December 2015

On the 30th of December, protesters showed up at the Japanese Embassy to call out Japan's return to illegal commerical whaling in the Southern Ocean. Many of them were from Sea Shepherd, the world's foremost counter-poaching navy. In defiance of rulings from the International Court of Justice, Japan's "Institute for Cetacean Research" (ICR) has once again sent their ships to the Southern Ocean to kill whales.Activists say the only "research" being done is into the taste of whale meat, and the International Court of Justice agree. The ICR is killing whales anyway, and in turn theiur poaching ships are being hunted by Sea Shepherd.

video of the protest-1 min 10 sec

On the 22nd of December, the DC for 15 campaign to raise the minimum wage showed up at the DC Chamber of Commerce. "Scrooge" and "Grinch" were on hand to "celebrate" the success of the Chamber and the City Council in reducing the city's minimum wage increase from $15 to around $12 an hour and delaying implementation.

Video of Scrooge and Grinch at the DC Chamber of Commerce

On the 14th of December, the National Park Service issued a press release claiming to have shot and killed 26 deer in Rock Creek Park in a one-night operation. That would have to have been Dec 7, when they shut down operations in the face of protesters setting up. Either they shot deer earlier in the evening to evade protests or they waited out protesters and post-protest patrols, then returned.

On the 17th of December, the 3ed annual Homeless Memorial Vigil began with an event at Luther Place church followed by a march through traffic to Freedom Plaza. At Freedom Plaza activists and homeless residents are sleeping overnight across from Mayor Bowser's offices. This event remembers 41 homeless people who have died on DC streets this year and is demanding an end to the raids ("sweeps") on emcampments and full funding for the Homeward DC housing program

Video from the Dec 17 march in evening rush hour

Video from the Dec 18 casket march

Developer Geoff Griffis of City Partners is working with Sanford Capital's Congress Heights redevelopment project that seeks to replace the Congress Heights apartments on Alabama Ave in Anacostia with a "mixed use" project of condos, retail and office space. Since he got control of the buildings, all maintainance has stopped on the buildings in an effort to force tenants to move. On Dec 16, community organizers, tenants of Congress Heights, and their supporters descended on Geoff Griffis' posh Cleveland Park home to object in front of his neighbors to his illegal attempts to prevent tenants from buying the buildings and staying put.

Video highlights of the protest(2min 37 sec)