Police violence

Non-Black People Of Color Are Mobilizing To End Complicity In Black Death

June 14, 2020 By Jason Wu, Truthout. Resist! Asian American, Police violence, Racism, White Supremacy

The complicity of an Asian American officer in the murder of George Floyd is forcing Asian American communities across the country to face the ongoing ways in which we have benefited from and acted in complicity with broader systems of white supremacy. Even though the vast majority of the police officers and vigilantes most directly responsible for killing Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, George Floyd, and the countless other Black people who have been killed have been white, we Asian Americans, and other non-Black people of color, do not get to look away or make anti-Black racism a problem that white people need to fix. In George Floyd’s case, we have learned that an Asian American officer, Tou Thao, who is Hmong American, was one of the four Minneapolis Police Department officers involved in killing Floyd.

What The Heck Is Going On In Seattle?

June 14, 2020 By Emily Pothast, Medium. Create! Police Killings, Police violence, Racism, Rebellion2020, Seattle Autonomous Zone

Since a lot of the narratives swirling around about Seattle right now are less-than-insightful, I’m sharing a few points to help contextualize the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone in the bigger picture of the dizzying terrain that is Seattle history. Meanwhile, in the interest of amplifying the work being done by the collective Black voices on the ground, I would like to direct your attention to this document, which explains what is being asked for in the aftermath of what they’re calling the “George Floyd Rebellion.” Also, Seattle author Ijeoma Oluo’s So You Want to Talk About Race is an important resource that just climbed to the top of the New York Times bestseller list. Finally, while you’re buying Seattle books, check out Black Imagination: Black Voices on Black Futures, curated by local artist Natasha Marin.

Colorado Judge Bans Use Of Tear Gas

June 14, 2020 Ashley Curtin, Nation of Change. Educate! Chemical Weapons, Colorado, Legal System, Police violence

The Denver Police Department are temporarily barred from using projectiles and chemical weapons against peaceful protesters after a federal judge condemned their use of them and ruled it “disgusting.” Judge R. Brooke Jackson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado said in an 11-page order that “people have an absolute right to demonstrate and protest the actions of governmental officials, including police officers.” His restraining order took effect immediately and was in “response to a lawsuit filed on behalf of four Denver protesters who said the use of ‘pepper spray, pepper balls, rubber bullets, flashbang grenades, and tear gas’ by city police during a May 28 demonstration against the killing of George Floyd violated their constitutional rights,” Common Dreams reported.

The Black Lives Matter Protests Are Working

June 14, 2020 Sarah Ruiz-Grossman, Lydia O’Connor, and Celeste Lavin, Huffington Post. Resist! Black Lives Matter (BLM), George Floyd, Police violence, Rebellion2020

so far, the Black Lives Matter protests — which built off years of work by BLM activists since 2013, in the streets, in halls of government and educating the public — have spurred some significant changes. From cities redirecting funding from police departments to Confederate monuments coming down in droves, here are some of the steps toward racial justice and ending police brutality that we’ve seen in just 16 days since protests began. For activists out on the streets today and the movement for Black lives and racial justice more broadly, the work is far from over. Much of these moves represent incremental change or simple promises of change, and fall far short of what activists are calling for. For instance, while over a dozen cities are considering reducing police budgets, Minneapolis’ city council is still the only one to go so far as to announce it will “dismantle” its police force, and it still has to develop a plan for what “transformative public safety” model will take its place.

Power Over The Police

June 13, 2020 By Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò, Dissent Magazine. Strategize! Demands, Police Abolition, Police violence, Rebellion2020

The clashes between police and protesters in response to the recent police killings of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Tony McDade, and others throughout the country expose the violence inherent to the U.S. system of policing. Social media has been inundated with hundreds of videos chronicling police aggression and brutality. Cities nationwide, particularly in the nation’s capital of Washington, D.C., have faced unprecedented militarization of their streets. Police have wielded weapons typically used only by special forces in overseas military campaigns, even going as far as to use a Lakota helicopter with Red Cross markings in a show of force against protesters (in violation of the Geneva Convention).

Minneapolis Organizers Are Building The Tools For Safety Without Police

June 13, 2020 Jae Hyun Shum, Truthout. Create! Minneapolis, Police Abolition, Police violence, Rebellion2020

In 2018, members of the Minnesota grassroots groups Reclaim the Block and Black Visions Collective dropped a banner at Minneapolis City Hall. On it were two lists: on the left, three budget items on the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) budget, totaling $9 million. The right side was significantly longer, listing programs and organizations where the city could invest those $9 million to promote community safety — like domestic violence programs, housing and harm reduction. We were calling on the city to move our community’s dollars out of the violent, untrustworthy MPD, and into programs that actually keep us safe. That year, the city council moved $1 million from MPD’s budget into violence prevention — a drop in the bucket of the MPD’s $180 million budget, but a significant investment for underfunded anti-violence work.

USA: Hate And Fury

June 13, 2020 By Arantxa Tirado, Resumen English. Educate! Capitalism, Human Rights, Police violence, Rebellion2020

The streets of the US are burning. Demonstrations by armed Trump supporters pressing for the opening of the economy amid the coronavirus pandemic have been replaced by protests for the umpteenth police murder of an African American citizen, in this case George Floyd. The reaction is reminiscent of the days of hate and fury that broke out in Los Angeles in 1992 after the acquittal of the police officers who had beaten Rodney King a year earlier. Just two examples of the many that could be used, both recent and old, that demonstrates that American democracy has great difficulties applying within the country what it demands from other countries outside its borders, those that they declare war on for their alleged violation of human rights.

To Police Of Good Conscience: These Protests Are For You Too

June 13, 2020 Lucas Johnson, Waging Nonviolence. Educate! Police, Police violence, Rebellion2020, Transformation

To the police of good conscience: What if all this demonstrating was also for you? What if the pain you are feeling right now — the pain of feeling misunderstood and mischaracterized — is connected to the same pain expressed by protesters in the streets of Minneapolis, Atlanta, Louisville and hundreds of other cities steeped in grief? You understand that suspicion of theft or fraud doesn’t justify murder and whatever legal battles will unfold won’t change the morality of that fact. I know the protest chants and the opinion articles don’t cover it all. It’s a hard job and the criticism doesn’t always speak to the nuances, or the aches and pains deep in the crevices of your lives.

Humanity Is Escaping From The Abusive Relationship With The Police State

June 12, 2020 Caitlin Johnstone. Create! Abolish Police, Police State, Police violence, Rebellion2020

Abusive relationships where the abuser is a transparently horrible monster don’t tend to last long, because it becomes obvious to the victim very quickly that they need to head for the door. The ones that last are the ones where the abuser is an adept manipulator, who is able to elicit sympathy and attachment in the victim while constructing a prison of mental narratives in their head. The hardest of these to escape from is the “nice guy” abuser, the kind of abuser whose manipulations revolve around framing themselves as good and virtuous while squeezing the psychological noose on the victim tighter and tighter. These are difficult to escape because by design they are hard to recognize as abusive while you’re in them, even while you’re being drained of life, liberty and happiness to the abuser’s benefit.

Calls To Eliminate School Police Intensify Amid Protests

June 12, 2020 Theresa Harrington and Ali Tadyon, EdSource. Resist! Education, Police, Police violence, Schools

Amid calls to defund municipal police in the wake of George Floyd’s killing by Minneapolis police, two Oakland Unified school board members are pushing to eliminate the district’s police force. This is an acceleration of a demand that dates back nine years, when activists began calling on the district to dissolve its police department after a black student was shot and killed by a district police sergeant. The proposal by board members Roseann Torres and Shanthi Gonzales says the district would call on Oakland City Police in emergencies. It has the support of the teachers’ union. It’s unclear if the resolution to be introduced Wednesday will get majority support. The board may hold a special meeting next week to vote on it, or could vote on it June 24, Gonzales told EdSource.

Who Supplied The Weapons Used Against #BLM Protesters?

June 12, 2020 War Resisters International. Educate! Chemical Weapons, Militarization, Police violence

In response to the murder of George Floyd by a member of the Minneapolis police department on 25th May, thousands of people across the United States joined protests demanding justice for his killing, radical reform of police forces, and driving home the message that Black Lives Matter. Many of these protests face militarised police responses, including the use of rubber bullets, sting balls, stun grenades, battons, police charges, and chemical weapons like tear gas and pepper spray. Twitter users have photographed a large number of canisters that were fired during the protest. Many appear to have been produced by a company called Defense Technology, a subsidiary of a company called The Safariland Group (click here for our profile on this company), which owns a number of companies producing a wide range of equipment and weapons used by law enforcement. Weapons from other companies appear to be produced by Combined Tactical Systems (our profile on CTS is available here) and FN Herstal USA.

Martin Gugino – The “Buffalo Protestor” And Our Friend

June 12, 2020 Jeremy Varon, Witness Against Torture. Educate! New York (NY), Police abuse, Police violence, Protest

Martin Gugino worked together in Witness Against Torture for years, a close-knit group dedicated to closing the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo and opposing torture. Our community is beside itself. None of us is surprised that it was Martin meeting the police line in a posture of non-violence. Martin is gentle, principled, and undaunted. Allied with the Catholic Worker tradition, he is also deeply committed to a tapestry of causes, from fair housing to immigrant rights. Guiding his activism is belief in the sacred power of non-violent resistance to injustice. If that makes him an “agitator,” as Buffalo’s police chief slandered him, then the world needs more agitators.

From Occupation To ‘Occupy’: The Israelification Of US Domestic Security

June 12, 2020 Max Blumenthal, The Grayzone. Educate! Israel, Occupation, Police abuse, Police violence

The Israelification of America’s security apparatus recently unleashed in full force against the Occupy Wall Street Movement, has taken place at every level of law enforcement, and in areas that have yet to be exposed. The phenomenon has been documented in bits and pieces, through occasional news reports that typically highlight Israel’s national security prowess without examining the problematic nature of working with a country accused of grave human rights abuses. But it has never been the subject of a national discussion. And collaboration between American and Israeli cops is just the tip of the iceberg. Having been schooled in Israeli tactics perfected during a 63 year experience of controlling, dispossessing, and occupying an indigenous population, local police forces have adapted them to monitor Muslim and immigrant neighborhoods in US cities.

Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone Forms Around Emptied East Precinct

June 11, 2020 Jake Goldstein-Street and Alex Garland, CapitolHillSeattle.com. Create! Autonomous Zone, Police violence, Rebellion2020, Seattle

The first night in the so-called Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone that has formed in the wake of police giving up the week-long blockade of the East Precinct was rainy and peaceful and full of speeches from activists, agitators, poets, and socialist city council members. “I guess whatever the fuck we’re doing is effective,” one organizer identified as Magik said over a megaphone early in the night as police were still clearing the area. “They are going to move up. They are going to get everybody out of here and we are free to move through these streets and protest and march.” “Yesterday we were on 11th and Pine. Today we have victory on 12th and Pine. They tried to stop us!,” another exclaimed.

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