mic adams

A new report finds the federal government has been targeting Black Lives Matter (BLM) protesters in an effort to stop the movement after it swept the nation and the world in the wake of George Floyd’s death.

The report, first released by The Associated Press (AP), was conducted in partnership with the Movement for Black Lives and Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility clinic (CLEAR) at City University of New York School of Law.

Whether or not protesters did commit any crimes, the report signifies that the highest offices in the federal government used criminal prosecution tactics to disrupt and discourage protesters from expressing themselves, the AP reported.

From May 31 to Oct. 25, 2020, federal prosecutors filed 326 criminal cases against protesters.

“Much of the drive to use federal charges against protesters stemmed from top-down directives from former President Donald J. Trump and Attorney General William Barr,” the report says. “These directives, meant to disrupt the movement, were the primary reason for the unprecedented federalization of protest-related prosecutions seen in 2020.”

Throughout, the Department of Justice (DOJ) continually conveyed a false and heightened image of protesters and scapegoated local enforcement to justify its actions, according to the report.

The report says that in these directives and in statements about the protests, the DOJ “painted an image of protesters as ‘violent radicals,’” and “the government justified the expanded use of its authority and deployment of federal enforcement due to what it claimed was local and state leaders’ ‘abdication of their law enforcement responsibilities in deference to this violent assault.’”

Both movement leaders and legal experts alike have said over the past year the federal government has used surveillance tactics and other mechanisms that are rooted in racism to target BLM protesters.

“The empirical data and findings in this report largely corroborate what Black organizers have long known intellectually, intuitively, and from lived experience about the federal government’s disparate policing and prosecution of racial justice protests and related activity,” the report stated.

In nearly 93 percent of the hundreds of federal criminal cases, there were similar state-level charges that could have been brought against defendants.

The report says these findings highlight “the government’s aggressive assertion of federal jurisdiction and its naked attempts at disrupting the movement to defend Black lives.”

We have literally reached the ‘Vote for the lesser type of fascism’ stage.

but until that magical revolution comes and wipes the slate clean, those of us that are suffering and dying under trump’s administration are literally actually begging y'all to be grown ups for 5 minutes and vote this man out of office.

Almost any form of mutual aid or direct action will do far more to bring “actual meaningful change” to the lives of marginalised individuals than your vote will, and it’s honestly pathetic that I have to tell you that.

You never stop, think outside the concept of change every 4 years, and wonder how it is you got to this “choice” in the first place? Let’s not kid ourselves that Biden is a “lesser evil” - he’s just a more palatable evil. But the democrats know it doesn’t matter, because every time they present you with dogshite you can’t help tell yourselves it’s chocolate pudding.

I’d also like to point out that at no point did I say “don’t vote” - I couldn’t give less of a shit what you do on the election day. But it does piss me off when you lot derail any post that criticises Biden or points out that, y’know, if you actually care about stopping a US government with fascist tendencies, you’re going to need to take more effective action than spending 5 minutes putting a bit of paper in a box.

Some of us have been “grown-ups” for more than 5 fucking minutes, which is why we realise direct action i.e. cooking and sharing food with the community, forming community defence groups, squatting empty buildings etc. is what will keep our neighbourhoods safe from the state.

“until that magical revolution comes and wipes the slate clean” funnily enough such a revolution doesn’t exist, it exists in the here and now with how you decide to start acting for yourself.

Those things on their own are bad enough, but as I said a lot of those kids are also neurodivergent in some way, and eventually we run into problems that being ‘naturally smart’ doesn’t do shit about, and since nobody wants to face the complexity of the human mind and how different types of intelligence work, we’re made to believe that we should be able to do the things that are particularly hard for us, and that if we really can’t it’s a personal failing, it’s laziness, we aren’t trying hard enough.

The crucial part your missing is that many of the people saying this are neurotypicals who hate everyone who’s different from them and they think it’s okay to direct it at ‘gifted kids’ since apparently we’re all privileged little shits who think we’re better than everyone else and take IQ tests seriously.

"He was just emotional......Haven't you said things in anger....Freedom of speech.....what he said was wrong but you shouldn't be fired over an opinion......Hes a great teacher."

He's a damn criminal justice professor! How is any minority supposed to feel safe going into his class?

I was pushing truck for OTC today which is the pharmacy area. I was pushing cases of hand sanitizer because we got the “good stuff” in today (purell) and it goes quick even with the the product limit put in place. People were literally taking it from my hand before I could put it on the shelf, but that’s not the point.

As I was putting the goods on the shelf, this woman comes up to the stand and she’s very excited. “Yes! You guys have it! How many can I take, is there a limit?” I say yes, 3 per person per transaction per day. She nods, accepting, and grabs her three. “Sorry, that was weird. I’m a teacher, I’m trying to stock up. I promise I’m not a hoarder.” I smile and nod and say it’s fine. She starts to walk away but stops and turns back.

“Do you have any Clorox wipes in stock by any chance?”

Heart sinking, I shake my head and say no, sorry, and we don’t know for sure when we’ll get more. (We get them maybe once every two weeks, but the product limit for those is one per person per transaction per day and they usually sell out within hours of going on the shelf.)

Her face dropped and she kinda looked down at her hand sanitizer and said “that’s okay, with the product limit I wouldn’t be able to get enough before school starts anyway. It’s only 4 weeks away.” She laughed a little but I could hear the frustration in her voice and see the tension in her face. She sounded defeated. The most I could offer her was one of the small bottles of pure bleach. I honestly wanted to cry. For a second there I thought she would. I had no clue what to say as she turned and walked away.

This is what teachers are dealing with. Even in years when there’s not a pandemic they have to rely on donations from parents or their own money to be able to buy hand sanitizer, wipes, tissues, etc. for their classrooms. Now they’re being forced to return to school with no extra funding, no extra supplies, no support from the government; they’re STILL expected to provide for and protect these kids *on their own.* All while, now, risking their own lives and their own health because the government doesn’t want to admit that they fucked up handling this pandemic.

Every time I hear someone say “kids don’t die from it, it’ll be fine,” I realize that person does not give a flying fuck about teachers. Sure, *maybe* the kids will be fine. But the teachers are not children. They are adults with underlying conditions, adults living with elderly family, adults who are over 50 and are at more risk. Adults with at risk family at home. Adults who are at risk themselves. But they are STILL trying their hardest to protect your children in the classroom.

It’s honestly fucked up that we live in a country where police departments get millions or even billions of dollars in state funding, yet teachers have to buy their own cleaning supplies and doctors have to reuse PPE in hospitals. Police get tens of thousands of dollars worth of riot armor to wear and terrorize peaceful protesters, while the Navajo Nation get sent body bags instead of medical supplies.

They’re not getting temperature-taking stations that will ID kids with a fever and send them back home. They’re not being trained to handle parents who insist they and their kids don’t need to follow rules.

Photographing in the forest 

https://twitter.com/markaprovost/status/1277950129270652930?s=19

Source on public funding for Remdesivir.

Source on Gilead’s planned price.

if you been following this blog of mine for a while you know i’m NOT into conspiracy theories BUT this shit is fucking fishy as hell. this is NOT fucking normal and i truly believe this is a part of how police fight back against calls to defund and/or disband them. i’ve said for a while now (mostly on twitter) that ppl who want to abolish the police (i am one of them) need to get ready for war cause cops will fight us to the point of killing us to maintain their power. i absolutely believe they are believe this sudden and constant stream of fireworks happening across the country targeted in areas where there were massive marches calling to defund the police. this would be very easy to coordinate given all the communication tools we have today (whatapp, fb messenger, ig direct message, skype and etc) and like the last tweeter stated, given all the crap we know the police be involved in, giving away fireworks ain’t shit BUT if raises the number of complaints they don’t respond to, they can use that to make themselves look good. i mean check it…

that’s a hell of a fucking jump (for all the ppl who want to claim this is normal (stfu)) and they are not responding to those calls. why? they are behind it and then they can use this to say “see, y’all need us. don’t defund us.” 

i won’t repeat what’s already in the tweets but yea, i am 100% this is warfare by the police against calls to hold them accountable and to defund them BUT we can’t back down. the mere fact they are doing this proves they are scared and we are right. 

the following is the description from the gofundme page:

“

I, the wife of Ramsey Orta, am a survivor of domestic violence by Ramsey Orta during the Black Lives Matter movement. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Jessica (Hollie) Orta, but I am known by Bella Eiko for live streaming the Occupy Oakland and Ferguson movements. 

Over the last few years I have spoken out about my relationship, and marriage, to Ramsey prior to his incarceration. Ramsey physically, mentally, emotionally abused and financially extorted my son and I as I tried to position myself to organize support for him during his incarceration. After I drove to Las Vegas to avoid any further attacks from him, he used the money given to him by the movement to chase me down to Las Vegas and terrorize myself, my son and my then 82 year old Great Aunt. He often threatened me with gang violence and gave my address to people who wanted to harm me as punishment for not staying to endure more of his abuses while supporting him as he negotiated a lesser prison sentence. 

In one of our altercations Ramsey physically attacked me by choking me and kidnapping my son for ransom money. You can imagine my shock because of him filming Eric Garner being murdered in the same way. The night before that attack, Ramsey verbally harassed me for not being able to hold in my urination after driving around for over half an hour looking for parking and then walking blocks trying to reach the apartment on Baruch in record breaking cold. These are only a few of the situations I have dealt with during our marriage. 

I am asking that the movement that has been supporting Ramsey Orta to hold him, and those who knowingly shielded him from any repercussions for his actions, accountable for his domestic actions towards Black Women. I would also like to be able to go through a divorce process without him abruptly being able to stop it. In November of 2019, he backed away from the divorce proceedings, having his attorney tell me that he would be in touch, after I responded that I would want his assistance for long term therapy for my son and I after being exposed to his violence. Help in this area is greatly appreciated as it is more expensive than I can afford as a single mother. 

I also would like the movements, Black Lives Matter, Occupy Oakland, Hands Up Don't Shoot & I Can't Breathe, to take action in keeping my son and I safe. I have had to move away from the city far from my friends and family because I feel I am in danger if I were ever to return, especially with him now having access to his welcome home fund, coupled with the blind support of many Black Lives Matter supporters. 

I have been an organizer and given my life to this movement as a Black Woman, and this movement has only stood against me in support of Ramsey Orta. I am asking that this movement consider how it will move forward if it continues to silence Black Women  and overlook the bad action of their heroes. The plausible alternatives for police in handling these kinds of situations moving forward are conversations that I’ve been trying to have for years.

I am not asking for police involvement. If I wanted to handle this with the police, I would have pressed charges on Ramsey but I am adamantly against the continuation of the prison industrial complex. I strongly believe in police abolition but we cannot continue to build a movement in which black women and black children continue to be targets of misogyny in their households. You cannot continue to praise someone for a single action, when they've attacked and perpetrated violence towards the most vulnerable people in your community. In order to talk about police abolition we must also talk about the future we wish to replace it with. We will not be able to accomplish that safe future if we don't hold accountable the actions of individuals that resemble those of the same patriarchal system. 

With love & All Power to the People, 

Bella Eiko”