Racism

#RicardoZeferino #DeathByPolice #LatinosAreHuman 8 Bullets
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#RicardoZeferino #DeathByPolice #LatinosAreHuman 8 Bullets

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Stop racist executions!

The Supreme Court has backed the use of an execution drug used in U.S. prisons over the objection of death row inmates. By a vote of 5-4, the court’s five right-wing justices on June 29 gave the stamp of approval to death-penalty states to utilize midazolam during executions. Their ruling in Glossip v. Gross endorses painful deaths and has been widely denounced by progressive forces everywhere.

Four Oklahoma death row prisoners had brought the lawsuit seeking to stop the use of midazolam. One inmate has since been executed. While the drug is supposed to decrease pain during executions, the prisoners say that it does not — and cited three excruciating executions in 2014 that used the drug. Plaintiffs claimed the state’s three-drug protocol violates the Eighth Amendment’s ban on “cruel and unusual punishment.” Absurdly, the high court also ruled that the prisoners had to take responsibility to find an available alternative to this drug.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote the main dissent, joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan. In the Glossip v. Gross section of the Supreme Court’s blog, Sotomayor stingingly criticizes the ridiculous “available-alternative requirement.” “Petitioners contend that Oklahoma’s current protocol is a barbarous method of punishment — the chemical equivalent of being burned alive. But under the court’s new rule, it would not matter whether the state intended to use midazolam, or instead have petitioners drawn and quartered, slowly tortured to death or actually burned at the stake.”

 

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

A couple messages from the article:

 

19 states plus Washington, D.C., have abolished the death penalty.

 

What kind of government continues to kill prisoners and tortures them in the process?

 

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People Shot and Killed while holding TOY gun

People shot and killed while holding TOY gun

#TamirRice age 12, Black
#AndyLopez age 13, Latino
#JohnCrawford age 22, Black

People not shot while holding REAL gun

#BryanWolfinger age 25, White

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‘A Conversation With White People on Race’ [VIDEO]

By BLAIR FOSTER and MICHÈLE STEPHENSON

Why do so many white people find it extremely uncomfortable to talk about race? Setting out to make the next installment of our Op-Doc video series about race in America, we hoped to address that question. Because we live in New York, where there is no shortage of opinions, we didn’t think it would be too hard to find white people willing to speak publicly on this topic. We were wrong.

…when we dug a bit deeper, the discussion gets tense, and visibly uncomfortable.

With this Op-Doc video, we’ve attempted to lean into that discomfort and prompt some self-reflection. We are all part of this system, and therefore we all have a responsibility to work toward dismantling it. If we’re going to have an honest conversation about race in America, that includes thinking — and talking — about what it means to be white in America. It might be uncomfortable, but it’s a conversation that must involve all of us.

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

By Glenn Robinson

The system the authors are referring to is probably the system of disenfranchisement and oppression held up by what Dr. Martin Luther King called the Doctrine of White Supremacy.

Anyone can believe in the Doctrine of White Supremacy; a doctrine that believes that White is right and worthy and that people of color are undeserving of equal opportunities and equal humane treatment.

We see inequality play out in the way immigration laws are written to favor the highly educated, while (im)migrants in labor and agriculture are demonized.

We also see that the U.S. will not offer universal single payer health care – as if all humans do not deserve equal treatment by the health care industry.

And we see the prison industrial complex incarcerate disproportionately high numbers of Black and Latino people; and the military industrial complex recruit disproportionately high numbers of Black and Latino people.

And we see disproportionately high numbers of killings of unarmed Black and Latino people by the police.

#WhoIsBurningBlackChurches #BlackLivesMatter Tweets 7.1
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#WhoIsBurningBlackChurches #BlackLivesMatter Tweets 7.1

#LatinosAreHuman Tweets 6.30
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#LatinosAreHuman Tweets 6.30

@getgln PBSO/Bradshaw promotes deputy who shot, paralyzed unarmed bicyclist http://t.co/UH3KLCAnbF pic.twitter.com/TIGjxxht9g #DontrellStephens

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Shock Video: Police Lieutenant Addresses White Supremacy Group of Which He’s a Member

Anniston, AL (RT) — The city of Anniston, Alabama has placed two police officers on administrative leave over allegations that they belong to a hate group.

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a left-wing legal advocacy organization, posted an article on its Hatewatch blog that alleges Lt. Josh Doggrell and Lt. Wayne Brown have ties to the League of the South (LOS), an organization that the SPLC has deemed as “neo-Confederate.” The allegations are being investigated by the City of Anniston.

The SPLC website explains that neo-Confederacy is “strongly nativist and advocating measures to end immigration.” It goes on to say “neo-Confederacy claims to pursue Christianity and heritage and other supposedly fundamental values that modern Americans are seen to have abandoned,” and it exhibits “an understanding of race that favors segregation and suggests white supremacy.”

In a statement made on Friday afternoon, the city announced that the two officers were being placed on leave.

“After being made aware of the Wednesday, June 17 article by the SPLC, the City of Anniston is taking the allegations made against Lt. Brown and Lt. Doggrell very seriously and have placed both officers on administrative leave,”

 

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Sourced through Scoop.it from: thefreethoughtproject.com