police brutality

First Nations Teen Files Complaint Against Police After Street Check

September 30, 2015 Jody Porter, www.cbc.ca Resist! Children, First Nations, Ontario, police brutality

By Jody Porter in CBC News - A teenager from Neskantaga First Nation in northern Ontario has filed a formal complaint against Thunder Bay police after she says she was subject to a street check that left her frightened and under threat. Cheyanne Moonias, 18, is living in Thunder Bay, Ont. to attend school at the Matawa Learning Centre. Her complaint to Ontario's civilian police oversight body, the Office of the Independent Police Review Director, said that she was walking back to school after lunch on Sept. 10 around 1.p.m. when she was approached by two male officers asking for her identification. "I responded back, saying 'no, you don't have the right to ask me for i.d.'", Moonias said. "'The police officer responded back 'we could do what we want, we are the law.'" Moonias said the officers then asked if they could search her for drugs or weapons.

From Hashtag To Strategy: Growing Pains Of Black Lives Matter

September 30, 2015 Bill Fletcher, Jr., www.inthesetimes.com Strategize! #BlackLivesMatter, Black Liberation, Black Lives Matter (BLM), police brutality

By Alicia Garza and Jamala Rogers for In These Times - We’ve said, very directly, that to rebuild the Black Liberation Movement, we actually need to build a different kind of united front—both internal to Black communities and external to Black communities. We have also been very clear that our election strategy is to push the Democratic Party to acknowledge the concerns of Black people. It’s not just about having candidates say “Lives Matter,” but certainly it is about exposing where candidates stand as it relates to Black people. We should figure out how not to try to make everybody fit into the mold we are most comfortable with. I organize domestic workers. Domestic work is a relic of slavery, and very much Black women’s work. I can’t talk about domestic work without talking about Black women. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

Black Lives Matter Schism: A Vision For Black Autonomy

September 28, 2015 Joel Northam, www.counterpunch.org Strategize! #BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Ferguson, police brutality

By Joel Northam in CounterPunch - The Black Lives Matter movement exhibited a schism since the first few days following the first Ferguson rebellion. I remember watching live streams of the rebellion early on as Ferguson’s youth waged small scale urban combat armed with little more than rubble and glass bottles. The heroic resistance to state power, against all odds of victory in forcing a retreat of the occupying militarized police, and in the face of material consequences in the form of a brutal crackdown, was a demonstration of courage that we all should aspire to. The repression by the armed apparatus of the state in Ferguson (and Baltimore months later) provoked another popular response. But this response took on a different character. It seemed to want to place distance between itself and those who were engaged in combat with the police.

Morello On Ferguson: ‘Not A Humanitarian; I’m A Hell-Raiser’

September 28, 2015 Atlanta Jobs with Justice, www.facebook.com Resist! Ferguson, Music, police brutality, Racial Justice

By Brittany Spanos in Rolling Stone - Yeah, there are thousands of cases, countless cases of white police officers murdering unarmed black people and getting off scot-free. What happened in Ferguson was that the community reacted in a way that was newsworthy on a global scale. If there had been one prayer circle and everybody singing "Kumbaya," that would've been completely swept under the rug. The outrage of there being no indictment really cast a global light on the kind of racism that is America's original sin. The Michael Brown case was the first domino in the 21st Century that we've seen. I don't need to remind you how; all you have to do is turn on the news every two to three days. Horrendous incidents. But now people have their cameras. If there had not been an uprising in Ferguson, there would not have been indictments in Baltimore. There's a greater vigilance.

Here’s How To Cop Watch

September 26, 2015 Muna Mire, www.thenation.com Create! Autonomy, Community, police brutality, Surveillance

By Muna Mire in The Nation - In academic circles, copwatching is considered a form of sousveillance, which translates from the French to “watching from below” and refers to recording or monitoring of authorities, like the police. (Surveillance, by comparison, translates to “watching from above” and refers to being monitored by authorities.) Through copwatching, communities are learning that, depending on which way the cameras are facing, they can become a powerful tool in court or in advocacy. While the state trains its gaze on communities to “keep them safe,” members of the public are increasingly aware that it is the watchers who need to be watched. Here, we break down what copwatching is, and how to do it.

Healing The Wounds Of Native American Tragedies

September 25, 2015 Derek Royden, www.occupy.com Organize! Native Americans, police brutality

By Derek Royden in Occupy - The Black Lives Matter movement has made a significant impact in part because African Americans are a visible presence in America’s large urban areas. By contrast, Native Americans are more easily ignored since they often live in more rural areas and on reservations. Native American culture, and often Natives themselves, remain a source of ridicule in contemporary North American culture in a way that other groups are not, at least not in such open fashion. For example, sports teams nationwide still proudly flaunt racist names and symbols referring to Native American peoples and traditions. Now, issues of police accountability are opening the public's eyes to the continuing struggles of North America’s First Peoples and other groups unfairly targeted by law enforcement.

Centering Black Women’s Experiences Of Police Violence

September 21, 2015 Andrea J. Ritchie, www.truth-out.org Educate! #SayHerName, Black Women, police brutality

By Andrea J. Ritchie in Truth Out - While what happened to Sandra Bland was extraordinary in some respects, it was commonplace in many. A day after Bland's death, another Black woman, 18-year-old Kindra Chapman, was found dead in police custody. A total of five cases of Black women dying in police custody, including Bland and Chapman, surfaced the same month. They were preceded by many more, including Sheneque Proctor, Kyam Livingston and Natasha McKenna. The cause of death varies - apparent suicide, failure to provide necessary medical attention, violence at the hands of police officers - but ultimately, no matter the circumstances, these women's deaths are also a product of the policing practices that landed them in police custody in the first place: racial profiling, policing of poverty, and police responses to mental illness and domestic violence that frame Black women as deserving of punishment rather than protection, of neglect rather than nurturing.

ACLU Chapter Files Lawsuit Against Hayward Police Over Footage

September 19, 2015 Darwin BondGraham, www.eastbayexpress.com Resist! Law, Media, police brutality

By Darwin BondGraham in East Bay Express - The ACLU of Northern California and the law offices of Amitai Schwartz filed a lawsuit against the Hayward Police Department on Tuesday, alleging that the agency is charging exorbitant fees that effectively prevent the public from obtaining police body camera video footage. The lawsuit comes as a result of a Public Records Act request filed by the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) in January of this year. The NLG was seeking video taken by Hayward police officers who were called into Berkeley in December 2014 to respond to Black Lives Matter protests. During those protests, police, including the Hayward PD, used less-than-lethal weapons against protesters. According to the lawsuit, the Hayward Police Department informed the NLG on May 15 that it would turn over approximately ten and a half hours of police body camera video only after the NLG paid $2,938.58.

Free Speech Doesn’t Kill People

September 17, 2015 Chip Gibbons, www.defendingdissent.org Educate! Free Speech, police brutality

By Chip Gibbons in Defending Dissent - Just days after the killing of both Goforth and another law enforcement officer, Charles Gliniewicz, USA Today published an op-ed by Ron Hasko, President of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund, blaming Black Lives Matter for the deaths of both officers, as well as violent crime across the United States. Hasko asks his readers not once, but twice if there is “hard data and empirical evidence” to support his suppositions. Both times he concedes there is not. Yet, Hasko will not let this admitted lack of evidence derail his attempt to smear a social movement for racial justice, as “concluding that both [the deaths of officers and the spike in crime] stem from the anti-cop themes from such protesters, liberal politicians and the mainstream media is hardly counterintuitive.”

Newark’s New Disciplinary Board Could Control And Limit Police

September 16, 2015 Daniel Ross, www.yesmagazine.org Create! LAPD, mental health, police brutality

By Daniel Ross in Yes! Magazine - Just over a year ago, Ezell Ford, a 25-year-old mentally ill black man, was shot and killed by two LAPD officers in South Los Angeles. Ford was unarmed, though the officers involved insist that a struggle had occurred between one of the officers and Ford prior to the shooting. After a lengthy investigation, the Los Angeles Police Commission—a five-member civilian review board that oversees the LAPD—determinedin June of this year that one of the officers was wrong to draw his weapon and open fire. But because LAPD Chief Charlie Beck has final say over disciplinary matters, it is possible that he could refrain from meting out any punishment to the officers involved—something that has happened multiple times before. These situations have led to heated disagreementsbetween Beck and the Commission about his lack of punitive action in cases where the board has determined wrongdoing by an officer.

Drug Warriors Have Not Given Up, Call For More Drug War

September 12, 2015 Nick Wing, Ryan Grim, Roque Planas, www.huffingtonpost.com Resist! Mass Incarceration, police brutality, War On Drugs, Wars and Militarism

By Nick Wing, Ryan Grim, Roque Planas - For most Americans, including some presidential candidates, the record on the U.S.-led drug war is settled: After spending more than $1 trillion on efforts that have taken or destroyed the lives of millions around the world, drug purity has risen, prices have fallen and rates of use have remained the same. It has, in no uncertain terms, been a catastrophic failure. But in an op-ed published in The Boston Globe this week, two former drug czars say we have it all wrong. It's time to "Bring back the war on drugs," they argue, and recommit to an enforcement-first policy that puts forth incarceration and interdiction as the best tools to address surging heroin overdose rates. The column, written by William J. Bennett and John P. Walters, drug czars under Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, is based on the controversial premise that the drug policies of the last quarter century have actually been effective.

Mother Refuses Gag Order About Son Killed By Police, Rejects $900,000

September 12, 2015 Matt Ferner, www.huffingtonpost.com Resist! Criminal Justice, Law, police brutality

By Matt Ferner in The Huffington Post - The mother of Darrien Hunt, a 22-year-old black man who was shot and killed by Utah police last year, rejected an offer to settle her lawsuit against the city and two police officers involved. Had she accepted the settlement, she would have been barred from speaking publicly about the incident. "To me it was a gag order [that said], 'Here's hush money, don't ever say Darrien's name again,'" Susan Hunt, mother of Darrien, told Utah's KSL news about turning down the $900,000 settlement the city offered in response to her wrongful death lawsuit. "My biggest concern is for the truth to be told," Susan said. The suit alleges that the police used excessive force and violated Darrien's constitutional rights when they confronted him and shot him to death while he was wearing a costume and carrying a metal samurai-style sword, one that his family says was rounded and not an actual weapon.

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