Race/Racism

On the 15th of August, Blackout DC staged what was announced as a march from the White House to the Capitol to protest police murder of Black and Brown people. Cops expected a direct march but got a surprise! The march diverted from Penn Ave north up 7th st to Chinatown, then proceeded east to block the I-395 tunnels before finally going to the US Capitol. At the Capitol, offerings for those murdered by police were placed in a cardboard coffin. This was intended to take place on the Capitol steps, but US Capitol police blockaded the top exits from the Capitol West Lawn against protesters-and only protesters. As a result the offering ceremony took place on the spot where people were blocked.

Video-395 shutdown and coffin/offering ceremony at the US Capitol

On the 28th of July, the Light Brigade deployed lighted letters at the US Supreme Court and US Capitol to remember Sandra Bland. Police in Texas arrested Sandra and held her in jail for defying an illegal order from a cop at a traffic stop to put out her cigarette-in her own car. Three days later she was found dead in her cell with a noose around her neck. Some say she was lynched, certainly hanging is the very symbol of lynching. Sandra's mother has said "this means war" at her daughter's funeral. Her family and friends say there is no way she would have killed herself.

Video-Light Brigade sings in memory of Sandra Bland

by George Joseph, Intercept
In response to The Intercept’s FOIA request, for example, last month the DHS’s Office of Operations Coordination released over 40 pages of documents (archive 1, archive 2) detailing live updates and Google Maps images of Black Lives Matter protestors’ movements during an April 29^th protest in Washington, DC.

An April 29th email from the DHS National Operations Center also mentions planned surveillance of three seemingly innocuous events, two of which were associated with historically black neighborhoods. According to the email, the DHS-funded DC Homeland Security & Emergency Management Agency decided to conduct “a limited stand-up… to monitor a larger than expected Funk Parade and two other mass gathering events” in case “any Baltimore-related civil unrest occurs.” It appears that the only Funk Parade in DC occurs in the historically black neighborhood of U Street. The other two events, according to another report, produced by the DHS National Capital Region‘s Information Collection and Coordination Center, were a community parade in Congress Heights, a predominantly black neighborhood, and the Avon 39-Walk to End Breast Cancer. Full article

On the 21st of June, Apache Stronghold marched into DC for a series of events demanding that a copper mine planned for Oak Flats be cancelled. This two-day series of events began with a sacred run from the north ariving down 16th Street at the White House. There they joined a second contingent of Apache and supporters waiting for them, held a rally at the White House and marched to the US Capitol to hold traditional ceremonies there. Apache Stronghold is here to support HR-2811, the Save Oak Flat Act, which would undo permission given to Resolution Mining LLC and Rio Tinto to mine copper on Apache land given to them in by Sen John McCain and reps Representatives Kirkpatrick and Gosar of Arizona.

Video of the sacred run, clip of the march, and scene from the US Capitol (1 min 30 sec)