Remember! Celebrate! Act! (Martin Luther King Day)

Illuminate

Courtesy of clickypix.com

NBCNews.com just published an editorial by Bernice A. King about her thoughts this year on Martin Luther King Day, the day we honor her father’s work. She reminds us that we mustn’t just honor him passively, however. She says:

“The national theme for the 2015 MLK holiday, “Remember! Celebrate! Act!: King’s Legacy of Courage for Our World” calls on people everywhere to do something courageous — make a commitment to nonviolence as a way of life which we, at The King Center, refer to as Nonviolence 365.

This means making a conscious choice to use Martin Luther King, Jr.’s principles and methods of nonviolence to defuse violence, peacefully resolve disputes and reconcile adversities in our homes, communities, the nation, and even the world.”

Who better than King’s daughter to guide us through these chaotic times?

Click here for the full editorial.

View original post

Know Where Politicians Stand on the Issues (inc. Candidates)

Illuminate

Photo courtesy of wikipedia.org

At OnTheIssues.org, you can find out where every U.S. representative and senator stands on every issue, including their voting records (how they have voted on legislation). As voters, it’s incredibly important that we keep an eye on what our politicians are doing and make informed decisions about who to support.

View original post 215 more words

Settler Colonialism and Anti-Blackness Conference

If you’re close to University of California, Riverside – or willing to travel.

Unsettling America

“Otherwise Worlds: Against Settler Colonialism and Anti-Blackness” is a conversation that takes seriously the intellectual and political exchange between Native Studies and Black Studies, focusing on how anti-Black racism intersects with settler colonial logics. An opportunity for exploration and critical conversation, “Otherwise Worlds” stages a series of discussions that seek to interrogate concepts such as “people of color” and how such concepts operate to dilute the specificity of state violence. Particularly with the rise of Afropessmissm, increasingly more scholars in Black studies are focusing on the centrality of anti-Black racism within U.S. society. This work has intervened within Ethnic Studies by insisting on the specificity of anti-Black racism that cannot be addressed through either “people of color” politics or Ethnic Studies intellectual models. Similarly, scholars in Native Studies have often positioned Native studies in opposition to Ethnic Studies under the argument that Native peoples should be analyzed under…

View original post 149 more words

The regularized police occupation of Furguson, Missouri

The Injustice of Justice

From Tanya: The author of this post invites League bloggers to write for the The Contrary Perspective. 

The Contrary Perspective

Jeffrey Toobin: Win or Don’t Bother?

Richard Sahn

I was appalled by Jeffrey Toobin’s analysis of the decision of the grand jury in the Darren Wilson indictment hearings. Toobin, a legal analyst for CNN is a former prosecutor as well as defense attorney. The reason the DA,  Robert McCulloch, did not prosecute Darren Wilson during the hearings was because, Toobin says, he could not have convinced a trial jury that Wilson was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, even of involuntary manslaughter, the least of the possible charges. What good is an indictment—which is based on probable cause—Toobin would have us believe if there is no or little chance of winning at a trial?

So for Toobin, and who knows how many other extraordinary legal minds, it’s win or don’t bother. The legal proceedings in the wake of Michael Brown’s shooting death were all a game, to be won or lost…

View original post 445 more words

Ferguson, Missouri police plan for possible riots if cop Darren Wilson not charged

Reblogged from The Secular Jurist:

FERGUSON MISSOURI – Missouri authorities are drawing up contingency plans and seeking intelligence from U.S. police departments on out-of-state agitators, fearing that fresh riots could erupt if a grand jury does not indict a white officer for killing a black teen.

The plans are being thrashed out in meetings being held two to three times a week, according to people who have attended them. The FBI said it was also involved in the discussions.

[…]

The grand jury is expected to decide next month whether to bring criminal charges against police officer Darren Wilson, who shot dead Michael Brown, 18, on Aug. 9 in Ferguson, Missouri.

Continue reading:  http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/missouri-police-plan-for-possible-riots-if-brown-cop-not-charged/ar-BB83w9D

Related stories:

Outrageous police practice of making protestors stay in constant movement ruled unconstitutional

St. Louis Cardinals fans chant for Darren Wilson, tell protestors to get jobs and go to Africa

Hammond, Indiana police sued over use of Taser during traffic stop

Indiana state trooper pulls woman over and asks ‘do you accept Jesus Christ as your savior?’

No Charges For Georgia SWAT Who Flash-Banged A Babies Nose Off.

Albuquerque police officer jokes about shooting James Boyd–kills him two hours later

Justice Department To Investigate Ohio Wal-Mart Shooting

Sept 24 (Reuters) – Federal investigators will review whether two white police officers violated the civil rights of a black man they fatally shot while he held a BB gun in a Dayton-area Walmart in August, the U.S. Justice Department said on Wednesday.

The announcement came hours after an Ohio grand jury decided not to press charges against two white Beavercreek police officers who fatally shot John Crawford III, 22, while he held a pellet gun in the store on Aug. 5.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/24/justice-department-walmart-shooting_n_5879036.html

Victor White’s unbelievable ‘Houdini handcuff’ suicide

The actions of the Ferguson, Mo., police department in the shooting death of Michael Brown by Officer Darren Wilson were curious, if not unbelievable and reprehensible. But the Louisiana State Police and the Iberia Parish coroner take things to a whole new level of with their conflicting and even more dubious claims involving a deadly encounter between police and a handcuffed black man.

According to a report on NBCNews.com, Victor White III and Isaiah Lewis were inside a gas station convenience store in New Iberia, La., in the waning hours of March 2. A fight between two other men outside the store broke out. After those two left the front of the store, White and Lewis went on their way. But they were stopped by police shortly thereafter. The police report says White complied with a “consented pat-down,” which led the officer to find “suspected marijuana in front pants pocket.” The NBC News report notes that police called for backup after running White’s and Lewis’s name through a police database. What happened next, according to the State Police press release cited by NBC, strains credulity.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2014/09/02/victor-whites-unbelievable-houdini-handcuff-suicide/

The US human rights record domestically: Poor

Later On

Joanna Rothkopf reports in Salon:

The United Nations’ Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has recently concluded its 85th Session during which time it considered seven state reports, including one on the United States.

The report praised many progressive steps the U.S. has taken to ensure equality, including the termination of the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, the adoption of the Fair Sentencing Act and the adoption of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

However, the number of issues the report raises is pretty abominable. CERD expressed concern over the following problems:

1. Lack of a national human rights institution
2. Persistent racial profiling and illegal surveillance
3. Prevalence and under-reporting of racist hate speech and hate crimes
4. Disparate impact of environmental pollution in low income and minority communities
5. Restrictive voter identification laws leading to unequal right to vote
6. Criminalization of homelessness when homeless people are…

View original post 177 more words

The Day in 3 Pictures

The Last Of The Millenniums

Poor Republicans keep voting for Republicans who want to cut Food Stamps and refuse to raise the minimum wage.

View original post