Violence

Forced Displacements In Colombia Increase By Over 169% During 2021

December 29, 2021 Tanya Wadhwa, People's Dispatch. Educate! Colombia, Displacement, Human Rights, Violence

The Consultancy for Human Rights and Displacement (CODHES), on December 22, warned of an alarming increase in massive and multiple forced displacement events in Colombia during 2021. The CODHES reported that between January and November, 2021, 82,846 people were forcibly displaced from their homes and territories, a figure that represents an increase of 169.3% as compared to the same period in 2020. The CODHES further reported that a total number of 167 displacement events were recorded in these eleven months, which represents an increase of 65.3% in relation to the same period in 2020. CODHES also reported that this year’s increase in displacement incidents had been marked by an increase in displacement of Afro-descendant and Indigenous communities.

How To Counter The Growing Threat Of Agent Provocateurs

December 8, 2021 George Lakey, Waging Nonviolence. Strategize! Agent-Provocateurs, Protests, Violence

As awareness of racial injustice, climate crises and sexist violence grow in multiple countries, activists are responding in greater and greater numbers. We have this in common with earlier periods in history that birthed large social movements: activists “upping the ante,” increasing the power of their action. One-off protests become sustained campaigns, short actions like parades become long marches, a union’s token stay-at-home becomes a prolonged strike, law-abiding demonstrators turn to civil disobedience. It’s easy, however, to overlook a key activist vulnerability that accompanies these moments of increased passion and determination — namely, the increased chance that our opponents will try to lure us into violence by secretly using “agent provocateurs.” Such individuals are planted among us to masquerade as activists, but are actually paid to coax us into using violence. This is a good time to be wary of that possibility.

The Right-Wing Story About Human Nature Is False

December 2, 2021 Nathan J. Robinson, Current Affairs. Educate! Cooperation, Humanity, Society, Violence

One common view of human beings is that we are “by nature” selfish, violent, cruel, and untrustworthy, and that, to the extent we manage to restrain these base instincts, it is because we are taught to be generous, and punished if we go around hurting others. Sometimes this view is accompanied by a story about human development: once upon a time, life was nasty, brutish, and short, a war of all against all. Prehistoric human beings were violent barbarians. Fortunately, civilization has gradually brought out the better angels of our nature. Free markets can actually direct humans’ natural selfishness toward socially beneficial ends, and laws backed by the threat of violence are able to ensure that a semblance of order is maintained.

Death Squads Threaten Human Rights Defender Darnelly Rodriguez

November 25, 2021 James Patrick Jordan, Alliance For Global Justice. Resist! Assassination, Colombia, Human Rights Defenders, Violence

Darnelly Rodriguez is the Centro Pazífico coordinator and the coordinator for the Francisco Isaías Cifuentes Human Rights Network (REDDHFIC)’s Valle Del Cauca chapter. On November 19 2021, she received the second of two death threats in two weeks. This threat came from the AGC paramilitary group. She was listed along with several other social movement and union leaders in a pamphlet that was left under the door of Cali’s largest labor federation.

The Criminal ‘Justice’ System Protects Kyle Rittenhouse

November 16, 2021 Ezra Brain, Left Voice. Educate! Kyle Rittenhouse, Legal System, Rebellion2020, Violence

On August 25, 2021, Kyle Rittenhouse drove across state lines with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and killed two people. He then, carrying the murder weapon, walked past a police line as witnesses screamed that he was getting away, got back in his car, and drove home. All in a day’s work for the young Rittenhouse, a vocal member of the Blue Lives Matter “movement” who came to Kenosha, Wisconsin (a town and a state that he didn’t live in) with the express intention of using violence against Black Lives Matter protesters — framed, of course, as a “defense” of property. Rittenhouse’s trial began on November 1 and it has quickly become clear that the worst assumptions of many activists are correct: the fix is in and the criminal “justice” system is clearly working to protect Rittenhouse.

Why Is The US Fueling The November 15 Cuba Protests?

November 15, 2021 Rosa Elizalde, Counterpunch. Educate! Cuba, Propaganda, US Imperialism, Violence

On September 20, letters began to arrive at eight Cuban municipal or provincial government headquarters announcing the holding of “peaceful” marches on November 15 by a group called Archipiélago. The motivation for these marches was a call for change. The letter was not a formal request to occupy the busiest streets of some cities in Cuba, but rather a notification by the group that they would do so and they also demanded that the authorities provide them with security for these marches. By virtue of Cuban laws and obsessive American support for the marches, the Cuban government denied permission for holding the protests. Almost two months have passed since these letters were sent, but there are few indications that the march will take place in Cuba.

WWF Accused Of Deceit, Cover-Ups And Dishonesty

October 28, 2021 Survival International. Educate! Conservation, Human Rights, Violence, WWF

An unprecedented hearing by the US House Natural Resources Committee has seen WWF’s reputation shredded by Representatives from both parties, and independent experts, and a denunciation of the “fortress conservation” model that leads to human rights atrocities. The organization was subjected to unprecedented attack for its involvement in human rights abuses, and refusal to take responsibility for them. Survival International’s Fiore Longo called it “the conservation industry’s equivalent of the Abu Ghraib scandal – a moment from which it will never recover.” The hearing was prompted by exposés by Buzzfeed News and many other investigations, including testimonies from Indigenous people collected by Survival International over many years, that laid bare WWF’s involvement in human rights abuses, particularly in Africa and Asia.

Controversy Mounts Over The Use Of Gunshot Detection Sensors

August 28, 2021 Jim Daley, The Trace. Resist! Chicago, Police abuse, Technology, Violence

On a humid afternoon in late August, dozens of activists gathered at an intersection in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood to protest the Police Department’s use of ShotSpotter, the gunshot detection system. Days before, news broke that the city had quietly extended its multimillion-dollar contract with the company, outraging residents and some councilmembers. Alyx Goodwin, one of the event’s organizers, pointed to a light pole bristling with what looked like microphones. They were acoustic sensors used by ShotSpotter to pick up the sound of gunfire and alert police. “Once you see one, you start to notice them more,” said Goodwin, who works as a deputy campaign director for the Action Center on Race and the Economy, an advocacy group.

Protest Rally To Commemorate 2018 Dahyan School Bus Massacre

August 10, 2021 Emad Almarshahi, Hod Hod News. Resist! United Nations, Violence, Wars and Militarism, Yemen

Yemeni and other Arab and international community organisations have on Tuesday held a protest rally denouncing the crimes committed by the Saudi-led coalition against the Yemeni people. The rally, which was held in in front of the United Nations building in New York City, came to mark the anniversary of the Dahyan student bus massacre that was committed by the US-backed Saudi aggression’s airstrikes in 2018, killing 40 children in Saada province. The participants called the rally of “For the grievances of the children of Yemen”, and said they considered the Dahyan student bus crime in Saada and other massacres by the aggression coalition in various Yemeni province as contradicting international humanitarian norms, charters and laws that criminalise targeting civilians.

Minnesota’s First MMIW Office To Open

July 18, 2021 Kalle Benallie, Indian Country Today . Create! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Indigenous Rights, MMIWG2S, Violence

As a survivor, child witness and mom of an 8-year-old daughter, the work of missing and murdered Indigenous women is extremely personal to Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan. “[I] don’t want her to experience the same things I’ve experienced, as well as every literally Native woman I know has experienced violence. I’m hell-bent on changing the current conditions so that she and [other] Native children will not have to experience that in their lifetime,” Flanagan told Indian Country Today. On July 1, as part of Minnesota’s COVID-19 Recovery Budget, a Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives office was confirmed to be established. The budget is $1 million biennium and will hire four full-time staff.

Lawmakers Are ‘Horrified’ And Calling For Action On Prison Abuse

July 4, 2021 Shannon Heffernan, WBEZ. Educate! Accountability, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Prisoner rights, Violence

Lawmakers and advocates are calling for outside oversight of the Illinois Department of Corrections after a WBEZ investigation revealed a pattern of alleged beatings by guards in an area of Western Illinois Correctional Center where there was no video camera coverage. The investigation documented nine people who separately accused a group of officers of beating them in the same area. Prison records show staff were aware of a blind spot that lacked cameras and of repeated accusations of violence, but the violence persisted until guards allegedly beat a prisoner named Larry Earvin to death in that same location. Federal prosecutors have charged three guards for the beating. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has declined multiple requests to comment on WBEZ’s investigation or the repeated allegations of abuse. Pritzker’s silence continues a pattern in which his director of prisons has refused to do an interview about staff abuse and accountability despite requests over 2 1/2 years.

Creating A Safe Haven for Black Trans Youth In Baltimore

June 21, 2021 Lawrence Burney, Okay Player. Create! Baltimore, Transgender, Violence, Youth

In late May, a crowd descended on Central Baltimore’s 6,000 square foot Ynot Lot for a day of free food and entertainment. Local artists like the contagiously candid Lor Choc, the sharp-rapping Fmb Foreign, and decorated Baltimore Club DJ Scottie B took the lot’s stage. Onlookers danced in their respective circles, many holding cloudy, ice cold bottles of water to contend with the sweltering sun. Others occupied shady spots to permanently plop down in. Just outside the Ynot were mobile stations providing confidential STI/HIV testing, as well as COVID-19 vaccines from pharmaceutical companies Moderna and Pfizer. By all accounts, the star that day wasn’t the artists onstage, but the person who facilitated the event: Iya Dammons, founder of Baltimore Safe Haven (BSH), whose leadership was clear from the outset.

Driver Plows Into Protesters In Uptown Minneapolis

June 15, 2021 Matt Sepic, Tim Nelson, and Jon Collins , MPR News. Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Minneapolis, Violence

One person was killed and three injured Sunday night after the driver of an SUV drove into a crowd of protesters in the Uptown area of Minneapolis, near the site where Winston Smith was shot by sheriff's deputies earlier this month. A witness said the eastbound SUV was moving at a high rate of speed as it approached just before midnight, and that the driver appeared to accelerate as they got closer to demonstrators who had blocked off Lake Street near Girard Avenue. The driver struck a vehicle parked across one of the traffic lanes on Lake Street, apparently positioned to protect the crowd. That second vehicle then hit people.

Resisting The Everyday Violence Of Colonial Extractivism

May 25, 2021 Michael Wilson Becerril, ROAR Magazine. Strategize! colonization, Environment, Extraction, Violence

In the face of environmental collapse, deepening inequalities and capitalism in crisis, resisting violence requires challenging its colonial constructions.

‘Today We Are Nazis,’ Says Member Of Israeli Jewish Extremist Group

May 20, 2021 Ali Abunimah and Tamara Nassar, The Electronic Intifada. Educate! Israel, Nazism, Palestine, Violence

Voice messages, texts and other communications indicate they coordinated attacks in cities where Palestinians live in close proximity to Jews – including Haifa, Bat Yam and Tiberias in the north, and Ramla and Lydd – Lod in Hebrew – in the center, to Beersheba in southern Israel. Settlers from Jewish-only colonies in the occupied West Bank also joined the coordinated attacks, with the apparent knowledge and collusion of Israeli officials. They communicated via WhatsApp and Telegram, as well as Facebook groups. In many cases, extremist organizers said they relied on either the active or passive support of Israeli authorities. Israeli research organizations Fake Reporter and HaBloc intercepted messages from some of those groups and reported what they found to Israeli police as a “ticking time-bomb.”

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