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State Violence

What The OAS Did To Bolivia

September 24, 2020 Mark Weisbrot, Counterpunch. , , ,
Bolivia has descended into a nightmare of political repression and racist state violence since the democratically elected government of Evo Morales was overthrown by the military on November 10. That month was “the second-deadliest month, in terms of civilian deaths committed by state forces, since Bolivia became a democracy nearly 40 years ago,” according to a study by Harvard Law School’s (HLS) International Human Rights Clinic and the University Network for Human Rights (UNHR) released a month ago.

Architects Build Society’s Cage On National Mall In Bold Statement On Racial Strife

September 1, 2020 By John Zangas, DC Media Group. , , , ,
A group of five designers at the internationally known SmithGroup Architecture firm set up a metallic cubic structure on the National Mall to frame the struggle of Black Lives in America. The public display titled “Society’s Cage” is a 14 foot cube pavilion timed for the 57th anniversary of the March On Washington and is made from the hidden components of sky scrapers. It depicts an architect’s visualization of ongoing racial inequality in the United States and asks the question, “What is the value of Black life in America?” The cube is constructed from 484 vertical rusted conduit pipes attached to a large metal plate, supported by four large metal supports on a pavilion, resembling a cage. One in four bars are connected to the floor, representing the rate Blacks will be incarcerated. A four-part, 8 minute, 46 second music composition, the same time length of time of George Floyd’s tragic murder, sets the mood.

An Outside View: Kenosha Is A Microcosm Of The US In 2020

September 1, 2020 Ramin Mazaheri, The Saker. , , ,
The situation in Kenosha is a microcosm of the United States in 2020 – tragedy on top of tragedy on top of tragedy: A Black man wantonly paralysed by cops, his three sons forced to watch, ethnic-based violence deteriorating a community already gutted by anti-patriotic neoliberal economics, shops frantically boarding up their windows after having been shuttered during a pandemic lockdown, a 17-year old shooting and killing two protesters – there is just a complete lack of security everywhere over here.

Report: White Supremacists And Militias Have Infiltrated Police Across The US

August 30, 2020 By Michael German, Brennan Center.     , , , ,
Racial disparities have long pervaded every step of the criminal justice process, from police stops, searches, arrests, shootings, and other uses of force to charging decisions, wrongful convictions, and sentences.  As a result, many have concluded that a structural or institutional bias against people of color, shaped by long-standing racial, economic, and social inequities, infects the criminal justice system. These systemic inequities can also instill implicit biases — unconscious prejudices that favor in-groups and stigmatize out-groups — among individual law enforcement officials, influencing their day-to-day actions while interacting with the public.

33rd Anniversary Of Brian Willson Surviving The US Train Assault 

August 30, 2020 S. Brian Willson, Popular Resistance. , , ,
I am here today in front of the US Embassy in Managua to protest US intervention in Nicaragua and also to publicly deliver a letter in which I and others request a meeting with Ambassador Sullivan to denounce US intervention in Nicaragua. I first came to Nicaragua in 1986 to study Spanish and to learn about Nicaragua’s Revolution. In 1987 I protested US weapons going to Nicaragua by blocking a train, he other two veterans and I took our firm positions between the rail’s two tracks, to wait for our arrests.  I was sitting in a lotus position, the other two were crouched but firmly planted on their feet.  But, as it got closer and closer to our human blockade, it was clear it had no intention of stopping. It struck me causing significant damage. I have never given up my defense of Nicaragua. On July 31, 2020, we learned that the US has launched a new brazen, criminal, and arrogant plan to overthrow Nicaragua’s government. Today, a group of US citizens and Nicaraguans are requesting a meeting with Ambassador Sullivan, to ask him to denounce the RAIN coup plan or any other plan to destabilize the Nicaragua society and government.

Bolivia’s Ongoing Coup

July 28, 2020 Oliver Vargas , Tribune Magazine. , , ,
When the Bolivian government’s electoral authorities nervously announced to the nation that elections were to be suspended for the third time in four months, the fear instilled in many seemed to suddenly melt away. It was replaced by a fury of a country whose working-class districts and rural areas were led to believe that free and fair elections, on September 6th, would provide a peaceful route of the country’s dramatic economic collapse. The hope was that these elections would mark the end of authoritarian rule at the hands of an unelected regime, who stand as proof of how the US rules its ‘backyard’ and the ease with which neoliberalism dispenses with its purported values when facing down those who call for national sovereignty and public control of natural resources.

Border Patrol Violently Assaults Civil Rights And Liberties

July 24, 2020 Andrea Flores and Shaw Drake, ACLU.org. , , ,
In the past week, unidentified federal officers in camouflage fatigues, labeled only “police,” abducted people off the streets of Portland in unmarked vehicles and threatened the “Wall of Moms” standing up for our Constitution. The administration later confirmed the unidentified officers were Border Patrol agents.   This blatant demonstration of unconstitutional authoritarianism is demonstrating to the entire country the cruel capabilities of the U.S. Border Patrol. For communities that have historically borne the brunt of Border Patrol’s abuses — and still do — seeing these agents pose as a “secret federal police” force on the streets of Portland is no surprise. The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency, which includes Border Patrol, has been conducting secret, violent arrests of immigrants for years.    

Justice Department Report Finds Systemic Excessive Use Of Force By Prison Guards

July 24, 2020 Eddie Burkhalter, Alabama Political Reporter. , , ,
The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday released a report that details why the federal government believes systemic use of excessive force within Alabama’s prisons for men violates the Eighth Amendment.  The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices for the Northern, Middle and Southern Districts of Alabama found systemic problems of unreported or underreported excessive use of force incidents, a failure to properly investigate them and attempts by correctional officers and their supervisors to cover them up. 

Bolivia At The Gates Of An Electoral And Political-Military Coup D’état

July 21, 2020 Katu Arkonada, Resumen English. , , ,
Once the coup d’état was consummated in November, a series of devices were put in place in Bolivia aimed at legitimizing a coup president who came to power in an unconstitutional manner and anointed by the military, who were, together with the police, not the architects but the legitimizers of the coup. A coup d’état that could have been consummated by a bad decision of the direction of the process of change, which made the third person in the chain of succession, the President of the Senate, Adriana Salvatierra (MAS-IPSP), resign once Evo and Alvaro were out of the country and on their way to Mexico, leaving a power vacuum not foreseen by the Political Constitution of the State.

Mapping The State’s Strategy Of Repression Against The Rebellion

June 23, 2020 It's Going Down. , , ,
While the recent rebellion against the police and white supremacy has been historical, it has also been coupled by an attempt by the State to drown the uprising in a sea of tear-gas and rubber bullets. While demonstrations and actions continue, the State is now gearing up for a more long-term strategy of repression, as a vast network of FBI agents, attorneys, and local police comb through hours of footage and social media, looking for targets. Already, over 10,000 people have been arrested across the so-called US and around 75 currently have federal charges; many of which carry extensive prison sentences. Moreover, there are reports of FBI door-knocks and visits to those that have recently been arrested. Often times people are being asked if they are involved in “antifa” while some are even propositioned with becoming informants.

National Guard Troops Refuse Trump’s Race War

June 7, 2020 Courage to Resist. , , ,
Courage to Resist is currently assisting members of the National Guard who resisted Trump’s orders to violently attack people on the streets of Washington DC peacefully and lawfully protesting racial injustice. Now that Trump is threatening to use the 1807 Insurrection Act to send active-duty troops in cities across the US, it’s time for every member of the military to search their conscience. We want to make sure we’re there to support the brave men and women who continue to refuse these illegal orders. One Guardsmen who is resisting Trump’s orders originally hoped to join medical missions assisting in natural disasters. Addressing the current situation he says, “I can’t do it. Even looking at my uniform is making me feel sick that I’m associated with this...

Black Lives Extinguished, Black Ancestors’ Bodies Desecrated

June 7, 2020 Marsha Coleman Adebayo, Black Agenda Report. , , ,
This week, the progressive community is deeply traumatized over the slaughter of innocent Black people and the determination of ruling elites in politics, media and civil societies to patch up a deprived, debased and white supremacist system. One prime example is Minneapolis officials charging Officer Derek Chauvin with 3rd degree murder and manslaughter.  Is this charge a revisiting of the idea that Africans are 3/5th human?  White supremacy fault lines have intentionally deepened and the murder and incarceration of young, primarily black men, is the norm -- in fact, it is expected. Black leadership, usually channeled through corporate sponsorship called the Democratic Party, has completely failed. 

Washington State Patrol Instructed Officers To Assault Protesters

June 5, 2020 Michael Stone, Patheos. , , ,
In an alarming report the Washington State Patrol (WSP) has issued an apology after a command officer was caught on video telling fellow officers to assault protesters. The officer said:  Don’t kill them, but hit them hard. Seattle Times reports: The Washington State Patrol has apologized after video surfaced of an officer telling his team, “Don’t kill them, but hit them hard,” while preparing to clear protesters from the streets in Seattle’s Capitol Hill on Tuesday evening. Newsweek reports: A Washington State Patrol officer was recorded telling his officers to hit protestors hard ahead of a night on patrol in the Seattle area Tuesday. The officer, who has not been identified, was filmed speaking to others in the patrol group, telling them, “Don’t kill them, but hit them hard.” The video was later shared to social media. The video, taken shortly before 7:45 p.m. Tuesday by Krystal Marx, executive director of Seattle Pride, and a Burien City Council member and deputy mayor, is alarming.

Lessons From Palestine: People Of Color Need A Sustained Resistance Movement

June 5, 2020 Miko Peled, Mintpress News. , , ,
Will Smith was quoted saying that racism isn’t getting worse, it’s getting filmed, and indeed, it is being filmed a lot lately. No sooner did we begin to recover from one victim of racist violence, the next victim is slain. Just as we began to wrap our heads around the murder of Breonna Taylor, we saw the lynching-murder of Ahmaud Arbery, and then came the murder of George Floyd. It’s interesting that the murders of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd took place in broad daylight, in plain view, and were caught on camera, meaning that the perpetrators felt they could act with impunity. It is also clear that it was the public outcry and the use of social media platforms in the wake of these murders that drove the authorities to act. Without being filmed and without demands for justice, the perpetrators would probably not have been held accountable.

As Attacks On Protesters and Journalists Increase, Coverage Of Communities And Police Need To Change

June 3, 2020 Timothy Karr, Free Press. , , ,
The weekend saw escalating police violence against protesters and reporters at nationwide demonstrations against the police killing of George Floyd and systemic racial injustices. There has been an unprecedented number of attacks against journalists at many of these protests as law-enforcement officers have specifically targeted those engaged in First-Amendment protected newsgathering and reporting. This mirrors the ways police are targeting those engaged in First-Amendment protected protest. President Trump has egged on the police crackdown in a series of recent tweets, including one that labels news outlets covering the protests as the “Enemy of the People.” Reporters and researchers at the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker are investigating more than 100 separate incidents in which officers attacked reporters, permanently blinding a photojournalist in one eye and causing other grave injuries.
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