Ferguson

Protestors Disrupt Mo. Legislature Opening Ceremony

January 8, 2015 The St. Louis American, www.stlamerican.com Resist! Ferguson, Law, Missouri

Protestors disrupted the opening ceremony of the Missouri Legislature at noon today, after holding a die-in around the rotunda of the state capitol. Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder quickly ordered the entire gallery, or public seating, to be cleared. While Missouri Highway Patrol officers escorted protestors out of the gallery, they chanted “no justice, no peace” and then started singing, “We shall overcome.” They continued to march and protest throughout the capitol building. In a news release earlier today, Don’t Shoot – a coalition of nearly 50 St. Louis-area organizations formed in response to the police shooting of Michael Brown –called on lawmakers to address systemic problems surrounding police practices in communities of color As the Missouri Legislature kicked off its 2015 session.

Bar Complaint Filed Against McCulloch

January 7, 2015 Carol Daniel, www.facebook.com Resist! Ferguson, Law, Mike Brown, police brutality

A bar complaint against St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch and Assistant Prosecuting Attorneys Kathi Alizadeh and Sheila Whirley has been filed regarding the handling of the Ferguson grand jury. Attorney and former judge James R. Dowd and attorney Robert Ramsey reviewed the grand jury transcript – including evidence, witness interviews and testimony – before a group of seven citizens and attorneys – led by Christi Griffin, founder of the Ethics Project – filed an 11-page complaint with the Office of the Chief Disciplinary Counsel in Jefferson City, Missouri. Griffin has said initial reports from the Ferguson police chief that Darren Wilson did not know Michael Brown was suspected in an earlier convenience store robbery were changed in testimony before the grand jury, and she believes that represents perjury.

Michael Brown Case Grand Juror Sues St. Louis County Prosecutor

January 6, 2015 Robert Patrick & Joel Currier, www.stltoday.com Organize! Ferguson, Law, Missouri, St. Louis

A grand jury member’s lawsuit seeking a court order to speak out about the Michael Brown shooting investigation accuses Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch of publicly misrepresenting the panel’s viewpoint after it chose not to indict Officer Darren Wilson. In documents filed Monday in federal court in St. Louis, “Grand Juror Doe” wants freedom to challenge McCulloch’s comments, “especially the implication that all grand jurors believed that there was no support for any charges.” The filing says that the heavily redacted grand jury documents McCulloch released Nov. 24 “do not fully portray the proceedings before the grand jury.” McCulloch spoke publicly that night about the grand jury’s decision against charging Wilson.

Black Lives Depend On A Free And Open Internet

January 5, 2015 Patrisse Cullors, www.thehill.com Resist! FCC, Ferguson, Net Neutrality, Racial Justice

The Internet is the most democratic communication platform in history, largely because we’ve had network neutrality rules that make sure all web traffic is treated equally, and no voices are discriminated against. Because of network neutrality rules, activists can turn to the Internet to bypass the discrimination of mainstream cable, broadcast and print outlets as we organize for change. It is because of net neutrality rules that the Internet is the only communication channel left where Black voices can speak and be heard, produce and consume, on our own terms. But, right now, Black online voices are threatened. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is drafting and preparing to vote on new rules that will either preserve the level online playing field we’ve enjoyed for the last several decades, or destroy it.

Uniting Fight For $15 With Ferguson Fury

January 5, 2015 Bryan Watson, www.15now.org Organize! Ferguson, Fight for 15, Labor Unions, Racial Justice

Across the country, the youthful protests against police racism openly expressed their solidarity with the fight for $15. The widespread mood to #ShutItDown, most reflected in highway takeovers, found even sharper expression in marches through Wal-Marts and shopping malls, where chants and speeches often made the connections between economic inequality and police racism. There is widespread understanding that racism is structurally embedded into the economy and political life of American capitalism. For a movement against racist police violence to be sustainable, demands for community control over police must be combined with economic demands that address mass unemployment, low-wages, and underfunded services in communities of color. Demands for living wage jobs and quality public services can also unite wider numbers of workers in the struggle for racial equity.

Milwaukee’s Long History Of Police Abuse

January 4, 2015 Steven Elbow, www.host.madison.com Educate! Ferguson, police brutality, Racism

Writing in Slate, Michael Carriere argues that the real story isn't that former Milwaukee police officer Christopher Manney won't face charges in the April 2014 shooting death of Dontre Hamilton. It's the Milwaukee Police Department's decades-long history of brutality against African Americans. And, Carriere writes, the Hamilton case might very well expose a police culture that is more egregious than the one that led to national protests over the Aug. 9 police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. "While the Hamilton case has not received as much media attention as the Michael Brown shooting, it may very well out-Ferguson Ferguson," Carriere writes. Hamilton's case is only the latest in a string of incidents of Milwaukee Police Department brutality against African Americans stretching back decades, he writes.

Threat Of Protests Moves St. Louis County Inaugurations

January 4, 2015 Steve Giegerich, www.stltoday.com Resist! Criminal Justice, Ferguson

Security concerns have prompted a change of venue for the New Year’s Day ceremonies at which St. Louis County Executive-elect Steve Stenger and County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch are scheduled to be sworn into office. Normally held in the County Council chambers on the second floor of the Lawrence K. Roos County Administration Building, the inaugural events will instead take place on the 6th floor of the St. Louis County Courthouse by invitation only. Stenger spokesman Cordell Whitlock said unspecified threats prompted the decision to move the proceedings to the courthouse. “After consulting with law enforcement we decided it was prudent to change the venue,” Whitlock said. A St. Louis County Police spokesman said the request to switch sites came at the request of McCulloch and Stenger’s offices.

Keep Marching On

January 3, 2015 Bill Fletcher Jr., www.jacobinmag.com Resist! Civil Rights, Ferguson, police brutality, Racial Justice

But this anomalous (if egregious) violence against police officers cannot be used to stop a nonviolent movement. The Haymarket Massacre is still the paradigmatic case of the state using a violent act to justify repression. In 1886, at the height of the movement for an eight-hour workday, a bomb was set off at a worker rally in Chicago’s Haymarket Square. The rally was called to both protest police killings of worker protesters and to support striking workers fighting for the eight-hour day. When police attacked the demonstration, a bomb was thrown. To this day no one knows who set off the explosive, including whether it was an agent provocateur or an activist. What is known, however, is that the government used the bombing as a pretext to discredit the protests and the workers movement, suggesting that the entire movement was comprised of supposedly violent anarchists.

Protesters Mark New Year With ‘Black Lives Matter’ Marches

January 2, 2015 Resist! Eric Garner, Ferguson, NYPD, police brutality, Racial Justice

Protesters from the East to West coasts of the US ushered in the New Year with ‘Black Lives Matter’ marches against police brutality. In St Louis demonstrators tried to take over a police station, demanding that the “occupiers” be “removed from power.” In a letter addressed to St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson and all other “occupiers of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department,” protesters announced in August they were evicting them from the building for a range of alleged offenses, including police brutality and transforming the police department into a “militarizing occupying force.” A grand jury’s decision not to indict Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Ferguson, Missouri teen Michael Brown last month sparked a nationwide protest movement against excessive police force. Just over a week later, a grand jury in Staten Island opted not to indict New York Police in the chokehold death of Eric Garner, bringing the slogan “I can’t breathe” to national attention. The movement has inspired similar protests against police brutality abroad.

Breaking: Ferguson Protesters Occupy SLPD Headquarters

December 31, 2014 Staff, www.bayareaintifada.wordpress.com Resist! Ferguson, Occupy, police brutality, Racism

In response to this dispatch, we intend to evict injustice and blight, by occupying St. Louis Police headquarters on December 31st, 2014, at 11am. The decision to reclaim our police department is the result of willful neglect and violence on behalf of the department toward the community, which they are bound, by oath, to protect and serve. Violations include: Committing crimes against humanity, by ending the life of men, women, and children, and then labeling these executions as “justified” without regard for your humanity, and without thorough investigation. Hiring officers, who are unfit to wear a badge, like Randy Hayes, a known animal torturer, and Jason Flannery, who publicly declared he wanted to “shoot Muslims.” Both these men shot and killed two members of our community and have not been held accountable for these egregious actions, but rather have been protected behind a blue shield. Despite thousands marching in the streets; despite our community having to sue our own police department to stop the use of tear gas and rubber bullets; despite urgent demands for broad and substantive reforms, our cries have been ignored. For all these reasons, we intend to occupy St. Louis Police Headquarters as part of our New Year’s resolution to take back our Justice System, and in doing so reclaiming the promise of our future.

Black People’s Grand Jury Subpoenas Wilson, Nixon

December 29, 2014 Tiffany Taylor and Denise Justice, www.popularresistance.org Create! Ferguson, Grand Jury, police brutality, Racism

Organizers for the Black People’s Grand Jury taking place Saturday and Sunday, Jan 3 and 4, 2015, have sent a subpoena to Officer Darren Wilson who killed 18-year-old, unarmed Michael Brown on August 9, 2014. Wilson was called to testify and undergo questioning by attorneys for the Black People’s Grand Jury hearings this coming weekend. Also subpoenaed were: St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert P. McCullough; Colonel Jon Belmar, Chief of the St. Louis County Police Department; Governor Jay Nixon and Ferguson Mayor James Knowles. The Black People’s Grand Jury has its own attorneys making up the prosecutorial team. The BPGJ is selecting its own grand jurors and is calling its own witnesses as it reviews the evidence in the police murder Brown. The Black People’s Grand Jury will be a transparent process in which the community will be able to participate.

Time Person Of The Year Runner-Up: Ferguson Protesters

December 27, 2014 Alex Altman, www.time.com Educate! Civil Rights, Eric Garner, Ferguson, Mike Brown, police brutality, Protests, Tamir Rice

Activists are putting some hope in Washington: the Department of Justice hasopened separate civil rights probes into the Ferguson police force and Garner’s death. In Ferguson, voter-registration drives are under way ahead of April’s city council elections. And the struggle has spread. On Dec. 3, after protesting the Garner grand jury decision at the federal courthouse in downtown St. Louis, Elzie glanced down at her phone. It was lighting up with tweets and texts tracking the night’s arrests, as well as updates from the demonstrations in New York. Like many in Ferguson, she was heading there the next day to join them.

Activists Disrupt Xmas Shopping, Another Teen Killed

December 27, 2014 The Real News, www.therealnews.com Resist! Ferguson, police brutality

After police officers shot and killed 18-year-old teenager Antonio Martin two miles from Ferguson, D.C., activists call for a surprise action. They meet at the local metro and head toward their target location. They walk through Pentagon City Mall and prepare for the action. It's December 24, and the mall is packed last-minute Christmas shoppers. TOTTEN: Because when it happens to you, [we're (?)] going to be out here for you. I am a mother. And I'm tired, I am tired of seeing these babies killed all the time with impunity and nothing happens. They're saying that our lives aren't worth shit. And that's okay? You think that's okay? Why would we do that? Stand up with us. Stand with us. Join the movement.

The Police Aren’t Under Attack. Institutionalized Racism Is.

December 24, 2014 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, www.time.com Educate! Ferguson, New York (NY), NYPD, police brutality, Racial Justice

At the same time, however, we need to understand that their deaths are in no way related to the massive protests against systemic abuses of the justice system as symbolized by the recent deaths—also national tragedies—of Eric Garner, Akai Gurley, and Michael Brown. Ismaaiyl Brinsley, the suicidal killer, wasn’t an impassioned activist expressing political frustration, he was a troubled man who had shot his girlfriend earlier that same day. He even Instagrammed warnings of his violent intentions. None of this is the behavior of a sane man or rational activist. The protests are no more to blame for his actions than The Catcher in the Rye was for the murder of John Lennon or the movie Taxi Driver for the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan. Crazy has its own twisted logic and it is in no way related to the rational cause-and-effect world the rest of us attempt to create.

Garner Protesters Hold Candlelight Vigil For Slain Officers

December 23, 2014 Carly Schwartz, Alana Horowitz and Sebastian Murdock, www.huffingtonpost.com Organize! Eric Garner, Ferguson, killed by police, Police abuse, police brutality, Racism

At a candlelit gathering in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, a half-mile from where officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu were shot to death execution-style by Ismaaiyl Brinsley, 28, on Saturday, several dozen people held makeshift lanterns made of Dixie cups as they marched from Herbert Von King Park to St. Philips Church in silence. The attendees, including many who have spent the past month protesting the police killings of Eric Garner and Michael Brown, said they came to honor the officers who were killed and those who have been killed by officers. "Tonight is an opportunity to come together for a moment of reflection," Michael Premo, 32, a freelance journalist and Bedford-Stuyvesant resident who helped organize the vigil, told The Huffington Post. "There's a lot of confusion, a lot of pain. ... The loss of these officers is absolutely tragic. Any loss of life is tragic." At the Bedford-Stuyvesant vigil, 25-year-old Darius Gordon dismissed recent remarks by NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton that linked recent protests against police brutality in New York City to the murders of Liu and Ramos. "It's not comparable," Gordon said. Brinsley "shot his girlfriend before coming here from Baltimore. It's not related at all.

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