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Police State

French National Assembly Passes Police State “Anti-Riot” Law Targeting Protests

February 9, 2019 Will Morrow, Wsws.org , , , , ,
The French National Assembly voted overwhelmingly on Monday to approve President Emmanuel Macron’s “anti-riot” law, undermining the right to protest and further expanding police powers.The law was first announced in January by Prime Minister Edouard Phillippe in response to the “yellow vest” protests against social inequality. It marks a significant step in the transformation of France into a police state. In line with a similar turn by capitalist governments in Europe and internationally—from Hungary, to Brazil, to the United States and elsewhere—the French ruling class is responding to the growth of social opposition in the working class over the unprecedented growth of social inequality by expanding its powers of repression.

Louisiana Sheriff Who Criticized Pipeline Opponents Is Ordered To Release Records On Standing Rock Visit

January 4, 2019 By Julie Dermansky, Desmogblog.com , ,
On December 27, a state* appeals court ordered a Louisiana’s sheriff’s department and its sheriff to release information about its officers’ trip to North Dakota during the heated protests against the Dakota Access pipeline in 2016. The extended, indigenous-led protests near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation drew a highly militarized response from public and private law enforcement. Out-of-state cops, including those from Louisiana’s St. Charles Parish, flooded North Dakota to support it via an interstate agreement. The latest move reversed a decision by a district court, which denied a public records request made by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR)...

Paris Protests: Police Fire Tear Gas And Water Canons At Demonstrators

November 26, 2018 Rachel McGrath, Huffingtonpost.co.uk , ,
Police fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse demonstrators in Paris on Saturday as thousands gathered in the capital and staged road blockades across France to vent anger against rising fuel taxes and Emmanuel Macron’s presidency. Thousands of police were deployed nationwide to contain the demonstrations, including a tense protest at the foot of the Champs-Elysees where protesters wielded placards reading “Death to Taxes” and upturned a large vehicle. No-one was injured in the clashes, but six were arrested for “throwing projectiles”, Paris Police told the Associated Press.

Courage To Resist: Troops Ordered Deployed To Border

November 13, 2018 Staff, Couragetoresist.org , , ,
Military brass suggested that these camps would not violate the constitutional prohibition against using the military to police and enforce domestic immigration law, based on the fact that the military has occasionally provided shelter to people during humanitarian crises, for short periods of time. Apparently, because the military helped out a bit following a hurricane then long term immigrant concentration camps are just fine. According to the Military Times (October 2, 2018), HHS has completed site surveys at Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene, Texas; Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo, Texas; Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas; and Little Rock Air Force Base in Arkansas.

The DEA And ICE Are Hiding Surveillance Cameras In Streetlights

November 12, 2018 By Justin Rohrlich and Dave Gershgorn, Qz.com , , ,
The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have hidden an undisclosed number of covert surveillance cameras inside streetlights around the country, federal contracting documents reveal. According to government procurement data, the DEA has paid a Houston, Texas company called Cowboy Streetlight Concealments LLC roughly $22,000 since June 2018 for “video recording and reproducing equipment.” ICE paid out about $28,000 to Cowboy Streetlight Concealments over the same period of time. It’s unclear where the DEA and ICE streetlight cameras have been installed, or where the next deployments will take place. ICE offices in Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio have provided funding for recent acquisitions from Cowboy Streetlight Concealments...

War On Dissent: Shrinking Space For Protest In The UK

November 7, 2018 Kevin Blowe, Roarmag.org , , , ,
The Network for Police Monitoring (Netpol) campaigns against police surveillance and the regular smearing of activists and groups as “domestic extremists.” Writing in 2016, Netpol observed that the government and the police in Britain are in a “permanent state of war.” This war is fought on a number of fronts — apart from the never-ending war on terror, there are also wars on drugs, on urban black youth, on migrants and on alleged extremism, particularly but not exclusively targeting Muslim communities. “Every battle,” we argued, “requires an enemy and these wars are no exception.” Not least among those perceived enemies are the political dissenters...

Increased Restrictions On Protest Won’t Keep Communities Safer

November 6, 2018 Shane Burley, Wagingnonviolence.org , , , ,
On Oct. 15, the Portland Police Bureau held a press conference to announce a new ordinance that would expand police power to limit protest activity. The proposal comes after two years of catastrophic attacks poised as political theater, including mass melees downtown that left people in the hospital, white nationalist contingents taking the streets and an acolyte murdering two people on public transportation when interrupted in the middle of an Islamophobic attack. Every time Patriot Prayer, the Trumpian far-right group who allies with white nationalists, takes to the streets, the entire city revolts. On Aug. 30, Patriot Prayer returned to Portland after a rally a month earlier where attendees brutally assaulted counter-protesters.

Increased Restrictions On Protest Won’t Keep Communities Safer

October 31, 2018 Shane Burley, Wagingnonviolence.org , ,
On Oct. 15, the Portland Police Bureau held a press conference to announce a new ordinance that would expand police power to limit protest activity. The proposal comes after two years of catastrophic attacks poised as political theater, including mass melees downtown that left people in the hospital, white nationalist contingents taking the streets and an acolyte murdering two people on public transportation when interrupted in the middle of an Islamophobic attack. Every time Patriot Prayer, the Trumpian far-right group who allies with white nationalists, takes to the streets, the entire city revolts. On Aug. 30, Patriot Prayer returned to Portland after a rally a month earlier where attendees brutally assaulted counter-protesters.

Austin Police Cadets Expose Training To View Public As Cockroaches

May 4, 2018 Staff, Thedailysheeple.com , , ,
Several cadets have quit and exposed the Austin police department in Texas for training cops to think of the public as cockroaches they are at war with.  Rather than training cops to protect and serve, Austin PD appears to want an entire elite class of warriors who view the public as less than human. According to a group of 10 former Austin Police Department recruits who wanted to become peace officers, just like the military, the Austin PD is training  “warriors” instead of “guardians.” Although this should hardly come as a surprise because the Supreme Court has already declared that cops don’t have to protect or “guard” you at all.  They are to follow orders, extort (and sometimes flat out steal) money for their department, and enforce laws that are often tyrannical and the very definition of a human rights violation.

Police Unleash ‘Brutal Attacks’ On Austerity Protesters In Storm-Ravaged Puerto Rico

May 3, 2018 By Jessica Corbett, Commondreams.org , , , , ,
Police in Puerto Rico deployed tear gas and fired rubber bullets to shut down May Day protests as thousands of people took to the streets of the U.S. territory, which is still battling the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria—and a debt crisis that preceded the storm. While people worldwide demonstrated Tuesday to demand improved labor conditions on International Workers Day, Puerto Ricans also turned out to protest the Trump administration's failed response to the humanitarian crisis that followed the hurricane as well as austerity measures imposed by the federal government both before and after the storm struck last September.

Google’s Delisting And Censorship Of Information

April 24, 2018 Julian Vigo, Counterpunch.org , , ,
In early January, numerous websites discovered that they were suddenly removed from the directory of Google News, a process known as “delisting,” with no feedback from Google. Some hypothesized that the removal of smaller news sites could be ascribed to the latest SEO changes.   Then on 8 January, Google reported that it was ready to rectify its “mistake” and restore the pages by of these smaller new sites. The vast majority were not restored.  Still, a large number news sites have been abandoned and editors have been making updates daily since January on Google’s ProductForum with many users still noting, even this week, of ongoing problems

The Assault On Environmental Protest

March 5, 2018 Maggie Ellinger-Locke and Vera Eidelman, Thehill.com , ,
More than 50 state bills that would criminalize protest, deter political participation, and curtail freedom of association have been introduced across the country in the past two years. These bills are a direct reaction from politicians and corporations to the tactics of some of the most effective protesters in recent history, including Black Lives Matter and the water protectors challenging construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock.  If they succeed, these legislative moves will suppress dissent and undercut marginalized groups voicing concerns that disrupt current power dynamics. Efforts vary from state to state, but they have one thing in common: they would punish public participation and mischaracterize advocacy protected by the First Amendment. For example, bills introduced in Washington and North Carolina would have defined peaceful demonstrations as “economic terrorism.”

2018 Begins With US Police Reign Of Terror

February 2, 2018 By Niles Niemuth, Wsws.org , , ,
While largely ignored by the mass media, the reign of terror by police officers continues to rage across the United States. The entire state apparatus, from local cops to immigration agents, has been unleashed by the Trump administration to beat, maim and kill with impunity. During a speech to hundreds of uniformed officers last July, Trump urged the police to not be “too nice” and to treat detainees “rough.” The Justice Department has at the same time ended the toothless pretense of federal oversight over a handful of police departments put in place by the Obama administration. In the year since Trump was sworn in as president, at least 1,223 people have been killed by police. Since the beginning of 2018, according to killedbypolice.net, 3.5 people have been killed on average every day.

Finnish Journalist Faces Strip Search To Cover Pence In Israel

January 30, 2018 By Andrew Buncombe, Independent.co.uk. , , ,
“But given all of the technology and intelligence at Israel’s fingertips, we fail to see any good reason for the continued humiliation of professional accredited journalists and can only conclude that this only-in-Israel practice is aimed at making people feel unwelcome and keeping them away,” it added. The alleged incident is said to have taken place as Mr Pence told Israel’s parliament that the US Embassy will move to Jerusalem by the end of 2019, an announcement that earned him a rousing ovation, The plan to accelerate the move of the embassy, announced in the first address of a sitting American vice president to the Knesset, marked the highlight of Mr Pence’s three-day visit to Israel celebrating President Donald Trump’s decision last month to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Infiltration And Intense Law Enforcement At Standing Rock Camp

December 13, 2017 Will Parrish, theintercept.com , , , ,
AS LAW ENFORCEMENT officers advanced in a U-shaped sweep line down North Dakota Highway 1806 last October, pushing back Dakota Access opponents from a camp in the pipeline’s path, two sheriff’s deputies broke formation to tackle a 37-year-old Oglala Sioux woman named Red Fawn Fallis. As Fallis struggled under the weight of her arresting officers, who were attempting to put her in handcuffs, three gunshots allegedly went off alongside her. According to the arrest affidavit, deputies lunged toward her left hand and wrested a gun away from her. Well before that moment, Fallis had been caught in a sprawling intelligence operation that sought to disrupt and discredit opponents of the pipeline.
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