State Violence

The Unrelenting Violence Against Black Youth In Latin America:

January 11, 2025 Janvieve Williams Comrie, Black Agenda Report. Organize! Ecuador, Rascism, State Violence, Youth

The December 2024 murders of four Afro-Ecuadorian boys in Guayaquil’s Las Malvinas neighborhood have laid bare the entrenched racism and neglect faced by Black communities in Ecuador. Ismael and Josué Arroyo, of 15 and 14 years of age, Nehemías Arboleda, 15, and Steven Medina 11, disappeared on December 8th, their dismembered bodies discovered days later near a military base. This heinous act has drawn national and international condemnation, with demands for justice and accountability growing louder. The government’s response—a state of emergency and curfew in Guayaquil and other areas until at least March 3, 2025—has been criticized for its misplaced focus.

Nigerian President Enforced Violent Crackdown On Hunger Protests

December 3, 2024 Pavan Kulkarni, People's Dispatch. Educate! Austerity, Bola Tinubu, Hunger Strikes, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Nigeria, Police, police brutality, Repression, State Violence

Extrajudicial executions, mass arrests, custodial torture and charges of treason were among the methods used by the Nigerian government to crack down on protests this August against rising hunger and economic hardships. Nigerian civil society, demanding a reversal of President Bola Tinubu’s aggressive implementation of IMF policies that brought about this cost of living crisis on Africa’s largest population, led these protests for 10 days at the beginning of August. In a report released on November 28, titled “Bloody August,” Amnesty International (AI) documented 24 killings, while “scores of additional cases reported by activists and journalists” are yet to be verified.

University Of Pennsylvania Police Raid Pro-Palestine Students’ Home

October 27, 2024 Penn Students Against the Occupation of Palestine, Popular Resistance. Educate! Campus Movement, Freedom of Speech, Higher Education, Palestine, Police, State Violence, Student Activism, University of Pennsylvania

On Friday, October 18 at 6 am, 12 Penn Police officers and one Philadelphia Police officer raided the home of pro-Palestine Penn students organizers. After threatening to break down the door with a battering ram and pointing a gun at their neighbor, they stormed the house in full tactical gear. The police banged on each door as students were sleeping, pointing rifles and handguns at their heads as they exited their rooms with their hands raised. Officers refused to show a warrant to residents of the house, and refused to provide their names and badge numbers. While the students were corralled by police in a room, one student was separated and taken in for questioning.

2,800 Wounded, At Least Nine Killed In Lebanon After Pagers Explode

September 17, 2024 Sharon Zhang, Truthout. Educate! Hezbollah, Israel, Lebanon, State Violence, Terrorism

Thousands have been injured and at least nine killed after handheld devices exploded en masse across Lebanon, and in some parts of Syria, in an apparent attack on Tuesday. According to Lebanon’s health minister, Firas al-Abyad, at least 2,750 people have been wounded, while more than 200 are in critical condition. That count was preliminary, as the reported toll was rising rapidly shortly after the attack, which occurred on Tuesday afternoon local time. One of the eight people killed was an 8-year-old girl. Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was reportedly minorly injured in the attack.

Retaliatory Violence Grips Bangladesh Weeks After Hasina’s Resignation

August 18, 2024 Abdul Rahman, People's Dispatch. Educate! Awami League, Bangladesh, Elections, State Violence

The commemoration in Dhaka of the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, considered to be the founder of the nation, was marked by violent attacks. Hundreds of people had gathered in Dhaka to honor Bangladesh’s first prime minister, but were met with large-scale violence by protesters, including students. The incident comes just two weeks after Sheikh Hasina stepped down as prime minister of Bangladesh. Those participating in the commemoration, which included members of Hasina’s Awami League, were reportedly attempting to reach Sheikh’s home but were prevented from doing so by students who also blocked journalists trying to cover the incident.

The Path For Abolishing The Police Already Exists

August 18, 2024 Joe Mayall, Scheer Post. Create! Accountability, Community Safety, Defund the police, Police, State Violence

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.

IMF-Driven Policies Spark Deadly Protests In Kenya

June 27, 2024 Robert Inlakesh, MintPress News. Resist! Debt, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kenya, Mass Action, State Violence, Taxes

At least 23 Kenyan protesters were killed on Tuesday after hundreds stormed the nation’s parliament in response to a proposed tax-hike bill, which threatens to deepen the country’s cost of living crisis. The IMF’s pressure on Nairobi to balance its budget is central to the issue. Videos of bodies strewn across the concrete and protesters storming the parliament went viral on social media. This follows protests the previous week that brought the nation to a standstill. President William Ruto, elected to address the cost of living crisis, is now seen attempting to combat dissent with force, having failed to improve conditions.

US Jury Finds Chiquita Guilty Of Financing Paramilitary Death Squads

June 11, 2024 The Canary. Resist! Chiquita, Colombia, Food and Agriculture, Human Rights, Legal System, Paramilitary, State Violence

In a historic first, an American jury has held a major US corporation liable for complicity in serious human rights abuses abroad. Specifically, the case has held banana giant Chiquita Brands International accountable for financing a brutal paramilitary death squad in Colombia. Chiquita In Colombia Between 1997 and 2004, Chiquita financed the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) to the tune of US $1.7m. The AUC was a coalition of right-wing death squads. The group of over 30,000 soldiers operated throughout two-thirds of the country, and manufactured war to prop up a series of illegal business activities. Primarily, the AUC ran what was then the largest drug trafficking cartel in the world. It also engaged in arms sales, human trafficking, and money laundering.

New Bill In Honduras Seeks To Rectify 1980s Human Rights Violations

June 3, 2024 Michael Fox, Resumen English. Create! History, Honduras, Human Rights, Reparations, State Violence

In Honduras, family members of the victims of state violence in the 1980s have been marching for 40 years to demand justice for the disappearance and death of their loved ones. Now, there’s a chance they may see reparations. An unprecedented bill that would provide compensation for the family members of the victims is working its way through Congress. In June 1981, Bertha Oliva was three months pregnant and had only been married for four months when she witnessed the kidnapping of her husband by the country’s death squad. “I was there when they took him away from me,” she said, adding, “I am a witness to the brutality. I am a survivor of that moment.”

Palestinian Activist Tied Up, Beaten, And Arrested By Israeli Forces

December 22, 2023 Leila Warah, Mondoweiss. Educate! Israel, Occupied West Bank, Palestine, State Violence, Wars and Militarism

On Monday morning in the occupied West Bank, just over 15 people of all ages, many still in their pajamas, were piled into Laila al Waraa’s living room in Aida refugee camp, Bethlehem. While the little room belonging to the 69-year-old family matriarch was accustomed to large gatherings, this time was different. It was about 5:00 in the morning, and everyone was trying to piece together what had happened hours before when the Israeli military conducted yet another overnight raid on the refugee camp. Around 3:00 a.m., the Israeli army loudly and without warning broke into her house, where she, her 20-year-old granddaughter, and her 42-year-old son had been asleep.

Act Now To Stop The Violence In Masafer Yatta

October 31, 2023 International Solidarity Movement, PalSolidarity.org. Resist! Displacement, Israeli Apartheid, Masafer Yatta, Palestine, State Violence

A group of human rights defenders from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), citizens from the above countries, are currently in villages of Masafer Yatta, South Hebron Hills, in solidarity with communities who are facing immediate threats to their lives and of displacement. Israeli settlers and soldiers have taken advantage of the state of emergency during the current Israeli onslaught in Gaza to escalate their violence and displacement of Palestinians in the southern region of the West Bank. Armed settlers and soldiers have attacked villages of Masafer Yatta daily in recent weeks.

Palestinians Speak The Language Of Violence Israel Taught Them

October 9, 2023 Chris Hedges, Scheer Post. Educate! Israel, Occupation, Palestine, State Violence, Wars and Militarism

The indiscriminate shootings of Israelis by Hamas and other Palestinian resistance organizations, the kidnapping of civilians, the barrage of rockets into Israel, drone attacks on a variety of targets from tanks to automated machine gun nests, are the familiar language of the Israeli occupier. Israel has spoken this blood-soaked language of violence to the Palestinians since Zionist militias seized more than 78 percent of historic Palestine, destroyed some 530 Palestinian villages and cities and killed about 15,000 Palestinians in more than 70 massacres. Some 750,000 Palestinians were ethnically cleansed between 1947 and 1949 to create the state of Israel in 1948.

‘Today Is A Good Day To Die’: Report From New RCMP Raid At Fairy Creek

August 25, 2023 Brandi Morin, The Real News Network. Resist! Canada, Fairy Creek, Forest Defenders, Old Growth Forest, RCMP, State Violence

Not long past the break of dawn, along a remote road deep in the unceded, forested mountains of southern Vancouver Island, the steady blaring of a conch shell sends a warning through the trees. A raid is coming. In the Savage Patch camp, a new front in a years-long struggle over the fate of some of the country’s oldest trees, a small group of forest defenders scurry to pack sleeping bags and douse the fire that kept them warm through the night. Uncle Rico, a Cree land defender, streaks her face with red warpaint. A young, broad-shouldered settler land defender, known as Sandstorm, beats a drum gifted to him by a Native ally.

Traffic Stops Should Not Be Death Sentences

August 6, 2023 Niko Georgiades, Unicorn Riot. Resist! Police, police brutality, State Violence, Traffic Stop

Minneapolis, Minnesota - Around 2 a.m. on July 31, Minnesota State Patrol trooper Ryan Londregan fatally shot Ricky Cobb II, 33, during a traffic stop on Interstate 94 West near 42nd Ave. North. Cobb II is Black and Londregan is white. It’s yet another deadly incident in a long pattern of Minnesota authorities’ violent acts against non-threatening Black males during traffic stops. Instant outcry swept across social media and vigils, press conferences, rallies and protests have been held every day since the killing, starting with a vigil on Monday night at North Mississippi Regional Park near the Mississippi River off 49th Ave. North.

Cop City Aims To Transform Police Into A Paramilitary Force

March 6, 2023 Margaret Flowers, Clearing the FOG. Podcast - Clearing The FOG Cop City, Georgia, Militarization, State Violence

Atlanta, Georgia, with the support of the police force, banks and corporations, is trying to build a paramilitary police base in the Weelaunie Forest on 300 acres that was promised as a recreation space to the majority-black community living nearby. The base will be used to house police from across the nation and internationally to train them in urban warfare. The local community is largely opposed to it. They have been using traditional tactics of education, demonstrations and holding space through an occupation of the forest. This has all been met with state repression - violence, the murder of a 26-year old forest defender, arrests and felony terrorism charges. Kamau Franklin, of Community Movement Builders, speaks about the efforts to stop Cop City and why it represents the next level in the escalation of the militarization of police that will impact all of us. A week of action is currently underway.

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