2019-10-22: News Headlines

Staff (2019-10-22). HBO's Watchmen Tackles the 1921 Tulsa Massacre. therealnews.com Image courtesy of HBO. | When sci-fi fans watched Sunday night's season premiere of HBO's Watchmen they were thrust immediately into the bloody 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. In the show's opening scene, cameras followed a young, black boy who is carried by his mother outside a movie theatre and directly into the carnage. Black people are lit on fire, dragged through the streets, and shot on sight. | Based on the wildly popular graphic novel of the same name, "Watchmen" is set in an alternate version of our history. The show is fiction, but the massacre depicted on screen was very real. | "Before the massacre, Greenwo…

Staff (2019-10-22). Outrage Erupts After Trump Calls Impeachment Inquiry "a Lynching" truthout.org President Donald Trump took his outrageous response to House Democrats' impeachment inquiry to a new level Tuesday morning by calling the congressional proceedings "a lynching," a term that evokes the long history of racist violence against black people in the United States. | "So some day, if a Democrat becomes president and the Republicans win the House, even by a t…

Alice Speri (2019-10-22). A Presidential Town Hall on Mass Incarceration — Who Will Show Up? theintercept.com A group of formerly incarcerated men and women will moderate a presidential town hall for the first time ever next week, questioning candidates about their positions on the U.S. justice system before an audience made up exclusively of people with firsthand experience of the country's prisons and jails. | The event, to be held on October 28 at the Eastern State Penitentiary, a historic former prison in Philadelphia, aims to put questions of mass incarceration, broken courts, and racist policing at the forefront of the debate in an election season that has largely seen them eclipsed by other issues. So far, only Se…

RT (2019-10-22). Students ARRESTED after racial slur dare game is recorded & posted on Twitter. rt.com Two University of Connecticut students have been arrested after they were filmed trading racial slurs back and forth in what appeared to be a vulgar word game. The video was posted online and sparked protests on campus. | Jarred Karal and Ryan Mucaj, both 21, were arrested and charged with "ridicule on account of creed, religion, color, denomination, nationality, or race," UConn spokeswoman Stephanie Reitz announced on Monday as students and staff alike demanded "accountability." | The two white students had played a game where they uttered vulgar words at increasing volume as they walked through the campus pa…

WSWS (2019-10-21). At Tennessee "informational meeting" UAW calls cops on workers campaigning against GM contract. wsws.org The union is determined to run roughshod over the democratic rights of workers to force through their sellout deal with General Motors.

Staff (2019-10-18). NYC Council Votes to Build More Jails, Continue Mass Incarceration. therealnews.com Eddie Conway speaks with No New Jails organizer Pilar Maschi ahead of the NYC Council jail vote about what grassroots activists can do to continue the fight to keep new jails out of New York City.

Udi Ofer (2019-10-18). Unveiling a State-by-State Plan to End our Mass Incarceration Crisis. aclu.org The United States locks up more of its people than | any other nation in the world. A whopping 2.2 million people are living behind | bars in this country on any given day. Our national incarceration rate is four | times that of Australia, five times that of the United Kingdom, and six times that | of Canada. | This uniquely American problem is not one crisis | — rather, mass incarceration is a series of state-based catastrophes, each one | different from the next. While much attention was paid | to the federal reforms passed last year through the First Step Act, of | the 2.2 million people locked up on…

Staff (2019-10-18). Sentenced to Life in Prison as a Teen, How Cyntoia Brown Survived Sex Trafficking & Won Her Freedom. democracynow.org At the age of 16, she was arrested for killing a man who had picked her up for sex, after she had been forced into sexual slavery as a child. She was tried as an adult and sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of first-degree murder for shooting the man who bought her for sex when she feared for her life. Today Cyntoia Brown-Long joins us to share her experience, what has happened in the 15 years she was incarcerated, and how she won her release. In an incredible development, after a years-long campaign to win her freedom, Cyntoia was granted clemency in January after former Tennessee Governor Bill Ha…

United Nations (2019-10-18). UN human rights office urges Egypt to immediately release detained protestors. un.org Authorities in Egypt are being urged by the UN human rights office, OHCHR, to immediately release scores of citizens who have been arrested in connection with recent anti-government demonstrations in several cities.

Makasi Motema (2019-10-16). What would a people's impeachment look like? workers.org Our news cycle is dominated by one overwhelming, all-encompassing story. While millions of people in the U.S. suffer without medical coverage, while police in Texas make a habit of entering Black people's homes and murdering them, and while our climate catastrophe looms, it is the palace intrigue of Trump's White . . . | Continue reading What would a people's impeachment look like? at Workers.org

Phebe Eckfeldt (2019-10-16). Hundreds pack State House to resist mass incarceration. workers.org Hundreds of families, friends and supporters of prisoners packed the Massachusetts State House Oct. 8 to support "An Act to Reduce Mass Incarceration." This bill, H3358, would eliminate life sentences without parole. A person serving a life sentence would be allowed to have a parole hearing after 25 years, then . . . | Continue reading Hundreds pack State House to resist mass incarceration at Workers.org

Staff (2019-10-16). Headlines for October 16, 2019. democracynow.org 12 Democratic Candidates Take to the Stage in Ohio, Pence Heads to Turkey as Erdogan Vows No Ceasefire in Northern Syria, State Dept. Official: White House Put "Three Amigos" in Charge of Ukraine Policy, Activists Arrested in D.C. over Trump Plan to Gut Refugee Resettlement, British Family Detained for a Week After Mistakenly Driving Across U.S.-Canada Border, Egypt Tortured Journalist & Activist Esraa Abdel Fattah in Custody, Worst Fires in Decades Rage Across Lebanon, Mexican Senate Slated to Vote on Bill to Legalize Marijuana, Man Launches Hunger Strike Amid Mohawk Land Dispute with Real Estate Developers, Cal…

Staff (2019-10-15). Botham Jean, Then Atatiana Jefferson: Outrage in Texas as Police Kill Another Black Resident at Home. democracynow.org A white police officer in Fort Worth, Texas, has been arrested and charged with murder, after he shot and killed an African-American woman who was inside her own home. Officer Aaron Dean was responding to a non-emergency call for a wellness check after a neighbor had called the Fort Worth police to report that 28-year-old Atatiana Jefferson's front door was open at around 2: 30 in the morning on Saturday. Soon after the officers arrived, Dean, who never identified himself to be a police officer, shouted through Jefferson's bedroom window to put her hands up, and then immediately opened fire, killing her. Minutes b…

Gregory Shupak (2019-10-13). The False Balance Between Fascists and Antifascists. fair.org Right-wing terror is a feature of daily life in present-day America. Ostensibly spontaneous violence incubates in the same ideological ecosystem as organized reactionary political associations. Tribute to victims at the Tree of Life Congregation Synagogue in Pittsburgh. (photo: Wikimedia) | Robert Bowers, the man arrested for a rampage that killed seven at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life Synagogue, was seemingly steeped in the ultra-right's internal online debates, blaming Jews and Muslims for what he sees as the "

SAMIR (2019-10-10). Bollywood: Stand Against Apartheid! bdsmovement.net Bollywood: Stand Against Apartheid! : Action AlertHelp appeal to Bollywood stars booked to perform in Tel Aviv | Cultural BoycottOctober 10, 2019 | By: | | Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI)

splcenter (2019-10-07). Beyond Bars: Life before and after incarceration in Alabama. splcenter.org As criminal justice and prison reform take center stage in Alabama politics, Alabamians for Fair Justice, a broad coalition of advocates supported by the SPLC and other organizations, are working to lift up the voices of people directly affected by the criminal justice system.

PSL Southern New Hampshire (2019-10-06). 69 activists arrested demanding shut down of Bow, New Hampshire coal plant. liberationnews.org Mass direct actions targets coal plant.

SAMIR (2019-09-20). Boycott InDnegev Festival 2019. bdsmovement.net Boycott InDnegev Festival 2019: PACBI StatementInDnegev is complicit in Israel's apartheid and ethnic cleansing against Palestinians | Cultural BoycottSeptember 20, 2019 | By: | | Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI)