Jim Rhodes: The police, an institution I was so proudly once part of, has, in some cities, degraded to tools of the ruling elite.
Dis-membering Stonewall
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Rev. Irene Monroe: The Stonewall Riot started on the backs of working class African American and Latino queers who have been bleached from its written history.
Has Jesse Jackson Become Irrelevant?
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David Love: Just as an older generation had to step aside for him, Jesse Jackson has had to contend with a younger generation of black leaders, and that is not a bad thing.
Rodney King Dead: How He Put Police Brutality on the Map
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David Love: It is ironic that Rodney King died on the day that Rev. Al Sharpton led a march to protest New York mayor Michael Bloomberg’s “stop and frisk” policy.
“4 Winds” People’s Power Car and Bike Caravan — May 1st
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For May 1st, 2012 Occupy Los Angeles is organizing around a “4 Winds” People’s Power Car and Bike Caravan through the urban sprawl of Los Angeles that will culminate in Direct Action in and around the Financial District
Feeding Off Latino Misery
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Rudy Acuña: As a group Latino politicos have not been especially progressive. Indeed, they have been less than courageous when it comes to police brutality and capital punishment.
Medical Self Defense and the Black Panther Party
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In her new book, Columbia professor Alondra Nelson documents the multifaceted (and under-reported) health activism of the Panthers.
Can Civilians Arrest Cops?
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Jeff Norman: Maybe the top cops and mayors of other American cities should visit Los Angeles, enjoy a few bong hits with Chief Beck and discuss how to treat peaceful demonstrators humanely.
Occupy the Bill of Rights
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Stephen Box: The students who witnessed the pepper spray assault began to chant “Shame on you!” while maintaining their distance.
Occupy Wall Street Shut Down
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Sharon Kyle: In a surprise sweep in New York City, while many of the Occupiers were asleep, the New York City Police Department entered the Occupy Wall Street encampment at Zuccotti Park and cleared it out.
Occupy the Winter of Our Discontent
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David Swanson: Above all: stay! Continue to hold public space! Grow, and rotate people. No single person need stay forever. But the 99% of the 99% that cheers from the sidelines needs to get into the squares and parks.
Civil Disobedience as a Strategy for the Occupy Movement
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Tom Hayden: If there’s enough people and they all sit down and say “We want to appeal to a jury of our peers, which is our Constitutional right,” that’s something that should make the decision makers take pause because I don’t think juries are going to convict these people.
Why Libertarians Should Not Scorn Occupy Wall Street
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Wendy McElroy: Protesters have been maced, beaten, and arrested by the police for peacefully exercising their right to free assembly and free speech. Libertarians who put their disapproval first and foremost are missing the proper emphasis.
Occupy Portland Is Born with Ten Thousand Strong
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Shamus Cooke: It should be no surprise that a city dubbed “Little Beirut” by President Bush Senior — due to the large protests against him — began its “occupation” on a level on par with Wall Street.
Baca Must Go
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Peter Eliasberg: The voices have been there for years, if you were listening – horrific stories of abuse of inmates at Los Angeles County jails; not by other inmates, but by the deputies guarding them.
China Needs Martin Luther King
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David Love: As America awaits the August 28 opening of the King National Memorial in Washington, D.C., this is a perfect time to reflect on the leader’s accomplishments, legacy, and commitment to justice, equality and nonviolent social change.
Cops Are Missing the Bad Guys While Profiling the Black Guys
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David Love: Reading 12 Angry Men: True Stories of Being a Black Man in America Today made me angry, not because the subject matter was brand new to me, but because it was far too familiar – not only as a black man, but also as a human rights advocate who worked with police brutality victims and their families back in the 1990s, and decided to go to law school as a result.
State Department Approved Export of U.S.-Made Tear Gas to Egyptian Gov’t
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Marian Wang: The American-made tear gas used to disperse pro-democracy protestors in Egypt earlier this week was sold to the country after government review.
Police Misconduct and Public Accountability
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Wendy McElroy: Why is it difficult to prosecute police officers for criminal misconduct even when the abuse is severe and unequivocal?
Pheasant Season in New Orleans
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Megan E. Paredes: A lack of return of city services to the Lower Ninth Ward, a neighborhood whose residents are mostly African American, is symbolic of a lack of motivation to help a culture in crisis.
The Media & the Murder of Aiyanna Jones
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Sikivu Hutchinson: When a little white girl goes missing, online news, supermarket tabloids and cable network stations bombard us with up-to-the-minute dispatches on the crime, the victim, her shattered family and anguished community. When a little black girl is murdered in cold blood by a big city police department it is up to the community and those who care about social justice to ensure that the case doesn’t fade into the national obscurity that is usually reserved for the lives of people of color.
Van Jones, Man on a Mission
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Van Jones is one of the founders of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, a non-profit organization based in Oakland, CA. Before Van Jones joined the Obama Administration, he was one of the founders of The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, an organization that started as a vehicle for the fight for fair treatment by the police but broadened its reach to human rights for all.
Inside Joe Arpaio: Arizona Deputy Calls Him a Disgrace to the Department
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“It ain’t right,” the man with the soft, desert cowboy drawl says slowly into the phone. “These folks are human beings and he treats ‘em like swine. Well, actually, Joe treats everyone who ain’t white and rich like swine.” ”Here in Maricopa County, he thinks it’s a crime to be poor or have brown skin [...]
The Legacy of Torture: Story of the San Francisco Eight
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ACLU Pasadena Public Forum “Will we face the torture chambers in our cities as well as on Guantanamo?” Tuesday, May 12, 7 p.m. Neigbhorhood Church 301 North Orange Grove Boulevard Pasadena, California Hear two of the SF8 tell their story of torture and persecution over 37 years. The San Francisco 8, former members and associates [...]
Media, Revolution, and the Legacy of the Black Panther Party: An Interview with Kiilu Nyasha
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Kiilu Nyasha is a San Francisco-based journalist and former member of the Black Panther Party (BPP). Kiilu hosts a weekly TV program, “Freedom Is A Constant Struggle,” on SF Live (Comcast 76 and AT&T 99), which can be viewed live at www.accessf.org every Friday at 7:30 pm (PST), and rebroadcast Saturdays at 3:30 p.m., and [...]
Between the Lines: The Los Angeles Police Department Deputy Chief Who Made the Hard Sell of Trust
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The passing of Los Angeles Deputy Chief of Police, Kenny Garner, has left a stunned community pondering the question, “Who do we call now, when we want answers from LAPD?” Kenny Garner was a friend to me, the community, and most he met, and he had the hardest job of anyone in the community; convincing [...]
Between the Lines: New York Post “Chimp” Cartoon — Incendiary Satire Has a Dangerous Past
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The New York Post issued a “sideways” explanation (I really wouldn’t call it an apology) on a provocative and highly incendiary political cartoon it ran on February 18th. Combining two news events of the day, one in which a Connecticut woman named Charla Nash was attacked by her “pet” chimpanzee — which nearly ripped off [...]
Response to ACLU Racial Profiling Study: Los Angeles Police Department Never Met a Reform Report It Agrees With
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The nation’s most abusive, and aggrieved law enforcement agency, the Los Angeles Police Department, is still “doin’ what it do” as it presented its response this week to a racial profiling study released to its civilian Police Commission in October 2008. The study, titled, “Racial Profiling & The LAPD,” documents that deep and pervasive racial [...]
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London’s Youth Are Falling Down
Mariah Adin: Let this serve as a warning: of the danger of creating a class of young people who have no stake in society, and thereby have nothing to lose by destroying it.