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State Violence

An Uprising Was Inevitable

June 3, 2020 By Zenobia Jeffries Warfield, Nation of Change. , , ,
There’s no greater frustration than working every day to build and inspire others to build a more just, compassionate world, only to be so brutally reminded of how far away that world is, as we are bombarded by videos of an atrocity such as the police killing of Minneapolis resident George Floyd. Witnessing someone being killed is terrorizing. I am experiencing episodes of terror after seeing the life leave Floyd’s handcuffed body under the knee of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, while two officers held down Floyd, and another stood idly by. That image will stay with me for a long time, just as Eric Garner’s has, just as Philando Castile’s has, and Terence Crutcher’s, and 12-year-old Tamir Rice’s.

Pentagon Ready To Send Troops To Minneapolis If State Asks

June 3, 2020 James LaPorta and Robert Burns,  Associated Press. , , ,
The Pentagon said Saturday it was ready to provide military help to authorities scrambling to contain unrest in Minneapolis, where George Floyd’s death has sparked widespread protests, but Gov. Tim Walz has not requested federal troops. Jonathan Rath Hoffman, the chief Pentagon spokesman, said several military units have been placed on higher alert “as a prudent planning measure” in case Walz asks for help. The Associated Press first reported on the potential deployments and, citing sources with direct knowledge of the orders, named four locations from which soldiers would be drawn. Hoffman did not identify the units, but other officials said they are mainly military police. Hoffman said these are units normally on 48-hour recall to support state authorities in the event of crises like natural disasters. They are now on four-hour alert, Hoffman said.

13 Percent of Environmental Activists Are Killed Worldwide

June 3, 2020 Telesur English. , ,
The Autonomous University of Barcelona's Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA-UAB) published a study that shows that 13 percent of environmental activists are killed and another 18 percent are victims of physical violence worldwide. Research reveals that citizen movements halt ecological degradation by up to 27 percent of environmental conflicts, despite the high rate of criminalization, violence, and murders, especially in conflicts related to mining. The Environmental Justice (ENVjustice) scientists analyzed 2,743 cases of environmental conflicts from around the world recorded in the Global Atlas of Environmental Justice (EJAtlas), an interactive map that identifies and locates existing ecological conflicts.

George Floyd Protests: Police Escalating Violence Across The US

June 1, 2020 By Alan Macleod, Mintpress News. , , ,
While some in media have condemned the protests as violent “looters” imposing “tyranny” upon the country, much of the violence is being deliberately instigated and propagated by an out of control police force that appears to have gone berserk over the widespread public challenge to their authority and their impunity to act as they wish. Six days after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd, asphyxiating him by keeping his knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes, America is still burning with outrage. Violent clashes have broken out across the nation as the killing has proven to be a catalyst for protests against a racist justice system.

‘Justice For Iyad, Justice For George’

May 31, 2020 By Oren Ziv, +972 Magazine. , , ,
Hundreds of Israelis and Palestinians demonstrated Saturday evening in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv against the killing of Iyad Hallak, a Palestinian man with autism who was shot dead by police officers in Jerusalem’s Old City. Hallak, 32, was on his way to the special education school he attended and worked at near Lion’s Gate when Border Police officers began pursuing him, claiming he had been holding a weapon. Hallak reportedly fled and hid behind a nearby dumpster, where the police officers shot and killed him. No weapon was found at the scene of his death. Both officers were detained in the wake of the incident; one was released under restrictive conditions, while the other is under house arrest. In Tel Aviv, over 200 people protested outside the city’s police headquarters while over 150 left-wing activists, including a dozen Palestinians, marched on Jerusalem’s King George Street.

The Blue Plague And Black Death

May 31, 2020 Glen Ford, Black Agenda Report. , , ,
The pathogen that kills Black people at two and a half times the rate of whites took the life of 46 year-old George Floyd, this week in Minneapolis. Floyd’s last words were, “I can’t breathe,” much like the desperate utterances of plague victim Eric Garner, struck down in 2014 in New York City.  Unlike the still raging Covid-19 virus, which is virulent among Blacks of both sexes, the Blue Plague is especially lethal to Black males of all ages. According to researchers at Rutgers University and the University of Michigan, 1 in every 1,000 black boys and me  will be fatally stricken by the Blue Plague at some point in their lifetimes – at ages ranging from 12 year-old Tamir Rice, snuffed out in Cleveland in 2014, to 50 year-old Walter Scott, who fell victim to the pestilence in North Charleston, South Carolina in 2015.

Veterans For Peace Calls On The Minnesota National Guard To Stand Down

May 31, 2020 Veterans for Peace. , , ,
Veterans For Peace calls for the immediate withdrawal of the Minnesota National Guard. We are appalled to see military weapons, vehicles and equipment once again deployed in U.S. cities to control community members who are reacting to a long history of state-sanctioned violence. When an already embattled community is subjected to militarized intimidation, by design, their environment becomes a war zone. We call on all those who are serving with the National Guard to refuse to serve violent and racist interests. Veterans For Peace denounces the ongoing instances of police violence against Black bodies and people of color, this time resulting in the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota. We also stand in opposition to the State of Minnesota's and the Minneapolis police force's militarized response to the right to protest.

The US Military Is Monitoring Protests In 7 States

May 31, 2020 Ken Klippenstein, The Nation. , , ,
In addition to Minnesota, where a Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd, the military is tracking uprisings in New York, Ohio, Colorado, Arizona, Tennessee, and Kentucky, according to a Defense Department situation report. Notably, only Minnesota has requested National Guard support. The documents were originally stored on an unclassified server but were subsequently “elevated” to a classified system. While the documents reveal significant National Guard force capabilities in each of the seven states, one Minnesota Guard member expressed concerns about the troops’ lack of training in responding to civil unrest. One document pertaining to the Minnesota National Guard, marked “For Official Use Only” (FOUO), describes one operation’s purpose: “Augment MN State Patrol Civil Disturbance Operations with a show of force.”

The Problem Of “Peaceful Protesters”

May 28, 2020 It's Going Down. , , ,
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. , , ,
“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. , , ,
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. , , ,
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. , , ,
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 , ,
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 ,
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...
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