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First Amendment

The Two Parties Have Failed Us, But The People Can Succeed

August 29, 2020 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, Popular Resistance , , ,
The Republican and Democratic Party conventions showed that both major parties are failing to control the pandemic and protect people, address the climate crisis and clean up the environment, support families and businesses during the economic collapse, prevent police violence or deal with any of the other major problems we face. These were two substance-less conventions. The Democrats focused on criticizing Trump without putting forward an agenda while the Republicans claimed Biden was a front for socialism when he is a deeply embedded corporate Democrat.

Calls To Drop ‘Absurd’ Charges Against Journalists Covering Protests

August 27, 2020 By Lisa Newcomb,  Commondreams. , , ,
The Committee to Protect Journalists on Monday called for authorities to drop charges against members of the news media who were arrested while covering Black Lives Matter protests across the United States. More than 600 attacks against the press during the protests, ongoing since the end of May, have been reported to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, and many detained journalists were released without charges, according to CPJ.

Tennessee To Strip Right To Vote From Protesters

August 24, 2020 Staff, Commondreams. , , ,
Tennessee protesters will face harsh penalties, including losing the right to vote, as punishment for participating in protests under a law enacted by the Tennessee  GOP-dominant General Assembly.  Right-wing Governor Bill Lee quietly signed off on the bill Thursday, AP reports. Under the new law, demonstrators who camp on state property can now be charged with a Class E felony, punishable by up to six years in prison, rather than a misdemeanor it was previously. Since George Floyd’s killing earlier this year, protesters have camped outside the Tennessee Capitol in Nashville, demanding a meeting with the governor to discuss racial inequality and police brutality. The protesters set up camp in War Memorial Plaza near the Capitol, naming it the “People’s Plaza” and “Ida B. Wells Plaza,” after the civil rights leader. They stayed there 24 hours a day for more than two months.

The Supreme Court Dropped The Ball On The Right To Protest

August 19, 2020 By Kia Rahnam, Politico. , , ,
In recent months, US cities have seen widespread protests denouncing police brutality against unarmed Black people. Local and national law enforcement agencies, responding to crowds of unprecedented size and scale, relied on methods that were equally unprecedented. For more than 30 years, the Supreme Court has failed to take up a freedom-of-assembly case. As a result, this fundamental constitutional right is in sore need of an update, such as a ruling that would protect protesters from the unduly harsh police response that has become all too common as a response to demonstrations in recent years. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution explicitly describes the right of the people to peaceably assemble. This right is recognized separately from the right to freedom of speech because the founders believed that the act of organizing a large crowd for a demonstration, parade or protest could be more powerful than individual speech, and was therefore even more susceptible to government encroachment. Like the right to religious expression, the founders gave the right to protest its own listing intending for the courts to give it special treatment and fashion unique legal standards that would ensure its protection.

Portland Mayor Condemns Masked Federal Agents Abducting Protesters

July 18, 2020 Alan Macleod, Mintpress News. , , ,
Anonymous masked federal agents in military uniforms jump out of unmarked minivans, abducting seemingly random people on the street in Portland, frightening new viral videos show. Officers from the U.S. Marshals Special Operations Group and Customs and Border Protection’s BORTAC have been sent to the city to tamp down of 49 days of continuous demonstrations against racist police brutality. The move appears to be the Trump administration’s latest tactic to crush the nationwide protests that erupted in late May over the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police.

We Reviewed Police Tactics Seen In Nearly 400 Protest Videos

July 18, 2020 Talia Buford, Lucas Waldron, Moiz Syed and Al Shaw, ProPublica. , , ,
As protests denouncing police brutality against unarmed Black people spread to thousands of cities, it was videos of police violence — this time, directed at protesters — that went viral. Clips showed officers launching tear gas canisters at protesters’ heads, shooting pepper spray from moving vehicles and firing foam bullets into crowds. ProPublica looked at nearly 400 social media posts showing police responses to protesters and found troubling conduct by officers in at least 184 of them. In 59 videos, pepper spray and tear gas were used improperly; in a dozen others, officers used batons to strike noncombative demonstrators; and in 87 videos, officers punched, pushed and kicked retreating protesters, including a few instances in which they used an arm or knee to exert pressure on a protester’s neck.

50 Nights Of Anti-Racist Protests And Police Violence In Portland

July 17, 2020 Kevin Zeese, Popular Resistance. , , ,
In Portland, on July 16, protesters held their 50th straight night of demonstrations against police violence and racism. Oregon Live reports "Federal officers responded to one late-night demonstration downtown by using gas, smoke and impact munitions to press protesters away from two federal buildings." Oregon Governor Kate Brown and Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler called on federal officers to leave Portland, but they remain and continue to use aggressive and violent tactics. Brown called the deployment of federal officers "political theater" and a “blatant abuse of power by the federal government.” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf traveled to Portland to meet with federal law enforcement officials. 

Arrest Of Activist Leads To Protests; At Least Four Vehicles Strike Protesters

June 24, 2020 By Robert Chappell, Madison365.   , , ,
Hundreds of people are protesting in downtown Madison after the arrest of activist Yeshua Musa. Videos of the arrest posted to social media show as many as five police officers wrestling Musa, also known as Devonere Johnson, to the ground and carrying him to the back seat of a police cruiser, while he asks what he’s being arrested for. After officers get him into the car, he can be seen jumping out of the opposite car door before being tackled again and taken into custody. In one of the videos, witnesses can be heard asking why Musa is being arrested and saying he had only been speaking in a megaphone, exercising his first amendment rights.

Mapping Police Violence Across The USA

June 24, 2020 Amnesty International. , , ,
Police forces across the United States have committed widespread and egregious human rights violations in response to largely peaceful assemblies protesting systemic racism and police violence, including the killing of Black people. Amnesty International has documented 125 separate incidents of police violence against protesters in 40 states and the District of Columbia between 26 May and 5 June 2020. These acts of excessive force were committed by members of state and local police departments, as well as by National Guard troops and security force personnel from several federal agencies. Among the abuses documented are beatings, the misuse of tear gas and pepper spray, and the inappropriate and, at times, indiscriminate firing of less-lethal projectiles, such as sponge rounds and rubber bullets.

More Than 10,000 People Reportedly Arrested At US Protests

June 6, 2020 AP News. , , ,
More than 10,000 people have been arrested in protests decrying racism and police brutality in the wake of George Floyd’s death, according to an Associated Press tally of known arrests across the U.S. The count has grown by the hundreds each day as protesters spilled into the streets and encountered a heavy police presence and curfews that give law enforcement stepped-up arrest powers. Los Angeles has had more than a quarter of the national arrests, followed by New York, Dallas and Philadelphia. Many of the arrests have been for low-level offenses such as curfew violations and failure to disperse. Hundreds were arrested on burglary and looting charges.

U.S. DOJ Refuses To Allow Assange To Be Protected Under First Amendment Rights

January 26, 2020 Angel Fox, Angel of Truth. , , ,
In British court today, a new affidavit states Julian Assange will not be protected by the First Amendment if extradited because he is a foreign national. This is absurd and directly threatens journalists worldwide. It will set a precedent that silences any objection to U.S. behavior through the press. Once that is established, it will be easier to also go after press in the States. No one will be safe from the long arm of the U.S. DOJ. If the press can’t object to the behavior of the U.S. government, who can? This is the beginning of the end of free speech and free press. After the court hearing today, Krisstinn Hraffson made the following statement (article seen here): “On the one hand they have decided that they can go after journalists wherever they are residing in the world, they have universal jurisdiction, and demand extradition like they are doing by trying to get an Australian national from the UK for publishing that took place outside US borders,” he told AAP.

Assange And Manning The Most Important Free Press Stories Of 2019

January 21, 2020 Leonard C. Goodman, Chicagoreader.com , , ,
The most important stories of the year for those who care about a free press involve the arrest of Julian Assange from the Ecuadorian embassy at the request of the U.S. government, and the rearrest of the whistleblower Chelsea Manning. Assange is the founder of WikiLeaks, a website that publishes official documents exposing the crimes and lies of world leaders. Before publishing, WikiLeaks verifies that the evidence submitted is authentic. Of the millions of items published by WikiLeaks, not one has been shown to be fraudulent or untruthful.

Facebook’s Soleimani Ban Flies In Face Of First Amendment

January 17, 2020 Ari Paul, Fair.org , , , ,
Iranian journalists have reported the censorship of their Instagram accounts. Posts about Soleimani have disappeared from Instagram, which is currently the only operational international social media site within Iran.Instagram, and its parent company Facebook, took down posts regarded as too sympathetic to Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was assassinated January 3 in a controversial US airstrike. The news website Coda (1/10/20) was credited with breaking the news, and Newsweek (1/10/20) also reported that...

Stopping The FBI From Spying On Social Movements

November 18, 2019 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, Clearing the FOG. , , ,
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has a long history of monitoring, infiltrating and entrapping activists and social movements engaged in First Amendment activity. A new report by Rights and Dissent's legal counsel Chip Gibbons details some of these activities over the past decade. The report covers FBI surveillance from Occupy to racial justice movements, and from those who work to abolish ICE to peace activists. We speak with Gibbons about the history of the FBI, why it is not structured to be held accountable and how it fits into the whole practice of state surveillance. We also discuss how the FBI interferes with protected First Amendment rights and what people can do to stop these repressive practices. 

Immigrants Speak Boldly Despite Threats Of Violence

November 17, 2019 Azadeh Shahshahani, Colorlines. , , ,
Recently, an email was circulated by anti-immigrant forces saying that they intended to show up “armed” to an immigrants’ rights event at a public library in Georgia, because we as the organizers of the event had dared to challenge law enforcement and “speak [our] minds.” The majority of the speakers, including myself, were immigrants. As an outspoken immigrant who is often critical of the United States government’s policies, I have often been told to go back “instead of stirring up trouble here.” Unfortunately, we have become accustomed to aggressive and hateful speech in the course of pursuing justice. But this email escalated anti-immigrant rhetoric to threats of violence. Many immigrants and refugees have left home countries where governments restricted their freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.
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