Police violence

Scheer Intelligence: ‘When We Fight, We Win’

April 23, 2021 Robert Scheer, ScheerPost.com. Educate! Black Lives Matter (BLM), George Floyd, Legal System, Podcast, Police violence

As the world awaited the fate of Derek Chauvin–the Minneapolis police officer who was convicted of killing George Floyd–Black Lives Matter co-founder Melina Abdullah joined Robert Scheer on “Scheer Intelligence” to discuss what he calls the most successful social justice movement the country has perhaps ever seen. In the timely episode, Abdullah, a lifelong activist and California State University, Los Angeles professor, traces the roots of the BLM movement back to 2013 and notes that Floyd’s killing was the moment the “world was cracked wide open” for everyone to see the deep-seated systemic racism at the core of every American institution. She adds, however, that regardless of a guilty verdict there is still a lot of work to be done in order to truly achieve racial justice.

Ohio Students Sit-in To Demand University Cut Ties With Police

April 22, 2021 Graeme Massie, The Independent. Resist! Ma'Khia Bryant, Ohio, Police violence, Student Activism

Students at Ohio State staged a sit-in protest and demanded that the university cut ties with Columbus Police in the wake of the killing of Ma’Khia Bryant. The protest took place one day after a police officer shot and killed the 16-year-old girl in the city, just as the verdict in the George Floyd trial was reached. Students staged their Wednesday protest in the Ohio Union before taking to the streets to march. Some carried signs with the victim’s name, along with phrases like “say her name”, while another student had a sign that said, “Being Black shouldn’t be a death sentence.” “Ohio State supports the right of our students, faculty and staff to peacefully express their views and to speak out about issues that are important to them,” the university said in a statement.

Guilty! People’s Uprising Wins Justice For George Floyd

April 21, 2021 Liberation News. Educate! George Floyd, Legal System, Police violence, Rebellion2020

One thing is unambiguously clear: Derek Chauvin being found guilty is the result of a historic popular uprising. Chauvin’s brutal murder of George Floyd ignited a massive resistance from Minneapolis’ Third Precinct into the smallest towns and biggest cities in the United States. The Party for Socialism and Liberation was proud to participate in this historic movement that brought millions into the streets, many for the first time. New leaders emerged and are now in the struggle for the long haul. “Justice for George!” was screamed in Trafalgar Square and painted on walls in Port-au-Prince. One Senator was alarmed enough to call for the Army to be sent into the streets and the Mayor of Chicago pulled up the drawbridges to save Trump Tower.

After Daunte Wright’s Death, Pressure To Get Police Out Of Traffic Enforcement

April 17, 2021 Joshua Vaughn, The Appeal. Create! Minnesota, Police violence, Policing

After she heard that police had killed Daunte Wright during a traffic stop outside of Minneapolis, Eilanne Farhat said she first reacted with “deep exhaustion, heartbreak, and sadness.” Then she was disturbed. Farhat, executive director of Take Action Minnesota, told The Appeal she was struck by how frequently stories of police killings of unarmed people, often people of color, have made headlines in recent years. Since 2015, at least 135 unarmed Black men and women have been killed by police during traffic stops, according to a January investigation by NPR. Now, after Wright’s death and other recent violent encounters between Black people and police, experts and advocates say it’s past time for cities to move traffic enforcement away from law enforcement.

Murder Of Daunte Wright Ruined Derek Chauvin Show Trial

April 16, 2021 Ajamu Baraka, Black Agenda Report. Educate! George Floyd, Legal System, Police violence, Systemic Racism

The fix was in. The U.S. state was determined to demonstrate to the world that its system was able to render “justice” to its captive African/Black population. So, unlike in the handful of cases where charges were brought against police officers for killing a Black or Brown person, the prosecutors this time did not pretend to follow the demands of the ill-informed public to bring charges of first degree or second-degree murder that would set a bar for conviction so high, it could not be met. That is a favorite strategy of prosecutors when conviction is not what they are looking for. The prosecutors in the Derek Chauvin case did the opposite. They stacked the charges in a way that would make it impossible to escape a conviction. And everyone fell in line because the stakes were so high. Could the Shining City on the Hill, whose leadership was now associated with the “decent” Democrats, render justice for the killer of George Floyd?

Union Members Expel National Guard From St Paul Minnesota Labor Center

April 15, 2021 We Do The Work, Popular Resistance. Resist! Militarization, Minnesota, National Guard, Police violence

Following several union meetings on Wednesday night, I was made aware that a National Guard unit was occupying the St. Paul Labor Center in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota. Other union members and I were sharply aware of the National Guard’s role in repressing protests during the trial of Derek Chauvin and the recent killing of Daunte Wright, and we concluded immediately that our union hall had no place in those militarized efforts against the Black community, activists, and working class people. Rank and file union members, community activists, and various union staff members assembled at the Labor Center Wednesday night and found more than 15 armored vehicles, and 50 National Guard troops had been given the keys to the central union facility. Workers from CWA, MNA, UBC and other locals informed the soldiers

Another Man Of Color Was Murdered By Police Outside Of Minneapolis

April 14, 2021 Left Voice. Educate! Minneapolis, murder by police, Police violence

(April 11, 2021) - This afternoon, Daunte Wright was killed by a police officer and then left lying in the streets for hours in Brooklyn Center, a suburb of Minneapolis. Wright, age 20, was in his own car when he was stopped by police. A few minutes later, the officer shot and killed him, just a few miles from where Derek Chauvin choked George Floyd to death. This is but the latest in a long and violent string of murders of people of color — specifically Black men — by the cops. Protesters gathered almost immediately to express their rage both at the murder of Wright and at the ongoing problems of racist police violence. The cops responded aggressively, arriving in riot gear and shooting rubber bullets into the crowd, injuring at least one protester.

The Right To Protest Wasn’t Given – It Was Won

April 11, 2021 Apsana Begum, Tribune Magazine. Strategize! Freedom of Assembly, Police violence, United Kingdom (UK)

United Kingdom - Over the last few weeks, the brutal policing of protests in Bristol has been profoundly disturbing. The right to peaceful assembly and protest are fundamental principles of any democracy, and the rich history of dissent in this country show us that they literally can change the course of history. Nobody knows this better than the people of Bristol, a city whose radicalism has seen it on the frontlines of change. The Bristol Bus Boycott of 1963 drew national attention to racism in public life, playing a key role in securing the enactment of subsequent race relations legislation that outlawed racial discrimination in public places, housing and employment. This radicalism has been with us in recent years, with last summer’s wave of Black Lives Matter protests seeing the removal of Bristol’s statue honouring the slave owner Edward Colston.

Reforming An Uprising, But Not The Police

April 7, 2021 Adnan Ahmed, Cliff Willmeng, Theresa Berrell Stets and Merrily Mazza, Left Voice. Educate! Minneapolis, Police reform, Police violence

As the Derek Chauvin trial continues, Minneapolis residents witness the militarization of their city. Fearful of another uprising, terrified lawmakers have erected barricades and razor wire fences around the Government Center, City Hall, and police stations. The fortification is estimated to cost $645,000. Additionally, law enforcement has been using surveillance planes to look for signs of unrest. After backlash from community members, Minneapolis officials dropped their plan to hire social media influencers to share state-sanctioned messaging about the Chauvin trial. On March 12, 2021 — as the jury selection was underway — the City of Minneapolis agreed to pay $27 million to George Floyd’s family to settle a wrongful death lawsuit, raising concerns from Judge Cahill and Chauvin’s defense attorney that the jury might be swayed against Chauvin.

Derek Chauvin And The Myth Of The Impartial Juror

April 7, 2021 Sonali Chakravarti, Black Agenda Report. Educate! George Floyd, Jury, Legal System, Police violence

Did you, or someone close to you, participate in any of the demonstrations or marches against police brutality that took place in Minneapolis after George Floyd’s death?. . . If you participated, did you carry a sign? What did it say? These questions were part of the questionnaire given to those summoned to serve as jurors in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer accused of killing George Floyd. Provided that judges and attorneys are willing to take these questions up, they could hold the key for beginning more nuanced conversations about race and the criminal legal system. As is well known, the jury selection process is one of the most consequential and contentious phases of the criminal trial.

Why Are Cops Testifying Against Derek Chauvin?

April 5, 2021 Scott Cooper, Left Voice. Educate! George Floyd, Legal System, Minneapolis, Police violence

You could join liberals in celebrating the members of the Minneapolis police force who have testified for the prosecution in the Derek Chauvin murder trial in the past two days, or you could see right through it to what they’re really up to. On Thursday, a retired Minneapolis police officer who was a shift supervisor when Chauvin murdered George Floyd and received a call about the arrest from a concerned 911 dispatcher, became the first cop to desert Chauvin on the stand. Sgt. David Ploeger said that once Floyd was no longer offering any resistance, the cops “could’ve ended the restraint.” And he also revealed to jurors that Chauvin did not immediately admit to him that he’d put his knee on Floyd’s neck.

Thousands Take To The Streets Saying ‘Kill The Bill’

April 5, 2021 Tom Anderson, The Canary. Resist! Governance, Police violence, Right to Protest, United Kingdom (UK)

Thousands took part in a weekend of action against the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. The size and passion of the demos shows that people are willing to fight to stop this bill, which the Conservative government tried to sneak through under the cover of the coronavirus (Covid-19) health crisis. 50 demonstrations were called across the UK. The proposed Police Bill is arguably the biggest attack on our freedoms since the Public Order Acts of the ‘80s and ‘90s. The controversial bill passed its second reading in parliament during March. The bill will give the police unprecedented draconian powers to arrest protesters, and will criminalise trespass, effectively outlawing the livelihoods of the UK’s Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) communities.

Major Victory In Denver

April 5, 2021 National Committee for Justice in Denver, Liberation News. Educate! Colorado, Legal System, Police violence, Rebellion2020

Denver, Colorado. On March 25, 2021, after over nine hours of testimony at a preliminary hearing, Adams County Court Judge Leroy Kirby dismissed the First Degree Attempted Kidnapping charge against Lillian House, Joel Northam, and Eliza Lucero of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (“PSL”). This represents a major step forward in the defense against the political prosecution levied by Aurora police and prosecutors against the leaders of peaceful demonstrations in Aurora this past summer demanding justice for Elijah McClain. The defendants could have faced 12-24 years in prison for this single charge if convicted. At the preliminary hearing, the prosecution provided no evidence that any of these protesters committed any act of violence, or barricaded any entrance...

Chauvin’s Lawyers Are Falsely Implying That Drugs Killed George Floyd

March 31, 2021 Mike Ludwig, Truthout. Educate! George Floyd, Legal System, murder by police, Police violence

Drugs have long been used to justify racist police-perpetrated violence, and the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin for the alleged murder of George Floyd on a Minneapolis street corner last May is, thus far, no different. In his opening statement in a Minneapolis courtroom on Monday, Chauvin’s defense attorney Eric J. Nelson spoke at length about Floyd’s health problems and drug use in a clear attempt to cast doubt on the prosecution’s central argument: Floyd was killed because Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes as Floyd pleaded for mercy and gasped, “I can’t breathe.” The prosecution saw this coming from miles away. Attempts by Chauvin’s defense to blame the victim began shortly after Floyd was handcuffed and killed in police custody — an alleged murder that was captured on video before sparking mass protests against racist police violence in Minneapolis and across the nation.

Parisians March Against Systemic Racism And Police Brutality

March 21, 2021 Sputnik News. Resistance Report Accountability, France, Police violence, Systemic Racism

Watch a live broadcast from central Paris where people are gathering on Saturday 20 March to march against "systemic racism and police brutality." Organised by several activist groups to mark the International Day Against Police Brutality (15 March) and the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (21 March), people are demanding the creation of an independent entity to monitor the use of force by police officers and reparation for victims of police brutality. One of the organisers is Assa Traore, whose brother Adama, 24, died in police custody in 2016 after he was stopped for an ID check. According to a 2018 medical assessment, Traore died of asphyxiation after officers pinned him to the ground.

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