(2020-04-17). Nigeria: Police Brutality Is More Lethal Than COVID-19. telesurenglish.net Nigeria's National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) denounced that the victims of police brutality outnumber those killed by COVID-19 on its territory as the Nigerian police are suspected of having carried out 18 extra-judicial killings between March 30 and April 13. | RELATED: | "While the new coronavirus has killed eleven patients, security forces have extrajudicially executed 18 people to enforce orders," the NHRC head Tony Ojukwu said and added that h…
(2020-04-15). African Americans hit the hardest by COVID-19 pandemic. fightbacknews.org San José, CA – The COVID-19 pandemic that is sweeping through the United States, with over 600,000 confirmed infections and almost 25,000 deaths as of April 14, is hitting African Americans the hardest. While complete data has not been released by the federal government – just one of a long list of failures – early and partial data shows that nationwide, African Americans are dying at twice the rate of other Americans from COVID-19. | The hardest hit in terms of deaths per local population, has not been New York City – although the death toll there has been terrible, with 8000 known dead – but in majority Black c…
(2020-04-15). "I Want an Apology": Black Doctor Who Tests Homeless for Coronavirus Handcuffed by Miami Police. democracynow.org 
We speak with Dr. Armen Henderson, an African-American doctor who was handcuffed and detained outside his home Friday as he was wearing a mask and preparing for a volunteer shift to test homeless people for COVID-19. "I want the officer held accountable. There's no way that you racially profile me and then you arrest me, detain me, during a pandemic, when you have no mask on, where hundreds of police officers throughout Miami-Dade County have tested positive," says Dr. Henderson, who is an internal medicine physician, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Miami and an organizer with Dream Defenders…
(2020-04-15). CROWN Act movement seeks to protect Black people from racial discrimination based on hairstyles. splcenter.org Jordan Winder did not apply to the high school of his choice because the dreadlocks he's been growing nearly half his life are not allowed there.
(2020-04-15). International Twitter/Media Storm & Phone Zap for Mumia! fightbacknews.org Fight Back News Service urges all our readers to support this event | Mumia Abu-Jamal—father, husband and grandfather—is an internationally renowned US political prisoner, widely honored for his piercing indictments of the racial inequities and brutal imperialist powers of the US. Abu-Jamal was originally targeted for surveillance and "neutralization" when he was a 15 year-old spokesman for the Black Panther Party in Philadelphia, by the FBI. | By the age of 26, Mumia Abu-Jamal was an award-winning radio journalist with a wide following, known as the "voice of the voiceless" and outspoken in his defen…
(2020-04-15). ECURI: The Possible Emergence of a New Idea of "National Security" dissidentvoice.org 
The United States is experiencing an upheaval from the Coronavirus pandemic that is deeper than anything in modern American history, and military and civilian Pentagon elites have responded to it in a way that seems certain to further magnify the broader corrosive impact of the crisis on their enormous power. | It has further widened the existing socio-political seam between those elites and their servicemen and women who have faced a threat to their health not only from the pandemic itself but from the decisions made by military bureaucrats directly affecting their safety. | That is the larger significance of th…
(2020-04-15). Pandemic fraud warning as two arrested over false Covid-19 test claims. thecanary.co 
The coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic is increasingly being used as "a hook to commit fraud", a senior investigator has warned.Director general of the National Economic Crime Centre Graeme Biggar expects to see an increase in scams amid the Covid-19 outbreak and said that individuals and businesses need to be prepared.He spoke out as the National Crime Agency said it had arrested two people on suspicion of illegally selling tests for the virus.A 46-year-old pharmacist from Croydon, south London, was arrested under the Fraud Act on Saturday after he allegedly made false and misleading claims about the tests.Officers…
(2020-04-14). Facebook Picks up Senior FTC Official to Undermine Her Former Employees. cepr.net The Covid-19 pandemic is creating ripe conditions for corporate acquisition sprees by industry giants. But at least one company, already under the microscope, isn't just looking to pick off competitors. Facebook has its eyes on the supposed cops on this beat, the antitrust enforcement officials ready to jump ship. Barbara Blank just joined Facebook …
(2020-04-13). Wash Your Hands? Despite Pandemic, Thousands Still Have No Water in Detroit, a Coronavirus Hot Spot. democracynow.org 
Water shutoffs continue amid the coronavirus pandemic in Detroit, despite a moratorium and a program to help thousands of residents restore service last month. The lack of water access comes as nearly 1,500 people in Michigan have died from COVID-19, and 40% of those who have died are African-American, despite making up just 14% of the state's population. We speak with community pastor and activist Rev. Roslyn Bouier, who has been working with residents to restore their water.
(2020-04-08). "They Don't Care if You Die": Immigrants in ICE Detention Fear the Spread of COVID-19. aclu.org 
Mario Rodas, Sr. first found out there was a deadly virus spreading through the country while he was watching television at the Plymouth County Correctional Facility in Massachusetts. In early March, Rodas had been pulled over and arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents while driving to the supermarket with his wife, a legal resident and the mother of his three U.S. citizen children. Since then, he'd been in the custody of ICE, mostly at Plymouth. | The more Rodas heard about the disease, the more fearful the 59-year-old became. | "I was scared for my health," he told the ACLU. "I was worr…
(2020-04-08). "A Systematic Issue of Disparity": Black People in Louisiana Account for 70% of COVID-19 Deaths. democracynow.org 
Louisiana faces one of the worst outbreaks of the coronavirus in the United States. New data shows black people account for 70% of all the state's coronavirus deaths, though they comprise just 32% of the state's population. Louisiana also has the highest incarceration rate in the country, and more than 65% of the people in its jails and prisons are black. At least 28 people are infected, and 22 corrections staff have tested positive. State corrections officials are sending infected prisoners to the Louisiana State Penitentiary — known as Angola, the largest maximum-security prison in the United States [mdas…
(2020-04-08). If COVID-19 Doesn't Discriminate, Then Why Are Black People Dying at Higher Rates? aclu.org COVID-19 is ravaging many parts of the United States, but nowhere more than in Black communities. Early data from the
(2020-04-08). Albert Woodfox: COVID-19 Offers Public a "Small Window" into What Prisoners Face in Solitary Confinement. democracynow.org 
As millions shelter in place around the world, we speak with Albert Woodfox, who served the longest time in solitary confinement of any prisoner in the United States. Known as one of the Angola Three, along with Robert King and Herman Wallace, Woodfox was held in isolation for nearly 44 years at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, known as Angola. He was convicted of killing a guard in jail, but always maintained his innocence. He says he was targeted for co-founding the first Black Panther chapter in Angola. He was released in 2016 and is now 73 years old. His memoir is "Solitary: Unbroken by Four Decades in Solit…
(2019-07-24). MPP National Director Nick Brana arrested with XR. peoplesparty.org 
with Extinction Rebellion climate activists | MPP National Director Nick Brana arrested with Extinction Rebellion climate activists after supergluing themselves to Congress in mass civil disobedience: | Washington, D.C. — Movement for a People's Party National Director Nick Brana was arrested during a protest to block Congress and demand that they join the countries of the UK and Canada and declare a climate emergency. | Brana and 15 people affiliated with the climate action group Extinction Rebellion (XR) glued themselves to three underground tunnel entrances leading to the Capitol, blocking access…