Rebellion2020

The Militarized Assault On Our Right To Protest

July 27, 2020 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, Clearing the FOG. Podcast federal law enforcement, Freedom of Assembly, Police violence, Portland, Rebellion2020

The Trump Administration sent federal law enforcement, including the paramilitary squad of Customs and Border Patrol, BORTAC, which has been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, to the streets of Portland, OR to stop the ongoing demonstrations against racist police violence. Federal law enforcement, working with local police, is also being sent to other cities where anti-racist protests are going on. We speak with constitutional lawyer Mara Verheyden-Hilliard about the legality of this and how activists can fight back to protect the rights of everyone and end police violence and lawless impunity.

Wall Of Vets, Grandparents Support Black Lives Matter Movement

July 26, 2020 KATU. Resist! federal law enforcement, Portland, Rebellion2020, Veterans

Portland, Ore. — The protests have drawn people from all walks of life, and on Friday night, veterans from all over showed up downtown to create a “Wall of Vets” to protect protesters. And they showed up in white shirts to support the Black Lives Matter movement. "It's something I believe in. The other vets here -- this is the first time they've come down; they don't like crowds either; we believe in something; it's time to stand," said Jonathan Fisher, a veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard. Veterans responded after the Navy veteran, Chris David, seen on video being beaten by federal officers, called for them to join.

Homeland Security Claims Shields And Gas Masks Are Weapons

July 25, 2020 Alan Macleod, Mintpress News. Educate! federal law enforcement, Homeland Security, Portland, Rebellion2020

Far from restoring order, the arrival of federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Border Patrol in Portland, Oregon has only heightened tensions, with agents attacking and arresting protesters nightly. DHS’ Acting Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli took to social media yesterday to share images of items confiscated from demonstrators. “Here is a shield and a couple of gas masks from a rioter arrested in Portland. Not a sign with a slogan that someone expressing their first amendment rights might carry, but preparations for violence. Peaceful protester? I don’t think so,” he wrote.

Louisville: Black Lives Matter Protesters Arrested After Blocking Street

July 25, 2020 Chris Kenning, Hayes Gardner and Ben Tobin, Courier Journal. Resist! Kentucky, Louisville, Police violence, Rebellion2020

Louisville, KY - More than 100 Black Lives Matter protesters were confronted by police after blocking off Market Street in Louisville's Nulu neighborhood on Friday afternoon and setting up an impromptu block party. Police started arresting dozens of protesters shortly before 5 p.m. after declaring that the gathering was an unlawful assembly. In total, 76 were arrested, according to Louisville Metro Police Department spokesman Lamont Washington. The group arrived around 4 p.m., and in less than a half-hour, protesters put up long tables with meal settings, connect four games, a trampoline, artwork and shade tents between Clay and Shelby streets.

Protesters Use ‘Midnight Yoga’ To Cope With Police Violence

July 25, 2020 Chuck Modiano, Deadspin.com. Strategize! Police violence, Rebellion2020, Self Care, Washington DC

Saturday night marked another session of “Midnight Yoga” on Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington D.C. The protesters, who have been out in the streets over 50 days after being initially sparked by the failure to arrest the officers who had murdered George Floyd and Breonna Taylor (still), have turned to the peace that yoga provides to manage their pain, both physical and emotional. Around the same time federal police were turning Portland into a war zone while violently beating and pepper-spraying citizens, D.C. protesters were stretching out their limbs after giving a touching 100 candle-light tribute to late Congressman John Lewis.

Judge Rejects Oregon’s Motion For A Restraining Order Against Federal Police

July 25, 2020 Aaron Mesh, Willamette Weekly. Educate! Chemical Weapons, Legal System, Portland, Rebellion2020

A federal judge on Friday afternoon denied a request by Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum to issue a temporary restraining order against federal officers making arrests of Portland protesters without probable cause. In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Michael W. Mosman said Rosenblum had failed to provide sufficient evidence that such arrests were occurring widely in the streets of Portland or were part of a federal policy. (Disclosure: Rosenblum is married to the co-owner of WW's parent company.) He ruled that because the state of Oregon couldn't establish a pattern or policy, it lacked the legal standing to seek to halt future incidents.

Federal Agents Use Tear Gas To Clear Portland Protest

July 25, 2020 Gillian Flaccus and Sarah Cline, AP News. Educate! Chemical Weapons, Freedom of Assembly, Portland, Rebellion2020

Thousands of protesters gathered outside the federal courthouse in Portland, Oregon, into the early hours of Saturday shooting fireworks at the building as plumes of tear gas, dispensed by U.S. agents, lingered above. The demonstration went on for hours until federal agents entered the crowd around 2:30 a.m. and marched in a line down the street, clearing remaining protesters with tear gas at close range. They also extinguished a large fire in the street outside the courthouse. The Federal Protective Service had declared the gathering as “an unlawful assembly” and cited that officers had been injured.

US Capitalism Is In Total Meltdown

July 24, 2020 Sarah Jaffe , The Progressive. Educate! COVID-19, Neoliberalism, Rebellion2020, Recession

In 2005, when the federal, state, and local governments spectacularly failed the residents of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, there was a sense of shock from both inside and outside of the country. The triumphalist narrative that “There Is No Alternative”—that neoliberal capitalism was the best and indeed the only way to do things—got its first cracks there, when we saw people stuck on rooftops and others sheltering without food and water in the convention center and Superdome. Somehow reporters could get in, and private security firms like Blackwater patrolled the streets, but the government could not or would not deliver relief to the mostly Black and poor residents who had been unable to evacuate before the storm.

Federal Agents Retreat To Portland Base As Protesters Control Streets

July 23, 2020 By Chris McGreal , The Guardian. Resist! Donald Trump, Police abuse, Portland, Rebellion2020

The DHS officers dispatched by the president to put down the demonstrations have instead become prisoners of the building they are ostensibly there to defend. “The feds don’t have control of the streets,” said a woman holding a sign “100% not a terrorist”, who gave her name only as Shannon. “I think they’re more scared than us. They’re hiding in there. They don’t know what they’re doing.” If the intent was to intimidate the protesters into abandoning the few square blocks of downtown Portland under their control, it backfired spectacularly. Residents of a city with a long history of radical street protest were outraged at the tactics which suddenly revitalized a protest movement that was waning after more than 50 nights of demonstrations. It is now the federal agents who appear under siege, reduced to defending the courthouse from attempts to break in or set it on fire. In a visible surrender of ground, the DHS taskforce has even abandoned bothering to re-erect a fence around the federal building torn down on Saturday night.

If You’re Watching Portland, Watch This Courthouse In New Mexico, Too

July 22, 2020 Charles P. Pierce, Esquire. Educate! New Mexico, Police, Rebellion2020, right wing militia

The events in Portland understandably have raised serious concerns that the various white-nationalist militias, having infiltrated various police departments, might decide en masse to “help” the Feds “maintain order” in such a way as they are doing presently in Oregon. It is not a long step, after all, from badgeless Feds in unmarked rental vans to badgeless civilians in unmarked rental vans. As regards to this possibility, it’s important to keep an eye on one courthouse in New Mexico. Back in June, when protestors assembled to remove a statue of a Spanish conquistador, a bunch of cospaly Rambos called the New Mexico Civil Guard showed up in opposition. (Eventually, in the middle of a scuffle, a guy named Steven Baca opened fire on the demonstrators.)

Couple That Pointed Guns At Protesters Charged With Felonies

July 22, 2020 Arris Foley, The Hill. Educate! Gun violence, Legal System, Rebellion2020, St. Louis

Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the couple that drew national attention last month after footage of them pointing guns at Black Lives Matter protesters outside their home went viral, have been charged with felony unlawful use of a weapon, The Associated Press reported. The charges come after investigation circuit attorney Kim Gardner launched a probe into the couple late last month over the June 28 incident. At the time, the couple, who are white, were seen pointing guns at Black Lives Matter protesters that had been passing their home in a gated community while en route to the home of Mayor Lyda Krewson (D). The protesters had been demonstrating to call for Krewson’s resignation after she read aloud activists' personal information on a livestream.

Tens Of Thousands Walk Off Job In ‘Strike For Black Lives’

July 21, 2020 By Aaron Morrison, People's World. Resist! Black Lives Matter (BLM), Rebellion2020, Strikes, Workers Rights and Jobs

Organizers of a national workers strike say tens of thousands are walking off the job today in more than two dozen U.S. cities to protest systemic racism and economic inequality that has only worsened during the coronavirus pandemic. “We are…building a country where Black lives matter in every aspect of society—including in the workplace,” said Ash-Lee Henderson, an organizer with the Movement for Black Lives, a coalition of over 150 organizations that make up the Black Lives Matter movement.Dubbed the “Strike for Black Lives,” labor unions, along with social and racial justice organizations from New York City to Los Angeles, are participating in a range of planned actions. Where work stoppages are not possible for a full day, participants are either picketing during a lunch break or observing moments of silence to honor Black lives lost to police violence, organizers said. “The Strike for Black Lives is a moment of reckoning for corporations that have long ignored the concerns of their Black workforce and denied them better working conditions, living wages, and healthcare."

The Anti-Racism Protests Haven’t Stopped

July 20, 2020 Sarah Ruiz-Grossman, Huffington Post. Resist! Antiracism, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Police violence, Rebellion2020

It’s been 50 days since people took to the streets after the police killing of George Floyd — and the nationwide protests haven’t let up since. After demonstrators in Minneapolis called out the unjust killing of Floyd, a Black man, at the hands of a white police officer, protests quickly spread to cities and towns across the country and even the world. And now, over seven weeks later, while the unrest has quieted in some places, people continue to show up day after day in the name of anti-racism and ending police brutality. It’s now been over four months since Breonna Taylor was killed, and protesters continue to march daily, calling for the cops involved to be charged. Since Taylor and Floyd died, too many other Black and brown people have been killed by police.

We Reviewed Police Tactics Seen In Nearly 400 Protest Videos

July 18, 2020 Talia Buford, Lucas Waldron, Moiz Syed and Al Shaw, ProPublica. Educate! First Amendment, Police violence, Protests, Rebellion2020

As protests denouncing police brutality against unarmed Black people spread to thousands of cities, it was videos of police violence — this time, directed at protesters — that went viral. Clips showed officers launching tear gas canisters at protesters’ heads, shooting pepper spray from moving vehicles and firing foam bullets into crowds. ProPublica looked at nearly 400 social media posts showing police responses to protesters and found troubling conduct by officers in at least 184 of them. In 59 videos, pepper spray and tear gas were used improperly; in a dozen others, officers used batons to strike noncombative demonstrators; and in 87 videos, officers punched, pushed and kicked retreating protesters, including a few instances in which they used an arm or knee to exert pressure on a protester’s neck.

«1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 »

Daily movement news and resources