Month: February 2016

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The police beating that opened America’s eyes to Jim Crow’s brutality

Seventy years ago, a horrific beating left a black World War II vet blind. His determined fight for justice would earn the support of Orson Welles, Woody Guthrie – and even the president.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: theconversation.com

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Exclusive Dispatch: Private Water Industry Says Water Bills “Have to Go Up” | Aaron Miguel Cantu | Truth-Out.org

Morning sunlight spilled through long, narrow windowpanes inside the ballroom of the Francis Marion hotel, located in the heart of downtown Charleston, South Carolina, where dozens of public officials, company executives, attorneys and consultants had gathered to portend the future of the water industry in the Southeast United States. Beyond the region, their discussion was aimed at reimagining the future of the entire country’s water infrastructure needs – including their hopes to move it into private hands.

I was the only member of the press present at the Southeast Water Infrastructure Summit, a gathering hosted by the National Association of Water Companies (NAWC), “the voice of the private water industry.” Among its top sponsors were American Water, the nation’s largest publicly traded water and wastewater utility company. The NAWC covered the lodging and $200 registration fee for all public officials in attendance, including state legislators and utilities regulators from across the United States.

The discussions of the day touched on several private water sector interests, including desalination and how to circumvent eminent domain law. But the topic that received the most attention was the nation’s patchwork of rapidly deteriorating municipal water systems, which are estimated to need more than $1 trillion worth of upgrades. This, water executives said, not only represented a historic opportunity for their businesses, but could also be used as leverage to finally convince Americans to cough up more money for their tap water. It is the classic Shock Doctrine approach – turning a social crisis into a financial shakedown.

 

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Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.truth-out.org

Private water? Are we going to pay for air next?

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The Event: How Racist Are You? with Jane Elliott (FULL)

Are we all more racist than we realise or would like to admit?

For this Channel 4 documentary Jane Elliott, a controversial former schoolteacher from Ohio, is recreating the shocking exercise she used forty years ago to teach her nine year-old pupils about prejudice.

Elliott is asking thirty adult British volunteers – men and women of different ages and backgrounds – to experience inequality based on their eye colour to show how susceptible we can all be to bigotry, and what it feels like to be on the other side of arbitrary discrimination.

Does Elliott’s exercise still have something to teach us four decades on and in a different country? Presented by Krishnan Guru-Murthy, the exercise is observed throughout by two expert psychologists, Prof Dominic Abrams and Dr Funké Baffour, who will be unpicking the behaviour on display.

First shown on Channel 4, Thursday 29 October 2009.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.youtube.com

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Federal Grand Jury Convened To Investigate The Death Of Eric Garner

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Taxpayers Shell Out $100K to Parents After School Cop Tased 14yo Daughter for No Reason

Allentown, PA – The family of a teenage girl was recently granted a $100,000 settlement from their local police department after an officer used his stun gun on the girl for no reason. The incident occurred in 2011, when the girl was 14-years-old while she was attending Dieruff High School.

 

The settlement was to prevent the family from moving forward with a federal civil rights lawsuit which accused Jason Ammary of using excessive force on the young girl.

 

According to court documents, the officer was ordering students to clear a street near the school on the day of the attack, but apparently the victim, Keshana Wilson, was not moving fast enough. So, Ammary grabbed her arm from behind and pushed her against a parked car when she instinctively pulled away from him.

As she struggled to get away, Ammary fired his taser directly at her and she collapsed onto the street.

 

The entire attack was documented by the school’s security cameras, and even the police department could not defend the actions of the officer when the recordings were made public
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Sourced through Scoop.it from: thefreethoughtproject.com

Black Lives Matter will always ring true.
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Black Lives Matter will always ring true.

The story of Keith Davis– what happens to you when you survive being shot by the police in Baltimore.
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The story of Keith Davis– what happens to you when you survive being shot by the police in Baltimore.

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Robocop Finally Goes To Jail Or, How To Use A Badge To Keep A Predominately Black City Oppressed

William Melendez was a police officer for the City of Detroit from 1993 to 2009. He received more civilian complaints than any other officer in the department. He was nicknamed “Robocop” like the movie character, purportedly because of his merciless violence against criminals. Melendez was accused of planting evidence, wrongfully killing civilians, falsifying police reports, and conducting illegal arrests.

 

Melendez has been a named defendant in at least 12 federal lawsuits. Some suits were settled out of court. Others were dismissed. Three years into the Detroit police force, Melendez and his partner fatally shot Lou Adkins. Witnesses testified that Adkins was shot 11 times while on the ground. The case settled for $1.05 million.

 

Melendez was also indicted by a federal grand jury for civil rights violations. Among other things, Melendez was accused of stealing guns, money, and drugs from suspects, and planting weapons. During his trial, many of the government’s witnesses had criminal records. The jury did not believe their testimony and Melendez was acquitted.

 

Melendez left Detroit and was hired by the Inkster police department. His conduct soon took a financial toll on that city. Since about 2008, Inkster has been financially struggling.  It reduced its police force from about 75 officers to about 23.  The majority of the officers in that predominately Black town are White.   In 2011, Melendez was accused of choking Inkster resident Deshawn Acklin. According to the federal lawsuit filed by Deshawn, Melendez beat and choked Deshawn until he lost consciousness. The court filing alleged that Ackline “succumbed to the pain and lack of oxygen and passed out defecating on himself.” Acklin was treated at a hospital for a closed head injury, a foot sprain, and bleeding from his eyes. He spent 3 days in custody but was never charged with a crime.  For Melendez humiliating and dehumanizing a man, homeowners in Inkster saw their property tax increased an additional $15 to $20 to pay for the $100,000 settlement.

 

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Sourced through Scoop.it from: blackbutterfly7.wordpress.com

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Water War Against the Poor: Flint and the Crimes of Capital

by MUMIA ABU-JAMAL

 

In April, 2014, the state-appointed emergency manager, in order to save money, ordered that the city’s water source be changed from Lake Huron to the notoriously polluted Flint River.

 

The switch unleashed a citywide disaster of disease, destruction, and death. Flint was a toxic river, rich in lead, a major pollutant that has devastating effects on brain development, speech and I.Q. levels in children. As soon as it was pumped into municipal water systems, the corrosive waters leached lead from the old pipes, and sped it to some 90,000 homes into the city.

Flint is now a poisoned city, because of its toxic water.

 

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Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.counterpunch.org

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Beyonce: Formation

“Formation” (2016) is a song and music video by Beyonce. It appeared out of the blue on a Saturday afternoon, February 6th – the day before the Super Bowl, where she performed it to kick off her hitherto-unknown world tour.

 

In one glorious scene, a little boy, unarmed, in a hoodie, appears before a line of policemen – who put their hands up!

 

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Sourced through Scoop.it from: abagond.wordpress.com