By Fiona Morgan. Published 2-26-2017 by Free Press
The FBI’s New FOIA Policy Is a Big Step Backward
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Tag Archives: BlackLivesMatter
“Minnesota Nice” is not extended to water protectors!
Lake St. bridge between Minneapolis and St. Paul on 1-27-2017. Photo: Screenshot from Fox 9 livestream
Yesterday afternoon, activists gathered on a bridge over the Mississippi River to protest the Trump administration”s executive order concerning the Dakota Access and Keystone XL Pipelines. It took place on Lake Street Bridge, near where Marshall intersects with Lake Street. To those not familiar with our city, this is where Minneapolis and St. Paul meet, over a river that has been polluted by industrial and agricultural runoff to the level that fish consumption advisories are common. The protest was peaceful, with the police shutting down access to the bridge from either direction and redirecting traffic to protect all citizens, including the protestors.
As many of you may know, Occupy World Writes is based in the Twin Cities. When most people think of Minnesota and the people who live there, they usually have two preconceptions about the place. The first is that it resembles the Arctic Circle during the winter (which it occasionally does), and that the people are basically decent, caring human beings. “Minnesota Nice” is one of those catchy phrases that our state tourism departments love, and use to their benefit.
We monitor local actions, on the ground or via social media feeds, where we can also examine different angles and hear perspectives from all sides of an issue. We also monitor the comments to see what kind of reactions the community that’s watching have. We were shocked, saddened and outraged by what we were reading. Some examples:
“Run ’em down!” “Arrest them all!” “Go get a job!” “This is ASSAULT if I can’t drive where I want to!” “It’s all the fault of those BLM people!”
In other words, “WAAH! You’re inconveniencing me! I have to drive a whole two or three miles out of my way! How DARE you!”
“Run ’em down”: Vehicular manslaughter is a crime in Minnesota, as it is in all US states. To cause bodily injury with intent by using a motor vehicle against a pedestrian is also illegal. The protesters were there legally, as proven with the law enforcement officers protecting them.
“Arrest them all!”: In order to be arrested, a person must be breaking the law. These people were protected BY the police, not trying to escape them. Law enforcement understands that 1st Amendment rights and peaceful protests are completely legal. To arrest people for NOT doing anything against the law is an overreach, at best.
“Go get a job!“: Assessing one’s employment status by appearance alone is not a skill – it is a judgement. The activist community around here is the same as it is in most big cities across this country – very diverse. Most are employed; everyone who works, works hard. Some work 2nd or 3rd shift, some work over the weekends and have other days off during the week, and some are retired or full time students between class schedules. When people go to a sporting event, we don’t look at all the spectators and say “Go get a job!” Maybe this what these people CHOOSE to do when not at their jobs.
“This is ASSAULT if I can’t drive where I want to!”: Assault is defined as an intentional act by one person that creates an apprehension in another of an imminent harmful or offensive contact. We have not been able to assess how motorists in cars across the city were “assaulted” by people standing on a bridge.
“It’s all the fault of those BLM people!”: The people we observed in the footage were not African American. They appeared to be a diverse group of white, native, latino and other sects that represent a cross section of the greater metro area. Many of the posters and other supporting demonstration gear was identical to what was seen in Standing Rock and Sacred Stone Camps in North Dakota, where people in the Twin Cities swore their solidarity with the water protectors.
What we observed the most was the total disconnect between what should be an obvious 1st Amendment right being exercised, and the assumption that this was somehow “illegal” and should not be allowed.
It does not seem to have occurred to any of those criticizing this action, that when the Bill of Rights was written, it was done so very methodically, in a certain order, for a reason. You would not need 2nd Amendment rights if you did not have 1st Amendment rights worth defending.
Climate change, racism, and black lives
Of course climate change is about race.
By Roger Hallam. Published 9-27-2016 by openDemocracy
![Black Lives Matter protest against St. Paul police brutality. Photo: Fibonacci Blue [CC BY 2.0,] via Wikimedia Commons](http://occupyworldwrites.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/BLM-protest.jpg)
Black Lives Matter protest against St. Paul police brutality. Photo: Fibonacci Blue [CC BY 2.0,] via Wikimedia Commons
First it is necessary be clear about the science on climate change. Most people including many left activists seem to still subscribe to the notion that climate change is some vague threat that is going to happen at some point in the distant future. As one well regarded young activist friend put it “at least I will be dead by then”. Continue reading
Blue Lives Matter: Police Exceptionalism Leading America Toward Second Civil War
By Claire Bernish. Published 7-23-2016 by The Anti-Media
PORTLAND OREGON – NOV 17: Police in Riot Gear Holding the Line in Downtown Portland Oregon during a Occupy Portland protest on the first anniversary of Occupy Wall Street November 17 2011
United States — Lurched back and forth in the ever-quickening spiral of an American empire circling the drain, we — as a people — have chosen battle lines on nearly every issue from politics to foreign policy, domestic surveillance to policing.
Thrust back into national focus, the last issue — policing in the U.S. — might even surpass in contention the ongoing race to the White House. And it stands to reason, with the world lashing out against failed globalism in its various nefarious incarnations — largely driven by American exceptionalist military presence nearly everywhere on the planet — the empire sees expediency in heading off a possible insurrection. Continue reading
With Arms in Air, Unarmed Black Caregiver Shot by Police
As long as I’ve got my hands up, they’re not going to shoot me, is what I was thinking. Wow, was I wrong.’
By Nika Knight, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 7-21-2016
“All he has is a truck. A toy truck. I’m a behavior therapist at a group home,” Charles Kinsey pleaded with officers, holding his arms in the air and trying to help an autistic patient before he was shot. (Screenshot)
Charles Kinsey, a black man and caregiver at a group home, was shot by police on Monday in North Miami, Florida.
Cell phone video footage released late Wednesday showed that Kinsey was lying on the ground, holding his arms in the air to show he was unarmed, and trying to help a distressed autistic patient in the moments before he was shot in the leg.
“As long as I’ve got my hands up, they’re not going to shoot me, is what I was thinking. Wow, was I wrong,”said Kinsey to local TV station WSVN from a hospital bed on Thursday. Continue reading
Kurdish Emissaries to share details on ISIS outside both National Conventions
Written by Carol Benedict.
Kurds & Americans fighting together in Rojava, Syria. Image via Reece Harding News Agency screen shot.
The war against ISIS in the Middle East rages on with no end date set. The majority of the fighting on the ground that is winning back territory and pushing ISIS back is being done by Kurdish fighters in Syria and Iraq.
Following the Dallas shootings and the murders of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge and Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, a suburb of Minneapolis, the Kurdish women fighters made a public statement of solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.
“To our black sisters and brothers! The people of Kurdistan stand with you! Here are the women who fight ISIS in Rojava (northern Syria) – saluting your honorable struggle for freedom, dignity, and resistance!”
This follows a recent action in Washington DC, staged across the street from the Turkish Embassy on Massachusetts Avenue. Named “A Vigil for King’s Dream in Kurdistan,” the organizers drew the comparisons between the history of the black people in America and that of the Kurds within the borders of Turkey. In the words of the event organizer. Kani Xulam of the American Kurdish Information Network (AKIN). The Vigil enraged the Turkish Embassy for 92 days before the group left the site.
Now, a trip to both National Conventions has been organized by the AKIN to provide information to Americans on the war against ISIS and how the American-Kurdish alliance strengthens both America and the stateless nation of Kurdistan. The media advisory issued by the group includes the following:
Information on how Kurds can help America win the war against ISIS will be available for the press at both:
–The Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, beginning Saturday, July 16, 2016.
–The Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, beginning the following Saturday, July 23, 2016.
Kurdish Americans and their friends will be on hand to provide details on how Kurdish freedom fighters can beat ISIS overseas—before it can bring large scale attacks to America.
“Kurds are fighting ISIS tooth and nail and we want Americans to help us prevail,” said Kani Xulam, the director of American Kurdish Information Network (AKIN), an organizer of the trip.
Banner to look for at both National Conventions to offer solidarity with Kurdish Americans. Image via Facebook.
Xulam continues, “It may be viewed as a Cassandra like observation, but Kurds hold the key to the peace of American cities like Cleveland and Philadelphia.
Helping Kurds is an investment in peace in America.”
We challenge you to find these people at the National Convention of your choice. Their message of Peace is nonpartisan and welcoming.
Sometimes you have to take the extra effort to understand how peace can be attained. The choice is yours, the message is truth.
About the Author:
Carol Benedict is an indépendant researcher and human rights activist who has been studying Kurdish history, culture and politics for over three years. She currently writes for Occupy World Writes exclusively.
“Why Do You Have to Make These Shootings About Race?” Because They Are
By PM Beers. Published 7-9-2016 by The Anti-Media
![#BlackLivesMatter protest in St. Paul- September 2015. Photo: Fibonacci Blue from Minnesota, USA [CC BY 2.0 ], via Wikimedia Commons](http://occupyworldwrites.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Black_Lives_Matter_protest_against_St._Paul_police_brutality_21552673186.jpg)
#BlackLivesMatter protest in St. Paul – September 2015. Photo: Fibonacci Blue from Minnesota, USA [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
“Because it IS about race.”
This is a common, growing conversation in the United States.
Legal Experts Raise Alarm over Shocking Use of ‘Killer Robot’ in Dallas
‘The fact that the police have a weapon like this…is an example of the militarization of the police and law enforcement—and goes in the wrong direction’
By Nadia Prupis, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 7-8-2016
Dallas Police Chief David Brown giving a press conference on Friday morning. (Screenshot)
As news emerges that police officers in Dallas, Texas used an armed robot to kill the suspected shooter in Thursday night’s ambush, experts are warning that it represents a sea change in police militarization that only heightens risks to human and constitutional rights.
Dallas Police Chief David Brown said Friday morning during a press conference that police “saw no other option but to use our bomb robot and place a device on its extension for it to detonate” where the suspect had taken refuge in a parking garage as police tried to negotiate with him, adding that he was “deceased as a result of detonating the bomb.” Continue reading
#BlackLivesMatter makes some people angry. Isn’t that good?
A new wave of activism is rooted in a different spiritual tradition to the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
By Alexis Buchanan. Published 6-7-2016 by openDemocracy
NYC action in solidarity with Ferguson. Mo, encouraging a boycott of Black Friday Consumerism. Photo via Wikimedia Commons
Black Lives Matter (BLM) began in 2014 as a hashtag after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin case and evolved into a social movement. Since its inception, it has grown to 28 chapters in over 17 states in the USA, and one international chapter in Toronto. There’s no denying that the movement wants to disrupt the status quo, and that makes some people angry. They have shut airports and stopped Black Friday sales with their protests against police brutality.
BLM have also interrupted several events on the current US Presidential campaign trail, including Hillary Clinton in February of 2016 and Bernie Sanders last year. And everyone has seen the violence that has erupted at Donald Trump events where Black Lives Matters protestors clashed with his supporters. BLM are described by some political candidates as a “mob,” or as “trouble,” or as “disgraceful.”
Fourth World: Why America Won’t Be a First World Country For Long
By Chris “Kikila” Perrin. Published 3-19-2016 by Underground Reporter
Photo: Stan Wechers/Flickr
Before George Manuel published The Fourth World: An Indian Reality, the idea that any real differences existed among population groups in fully developed countries was still taboo. At the time, Indigenous rights were still something of a political non-issue, a blemish on a relatively clean looking statistical sheet that First World countries paid lip service to all too infrequently. Since then, an increasing amount of scholarship seeks to understand the differences between Fourth World populations living inside First World countries.
The Fourth World, basically, are populations living within a state who have little or no representation by that state. These populations, from the standpoint of the First World, are generally impoverished and would not fit the criteria for a “First World” country. They are, essentially and literally, the oppressed. It is what we see as the Third World when we are looking at Africa and South America, hidden within the First World just outside our doors. Unfortunately, the Fourth World is growing. Continue reading