A year after the Uvalde shooting, neither Republican calls for more guns nor Democrat demands for gun control have served to address the epidemic of mass shootings in the US. The problem runs deeper than either party admits.
https://crimethinc.com/TheirGuns
Republicans don’t want to hinder gun access, because they see white vigilantes as essential to preserving the prevailing social order. Democrats want the state to have a monopoly on force, because they believe that this is the best way to preserve that same social order. Democrats have done everything they can to rehabilitate the image of police.
But as we saw in Uvalde, the role of police is not to protect—it is to control. Police don't prevent crises—they just determine who suffers in them.
What would the parents in Uvalde have needed to be able to address the shooting themselves, in defiance of the police? What grassroots institutions, what resources and skills? How can we foster those?
It’s horrifying, but we really have no better option.
https://crimethinc.com/TheirGuns
Republicans don’t want to hinder gun access, because they see white vigilantes as essential to preserving the prevailing social order. Democrats want the state to have a monopoly on force, because they believe that this is the best way to preserve that same social order. Democrats have done everything they can to rehabilitate the image of police.
But as we saw in Uvalde, the role of police is not to protect—it is to control. Police don't prevent crises—they just determine who suffers in them.
What would the parents in Uvalde have needed to be able to address the shooting themselves, in defiance of the police? What grassroots institutions, what resources and skills? How can we foster those?
It’s horrifying, but we really have no better option.
👍11🕊2🍌1
In the new episode of our podcast, supporters of the movements for liberation in the regions of Bakur and Rojava and supporters of the revolution in western Syria discuss the impact of the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria—and the ways that the governments of those countries have worsened the consequences of the tragedy while taking advantage of it to accumulate power for themselves.
https://crimethinc.com/exworker95
"We have to understand both the earthquakes and the state as aspects of the same catastrophe and take action against both of them."
https://crimethinc.com/exworker95
"We have to understand both the earthquakes and the state as aspects of the same catastrophe and take action against both of them."
❤6👍1😁1
Three years have passed since Minneapolis police murdered George Floyd. While politicians encouraged protesters to seek redress through the "justice" system, nothing could bring back his life, nor the lives of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, or any of the other people murdered by police in a structurally racist system.
The conviction of the officers who murdered George Floyd was an exceptional case aimed chiefly at pacifying an outraged population. Over the past three years, police have continued to murder Black and Brown people at the same pace.
What will it take to stop the police from killing?
https://crimethinc.com/endpolice
This is the question we must all ask today.
The conviction of the officers who murdered George Floyd was an exceptional case aimed chiefly at pacifying an outraged population. Over the past three years, police have continued to murder Black and Brown people at the same pace.
What will it take to stop the police from killing?
https://crimethinc.com/endpolice
This is the question we must all ask today.
👍24🍌1
Three years ago, protesters in Minneapolis demonstrated the power of direct action, catalyzing a countrywide movement. In this analysis, participants in the siege of the Third Precinct describe the strategy via which they defeated the police that had murdered George Floyd.
https://crimethinc.com/thirdprecinct
https://crimethinc.com/thirdprecinct
❤24
At last, we present a full audio version of "The Forest In The City," covering two years of forest defense in Atlanta, Georgia.
https://crimethinc.com/exworker96
The government of Atlanta is attempting to destroy the Weelaunee Forest in order to build a vast training compound known as Cop City where police will train to suppress social movements. Because Cop City represents a tremendous financial incentive for police and their allies, they have begun to charge everyone who protests against it with domestic terrorism, a clear move towards outright fascism.
Listen here to hear how courageous activists have blocked the construction of the training compound for two years.
#StopCopCity
https://crimethinc.com/exworker96
The government of Atlanta is attempting to destroy the Weelaunee Forest in order to build a vast training compound known as Cop City where police will train to suppress social movements. Because Cop City represents a tremendous financial incentive for police and their allies, they have begun to charge everyone who protests against it with domestic terrorism, a clear move towards outright fascism.
Listen here to hear how courageous activists have blocked the construction of the training compound for two years.
#StopCopCity
❤13👍4
Brazilian artwork from 2020 in solidarity with the George Floyd Rebellion: "Fire to the racists"
https://crimethinc.com/2020/06/02/international-solidarity-with-the-minneapolis-uprising-demonstrations-graffiti-hacking-and-riots-on-six-continents
#Português
https://crimethinc.com/2020/06/02/international-solidarity-with-the-minneapolis-uprising-demonstrations-graffiti-hacking-and-riots-on-six-continents
#Português
❤16
In May 2020, the police discovered that you can only brutalize and murder for so long before people stop putting up with it and take action in response.
Yet in the three years since then, the authorities have continued to rely on brute force to control an increasingly inequitable and volatile society. Democrat politicians have channeled more money towards police; police departments have hired PR firms to try to polish up their veneer of legitimacy.
But the whole situation is unsustainable, and it will surely come to a head again.
In that regard, the text we published in the first few hours of the George Floyd uprising remains relevant today:
https://crimethinc.com/2020/05/28/minneapolis-we-have-crossed-the-rubicon-what-the-riots-mean-for-the-covid-19-era
Yet in the three years since then, the authorities have continued to rely on brute force to control an increasingly inequitable and volatile society. Democrat politicians have channeled more money towards police; police departments have hired PR firms to try to polish up their veneer of legitimacy.
But the whole situation is unsustainable, and it will surely come to a head again.
In that regard, the text we published in the first few hours of the George Floyd uprising remains relevant today:
https://crimethinc.com/2020/05/28/minneapolis-we-have-crossed-the-rubicon-what-the-riots-mean-for-the-covid-19-era
👍10🏆5
Erdoğan's victory in the Turkish elections is another gain for autocracy in the Mideast and worldwide. We have to study the roots of Turkish fascism, understand how it relates to the steady gains of authoritarians around the world, and strategize as to how to stop them everywhere. Voting is not enough.
https://crimethinc.com/2019/11/12/the-roots-of-turkish-fascism-and-the-threat-it-poses
https://crimethinc.com/2019/11/12/the-roots-of-turkish-fascism-and-the-threat-it-poses
🤮17👍8🤬2
Today we observe the birthday of Louise Michel—schoolteacher, poet, fiction author, and popularizer of the black flag as the symbol of anarchism.
In the article "Heroines of the Revolution," the daily paper of the Paris Commune described her thus: "An energetic woman is fighting in the ranks of the 61st battalion. She has killed several police officers."
Nonetheless, a square is named for her in Paris today.
Read about her role in the Paris Commune:
https://crimethinc.com/arch18
Read about her role popularizing the black flag:
https://crimethinc.com/TheBlackFlag
In the article "Heroines of the Revolution," the daily paper of the Paris Commune described her thus: "An energetic woman is fighting in the ranks of the 61st battalion. She has killed several police officers."
Nonetheless, a square is named for her in Paris today.
Read about her role in the Paris Commune:
https://crimethinc.com/arch18
Read about her role popularizing the black flag:
https://crimethinc.com/TheBlackFlag
❤12🔥11❤🔥4👍3
Atlanta Police and Prosecutors Target Legal Support Activists
https://crimethinc.com/AtlantaSolidarity2023
Seeking to protect their cash cow, Cop City, Atlanta police have arrested three legal support organizers connected to the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, charging them with “money laundering” and “charity fraud.” This comes less than a week before Atlanta City Council will decide whether to allocate additional millions of dollars to fund Cop City.
This marks a new low for Atlanta police and prosecutors in their descent into totalitarian tactics. Since December, in addition to murdering one protester, they have pressed trumped-up domestic terrorism charges against practically every defendant they have arrested. Now, in order to ensure that defendants in the movement to protect the forest cannot get proper legal defense, they are attacking activists who help to raise bail and provide legal support.
We discuss the precedents and implications of this attack on all forms of solidarity organizing.
#StopCopCity
https://crimethinc.com/AtlantaSolidarity2023
Seeking to protect their cash cow, Cop City, Atlanta police have arrested three legal support organizers connected to the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, charging them with “money laundering” and “charity fraud.” This comes less than a week before Atlanta City Council will decide whether to allocate additional millions of dollars to fund Cop City.
This marks a new low for Atlanta police and prosecutors in their descent into totalitarian tactics. Since December, in addition to murdering one protester, they have pressed trumped-up domestic terrorism charges against practically every defendant they have arrested. Now, in order to ensure that defendants in the movement to protect the forest cannot get proper legal defense, they are attacking activists who help to raise bail and provide legal support.
We discuss the precedents and implications of this attack on all forms of solidarity organizing.
#StopCopCity
😱10🤮4👍1
In today's bond hearing for the organizers from the Atlanta Solidarity Fund that Atlanta prosecutors are charging with “money laundering” and “charity fraud,” the defense emphasized that the charges are baseless:
"The allegations include $37.11 to make yard signs... They have receipts for all of these expenses. [One of them] gets reimbursed for her travel expenses, and that is being misrepresented as charity fraud."
Contrary to the demands of the prosecutor, who is trying to make it a crime to provide basic legal support to arrested activists, the judge set bond for the arrestees, saying:
"I'm concerned about some of the same things that the defense attorney mentions about the line between legitimate free speech and illegal violent acts... Paying for camping supplies and the like—I don't find it very impressive. There's not a lot of meat on the bones of the allegations that thousands of dollars are going to fund illegal activities."
Background:
https://crimethinc.com/AtlantaSolidarity2023
#StopCopCity
"The allegations include $37.11 to make yard signs... They have receipts for all of these expenses. [One of them] gets reimbursed for her travel expenses, and that is being misrepresented as charity fraud."
Contrary to the demands of the prosecutor, who is trying to make it a crime to provide basic legal support to arrested activists, the judge set bond for the arrestees, saying:
"I'm concerned about some of the same things that the defense attorney mentions about the line between legitimate free speech and illegal violent acts... Paying for camping supplies and the like—I don't find it very impressive. There's not a lot of meat on the bones of the allegations that thousands of dollars are going to fund illegal activities."
Background:
https://crimethinc.com/AtlantaSolidarity2023
#StopCopCity
❤27👍2
A massive crowd has turned out at the Atlanta City Council meeting today to take a stand against the Cop City facility. City officials been trying to prevent hundreds of people from spreaking, but the pressure is building.
Watching the public comment, it is clear that the authorities are not caught flat-footed this time: they seeded the beginning of the speaking list with people to represent their own interests. But interestingly, that isn't just cops listlessly reading pro-cop-city speeches; rather, several speakers have focused on defending the integrity of the mayor. In other words, the authorities now recognize the fight over Cop City as a crucial battlefield determining which politicians will retain legitimacy.
After the first few speakers on the podium, though, the remainder of the speakers are unanimously against Cop City.
It's been a long fight and it's not over yet.
Background:
https://crimethinc.com/ForestintheCity
#StopCopCity
Watching the public comment, it is clear that the authorities are not caught flat-footed this time: they seeded the beginning of the speaking list with people to represent their own interests. But interestingly, that isn't just cops listlessly reading pro-cop-city speeches; rather, several speakers have focused on defending the integrity of the mayor. In other words, the authorities now recognize the fight over Cop City as a crucial battlefield determining which politicians will retain legitimacy.
After the first few speakers on the podium, though, the remainder of the speakers are unanimously against Cop City.
It's been a long fight and it's not over yet.
Background:
https://crimethinc.com/ForestintheCity
#StopCopCity
🔥17❤🔥9
In Atlanta, where the City Council is taking comment before a vote on whether allocate tens of millions of dollars towards a police militarization facility, they've just gotten to the 86th speaker—with over two hundred more scheduled behind them. They are going to be at it all night.
After the first few speakers, some of whom were plants supporting the agenda of the police, every single speaker has argued passionately against Cop City.
Chants of "Stop Cop City!" are resounding within the chamber. Outside the hall, hundreds have been chanting "If you build it, we will burn it."
The power is not in the hands of the police, nor the representatives they extort—it is in the hands of those who organize together in defiance of their oppressors.
More background on the movement:
https://crimethinc.com/AgainstCopCity
#StopCopCity
After the first few speakers, some of whom were plants supporting the agenda of the police, every single speaker has argued passionately against Cop City.
Chants of "Stop Cop City!" are resounding within the chamber. Outside the hall, hundreds have been chanting "If you build it, we will burn it."
The power is not in the hands of the police, nor the representatives they extort—it is in the hands of those who organize together in defiance of their oppressors.
More background on the movement:
https://crimethinc.com/AgainstCopCity
#StopCopCity
❤🔥26👍2👏1
It's 11:30 pm and people are still in City Hall lambasting the Atlanta City Council about why everyone should resist Cop City.
The person speaking right now is a doctor who began by declaring "If you build it, we will burn it."
https://crimethinc.com/ForestintheCity
#StopCopCity
The person speaking right now is a doctor who began by declaring "If you build it, we will burn it."
https://crimethinc.com/ForestintheCity
#StopCopCity
❤23👍1
It's now 1:22 am, and a whole hall full of #StopCopCity activists at the Atlanta City Council meeting is chanting "Let us speak!"
The hundreds of courageous people who have spoken out against the police militarization project are not going to give up and accept defeat, however the politicians vote.
The hundreds of courageous people who have spoken out against the police militarization project are not going to give up and accept defeat, however the politicians vote.
❤🔥41❤2👍1