#FergusonOctober Ignites a Generation

 

Let me tell you something. Like those doing sit-ins in the civil rights era, and what we were doing at CAL Berkeley and the other protests I’ve participated in – There was a protocol. We were trained on it, and knew what to expect. For the most part, by and large in my experience the cops were cognizant of those protocols too, and adhered to them.

 

If you opted to be arrested, you were clearly shown the places where you should stand or sit. The areas outside the “arrest zone” nobody was touched. You could choose to link arms and the police had to extricate you one by one from the line and take you into custody. You could choose to go limp, or walk. No officers would beat you over the head, punch or shove you, or cut off your circulation with the cuffs or restraints. The idea was to simply arrest you, get you off the protest line and into jail.

 

Because it was understood that the protesters were getting arrested on purpose, going to jail to make a point, and to show how far you were willing to go for your cause. The police were there to do your job, as you were there to do yours. There was mutual consent to and adherence to the protocols. I’m not saying they were gentle, or always respectful – in individual cases, with individual officers, some weren’t adverse to being a bit more rough with their methods of taking protesters into custody.

 

But this his casual, pointed, out of control and targeted aggression at protesters simply just shattered my soul and boggled my mind. It’s bad enough to just see it outright, but to have experiences under my belt that were far opposite to what has been going on in Ferguson, Shaw and all around St. Louis now has fucked up my brain and bruised my heart.

 

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Source: awakeblackwoman.wordpress.com

Cornel West, Faith Leaders and Activists Arrested as Ferguson October Continues [VIDEO]

Twenty people, including Cornel West, are arrested carrying out civil disobedience at the Ferguson police station after being denied a meeting with local officials

 

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Source: therealnews.com

Hundreds Join Missouri Protest Of Police Shootings

 

FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — Hundreds of people protesting the death of Michael Brown and other fatal police shootings in Missouri and elsewhere stood inches from officers in riot gear late Friday before demonstrators dissipated, anticipating a long weekend of events.

 

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Source: thoughtprovokingperspectives.wordpress.com

Occupy Central (佔中)

 

Occupy Central (佔領中環 or just 佔中), dubbed the Umbrella Revolution in the Western press, is the protest for full democracy in Hong Kong that started in September 2014. Central is the main business district in Hong Kong where it started. It is the strongest such protest in China since Tiananmen Square in 1989.


Demands:

  1. Hong Kong’s Chief Executive, CY Leung, to step down.
  2. China to uphold Hong Kong’s Basic Law, as it promised when Britain handed back Hong Kong in 1997. Article 45 of the Basic Law states:

    “The ultimate aim is the selection of the Chief Executive by universal suffrage upon nomination by a broadly representative nominating committee in accordance with democratic procedures.”

China has promised the “universal suffrage” part by 2017, but not the bit about a “broadly representative nominating committee”. It wants to pack the committee so that the Communist Party can in effect block nominations.

 

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Source: abagond.wordpress.com

Human Rights Lawyer Mom Arrested for ‘Blocking’ Sidewalk While Waiting for Family to Use Bathroom

 

Chaumtoli Huq was arrested while standing in front of the Times Square Ruby Tuesday, court papers show.

 

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Source: www.dnainfo.com

White America’s Response to the Killing of Mike Brown…

 

Last night, I made the abominable mistake of reading the comments under Fox News’ Facebook page’s post of the alleged Mike Brown “strong-arm robbery” video. What I read was altogether infuriating and heartbreaking, yet I could not stop reading. Many of the comments, by what appeared to be “average white Americans,” were seething, sarcastic, racist, and steeped in hate. They called Mike Brown a “thug” and spoke about his killing in a bizarre celebratory way―some implicitly and others explicitly expressing how the video justifies his murder. Some of the comments even unnecessarily brought up Trayvon Martin, also speaking about him in the most derogatory and disparagingly of ways. These white Facebook users were so quick to dehumanize, demonize, generalize, speak hatefully, and justify the death of a young black man―in rhetoric oozing with racism, white supremacy, and white privilege―that I began to wonder if they were able to acknowledge that Mike Brown was a human. How and why do they hate him so much?
It made me sick to my stomach.
I think the part that was most troubling to me was the fact that most of these white people making these horrendous comments were not the anonymous, faceless, cowardly, racist internet trolls that I often encounter on Twitter―though enraging, I can somehow shrug them off as “fake.” These people had faces, rather. These folks were seeminglyreal people, behind seemingly real Facebook accounts―some of their profile pictures were family pictures or pictures of them with their kids, even lovingly embracing them. I imagine they are people who have authentic, caring relationships with individuals who they choose to love deeply―friends, brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces, cousins, grandmothers, grandfathers. But the hatred they verbally spewed for a dead black teenager they do not even know, and the dehumanizing nature of their discourse, led me to begin to see them void of humanity―their dehumanization of Mike Brown was the cause of my dehumanization of them. It’s a vicious cycle. It’s truly ugly.

 

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Source: thoughtsofbrown.com

Police Kill Yet Another Civilian in Ferguson

 

Just a few short miles from where police officer Darren Wilson publicly executed 18 year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, police officers have shot and killed yet another Black man dead in the street.

 

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Source: ushypocrisy.com