Activists Take the Fight to Cops’ “Doorsteps”
The Fraternal Order of Police is “the most dangerous fraternity in all of America,” said Samantha Masters, spokesperson for the Black Youth Project 100 and Black Lives Matter DC activists that occupied the grounds of the police union’s lobbying operation in Washington, last week. Other activists staged a sit-in at the New York City offices of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association. “The people who are protecting these killer cops are police unions,” said Masters. “They ensure there is a blue wall of silence, and that police officers are rewarded for the really horrible acts they commit. We are taking the fight to their doorsteps.”
The Sad Saga of Police Impunity in Baltimore
With yet another acquittal of police involved In the death of Freddie Gray, Blacks in Baltimore are concluding that “there is no ability to hold officers accountable for any criminal conduct when they are performing their duty as an officer,” said Jill Carter, a defense attorney and delegate to the Maryland state legislature. “My greatest fear is that police officers will become more arrogant, more cocky” in the knowledge that they are, in practice, immune to punishment.
Mumia on “Trump’s Triumph”
“The Republican National Convention was not a presidential event, but a celebration of ego, anger and gross wealth,” said Mumia Abu Jamal, the nation’s best known political prisoner. Reporting for Prison Radio, he described the GOP gathering, in Cleveland, as “an echo chamber of seething hatreds, mass ego, revenge fantasies and white nationalism.” Trump’s victory over the party establishment “is the political equivalent to a hostile takeover in business. You loot the company and leave it a bankrupt shell.”
Sanders Supporters Going Green
Dr. Margaret Flowers, the Green Party candidate for the U.S. Senate from Maryland, is a co-author of a series of letters urging various constituencies to break with the duopoly electoral system. “It’s already happening,” said Flowers, an honorary co-chair of the Green Party’s presidential nominating convention, in August. “For the Jill Stein campaign, it’s just been astronomical. Donations are pouring in, along with volunteers, and social media has really taken off. To me, it’s very gratifying to see that people are not falling for this lesser evil argument that is presented every four years.”
Black Men for Bernie Activist Rejects Democrats
“I have no love relationship with the Democratic Party at this point, for sure,” said Bruce Carter, a former activist with Black Men for Bernie. Carter journeyed to Philadelphia for the Democratic convention – but not to cheer for Hillary. “We want to make sure that people understand that, if there’s going to be a true level of change, it has to come from within communities and the people on the ground”
Brazil’s Coup Government Targets Blacks, Natives, Women, Poor
At about the same time in mid-August, the Olympic Games and the impeachment trial of elected president Dilma Rousseff will begin, in Brazil. The leaders of the so-called “soft coup” against the Workers Party leader have moved quickly to “transform the main institutions in the country, including ministries of human rights and racial equality, women, agricultural development, communications, and culture,” said Maria Luisa Mendonca, director of Brazil’s Network for Social Justice and Human Rights and a professor of international relations at the University of Rio de Janeiro. “We see an increasing repression against social movements, and against indigenous people that are mobilizing in defense of their land,” said Mendonca.
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