Skip to content

Racism

Police Settlements Cost Taxpayers $210 Million Plus Interest

July 17, 2016 Mercy Yang, www.readersupportednews.org , , , ,
By Mercy Yang for Reader Supported News. As the deaths of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling at the hands of police officers stir up national debate on law enforcement practices, a new database unveils hundreds of Chicago Police Department misconduct lawsuit settlements between 2012 and 2015 ― costing a whopping $210 million in total and revealing yet another financial burden on taxpayers. “Settling for Misconduct,” an extensive database from The Chicago Reporter published this week, highlights allegations of Chicago’s excessive policing methods, ranging from false arrest to unwarranted killing, particularly in Latino and black communities, leading to 655 settlements in four years. Multimillion-dollar police misconduct settlements, such as the one stemming from the killing of Chicago teenager Laquan McDonald, tend to garner national attention. But the database reveals that the City of Chicago pays much smaller sums of money to plaintiffs on an average of every other day. The average payment was just $36,000.

Militarized Police in Baton Rouge Draw Global Attention

July 17, 2016 Robert Mackey, www.theintercept.com , ,
By Robert Mackey for the Intercept. Photographs and video of heavily armed police officers wearing body armor and helmets arresting protesters in Baton Rouge over the weekend reverberated on social networks and in the world’s media, focusing new attention on the militarization of police forces across the United States. Another photograph taken by Bachman, showing a police officer’s knee pinning an African-American protester’s head to the pavement, struck a chord with photo editors in Iran and Russia, where the crackdown on peaceful protesters made complaints from the United States government about repression of dissent in those countries seem hypocritical. ... As the Baton Rouge Advocate reported, a demonstration in a residential neighborhood of the city on Sunday only got more heated when about 300 marchers were blocked by officers wearing gas masks and driving an armored vehicle with an ear-splitting sound cannon called an LRAD, or long-range acoustic device. The image that drew the most comment, taken by Jonathan Bachman for Reuters, showed a young woman in a dress standing serenely on a road outside the Baton Rouge police headquarters as two Louisiana State Police officers dressed for battle rushed to arrest her.

Afromation Protest In Baltimore Against Police Violence

July 17, 2016 Kevin Zeese, www.PopularResistance.org , , , , ,
By Kevin Zeese for Popular Resistance. The Afromation protest in Baltimore stood up for black life and the importance of black culutre in the face of ongoing killings. To understand the reasons for protests in Baltimore and across the nation, we must look at the "race-based trauma" caused by police killings. As we prepared to march, I was talking with two of our colleagues. They described how it felt to be an African American man and see video of people who look like them being killed by police for no reason. It creates a trauma that requires them to act in order to stop it. The demands of the Afromation protests are reasonable: 1. An all-elected civilain complaint review board to give communities control of the police and self-determination; 2. A ten percent cut in the police budget away from militarization of the police and surveillance of the community with the funds used for community programming.

AFROMATION: ‘These Are Our Demands’

July 17, 2016 Baltimore Bloc, www.popularresistance.org , , ,
By Michaela Brown for Baltimore Bloc. Baltimore, MD - "It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains." - Assata Shakur It is a chant that has echoed throughout this nation as black bodies have hit the streets, day after day, week after week, calling for an end to systems of injustice, inequity, and violence. In recent weeks, we have seen the death of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge and Philando Castille in St.Paul result in these black men being transformed from fathers, husbands, and sons into viral hashtags, and nationwide sorrow, rage and grief. The abundance of protest and calls to actions have been responses to this system of injustice, inequity and violence as it continues to reproduce the same outcomes.

It’s Time You Realize #AllLivesMatter Is Racist

July 11, 2016 Rachel Charlene Lewis , www.advocate.com , ,
By Rachel Charlene Lewis for Advocate - It seems that whenever we talk about race and #BlackLivesMatter comes up, a whole lot of people get super, super uncomfortable. So, naturally, they resort to the common retort of #AllLivesMatter. However, that logic is, well, illogical. We want everyone to do the important work of combatting racism in the LGBT and queer community, but also in the world at large, so we decided to compile some super helpful info to help out the #AllLivesMatter camp.

Newsletter: US Racism Is Killing Us

July 10, 2016 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, www.popularresistance.org , , , , ,
By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers. This was a traumatic week. Two more unjustified killings of black men were caught on video and shared widely. Mass protests erupted throughout the country. And then, at the end of a Dallas protest against police violence, a lone gunman shot 12 people, killing five police officers. A graphic video shows Baton Rouge police shooting Alton Sterling outside of a convenience store where he was selling CDs. Two police have him on the ground, then shots ring out and Sterling is dead. Forty-eight hours later in Minnesota, Philando Castile is shot dead at a traffic stop while he is reaching for his wallet. In the aftermath of Castile's fatal shooting, a video made by his girlfriend from the passenger seat is posted on Facebook and goes viral. Police violence is a growing public heath threat that is wounding, traumatizing and killing people.

A Black Ex-Cop Tells The Real Truth About Race And Policing

July 9, 2016 Redditt Hudson, www.vox.com , , , ,
By Redditt Hudson for Vox. On any given day, in any police department in the nation, 15 percent of officers will do the right thing no matter what is happening. Fifteen percent of officers will abuse their authority at every opportunity. The remaining 70 percent could go either way depending on whom they are working with. That's a theory from my friend K.L. Williams, who has trained thousands of officers around the country in use of force. Based on what I experienced as a black man serving in the St. Louis Police Department for five years, I agree with him. I worked with men and women who became cops for all the right reasons — they really wanted to help make their communities better. And I worked with people like the president of my police academy class, who sent out an email after President Obama won the 2008 election that included the statement, "I can't believe I live in a country full of ni**er lovers!!!!!!!!" He patrolled the streets in St. Louis in a number of black communities with the authority to act under the color of law.

Black Lives Matter Condemns Violence By Police & Against Police

July 9, 2016 Black Lives Matter, www.blacklivesmatter.com , ,
By Black Lives Matter. After the murders of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile at the hands of police, we marched and protested to highlight the urgent need to transform policing in America, to call for justice, transparency and accountability, and to demand that Black Lives Matter. Protests in Dallas were cut short when a lone gunman targeted and attacked 11 police officers, killing five. This is a tragedy. We should reject all of this. Black activists have raised the call for an end to violence, not an escalation of it. The police killings were the actions of a lone gunman. To assign the actions of one person to an entire movement is dangerous and irresponsible. We continue our efforts to bring about a better world for all of us.

How Protesters Actually Helped The Dallas Police

July 9, 2016 Tom Cahill, www.usuncut.com , , , , ,
By Tom Cahill for US Uncut. Black Lives Matter protesters had been working with local police from the early stages of planning the march, and the demonstration was completely peaceful. In one photo, a white police officer and a black police officer are seen posing with a black protester, all of whom are smiling. Additionally, the organizers of Dallas’ Black Lives Matter march issued a public statement, saying the group “does not condone violence against any human being, and we condemn anyone who wants to commit violence.” As soon as the shooting started, Black Lives Matter protesters helped police by identifying where the shots were coming from. Black Lives Matter

Police Killings Won’t Stop Until U.S. Comes To Grips With Racist Foundations

July 9, 2016 Staff, www.therealnews.com , ,
By Staff of The Real News - Welcome to the Real News Network. I'm Paul Jay in Baltimore. Last night, five police officers were killed during an anti-police brutality rally in Dallas, Texas, shot by snipers. Soon after, the local police force used a bomb-disposing robot to kill a suspect in the shooting. This followed two fatal police encounters in the previous two days. On Wednesday evening, police shot and killed Philando Castile at a routine traffic stop. He was in the car with his four-year-old daughter and his girlfriend, who livestreamed the aftermath on Facebook.

Protests Across the Country In Response To Police Killings

July 8, 2016 Staff, www.PopularResistance.org , , , , ,
By Staff for Popular Resistance. In response to the police killings of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, LA and Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, Minnesota there were protests held in many cities across the country. The New York Times reported "Baton Rouge Is Passionate, and Peaceful, After Shooting of Alton Sterling" writing: The protest of the fatal police shooting of a CD vendor here in Louisiana’s capital had many of the trappings of similar flare-ups around the country: blaring music, young men with faces obscured by bandannas, and obscene and brutal sentiments directed toward the local police department, on angry tongues and homemade placards. But as Wednesday night’s street rally flowed into Thursday morning, it had managed to be as peaceful as it was passionate. In Minnesoata, outrage grew over the death of Philando Castile, killed in a traffic stop. The video of the aftermath published on Facebook by his girlfriend after the shooting went viral and caused immediate reactions. The police did not even check for a pulse or administer first aid.

How A Utah County Silenced Native American Voters

June 19, 2016 Krista Langlois, www.hcn.org , , ,
By Krista Langlois for High Country News. Sixteen years ago, when Jones joined the board of the Utah Navajo Health System, he realized his neighbors were dying because the closest ambulances — the county’s, in Blanding, and the tribe’s, in Kayenta, Arizona — were an hour away “on a good day.” So Jones asked the county commission if one of San Juan’s ambulances could be housed in a garage in Montezuma Creek. From there, it would take half the time to rush an elder suffering a heart attack to medical care. But the county wasn’t interested. Over the next decade, Jones says, he and other health advocates repeatedly tried to get the commission to improve ambulance service on the reservation. But while the sole Navajo commissioner was supportive, the two white commissioners were usually not.

Newsletter: Creating “Positive Peace”

June 12, 2016 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, www.popularresistance.org , , , , , , ,
By Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese. This weekend the Bilderberg Group is holding its secretive annual retreat in Dresden, Germany. The invitation-only gathering of elites from North America and Northern Europe includes heads of finance and industry, heads of state and intelligence officials. Who knows what schemes they'll cook up? They don't keep minutes or allow the press in and attendees can't quote what was said. It can't be good for the people or the planet. The Global Peace Index was just released for 2016 and it shows that the decade-long trend of increasing violence is continuing. Of note, the inequality between countries is growing; the most violent countries deteriorated by a greater degree than in the past. Countries that are the most peaceful also have the greatest resilience.

Burning Tulsa: The Legacy Of Black Dispossession

June 5, 2016 Linda Christensen, www.zinnedproject.org , , ,
By Linda Christensen for the Zinn Education Project. Tulsa, OK - None of my mostly African American 11th graders in Portland had ever heard of the so-called Tulsa Race Riot, even though it stands as one of the most violent episodes of dispossession in U.S. history. The term “race riot” does not adequately describe the events of May 31—June 1, 1921 in Greenwood, a black neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In fact, the term itself implies that both blacks and whites might be equally to blame for the lawlessness and violence. The historical record documents a sustained and murderous assault on black lives and property. This assault was met by a brave but unsuccessful armed defense of their community by some black World War I veterans and others.

Case Dismissed For State Of The Union Activists

June 1, 2016 Joy First, www.PopularResistance.org , , , , ,
By Joy First for National Coalition for Nonviolent Resistance. As we prepared for trial, we knew that Judge Gardner has jailed activists found guilty in the past, and so we knew we must be prepared for jail time. We also knew that the government prosecutor had not responded to our latest motions, and so we wondered if that was a sign that they were not ready to proceed with atrial. With this uncertainty in mind,for the first time ever I got a one-way ticket to DC, and it was with great sadness that I said goodbye to my family. And what was my offense that brought me there? On the day of Obama’s last State of the Union address, January 12, 2016, I joined 12 others as we exercised our First Amendment rights attempting to deliver a petition to President Obama in an action organized by the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance. We suspected that Obama would not tell us what was really going on, and so our petition outlined what we believed to be the real state of the union along with remedies to create a world we all would want to live in. The letter outlined our concerns regarding war, poverty, racism, and the climate crisis. As about 40 concerned citizen activists walked toward the US Capitol on January 12, we saw the Capitol Police were already there and waiting for us.
«12345678910»
assetto corsa mods

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

Donate Here

Urgent End Of Year Fundraising Campaign

Online donations are back! 

Keep independent media alive. 

Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

Donate Here
Sign Up To Our Daily Digest

Independent media outlets are being suppressed and dropped by corporations like Google, Facebook and Twitter. Sign up for our daily email digest before it’s too late so you don’t miss the latest movement news.