Human Rights

NATO3: Cop Cell Phones Lost or Destroyed, New Motions to Dismiss Charges

June 14, 2013 jackiews, www.interoccupy.net Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Human Rights, Wars and Militarism

The prosecution’s answer to discovery revealed that officers involved in field intelligence team in charge of all pre-NATO surveillance and infiltration destroyed or disappeared personal cell phones used during the investigation. Multiple officers in the unit used their personal cell phones to exchange information between themselves and different officers as well as their supervisors in the course of the operation. According to the material offered up to the court today by prosecutors, the private cell phone service providers used by the officers did not store their text message data and the officers mysteriously (and conveniently for them) no longer have those phones in their possession. Thus, these crucial pieces of evidence will not be available to the defense.

Court: Occupy Nashville First Amendment Rights Violated

June 14, 2013 BobAllyn, www.tennessean.com Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Human Rights

The state unlawfully arrested members of the Occupy Nashville group two years ago during a protest encampment on War Memorial Plaza, which violated their First Amendment rights to free speech, according to a ruling by a federal judge. In the ruling, federal judge Aleta Trauger declared that state and local agencies did have not “carte blanche to respond in any manner they see fit.” In other words, “they cannot make law by fiat,” Trauger wrote. In late October, state officials adopted a “use policy” that effectively prohibited overnight use of the plaza for assembling. Protesters vowed to spend the night on the plaza despite the new 10 p.m.-6 a.m. curfew. After protesters refused to leave, the Tennessee Highway Patrol arrested 55 people over the course of two nights on Oct. 28 and Oct. 29. The arrests ended after a federal court issued a restraining order, barring the state from enforcing the new curfew.

Fighting Back Against National Video Surveillance Network That Will Monitor Your Activities

June 14, 2013 Kevin Zeese, www.PopularResistance.org Organize! Human Rights, NSA, Privacy

CNN is reporting that the immigration bill being considered in the senate contains provisions that require a digital ID in order to get a job. Your digital ID (a driver’s license or passport with digital image of your face) needs to match up with Homeland Security's digital ID on file. This is essentially a national data base for all Americans, not just immigrants. This means all those cameras watching us on the surveillance camera network, CCTV (the biggest TV network in the country), will be able to use facial recognition technology to monitor the movements of individuals. People are organizing to respond to this encroachment. The project, Documenting Dystopia, Big Brother is Watching and So are We, has a challenging goal: to chart the surveillance cameras throughout the US and world.

The City that Ended Hunger

June 13, 2013 Francis Moore Lappe', ww.yesmagazine.org Create! Democracy, Food and Agriculture, Human Rights

Brazil. During the first six years of Belo’s food-as-a-right policy, perhaps in response to the new emphasis on food security, the number of citizens engaging in the city’s participatory budgeting process doubled to more than 31,000. The city agency developed dozens of innovations to assure everyone the right to food, especially by weaving together the interests of farmers and consumers. It offered local family farmers dozens of choice spots of public space on which to sell to urban consumers, essentially redistributing retailer mark-ups on produce—which often reached 100 percent—to consumers and the farmers. Farmers’ profits grew, since there was no wholesaler taking a cut. And poor people got access to fresh, healthy food.

Supreme Court Bans Protests On Its Grounds

June 13, 2013 Frederic J. Frommer, ap.org Educate! Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Human Rights

The Supreme Court has come up with a new regulation banning demonstrations on its grounds. The regulation bans activities on the court's grounds or building such as picketing, speech-making, marching, vigils or religious services "that involve the communication or expression of views or grievances, engaged in by one or more persons, the conduct of which is reasonably likely to draw a crowd or onlookers." John Whitehead, the president of the Rutherford Institute, which successfully challenged a previous regulation, called the new regulation "repugnant" to the Constitution, said "If you believe in free speech, the First Amendment's really clear: You have a right to petition your government peacefully to redress grievances."

Apathy: The Ultimate Enemy

June 13, 2013 Sibel Edmonds, www.boilingfrogspost.com Organize! Corporatism, Environment, Finance and the Economy, Government, Human Rights, Solidarity, Worker Rights and Jobs

I find myself standing alone when I now answer the questions directed at me following the endless atrocities and scandals. I am no longer the provider of the popular answer. My answer is one of the most unpopular, if not the most, in the eyes and ears of the public. I accept the consequences. I may never be sought as an opinion-provider after the never-ending breaking news on ever-expanding and continuing scandals. And that’s okay. Because I know there will be no hope of any meaningful action or changes so long as we stick with our national pride. The enemy has been us; we the people. We the majority – in denial. Our national apathy. Our large majority’s denial, indifference; apathy. Apathy is a must ingredient for any police state, authoritarian regime, dictatorship, for abuses of power, for corruption, national atrocities, genocide … Some ingredients may be decreased, increased or substituted, but one key ingredient remains constant: Public Apathy.

86 Civil Liberties Groups and Internet Companies Demand an End to NSA Spying

June 12, 2013 Rainey Reitman, www.eff.org Resist! Government, Human Rights, NSA

In an open letter to lawmakers sent today, the groups call for a congressional investigatory committee, similar to the Church Committee of the 1970s. The letter also demands legal reforms to rein in domestic spying and demands that public officials responsible for this illegal surveillance are held accountable for their actions. The letter denounces the NSA’s spying program as illegal, noting: "This type of blanket data collection by the government strikes at bedrock American values of freedom and privacy. This dragnet surveillance violates the First and Fourth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, which protect citizens’ right to speak and associate anonymously and guard against unreasonable searches and seizures. . ." The letter was accompanied by the launch of StopWatching.us, a global petition calling on Congress to provide a public accounting of the United States' domestic spying capabilities and to bring an end to illegal surveillance.

History Teaches That We Have the Power to Transform the Nation, Here’s How.

June 12, 2013 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.truth-out.org Strategize! Government, Human Rights, Mutual Aid, Solidarity

The fact is, United States and world histories show that an organized and mobilized populace is what has always caused transformational change. This history is not taught in our education system or emphasized in the heroes we idolize in our culture, but it is so significant that it cannot be hidden from view. The country could not operate if the people refused to participate in its corrupt systems. The ultimate power is with us, if we let go of fear and embrace it. Now that there is a history of more than 100 years of modern resistance movements, there is data to show what works and what doesn't. As a result, we can develop a vision, a strategic plan and tactics that make success more likely than ever before.

Colombian GM Workers Hunger Strike to Protest Dangerous Factory

June 12, 2013 Jaisal Noor, www.therealnews.com Resist! Human Rights, Worker Rights and Jobs

This struggle sort of dramatizes the struggle that's going on for workers pretty much around the globe. I want to point to what happened in Bangladesh with over 1,100 garment workers dying in an unsafe building that collapsed. We can talk about what happened at the fertilizer facility in Texas that I think hadn't been reviewed by OSHA since 1985, had an explosion, killed a number of workers and demolished the community. We had the miners in West Virginia that 29 lost their lives because of unsafe conditions. And what's critical in all of these is that there are very lax regulations, whether abroad or here at home. There's a suppression of unions. For example, in the situation of Colombia, GM prevents a union from forming in its facility. And in the absence of a union what happens is that there's no voice for the workers in regards to health and safety.

Disarming Bullies — from Schoolyards to the White House

June 12, 2013 Frida Berrigan, www.wagingnonviolence.org Educate! Human Rights

Thinking back on that girl all these years later, it seems that bullies are made, not born. The bullied bully. Rewriting the story of the loogier and loogied from this distance, I find her a few days later. I explain to her how icky and hurt she made me feel, I ask her why she would do that to someone she did not even know. She starts out tough, but then she opens up to me, my vulnerability encouraging her own. She shares the particulars of her pain with me, and then we go off together to confront and convert whoever was bullying her. We don’t stop there. Our ranks grow larger and more powerful as we move up the bullying chain — person to person and then from systemic oppression to systemic oppression — all the way to the White House and the Pentagon.

Turkish Activists: Brutal Police Tactics Expose Dictatorship at Work

June 11, 2013 Richard Hall, www.independent.co.uk Resist! Human Rights, Türkiye

No sooner had Pinar Gulec, a 31-year-old tax auditor, finished admonishing Turkey's Prime Minister for behaving like a dictator than Istanbul's Taksim Square filled with tear gas. As smoke rained down on the square, which has become the centre of protests against the authoritarian leadership style of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the thousands that had gathered there at dusk – Ms Gulec among them – were sent diving into side streets with their eyes watering. Police stormed the square and fought running battles with protesters who responded with fireworks. Skirmishes continued late into the evening as police used water cannon and further volleys of tear gas.

Our Message: ‘Moral Mondays’ are Here to Stay

June 11, 2013 William J. Barber, www.guardian.co.uk Resist! Finance and the Economy, Human Rights

When far-right extremists took over the Grand Old Party and turned it into a joyless, humorless, mean-spirited vehicle to line the pockets of the super-rich, we already had experience bringing people to Jones Street, where the state capitol is located, and advocating for the poor and vulnerable. It is not surprising, then, that a couple of months ago, when we called for moral witnesses based on Gandhi and Dr King's brilliant examples of nonviolent direct action, we had 17 ministers and other leaders answer the call and participate in the first inaugural "Moral Monday".

Idle No More Protest for Missing Native Women

June 11, 2013 Nicky Young and Zach Ruiter, www.vice.com Educate! Human Rights, Idle No More

Last week, we attended an Idle No More protest centred on the problem of missing and murdered native women in Canada. While sitting in a drum circle for a peace pipe ceremony on the lawn of a police station, exhaling pipe smoke, a white Astro van was parked nearby with the faces and names of murdered women collaged on the side. The Idle No More Toronto demonstration departed the police station and marched to Highway 401 for a banner drop, designed to call attention to the recent deaths of two native women. The protest was organized Idle No More activist John Fox, whose daughter, Cheyenne Fox, a young mother, was recently found dead at the bottom of a 24 floor apartment tower after an alleged violent encounter.

Supreme Court Rejects Tortured Whistleblowers’ Suit Against Rumsfeld

June 11, 2013 Russia Times, www.rt.com Educate! Human Rights, Iraq, Wars and Militarism

Two United States citizens can’t sue the federal government and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for being subjected to torture while detained by US force during the Iraq War, the Supreme Court decided Monday. The high court rejected an appeal early Monday filed by Donald Vance and Nathan Ertel, two US citizens who say Mr. Rumsfeld should be held responsible for the treatment they endured while detained for several weeks in 2006. Both men were placed in a military prison in Baghdad for around three months that summer. They had filed a complaint with the Federal Bureau of Investigation about the Iraqi-owned security contractor they worked for, then were scooped up by US forces and put behind bars days later.

Student Debt Activists Want to Go Further Than Obama Proposals

June 11, 2013 Tyler Kingkade, www.huffingtonpost.com Resist! Education, Finance and the Economy, Government, Human Rights

An April 10 joint statement from several student advocacy groups -- OurTime.org, Rock the Vote, Roosevelt Institute Campus Network, National Campus Leadership Council, U.S. Public Interest Research Group and Young Invincibles -- voiced united opposition to the Obama plan. Depending on the type of loan students took out, their interest rate would fall to between 2.74 and 5.74 percent under Obama's plan, lower than the current rates settled between 3.4 and 7.9 percent. But as The Atlantic points out, rates could still climb to between 8 and 12 percent, putting federal loans on par with private student loan rates, which makes the plan unpopular

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