Texas

Texas Cops Sexually Assault 21-Year-Old Charnesia Corley

August 12, 2015 Mark Frauenfelder, www.boingboing.net Resist! Civil Rights, Law, police brutality, Racial Justice, Sexual Abuse, Texas

By Mark Frauenfelder in Boing Boing - A Houston deputy who pulled over Charnesia Corley, a 21-year-old black woman on her way to the store to pick up medicine for her sick mother, thought he smelled weed in Corley's car. He searched the car and couldn't find any. He called for a female officer to come to the gas station where Corley was being held so she could have her vagina searched. They arrested Corley because she objected to having her vagina examined in a gas station parking lot. From KRTK: "She tells me to pull my pants down. I said, 'Ma'am, I don't have any underwear on.' She says, 'Well, that doesn't matter. Pull your pants down,'" Corley said. She admits hesitating. Deputies say she resisted. "I bend over and she proceeds to try to force her hand inside of me. I tell her, 'Ma'am, No. You cannot do this,'" Corley told us candidly.

Activist Sandra Bland Dies After Minor Traffic Stop

July 18, 2015 Shaun King, www.dailykos.com Resist! #BlackLivesMatter, #SayHerName, Black Lives Matter (BLM), police brutality, Sandra Bland, Texas

By Shaun King in Daily Kos - Sandra Bland died in police custody this past Monday. Visiting Texas from Chicago to interview for a college job at her alma mater of Prairie View A&M, she was pulled over for a routine traffic violation (failure to use her turn signal). Everything from that point forward screams racism and foul play, including her death in the Waller County jail Monday. The first red flag is that Bland was officially arrested on Friday for assaulting a police officer. What we see from a bystander video is her telling the officers she is in pain and cannot hear after her head was slammed on the ground by the male arresting officer. The video is below. We have now learned that Waller County Sheriff Glenn Smith, who made the first public comments about Bland's in-custody death, was suspended for documented cases of racism when he was chief of police in Hempstead, Texas, in 2007.

Texans’ ‘Operation Counter Jade Helm’ Keeps Eye On Federal Troops

July 14, 2015 Dylan Baddour, www.chron.com Resist! Police the Police, Texas, Wars and Militarism

By Dylan Baddour in Houston Chrnoicle - When the troops land in Texas for Operation Jade Helm next week, someone will be waiting for them. Hundreds of people have organized a "Counter Jade Helm" surveillance operation across the Southwestern states and in an effort to keep an eye on the contentious military drill that's sparked many suspicious of Uncle Sam's intentions. Eric Johnston, a 51-year-old retired firefighter and sheriff's deputy who lives in Kerrville, is a surveillance team leader in Texas. He'll coordinate three groups of volunteers, about 20 folks in total, who hope to monitor the SEALs, Green Berets and Air Force Special Ops in Bastrop, Big Spring and Junction when Jade Helm kicks off on July 15.

Reprieve In Texas, Assault On Reproductive Rights Continues

July 1, 2015 John Queally, www.commondreams.org Resist! Abortion, Law, SCOTUS, Texas, Womyn's Rights

By John Queally in Common Dreams - Advocates for reproductive rights welcomed the ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday which put a block on a Texas law that would have shuttered nearly every abortion clinic in the state. In a 5-4 decision (pdf), the ruling came in the form of a stay that will delay enforcement of the law—originally passed in the Texas legislature as H.B. 2 and signed into law in 2013—until a full challenge is taken up by the court. The stay, in effect, suspends a ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit earlier this month which upheld specific provisions of the law that would have likely resulted in the closure of all but nine abortion clinics in the state.

Denton, TX Residents Gather For Frack Free Fridays

June 28, 2015 Staff, www.bprisingtide.org Resist! Denton, Fracking, Texas

By Staff of Blackland Prairie Rising Tide. Frack Free Fridays got off to a great start this morning with coverage on WFAA’s ‘Good Morning Texas.‘ One of the 10 Denton residents arrested attempting to enforce our ban had this to say: “The message that I would say is it’s not only about Denton. It’s about local control and how it was robbed from us by the Texas legislature. So look out, your community is next.” – Elida Tamez If you’re interested in joining us for future Frack Free Friday events, sign up here. Meanwhile, here’s some photos from today’s event. Once again residents from the neighborhood directly across the street joined us. Residents attempted to slow down trucks entering the frack site, but no arrests were made today. Last week, local Denton mother Meredith Buie was arrested for peacefully sitting down in front of a fracking truck attempting to enter a Vantage Energy well site located less than 200 feet from nearby houses and businesses.

Police Criminals & The Brutalization Of Black Girls

June 16, 2015 Sikivu Hutchinson, www.thefeministwire.com Educate! Black Women, Patriarchy, police brutality, Racial Justice, Texas

By Sikivu Hutchinson in The Feminist Wire - The videotaped assault and sexual harassment of 14 year-old Dajerria Becton by a rampaging white police officer after a pool party in McKinney, Texas makes it clear that it continues to be open season on black women and girls. In the video officer Eric Casebolt grabs, straddles and violently restrains Becton while she is lying face down on the ground in a bikini. Ignoring her cries of pain and anxiety, he sadistically sits on her back while handcuffing her. Casebolt then pulls a gun on a few young people who attempt to intervene. Some of the good white citizens of McKinney have reportedly praised Casebolt’s thuggery. The assault of Becton is an enraging reminder of the particular brand of sexual terrorism black women routinely experienced in the Jim Crow South at the hands of white law enforcement and ordinary white citizens.

Clinics To Close As Court Upholds Texas Abortion Restrictions

June 11, 2015 Samantha Lachman, www.huffingtonpost.com Educate! Abortion, Court, Law, Texas, War on women

By Samantha Lachman in The Huffington Post - A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld some of the most onerous parts of a Texas abortion law, which is likely to cause most of the state's abortion clinics to close. The ruling, released Tuesday, allowed provisions requiring clinics to meet hospital-level operating standards and requiring providers to have admitting privileges at local hospitals to go into effect. It did exempt the last open clinic in the state's Rio Grande Valley from the provisions, which were passed by the Republican-controlled state legislature and signed by former Gov. Rick Perry (R) two years ago. In court, attorneys opposing the law said it could close all but eight clinics in Texas.

Rage Is Our Rightful Response to Anti-Black Racism

June 9, 2015 Kirsten West Savali, www.theroot.com Resist! Black Girls, Black Women, police brutality, Racial Justice, Texas

By Kirsten West Savali in The Root - Yes, it was painful to watch the boys restrained in handcuffs. One boy even appeared to be bleeding from his mouth, though whatever happened to cause that injury happened off camera. Still, it is the young girl, forced by her hair to the ground as she screamed for her mother, that chilled me the most. It’s the pleasure the white officer seemed to take from exerting power over her black body—as adult men, both black and white, stood by and did nothing—that enraged me. It is the thought of Daniel Holtzclaw, the former Oklahoma City police officer accused of sexually assaulting eight black women while on duty—and what the officer in this case possibly does to young black women when the cameras aren’t rolling—that made me sick to my stomach.

Landowners Form A Pipeline Rebellion In The Deep South

June 4, 2015 Jenny Jarvie, www.latimes.com Resist! Environment, Land Rights, Oil & Gas, Oil Pipeline, Texas

By Jenny Jarvie in LA Times - When the letter arrived from a Texas pipeline company asking permission to enter his land, Alan Zipperer refused to allow surveyors onto his property. But they came anyway, he said, traipsing through his corn fields and pine forests and sticking wooden stakes in the low-country land his family has owned since the 1700s. "I don't want a private company to build a gasoline pipeline in my front yard — or anywhere on my property," he said. Zipperer, 60, is one of many Southern landowners challenging the nation's largest energy infrastructure company, Kinder Morgan, as it plans to run a petroleum pipeline through 360 miles of bottom land, river forests and freshwater coastal wetlands across South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.

Austin While Black Documents Hidden Black Culture

May 29, 2015 Joneka Percentie, www.theculture.forharriet.com Educate! Austin, Black People, Racial Justice, Texas

For Harriet: What inspired you to start Austin While Black? Doyin: There was a lot of talk about gentrification in Austin late 2013 or 2014. There were a lot of articles about it and we were like, "Yeah there are not a lot of Black people in the city." We wanted to approach it from a journalistic video standpoint of "What is another part of the story?" and "Who are the Black people who are still here in Austin?" FH: Gentrification is so real. My family moved here to Charlotte seven years ago and I remember the area we lived in was not that nice at all, and now they have all of these fancy restaurants and ritzy things opening up. It's really weird. D: Is there a vegan restaurant nearby? That's another sign you've been gentrified. [laughs]

Never Give Up!: Fracking Battle Continues In Denton, TX

May 29, 2015 Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe, www.dentonrc.com Resist! Fracking, Oil & Gas, Resistance, Texas

The fight over fracking in Texas cities is continuing. Anti-fracking activists are searching for a legal strategy to challenge the constitutionality of a new state law that appears to overturn the frack ban that Denton voters passed last November. On a second front, protesters picketed a Denton well site where hydraulic fracturing has resumed. And others are planning an anti-fracking rally on the City Hall lawn in the near future. About a dozen protesters blocked the gate at a Denton natural gas well site for a short time Wednesday morning, stepping aside only after Denton police asked them to do so. Many of the people who blocked the Vantage Energy well site on Denton’s west side had volunteered in the citizens campaign to ban fracking in the city, said Tara Linn Hunter.

Texas Fears Fracking Democracy Bans Local Ordinances

May 20, 2015 Earthworks | Denton Drilling Awareness Group | Earthjustice | Natural Resources Defense Council, www.earthworksaction.org Resist! Community, Law, Oil & Gas, Texas

Today Texas Governor Abbott signed HB 40 into law. Written by former ExxonMobil lawyer Shannon Ratliff, the statute forces every Texas municipality wanting common sense limits on oil and gas development to demonstrate its rules are “commercially reasonable”. It effectively overturns a Denton ballot initiative banning fracking that passed last November. “HB 40 was written by the oil and gas industry, for the oil and gas industry, to prevent voters from holding the oil and gas industry accountable for its impacts,” said Earthworks’ Texas organizer Sharon Wilson. Wilson, who played a key role in the Denton ballot initiative, continued, “It was the oil and gas industry’s contempt for impacted residents that pushed Denton voters to ban fracking in the first place. And now the oil and gas industry, through state lawmakers, has doubled down by showing every city in Texas that same contempt.”

Mothers Stage Hunger Strike At Immigrant Detention Center

April 6, 2015 Nadia Prupis, www.commondreams.org Resist! Human Rights, Immigration, Mass Incarceration, Texas

About 40 women being held at the privately-run Karnes Family Detention Center in southern Texas launched a hunger strike this week to demand their release and the release of their families, vowing on Tuesday not to eat, work, or use the services at the facility until they are freed. Nearly 80 women being held at the center, many of whom are said to be asylum seekers from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala, signed aletter stating that they have all been refused bond despite having established a credible fear of violence if they are sent back to Central America—a key factor in the U.S. government's process for screening detained immigrants to allow them amnesty.

Don’t Frack With Denton: Community’s Fight To Defend Home Rule

April 2, 2015 Cole Mellino, www.ecowatch.com Resist! Environment, Fracking, Oil & Gas, Texas

The town is the first municipality in Texas to ban fracking and has consequently become ground zero for the fracking debate. Yesterday, Denton Mayor Chris Watts and City Attorney Anita Burgess traveled to Austin to testify at a hearing on two bills that have emerged in response to Denton’s fracking ban, according to Frack Free Denton. In solidarity with grassroots organizers from the Frack Free Denton movement and other residents from small Texas towns who also testified in Austin, documentary filmmaker and Denton resident Garrett Graham released a new trailer for his forthcoming film. With the help of Frack Free Denton, Graham made a film that “chronicles Denton’s uphill battle against oil and gas interest deep in the heart of the gas patch,” said Frack Free Denton.

Texas Prison Riot: 2,800 Inmates Moved From ‘Uninhabitable’ Facility

February 23, 2015 RT, www.rt.com Resist! Immigration, Law, Mass Incarceration, Prison, Privatization, Texas

After 2,000 inmates, mostly immigrants, took over a Texas prison in a riot over poor medical services, federal authorities have decided to relocate all the detainees from the now “uninhabitable” correctional facility. The riot at the Willacy County Correctional Center erupted on Friday afternoon, when prisoners refused to eat breakfast or report for work to protest medical services at the facility. The prison was practically run over by the inmates, who continue to hold down the fort. It still remains unclear what medical service issues had upset the inmates. Only around 800 to 900 inmates have refused to riot in a facility that holds some 2,900 people, most of whom are immigrants with criminal record.

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