Police, prison and abolition

[blindpig]

Police escalate violence in Providence, Rhode Island amid calls to defund
Max BinderNovember 27, 2020 138 7 minutes read
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The movement against police terror in Providence, Rhode Island, has seen tremendous support since reigniting this summer. Ten thousand people marched on the State House on June 5, while the most militant protesters have marched regularly, sometimes several nights a week. A strong demand emerged: defund the Providence Police Department by 70 percent.

“It’s very obvious the Providence Police Department and Rhode Island State Police have been essentially on a spree,” said Andira Alves, a PSL organizer who has regularly spoken out at protests. “Just about every action, most of them that I’ve attended, they have started riots.”

Providence Police have escalated their violence against protesters in the past six months. But brutality towards protesters is only one item on a long list of abuse and racial profiling that demonstrates why so many Rhode Islanders are calling to defund.


Grounds for defunding: racist policing past and present

[youtube]http://twitter.com/i/status/1269016666081497091[/youtube]

Residents of color have long been aware of the racism of Providence police. At a state government task force session to revise the Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights, Director Kiah Bryant of Direct Action for Rights and Equality testified,

“Growing up in Providence I’ve seen so many civil rights violations basically happen at the hands of police on Black and Brown folks, specifically youth. I’ve seen police officers tear a person’s car apart looking for something to arrest these kids with. I’ve seen police officers beat kids up for nothing, for simply talking back. A close and personal friend of mine is currently in a wheelchair because of police officers. Nothing was done. That police officer got a promotion.”

Media records of racial profiling and police violence are sparse, so activists began compiling a database. At least eight incidents have been recorded since June 2020.

The most recent assaults were well documented and publicized. Of these, the October attack on Jhamal Gonsalves has sparked the most anger. The young man was hit by a Providence Police cruiser while driving his moped, then dragged through the street and given narcan while having a seizure. The government promised an investigation, and has published several videos, but has yet to release findings.

Officer Kyle Endres is still working desk duty. Gonsalves is still in a coma.


Police reforms are proving more of a hindrance than a help. The Providence External Review Authority, a civilian board tasked with overseeing investigations of police abuse, was denied a role in the Endres investigation. PERA was established in 2018 as part of the Community Safety Act. The act, a reform law put together by community members and non-profits following the uprising for Black lives of 2014-2015, largely remains unimplemented.

In November, PERA’s Executive Director Jose Batista attempted to further the board’s mission, honoring community requests to release video evidence from April when Sergeant Joseph Hanley repeatedly assaulted a Black man he had already handcuffed. In response, the board fired Batista. They voted on the grounds that he had acted against PERA policy, despite dozens of community testimonies supporting him. “This is not a matter of anyone on the board wanting to release a video,” said board chair Michael Fontaine. “This is about following the rules that we are given.”

Yet following the rules has done little. Out of more than 40 complaints received, PERA has been unable to close a single investigation due to barriers to obtaining evidence put up by the police.

Community activist Enrique Sanchez called the firing a betrayal. “PERA was created to be this option to expose those types of actions. So what the hell was the point of exposing those videos if you terminate your executive director?”

Annajane Yolken
@Annajane_Y

I mapped out all the recent Providence police cases for drug possession and distribution from the past 6 months. Notably there is not *one* case from the east side of Providence.

Meanwhile, the city shows no signs of slowing policing. The police budget, representing the salaries and benefits of 420 officers and pensions of several hundred more, was set to increase from $86 million to $88 million in 2021, which included training some 50 new officers. Although city councilor Sabina Matos has called for abolition and others are in favor of defunding, just last week Democrat majority leader Jo-Ann Ryan said that an increase to 500 officers would be ideal.

$88 million would represent 17.4 percent of the city’s budget, outranked in spending only by schools and pensions. Cities of similar size spend anywhere between $45 and $130 million on policing.

Alves says protesters think the money would be spent better elsewhere. “That could go into the schools, which have been making a lot of national news. They’ve reopened schools, there’s no updated ventilation systems. It’s just fans in windows, and it’s freezing now. That’s where the money can go, into making these buildings safe, to canceling rents. Definitely not to the people who landlords are gonna call to kick us out once the eviction moratorium ends.”

Germaine Bruce, a young Black man who was violently arrested on November 7 while helping his friends start their car, recalled how police escalated only after eight or nine officers had arrived on the scene. Numerous testimonies at actions and government hearings since June complete the picture: large numbers of cops and violent policing go hand in hand.


Police try to scare the movement

Protesters are most familiar with the excessive abundance of police. Ever since they marched the streets late on June 5, they have regularly been confronted with line after line of police in full riot gear. Of the actions at which Alves has been present, police “outnumber protesters more times than not.”

As police have grown more aggressive and repressive, they have sought to justify their actions by calling protesters violent. Commissioner Steve Paré recently told the Providence Journal, “Some protests, after that bewitching hour of nighttime, turn violent. If we’re not prepared with resources, we’ll be caught flat-footed.”

These “resources” — which include riot gear, pepper spray and even tear gas — are not limited to Providence Police. On September 23, the night Breonna Taylor’s murderers were not indicted, state troopers used tear gas and pepper spray to force a group of protesters and media to evacuate the highway by climbing a fence, despite a safer exit only being yards away.


Photo courtesy of UpriseRI. Used with permission.

“As I was standing a state trooper stood a few feet from myself and others calling us idiots. Telling us to move… The statie [state trooper] actually shoved someone so they tripped over the ramp onto their back. They just got more angry because we weren’t moving and one statie said ‘run or die.’ When he raised his hand after that I was sure it was his gun he was going to pull out and shoot us. Instead he had two pepper spray cans in his hand and others followed his example. I got sprayed directly in the face… most of us did.

“But they wouldn’t actually let us exit the highway the way we we came on. We were still by the ramp. Instead they forced us, by pepper spraying us until we were cornered to the fence to climb an eight foot fence… I saw someone using their walker to help other protesters get a lift over the fence. Walkers and canes were flying over the fence. Media was forced to climb over too, even though we could have all safely walked off. It was obvious the staties were enjoying watching people struggle.”



Sanchez recalls a similar assault on a protest on September 28. State troopers “started calling for backup, because they assumed we were being hostile or violent. A good ten to fifteen state patrol cars came and started pepper spraying people.”

Resources alone cannot account for the violence of the police. At a hundreds-strong October 20 protest for Jhamal Gonsalves, 21 people were arrested, including bystanders, medics, and a National Lawyers Guild legal observer.

Activist Justice Gaines summarized the night at a PERA meeting.

“What I saw last night was a disgusting show of force by the Providence Police. They pushed protesters back from the Public Safety Complex and then chased them past the schools and through Elmwood. They chased people, that’s what they did. It was not about protecting a perimeter. It was not about defending themselves. It was about showing and intimidating young people who were out there because a young man was thrown off his moped.”

UpriseRI.

At least 33 people have been arrested at protests since June. Many have experienced abuses such as being held over night, denied phone calls and water, and having officers refuse to wear masks. Many have been fined, and bail is usually upwards of $500.

As police grew more forceful, they also began threatening journalists. At the September 28 protest, an officer told Will James of UpriseRI, “You go back this way and you’ll get locked up.”

Alves, also a reporter for Liberation News, shared this experience. On October 20, she and three other journalists were making their way down to the protest when they were stopped by police.

“We showed our media passes and [a police officer] in a white shirt wouldn’t let us go down. And I asked him, ‘Who’s doing the harming?’ Because he was like ‘It’s not safe for you guys to go down there.’ I was like ‘Well I feel safe, who’s harming who? I know no one’s gonna mess with me.’ And he actually just called backup, and called four other officers to come arrest us. And he was like ‘If y’all don’t leave right now we’re arresting you.’”


The police are doing everything in their power to discredit the movement and remove protesters from the front lines, as they have done across the country. But their attempts to staunch the fire are only feeding the flames.

Continuing the fight

Protesters took to the streets again on Saturday Nov. 21, calling to end police terror. Militant youth movement PROV-X led the action. A new coalition of activists led by the PSL and PROV-X used the protest to launch a new petition with three key demands: Fire officer Kyle Endres, drop all fines incurred by protesters, and defund the Providence Police by 70 percent.



“We need our allies, we need our numbers, we need our people power. And we need to show them that we’re furious and that we’re mobilized and that we’re not gonna back down. Because they don’t back down, and they have the resources to keep themselves afloat,” Brooklyn Toussaint, a PROV-X organizer who helped lead the march, told the crowd. “So we need mutual aid. We need support. We need community action to even out the playing field and to show them that we’re actually contenders, and that a better future is possible because we’re all getting up and fighting for it.”

Bruce spoke out about his wrongful arrest, and Alves highlighted the racist bedrock of policing.

“If racism is a cancer,” Alves said, “then it cannot be allowed to grow as the police budget does year in and year out. If it is a cancer, then we need to cut it out. Cut it out from our schools, our neighborhoods, and from all of society.”

https://www.liberationnews.org/police-e ... rationnews

[blindpig]

Spies of Mississippi: Mayor Lumumba’s Cops Put Public Under Spyglass
Adofo Minka 25 Nov 2020



Spies of Mississippi: Mayor Lumumba’s Cops Put Public Under Spyglass
Jackson’s supposedly “radical” Black mayor wants to make surveillance great again in Mississippi.

“’Virtual policing’ means an all-seeing eye will be fixed on Jackson’s majority poor and working-class residents.”

In recent weeks, Mayor Lumumba proposed and the Jackson City Council approved a 45-day pilot surveillance program that will enlist tech companies to tap into the Ring surveillance camera footage of ten homes and businesses who volunteer to collaborate with the expansion of Jackson’s police surveillance state. The Ring camera footage will be tapped directly into the Jackson Police Department’s (JPD) Real Time Crime Center and available for viewing by JPD at all times as everyday citizens casually go about their routines.

JPD’s Real Time Crime Center is a surveillance hub for various cameras installed during Lumumba’s tenure to provide what they mayor has termed “virtual policing.” Virtual policing means that 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, an all-seeing eye will be fixed on Jackson’s majority poor and working-class residents. Like the surveillance cameras that Mayor Lumumba boasted about being placed south Jackson’s mainly working class and unemployed communities, this Ring surveillance pilot program will not be aimed at capturing the crimes of the more affluent who reside in the exclusive neighborhoods of northeast Jackson.

“An all-seeing eye will be fixed on Jackson’s majority poor and working-class residents.”

In the early stages of the development of the Real Time Crime Center, the “radical” mayor made it incandescently clear that he does not think anything is wrong with surveilling Jackson’s more than 80 percent Black population, who he calls “our people.” The freedom fighting mayor has stated, “…virtual policing is no more intrusive than the world we already live in. Where every camera, everywhere you go there is a camera pointing at you from some private entity or gas station or something else.” The use of surveillance cameras by an individual business owner to monitor activities within a given vicinity that an individual chooses to frequent is much different than when the State employs surveillance to monitor unsuspecting citizens going about their daily lives. There is overlap between the interests of individual capitalists employing surveillance and the State doing so because both have an interest in protecting private property relations. But history has shown that the State also has an interest in tracking the activities of citizens in an effort to snuff out any emerging rebellious activity before it can gain momentum to upset the status quo.

Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning, Terry Albury and Jeffrey Sterling all have revealed to the public that police state surveillance is not as benign as Mayor Lumumba would have us believe. They all have paid the hefty price of torture, imprisonment, and being labeled enemies of the state for doing so. Mayor Lumumba is part of the Center for American Progress’s Mayors for Smart Crime Initiative, which appears to think it is a genius idea to subordinate the multitudes more efficiently through police state surveillance. Mayor Lumumba intends to surveil Black people while denouncing the FBI’s COINTELPRO. Is this what Mayor Lumumba meant by making Jackson the most radical city on the planet?

“Police state surveillance is not as benign as Mayor Lumumba would have us believe.”

The Lumumba regime is faced with a crisis of legitimacy on the question of crime and violence in Jackson. As the number of homicides increase in the city and his 2021 re-election bid looms closer, he and his advisors are scrambling to make it appear that they can solve a problem that the very nature of the state perpetuates. A city-state, like a nation-state, is a social class hierarchy whose cornerstones are social inequity, exploitation, and competition. In a scramble for survival, the exploited and degraded often cannibalize one another instead of eating the rich and ruling elites who maintain us in our suffering and degradation.

The actions of the Lumumba regime continue to expose the fact that ordinary people have no representation in hierarchical government. The Lumumba administration serves the interests of capital and is on the side of the permanent slaughter. Any pretense of Black radicalism by those who rule above society is mere branding to get the multitudes to place a stamp of approval on their being conquered in the name of Black power.

“The Lumumba administration serves the interests of capital.”

Lumumba and his ilk hold the masses in contempt and are always to looking to repress the multitude’s instincts toward direct democracy (majority rule). And ultimately, this is what the expansion of the surveillance state in Jackson is about. Lumumba’s jabbering in the media about using surveillance to capture evidence of crimes is merely smoke and mirrors. Some are so caught up in a civil liberties discourse around 4th Amendment violations that they can’t see the forest for the trees either.

Rulers fool the people with talk of solving problems that are legitimate concerns, such as crime and violence. But in the words of the hip-hop artist Cool Breeze, “you better listen your corner and watch for the hook.” The same surveillance gadgetry the rulers claim is for the people’s protection will be used to suppress the multitudes when they rise up to throw off the yoke of their oppression.

During the Civil Rights Movement the Sovereignty Commission was sanctioned by the State to surveil and suppress the social motion aimed at subverting the white racial state’s oppression of Black people in Mississippi. Many prominent figures in the Black community volunteered to be its tools. Today, in Jackson, the Black-led government is at the forefront of making government espionage great again in Mississippi. I know some won’t like my saying this, but it’s the truth.

“The same surveillance gadgetry the rulers claim is for the people’s protection will be used to suppress the multitudes.”

Mayor Lumumba is a part of the “new left” that seeks to restore a crumbling American empire through Black faces in high places. He dons African accoutrements that stupefy many as he presides over the police state that surveils, conquers, and kills ordinary people in the interest of restoring the legitimacy of the empire of capital.

Expanding the government’s capacity to surveil and crush any embryonic movement that has the potential to point toward a new beginning, a new society that is based on mutual aid, cooperation, and the subversion of hierarchy, domination and exploitation will not address interpersonal violence. Ordinary people determined to arrive on our own authority can accomplish the task of ensuring our collective safety and security. We relinquished our power to elite rulers and blindly trusted them to accomplish this task in which they have failed miserably. We must reclaim our power and seize the time.

Adofo Minka is a criminal defense attorney. He can be reached at adofom1@gmail.com

https://www.blackagendareport.com/spies ... r-spyglass

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Private Police Funding Funds - Corporate / State Merger
08.12.2020

From the editor. Modern man is no longer surprised to hear about "private armies". But for most citizens, this phenomenon is somewhere far away ... What would you say if you learned about the private police? The police, which can detain, fine and officially use violence, but at the same time is supported by certain corporations. As you know, whoever pays calls the tune ... Our most curious readers will remember Ukraine, Turkey and other examples of fascism, where capital relies on direct armed force, be it the "official" police or unofficial "paramilitaries" detachments. But we want to tell you about a completely different country - about a rich and civilized Canada. ArticlePeople's Voice talks about how the country's largest oil and gas companies are pumping money into the Canadian police. Of course, not out of a sense of altruism. You can relate differently to the estimates given in the article, but we are primarily interested in the facts.




When indigenous and black communities and anti-racist activists helped shed light on budgets and police activities across the country, it was shockingly revealed that oil corporations were giving police money to buy weapons.

At least $ 7.9 million went to private funds for the police, especially in the province of Alberta, from Big Oil . (This is how several of the largest oil and gas companies are called in the West . - Ed.) This money passes by the public's attention and, as a rule, is not included or reflected in the police budgets, information about which is publicly available.

Police funds exist in many regions of the country and serve as a conduit for private companies and individuals to transfer money directly to police departments. It is, to put it mildly, questionable practice, and it is not limited to the municipal police: RCMP Foundation (Federal Police of Canada, at the same time performing the provincial police functions of most Canadian provinces - Ed.). Was founded in 1994, partly with the support of the Disney Corporation , and receives funds from private police funds, which allows private companies to transfer money to the police through these funds.



While any private and independent funding for the police is worrying and should be fought, funding from oil corporations is particularly worrying. As resistance to mining projects grows, especially from indigenous peoples and environmental movements, Big Oil is increasingly calling for police intervention against peaceful protests. The RCMP invasion of Wet'suwet'en land last year to crush indigenous resistance against the Coastal GasLink pipeline was in the direct interest of oil giant TC Energy (the pipeline builder ) and LNG Canada.(carries out the construction of the terminal). TC Energy is a regular annual sponsor of the Calgary Police Foundation (which has received millions of dollars from Big Oil), while LNG Canada has donated approximately $ 25,000 to the Vancouver Police Foundation and has board representation.

Information from the United States suggests that police funds are a key method of bypassing responsibility for free police budgets. It allows the police to purchase equipment and weapons for which they would otherwise encounter widespread opposition. In the United States, fuel corporations provide funding specifically for police organizations located in black communities in major cities. In fact, it is a P3 structure (Public-private partnership - a form of cooperation between the public and private sectors. - Ed.) , Which helps finance the climate crisis, racism and police brutality.

The Council of Canadians (a non-profit public organization - Ed.) Launched a campaign to end Big Oil's funding of the police force in Canada, including a petition calling on National Revenue Secretary Diane Leboutilier to take action to end the practice.

The financial and organizational links between corporations and the police have highlighted the need for increased civilian oversight of police throughout Canada. This should include cutting police budgets, demilitarizing the police force and disarming most police units, as well as eliminating RCMP, CSIS (Canadian Intelligence and Security Service - Ed.) And Security Communications Service ( CSE ). In addition, it is necessary to repeal non-democratic legislation against dissent: in particular, the federal "anti-terrorism" laws and the Jason Kenny "Critical Infrastructure" Protection Act.

https://www.rotfront.su/chastnye-fondy- ... a-politsi/

Google Translator

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Ohio Protests Sparked Over Killing of Unarmed Andre Maurice Hill


A community rallies against racist killings and police brutality in response to Andre Maurice Hill's murder

Published 25 December 2020 (16 hours 27 minutes ago)

The killing by Columbus police triggered a new wave of protests against racism and police brutality in the U.S.

New outrage is coming to a head following the second killing of a black man by Columbus, Ohio police in a period of just three weeks.

47-year-old Andre Maurice Hill, of African descent, died early Tuesday morning in the garage of a house after being shot several times by white police officer Adam Coy.

Dozens of people gathered on Thursday afternoon in the neighborhood where Hill was killed, under a cold Christmas Eve drizzle, to demand justice for the death of the African-American.

While local media reported that Officer Coy was already suspended, Columbus Police Chief Thomas Quinlan said Thursday in a statement that following an investigation, he had filed two departmental charges alleging critical misconduct by Officer Coy in Hill's death.

On December 4th, another black man, Casey Goodson Jr., was killed by a Franklin County sheriff's deputy and questions remain about what led to the killing. He was said to have been carrying a COVID-19 face mask and Subway sandwiches at the time.


Police and state violence is rampant in the United States. In recent years, fatal shootings by police and other forms of brutality against racialized people have sparked massive protests and harsh criticism from civil rights organizations around the world.

Protests have become much larger and more regular following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and nearly every major city in the U.S. was at one point the scene of several protests. Corporations, brands, social media influencers and even the Democratic Party have been swift to co-opt Black Lives Matter (the movement and the slogan), which contributed greatly to the campaign of President-elect Joe Biden in November. The mobilizations in the streets likely played a hand in the racially diverse set of woman appointments by Biden, though all of the individuals appointed are expected to promote the same neoliberal and anti-people, anti-working class policies domestically, and imperialist policies abroad, in most cases no differently than under the Trump administration.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/ohi ... -0016.html

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Attorneys for McMichaels don't want Ahmaud Arbery called a 'victim' in court

(CNN)Lawyers for Gregory and Travis McMichael, the father and son charged with murder in the death of Ahmaud Arbery, are asking that Arbery not be called a "victim" in the trial because they say it would be prejudicial, according to one of several motions they filed in the last days of December.

"Due process requires minimal injection of error or prejudice into these proceedings. Use of terms such as 'victim' allows the focus to shift to the accused rather than remain on the proof of every element of the crimes charged," the attorneys wrote in a motion filed December 30.
Another motion asks the court to limit photos of Arbery to just one in the trial, and that he appear by himself. It also requests that a non-related witness identify Arbery in the photograph, instead of a relative, "to avoid creating cumulative prejudicial error in the trial of this case."

Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, was out for a jog near Brunswick, Georgia, on February 23, 2020 when the McMichaels chased him in their truck and Travis shot him after the two struggled, authorities have said. Gregory McMichael was heard saying on police body camera footage after the shooting that he had a gut feeling that Arbery may have been responsible for previous thefts in the neighborhood, a Georgia Bureau of Investigation official testified in a preliminary hearing in June.
Both men have pleaded not guilty to malice and felony murder charges, and counts of aggravated assault, false imprisonment, and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment.
William "Roddie" Bryan Jr., who recorded video of Arbery's death, allegedly hit Arbery with his truck after he joined the McMichaels in the chase. Bryan has pleaded not guilty to charges of criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment and felony murder.

All three men, who are White, are being held without bond.
Attorneys for the McMichaels have also filed a motion asking that the court forbid spectators in the trial from wearing facemasks or t-shirts with "Black Lives Matter," "I can't breathe" or similar slogans marked on them, as some did, they say, during previous proceedings in the case.
"It is the right of those supporters to wear whatever clothing they choose, to hold up any sign they wish, and to chant whatever slogan they like outside the courtroom. That is the beauty of our First Amendment. But once inside the courthouse, the sanctity of the defendants' right to a fair and impartial trial trumps the First Amendment," the motion states.
Other motions the attorneys filed on December 30 and 31 ask the court to order the prosecution to turn over all records relating to "Arbery's disciplinary, criminal, and mental health records" and the contents of his telephone records and social media accounts, and exclude from evidence all recorded jail calls made by the McMichaels while they were held in the Glynn County Detention Center.

https://us.cnn.com/2021/01/03/us/ahmaud ... index.html

"First, we hang all the lawyers."

But hanging's to good for these vile excuses for a human beings. Not to mention their clients. That these sort of obstructions of justice might be allowed is just another example of a legal system weighed in favor of the rich and the white and those who can afford to hire the most obfuscating sophist. ( Didn't need this story crawling all over me like a cheap suit this morning, wanna ...nevermind.)

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Texas prisons: Scene of negligence toward COVID-19
Wyatt SkinnerJanuary 3, 2021

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The state of Texas is ringing in the new year with COVID-19 spiraling out of control. The state has seen almost 2 million cases out of a population of 29 million, with cases certain to grow dramatically in the weeks following the holidays.

Rather than provide economic assistance to support people in quarantining as needed to effectively stop the spread, government authorities have taken passive, counter-productive, and even hostile actions toward the most vulnerable. In Texas prisons, the class nature of COVID-19 spread is being exposed as infection rates surge.

An injustice system acquires a deadly new weapon

Texas has the 7th highest incarceration rate in the U.S., which has the highest incarceration rate in the world. A quarter million people, or almost 1% of the state’s population (0.891%), is behind bars at any time. The disproportionate number of people in prison makes the issue of COVID-19 protection for captive populations a vital community issue, especially as infection rates inside Texas prisons skyrocket.

The quarantine has been particularly cruel on imprisoned children. Texas has used the pandemic as an excuse to suspend independent monitors for juvenile prisons and local jails. Independent monitors are often the last line of defense for reporting cases of abuse and cruelty by prison authorities.

Many children are being held in isolation cells for 23 hours a day, with their only outside contact being their guards. These “solitary confinement” conditions are legally classified as torture by international human rights law.


“Freedom to die” on the outside, cruel isolation on the inside

While Texas state officials fight mandatory quarantine and social distancing orders outside of prisons, inmates are subjected to dehumanizing, ineffective isolation as their families struggle to maintain contact.

The measures taken to isolate prisoners are allegedly to “quarantine” against COVID-19, but conditions and policies within prison make it impossible to protect imprisoned people. Once inside the walls, COVID-19 spreads largely uncontrolled, often brought in by guards.

Texas prisons have seen over 27,000 COVID-19 cases, almost 11% of the total Texas incarcerated population. This compares with a 5.8% infection rate of the general state population, making prisoners twice as likely to be infected as non-incarcerated Texans. COVID-19 related deaths have also been uniquely high in prisons. Prisoners in Texas have a 35% higher chance of dying of COVID-19 compared to the national average.

190 prisoners have died in Texas since the beginning of the pandemic. Out of these 190 people, 58% were eligible for parole, 73% did not have a life sentence, and not a single person was sentenced by judge or jury to “death by COVID-19.”

These deaths are not unavoidable acts of nature. They are de facto death sentences, doled out by the capitalist state through willful negligence.

End mass incarceration and save lives!

The reality of the U.S. “justice” system is that it is designed to punish and exploit those caught in its wheels. Rather than focus on rehabilitation, the police, courts, and prison systems ensnare working-class and oppressed communities in a never-ending cycle of imprisonment. The effect is to devastate poor, Black and Latino communities as the “justice” system enforces white supremacist, capitalist laws and double standards.

Instead of relaxing its approach, as the state government has done for labor laws and basic worker protections, Texas has used the pandemic to exacerbate inequality and cruelty against its captive population. Those who have contracted COVID-19 within prison are victims of extrajudicial punishment, and in the worst cases extrajudicial execution, as the result of state and federal negligence. Federal and state governments must release those behind bars in effort to slow the spread of COVID-19 and save lives. We must continue the struggle against the cruel, corrupt prison system and the depraved political and economic systems that propagate it!

https://www.liberationnews.org/texas-pr ... rationnews

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A Call to Action from the Prisoners Solidarity Committee of Workers World Party:
NO RETALIATION ON THE ALABAMA PRISON STRIKE!


Contact Alabama DOC Commissioner Jeff Dunn and tell him: NO RETALIATION!

334-353-3883

jefferson.dunn@doc.alabama.gov

Twitter: @ADOCDunn

On January 1, 2021, a Black-led prison strike in Alabama went underway. Incarcerated workers have gone on strike to protest the inhumane conditions in Alabama prisons, the economic exploitation of incarcerated workers, the neglect of the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) around COVID, and the implementation of video visitation equipment by Securus Technologies in order to eventually do away with in-person visitation. This strike is being led by the Free Alabama Movement, a prison abolition group founded and run by Black incarcerated workers, including Kinetik Justice, Swift Justice, and Bennu Hannibal Ra Sun, and is being referred to as a 30 Day Economic Blackout (#30DayEconomicBlackout on social media).

Additionally, as of 1/5/21, 11 incarcerated workers in segregation are participating in the prison strike/economic blackout with a hunger strike. These 11 workers are identified as:



Bernard Jemison - #179080
Brandon Cargill - #214181
Gerald Griffin - #247505
Karon Similton - #294981
Patrick Banegos - #297614
Ronnie Miller - #244648
Kenyeda Johnson - #231169
Delbert Tillery - #183233
Deandre Wilson - #224433
Cornelius Bridges - #264222

These 11 individuals are incarcerated at Kilby Correctional Facility in Mt. Meigs, Alabama, 15 minutes outside of Montgomery, Alabama. Since December 31st, 2020, these workers have been targeted repeatedly by guards; first by intimidation, and it has gradually expanded to assault. On January 4, Ronnie Miller was beaten by a guard, Officer Landrum, at the orders of Sergeant Williams, after they falsely claimed he was being hostile. He was beaten bloody and sent to the infirmary, and has been released. He is okay now, though still bruised.

On January 5, Brandon Cargill, a hunger striker, was maced in his cell by Captain Hudson and other prison guards for no reason whatsoever. The mace spread to the entire unit, affecting all in segregation. Captain Hudson then informed all of the strikers that “they are next”. These attacks on the hunger strikes are a direct form of retaliation to the overall strike and economic blackout, and are one of the reasons why this strike is happening in the first place: the constant assault and harassment by guards throughout ADOC.

The hunger strikers have asked for a phone and Twitter zap towards Jeff Dunn, Commissioner of Alabama Department of Corrections, to intervene and stop the violence being inflicted on them as a form of retaliation. We are spreading their plea to all of our anti-capitalist, prison abolitionist contacts in the hope that you will also join this phone and Twitter zap to make Jeff Dunn stop the retaliatory violence against the hunger strikers and all incarcerated workers participating in the 30 Day Economic Blackout/Alabama prison strike.


Jeff Dunn’s Phone Number: 334-353-3883

Jeff Dunn’s Email: jefferson.dunn@doc.alabama.gov

Jeff Dunn’s Twitter: @ADOCDunn

Additionally, we have enclosed the AIS numbers for the 11 hunger strikers as they would like to receive letters of solidarity and support. The Alabama DOC wants nothing more than to isolate this heroic strike from the rest of the working class, suffering from unemployment, hunger and the threat of eviction being exacerbated by COVID-19. You can help break this isolation by extending a hand of solidarity to those behind the walls who are fighting for the right of all human beings to be treated with dignity and respect.

If anyone of our contacts is a reporter for a major media site, please reach out to see about interviewing one or more of these revolutionary freedom fighters. Alabama Department of Corrections is a particularly odious system and they are seeking to expose it and abolish it.

A better world is inevitable!

Comradely,

Devin Cole [they/them pronouns]

Prisoners Solidarity Committee of Workers World Party

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St. Pete protests Desantis’ draconian anti-BLM protester bill
Devonte SullivanJanuary 27, 2021 112 1 minute read

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Dozens of activists gathered along Central Avenue in St. Petersburg on Saturday, January 23, rallying in the streets against the fascist policies introduced by Ron Desantis and the Florida Legislature this past September.

As the events of 2020 influenced a rise in social discontent, the working-class still suffers from the long term effects of income inequality, food scarcity, and unaffordable healthcare. In response to Floridians across the state demanding an end to police brutality and the reallocation of police departmental budgets to social programs, Desantis has decided to shut down First Amendment rights to nullify opposition.



Even as the Biden Administration squanders its first days in power, Ron Desantis continues to target activists vocal about the state’s attack on civil rights. HB1 and Senate Bill 484, introduced to ‘combat public disorder’ threatens felony charges against peaceful protesters and RICO liability against individuals who donate or fundraise for protestors. These severe charges remove basic rights such as voting, gun possession, and receiving public assistance, such as financial aid; having the potential to be weaponized against already embattled labor unions within the state due to the arbitrarily defined penalties against “disorderly conduct”.

Furthermore, the bill prevents protesters from receiving bail until they first appear in court and allows drivers who “fear for their safety” to injure pedestrians on the streets, comparable to Florida’s controversial ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws. These draconian policies are a clear attempt to punish anyone who opposes the police state, and an intimidation tactic prevalent in bourgeois politics.



On January 27, over the outcry of activists, the House Criminal Justice & Public Safety Subcommittee passed the bill in its first legislative stop. However, there is still time to defeat the bill as it moves through the Florida legislature in the coming weeks.

“If you don’t like the way the government is treating you and your family, if you want things to be different, you have the right to let them know”, said Rory D of St. Petersburg. “This is a direct targeting of protesters by police and other state officials.”

Hundreds of arrests have been made over ‘disorderly conduct’ in the past 7 months in South Florida, with an overwhelming majority directed against peaceful assemblies. This unwarranted retaliation is only emphasized by Tampa’s massive budget increase towards the police department, totaling $175 million for fiscal year 2021, the largest in the nation.

https://www.liberationnews.org/st-pete- ... rationnews

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We Have To Stop Valorizing Black Cops
Mary Retta 27 Jan 2021


We Have To Stop Valorizing Black Cops

The purpose of policing––to jail and kill Black folks––remains the same regardless of the officers’ race.

“Allowing Black people into inherently racist systems does not make those systems better, safer, or more equitable.”

Policing in America is facing a PR crisis. Following the May 25th murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, the term “defund the police” has become a rallying cry for thousands across the country. Six months later, however, America has not defunded its police force––and in fact, has in some cases taken steps to give police departments even more money. Instead, police forces across America have taken an insidious approach: painting their departments in blackface.

After the January 6th Trump riot at the Capitol building , Yoganda Pittman, a Black woman, was named the new Chief of Capitol Police. Her appointment followed the resignation of former Chief Steven Sund and the arrest and firing of several white police officers who were found to be in attendance at the MAGA riot. Pittman’s appointment appeased many liberals who falsely believe that allowing Black folks to infiltrate or run law enforcement agencies will lead to higher levels of safety for Black Americans. The termination of several officers who took part in the riot has convinced many that we are one step closer to “reforming” the police by weeding out the racist, bad apples within the department.

“Pittman’s appointment appeased many liberals.”

This is a nice narrative, but a false one; in order to understand why, we must look at the history of policing in this country. Modern policing in America was originally created as a replacement for America’s slave patrol system wherein squadrons made up of white volunteers were empowered to use vigilante tactics to enforce laws related to slavery. These “enforcers” were in charge of locating and returning enslaved people who had escaped, crushing uprisings led by enslaved people, and punishing enslaved workers who were found or believed to have violated plantation rules. After slavery was legally abolished in 1865, America created its modern police force to do the exact thing under a different name: maintain the white supremacist hierarchy that is necessary under racial capitalism. The purpose of policing––to jail and kill Black folks––remains the same regardless of the officers’ race.

Liberal media has also contributed to the recent valorization of Black cops. In the days after the January 6th riot, many news outlets aggressively pushed a story about Eugene Goodman, a Black capitol police officer who led several rioters away from the Congress people’s hiding places while being chased by a white supremacist mob. Several news outlets published testimonials of Black police officers disclosing instances of racism within the department. A January 14th article in ProPublica notes that over 250 Black cops have sued the department for racism since 2001: some Black cops have alleged that white officers used racial slurs or hung nooses in Black officer’s lockers, and one Black cop even claimed he heard a white officer say, “Obama monkey, go back to Africa.”

“Modern policing in America was originally created as a replacement for America’s slave patrol system.”

These white officers’ racism is unsurprising, and I am not denying any of these claims. But focusing on these singular, isolated moments of racism wherein white cops are painted as cruel and Black cops are the sympathetic victims grossly oversimplifies the narrative of structural racism that modern American policing was built upon. After hearing these slurs that they were allegedly so disgusted by, these Black cops still intentionally chose to put on their badge, don their guns, and work alongside these white police officers who insulted and demeaned them, laboring under a violent system with the sole purpose of harming and terrorizing Black and low-income communities. Similarly, while Goodman’s actions most likely saved many lives during the riot, we cannot allow one moment of decency to erase centuries of racist violence.

The great Zora Neale Hurston once said: “All my skinfolk ain’t kinfolk.” Her words ring ever true today, and these Black police officers are an excellent example of why. It’s tempting to believe that putting Black folks on the force will solve racial violence, but this is a liberal myth we must break free of. Allowing Black people into inherently racist systems does not make those systems better, safer, or more equitable: a quick look at many Black folks in power today, such as Barack Obama, Kamala Harris, Lori Lightfoot, and Keisha Lance Bottoms immediately prove this to be the case. Everyone supporting racial capitalism must be scrutinized and held accountable, regardless of their identity. We cannot on the one hand say that ‘all cops are bastards’ and then suddenly feel sympathy when those cops are not white. If we want to defund and abolish the police, we must resist the narrative that Black cops have anything to offer us.

Mary Retta is a writer, virgo, cartoon enthusiast -- a queer Black writer for sites like Teen Vogue, The Nation, Bitch Media, and Vice.

This article previously appeared in HoodCommunist .

https://www.blackagendareport.com/we-ha ... black-cops

No cop can be trusted as far as you can throw them. They have elected to join that vile tribe, regardless of other relationships and professions of sympathy upon order or suggestion they will abuse you, club you, shoot you. The professed 'liberal cops' are among the worst.

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Police actively detain protesters thanks to face recognition system
02/04/2021
"Black Mirror" is not a dystopia

The face recognition system, which came to Moscow together with good digitalization in the format of a convenient appointment with a doctor or a democratic choice of “the color of benches in the park,” turned out to be a powerful and ruthless weapon. Today, instead of tracking the location of bandits and murderers, it targets people opposing the government. The system does not know who it is dealing with - a liberal or a communist. I went to the rally - got registered. The Village shared the material about how the Moscow police detain protesters according to the data of the facial recognition system .

So, on January 31, the police detained a Muscovite Olga , who went down in the subway at the Buninskaya Alleya station. The system identified the girl despite the mask she was wearing.

“It was as if the police themselves did not really understand what was happening. They said that I was in their database, and I was added there twice. Once on March 10, 2020, which is strange, since then there were no political actions, the second time was on January 30. I am listed in the database as an active participant in rallies, ”Olga said.

Similar cases affected other townspeople. Photographer Georgy Malts was detained at Tverskaya . The police warned that the man "is registered as a political one." In the same way, a Muscovite Mikhail Shulman was detained in the metro . The citizens were questioned as witnesses. The Village reports that in a number of cases, law enforcement officers went further: the police showed up at the house of the historian Kamil Galeev . Galeev is the author of a telegram channel about the history of the High Port. As a result of communication with the man, it turned out that the face recognition system is able not only to compare images, but also to collect information about people found in social networks.



“I am the brother of the author of the channel“ High Port ”Kamil Galeev. Kamil was arrested at his home at 9 am today on charges of participating in a rally on 23 January. Now he is being transported to the Moscow special detention center No. 2 for 10 days of administrative arrest. Hopefully, in 10 days it will be back, and the familiar historical content will appear here again ”, - a post on the Vysokaya Porta channel, published on January 31st.

It is reported that as of September 2020, about 200 thousand cameras with a built-in face recognition system controlled the movement of Muscovites. Today cameras accompany us on the streets, in the entrances of residential buildings, at metro stations. You can say “thank you” to the Russian company NtechLab : first, it created the FindFace mobile application, which in 2016 caused the bullying of girls on social networks and extortion, and in 2018, together with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, tested a mobile identification system for rally participants.

NtechLab director Alexander Minin told Rusbase that even if 40% of the face is overlapped, it is recognizable. Even if you are wearing a motorcycle helmet or mask, the system will handle your identity. Who said Black Mirror is a dystopia?


Today the state power has a wide array of technologies aimed at suppressing rallies and strikes.

“In 2016, the forces of the Russian Guard in Zlatoust conducted exemplary exercises to suppress the strike of workers with months of wage arrears. At the end of 2018, Rosgvardia purchased ten Stena complexes, designed to effectively combat popular demonstrations in urban settings. Earlier, armored vehicles "Punisher" and water cannons "Storm" were purchased for the same purposes. There is also information about the purchase of “Whisper” infrasound impact systems, - ROT FRONT reported earlier.

The state is aware of the danger, and it prepares - conducts successful tests of new technologies on living experimental subjects. It is not enough to be disappointed or even angry “people with bright faces” to win. To fight effectively, you need to be ready for it: we have a choice - to be organized or to lose.

https://www.rotfront.su/politsiya-aktiv ... t-protest/

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