Category Archives: Apartheid

North Dakota pipeline protest turns violent after cultural sites destroyed | US news | The Guardian

Tribe spokesman Steve Sitting Bear said protesters reported that six people had been bitten by security dogs, including a young child. At least 30 people were pepper-sprayed, he said. Preskey said law enforcement authorities had no reports of protesters being injured.There were no law enforcement personnel at the site when the incident occurred, Preskey said. The crowd dispersed when officers arrived and no one was arrested, she said.The incident occurred within half a mile of an encampment where hundreds of people have gathered to join the Standing Rock Sioux tribe’s protest of the oil pipeline that is slated to cross the Missouri River nearby.The tribe is challenging the army corps of engineers’ decision to grant permits for Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners’ Dakota Access pipeline, which crosses the Dakotas and Iowa to Illinois, including near the reservation in southern North Dakota. A federal judge will rule before 9 September whether construction can be halted on the Dakota Access pipeline.Energy Transfer Partners did not return phone calls and emails seeking comment.The tribe fears the project will disturb sacred sites and impact drinking water for thousands of tribal members on the Standing Rock Sioux reservation and millions farther downstream.

Source: North Dakota pipeline protest turns violent after cultural sites destroyed | US news | The Guardian

Palestinian who filmed Hebron shooting faces threats to his life | +972 Magazine

Last week B’Tselem filed a complaint with Israeli police, claiming that Hebron police prevented Abu Shamsiya from submitting his own request following threats he received on the internet.Abu Shamsiya describes how last Sunday he arrived at the police station in Hebron to file a complaint about the threats, which included comments such as “I will kill you, you disabled asshole,” “your time will come,” and threatening videos. After a lengthy wait he was told that the station was too busy and that he should return the following day. The next day, after another long wait, he was told that he could not file a complaint, since the only officer who could deal with issue was not present. Abu Shamsiya returned for a third day, waiting a number of hours to be helped. When he approached one of there investigators, he was told to go home and threatened with arrest should he refuse to do so.

Source: Palestinian who filmed Hebron shooting faces threats to his life | +972 Magazine

Black Americans on ‘what they have to lose’ if Trump becomes president | US news | The Guardian

Lou Gehrig’s disease has robbed Leroy Peete, a 72-year-old Detroit native and Vietnam veteran, of speech. He communicates by moving a pen toward letters printed on a sheet, spelling out words.Asked about Trump’s visit to Detroit, an acquaintance read aloud his response.“Don’t want his ass here.”Asked about Trump’s outreach to African Americans, Peete moved the pen again over the letters.“Bullshit.”

Source: Black Americans on ‘what they have to lose’ if Trump becomes president | US news | The Guardian

Kurds Fear the U.S. Will Again Betray Them, in Syria – The New York Times AKA: TIK, TOK – trust in Kurds, trust only Kurds.

So, many Kurds shuddered when Turkish tanks and soldiers recently rolled into northern Syria, with American support, to push back against Kurdish gains. They saw it, perhaps prematurely, as a replay of a century of betrayal by world powers, going back to the end of World War I, when they were promised, then denied, their own state in the postwar settlement.“The Kurds are going to scream betrayal at every turn when they think things are not going to go their way, because they’ve had a century of it,” said Joost Hiltermann, the program director for the Middle East and North Africa at the International Crisis Group, and a longtime expert on the Kurds.The Syrian Kurds say their aim is to establish an autonomous region, not their own state, where their rights are protected, in whatever settlement comes from the long Syrian civil war. And they say they hope that the United States will support them in that desire.To accomplish that, though, they need to connect two of their territories: Afrin, in the west, and Kobani, in the east, an effort that Turkey sees as a national security threat to be thwarted at virtually any cost.

Source: Kurds Fear the U.S. Will Again Betray Them, in Syria – The New York Times

Milwaukee Police Forcibly Arrested Two Men Last Night for Doing Nothing Wrong. They Got a Surprise When One Was A State Rep and the Other Was From the ACLU. | American Civil Liberties Union

At about 9:30 p.m., a handful of people, including Mr. English and Rep. Brostoff, stood on the northeast corner of Sherman Boulevard and Auer Avenue, observing a large contingent of police officers who had blocked off Auer on the west side of Sherman. The street has been the gathering place for community members since the fatal police shooting of Sylville Smith on August 13.Numerous officers then forcibly arrested Mr. English as he was walking away as instructed. He was handcuffed, forced to the ground, involuntarily searched, and placed in a paddy wagon with Rep. Brostoff. After officials became aware that they had arrested a state legislator, the two were released without charges.When I had the chance of speaking with Jarrett, he told me this:“The situation was confusing, because I really did not know what I was being arrested for. It was embarrassing and dehumanizing, and I did not feel that I was being treated with the dignity and respect that should be afforded any individual. But I was mostly thinking about all of the young people this happens to every day who don’t have anyone to call to get free. We cannot continue doing this to our people.

The Milwaukee Police Department has once again demonstrated its preference for occupation, excessive force, and belligerence over genuine engagement, civil dialog, and de-escalation. People have a right to stand on a street corner – to observe and record the police, as Jarrett was doing, or for any other reason. Unfortunately, rather than protecting people and their rights, law enforcement in this community all too often engages in the sort of destructive behavior to which Jarrett and Jonathan were subjected to last night.

Source: Milwaukee Police Forcibly Arrested Two Men Last Night for Doing Nothing Wrong. They Got a Surprise When One Was A State Rep and the Other Was From the ACLU. | American Civil Liberties Union

What Donald Trump said about Mexico | US elections 2016 | DW.COM | 31.08.2016  Loser!

“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”Trump on June 16, 2015 in his speech his candidacy for president.

“I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border. And I will have Mexico pay for that wall.”Trump on June 16, 2015 in his speech announcing his presidential bid.

“Mexico could stop 90 percent of the problems just by being tough, but they don’t want to be. They don’t want to stop it because it is to their advantage.”Trump on April 13, 2016 in a Fox News town hall in Pittsburgh.

“I would say it (the wall) will be complete in two years from the time we’ll start. We’ll start quickly. And it will be a real wall.”Trump on April 13, 2016 in a Fox News town hall in Pittsburgh.

Source: What Donald Trump said about Mexico | US elections 2016 | DW.COM | 31.08.2016

Federal withdrawal from private prisons won’t affect Tacoma immigration detention center — yet | The News Tribune

Federal withdrawal from private prison business won’t affect Tacoma immigration detention center. It’s run by a different federal agency that has no plans to change – yet

Source: Federal withdrawal from private prisons won’t affect Tacoma immigration detention center — yet | The News Tribune

Federal withdrawal from private prisons won’t affect Tacoma immigration detention center — yet | The News Tribune

The Department of Justice is getting out of the private-prison business, but for the moment that won’t affect the largest privately operated detention facility in the state: the Northwest Detention Center on the Tacoma Tideflats.DOJ leaders announced Aug. 18 that they would not renew existing contracts with private prison operators, saying they provide lower quality service and are less safe than publicly run prisons. The decision followed an earlier inspector general’s report that found so-called “contract prisons” have poor safety records and high rates of assault between inmates and against staff.The decision didn’t affect the 1,575-bed detention center. Owned by the GEO Group, it operates under a recently renewed contract with a different federal agency: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). But the DOJ’s move is prompting members of Congress, including U.S. Rep. Adam Smith, to push for a similar withdrawal from the use of privately owned facilities such as the detention center.

Source: Federal withdrawal from private prisons won’t affect Tacoma immigration detention center — yet | The News Tribune

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Vivas o Muertas: How Immigrant Women Inside Berks are Fighting for Liberation

In an open letter addressed to Jeh Johnson, the women wrote that many of their children have contemplated suicide and all lack proper care within Berks. Faced with few options, the mothers have resorted to organizing as their only way out. They said they plan to leave the Pennsylvania family detention center either “vivas o muertas”—alive or dead.While organizing puts the families at risk for backlash, risk taking is not new for these women. These are 22 mothers who came from Central America escaping violence, corruption, the impacts of climate change, and United States intervention and occupation. Twenty-two mothers who put their bodies on the line more than once: providing for their families in Central America, immigrating to the United States, surviving each day in detention, and finally having no other choice but to refuse to eat. Twenty-two mothers who wanted what was best for their families. Twenty-two mothers who have been retraumatized each day by the country they hoped would protect them.  Twenty-two mothers who are fighters reminding us they have power despite being detained.The 22 women on hunger strike are putting everything on the line for the safety of their families. As they enter their third week, the women are rapidly losing weight. We have a duty to these families. We have a duty to share their stories, to take action, to show up in genuine ways, and take action to end all deportations.

Source: Vivas o Muertas: How Immigrant Women Inside Berks are Fighting for Liberation

Monday Open Thread | The Protests At Standing Rock | 3CHICSPOLITICO

 

Lawrence O’Donnell: From the start of colonial intrusion, the free and original peoples of this hemisphere “have been treated as enemies and dealt with more harshly than any other enemy in any other war.”While this in itself is not news, the source of this statement is. This quote comes not from an activist, a historian or a researcher squirreled away in an obscure academic corner, but from a high-profile commentator speaking on MSNBC.“After all our other wars we signed treaties and lived by those treaties,” noted Lawrence O’Donnell at the segment at the end of the August 25 edition of his nightly news show The Last Word. “After World War 2 we then did everything we possibly could to help rebuild Germany.”In other words, “no Native American tribe has ever been treated as well as we treated Germans after World War 2.”

Source: Monday Open Thread | The Protests At Standing Rock | 3CHICSPOLITICO