Ferguson

DOJ Finds Racial Bias In Ferguson Traffic Stops

March 3, 2015 Matt Apuzzo, www.nytimes.com Educate! Ferguson, Law, police brutality, Police the Police, Racial Justice

The Justice Department has nearly completed a highly critical report accusing the police in Ferguson, Mo., of making discriminatory traffic stops of African-Americans that created years of racial animosity leading up to an officer’s shooting of a black teenager last summer, law enforcement officials said. According to several officials who have been briefed on the report’s conclusions, the report criticizes the city for disproportionately ticketing and arresting African-Americans and relying on the fines to balance the city’s budget. The report, which is expected to be released as early as this week, will force Ferguson officials to either negotiate a settlement with the Justice Department or face being sued by it on civil rights charges. Either way, the result is likely to be significant changes inside the Ferguson Police Department, which is at the center of a national debate over race and policing.

Ferguson Spring Break For College Student Direct Action

February 25, 2015 Jon Swaine, www.theguardian.com Resist! Education, Ferguson, police brutality, Student Activism

College students are being urged to scrap plans for beer bongs on sunny beaches, in favour of a serious-minded spring break in Ferguson, the Missouri town that was roiled by protests and unrest following the fatal police shooting of an unarmed 18-year-old. Six months after the death of Michael Brown, activist leaders in the St Louis suburb are looking to sign up 250 young people for a grittier week of “community service and civic engagement” including registering new voters, running food banks and cleaning up streets. “Maybe there were some people who had planned to go down to Miami or Acapulco, and now see that there is something bigger,” said Patricia Bynes, a Democratic committeewoman for the town and a co-founder of the Ferguson alternative spring break programme. Bynes said the week would not simply be a continuation of the protests that spread from the region in August to New York, California and elsewhere around the US.

How #Ferguson2Palestine Solidarity Movement Was Formed

February 21, 2015 Basseem Masri, www.alternet.org Resist! Ferguson, Genocide, Palestine, police brutality

Only recently, America imagined that it had entered the “post-racial” era. But with discourse on social injustice spreading across the country and forcing a discussion in the corporate media about everything from mass deportations to Islamophobia to police brutality, it is clear that phrase represented a pipe dream. You only have to look to Ferguson to see why. This suburb of Saint Louis has become the epicenter of nationwide protests against hyper militarized police forces that target communities of color. And I have been there since the beginning, watching them unfold against a backdrop of police violence targeting the poor and people of color. In one of the most amazing shows of solidarity, the people of Palestine and Ferguson are reaching out to each other because they are fighting a common system of injustice, control and racism.

Lessons In Struggle & Justice From Chicago

February 19, 2015 Prison Culture, www.usprisonculture.com Educate! Chicago, Ferguson, Mike Brown, police brutality

The national protests catalyzed by the killing of Mike Brown in Ferguson last August continue even as many (including the mainstream media) have moved on. Some critics have suggested that the uprisings/rebellions are leaderless, lack concretedemands and/or are without clear strategy. Each of these critiques is easily refuted so I won’t concern myself with them here. In Chicago, many have used the energy and opening created by these ongoing protests to re-animate existing long-term anti-police violence campaigns. On Saturday afternoon, hundreds of people gathered at the Chicago Temple to show our love for police torture survivors on the day after Jon Burge was released from house arrest.

Rolling Monday Mourning Protests Begin At Mayor’s House

February 11, 2015 Rebecca Rivas, www.stlamerican.com Resist! Art, Ferguson, Michael Brown, police brutality, Politics

Carrying a coffin and tombstones with the names of those shot and killed by police, protestors led a funeral procession down Mayor Francis Slay’s street in South St. Louis at 6:45 a.m. on Monday, February 9. They left the coffin on his doorstep, rang the doorbell and began making loud mourning cries in front of his house on the 3800 block of Robert Avenue. Frederic Chopin’s Funeral March played in the background, as the group of about 25 – all dressed in black – stuck the fist-shaped tombstones in Slay’s front lawn. “This is Monday Mournings,” said Elizabeth Vega, leader of the activist group called the Artivists. “We are here because the mayor has repeatedly locked us out of City Hall. So we know need to come to his house. This is putting all people in power on notice.”

Lawsuits Claim Missouri Towns Jail Poor People For Profit

February 11, 2015 Carey Gillam, www.news.yahoo.com Resist! Capitalism, Ferguson, Mass Incarceration, Prison

Ferguson, Missouri and a second St. Louis suburb are being accused in separate lawsuits of operating a "debtors' prison scheme," illegally jailing poor people who are unable to pay traffic tickets or fines tied to other minor offenses. The lawsuits, filed on Sunday in U.S. District Court in St. Louis by 20 black residents, allege that officials in Ferguson and neighboring Jennings have routinely been abusing and exploiting impoverished individuals to boost city revenues. The plaintiffs are seeking class-action status for the cases. The plaintiffs claim the money they are told they owe is often arbitrarily modified, and the individuals are frequently kept locked in a cycle of jail time and indebtedness to the municipal courts as late fees and surcharges are added to initial fines.

Six Month Vigil For Michael Brown Leads To Abusive Arrests

February 11, 2015 Mariah Stewart, www.huffingtonpost.com Resist! Ferguson, Mike Brown, police brutality

Six months after unarmed teenager Michael Brown was killed by Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson, the tensions between police and demonstrators have not eased, as seven protesters (including one 14-year-old) were arrested Monday night. "They tried to say I hit them with my cell phone holder. I am a pacifist. I have never hit anyone in my whole life," said Heather De Mian, 44, who was livestreaming the demonstration and was arrested and charged with third-degree assault and failure to obey. After a candlelight vigil on Canfield Drive to mark six months since the shooting, several activists moved toward the nearby police station to demonstrate.

#BlackLivesMatter: Lessons From A Leader-ful Movement

January 29, 2015 Jodie Tonita, www.stproject.org Resist! #BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Ferguson, NYC, Racial Justice

I was saddened but not surprised when Oprah Winfrey recently said she was looking for “some kind of leadership” from this movement. Saddened that she could not yet see the incredibly courageous, strategic, and talented leadership at the heart of this “leader-ful” movement. Not surprised given the generational gap between boomers and millennials and the tendency for traditional media to seek a single charismatic leader to deliver the message. It‘s been incredibly humbling and inspiring to witness the courageous youth of Ferguson, NYC and people across the country declare and demand that #BlackLivesMatter. Black organizers heard the call, saw the possibilities, stepped into capacity gaps, and are organizing their communities and allies to meet the moment.

Who Is Kymone Freeman?

January 26, 2015 Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, www.blackagendareport.com Educate! D.C., Ferguson, Racial Justice, Washington, Youth

Papi Kymone Freeman (guerrilla artist) is one of the leaders of #DC Ferguson, an organization devoted to exposing police terror in the Washington, DC area. Kymone, alone with Eugene Puryear, Salim Adafo and Kenny Nero have led non-violent demonstrations that have shut down major economic arteries in the nation’s capitol. Kymone is the director of the National Black LUV Festival that has since become the largest annual AIDS mobilization in Washington, DC. He has authored a collection of poetry entitled Blood.Sweat.Tears. Kymone is in the process of completing a one-man show called “Whites Only,” a show where, according to Kymone “white folks can witness an angry Black man in therapy from the sanctuary of their seat.”

Thoughts About The Greatness of Selma, Unity, And King

January 16, 2015 Alan Gilbert, www.democratic-individuality.blogspot.com Educate! Civil Rights, Ferguson, History, Media, Racial Justice

The movie “Selma,” directed by Ava DuVernay, is a subtle, restrained account of a period of the most extreme American violence against black people, focused on the leadership and struggles of Martin and Coretta King as well as the many who joined them in Selma and around the country. The experience DuVernay conjures, for instance, the horrific shooting of Jimmie Lee Jackson in a restaurant in Selma, his father’s grieving at the coroner’s office, Jimmie’s body seen through the glass and King’s compassion, is alive today in the movement Black Lives Matter! about the murders of Eric Garner and Tamir Rice and Mike Brown and Trayvon Martin... The director sought to capture many people from the civil rights movement.

Judges Recuse Themselves In Teen Death

January 10, 2015 Jessica Glenza, www.theguardian.com Educate! Ferguson, Law, Police

Judges in Valdosta, Georgia have recused themselves from cases involving the death of a 17-year-old black high school student, Kendrick Johnson, who two years ago was found dead in a rolled up gym mat at his high school. “We have valiantly attempted to mediate the presently outstanding issues in the Kendrick Johnson matter, but it appears at this point that we have reached an impasse,” wrote Georgia superior court judge Harry Jay Altman II, in a letter dated Wednesday. “Given the fact that officials with whom the judges in the circuit deal with everyday are involved, it is not fair to the parties for any judge in this circuit to rule on contested matters of importance to the parties and the community,” wrote Altman, adding that other circuit judges had also agreed to recuse themselves.

Update On Arrests In St. Louis

January 10, 2015 Molly Gott, www.organizemo.org Resist! Ferguson, Law, police brutality, St. Louis

In 2015, we’ll be sending out weekly updates about the work we’re doing. Check out our first one! The St. Louis Legal Collective formed spontaneously in response to the Mike Brown protests to provide accessible, democratic and accountable legal support to people fighting for social justice in St. Louis City and County. We currently have 15 core collective members and work with over 100 other movement volunteers. We are regular people (not lawyers) who refuse to allow the legal system to separate and silence us. As mass arrests have decreased the focus of our work has shifted from primarily providing protest support (24/7 hotline, tracking people through the system, dispatching lawyers for jail visits, coordinating with arrestees friends and family, posting bail, dealing with warrants, giving rides home from jail, etc.) to helping people fight their court cases.

Ferguson Protesters Stall Opening Of Missouri Senate Session

January 10, 2015 Associated Press, www.washingtonpost.com Resist! Ferguson, Law, police brutality, Racial Justice

The start of Missouri’s legislative session was interrupted Wednesday by demonstrators who chanted and unfurled banners in the Senate while protesting the fatal Ferguson police shooting of Michael Brown. Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, who was presiding over the chamber, said demonstrators were violating Senate rules of decorum and ordered proceedings suspended while police cleared people from the visitors’ galleries. The Senate resumed after about 30 minutes, but no one was allowed to return to the visitors’ section. Protest leaders and a spokesman for the Missouri Department of Public Safety said no one was arrested.

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