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Police violence

New App For Police Encounters By The ACLU

November 8, 2015 the ACLU of Maryland, www.aclu-md.org , , ,
By the ACLU of Maryland. Denial is over. Videos of police encounters are changing perceptions about biased policing and police brutality and sparking reform of police practices. That's why the ACLU has launched Mobile Justice, an app that makes it easy for you to record interactions with police. It'll be available for download in Maryland, as well as 10 more states on Friday, November 13! The Mobile Justice app (for iPhone and Android) will allow you to take secure video of police interactions and send it to the ACLU so it cannot be deleted or lost if your phone is confiscated by police. It will also have an intake survey where you can describe the details of the incident, and a Know Your Rights section that offers an overview of your rights when stopped by law enforcement.

Black Lives Matter. NYC Shut It Down: The Grand Central Crew

November 4, 2015 Staff, www.PopularResistance.org , , , ,
By Staff for NYC Shut It Down. NYC Shut It Down (a.k.a. Grand Central Crew) is a NYC-based direct action organization in solidarity with the #BlackLivesMatter movement. We are the organizers of the weekly #PeoplesMonday demonstrations that honor a different victim of police violence every week. We demand an end to unaccountable police violence and criminalization of daily life. Every Monday since January NYC Shut It Down has taken to the streets of NYC, forcing attention to the ever-growing Black Lives Matter movement and the struggle for Black liberation. Through our weekly‪#‎PeoplesMonday‬ actions, NYC Shut It Down highlights different cases of police brutality against people of color. Some stories, like those of Sean Bell, Eric Garner, and Tamir Rice are highly publicized. Other stories receive little to no media attention. It is our duty to amplify these stories and we need your help to do that!

AP Investigation: 1,000 Cops Fired For Sexual Assaults

November 1, 2015 Matt Sedensky and Nomaan Merchant, www.ap.org ,
By Matt Sedensky and Nomaan Merchant for AP - In a yearlong investigation of sexual misconduct by U.S. law enforcement, The Associated Press uncovered about 1,000 officers who lost their badges in a six-year period for rape, sodomy and other sexual assault; sex crimes that included possession of child pornography; or sexual misconduct such as propositioning citizens or having consensual but prohibited on-duty intercourse. The number is unquestionably an undercount because it represents only those officers whose licenses to work in law enforcement were revoked, and not all states take such action. California and New York - with several of the nation's largest law enforcement agencies - offered no records because they have no statewide system to decertify officers for misconduct. And even among states that provided records, some reported no officers removed for sexual misdeeds even though cases were identified via news stories or court records.

Hillary Clinton Speech Interrupted By Black Student Activists

November 1, 2015 Julia Craven, www.huffingtonpost.com , , , , ,
By Julia Craven for Huffington Post - Hillary Clinton was drowned out by student activists while introducing her criminal justice reform platform in Atlanta on Friday. Two of the student activists who interrupted Hillary Clinton's rally Friday at Clark Atlanta University said the title of the event -- "African Americans for Hillary" -- explains why they decided to drown out the presidential candidate's remarks. "That raises a question, because I'm wondering, why it isn't Hillary for African Americans?" Avery Jackson, one of the students, told The Huffington Post. "Because that's the issue. She continues to exploit the spaces that black people value." "She doesn't really express the centering and prioritizing of black issues, which are at the root American issues," he continued. "I think we see that with the campaign -- that she sees the issues of black people outside of the American agenda." Clinton was at the university to unveil her criminal justice reform plan. She has been heavily criticized during the campaign for her past support for tough-on-crime initiatives that facilitated mass incarceration.

Albany Rally for Justice for Dontay Ivy Tazed To Death By Police

November 1, 2015 Chris Churchil, www.timesunion.com , ,
By Chris Churchil for the Albany Times-Union - As part of a remedial program ordered by the court, here’s what New York City officers are being told by their superiors: “In order to conduct a stop, an officer must have individualized, reasonable suspicion that the person stopped has committed, is committing, or is about to commit a felony or penal law misdemeanor.” Also, “the officer must be able to articulate facts establishing a minimal level of objective justification for making the stop, which means more than a mere suspicion or a hunch. ‘Furtive movements’ or mere presence in a high-crime area are insufficient bases for a stop or frisk.” Well, the officers involved in Ivy’s stop have said his unusual movements and decision to wear a jacket — on a 26 degree night, no less — are the reasons they decided to stop and question him. In short, they had a hunch that he might be carrying a gun. Which means that the officers did, in fact, do something wrong — and do something wrong every day in Albany.

Newsletter – Chipping Away At The System

October 25, 2015 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
By Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese for Popular Resistance - The weekly newsletter: The forces that work to maintain the status quo, to protect the oppressors and the profiteers, are powerful, but everywhere there are people chipping away at the pillars that prop up the current systems, exposing truths and forcing changes. This week, we highlight some of these struggles with the hope that we will learn from them. Issues covered include (1) The tide is shifting on mass incarceration; (2) Fighting back when public services under attack; (3) The climate crisis will not be solved by corporate lobbyists and (3) New Video Tools: Acronym TV, Empire Files and Act Out! It is essential that we use the tools we have - our own media, the legal system and organized and mobilized resistance - to continue to expose truth, fight injustice and create new systems that build the world we need. Together, can build a powerful force.

France: Probe On Police Killing Of Activist Stalls Amid Scandal

October 25, 2015 Staff, www.telesurtv.net , ,
By Staff for Telesur - This was the first time that police repression killed a protester under a Socialist Party government in France. Almost one year after the activist's death, the investigation has not moved an inch further since the police handed its conclusions to the judge in March, according to a shocking revelation issued by Le Monde on Friday; their version conveniently coincides with the government’s initial statement that denied any error from the police officials. Remi Fraisse, a 21 year-old botanist, died on Oct. 25 around 2 a.m. local time, shortly after a military grenade hit his back while he was protesting with other environmental activists against the highly-controversial building of a dam in Sivens, in the southwestern department of Tarn. Yet, according to Le Monde, which gained access to the report the police investigative body handed in March to the judge, the investigation not only stagnates, but “worse: it retrocedes.”

#RiseUpOctober Mass Protest Against Police Violence

October 24, 2015 Staff, www.PopularResistance.org , ,
By Staff for Popular Resistance - #RiseUpOctober held a series of days of mass protests against police violence. The largest event on Saturday came one day after demonstrators gathered in Queens to protest Rikers Island, saying it should be shut down, according to a Bronx news station. About a dozen protesters were arrested outside the jail’s entrance Friday. Activists and concerned citizens marched the streets of Manhattan in New York City Saturday as part of “Rise Up October,” a mass demonstration to protest police brutality in the United States. A number of protesters were reportedly arrested, but it wasn’t immediately clear what the charges were. According to a tweet, a police officer allegedly smacked the cell phone out of the hand of the first woman arrested. It was not immediately clear how many protesters marched the streets, which were filled with chants of “justice now” and signs saying “Stop police terror!” and “Which side are you on.”

RiseUpOctober STOP Police Terror! Begins Thursday

October 21, 2015 Rise Up October, /www.PopularResistance.org , , ,
By Rise Up October - "No More Stolen Lives: Say Their Names" will bring together some 40 families from across the U.S. who’ve lost loved ones to police violence. They will be joined by prominent voices of conscience in love, remembrance, and defiance to say THIS MUST STOP!” "No More Stolen Lives: Say Their Names" begins RiseUpOctober -- three days of mass resistance and acts of conscience to STOP Police Terror! and draw a line throughout society: "Which Side Are You On? Three days aimed at nothing less than changing “the whole social landscape to the point where more people take initiative and make it unmistakably clear that they refuse to live in a society that sanctions this outrage,” as actor Mark Ruffalo put it in a support statement.

Next Week – #RiseUpOctober To Stop Police Terror

October 13, 2015 Carl Dix, www.RiseUpOctober.org , ,
By Carl Dix for Stop Police Terror - We are just over a week away from #RiseUpOctober -- three powerful days of action to STOP POLICE TERROR! This is so urgent and so important. Two new reports were just released trying to justify the police murder of 12 year old Tamir Rice! Also, this past weekend, tens of thousands of people went to DC as part of "Justice Or Else." While the diversity and breadth of people joining together in Rise Up October certainly have different views on what went down in DC with "Justice or Else." Momentum is building in many ways -- last week we had a packed (more than 550 people, mainly students) event at Columbia University calling for #RiseUpOctober featuring Eve Ensler, Cornel West, Kimberle Crenshaw, Nicholas Heyward, Jamal Joseph and me.

US Attorney General Says ‘No’ To Police Reports On Killings

October 4, 2015 Ciara McCarthy, www.theguardian.com , ,
By Ciara McCarthy for the Guardian - Attorney general Loretta Lynch says the federal government should not require police to report fatal shootings of civilians, sharply diverging from her predecessor Eric Holder’s stance on police killings. In a conversation with NBC journalist Chuck Todd on a range of criminal justice issues, Lynch said on Thursday that she does not support a federal mandate to report people killed by police. “One of the things we are focusing on at the Department of Justice is not trying to reach down from Washington and dictate to every local department how they should handle the minutia of record keeping, but we are stressing to them that these records must be kept,” she said at the Washington Ideas Forum, hosted by AtlanticLIVE and the Aspen Institute.

On 4th Anniversary OWS Takes To The Streets

September 20, 2015 Ashoka Jegroo, www.wagingnonviolence.org , , , ,
By Ashoka Jegroo for Waging Nonviolence - Hundreds of protesters in New York City took to the streets on September 17 in a variety of actions against racism, gentrification and police brutality. The day marked the fourth anniversary of Occupy Wall Street with actions taking place in at least three boroughs. “We had a day of action that was around racism, police brutality and anti-gentrification specifically because we needed to have a way to be very intersectional about all of what’s happening in our communities,” said Imani Henry, an organizer with Equality For Flatbush. “Gentrification is about landlords, corporations, the de Blasio administration, [Brooklyn Borough President] Eric Adams, and every borough president who is allowing developers into our neighborhood. It’s about community boards, re-zoning issues and struggles that we never ask for. And it’s also about the cops occupying our neighborhoods.”

Judge Keeps Freddie Gray Prosecution In Baltimore

September 10, 2015 Kevin Zeese, www.PopularResistance.org , , ,
By Kevin Zeese for Popular Resistance - In what was the most important pre-trial ruling in the prosecution of the six police offices accused of killing Freddie Gray, Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Barry Williams decided that the trial would continue in Baltimore. He wanted to go to jury selection to see if an impartial jury could be selected in Baltimore saying it was wrong to “assume they cannot be fair.” The judge said that the defense had failed to prove that the officers cannot receive a fair trial in Baltimore city saying in his ruling “The citizens of Baltimore are not monolithic. They think for themselves.” Protesters arrived early at the courthouse. There were concerns among protesters that is the judge moved the trial to the suburbs that a conviction would be impossible to achieve. If the decision had gone the other way and the trial had been moved out of the city protests against the decision would have been likely.

Baltimore Protester Arrested At Freddie Gray Court Hearing

September 2, 2015 Nicky Woolf, www.theguardian.com , , , , ,
By Nicky Woolf for the Guardian - At the first pre-trial hearing in the Freddie Gray murder trial. Judge Barry Glenn Williams denied a motion to dismiss the charges and ruled that State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby does not have to recuse herself from the case. These were two of the three demands of the protesters seeking justice for Freddie Gray. The third demand is the critical issue of whether there will be a change of venue. That issue will not be heard until September 10th. There were dozens of protesters outside the courthouse who later marched through the streets of downtown Baltimore. The protests briefly shut down intersections and all was going smoothly until the police arrested one person who was trying to lead the group back to the courthouse.

Drawings Capture Last Words Spoken By Black Victims Of Police

August 30, 2015 Zak Cheney-Rice, www.mic.com , , ,
By Zak Cheney-Rice for Mic.com - In the year that has passed since Brown's death, Barghi has been illustrating and tweeting her own creative depictions of the last words spoken by slain black male victims of state violence in the U.S. The result is a haunting tribute to the dead and a heartbreaking reminder of the toll American racism takes daily on black families and communities. In many ways, #LastWords has assumed a life of its own, she says. Artists and musicians have reached out to her about creating similar series' focused on other topics, like the war in Yemen. Activists in Ferguson have also spoken to her about amplifying the last words spoken by black women who have died at the hands of American police. "I really want other people to continue this work," Barghi says. "First, I'm not black, which I realize influences my perspective. Black pain [in the U.S.] is very real. So the first thing I try to do is educate myself, build an awareness." Barghi moved to the United States from Iran in 2011.
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