Newswire

Pakistani Americans hold vigil for students killed by Taliban attack

Submitted by Luke on Wed, 12/17/2014 - 22:16

On the 17th of December, hundreds of people, mostly Pakistani-Americans, gathered in Dupont Circle to remember 141 people, mostly young students, killed in the Dec 16 Taliban attack on a school in Peshawar. There was a call for solidarity with this vigil on the DC Ferguson Twitter feed and no march that would have conflicted with it.

Anti-War/Peace
Foreign Policy/Imperialism

GW students march against racist killer cops

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 12/17/2014 - 14:04

On the 17th of December, students at George Washington University staged a street march in rememberance of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and all the others murdered by racist police.

Civil Rights/Equal Rights
Police/Legal/Prisons
Race/Racism

Photo by Betsy Bramon

Dupont Circle church decorates trees with "Black Lives Matter" ornaments

Submitted by Luke on Tue, 12/16/2014 - 23:20

On or before the 16th of December, cardboard Christmas ornaments appeared on trees outside the Church of the Pilgrim Presbyterian near Dupont Circle. The ornaments read "Black Lives Matter." This is in contrast to ugly things hung from trees or gates in other places such as Berkeley, where a dummy in an "I Can't breathe" T-shirt was hung in public.

Civil Rights/Equal Rights
Philosophy/Religion
Police/Legal/Prisons
Race/Racism

DC Council staffers refuse to sign petition against jump-outs by DC police.

Submitted by Luke on Tue, 12/16/2014 - 15:03

On Dec 16, DC Council staffers walked out claiming solidarity with the protests against police murder in Ferguson, New York, and here in DC, yet refused to sign the DC Ferguson petition against jump-outs. Does this mean the DC Council wants jump-outs to continue, so long as they do not escalate all the way to chokeholds or police shootings?

DC had it's own version of New York's infamous "stop and frisk," known as "jump-outs." In a jump-out, heavily armed plainclothes cops pile 4 or 5 into cars, and descend on clusters of African-American youth to intimidate them into submitting to unlawful searches. In response, DC Ferguson organizers have begun circulating this petition against the jump-out squads.

Civil Rights/Equal Rights
Police/Legal/Prisons
Race/Racism

Photo by Kenny Nero

Police chief complains that Ferguson protests remove cops from neighborhoods

Submitted by Luke on Tue, 12/16/2014 - 14:03

On the 16th of December, DC police chief Cathy Lanier appeared on NewsTalk with Bruce DePuyt, and complained that the DC Ferguson protests are "very expensive" to MPD, requiring up to 400 cops a night to be detailed to them. She specifially complained that the protests are "a strain on the department" and reduce their ability to "police the neighborhoods.

Well, fewer cops in neighborhoods has to lead to less ability to harass residents and to fewer jump-outs, which are DC's version of Stop and Frisk. Although DC cops have actually become more violent in the neighborhoods since the protests began, if there are fewer cops to carry out this violence the protests may be achieving one of their goals by directly keeping the cops busy elsewhere

Civil Rights/Equal Rights
Police/Legal/Prisons
Race/Racism

Pages

Newswire

more