police brutality

The Long Distance Revolutionary – Larry Hamm

August 19, 2015 Interview with Lawrence Hamm Chris Hedges, www.therealnews.com Strategize! History, police brutality, Racial Justice

Interview with Lawrence Hamm by Chris Hedges in The Real News - Police brutality is deeply rooted in contemporary urban communities, especially African-American communities, but not exclusively African-American communities. And for African Americans, of course, they are part of an overall system--this is my opinion--of racial control that has existed essentially since Africans came to the United States. Laws and instruments of state power were established to essentially hold slaves in check and put down slave rebellions. We can go all the way back to the colonial period, almost from the time that Africans first appear in large numbers in the colonies, and see the establishment of slave patrols and night watches and all kinds of precursors to what we would call contemporary modern day policing. And their job was to use force, and they used it in the most brutal, most terrifying ways, the force that was used.

Homeless New Yorkers Protest Police Stigmatization

August 19, 2015 Emma Whitford, www.occupythebronx.org Resist! Homeless, New York City (NYC), police brutality, Protest

By Emma Whitford in Occupy The Bronx - Dozens of homeless New Yorkers and advocates rallied on the steps of city hall this afternoon to single out and condemn the NY Post’s recurring portrayal of the homeless as dehumanized, quality-of-life case studies, as well as the Sergeants Benevolent Association’s recent public solicitation of photographs ofhomeless people engaging in “quality-of-life offenses of every type.” “We’re here today because we’re disgusted by the treatment of homeless people in our city,” said Alyssa Aguilera, the Political Director for Vocal New York. “We’re tired of the criminalization and stigmatization of homeless people who are struggling, and need housing, and who need social services. Instead they are being targeted by the police.” According to the SBA, civilian documentation of the homeless is a valid response to those who exercise their right to surveil the NYPD.

Against Police Violence, From The Panthers To #BlackLivesMatter

August 18, 2015 Juan Thompson, www.firstlook.org Resist! #BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Black Panthers, police brutality, Racial Justice

By Juan Thompson in The Intercept - I turned away more than once while watching Stanley Nelson’s documentary The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution. I averted my eyes from the screen when FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s nefarious mug first appeared. I turned away once more when the charismatic and admirable Fred Hampton was first shown, knowing that eventually he would be murdered by Chicago police and federal agents. But, of course, I could never turn away for long, because Nelson’s documentary is something all Americans should watch to better understand the country’s current racial climate, including the formation of the #BlackLivesMatter campaign. The hashtag #BlackLivesMatter first entered public consciousness after George Zimmerman’s acquittal, in July 2013, on charges of second-degree murder in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.

Chicago Stop & Frisk Settlement Puts ACLU At Odds With Activists

August 15, 2015 Kevin Gosztola, www.shadowproof.com Educate! ACLU, Chicago, Law, police brutality

By Kevin Gosztola in Shadow Proof - Last week, the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois announced a “landmark” agreement with the Chicago Police Department and the City of Chicago on stop and frisks by police officers. However, in the days following, it became evident that activists from the local movement for police accountability were upset because they believed the ACLU’s settlement undermined their efforts. Local activist groups planned to introduce an ordinance in the Chicago City Council to hopefully bring about “mandated collection and publication of CPD’s stop and frisk data.” Yet, secret negotiations led city council persons, who support the bill, to not file the legislation on July 28, even though a packed press conference was held.

Watts: Remember What They Built, Not What They Burned

August 15, 2015 Robin D. G. Kelley, www.latimes.com Educate! History, LAPD, police brutality, Racial Justice

By Robin D. G. Kelley in LA Times - As we mark 50 years since the Watts riots, expect endless newsreel footage of buildings aflame and National Guard units occupying Central Avenue, experts rattling off gruesome statistics, eyewitness accounts of that stifling hot night on Aug. 11, 1965, when Marquette Frye's drunk driving arrest became the flashpoint for one of the worst incidents of civil unrest in U.S. history. But a focus on violence and looting reduces the people of Watts to “rioters” rather than residents confronting social and economic catastrophe. What they burned is less important than what they built, both before and after the insurrection. By 1965, Watts faced double-digit unemployment, rampant poverty and a shortage of livable housing. Restrictive covenants, real estate agents, lending institutions and white civic associations conspired to maintain racial segregation.

Mumia Abu-Jamal On The Meaning Of Ferguson

August 14, 2015 Mumia Abu-Jamal, www.truth-out.org Resist! #BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Ferguson, History, Peace, police brutality

Before recent days, who among us had ever heard of Ferguson, Missouri? Because of what happened there, the brief but intense experience of state repression, its name will be transmitted by millions of Black mouths to millions of Black ears, and it will become a watchword for resistance, like Watts, like Newark, Harlem and Los Angeles. But Ferguson wasn't 60 years ago - it's today. And for young Blacks from Ferguson and beyond, it was a stark, vivid history lesson - and also a reality lesson. When they dared protest the state's street-murder of one of their own, the government responded with the tools and weapons of war. They assaulted them with gas. They attacked them as if Ferguson were Fallujah, in Iraq.

Marikana Massacre: Untold Story Of Strike Leader Who Died

August 14, 2015 Nick Davies, www.theguardian.com Resist! police brutality, South Africa, Worker Rights and Jobs

By Nick Davies in The Guardian - On 16 August 2012, South African police opened fire on a large crowd of men who had walked out on strike from a platinum mine at Marikana, about 80 miles north of Johannesburg. They shot down 112 of them, killing 34. In any country, this would have been a traumatic moment. For South Africa, it was a special kind of nightmare, since it revived images of massacres by the state in the old apartheid era, with one brutal difference – this time it was predominantly black policemen, with black senior officers working for black politicians, who were doing the shooting. In response, President Jacob Zuma appointed a commission of inquiry, chaired by a retired judge, Ian Farlam, which eventually sat in public for a total of 293 days, hearing evidence from miners, their bosses and the police, and reviewing video, audio and paper records of the shooting and of the seven-day strike that preceded it.

Oakland Protesters Burn Confederate Flag, Block Freeway, After Police Shooting

August 14, 2015 CBS SF Bay Area, www.sanfrancisco.cbslocal..com Resist! #BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Oakland, police brutality

By CBS SF Bay Area - Protesters burned Confederate flags and shut down a freeway in Downtown Oakland Wednesday night, hours after police fatally shot a man suspected in an armed robbery and alleged carjacking attempt. On Wednesday evening, a group of protesters took to the streets in the area of the shooting to voice opposition to police violence. Confederate flags and trash cans were set on fire during the demonstration. Windows of a Starbucks were also reported smashed. Around 10:10 p.m., a group of protesters briefly shut down westbound Interstate 980 near Interstate 880. The freeway was reopened several minutes later. The protest was in response to the police shooting earlier in the day.

An Open Letter To Bernie Sanders Supporters

August 14, 2015 C. Robert Gibson, www.occupy.com Resist! #BlackLivesMatter, Bernie Sanders, Black Lives Matter (BLM), police brutality, Racial Justice

By C. Robert Gibson in Occupy - Dear Bernie Sanders supporters, Shut up and listen for once. When black women interrupt your candidate, don't call them "thugs." And when protesters hijack your hero's microphone to have their story heard, it doesn't mean they're paid provocateurs in some elaborate plot involving George Soros and Hillary Clinton. You know who else propagates wild conspiracy theories about George Soros funding left-wing protesters? Glenn Beck and Allen West. So congratulations, white progressives – your fanaticism for Bernie has turned you into the thing you hate. Bernie Sanders says the only thing that will guarantee his election is a "political revolution." But when that revolution tried to speak, you suppressed it. Unlike Occupy Wall Street, this movement wasn't started by or largely made up of white progressives.

Psychologist Openly Admits Training Police To Shoot First, Ask Later

August 13, 2015 Shaun King, www.alternet.org Educate! Civil Liberties, police brutality, Psychology

By Shaun King in Alternet - For years, to any observer of police brutality, the idea that officers were shooting people first and asking questions later was a foregone conclusion. Such a practice, while blatantly obvious, seemed too unethical, too harsh for police to ever admit. Well, here it is. All of the proof we ever needed. Not only are American police, from coast to coast, shooting first and asking questions later, they are being trained to do so in seminars by a psychologist who openly promises them that he'll testify on their behalf if anything ever goes wrong. He's already done it nearly 200 times. Meet Dr. William J. Lewinski. No matter what the circumstances are in a police shooting, he's the guy departments lean on to say it was completely justified and unavoidable.

More Arrests In Ferguson As Police And Protesters Clash For Second Night

August 13, 2015 Jon Swaine and Oliver Laughland, www.occupy.com Resist! #BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Ferguson, police brutality

By Jon Swaine and Oliver Laughland in Occupy - Police clashed with hundreds of protesters in Ferguson, Missouri, for a second night on Monday after a day of intense protests over the use of deadly force by American law enforcement that saw 144 people arrested. But further gun violence appeared to have been avoided following the ordering of a state of emergency by county authorities and the announcement of criminal charges against a black 18-year-old who was shot by police after allegedly opening fire on their vehicle during chaotic scenes late on Sunday. Officers in riot gear from St. Louis County police and the Missouri highway patrol snatched several demonstrators from the crowds and made 23 arrests through a hot August evening on Monday.

Police Militarization A Year After Ferguson

August 12, 2015 Kanya Bennett, www.aclu.org Educate! police brutality, Racial Justice, State Terror, Wars and Militarism

By Kanya Bennett in ACLU - Last August, Ferguson and Fallujah had a lot in common. Those protesting the death of Michael Brown were met with “armored vehicles, noise-based crowd-control devices, shotguns, M4 rifles like those used by forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, rubber-coated pellets and tear gas.” The scene looked more like a foreign warzone than a Midwestern American town, and no one could tell why local police were taking up arms against those they are sworn to protect and serve. The world was shocked by this highly and dangerously militarized response by local law enforcement. Foreign leaders equated Ferguson to combat zones in Iraq and Gaza. Veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars expressed horror at the reality that they had been less heavily armed while on active duty abroad. President Obama reacted by saying “[t]here is a big difference between our military and our local law enforcement, and we don't want those lines blurred.”

Texas Cops Sexually Assault 21-Year-Old Charnesia Corley

August 12, 2015 Mark Frauenfelder, www.boingboing.net Resist! Civil Rights, Law, police brutality, Racial Justice, Sexual Abuse, Texas

By Mark Frauenfelder in Boing Boing - A Houston deputy who pulled over Charnesia Corley, a 21-year-old black woman on her way to the store to pick up medicine for her sick mother, thought he smelled weed in Corley's car. He searched the car and couldn't find any. He called for a female officer to come to the gas station where Corley was being held so she could have her vagina searched. They arrested Corley because she objected to having her vagina examined in a gas station parking lot. From KRTK: "She tells me to pull my pants down. I said, 'Ma'am, I don't have any underwear on.' She says, 'Well, that doesn't matter. Pull your pants down,'" Corley said. She admits hesitating. Deputies say she resisted. "I bend over and she proceeds to try to force her hand inside of me. I tell her, 'Ma'am, No. You cannot do this,'" Corley told us candidly.

State Of Emergency Declared In Ferguson’s County

August 11, 2015 Staff, www.stltoday.com Resist! #BlackLivesMatter, #MikeBrown, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Ferguson, police brutality, Protests

By Staff in St. Loius Post-Dispatch - Protesters and police gathered on West Florissant Avenue in Ferguson Monday night. Protesters had walked the streets chanting and police were monitoring, and the scene had remained relatively quiet with some skirmishes between the crowd and police. Shortly after 10 p.m., protesters began to scatter as police began to make arrests. There were about 50 reporters, 75 cops, and 150 protesters at the scene. "Unruly crowd is throwing frozen water bottles at officers," the St. Louis County Police Department tweeted earlier in the evening, shortly after 10 p.m. "Those who choose to act violently will be arrested." Witnesses said police were using pepper spray. Police tweeted that the crowd was unlawfully assembled and said those who would not follow orders would be arrested. Department Chief Jon Belmar was on the front lines monitoring. Police donned helmets shortly after 9:30 p.m. after they reported rocks and bottles being thrown at them. Witnesses said they saw a water bottle being thrown. By about 10:30 p.m., things had calmed down and the crowd began to march again.

This Weekend Remember #MikeBrown & The #FergusonUprising

August 8, 2015 Staff, www.PopularResistance.org Resist! #BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Ferguson, killed by police, Mike Brown, Police abuse, police brutality, Police violence, Racism

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.

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