Arrested for Using Twitter, In America

Please Watch. I have a personal connection to some of the people involved in this, makes me pretty angry...

NYPD Gets Overly Aggressive (As Usual) Breaking Up Student Protest

The NYPD was called in to stop a student protest earlier today at the New School near Union Square. As usual they abuse their power, are overly aggressive, and physically assault and arrest people for no discernible reason (other than they were protesting?). Enjoy.

NYC School Fights Back Against Budget Cuts

A Jackson Heights charter school facing a budget freeze (which is tantamount to a budget cut as these school rely on year after year increases) decided to fight back against the cuts. In addition to letter writing and pone banking politicians the school got together and took their message to the street. Check out this inspiring video:



Here is what one of the organizers said about the event:

As you might know, we have been hit with the devastating news that politicians in Albany are seeking to "freeze" charter school funding at 08-09 levels for the next school year. For our little school in Jackson Heights, that would represent a loss of revenue (a "cut") of $500,000 to $612,000 for next year, on top of the state aid we don't receive due to the funding lag, a double cut. Needless to say, this would mean a massive change in our ability to function as an effective, successful school. After a staff meeting yesterday, we decided we needed to speak out and fight against this unfair double cut on New York charter Schools.

Taking the morning to prepare, I worked with our staff to guide our 350 middle school and high school students into action. Students received a teach-in and question and answer session. Then students broke into 12 different classrooms to write letters, call elected officials, alert the press, make signs, design chants, make flyers for our local community. We hit the street an hour and a half later at let our community, Jackson Heights, know how the Renaissance community feels about these proposed cuts. We rallied in front of two Jackson Heights local officials offices and marched down the main commercial district in the neighborhood, 37th avenue. Needless to say, it was inspiring.

The video is Part 2 of a 3 part series chronicling the protest, you can check out the other parts if you click on the video.

Charges Dropped Against Arrested Reporters

The reporters arrested outside the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul have had all charges against them dropped. Democracy Now host Amy Goodman along with two other Democracy Now employees were arrested while trying to cover the protests outside the convention. Goodman was actually inquiring about the status of her arrested colleagues when she was handcuffed and hauled off.

The Mayor of Minneapolis said,

"...the police did their duty in protecting public safety. In this decision, we are serving the public's interest to maintain the integrity of our democracy, system of justice and freedom of the press."

I guess by protecting public safety he means arresting and intimidating and preemptively raiding peaceful protesters.

I guess be maintaining the integrity of our democracy he means suppressing the right of assembly and the right to free speech.

I guess by maintaining the integrity of our system of justice he means using the system of justice to suppress peoples Constitutional right by arresting them randomly and then dropping the charges days later.

And as far as maintaining the integrity of the freedom of the press...this is a story about how members of the press were arrested and taken to jail...i.e., removing the integrity of the freedom of the press, literally.

ACLU Wants Investigation of RNC Press Suppression

In addition to the coordinated premptive arrests and home invasions carrid out by local police, along with the over-aggressive and violent crack down on protesters, it turns out the local police in St. Paul/Minneapolis during the Republican National Convention suppressed the activities of accredited journalists covering the protests.

The ACLU has renewed it's call for an investigation into the treatment of the press by local authorities. Among the members of the press arrested was Democracy Now host and reporter Amy Goodman who was attempting to secure the release of fellow Democracy Now reporters after their arrest. Here is the video of her arrest.

Hello Police State!

A number of raids have been carried out over the last couple of days on various houses, sometimes referred to as "hippie houses" by neighbors, in St. Paul/Minneapolis ahead of the the Republican National Convention. Some raids seemed to have been authorized by warrants and items such as personal journals and computers were confiscated. A few people were arrested for "conspiracy to commit riot". Some raids were done without warrants, check out this this video of an interview with a Democracy Now producer from the local Minneapolic group theuptake. Also, the group, theuptake, stream their videos live which should be very interesting in the coming days during protests in the streets outside the convention. They also have a number of videos from the last couple of days involving police intimidation.

By the way, Democracy Now is going to be essential viewing/reading/listening over the next week. Another great resource is I-Witness Video.

Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com has been on the scene and published this video from outside a house that is under a raid. The video contains an interview with a National Lawyer's Guild member who gives a good lay of the land of the RNC police state.



This is intimidation.

Glenn Greenwald's running reporting is here and its extensive. It is full of links to various videos and accounts of other raids.

Union Square Make Me Money!

As part of a plan set in motion by the Park Department and the Business Improvement District (whose members include some of the surrounding businesses, like the overpriced Whole Foods), the Pavilion and children's playground in Union Square will soon become a restaurant.

See that? A public space becoming a private space. Cha-ching.

According to the Community Improvement District, a group opposing the restaurant plan, the financial backer is anonymous and those who will profit from the plan are not known. Shhh! Cha-ching!

Currently, there is an injunction against the building of the restaurant as a result of a lawsuit to stop the plan. The premise of the lawsuit is that permission from the state legislature to put a private entity on park land was never sought. There is a petition you can peruse and sign right here.

Guantanamo Protestors Convicted for Demonstration at Supreme Court

Thirty-four members of the group Witness Against Torture were convicted in a Washington DC court this week for their demonstration calling for the prison in Guantanamo Bay to be closed. Eighty-one protesters had initially been arrested. Their is a law against protesting on the grounds of the Supreme Court and a rational argument can be made for the need for such a law. However, there is also a rational and moral argument for the need to break this law in this case. Kudos to these folks for speaking out in dramatic fashion.

One more thing. During the trial one defendant turned his back on the judge and was held in contempt of court.

Two Teenage Radio Announcers Murdered in Oxaca

Two young female radio announcers who worked for a local community radio station were ambushed and murdered along with a few others who were injured. The two women seem to have been leaving the radio station when they were gunned down. The radio station, who's tag line is, The Voice that Breaks the Silence" operated in support of the local indigenous people. The station only began airing in January and operates in the face of ongoing persecution of community radio (and media in general, including past murders) that seeks to support local indigenous people against government oppression.

Japan Willing to Limit Illegal Whaling?

National Geographic is reporting that Japan may be willing to agree to a compromise that would allow the nation to hunt whale near its own homeland, ending the silly "scientific whaling" the nation has conducted in the Southern Hemisphere. The International Whaling Committee has been deadlocked for more than a decade with nations such as Australia and New Zealand opposing whaling while Japan and several smaller nations support it.

I don't think there is any doubt that the recent efforts of Greenpeace, and especially Sea Shepherd, to interrupt whaling activities as well as the Japanese whaler's response (kidnapping and the firing of live rounds), have played a major role in Japan's revised thinking.

Clearly, it would be much better if they ceases hunting whale completely. But, it is something.

Tibetans Ratchet Up Protest

In Tibet on Thursday a group of Buddhist monks interrupted a media tour conducted by Chinese officials in the Tibetan capital. According to the AP the government "handlers" tried to pull the journalists away once the demonstrators appeared. The monks shouted that Tibet is not free and voiced support for the Dali Lama who has been maligned by the Chinese in light of the recent uprising. The tour was designed to show to the press that there was calm in the city on the heels of violent protest.

Tibet, China, and the Olympics

One of the first up close glimpses I had of activism of any kind was with the Students for a Free Tibet during my early college years. I wasn't involved in the group but was friendly with people who were. It quickly appeared to be a pretty slow acting group that in some ways seemed more concerned with popular media attention (like high profile music festivals) than actual actions.

Now with the coming Olympics in Beijing activists have seized upon the global media attention that invariably magnifies the host nations many less than perfect aspects. In nations with lower profile problems issues such as security against terrorist activity are usually at the forefront. In China's case the issue of Tibet has disappeared in recent years for a variety of reasons. Activists have emboldened by rare direct uprising against the Chinese government by Tibetans, including Buddhist monks.

Most recently, in Greece activists interrupted a media event, the ceremony surrounding the lighting of the Olympic torch. It seems likely that there may be some sort of plan to interrupt the torch along its months long march to Beijing just prior to the Olympics.

In short, its good to see that a previously fading human rights issue brought back up as a topic if discussion.

Here is a link to a list of the stops along the route and the dates for the Olympic torch.

And a video...

Shots Fired on Anti-Whaling Activists?

Plasticblog is a little late to this story but...

The Sea Shepherd anti-whaling group contends that the Japanese whaling fleet they have been tailing for months in an effort to physically disrupt their whaling activities has shot at the activists, hitting the ships Captain, Paul Watson, who was wearing a bullet proof vest at the time. According to Sea Shepherd's web site the on board doctor confirmed that the shot fired could have been lethal if Watson had not been wearing the vest.

The Japanese Coast Guard (who officially have two officers aboard the Japanese whaling ship Nishin Maru while Sea Shepherd contends there were at least four) now seems to contend that only flash grenades were thrown onto the ship. The activists had been lobbing rotten butter and other "stink bombs" onto the ship deck immediately prior to the disputed shooting.

Model Homes in McMansion Community Possibly Destroyed by Environmental Group

Three of four model homes set ablaze this morning on the "Street of Dreams" in Seattle were completely destroyed. The area on which the models were built was recently an undeveloped rural area and wetland. A sign left at the site supposedly indicates the act is the responsibility of Earth Liberation Front. Much of the news media on the topic calls E.L.F. domestic or environmental terrorists. They would, I assume, call themselves activists.

There were no injuries as is virtually always the case when environmental activists engage in direct action.

Here is a one year old Seattle area local news article on the "Street of Dreams" and the concerns some local residents had with the development. According to the article dated March 28th, 2007,

"Neighbors have been fighting the project near Monroe because it's being built on land sandwiched by wetlands and above a drinking water aquifer.

The aquifer serves about 20,000 people. Neighbors insist the project will load their drinking water with pollution, especially since the development will eventually grow to 48 houses."

Here is an article from the same Seattle area news outlet on today's fires.

Protests in Cameroon

A friend of mine who is in the Peace Corps in Cameroon brought this story to my attention today. Apparently, there have been violent protests in the North province this week. The people have been angered by high fuel prices and their president, Paul Biya, who has declared that he wants to change the constitution to extend his 25 year rule. According to my friend, the protests are an urban phenomena so Peace Corps volunteers have been instructed to stay in their host villages until things calm down.

According to AlJazeera.net,

"[These] riots in Cameroon [have been] the worst in the past 15 years.
At least eight people were killed in the last four days and rioters blocked all major streets in Cameroon with barricades of burning tyres and timber."

You can link to Al Jazeera's story here.

Here is a photo taken by my friend of the train yards in Yaounde, one of the cities in the North Province where the protests have been the most intense.

Anti-Whaling Activists Detained by Japanese Whalers

Two members of the Sea Shepherds, an anti-whaling group that engages in direct action to stop whaling efforts worldwide, were detained aboard the Japanese whaling vessel the Yashin Maru. The two activist boarded the Yashin Maru in order to deliver a letter to the captain informing him of that the ship was illegally capturing and killing whales. Prior to boarding the vessel the Sea Shepherds tried to entangle the Japanese ship with ropes and threw acid on to the ship's deck. The Japanese detained the two activists and are still holding them as the Sea Shepherds chase the Japanese whaling fleet.

The Sea Shepherds actions come one day after Greenpeace announced they had successfully forced the Japanese whaling fleet out of hunting grounds they had been in over the weekend. Greenpeace does not approve of the Sea Shepherds aggressive actions. Check out this great New Yorker article about the Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson from a couple of months back.

Thanks to the messenger for passing this along.

Greenpeace Ship Disrupts Japanese Whaling Fleet

Back in November, a small fleet of Japanese ships set out to hunt whales for "research purposes". Clearly a front for commercial whaling, which is illegal yet ignored, the whales that are captured and studied are then sold into the market and ultimately end up on many Japanese dinner tables. The Greenpeace ship, the Esperanza has been hunting for the Japanese flee for months now. Greenpeace's goal is to non-violently disrupt and stop the fleets whaling activities. Over the weekend Greenpeace announced that the whaling fleet had "scattered and ran". The most important ship of the whaling fleet, the Nisshin Maru was forced to flee rendering the entire operation impotent. The Nisshin Maru is the factory ship on which captured whales are processed in order to be brought back to Japan.

Japanese whaling ship on the run.

According to the great Greenpeace member blog, Undercurrents, the Japanese fleet was spotted in the International Whale Sanctuary where it was chased and forced to flee by Greenpeace.

Here is a nice account of the hunt from a member of the Greenpeace crew,

"Then came a futile attempt at the trickery they are so infamous for. The fleet scattered in all directions at full speed, but in doing so they allowed us to locate our target, the Nissa Maru (a.k.a. mother ship, factory ship, death star.) Over the past eight expeditions the Capt. had determined each ships range and speed capabilities. So, when the ships fled the scene he was able to deduce by their speed which vessel was which. We set a course to intercept the factory ship and put the petal to the metal. In an attempt to create a diversion one of the hunting ships turned and headed straight at us. This is the same tactic they used two months ago as they were leaving Japan. They thought we would take the bait and follow them while the Nissa Maru escaped. Wrong! In moments we were passing port to port with the decoy. This was the sweetest moment for me of the entire trip thus far. I stood on the bridge wing and with the biggest smile you could imagine I casually waved to the whalers, thinking to myself, "GOTCHA SUCKERS, GAME ON!!!""

Check out the full account right here.

Protesters Arrested At Supreme Court

photo from the AP

On Friday, seventy-one people were arrested on the grounds of the Supreme Court both in the building and outside the building. There is a law prohibiting protest anywhere on the grounds of the court. The protesters were demonstrating against Guantanamo Bay Military Prison, calling for it's closure. The protest coincides with the current case before the court that will rule on whether detainees can challenge their confinement in the U.S. Federal Court system.

Friday was the six year anniversary of the opening of the prison.

Hey Japan! Eat Something Else!

Japan is set to send a fleet of ships toward Antarctica to hunt 50 Humpback whales. This is the first time since the 1960's that Japan has targeted the protected Humpback whale. Japan claims it needs to perform these hunts, in part, to conduct research on the whale population. Of course, the whales are still butchered and sold to distributors and ultimately restaurants...Whale Burgers, really!

Green Peace has vowed to hunt the hunters and protect the whales by interfering, non-violently, with the fleets activity. Undercurrents, a Greenpeace crew blog, should make for some great and informative reading over the next weeks and months.

Anti-War Protestors Block Military Shipments

Here's a story that didn't get too much media play. The story is actually a couple days old but worth it anyway.

A few days ago a group of anti-war protesters in Olympia, Washington attempted to stop military shipments going so far as to pour cement on the railroad tracks used to carry the materials. Over 40 protesters were arrested. A spokesman for the Olympia Port Militarization Resistance (PMR) said,

"The soldiers have made it home, and we're really glad about that. This is about the military equipment. As long as the government refuses to listen to the will of the vast majority of people who want an end to this war, it's not safe to allow the military to have its hands on this equipment because it will continue to support the war in Iraq."

The umbrella group to the PMR is the Olympia Movement for Peace and Justice.