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Waukegan Paid $26.1 MillionTo About 50 People Wrongly Arrested

November 1, 2015 Dan Hinkel, www.chicagotribune.com ,
By Dan Hinkel for the Chicago Tribune - A Tribune investigation into the Waukegan Police Department has found a troubling history of investigative failure and abuse allegations. No city police agency in Illinois, other than Chicago's, shares responsibility for as many known wrongful convictions as the Waukegan police, who helped send six men to prison — some for decades — before they were cleared, according to an analysis of data from the National Registry of Exonerations. Waukegan police also have been inundated with abuse allegations, records show, and insurers and the city have paid out $26.1 million in police cases since 2006, outspending towns with more police and, in some cases, more violent crime. The Waukegan Police Department has been led by officers who played central roles in some of the costliest investigative failures in Lake County history, and police with troubled records have flourished in the department. Scandal and instability have plagued the agency, and the city is now run largely by former officers who have given little public indication that they detect a problem.

Mass Arrests Outside Police Chiefs’ Meeting

October 25, 2015 Staff, www.presstv.ir , , ,
By Press TV - Police arrested 66 protesters outside a meeting of the International Association of Chiefs of Police in Chicago on Saturday, as demonstrators gathered to decry racial profiling and police killings in the black community. Hundreds of protesters marched on the McCormick Place convention center from Chicago police headquarters, to protest where police leaders from around the country are meeting over the weekend, according to the AFP. During the demonstration, several protesters reportedly chained themselves together, in an attempt to disrupt the annual convention, with law enforcement using handsaws to break through their bonds. The protest was organized by several anti-police brutality and black power groups, including Assata's Daughters, We Charge Genocide, Black Youth Project 100, and Organized Communities Against Deportation. An increase in unlawful arrests and the killing of black people in recent years has sparked campaigns against police brutality and racial profiling in the US, including the prominent 'Black Lives Matter' movement.

NYC Activists Ticket Park Slope Residents To Make A Point

October 21, 2015 Ashoka Jegroo, www.wagingnonviolence.org
By Ashoka Jegroo for Waging Nonviolence - Anti-police brutality activists in New York City took a trip to a gentrified neighborhood on October 18 to catch white people freely committing the type of crimes that get black and brown people regularly harassed by cops. The group that organized the action, the Police Reform Organizing Project, or PROP, took to the streets of Park Slope, Brooklyn Sunday afternoon and handed out fake summonses to white people committing small quality-of-life crimes. “We’re out today just giving mock summonses to people in Park Slope,” said Josmar Trujillo, a member of the Coalition to End Broken Windows, one of the groups that joined the action in Park Slope.

NYPD Officer Convicted Of Lying About Photographer’s Arrest

October 16, 2015 Brendan O'Connor, www.gawker.com ,
By Brendan O'Connor for Gawker - NYPD officer Michael Ackermann was convicted Thursday on a felony charge of falsifying a record to justify the 2012 arrest of a New York Times photographer in the Bronx, the New York Times reports. On August 4, 2012, according to the Times, the photographer, Robert Stolarik, was taking pictures of police arresting a young black woman in the Bronx for a story about the use of stop-and-frisk tactics in the 44th Precinct. Officer Michael Ackermann claimed that Stolarik—who had previously been arrested during Occupy Wall Street—had interfered with the arrest by repeatedly shoving the camera’s flash in his face: Stolarik was charged with obstructing government administration and resisting arrest.

People’s Arrest Warrants To Be Served For Blake Arrest

September 16, 2015 #RiseUpOctober, www.PopularResistance.org ,
By Staff for #RiseUpOctober - A delegation of organizers for #RiseUpOctober, a mass mobilization to STOP Police Terror October 22-24, will serve a People's Arrest Warrant for NYPD Officer James Frascatore for his assault on James Blake. On September 9, NYPD Officer James Frascatore ran up and body slammed James Blake, a Black man, to the ground. People everywhere have seen the surveillance video. Frascatore, in plain clothes, never identified himself as an NYPD officer. He made no effort to talk to James Blake before rushing him and slamming him to the ground. After Mr. Blake was brutalized, the police released him, saying they had the “wrong person.” But then NYPD Commissioner William Bratton defended Frascatore, saying that Mr. Blake “looked like the twin brother” of the suspect the police were seeking. Bratton went on to say that in the attack on Mr. Blake, “Race had nothing to do with it."

Drawings Capture Last Words Spoken By Black Victims Of Police

August 30, 2015 Zak Cheney-Rice, www.mic.com , , ,
By Zak Cheney-Rice for Mic.com - In the year that has passed since Brown's death, Barghi has been illustrating and tweeting her own creative depictions of the last words spoken by slain black male victims of state violence in the U.S. The result is a haunting tribute to the dead and a heartbreaking reminder of the toll American racism takes daily on black families and communities. In many ways, #LastWords has assumed a life of its own, she says. Artists and musicians have reached out to her about creating similar series' focused on other topics, like the war in Yemen. Activists in Ferguson have also spoken to her about amplifying the last words spoken by black women who have died at the hands of American police. "I really want other people to continue this work," Barghi says. "First, I'm not black, which I realize influences my perspective. Black pain [in the U.S.] is very real. So the first thing I try to do is educate myself, build an awareness." Barghi moved to the United States from Iran in 2011.

BLM Opposes DC Mayor’s Increase In Policing

August 28, 2015 Eugene Puryear & Sean Blackman, www.PopularResistance.org , , , , ,
By Eugene Puryear & Sean Blackman for Stop Police Terror - Mayor Muriel Bowser has released her plan addressing the spike in crime. Stop Police Terror and many others, have stated, she is headed in the wrong direction. In her framing she states the plan is “comprehensive.” Translated from politician-speak that means it contains “something for everyone.” Stop Police Terror has some serious concerns particularly about the massive increase in police presence and expansion of police powers. Much of what Bowser proposes is based on spurious information. Tougher penalties for crimes on public transit is a strategy that simply will not work. One of the principal studies on the effect of more severe penalties concluded: “the studies reviewed do not provide a basis for inferring that increasing the severity of sentences generally is capable of enhancing deterrent effects.” Stop Police Terror rejects this mass incarceration approach to criminal justice that has been proven by the academic and anecdotal evidence to be unsound.

The Dystopian Danger Of Police Body Cameras

August 23, 2015 Rachel Levinson-Waldman, www.brennancenter.org , ,
By Rachel Levinson-Waldman for the Brennan Center for Justice - This history suggests that for body cameras — and any other surveillance technology — the right question to ask is not, “are we comfortable with this particular technology, used for the particular governmental purpose currently asserted, with the particular controls currently in place?” Rather, the more accurate and far-reaching question is, “what do we think of the other uses that might be spawned once this technology is introduced?” For body cameras, it is already evident that they will be introduced in many more contexts than simply law enforcement. If they are being placed on principals, they will eventually be placed on teachers. If they are placed on teachers, they will eventually be placed on child care providers, and then on youth ministers, and so on and so on. The normalization of one kind of surveillance technology will also help hasten the normalization of other types.

Chicago Police Agree To Reforms Of Stop & Frisk

August 8, 2015 Margaret Paulson, www.chicagoist.com , , ,
By Margaret Paulson for Chicagoist - The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois and the Chicago Police Department have struck an agreement to have an independent monitor evaluate the controversial #8220;stop and frisk” policy. The agreement, announced Friday, appoints independent consultant Arlander Keys, a former U.S. magistrate, to issue twice-yearly public reports on “stop and frisk” and suggest policy changes to the Chicago Police Department. In addition, Chicago police will now be required to collect data on and track information on all street stops and to note when pat-downs (“frisks”) are employed, and why. Previously, the police were only required to collect data on street stops but were not required to report if they frisked the person. Additionally, if arrests were made, officers weren’t required to record that data.

This Weekend Remember #MikeBrown & The #FergusonUprising

August 8, 2015 Staff, www.PopularResistance.org , , , , , , , ,
By Staff for Popular Resistance - Since the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson one year ago the #BlackLivesMatter movement has swept the nation. Tomorrow, there will protests in many parts of the country to remember his death and the uprising that has followed. Michael Brown was not the first person to be killed by police, this is a long, historic reality of US policing of black and brown communities, nor was his death the first to be protested. Popular Resistance has reported on protests against police violence throughout its existence and in our earlier incarnation as the Occupation of Washington, DC at Freedom Plaza. Historically, riots in urban areas have often been ignited by police violence. Something is different now, the #BlackLivesMatter movement has created an organized revolt against police violence. It is developing a broad base in communities of color with many Caucasin communities participating, standing with #BlackLivesMatter leaders. Postive changes have been made in the last year and we expect escalation of the #BlackLivesMatter over the next year and will do all we can to support it.

Black Lives Matter Gets Laws Passed In 24 States

August 4, 2015 Staff, www.ap.org , , , ,
By Staff for Associated Press - Since the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, legislators in almost every state have proposed changes to the way police interact with the public. The result: Twenty-four states have passed at least 40 new measures addressing such things as officer-worn cameras, training about racial bias, independent investigations when police use force and new limits on the flow of surplus military equipment to local law enforcement agencies, according to an analysis by The Associated Press. Despite all that action, far more proposals have stalled or failed, the AP review found. And few states have done anything to change their laws on when police are justified to use deadly force. National civil rights leaders praised the steps taken by states but said they aren't enough to solve the racial tensions and economic disparities that have fueled protests in Ferguson, Baltimore, New York and elsewhere following instances in which people died in police custody or shootings.

Newsletter: Their Greed Is Our Ally

August 2, 2015 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.PopularResistance.org , , , , , , , , ,
By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flower for Popular Resistance. The radical transformation that is needed is not on the agenda of anyone running for president in either the Democratic or Republican primary. The reality is that nothing offered by mainstream politics will achieve the transformational change that is needed. A normally mainstream Democrat, Robert Kuttner writes: “This is one of those moments when there is broad popular frustration, a moment when liberal goals require measures that seem radical by today’s standards. . . . Muddle-through and token gestures won’t fool anybody.” Consciousness is rising and with that so will the demands and actions of an organized populace. Sometimes it will take the shape of protests, other times a rebellion, sometimes cities will be shut down and there will be riots. The system is not responding to the reasonable demands for social, economic, racial and environmental justice.

At Sandra Bland’s Funeral, A Mother’s Call To Action

July 26, 2015 Marwa Eltagouri and Maggie Angst, www.chicagotribune.com , , , ,
By Marwa Eltagouri and Maggie Angst for the Chicago Tribune - Sandra Bland's mother was the last to speak at her daughter's funeral. Geneva Reed-Veal’s voice didn't break as she addressed the hundreds before her; she didn't shed any tears. She spoke clearly and decisively, determined to raise a call to action with each word. “I'm the mama, and I'm telling you that my baby did not take herself out,” she said. “The fact is, I'm the mama. And I still don't know what happened. You think you're mad? I'm mad too.” She recalled the last words her daughter spoke to her, in which Bland said, even before she received a job interview, that she wanted to go to the South and stop the injustices against blacks. “Sandy knew what her purpose was,” she said. “Some call it a tragedy. Some call it a travesty. But I've got to call it testimony.”

Louisville Police Blockaded, Cop Calls Protestors ‘Race-Baiters’

June 23, 2015 DFH Local No 420, www.dailykos.com , , ,
By DFH Local No 420 for Daily Kos. It began with a cop killing a man armed only with a metal pole. The people wanted justice. The local police union guy wasn't about to have any of it. First, the offending Cop Statement Calling himself an “activist,” the head of Louisville’s police union defended a letter he wrote to the city’s citizens, threatening to bring the wrath of the law down on the “sensationalists, liars and race-baiters” who criticize the efforts of the police department. Protesters block Louisville police station after union letter threatening ‘race-baiters’ Dozens of demonstrators forced the temporary closure of the Louisville Metro Police headquarters on Monday afternoon in a protest that sought the firing of the local police union leader for his reaction to an officer-involved fatal shooting.

Calvert County Sheriffs Act As Dominion’s Private Police

June 6, 2015 Anne Meador, www.dcmediagroup.us , , ,
By Anne Meador in DCMediaGroup.us. Lusby, MD - The shoulders of Cove Point Road in Lusby, Maryland are looking pretty ragged these days. Recently, heavy trucks and construction vehicles have crumbled the pavement as they thunder down the narrow road. Not far up Cove Point Road from the main highway, just past the sometimes clogged intersection with H.G. Trueman Rd., they turn left and enter the gates of the LNG plant that’s been there for 40 years, but is now undergoing a major upgrade. The road also looks a little brownish from dirt spilled by dump trucks. Early in the morning on Sunday, May 31, there was no traffic to speak of when two cars with Pennsylvania license plates negotiated the gentle turns and hills of Cove Point Road. A police cruiser followed them.
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