State Violence

The Problem Of “Peaceful Protesters”

May 28, 2020 It's Going Down. Strategize! Nonviolence, Protest, State Violence, Violence

Across the world and across history, oppressed, marginalized, poor, and working-class people have used a variety of tactics to further their goals and fight back, and this includes things that could be considered violent. Overall, this means that when people refuse their roles within society and instead force the system into a state of crisis, that’s when we can create a situation in which we can forward our own agenda. This often means that people refuse to do the things that allows the system to reproduce itself. In the case of workers, people strike. In the case of renters, they go on rent strike. For the poor, they refuse to be passive: they riot. In the case of all, they defend themselves against the violence of State repression and the police: they fight back.

Racism And The National Soul

May 14, 2020 By Robert C. Koehler, Common Wonder. Educate! Police abuse, Racism, State Violence, Systemic Racism

“Black folks need more than a trial and a verdict. Our problems are deeper, rooted not in the details of a particular case, but in distrust of the system charged with protecting us and punishing those who do us harm. This cynicism is well earned, arising out of repeated disappointments. To begin to heal this distrust we need this country to take responsibility for its devaluation of blackness and its complicity in violence against black bodies.” Obviously, some enormous approach to change is necessary. Can this country grow up — finally? We won’t “end” racism. We won’t end fear, hatred, projection, stupidity or mental illness, but can we not at least begin disinfecting our legal and political structure of racism’s horrific consequences? What would it take to deinstitutionalize racism?

While Pandemic Destroys So Many Lives, The Surveillance State Celebrates

May 8, 2020 Lee Camp, Consortium News. Educate! COVID-19, Privacy, State Violence, Surviellance

If we don’t fight back against the secretive surveillance state growing steadily around us, your wife/husband may find out you love a Cinnabon more than you love her/him. And that might be just the beginning of it. While many of us remain quarantined — inexorably welded to our home/apartment/RV in an abandoned Walmart parking lot — the surveillance state is actually stretching its legs, brought out for a run by our friendly neighborhood oligarchs like a young golden retriever let off its leash on a nice day. Unfortunately, in this case what it’s retrieving is all of our information, movements, thoughts and desires. Right now violations of American’s privacy rights do not hold many people’s attention. We’re too busy adapting to a new, confusing, and anxiety-filled form of existence.

Israel attacks Palestinians As They Fight COVID-19

April 5, 2020 Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada. Educate! COVID-19, Israel, Palestine, State Violence

As of Tuesday, there were 119 confirmed coronavirus cases among Palestinians, the vast majority of them in the occupied West Bank, though the number of cases is growing in Gaza. According to the UN humanitarian coordination agency OCHA, the relatively low number “may reflect the limited testing capacity.” Israel, whose caseload has surged to more than 5,000, is struggling to contain the outbreak. Even Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, army chief of staff Aviv Kochavi and other senior officers are now in isolation after coming into contact with infected persons. The outbreak in Israel represents a direct threat to Palestinians. Since 23 March, Israeli authorities have been expelling thousands of Palestinian workers from Israel to the occupied West Bank, “after some of them showed fatigue and high temperatures,” according to the human rights group Euro-Med Monitor.

US And OAS Lobby For Nicaraguan ‘Political Prisoners’ Who Murder

March 1, 2020 Ben Norton, The Grayzone. Educate! Nicaragua, OAS, State Violence, US coup

Jinotepe, Nicaragua – “It was wrong to let him out. Because maybe if he were locked up he wouldn’t have killed my niece,” Yadira Acevedo cried out, holding back tears. “What we are asking for is justice,” she continued as she showed me photos of the young woman, Ruth Aburto, on her cracked phone. On her niece’s killer, the message was simple: “He has to pay!” Were it not for the efforts of Nicaragua’s political opposition, or for pressure from the US government, Aburto would be alive today. Tragically, her boyfriend’s name appeared on a database of supposed “political prisoners” compiled by a top US government-backed opposition group.

Chile: TV Broadcast Live When Two Armored Cars Crushed Citizen

December 27, 2019 Staff, Telesurenglish.net Resist! Chile, Latin America, State Violence

During the protests that took place at Dignity Square on Friday, Chile’s Military Police deliberately ran over Oscar Perez, a young citizen who was crushed between two armored vehicles. The scenes of the police attack were broadcast live on local television. In the video, it can be seen that while an armored car closes Oscar's way, the other armored car takes a turn, accelerates towards the citizen, attacks him, and runs him over his back. Stated differently, the police used two armored cars to run a "hammer-and-anvil" move against an unarmed civilian.

Protest As Domestic Terrorism? The Threat To Dissent

December 9, 2019 By Derek Royden, Nationofchange.org Resist! Repression, State Violence

While the 1st Amendment to the United States’ constitution is still the standard by which most of the world is judged in terms of freedom of speech, religion, assembly and petition, it has often provoked controversy in the country itself. In recent years, much of the ink spilled and talking heads engaged in agonized conversation about its protections come at free speech issues from the right, where a loud minority excels at playing the victim. When far-right speakers like Ben Shapiro or Charlie Kirk are invited by conservative groups on college campuses to paid speaking engagements and this provokes protests from students and staff...

Elections Between Witch Hunts, The Coup Plan In Bolivia

November 24, 2019 Marco Teruggi, Orinoco Tribune. Educate! Bolivia, Election, State Violence, US coup

A colleague who had to leave Bolivia writes to me. She is being chased along with her partner who, they told her, they are looking for him to “liquidate him”. Since before Evo Morales was forced to resign, a list of names began to circulate; its application accelerated from that moment. It was Arturo Murillo, de facto government minister, who was responsible for putting it in black and white: he talked about “hunting” three leaders, after chasing parliamentarians accused of “sedition” and “subversion.” Communication minister Roxana Lizárraga pointed to “journalists and pseudo-journalists”, and on Thursday the Telesur TV channel was taken off of Bolivian television stations.

A Story Of Police Violence In France

November 23, 2019 Ross Domoney, Roarmag.org Resist! France, Gilets Jaunes, police brutality, State Violence, Yellow Vests

ROAR is proud to present a powerful new independent documentary that tells the story of three lives affected by police violence in France during the popular uprising of the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests) movement. Mutilations and deaths through so-called “sub-lethal” riot control weapons have become all too common in the modern day Republic. Two dozen people lost the use of an eye from LBD (flashball) rubber bullet launchers, and five people have had their hands blown off by military grade grenades thrown by the police at the protesters.

Bolivia’s De Facto Government Grants Impunity To Police, Armed Forces

November 17, 2019 Telesur. Resist! Bolivia, Police, State Violence, US coup

The de facto government of Bolivia issued a decree Saturday exempting Armed Forces and National Police from criminal responsibility when committing acts of repression against protesters who have taken to the streets to reject the coup d'etat. "The personnel of the Armed Forces, who participate in the operations for the restoration of order and public stability, will be exempt from criminal responsibility when, in compliance with their constitutional functions, they act in legitimate defense or state of necessity," the decree reads. The document also states that security forces may use firearms to suppress protests, as they are allowed to “frame their actions as established in the approved Force Use Manual, being able to make use of all available means that are proportional to the operational risk,” it adds.

Bolivian Senate’s Leader Attacked By Police And Coup Supporters

November 14, 2019 Staff, Telesurenglish.net Resist! Bolivia, Electoral Politics, Latin America, State Violence

The legitimate President of the Senate, Adriana Salvatierra, was violently assaulted by the police as she was trying to enter the Senate on Wednesday in order to comply with the constitutional rule that automatically proclaims the head of the upper chamber the Interim President when the President steps down, after Evo Morales was forced to resign on Sunday. In a press conference that followed the attack, Salvatierra told reporters that she was ready to open the parliament session and assume the presidency of the Plurinational State of Bolivia as mandated by law.

Chile And The Economic And Political Violence Of The State

October 25, 2019 Patricio Zamorano, Coha.org Educate! Chile, Class Struggle, Latin America, Repression, State Violence

The media had to double down through a constant barrage of violent photos and videos arriving through social networks so that especially non-Chileans, who are accustomed to the mythical image of a stable and exemplary country, could internalize and believe the spectacle of fire and blood on their screens. The president of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, realized a feat impossible to imagine after almost 30 years since the return of democracy: provoke street clashes between Chilean youth, who were not raised during the dictatorship, and military troops, while enforcing a curfew, a state of emergency, and the suspension of some constitutional guarantees.

Rio de Janeiro’s Police Killed A Record Number Of People In Three Months

August 23, 2019 Frances Jenner, Latinamericareports.com Educate! Brazil, police brutality, State Violence

Yesterday, on May 6, police snipers from a helicopter fatally shot eight people in a densely populated area of Rio de Janeiro, according to reports from the Brazilian news outlet UOL. The community Facebook page Maré vive posted a photo of what appears to be schoolchildren in the neighborhood of Complexo da Maré running from the attacks. The killings follow a succession of shootings by police across the state. In the first three months of this year, according to official data reviewed by the Associated Press, Rio de Janeiro police killed 434 citizens. This amount is up from 368 in the same period last year.

“Culture Of Violence?” You Betcha, Mr. Trump, But It’s Not The Video Games

August 12, 2019 Mike Ferner, Counterpunch.org Educate! Racism, State Violence, Trump Administration

Give him credit for finally recognizing white supremacy and web sites that promote it as problems. But the other causes he mentioned – video games and mental illness – come straight out of Trumpian illogic. On the subject of video games, which Trump said make it “too easy today for troubled youths to surround themselves with a culture that celebrates violence,” Western Michigan University sociologist, Whitney DeCamp, along with others who have researched the subject, say it’s not likely.

Enemies Of The State: Three Eco-Defenders Killed, Countless Criminalized Each Week

August 1, 2019 Staff, Globalwitness.org Resist! Environment, Land, Repression, State Violence

Calls to protect the planet are growing louder – but around the world, those defending their land and our environment are being silenced. More than three such people were murdered on average every week in 2018, with attacks driven by destructive industries like mining, logging and agribusiness. This year, our annual report on the killings of land and environmental defenders also reveals how countless more people were threatened, arrested or thrown in jail for daring to oppose the governments or companies seeking to profit from their land. These are ordinary people trying to protect their homes and livelihoods, and standing up for the health of our planet.

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