black Lives Matter to push for a more thorough rejection of state violence—one that considers the specific ways that this violence impacts the lives of black women. This means focusing on stories of black women who have been victimized by police or the prison system. But it also means cultivating a strong cohort of black women leaders within the movement at large. Unlike the Occupy protesters of 2011, who claimed to be leaderless, the co-founders of Black Lives Matter instead assert that their movement is—in their words—a leaderful one. And those leaders are frequently black women like Richards, women who are carrying out grassroots community work in their neighborhoods in service of a global struggle against police violence.

Unapologetic Black Anger Can Change The World For The Better

July 21, 2015 Chauncey de Vega, www.alternet.org , , , , , ,
By Chauncey de Vega in Alternet - At the Socialism 2015 conference, Martinez Sutton, the brother of Rekia Boyd, a 22-year-old black woman killed by an offduty white Chicago cop who recklessly fired five shots into a crowd of people because he was supposedly upset that they were playing loud music, shared his story of anger and pain at a legal system that twisted justice in order to protect one of its enforcers of death and destruction on the black and brown body, as well as the poor of all colors. Sutton told the audience that he and his family will not forgive the cop who killed his sister. He called out how this expectation that black and brown folks should always forgive those who malign and hurt us is an absurdity.

Eric Garner’s Death Marked With Week-Long Protests In NYC

July 21, 2015 Keegan Stephan, www.animalnewyork.com , , , ,
By Keegan Stephan in Animal New York - Over the last week, New Yorkers marked the one-year anniversary of Eric Garner’s chokehold death with over a dozen events and actions across the city, from banner drops, to rallies with victims of police violence from around the country, to a march with over 1,000 people leading to dozens of arrests. The actions kicked off last Monday with a march on Staten Island organized by NYC Shut It Down (NYCSID) and led by Erica Garner, Eric’s oldest daughter and founder of the Garner Way Foundation. “It’s important to keep bringing actions to Staten Island,” Erica told ANIMAL, “because the police still haven’t reformed out there.” The march hit many locations directly connected to Eric Garner’s story, from the courthouse where the Grand Jury failed to indict Officer Pantaleo, to the NYPD’s 120th Precinct, where Pantaleo still works, to the spot where Eric died, just seven blocks away.

#BlackLivesMatter Convening Responds To State Of Emergency

July 21, 2015 Ashley Curtin, www.bullhorn.nationofchange.org , , , ,
By Ashley Curtin in Nation of Change - As the movement continues to grow, the freedom fighters will meet in Cleveland for the first ever Movement for Black Lives Convening to create a collective mission through months of action. The conference will take place from July 24-26 to "build a national community dedicated to permanently changing the country." “We have established a decentralized, but coordinated, movement that has already changed the discussion about racial justice and police violence; and now it is important that we gather, continue the discussion and build alignment,” Maurice Mitchell, organizer with the Movement for Black Lives, said in a press release “At the Convening we hope to see a collective vision emerge to build meaningful power and agency in the Black community.”

Activist Sandra Bland Dies After Minor Traffic Stop

July 18, 2015 Shaun King, www.dailykos.com , , , , ,
By Shaun King in Daily Kos - Sandra Bland died in police custody this past Monday. Visiting Texas from Chicago to interview for a college job at her alma mater of Prairie View A&M, she was pulled over for a routine traffic violation (failure to use her turn signal). Everything from that point forward screams racism and foul play, including her death in the Waller County jail Monday. The first red flag is that Bland was officially arrested on Friday for assaulting a police officer. What we see from a bystander video is her telling the officers she is in pain and cannot hear after her head was slammed on the ground by the male arresting officer. The video is below. We have now learned that Waller County Sheriff Glenn Smith, who made the first public comments about Bland's in-custody death, was suspended for documented cases of racism when he was chief of police in Hempstead, Texas, in 2007.

Eric Garner’s Death Remembered With A Week Of Actions

July 18, 2015 Ashoka Jegroo, www.wagingnonviolence.org , , , , , , ,
By Ashoka Jegroo in Waging Non-Violence - After a week of actions, Black Lives Matter activists in New York City are set to march today to commemorate Eric Garner, the Staten Island man who was killed by police last year on July 17. His death — along with that of Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and the ensuing non-indictments of the police officers responsible in both incidents — sparked months of nationwide protests and the birth of the Black Lives Matter movement. Garner’s family recently accepted a $5.9 million settlement from the city, which Comptroller Scott Stringer noted was not an admission of liability. For Garner’s family though, the settlement is far from the end of the fight. “Don’t congratulate us,” Gwen Carr, Garner’s mother, told CNN. “This is not a victory. The victory will come when we get justice.”

Engaging The Powers: The Promise Of A New Civil Rights Era

July 17, 2015 Troy Jackson, www.sojo.net , , , , ,
By Troy Jackson in Sojo - When Occupy Wall Street emerged in the fall of 2011 many media personalities and social commentators critiqued the lack of a clear and concise list of demands from the nascent movement. Months later, when the only thing blanketing Zuccotti Park in New York City was freshly fallen snow, I was tempted to write off Occupy as an idealistic moment that produced little lasting change. As we move toward the 4-year anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, my assessment has changed. Thanks in part to the work of Occupy, America is having a new debate around increasing the minimum wage, restaurant workers are waging their “fight for 15,” and even Wal-Mart recently announced wage increases for employees. We are having new public policy debates around what it means to be part of a moral economy.

Fatal Police Shooting Of Andrew Loku Inspires ‘Black Lives Matter’ Chant

July 10, 2015 CBC News, www.cbc.ca , , ,
By CBC News - The fatal shooting of Andrew Loku in Toronto on Sunday has prompted a response from community groups saying the man was not a threat and did not deserve to die. They are demanding an action plan to deal with police shootings of black people — especially those with mental health issues. One woman was so upset that she collapsed in tears during the news conference. Loku, 45, was a father of five who was wielding a hammer and apparently distressed at an apartment complex before he was shot by police. Robin Hicks witnessed the event and said things quickly escalated toward a shooting. According to Hicks, the incident started because three women on the floor above Loku's apartment on Gilbert Avenue were making a great deal of noise. He was in their apartment for 10 minutes holding a hammer before Hicks got him out of there.

Freedom Side’s Emerging Radical Democratic Imagination

July 3, 2015 Geoff Gilbert, www.wagingnonviolence.org , , , , ,
By Geoff Gilbert in Waging NonViolence - The young black and brown activists descended on Nashville to stand together in resistance against the policies that criminalize them — policing practices that have the effect of racial and socio-economic profiling, like “broken windows” policies; excessive drug sentences and drug enforcement in low-income communities; the systematic separation of immigrant families made more efficient by the post-9/11 creation of Immigration and Customs Enforcement within the Department of Homeland Security; and the perverse social incentives created by increasing privatization of prisons and detention centers. “Criminalization of young people of color has different guises, but it’s all the same,” said Malaya Davis, an organizer with the Ohio Student Association, or OSA. “[Our] demand was just for the governors to somehow acknowledge our presence and statements.”

Bree Newsome: ‘Now Is The Time For True Courage’

June 30, 2015 Bree Newsome, www.bluenationreview.com , , , , ,
By Bree Newsome in Blue Nation Review - As you are admiring my courage in that moment, please remember that this is not, never has been and never should be just about one woman. This action required collective courage just as this movement requires collective courage. Not everyone who participated in the strategizing for this non-violent direct action volunteered to have their names in the news so I will respect their privacy. Nonetheless, I’m honored to be counted among the many freedom fighters, both living and dead. I see no greater moral cause than liberation, equality and justice f­­or all God’s people. What better reason to risk your own freedom than to fight for the freedom of others? That’s the moral courage demonstrated yesterday by James Ian Tyson who helped me across the fence and stood guard as I climbed. History will rightly remember him alongside the many white allies who, over the centuries, have risked their own safety in defense of black life and in the name of racial equality.

At Least Five Black Churches Destroyed By Fire In Past Week

June 29, 2015 Nick Visser, www.huffingtonpost.com , , , , ,
By Nick Visser in Huffington Post - At least five predominantly black churches have caught fire in the last week, including at least three that have been the subject of arson, the Southern Poverty Law Center reports. The string of blazes, which have occurred in four Southern states and Ohio, comes a week after nine people were gunned down at a Charleston, South Carolina, church. Dylann Roof, 21, has been charged with nine counts of homicide and possession of a firearm during commission of a violent crime. An arsonist set fire to the College Hills Seventh Day Adventist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, on Monday. The following day, God’s Power Church of Christ in Macon, Georgia, was gutted by flames.
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