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David Beat Goliath’ As Line 3 Water Defenders Win Protective Ruling

September 19, 2022 Brett Wilkins, Common Dreams. , , , ,
Indigenous water defenders and their allies on Tuesday celebrated a Minnesota court ruling protecting a Line 3 protest camp from illegal government repression. Hubbard County District Judge Jana Austad issued a ruling shielding the Indigenous-led Giniw Collective's Camp Namewag—where opponents organize resistance to Enbridge's Line 3 tar sands pipeline—from local law enforcement's unlawful blockades and harassment. The ruling follows months of litigation on behalf of Indigenous water protectors, whose legal team last year secured a temporary restraining order issued by Austad against Hubbard County, Sheriff Cory Aukes, and the local land commissioner for illegally blocking access to Camp Namewag. "Today David beat Goliath in a legal victory for people protecting the climate from rapacious corporate destruction," Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, director of the Center for Protest Law & Litigation at the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, said in a statement.

Anti-Monarchy Protesters Make Their Voices Heard, Are Arrested

September 13, 2022 Eliza Egret, The Canary. , , ,
If you read the mainstream media, you’d be forgiven for thinking the whole of Scotland is in mourning as Queen Elizabeth’s coffin arrives in Edinburgh. Thousands are lining the streets to pay their respects to the former ruler. However, less covered in the media are the thousands who feel disgust at a monarchy that epitomises colonialism, oppression and racism. There were protests in both Edinburgh and Cardiff as Charles Windsor was proclaimed King Charles III. In Cardiff, people held up signs in Welsh and English saying “It’s colonial subjugation of the Welsh people”, and “Not our King”. Meanwhile, in Edinburgh, a 22-year-old woman was arrested for breach of the peace as she held up a banner which read “Fuck imperialism, abolish monarchy”. 

Greek Students And Teachers Protest Deployment Of ‘University Police’

September 11, 2022 People's Dispatch. , , ,
On Thursday, September 8, students, teachers and other university workers took out a massive rally in the Constitution Square in Athens protesting the deployment of police on campuses. Activists from the Students Struggle Front (MAS) and Communist Youth of Greece (KNE) were among those who participated in the mobilization. They condemned the conservative New Democracy (ND)-led government’s bid to put the university campuses under police surveillance. The protesters in Athens denounced the deployment of ‘University Police’ at the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Athens University of Economics and Business Administration and National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Protests and marches were also held in Thessaloniki against the presence of riot police at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. The Communist Party of Greece (KKE) expressed solidarity with the students and condemned the deployment of police in universities.

Rifles, Tasers And Jails: How Cities And States Spent Billions Of COVID-19 Relief

September 11, 2022 Anastasia Valeeva, Weihua Li, and Susie Cagle, The Marshall Project. , , ,
After signing the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) last spring, President Joe Biden touted what the economic stimulus bill would deliver: food assistance to millions of people in need, lower healthcare premiums for millions of Americans, and $350 billion for state and local governments to spend on COVID-19 recovery. Economists say it was the largest infusion of federal funding in local governments in almost 40 years. A year later, ARPA became one of President Biden’s talking points to demonstrate Democrats are not out to defund the police. “[T]he American Rescue Plan … provided $350 billion that cities, states, and counties can use to hire more police, invest in more proven strategies like community violence interruption, trusted messengers,” Biden said during his State of the Union address this year.

Chicago: Election Season Begins For Police Accountability Councils

September 4, 2022 Joe Iosbaker, Fightback News. , , ,
Chicago, IL - Chicago saw two developments this past week in the struggle for democratic control of the police by the Black and Latino communities in Chicago. First, after a long delay, Mayor Lori Lightfoot appointed the interim Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability (CCPSA). This was created out of the passage of historic legislation in 2021, Empowering Communities for Public Safety (ECPS), the most democratic legislation for police accountability in the country. Second, election season began on August 30, when candidates for municipal office can start circulating petitions to get on the ballot in February 2023. The February ballot will include first-in-the-country police district council elections.

Is The US Legal System At War With Its People?

September 2, 2022 Natalia Marques, People's Dispatch. , , ,
The very laws and government agencies created to protect the people in the United States are increasingly being weaponized against those who are often marginalized in society: people of color, the poor, and the working class. In just the last few months, there have been many incidents of this kind of violent abuse of power. On July 28, the state of Alabama performed a “botched” execution on Joe Nathan James Jr., who journalists believe may have suffered medical malpractice akin to “torture” for hours before his death. On August 12, around midnight, a police officer threatened to kill a Black pregnant woman during a traffic stop in Florida.

Police Repress Demonstration Against Luma In Puerto Rico

August 29, 2022 Telesur English. , , ,
The Police of the State of Puerto Rico, a dependent territory of the United States, dispersed Thursday night a demonstration of dozens of Puerto Ricans in Old San Juan, who were staging a protest against LUMA Energy due to the constant power outages. This is the most recent episode of the protests that have been shaking the Caribbean island for days, although it is the first one that culminated with a confrontation between demonstrators and police, and one person arrested. The Teachers Federation also joined Thursday night's protest, as did the president of the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP), Juan Dalmau. The demonstrations followed calls made last Monday by a group of legislators from the House of Representatives and social organizations to mobilize as a way to put pressure on the pro-U.S. Governor Pedro Pierluisi to cancel the contract granted to LUMA Energy.

Mexico: Former Prosecutor General Arrested For Role In Ayotzinapa Case

August 23, 2022 Saheli Chowdhury, Orinoco Tribune. , , ,
Former prosecutor general of Mexico, Jesús Murillo Karam, was arrested on Friday, August 19, for alleged involvement in the Ayotzinapa forced disappearance case, in which 43 teaching trainee students of Guerrero state were forcibly taken and later executed during the midnight hours of September 26-27, 2014. Murillo Karam, who headed the Office of the Prosecutor General of the Republic during the presidency of Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018), was the mastermind behind the deceiving “historical truth” narrative of the case. The news of the detention was reported by the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) through an official statement, which explained that the former prosecutor general was arrested “for the crimes of forced disappearance, torture, and obstructing the administration of justice in the Ayotzinapa case.”

Police Lied To Get The Warrant To Search Breonna Taylor’s Home

August 18, 2022 Marjorie Cohn, Truthout. , , , ,
The March 2020 killing of Breonna Taylor, which caused widespread protest around the country, was the result of police lies to obtain a warrant and racist police violence after officers forced their way into her apartment. On August 4, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the federal grand jury indictments of four Louisville Metro Police officers involved in the raid that resulted in Taylor’s death. Three of the officers were accused of violating Taylor’s Fourth Amendment rights to be free from unreasonable search and seizure by lying to secure a no-knock warrant. The officers who sought the warrant “knew that the affidavit used to obtain the warrant to search Taylor’s home contained information that was false, misleading, and out-of-date; that the affidavit omitted material information; and that the officers lacked probable cause for the search,” the indictment reads.

Black Angelenos Face ‘Whiplash After Whiplash’ Of Losing Safe Housing

August 10, 2022 Steve Chiotakis, KCRW. , , , ,
This morning, the Los Angeles City Council got an earful from protestors opposing an expansion of LA Municipal Code ordinance 41.18, the city’s controversial “anti-camping” law that has been maligned by activists for unfairly targeting unhoused people. The law will now include a ban on sitting, laying, or sleeping within 500 feet of schools or daycares. The council voted 11-3 to approve the expansion after a raucous meeting, which was temporarily put into recess when a member of the public climbed over the podium and was handcuffed. Reporter Adam Mahoney spoke to unhoused residents about what they thought of the law. He says he received mixed responses for his recent Capital B news investigation. “There are some folks who didn't even know that 41.18 existed, right?

Beneath The Concrete, The Forest

August 10, 2022 Crimethinc.. , , ,
In Atlanta, Georgia, the city government intends to destroy large swaths of what remains of the South River Forest—also known by the Muskogee name for the river, Weelaunee. In place of one stretch of woods, they aim to build a police training compound; they have sold the neighboring part to Blackhall Studios executive Ryan Millsap, who intends to build a giant soundstage. Yet for more than a year now, activists have protected the forest against their plans. In a previous article, we chronicled how this campaign got started and the strategies that have driven it; in the following collection of narratives, participants in the movement describe their experiences and explain what makes this fight meaningful to them.

NYPD Violently Arrest Five Abortion Rights Activists At A Clinic Defense

August 7, 2022 Molly Rosenzweig, Left Voice. , , ,
New York City, New York - On every first Saturday of every month, anti-abortion protesters gather to harass patients at the SoHo Planned Parenthood in the heart of New York City, supposedly a “safe city” for abortion rights. In response, local activist group NYC for Abortion Rights organizes a monthly clinic defense and counter-protest. The  NYPD always go out of their way to protect the anti-choice crowd, enabling them to harass patients trying to enter the clinic, as well as physically assault abortion rights activists. In that regard, today was no different. But today, the end of the morning, five clinic defenders were in handcuffs. The anti-choice mob usually leads a procession from the Basilica of Old St Patrick’s Cathedral to the nearby Planned Parenthood, but today they chose to forgo the procession.

In Atlanta, ‘Cop City’ Sparks A Web Of Resistance

August 2, 2022 Sara Herschander, Waging Nonviolence. , , ,
In the year since the Atlanta City Council approved plans for construction of a $90 million police training center in the South River Forest, a growing network of resistance has spread to nearly every corner of the city, from preschools to protests at subcontractors’ offices. It’s a multi-pronged strategy that activists say has been necessary to confront the corrupt connections between government, corporations, subcontractors and the police that have allowed the project — known as “Cop City” — to move forward, despite immense and clear public opposition. “All of these systems are interconnected — it isn’t a question just about policing,” said Jasmine Burnett, organizing director at Community Movement Builders, a collective of Black Atlantans that has been working to support local residents amidst the increased police presence in response to opposition.

Mapping The Police: Citizen Control Of The Security Forces In Buenos Aires

August 2, 2022 Arg Medios, People's Dispatch. , , ,
Last week, Ofelia Fernández, a member of the Buenos Aires legislature, announced on her social media the launch of a Map of the City’s Police, a collaborative webpage whose objective is to highlight, identify, and denounce situations of police violence within the territory of Buenos Aires; consequently allowing citizens to hold local security forces to account. This tool of citizen participation was designed in conjunction with a network of individuals and organizations. Those behind the initiative include Fernández, the representative from Frente Patria Grande alliance of the ruling Frente de Todos coalition, the Center for Legal and Social Studies, the Association Against Institutional Violence, The Shout from the South, and the magazine Crisis, who are all looking to construct novel strategies in the fight for human rights.

Cops Thought They Could Arrest Them For Protesting In Public

August 2, 2022 Taya Graham and Stephen Janis, The Real News Network. , , ,
The growing and eclectic brand of activism known as cop watching continues to invent creative ways to confront overpolicing across the country. In this episode, Police Accountability Report hosts Taya Graham and Stephen Janis examine the arrest of two Youtube activists and how they responded in light of recent pushback from police departments across the country. The story illustrates how the grassroots movement of holding cops accountable continues to evolve in ways both unexpected and productive. A series of arrests that you are seeing here, which show just how hard it is to fight a system that has overwhelming power and is often able to bend the law. But we are also going to show you this: a fake protest staged by cop watchers to prove my former point about how the system is biased towards police and against the preservation of our Constitutional rights.
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