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Police Must Respect Journalists’ Rights To Freely Report On DNC Protests

August 19, 2024 Seth Stern and Jimena Pinzon, Chicago Sun-Times. , , , , , , , ,
Hundreds of journalists are expected to converge on Chicago to cover the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 19-22 – and they must be allowed to do their jobs unimpeded. The city’s plan to “streamline” mass arrests during the convention, by processing arrestees at a makeshift court at the Area 3 police station at Belmont and Western, does nothing to alleviate the threat mass arrests pose to journalists. The plan, reported by the Sun-Times last week, is supposedly for the arrestees’ convenience: It’ll be easier for them to get home on public transportation that way. But “catch and release” arrests are never convenient for journalists, or their readers.

The Path For Abolishing The Police Already Exists

August 18, 2024 Joe Mayall, Scheer Post. , , , ,
America watched in horror this spring as armed phalanxes of police assaulted peaceful pro-Palestine protesters on campuses across the nation. The raids on student encampments ranged from dubious arrests to snipers on campus rooftops. This most recent episode of widespread police aggression only reinforced Americans’ belief that law enforcement is quick to violent escalation.  Last year, a nationwide ABC News-Washington Post survey of 1,003 adults found that only 39% of Americans polled were confident police were adequately trained to avoid excessive force, and only 41% believed they treated Black and white people equally.

Police Chief Who Led Raid On Newspaper Charged With Obstruction Of Justice

August 13, 2024 AP News. , , ,
Topeka, Kansas — A former central Kansas police chief who led a raid last year on a weekly newspaper has been charged with felony obstruction of justice and is accused of persuading a potential witness for an investigation into his conduct of withholding information from authorities. The single charge against former Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody alleges that he knowingly or intentionally influenced the witness to withhold information on the day of the raid of the Marion County Record and the home of its publisher or sometime within the following six days. The charge was filed Monday in state district court in Marion County and is not more specific about Cody’s alleged conduct.

Palestinian Demonstrators Are Back In Haifa And Facing Police Oppression

August 5, 2024 Yoav Haifawi, Mondoweiss. , , ,
Since Israel’s genocidal attack on Gaza began in October 2023, an all-out attack against Palestinians under Israel’s control elsewhere has been underway as well. In the West Bank, which, together with Gaza and the Syrian Golan Heights, Israel occupied in 1967, there are daily and nightly raids by the occupation army and the settlers. Hundreds have been killed, and almost 10,000 new political prisoners have been taken with many being tortured. In the process, whole communities have been driven from their lands. In the 78% of Palestine that has been occupied since 1948-49, and where those Palestinians that survived the ethnic cleansing are formally citizens of Israel, all democratic rights were suspended as of October 2023 and a terror campaign started against Palestinians.

Waves Of Protests Follow Police Killing Of Sonya Massey

August 5, 2024 People's Dispatch. , , , , , , , ,
On July 6, 36-year-old Black woman Sonya Massey was shot and killed by white police officer Sean Grayson after inviting the police into her own home, seeking protection from a potential intruder. On July 22, body camera footage was released to the public of Massey’s killing, shocking the nation and harkening to previous examples of police violence against Black people. The body camera footage that has emerged has shed light on a particularly disgusting case of police impunity. As a result, protests have erupted over the past few weeks across the country, including in major cities such as New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago.

Four Just Stop Oil Supporters Arrested By Greater Manchester Police

August 5, 2024 Just Stop Oil. , , ,
Four Just Stop Oil supporters have been arrested after an operation by the Greater Manchester Police. In recent weeks Just Stop Oil has been taking nonviolent action with groups internationally to demand governments establish a Fossil Fuel Treaty, to end the extraction and burning of oil, gas and coal by 2030. [1] A Just Stop Oil spokesperson said: Just Stop Oil supporters are always fully accountable for our actions and as such the four arrested today will accept any legal consequences. Accountability is a core feature of nonviolence, which is at the centre of Just Stop Oil’s mission. We take action because we want a safe and stable society. Delivering a Fossil Fuel Treaty that ends oil and gas by 2030 is an essential step for our Government to prevent massive disorder.

Community Holds Public Hearing For Police Murder Of John Zook Jr.

August 4, 2024 Emma Boyhtari, Left Voice. , , , ,
On Wednesday, July 10 in Westland, MI, several organizations, along with family and community members, organized and attended a public hearing about a young Black man — John Zook Jr. — who was killed by police on June 18 after he called emergency services on himself in the midst of a mental health crisis. The event, organized and sponsored by several groups, including Survivors Speak, Black Coffee, Detroit Will Breathe, Washtenaw County General Defense Committee, and others, began with speeches by family members. Attendees heard from John’s sister, his brothers, and his father. John’s brothers were the first to arrive at the scene of the shooting.

Secret Service Announces DNC Security Perimeter

July 28, 2024 Fight Back! News!. , , , ,
Chicago, IL – On July 25, the U.S. Secret Service laid out maps for its security perimeter at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in August. In response, Hatem Abudayyeh, one of the spokespeople for the Coalition to March on the DNC, said, “Now that the perimeter is finalized, we still demand that the city of Chicago must provide a march route for tens of thousands of people who will be protesting the convention on the week of August 19.” Abudayyeh continued, “The route offered to us by the city’s Law Department is inadequate. With the ongoing U.S.-funded genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza, which has already killed 40,000 people, and all the other grievances that people have with the Democrats in DC, the city knows that it can’t accommodate all the protesters that will be here if it puts us on side streets and insists on a one-mile-long route.”

Police Arrest Protesters Outside Bath Iron Works Ceremony

July 28, 2024 Kristian Moravec, Press Herald. , , , , ,
Police arrested nine protesters outside Bath Iron Works on Saturday morning leading up to a christening ceremony for the shipyard’s newest warship. Two protesters were charged with obstructing a public way and seven with criminal trespass after a group of demonstrators interlinked arms and sat down, blocking the entrance to a BIW parking lot. Police later said that this group had broken off from a larger demonstration of about 75 people on Washington Street. Witnesses said that arrests started around 9:30 a.m. when Bath police officers and Sagadahoc County sheriff’s deputies rounded up some of the protesters, securing their wrists with zip ties before ushering them to a nearby school bus.

183 Day Encampment Across From Secretary Of State Blinken’s House Forcefully Destroyed

July 26, 2024 Blinken Encampment Organizers, Popular Resistance. , , , ,
From January 26, 2024, until this morning, July 26, 2024, peaceful protestors have occupied the shoulder of Chain Bridge Road in the vicinity of the home of Secretary of State Antony Blinken, demanding an end to U.S. support for the Israeli genocide in Gaza that, in low estimates, has claimed the lives of over 40,000 innocent Palestinian civilians. Throughout this time, Secretary Blinken has continued to provide weapons and funding for a military campaign that the International Court of Justice has ruled is a plausible genocide. On July 16, 2024, Virginia State Police, The Office of Virginia Attorney General, and the Virginia Department of Transportation arbitrarily demanded the removal of the peace vigil in a ‘law enforcement entrapment’.

Predictive Policing And The Paris 2024 Olympic Games

July 26, 2024 Yegor Halva, Unicorn Riot. , , ,
As Paris prepares to host the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games from July 26 to August 11, 2024, the French government is implementing unprecedented surveillance measures to ensure safety. However, these measures have sparked fierce debate over the potential erosion of civil liberties, with opposition groups claiming that these systems automate social injustice. Sporting mega-events, including the Olympic Games, have long been testing grounds for new surveillance technologies. Their exceptional size and security demands constitute an emergency situation which is used as a pretext to justify the accelerated implementation of extraordinary regulations and policies that temporarily suspend law, along with the adoption of legislation that would be otherwise very hard to pass during “normal” periods.

Kamala Harris’s Distinguished Career Of Serving Injustice

July 22, 2024 Marjorie Cohn, Consortium News. , , , , ,
Sen. Kamala Harris is rising in the polls after dramatically confronting former Vice President Joe Biden during the Democratic primary debate about his opposition to federally mandated busing for desegregation. The following week, however, Harris backed away from saying that busing should always be federally mandated, calling it just one “tool that is in the toolbox” for school districts to use. When asked to clarify whether she would support federal mandates for busing, she said: “I believe that any tool that is in the toolbox should be considered by a school district.” But Biden’s poll numbers are falling as a result of Harris’s theatrical attack.

Milwaukee Shipped In 4,500 Cops To Suppress Protest At RNC

July 18, 2024 Cody Bloomfield, Truthout. , , , , ,
Contestations over the Republican National Committee’s efforts to foreclose avenues for lawful protest outside this week’s Republican National Convention (RNC) were already heated months before GOP delegates started booking their flights to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for the convention. So it was something of a victory for free speech that, after months of mobilizing and negotiations — and in the unexpectedly heightened state of policing following the July 13 assassination attempt on Donald Trump — some protesters managed to demonstrate close enough to the RNC to be seen and heard by its attendees. The path leading up to that point was filled with uncertainty over whether protest rights would be subordinated to GOP demands.

CUNY Encampment Felony Charges Could Set A Dangerous Precedent

July 2, 2024 Hebh Jamal and CHarlie Markbreiter, Mondoweiss. , , , , , , , ,
Earlier this month, the Manhattan district attorney’s office dropped felony charges against nine pro-Palestinian protesters arrested at City College’s encampment on the fateful police raid orchestrated on April 30. Thirteen protestors, however, could still serve felonies, including up to nine years of jail. While organizers have faced legal threats nationally, CUNY students — who, in addition to being predominantly POC and working class, are consistently some of the most militant student intifada members — have been hit with the highest charges. This sends a message: when it comes to Zionist repression, the most vulnerable and most radical students will be the first to go. But the consequences of the CUNY 22 trial extend far beyond CUNY.

The Goal Is To Attack A Movement

June 30, 2024 Micah Herskind, Welcome to Hell World. , , , ,
The Georgia Attorney General’s office appears to have made a major blunder in the ongoing prosecution of 61 Stop Cop City activists—one that could potentially cost the state its case altogether. According to a motion filed by attorneys for three defendants who run the nonprofit Atlanta Solidarity Fund (ASF), Georgia Deputy Attorney General John Fowler’s prosecutorial team has extensively and brazenly violated multiple defendants’ right to attorney-client privilege. This motion is just the most recent episode in the RICO case that has been denounced by activists and legal experts as a political prosecution intended to punish and intimidate those in the Stop Cop City movement.
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