Florida police officer charged with planting drugs during traffic stops
wsws.org | 2019-07-23
Eight Floridians serving prison sentences have been released and had their cases dismissed due to the charges against a Jackson County, Florida sheriff's deputy.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/07/23/flor-j23.html

'Close the camps!': Protesters march against Trump's plan to imprison migrant kids at site of Japanese, Indigenous incarceration
Andrea Germanos | nationofchange.org | 2019-07-22
Fort Sill was the site of one of the nation's Japanese American internment camps during World War II, decades after it was the site of imprisoned native communities.
nationofchange.org/2019/07/22/close-the-camps-protesters-march-against-trumps-plan-to-imprison-migrant-kids-at-site-of-japanese-indigenous-incarceration/

Arkansas Wants to Make Sure You Know 'Almonds Don't Lactate'
aclu.org | 2019-07-22
An Arkansas law censoring plant-based products isn't just absurd and unnecessary, it's unconstitutional. | The state of Arkansas thinks you're confused about whether a veggie burger comes from a cow. In fact, it thinks you're so confused that it passed a law making it illegal for companies to use words like "meat," "roast," and "sausage" to describe products that are not made from animals. Under the law, it doesn't matter if those words are modified by "vegan…
aclu.org/blog/free-speech/arkansas-wants-make-sure-you-know-almonds-dont-lactate

Manus, Nauru and an Australian Detention Legacy
Dr. Binoy Kampmark | asia-pacificresearch.com | 2019-07-22
asia-pacificresearch.com/manus-nauru-australian-detention-legacy/5628766

ACLU Comment on New Trump Expedited Removal Action
commondreams.org | 2019-07-22
______________________________…
commondreams.org/newswire/2019/07/22/aclu-comment-new-trump-expedited-removal-action?cd-origin=rss

American Visitors to the Gestapo Museum Draw Their Own Conclusions
Robert Fisk | counterpunch.org | 2019-07-22
The words would melt a heart of stone — save for those of the Gestapo torturers upstairs. The prisoners wrote their stories, their poems, their last pre-execution laments on the walls of their cells — which you can still read in the basement of the old Nazi secret police headquarters in Cologne. I spent hours…
counterpunch.org/2019/07/22/american-visitors-to-the-gestapo-museum-draw-their-own-conclusions/

Never Again: What about the Palestinians?
Kim Petersen | dissidentvoice.org | 2019-07-22
concentration camp: a guarded compound for the detention or imprisonment of aliens, members of ethnic minorities, political opponents, etc., especially any of the camps established by the Nazis prior to and during World War II for the confinement and persecution of prisoners.1 The people seeking a new life in the United States are mainly an …
dissidentvoice.org/2019/07/never-again-what-about-the-palestinians/

Corbyn launches online guide to fighting against antisemitism
Ed Sykes | thecanary.co | 2019-07-22
On 21 July, Jeremy Corbyn emailed Labour Party members to announce the launch of "education materials for our members and supporters to help them confront bigotry, wherever it arises". The "first materials" deal with antisemitism. | Corbyn explained: The struggle for liberation of all people is never complete and must always be renewed. As a movement, we educate ourselves and each other to better stand in solidarity with and unite all those facing oppression and discrimination. | And addressi…
thecanary.co/uk/news/2019/07/22/corbyn-launches-online-guide-to-fighting-against-antisemitism/

Ecuador: Prison Riot Leaves Two Dead and One Injured
telesurenglish.net | 2019-07-22
Dozens of inmates staged a riot demanding better living conditions Monday at the Social Rehabilitation Center of Latacunga, in the Ecuadorean province of Cotopaxi, resulting in two dead prisoners and one injured cop. | RELATED: | Ecuador: Roads Blocked, Media Silence as National Strike Hits 2nd Day | "Even animals are treated better than our prisoners, we are aware that they have broken the law, but not for that they are going to mistreat them," a prisoner's wife, outside the prison…
telesurenglish.net/news/Ecuador-Prison-Riot-Leaves-Two-Dead-and-One-Injured-20190722-0014.html

The Vindictive Campaign Against Chelsea Manning, America's Political Prisoner
Niles Niemuth | globalresearch.ca | 2019-07-22
Manning is not being punished for any crime, nor has she been charged with a crime. Rather, she is being held in contempt of court for refusing–on principle and courageously–to testify before a star chamber grand jury impaneled to railroad …
globalresearch.ca/vindictive-campaign-against-chelsea-manning-americas-political-prisoner/5684274

People on Parole Fight to Reclaim the Ballot
Staff | truthout.org | 2019-07-22
| Dauras Cyprian is a community organizer and campaigner for legal system reform in California, with expertise in restorative justice and peer counseling. But he can't cast a vote for any of the politicians he's lobbied, and he can't serve on a jury in the court system that he knows inside out. Cyprian is one of tens of thousands of Californians with felony convictions who has been released from prison, yet remains not quite free. Because he is on parole, Cyprian is shut out of two of the country's most basic civic ins…
truthout.org/articles/people-on-parole-fight-to-reclaim-the-ballot/

A tale of two druglords
Sam Pizzigati | nationofchange.org | 2019-07-22
ast week didn't go so well for the Mexican druglord Joaquín Guzmán Loera. A federal district court sentenced the notorious "El Chapo" to life in prison. The 62-year-old will almost certainly, notes the New York Times, be "spending the rest of his life behind bars." | El Chapo certainly deserves his fate. The drug cartel he ruled, a jury determined this past February, dumped "hundreds of tons of drugs to the United State…
nationofchange.org/2019/07/22/a-tale-of-two-druglords/

Reports expose Trump administration's "Border Patrol to emergency room" pipeline
wsws.org | 2019-07-22
Immigrant detainees are deliberately being subjected to conditions that spread disease in detention centers along the southern border.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/07/22/immi-j22.html

Justice Dept decision not to charge Eric Garner's killer sparks outrage
Liberation staff | liberationnews.org | 2019-07-21
In a blow to all who seek to keep their communities safe from hostile police, on July 1 the Federal government announced that Officer Daniel Pantaleo will not face any federal civil rights charges for murdering Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York, five years ago.
liberationnews.org/demonstrations-hit-justice-dept-decision-not-to-charge-eric-garners-killer/

AOC wants '9/11-style commission' to look into family separation policy
rt.com | 2019-07-21
Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, known for calling US migrant detention facilities "concentration camps," has now said a special commission must investigate migrant family separations the same way the 9/11 terrorist attacks were investigated. | …
rt.com/usa/464664-cortez-family-seperation-commission/

Protecting privilege: Morrison's religious freedoms crusade
Fred_F | greenleft.org.au | 2019-07-21
It is hard to conceive that in mid-2019 a reactionary minority within government are legislating for religious protection laws that strengthen the rights of religious institutions to discriminate against members of the community based on sexuality. | The Scott Morrison Coalition government's proposed legislation would not only prevent discrimination against those of faith, but would also solidify — and perhaps broaden — exemptions from anti-discrimination laws that religious institutions are already afforded. | Although the debate is framed around "religious freedoms", it is all about the nation's lar…
greenleft.org.au/content/protecting-privilege-morrison-religious-freedoms-crusade

Kamala Harris has a distinguished career of serving injustice
Marjorie Cohn | mronline.org | 2019-07-20
Harris favored criminalizing truancy, raising cash bail fees and keeping prisoners locked up for cheap labor. | Source…
mronline.org/2019/07/20/kamala-harris-has-a-distinguished-career-of-serving-injustice/

Extreme heatwave across US prompts concerns about elderly, homeless & inmates
rt.com | 2019-07-20
As an extreme heatwave hits the US, locals are being asked to look after their older neighbors, activists try to save inmates from baking in prisons, and authorities hurry to take the homeless off the sizzling streets. | …
rt.com/usa/464661-heatwave-elderly-homeless-inmates/

Manus, Nauru and an Australian Detention Legacy
Binoy Kampmark | dissidentvoice.org | 2019-07-19
It could be called a gulag mentality, though it finds form in different ways. In the defunct Soviet Union, it was definitive of life: millions incarcerated, garrisons of forced labour, instruments of the proletarian paradise fouled. Gulag literature suggested another society, estranged and removed from civilian life, channelled into an absent universe. Titles suggested as …
dissidentvoice.org/2019/07/manus-nauru-and-an-australian-detention-legacy/

Pakistan: Release Ali Wazeer, Mohsin Dawar and PTM activists
susan_p | greenleft.org.au | 2019-07-19
On May 26, the army fired on a non-violent protest by the Pashtun Defence Movement (PTM) in Waziristan, killing at least 13 people and injuring dozens. | Two PTM members of the Pakistan National Assembly, Ali Wazeer and Mohsin Dawar, who led the protest, were arrested on trumped up terrorism charges and a curfew was imposed on the region. | The curfew created a humanitarian crisis, resulting in three deaths from starvation and lack of medicine. After huge protests across Waziristan and on social media, the 11-day curfew was lifted on June 17. | Today, Wazeer and Dawar still remain in detention, charged with terro…
greenleft.org.au/content/pakistan-release-ali-wazeer-mohsin-dawar-and-ptm-activists

Break the link between Israeli apartheid and Australian agriculture
pip.hinman | greenleft.org.au | 2019-07-19
Most people would not be aware that two Israeli companies are the main suppliers of irrigation systems in Australia. They are potential targets for Palestine justice activists keen on expanding the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign into rural areas. | Along with the water business, FIMI/Rivulis and Netafim are deeply involved in the ongoing military oppression of Palestinians. Both companies provide military, surveillance and prison equipment to the Israeli government. | FIMI (First Israel Mezzanine Investors), which describes itself as a leader in "micro irrigation", also owns Israeli defence firm…
greenleft.org.au/content/break-link-between-israeli-apartheid-and-australian-agriculture

Thousands join vigil at Los Angeles detention center
Katerina Moore | liberationnews.org | 2019-07-18
On July 12, members of ANSWER Coalition and the Party for Socialism and Liberation joined thousands of people for a vigil outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in Downtown Los Angeles.
liberationnews.org/thousands-join-vigil-at-los-angeles-detention-center/

The Dark Side of the Moon Mission
James Jeffrey | progressive.org | 2019-07-18
"For that kind of money," Vonnegut cracked on the CBS Evening News, "the least [NASA] can do is discover God." Civil rights activists, anti-Vietnam War protesters and even top scientists were skeptical of the Apollo moon mission at the time.
progressive.org/dispatches/dark-side-of-moon-mission-jeffrey-190718/

Why Is Homeownership Among Blacks Lower Than Ever?
Staff | therealnews.com | 2019-07-18
Segregation and housing discrimination are affecting Black homeownership today as much as in the days before the 1964 Civil Rights Act. What happened and how can this be reversed?
therealnews.com/stories/why-is-homeownership-among-blacks-lower-than-ever

Jewish Activists of 'Never Again' Action Oppose Immigrant Detention Centers
Staff | therealnews.com | 2019-07-18
Molly Amster of Jews United for Justice explains why the concentration camp analogy is more than just rhetoric when it comes to Trump's detention camps and policies…
therealnews.com/stories/jewish-activists-of-never-again-action-oppose-immigrant-detention-centers

"They Didn't Do Their Job": Eric Garner Family Outraged DOJ Won't Prosecute His Death by Police
Staff | democracynow.org | 2019-07-17
It's been five years since Eric Garner, an African-American father of six, was killed when a white New York City police officer wrestled him to the ground and applied a fatal chokehold, while Garner, who was unarmed, said "I can't breathe" 11 times. On Tuesday, federal prosecutors announced they will not bring civil rights charges against Daniel Pantaleo, the police officer implicated in Garner's death. The move reportedly came after Attorney General William Barr ordered that the case be dropped. Earlier this year, a medical examiner testified that it was a chokehold that triggered an asthma attack that led to Ga…
www.democracynow.org/2019/7/17/eric_garner_justice_dept_no_charges

SPLC sues Trump administration over new rule that makes migrants who pass through other countries ineligible for asylum
splcenter.org | 2019-07-17
The SPLC and its partners filed a lawsuit and an emergency motion this week seeking to block a new Trump administration rule that categorically bars asylum for migrants who cross the southern border without applying for and being denied asylum in any country that they pass through on their way to the U.S.
splcenter.org/news/2019/07/17/splc-sues-trump-administration-over-new-rule-makes-migrants-who-pass-through-other

The Warden Tried to Cover Up a Crisis at His Freezing Brooklyn Jail — Then He Got Promoted
Nick Pinto | theintercept.com | 2019-07-17
The Bureau of Prisons hasn't released its investigation into what went wrong at the New York jail, but the man in charge just got promoted anyway.
theintercept.com/2019/07/17/mdc-brooklyn-jail-warden-promoted/

Migrants Are Fleeing Something Worse
Megan Klein | progressive.org | 2019-07-16
Clearly, if the appalling conditions in detention centers are an improvement from what they are fleeing, these migrants have a sufficient basis for seeking asylum in the United States.
progressive.org/op-eds/migrants-are-fleeing-something-worse-Klein-190516/

2020 Hopeful Julián Castro Vows to Break Up ICE & Calls Trump's New Asylum Rule Unconstitutional
Staff | democracynow.org | 2019-07-16
As Trump faced national rebuke for his racist comments against four progressive congresswomen, his administration announced a new rule essentially banning most immigrants from seeking refuge in the United States. The rule, which the ACLU has already vowed to challenge in court, would deny asylum to any migrant who failed to apply for protection in another country they passed through on the way to the U.S. border–including children traveling alone. If enacted, the law would effectively block people from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, as well as Haitians, Cubans and many people from African countries, who…
www.democracynow.org/2019/7/16/julian_castro_trump_racist_attacks

Cruelty Is the Point: Communities Fight Back as Threat of ICE Raids Terrorize Immigrant Families
Staff | democracynow.org | 2019-07-15
This weekend, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents launched a handful of raids across the country as part of President Trump's push to detain and deport thousands of undocumented migrants in 10 major cities. Agents in Chicago reportedly arrested a mother and her children only to quickly release them. Arrests were also attempted in New York City, in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, and Harlem, where immigrants reportedly refused to open their doors to ICE agents because they did not have warrants. Authorities say more raids are planned this week, prompting fear but also generating mass protests on the ground. We speak…
www.democracynow.org/2019/7/15/immigration_detention_ice_raids_elora_mukherjee

Author of 'Emanuel Nine' church massacre book to speak at Civil Rights Memorial Center
splcenter.org | 2019-07-15
As the prosecution made its closing argument, photos of the nine people that Dylann Roof had shot to death in a Charleston, South Carolina, church appeared on the screen in bloody, gruesome detail.
splcenter.org/news/2019/07/18/author-emanuel-nine-church-massacre-book-speak-civil-rights-memorial-center

Hundreds join united action in Palo Alto, Calif., to shut down Palantir Technologies for complicity with ICE
Jon Britton | liberationnews.org | 2019-07-15
In a great show of unity in action, more than a dozen groups from all over the San Francisco Bay Area joined together July 19 to protest at Palantir Technologies in Palo Alto for the company's provision of software facilitating ICE raids, detentions and deportations.
liberationnews.org/hundreds-join-united-action-in-palo-alto-calif-to-shut-down-palantir-technologies-for-complicity-with-ice/

Activists in Oshkosh, WI call for closure of Trump's concentration camps
Fight Back | fightbacknews.org | 2019-07-14
Oshkosh, WI – On the evening of July 12, the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Students for a Democratic Society (UWO SDS) hosted a Lights for Liberty rally, demanding an end to the Trump administration's detention policy and the closure of the concentration camps, where tens of thousands of immigrants are being held in clear breach of international law. The call to action drew roughly 30 people from Oshkosh and the surrounding Fox Valley area. | The event started with a silent candlelight vigil to help bring awareness to the disastrous conditions in the camps. The action featured 12 different people speaking…
www.fightbacknews.org/2019/7/14/activists-oshkosh-wi-call-closure-trumps-concentration-camps

Pompeo's New 'Human Rights' Commission is Up To No Good
aclu.org | 2019-07-12
The Trump administration appears to be trying to find new moral footing for the president's discriminatory policies. | This week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo formally announced the creation of a "Commission on Unalienable Rights." Its stated purpose, according to a notice published in the Federal Register in May, is to provide "fresh thinking about human rights discourse where such discourse has departed from our nation's founding principles of natural law and natural rights." | Th…
aclu.org/blog/human-rights/pompeos-new-human-rights-commission-no-good

Manuel Duran, journalist who reported on ICE, freed from detention
splcenter.org | 2019-07-11
Manuel Duran, an investigative journalist who was detained after reporting on the collusion between U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and local law enforcement in Memphis, Tennessee, was released today from ICE detention and will be reunited with his fiancée.
splcenter.org/news/2019/07/11/manuel-duran-journalist-who-reported-ice-freed-detention

Activists, students protest outside largest ICE prison in California
Cristian Alcaraz | liberationnews.org | 2019-07-11
Demonstrators call for the abolition of ICE, closure of concentration camps.
liberationnews.org/activists-students-protest-outside-largest-ice-prison-in-california/

CBP Can't Detain Domestic Flight Passengers for Refusing Suspicionless ID Checks
aclu.org | 2019-07-11
The Constitution protects passengers deplaning domestic flights just as it protects people on the street or in a car. | In February 2017, two U.S. CBP officers stood on a jet bridge at New York's JFK Airport to meet Delta Flight 1583 as it taxied to the gate upon arrival from San Francisco. As passengers prepared to deplane, they were told by flight attendants — at the direction of the two officers — that all passengers would have to show identification documents to the officer…
aclu.org/blog/national-security/cbp-cant-detain-domestic-flight-passengers-refusing-suspicionless-id-checks

I Spent 16 Months in Solitary Confinement and Now I'm Fighting to End It
aclu.org | 2019-07-03
A new report proves that the degrading conditions in solitary confinement continue to harm people and communities. | I was just 17 years old when I was sent to solitary confinement in "Camp J," one of the most severe lockdown units at one of America's most brutal prisons, the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. I languished in solitary for 16 months. | Back then I didn't know that Louisiana was the solitary confinement capital of the world. All I knew was that I'd been convicted of a crime I didn't commit, and I had to maintain my humanity in one of the most dehumanizing places on earth. | It's called "23 and…
aclu.org/blog/prisoners-rights/solitary-confinement/i-spent-16-months-solitary-confinement-and-now-im

Thousands of Voices Are Telling the Supreme Court: Don't Roll Back LGBTQ Rights
aclu.org | 2019-07-03
Businesses, women CEOs, civil rights organizations, Republicans tell the Supreme Court to protect LGBTQ employees like Aimee Stephens and Don Zarda. | President Trump has told the Supreme Court it should be legal to fire someone just because they're LGBTQ. The President may be a bully, but he's just one voice. Today, more than 2,000 voices from across the country joined together to tell the Supreme Court: Don't roll back our rights. | The message came in the form of friend-of-the-court briefs–nearly 50 in all–filed in a…
aclu.org/blog/lgbt-rights/lgbt-nondiscrimination-protections/thousands-voices-are-telling-supreme-court-dont

SPLC sues Florida officials to keep citizens from losing right to vote again
splcenter.org | 2019-07-02
After completing her prison sentence and probation time, Rosemary McCoy had her voting rights restored and cast a ballot in the Jacksonville, Florida, runoff city council election earlier this year.
splcenter.org/news/2019/07/02/splc-sues-florida-officials-keep-citizens-losing-right-vote-again

Georgia Tried to Ban Abortion, So We Sued
aclu.org | 2019-06-28
Abortion bans place people in danger, and Georgia's is no exception. | Alabama. Arkansas. Kentucky. Ohio. And today, Georgia. That's the list of states where the ACLU has had to go to court over the last few months to challenge laws banning abortion. | The Georgia law bans abortion at six weeks of pregnancy and is in clear violation of the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade. In fact, that is the whole point of the law. Georgia politicians, including Governor Brian Kemp, emboldened by President Trump's appointment of two new justices to the Supreme Court, think this is their chance to get the court to take aw…
aclu.org/blog/reproductive-freedom/abortion/georgia-tried-ban-abortion-so-we-sued

Why the ACLU Is Suing Florida For Its New Poll Tax
aclu.org | 2019-06-28
The law forces returning citizens with criminal records to pay for the right to vote. | On November 6, 2018, nearly 65 percent of Florida voters–more than 5 million people–resoundingly approved Amendment 4, restoring voting rights to over a million of their fellow citizens. By passing Amendment 4, Floridians successfully ushered in the largest expansion of the electorate in nearly 50 years. The people of Florida did it on their own, using a constitutional ballot initiative, to finally achieve change where Florida politicians had failed. | Instead of celebrating this progress, Florida politicians are t…
aclu.org/blog/voting-rights/voter-restoration/why-aclu-suing-florida-its-new-poll-tax

How to Help Families at the Border Right Now
aclu.org | 2019-06-28
We know that a better future is possible, and we at the ACLU, along with our supporters and allies, are daring to create it. | The images of Oscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his daughter Valeria, who lost their lives trying to seek refuge in the United States, have left us haunted. They serve as an ever-important reminder of the urgency of the fight for immigrant justice on our southern border and the need to stand up to the Trump administration's policies denying humanitarian protection and basic due process to families fleeing for their lives. | We remain at the frontlines of the family separation fight…
aclu.org/blog/immigrants-rights/how-help-families-border-right-now

SPLC: Sentencing of James Alex Fields Jr., who killed Heather Heyer at 'Unite the Right,' will not heal victims or their families
Keegan Hankes, Intelligence Project | splcenter.org | 2019-06-28
James Alex Fields Jr., who was sentenced to life in prison today for murdering a woman who was protesting a white supremacist rally two years ago, is a remorseless killer and a domestic terrorist.
splcenter.org/news/2019/06/28/splc-sentencing-james-alex-fields-jr-who-killed-heather-heyer-unite-right-will-not-heal

UN Human Rights Head Visits Venezuela, Meets Maduro and Guaido
Paul Dobson | venezuelanalysis.com | 2019-06-24
Michelle Bachelet commented on access to food and medicine, allegations of political prisoners, and the impact of sanctions, among other issues.
venezuelanalysis.com/news/14554