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Category: Police

  • Peter Stefanovic has just exposed a shocking bit of news about Labour

    Lawyer and social justice campaigner Peter Stefanovic has just published one video that won’t be making it into the hallowed early hour TV showings of Good Morning Britain (GMB). That’s because, the days of Boris Johnson and his merry band of serial lying hard-right Tory successors have lost the keys to number 10. In their place? Labour continuing their work. And Stefanovic exposed one new-blue establishment stooge in particular. None other than GMB Ed Balls-up’s dear Westminster wife – home secretary Yvette Cooper.

    Peter Stefanovic pulling no punches on anti-protest law appeal

    It was for her shameless decision to pursue the previous Tory government’s appeal over its unlawful anti-protest laws. Crucially, this concerned former home secretary Suella Braverman’s authoritarian overreach of secondary legislation to ram through laws parliament had already rejected.

    Here’s the video where Peter Stefanovic rips into Labour:

    In particular, as Stefanovic pointed out, Braverman used these so-called Henry VIII powers to establish an especially authoritarian crack-down on the right to protest. Specifically, she handed police greater power to arrest protesters. She did so by redefining the meaning of “serious disruption” to encompass anything they deemed as causing ‘more than minor’ impact.

    Previously, the House of Lords had shot down this particular element lowering the threshold of what would constitute a “serious disruption” by protesters. However, Braverman didn’t let this lie. Instead, she pushed this through via the back door using secondary legislation. This doesn’t require parliamentary scrutiny – so MPs didn’t get to vote on this.

    Already, as Stefanovic and others also noted, police have arrested hundreds of protesters using these draconian powers. This includes climate activist Greta Thunberg and many other climate and Palestine activists:

    Enter human rights group Liberty. In May 2024, the group won a case challenging the government over this. Significantly, the High Court ruled that the government had acted unlawfully in imposing these powers and ignoring the will of parliament.

    Labour getting in on the Tory power-grab

    Predictably however, Braverman wasn’t giving up her dictatorial power-trip. Before Sunak announced the election, she launched an appeal against the High Court’s ruling.

    As Peter Stefanovic said, the new Labour government had a choice between continuing the appeal:

    in support of this Tory power-grab which would set an extremely dangerous precedent, or defend democracy and the rule of law by dropping the appeal and scrapping these unlawful powers.

    Of course, it chose the former. Now, the Labour government is set to waste vast sums of taxpayers money doing the same.

    Once again, Stefanovic dragged the government on this. First, he highlighted how Labour had opposed the Tories’ bill in parliament. Then, the clincher – he exposed the staggering scale of the party’s hypocrisy from one key recent speech.

    On the one hand, there was Labour’s attorney general Richard Hermer pronouncing in July that:

    The prime minister and the lord chancellor have both made clear that the promotion and the protection of the rule of law will underpin our approach to legislation and policy.

    Crucially, he declared that this meant:

    guarding against the abuse of the proper role of secondary legislation

    Now, here’s Cooper now doing the direct opposite of this. The decision to continue the appeal is guarding something alright, and that’s the establishment against the public’s democratic right to protest. In other words, the slimy home sec has done what the Starmerite cabinet does best – another whiplash-inducing U-turn.

    And speaking of staggering levels of hypocrisy, here’s the Home Office’s response to media outlet Hyphen quizzing the government on the decision:

    Labour’s opposition was always performative

    Of course, it’s hardly a surprise. Labour has consistently worn its business-buddy-buddy badge where all corporations can see it. From welcoming billionaire backers with open arms, to soliciting the support of financial titans in the City, since Starmer took to the helm, the party has been a teeming cesspit of corporate capitalist sell-outs.

    The Canary has consistently highlighted the party’s corporate and lobbyist connections. We’ve also underscored particularly its polluting industries ties. So, Braverman’s unlawful police powers enable it to protect these interests – whether that be climate-wrecking fossil fuel corporations, or companies supplying arms to Israel:

    What’s more, the writing was likely already on the wall, as one poster on X pointed out:

    Naturally, others – including the Canary – had also seen it coming a mile away. In October 2023, Steve Topple previously also expressed how:

    Labour’s outrage is performative – given it failed to support Green Party peer Jenny Jones’s fatal motion in the Lords which would have stopped Braverman.

    Then, at the end of July, fellow Canary journalist Samantha Asumadu wrote:

    However, the opposition day votes for a repeal of the Public Order Act 2023 on 16 May 2023 may be an indication of whether Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party is likely to attempt to repeal it or not now they are in government. 57 Ayes and 278 Noes.

    The Act was not mentioned in the party’s manifesto. However, Labour has said that its mission in government is to “take back our streets”. Take back the streets from whom remains to be seen.

    In other words, this was all entirely predictable. A Labour Party cosying up to the corporate capitalist establishment would do one thing when it got into power, and one thing only. That is, shield CEOs and its big money-spinner revolving door.

    Any lingering notion the Labour government will bring about a real, meaningful break from the Tories’ authoritarian power-grab is as limp as the last vestiges of Starmer’s election promises gone the way of the U-turn. And Cooper proved beyond doubt that the Labour right is full of vacuous charlatans. But then, thanks to the home sec’s hubby regularly Ball-sing stuff up on morning-time TV, we already knew that.

    Welcome to “changed” Britain – new new Labour government edition – where supposed centrist sensible politicians are the new cheerleaders of the death of democracy and the descent into authoritarian fascism. Thanks to Peter Stefanovic – at least we know of part of the threat, now.

    Feature image via X – Peter Stefanovic/Youtube – Sky News/the Times and Sunday Times/the Canary

    By Hannah Sharland

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Israel supporters flout Canadian law with impunity

    As an observer of foreign affairs, I’ve often written about the hypocrisy of Liberal and Conservative governments’ failure to uphold “an international rules-based order” despite claims of its importance. In the case of Israel, the duplicity is even more glaring. Our governments, past and present, repeatedly fail to uphold Canadian law.

    Activists have long shown how arms sales and military recruitment to Israel violates the law. But Global Affairs, Minister of Justice, RCMP and other government agencies have generally ignored their legal responsibilities when it comes to the genocidal apartheid state.

    Issuing arms permits to Israel contravenes Canada’s Export and Import Permits Act. According to the law, Canada shouldn’t export arms to a country if there is “a substantial risk” they would undermine peace and security or be used to violate international law. As a signatory to the UN Arms Trade Treaty Canada is also obliged to not transfer arms to a country responsible for grave human rights violations. Two recent International Court of Justice rulings strengthen the legal case against Canadian arms sales to Israel. Still, Global Affairs allows arms transfers.

    The Minister of Justice and RCMP have also failed to apply the law regarding Israel, refusing to enforce the Foreign Enlistment Act and Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act. In 2020 a formal legal complaint and public letter signed by numerous prominent individuals were released calling on the federal government to investigate individuals for violating the Foreign Enlistment Act by inducing Canadians to join the Israeli military. The Trudeau government effectively ignored the public letter and legal complaint even though it was published on the front page of Le Devoir. Then Justice Minister David Lametti responded by simply saying it was up to the police to investigate. For their part, the police refused to seriously investigate. Partly in response to the police’s unwillingness to take the matter seriously, a case was launched through a private prosecution against Sar-El Canada, which brings Canadians to volunteer on Israeli military bases. A Justice of the Peace agreed the evidence warranted a hearing, but the Crown interceded to dismiss the case against Sar-El. They clearly didn’t want a court to adjudicate the matter.

    More recently, Canadians fighting in a force that’s slaughtered tens of thousands should be investigated under Canada’s Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act. Highlighting reports of Canadians in the Israeli military, a Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East letter to Justice Minister Arif Virani called on him to “Issue a warning to Canadian nationals that serving or volunteering with the Israeli military may make them criminally liable under the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act”. CJPME’s January letter also requested the minister “launch an investigation under its War Crimes Program into the participation of Canadian nationals involved in Israel’s military offensive.”

    Thousands messaged the minister calling on him to investigate Canadians committing war crimes in Gaza. Following up on this push, I asked Virani directly if he’d investigate those killing Palestinians under the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act. He refused to answer, walking down the wrong hallway to escape my questioning.

    While staying mum on Canadians killing Palestinians, the Trudeau government actually interceded to block a bureaucratic move to properly label wines from illegal colonies. After David Kattenburg repeatedly complained about inaccurate labels on two wines sold in Ontario, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) notified the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) in 2017 that it “would not be acceptable and would be considered misleading” to declare wines produced in the Occupied Palestinian Territories as “products of Israel”. But, immediately after the decision became public the government reversed the advisory and then appealed a judge’s ruling to block accurate labelling of wines produced in the occupied West Bank.

    In a major form of Israel-focused criminality, dozens of registered charities violate the Income Tax Act by supporting the Israeli military, racist organizations and West Bank colonies. In a bid to press the CRA to uphold the law, formal complaints have been submitted to the revenue agency detailing a dozen charities’ – with over $100 million in annual revenue – violating the rules. That campaign contributed to the recent revocation of the charitable status of Canada’s second most powerful Zionist charity, the Jewish National Fund of Canada (as well as the Ne’eman Foundation). While its recent revocations restore some confidence in the CRA’s ability to act independently, a law-abiding revenue agency would do far more to curtail illegal subsidies to Israel.

    To press the CRA to revoke the charitable status of other Israel-focused organizations violating the law, actions will be held at CRA offices across the country on International Day of Charity. On September 5 join one of the many protests calling on the CRA to stop subsidizing war crimes and apartheid.

    One has to wonder why we must take to the streets to convince our government to uphold Canadian law.

    The post Israel supporters flout Canadian law with impunity first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Chicago Reader journalist pushed with police baton amid DNC protests

    Shawn Mulcahy, the news editor for the Chicago Reader, was shoved in the stomach with a baton by Chicago police while documenting a protest coinciding with the nearby Democratic National Convention on Aug. 22, 2024.

    The Chicago Tribune reported that more than 2,000 people marched to protest U.S. aid to Israel, advancing through Chicago’s West Side and within blocks of the United Center where Vice President Kamala Harris was accepting the Democratic nomination during the final night of the convention.

    Mulcahy told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that late in the evening after the march, a small group of 25 to 50 protesters sat in the street to block traffic. He said a large number of press were still around, and that police didn’t seem to know how to handle the journalists.

    “There was a rush to arrest someone and they were trying to push people back onto the sidewalk,” Mulcahy said. “I was standing there filming the arrest and they pushed me with a baton into my stomach.” He added that he intends to file a complaint with the city.

    That night, officers also threatened to revoke journalists’ press credentials if they refused to comply with the dispersal order. Mulcahy said that the members of the media raised alarm over the order and the department’s chief of patrol and deputy director of news affairs and communications ultimately walked it back.

    When reached by email for comment, the Chicago Police Department directed the Tracker to CPD Superintendent Larry Snelling’s news conferences during the DNC, declining to respond to questions about officers’ aggression toward journalists and attempts to revoke press credentials.

    During Snelling’s Aug. 21 news conference, he said that the department wants journalists to be able to do their jobs, but highlighted that the press must comply with police orders and step to the side when officers move in to make arrests. “If you don’t do that, it’s obstructing us and it makes it harder for us to take the people into custody that we’re trying to take into custody. And what we don’t want is for you to get caught in the middle of it and injured and hurt,” Snelling said.

    At least four journalists were shoved or pulled by officers responding to similar protests on Aug. 20, and at least three were arrested.


    This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Photojournalist repeatedly shoved by police while covering Chicago protest

    Independent photojournalist Madison Swart was repeatedly pushed and bruised by Chicago Police Department officers while documenting a pro-Palestinian protest coinciding with the nearby Democratic National Convention on Aug. 20, 2024.

    A small gathering of protesters, unaffiliated with and more militant than other groups that had organized larger demonstrations earlier in the week, converged around 7 p.m. outside the Israeli Consulate in Chicago’s West Loop section. The demonstrators and police, who far outnumbered them, clashed repeatedly. The protesters were later ordered to leave the area and police began arresting them, Block Club Chicago reported.

    Swart told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she was repeatedly shoved by officers who used batons or bicycles as they moved in to control the crowd and make arrests.

    “They were just trying to push the press back from taking photos of them arresting the protesters,” Swart said. “They were just shoving us back with their batons very forcefully.”

    She added that there appeared to be significant miscommunications and inconsistencies between the officers and in their directives toward the press. “A lot of them were telling us different things about where to go, and then we would go there and we would get in trouble for going where an officer had told us to go,” she said.

    Ultimately, Swart was in the crowd when she said police surrounded them using a technique called kettling, which is often followed by mass arrests.

    “I didn’t even realize that I had been pushed and wasn’t allowed to get out until I tried to,” Swart said. “The officers told me that I couldn’t go through and I was like, ‘OK, but I’m press, I’m just trying to get out.’ So one officer told me to go over to that side but when I did another officer said, ‘Nope, you’re all under arrest.’”

    In a clip shared with the Tracker, Swart and multiple other journalists can be seen standing across the street from the consulate when she tells officers that press had been directed there. One of the officers reviewed their credentials and then allowed them out of the kettle, at one point telling someone, “Yeah, you look like press, come on down.”

    While Swart said she was released relatively quickly, at least three journalists were arrested that night, and others were shoved or pulled by officers.

    “There seemed to be a blatant disrespect of the press in general from the CPD, even going so far as mocking a lot of the press, which I’ve never seen before,” Swart said.

    When reached by email for comment, the Chicago Police Department directed the Tracker to CPD Superintendent Larry Snelling’s news conferences during the DNC, declining to respond to questions about officers’ aggression toward journalists and attempts to revoke press credentials.

    During Snelling’s Aug. 21 news conference, he said that the department wants journalists to be able to do their jobs, but highlighted that the press must comply with police orders and step to the side when officers move in to make arrests. “If you don’t do that, it’s obstructing us and it makes it harder for us to take the people into custody that we’re trying to take into custody. And what we don’t want is for you to get caught in the middle of it and injured and hurt,” Snelling said.


    This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • She Was Brutally Killed Before She Could Write Her Story for the World

    Arpita Singh (India), My Lollypop City: Gemini Rising, 2005.

    Dear Friends,

    Greetings from the desk of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research.

    On 8 August 2024, a 31-year-old doctor at the RG Kar Medical College in Kolkata (West Bengal, India) finished her 36-hour shift at the hospital, ate dinner with her colleagues, and went to the college’s seminar hall to rest before her next shift. The next day, shortly after being reported missing, she was found in a seminar room, her lifeless body displaying all the signs of terrible violence. Since Indian law forbids revealing the names of victims of sexual crimes, her name will not appear in this newsletter.

    This young doctor’s story is by no means an isolated incident: every fifteen minutes, a woman in India reports a rape. In 2022, at least 31,000 rapes were reported, a 12% increase from 2020. These statistics vastly underrepresent the extent of sexual crimes, many of which go unreported for fear of social sanction and patriarchal disbelief. In 2018, the World Health Organisation (WHO) published an extensive study of violence against women using data from 161 countries between 2000 and 2018, which showed that nearly one in three, or 30%, of women ‘have been subjected to physical and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner or non-partner or both’. What this young doctor faced was an extreme version of an outrageously commonplace occurrence.

    Nalini Malini (India), Listening to the Shades, 2007.

    Not long after her body was discovered, RG Kar College Principal Dr Sandip Ghosh revealed the victim’s name and blamed her for what had happened. The hospital authorities informed the young doctor’s parents that she had committed suicide. They waited hours for the authorities to allow a post-mortem, which was done in haste. ‘She was my only daughter’, her mother said. ‘I worked hard for her to become a doctor. And now she is gone’. The police surrounded the family home and would not allow anyone to meet them, and the government pressured the family to cremate her body quickly and organised the entire cremation process. They wanted the truth to vanish. It was only because activists of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) blocked the ambulance that the family was able to see the body.

    On 10 August, the day after the young doctor’s body was discovered, the DYFI, Students Federation of India (SFI), Communist Party of India (Marxist), and other organisations held protests across West Bengal to ensure justice. These protests grew rapidly, with medical personnel across the state, and then across India, standing outside their workplaces with placards expressing their political anger. The women’s movement, which saw massive protests in 2012 after a young woman in Delhi was gang raped and murdered, again took to the streets. The number of young women who attended these protests reflects the scale of sexual violence in Indian society, and their speeches and posters were saturated with sadness and anger. ‘Reclaim the night’, tens of thousands of women shouted in protests across West Bengal on 14 August, India’s independence day.

    Rani Chanda (India), The Solace, 1932

    The most remarkable aspect of this protest movement was the mobilisation of medical unions and doctors. On 12 August, the Federation of Resident Doctors Association (FORDA), with whom the murdered doctor was affiliated, called upon all doctors to suspend non-emergency medical services. The next day, doctors in government hospitals across India put on their white coats and complied. The head of the Indian Medical Association, Dr RV Asokan, met with Union Health Minister JP Nadda to present five demands:

    1. hospitals must be safe zones;
    2. the central government must pass a law protecting health workers;
    3. the family must be given adequate compensation;
    4. the government must conduct a time-bound investigation; and
    5. resident doctors must have decent working conditions (and not have to work a 36-hour shift).

    The WHO reports that up to 38% of health workers suffer physical violence during their careers, but in India the numbers are astronomically higher. For instance, nearly 75% of Indian doctors report experiencing some form of violence while more than 80% say that they are over-stressed and 56% do not get enough sleep. Most of these doctors are attacked by patients’ families who believe their relatives have not received adequate healthcare. Testimonies of female doctors during the protests indicate that women health workers routinely experience sexual harassment and violence not only from patients, but from other hospital employees. The dangerous culture in these institutions, many of them say, is unbearable, as is evidenced by the high suicide rates among nurses that are committed in response to sexual and other forms of harassment – a serious problem that received little attention. An online search using the keywords ‘nurses’, ‘India’, ‘sexual harassment’, and ‘suicide’ brings up a stunning number of reports from just the past year. This explains why doctors and nurses have reacted with such vehemence to the death of the young doctor at RG Kar.

    Dipali Bhattacharya (India), Untitled, 2007.

    On 13 August, the Calcutta High Court ordered the police to hand over the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation. On the night of 14 August, vandals destroyed a great deal of campus property, attacked doctors who were holding a midnight vigil, threw stones at nearby police, and destroyed evidence that remained on the scene, including the seminar room where the doctor was found, suggesting an attempt to disrupt any investigation. In response to the attack, FORDA resumed its strike.

    Rather than arrest anyone on the scene, the authorities accused leaders of the peaceful protests of being the culprits, including the DYFI and SFI leaders who had initiated the first protests. DYFI Secretary for West Bengal Minakshi Mukherjee was one of those summoned by the police. ‘The people who are connected to the vandalism of a hospital’, she said, ‘cannot be from civil society. Who, then, is protecting these people?’

    The police also summoned two doctors, Dr Subarna Goswami and Dr Kunal Sarkar, to the police station on the charge of spreading misinformation about the post-mortem report. In fact, the two are vocal critics of the state government, and the community of doctors saw the summons as an act of intimidation and marched with them to the police station.

    There is widespread discontent about the West Bengal state government led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of the All India Trinamool Congress, a centre-right party formed in 1998 that has been in power since 2011. A particularly salient example of the source of this lack of confidence in the state government is its decision to hastily rehire Dr Ghosh after his resignation from RG Kar to be the principal of the National Medical College in Kolkata. The Calcutta High Court rebuked the government for this decision and demanded that Dr Ghosh be placed on extended leave while the investigation continued.

    Dr Ghosh not only grossly mishandled the murder case of this young doctor: he is also accused of fraud. Accusations that the murdered doctor was going to release more evidence of Dr Ghosh’s corruption at the college are now spreading across the country alongside allegations that sexual violence and murder were being wielded to silence someone who had evidence of another crime. Whether the government will investigate these accusations is unlikely given the wide latitude afforded to powerful people.

    Sunayani Devi (India), Lady with Parrot, 1920s.

    The West Bengal government is defined by its fear of the people. On 18 August, the state’s two iconic football teams, East Bengal and Mohun Bagan, were set to play for the Durand Cup. When it became clear that fans intended to protest from the stands, the government cancelled the match. This did not stop the teams’ fans from joining with fans of the third-most important West Bengal football team, Mohammedan Sporting, to mobilise outside the Yuva Bharati Stadium to protest the match cancellation and the young doctor’s murder. ‘We want justice for RG Kar’, they said. In response, they were attacked by the police.

    Shipra Bhattacharya (India), Desire, 2006.

    Many years ago, the poet Subho Dasgupta wrote the beloved and powerful poem Ami sei meye (I Am That Girl), which could very well be the soundtrack of these struggles:

    I am that girl.
    The one you see every day on the bus, train, street
    whose sari, tip of forehead, earrings, and ankles
    you see everyday
    and
    dream of seeing more.
    You see me in your dreams, as you wished.
    I am that girl.

    …

    I am that girl – from the shanty Kamin Basti in Chai Bagan, Assam
    who you want to abduct to the Sahibi Bungalow at midnight,
    want to see her naked body with your eyes intoxicated with the burning light of the fireplace.
    I am that girl.

    …

    In hard times, the family relies on me.
    Mother’s medicine is bought with my tuition earnings.
    My extra income bought my brother’s books.
    My whole body was drenched in heavy rain
    with the black sky on his head.
    I am an umbrella.
    The family lives happily under my protection.

    …

    Like a destructive wildfire
    I will continue to move forward! And on either side of my way forward
    numerous headless bodies
    will continue to suffer from
    terrible pain:
    the body of civilisation
    body of progress
    body of improvement.
    The body of society.

    Maybe I’m the girl! Maybe! Maybe…

    The paintings in this newsletter are all done by women who were born in Bengal.

    Warmly,

    Vijay

    The post She Was Brutally Killed Before She Could Write Her Story for the World first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Counter-terror cops arrest British independent journalist Sarah Wilkinson in the UK

    Early on 29 August, counter-terror police arrested Sarah Wilkinson – a prominent pro-Palestine activist and reporter. Supposedly, this was for content she posted online, which is a clear breach of journalistic freedom:

    Sarah Wilkinson: arrested by counter-terror cops

    There is something very ironic about the UK government arresting journalists under terrorism charges when they are literally complicit in Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians:

    Journalistic freedom

    In some circumstances, arresting journalists is in breach of international law. Resolution 2222 (2015) of the UN Security Council states:

    Condemns unequivocally all attacks and violence against journalists and media workers, such as torture, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrest and arbitrary detention, as well as intimidation and harassment in both conflict and non-conflict situations;

    It also:

    Calls upon States to create and maintain, in law and in practice, a safe and enabling environment for journalists to perform their work independently and without undue interference

    Clearly, the UK government could be in breach of that by creating an arena where journalists like Sarah Wilkinson cannot report freely on the truth without fear of unfair retribution:

    Earlier this month, police also arrested Richard Medhurst – an independent journalist and political commentator, at Heathrow airport. He was detained for 24 hours under Section 12 of the Terrorism act 2000 – which is clearly bullshit. Supposedly for:

    expressing an opinion or belief that is supportive of a proscribed organisation

    Obviously the UK government don’t like people speaking the truth about Israel’s apartheid regime. Clearly if it threatens the status quo, it has to be shut down:

    As the Canary previously reported, Medhurst’s arrest wasn’t the first. It seems British police are making targets out of non-corporate media journalists. Last year, they also arrested Kit Klarenberg, a Grayzone journalist – again under counter-terror laws, albeit different ones. In the same year, they also detained Craig Murray:

    A bigger problem than just Sarah Wilkinson

    According to Reporters Without Borders, the UK is ranked 24th in the 2022 World Press Freedom Index. This indicated that press freedom in the UK is ‘satisfactory’, rather than ‘good’. That alone should be worrying for a so-called democracy.

    In 2021 the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport held a Call for Evidence on Journalist safety. It found that:

    Multiple responses suggested the police themselves contributed towards threats or abuse towards journalists. This included police physically restricting access to spaces, arresting journalists, and holding negative conceptions about the role of journalists which affect how they treat them.

    This is part of a much bigger problem. During Israel’s genocide in Palestine, the IDF has murdered 116 journalists and media workers. Additionally, it has injured 35 journalists, arrested 53, and two are still reported missing. It has been the deadliest period for journalists since the Committee to Project Journalists started gathering data in 1992.

    Obviously, the UK’s corporate media isn’t reporting on the 100+ journalists Israel has murdered. Why would they when they are treating their own journalists so terribly. That is unless you’re singing from their out-of-tune hymn sheet:

    Keir Starmer told us change was coming. Clearly, we are still waiting for that when his government is targeting journalists for truth telling. Obviously he thinks he can get away with complicity in Israel’s war crimes if he’s locked all the honest journalists up.

    Speaking up against injustice and oppression, let alone genocide, apartheid, and state terrorism should never cost someone their freedom. But in the UK in 2024, that’s exactly what’s happening. The Canary stands in solidarity with Sarah Wilkinson.

    Feature image via MENA Uncensored/Youtube 

    By HG

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Journalist pulled off concrete planter box by Chicago police at protest

    Independent journalist Tina-Desiree Berg was physically pulled by a Chicago Police Department officer while documenting a pro-Palestinian protest planned to coincide with the nearby Democratic National Convention on Aug. 20, 2024.

    A small gathering of protesters, unaffiliated with and more militant than other groups that had organized larger demonstrations earlier in the week, converged around 7 p.m. outside the Israeli Consulate in Chicago’s West Loop section. The demonstrators and police, who far outnumbered them, clashed repeatedly. The protesters were later ordered to leave the area and police began arresting them, Block Club Chicago reported.

    Berg told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the police response to protests up to that point of the week had been restrained, but “shit went south” that day. She said she was trying to stay out of the way of the police when an officer grabbed her without warning.

    “I was up on a planter, behind a bush filming — you do what you do to get the shot — when all of a sudden a cop came up from behind me and yanked me out of the bush, onto the ground. And he just started yelling at me,” Berg said.

    In footage captured in the moments leading up to the incident, police can be seen corralling a small group of protesters while Berg and other journalists film from atop a concrete planter box. Near the end of a clip, an officer shouts, “Get down from there! Get down! Get them down!” The clip ends and it is unclear how much time passed before Berg was physically pulled from the planter.

    Later that evening, a supervisory officer ordered Berg to show him her press credentials and said he was revoking them. She told the Tracker that he seemed shocked when she pushed back.

    “I told him: ‘You’re not in charge of my credentials, you don’t get to revoke anything. There’s still a First Amendment in this country,’” Berg said.

    Shortly after the encounter, a different officer filmed or photographed both her face and her press credentials, which are from Los Angeles, where she’s based. Berg said that she observed officers similarly documenting journalists’ identities that night.

    When reached by email for comment, the Chicago Police Department directed the Tracker to CPD Superintendent Larry Snelling’s news conferences during the DNC, declining to respond to questions about officers’ aggression toward journalists and attempts to revoke press credentials.

    “We want to allow you to do your jobs. We really do. But there are times when we’re calling a mass arrest or we’re attempting to move in, we need you guys to step to the side,” Snelling said of journalists during the Aug. 21 news conference. “If you don’t do that, it’s obstructing us and it makes it harder for us to take the people into custody that we’re trying to take into custody. And what we don’t want is for you to get caught in the middle of it and injured and hurt.”

    At least three other journalists were shoved or pulled by officers responding to the protests outside the consulate that day, and at least three were arrested.


    This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Judge drops charges in police killing of Breonna Taylor, rules boyfriend responsible


    This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Pacific leaders back regional police force amid China concerns

    Pacific leaders on Wednesday endorsed a sweeping regional policing initiative despite a warning from a bloc of Melanesian countries that it should not be used for geostrategic advantage by Australia and New Zealand. 

    The Australian-backed Pacific Policing Initiative, or PPI, is seen as a counterweight to growing Chinese influence in the region that in recent years has become a focal point for competition between major powers. 

    Leaders from Australia, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Tonga and Palau fronted the media in the Tongan capital Nuku’alofa to announce the police initiative had received backing from the Pacific Islands Forum.

    The announcement came just a day after the five-member Melanesian Spearhead Group, or MSG, issued a statement saying parts of the PPI were “cryptic” and needed to be calibrated for Pacific needs. 

    On Wednesday, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said endorsement of the law enforcement program was a major objective for this year’s forum.

    “By working together, the security of the region will be much stronger and will be looked after by ourselves,” Albanese said.

    “Of course sovereign nation states will determine how they participate in this.”

    Australia has proposed pouring about $400 million (US$272 million) into training facilities to improve regional policing capabilities under the PPI, including for the establishment of a regional hub in Brisbane. 

    Though the Australian government is adamant the initiative is Pacific-led, some analysts say it is also a way for Canberra to retain its position as the Pacific island’s preeminent security partner as China looks to strike bilateral policing agreements.

    China signed a secretive security pact with the Solomon Islands in 2022 and unsuccessfully sought to strike a region-wide security deal with nearly a dozen Pacific countries that same year. 

    Fiji earlier this year amended a police cooperation agreement with Beijing, scrapping a provision that allowed Chinese officers to be deployed in Fiji.

    On Tuesday, the MSG – which includes Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and the pro-independence Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front, or FLNKS – said the PPI must fit the needs of Pacific nations. 

    “We need to make sure that this PPI is framed to fit our purposes and not developed to suit the geo-strategic interests and geo-strategic denial security postures of our big partners,” said Vanuatu Prime Minister Charlot Salwai, the current chair of the MSG in his opening remarks to a caucus meeting in Tonga. 

    At the same meeting, MSG Director General Leonard Louma said the police deal was a “worthy initiative” but many aspects were still “cryptic.”

    000_9TE4AQ.jpg
    A handout photo taken on Nov. 25, 2021 shows Australian Federal Police Special Operations preparing their equipment prior to their departure from Canberra to the Solomon Islands capital of Honiara. (AFP)

    Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and the FLNKS were absent from Wednesday’s announcement but two MSG leaders were on hand to praise the deal. 

    PNG Prime Minister James Marape said the Pacific needed to build up its security apparatus so it could lend a hand from within the region. He also thanked “big partners” Australia and New Zealand for their contributions to the Pacific’s needs, adding that one police training center would be in PNG.

    Fijian leader Sitiveni Rabuka said his country’s police force had benefited from regional cooperation and training in the past.

    “Most of the problems we face are regional problems … so it’s our responsibility to develop our own policing initiative,” the prime minister said. 

    The PPI contains three pillars, according to Albanese, the first of which was the establishment of up to four regional police training centers to be located in Pacific countries. It will also include a pool of officers ready to be deployed during regional crises and a development and coordination hub to be based in Brisbane. 

    Tongan Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni said a central tenet of this initiative was that forum members would have the discretion to choose how they would contribute to and benefit from the three pillars. 

    “Tonga, like many other countries, is facing a number of transnational security challenges, including an increase in drug trafficking within the Pacific in recent years,” he said. 

    “Therefore I think it is really important to have a Pacific-led, Pacific-owned initiative that reinforces the existing regional security architecture.”

    After the deal was announced, the leaders left without taking questions from the media.

    Mihai Sora, director of the Pacific islands program at the Lowy Institute, said the deal was a massive achievement for Pacific countries, at a time when regional unity was under pressure and when Pacific countries were facing mounting threats.

    “Pacific countries are still free to pursue individual policing activities with other partners, of course. Sovereignty is paramount,” he told RFA affiliate BenarNews. “But this initiative aims to fill those gaps in policing to which China purports to be responding.”

    Pacific civil society groups, speaking on the sidelines of the forum, said engagement with community organizations about the policing initiative had been disappointing.

    “There’s a lot of reaction taking place rather than deep thinking and analysis and actually listening,” said Sharon Bagwan Rolls of the Pacific Women Mediators Network.

    “Traditional security measures are still connected to people, so it does need to come back through the forum process, back into civil society to have those conversations.”

    BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news organization.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Harry Pearl and Stefan Armbruster for BenarNews.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Turkish court orders social media accounts blocked despite ruling that banned police ‘virtual patrolling’

    Istanbul, August 27, 2024— The Committee to Protect Journalists urges X (formerly Twitter) site administrators not to comply with a Turkish court’s order to block accounts belonging to several journalists and media outlets.

    “Turkish authorities continue to practice the ‘virtual patrolling’ and censorship of social media users under the false guise of national security,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, in New York. “The request to block access to multiple X accounts, including those of journalists and media, will have a negative effect on press freedom in Turkey, where media have already worked under constant government restraints.” 

    On August 20, a criminal court in the northeast city of Gümüşhane ordered 69 X accounts, including those of at least three journalists and a media outlet, to be blocked from access inside Turkey. The court ruling was issued in response to request by the local military police to stop “terrorist organization propaganda,” according to reports. The court document, reviewed by CPJ, did not specify the nature of the alleged terrorist propaganda. 

    The list of accounts CPJ reviewed included those of politicians, activists and individuals from various countries. As of August 27, some of those accounts were not accessible from inside Turkey, while others were suspended or deleted. The accounts of Amberin Zaman, chief correspondent for the independent news website Al Monitor; Deniz Tekin, a correspondent for the local media freedom group MLSA in the southeastern city of Diyarbakır; and the pro-Kurdish daily Yeni Yaşam were accessible despite being included on the court list. The account of Öznur Değer, a reporter for the pro-Kurdish news site JİNNEWS, was inaccessible. 

    The Constitutional Court of Turkey canceled the Turkish police force’s authority for “virtual patrolling” in 2020 due to the right to privacy and the protection of personal data. However, the Turkish security forces continue the practice.

    CPJ emailed Turkey’s interior ministry, which oversees the military police, for comment but didn’t receive a reply. 


    This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Thousands of women abused as children may be unable to get justice due to legal anomaly

    Exclusive: ‘Loophole’ in England and Wales from Sexual Offences Act is being challenged in human rights court

    Thousands of women who were sexually abused as children could be unable to obtain justice because of an anomaly in the law of England and Wales that is being challenged at the European court of human rights.

    The case has been brought by Lucy (not her real name), who was 13 when a man 22 years her senior began having sex with her. Despite him admitting it, police told her charges could not be brought because she did not report the alleged offence in time.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • New law grants Taliban morality police fresh powers to censor Afghan media   

    New York, August 23, 2024— The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned about a new law, to be enforced by the Taliban’s morality police, which bans journalists from publishing or broadcasting content that they believe violates Sharia law or insults Muslims.

    “The Law for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice grants the Taliban’s notorious morality police extensive powers to further restrict Afghanistan’s already decimated media community,” said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Beh Lih Yi. “This law marks yet another appalling blow to press freedom in Afghanistan, where the morality police has worsened a crackdown on journalists and fundamental human rights for the past three years.” 

    Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada signed the bill into law on July 31, although the news was not made public until August 21, when it was published on the Ministry of Justice’s website.

    Article 17 details the restrictions on the media, including a ban on publishing or broadcasting images of living people and animals, which the Taliban regards as unIslamic. Other sections order women to cover their bodies and faces and travel with a male guardian, while men are not allowed to shave their beards. The punishment for breaking the law is up to three days in prison or a penalty “considered appropriate by the public prosecutor.”

    In its annual report this month, Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice said, without providing details, that it had “successfully implemented 90% of reforms across audio, visual, and print media” and arrested 13,000 people for “immoral acts.” Several journalists were among those detained.

    Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid did not respond to CPJ’s request for comment via messaging app.


    This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Police arrests and detention of EACOP environmental defenders DOUBLES in less than a year

    Police have ramped up the repression of environmental defenders fighting TotalEnergies’ climate-wrecking East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP).

    EACOP: police repression

    In just the first nine months of 2024, Ugandan cops have arrested or detained nearly a hundred people taking on the EACOP project.

    It involves a 930-mile long pipeline that will transport oil from Uganda to a port in Tanzania. French fossil fuel firm TotalEnergies, China National Offshore Oil Corporation Ltd (CNOOC), and Uganda’s state oil company are partnering on the pipeline. It’s set to be the world’s longest heated crude oil pipeline, snaking through both Uganda and Tanzania.

    However, the project poses a climate and environmental disaster – threatening thousands of kilometres of vital wildlife habitats. Crucially, EACOP risks displacing over 100,000 people along the route – and is already harming many of these communities.

    As a result, communities and environmental and human rights campaigners have formed an alliance to fight the project. The StopEACOP movement has mobilised multiple protests in Uganda. In addition, it has inspired solidarity actions from groups across the world.

    But, in a Business & Human Rights Resource Centre’s (BHRRC) 2023 report, it found that in 2022, TotalEnergies was one of the five worst companies for projects linked to attacks against human rights defenders (HRDs).

    In particular, it linked projects operated by TotalEnergies to at least 42 attacks against HRDs since 2015. As many as 14 of these – a third – were committed in 2022 alone.

    Specifically, all 14 attacks in 2022 involved activists and defenders fighting against the EACOP project.

    Echoing this, in November 2023, Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Ugandan authorities of harassing, arresting and beating activists and demonstrators protesting the EACOP project. It also highlighted the intimidation and harassment of non-profits working on environmental conservation and oil extraction in the country.

    Now, Global Witness has underscored how Ugandan authorities have stepped up this abuse throughout 2024 so far.

    State crackdown on environmental defenders ramps up

    In December, Global Witness released a report entitled: ‘Climate of Fear’. It documented reprisals against land and environmental defenders challenging plans to build the EACOP. At the time, authorities had arrested 47 people for challenging the pipeline in Uganda between September 2020 and November 2023. Since then, double the number of incidents have since been reported in less than a year.

    Specifically, cops have detained or arrested a total of 96 people for opposing the controversial pipeline.

    Reports of attacks and threats have continued and sky-rocketed in recent months. This is despite the French oil major TotalEnergies “expressing concern” to the Ugandan government over arrests in May 2024. Following this, the state has only stepped up its crackdown against people mobilising to protest the pipeline.

    In early June, the army abducted and detained environmental campaigner Stephen Kwikiriza, reportedly beating him and dumping him on the side of a road a week later. Then, later that month, Ugandan authorities arrested 30 people outside the Chinese embassy. On 9 August, cops intercepted 47 students and three drivers on their way to protest the EACOP project and diverted them to a police station.

    Senior investigator at Global Witness’s land and environmental defenders campaign Hanna Hindstrom said:

    The tsunami of arrests of peaceful demonstrators fighting EACOP has exposed the limits of TotalEnergies’ commitment to human rights.

    The company cannot in good conscience press ahead with the pipeline while peaceful protesters are being attacked for exercising their right to free speech. It must adopt a zero-tolerance approach to reprisals.

    Hindstrom added:

    Climate activism is under threat around the world, while fossil fuel companies quietly benefit. European oil companies cannot absolve themselves from responsibility while their investments fuel climate destruction, reprisals and violence overseas.

    Feature image via the Canary

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Photojournalist arrested, camera damaged by Chicago police during DNC

    Freelance photojournalist Olga Fedorova was arrested by Chicago Police Department officers Aug. 20, 2024, while documenting a pro-Palestinian protest planned to coincide with the nearby Democratic National Convention. Law enforcement also confiscated her press credentials and cracked her camera lens.

    A small gathering of protesters, unaffiliated with and more militant than other groups that had organized larger demonstrations earlier in the week, converged around 7 p.m. outside the Israeli Consulate in Chicago’s West Loop section. The demonstrators and police, who far outnumbered them, clashed repeatedly. The protesters were later ordered to leave the area and police began arresting them, Block Club Chicago reported.

    Other journalists besides Fedorova were among the dozens detained, according to the Chicago chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. CBS News reported that Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling said three journalists were arrested for not complying with officers’ orders when police began moving in to arrest protesters who had attacked police.

    Independent photojournalist Josh Pacheco, one of those arrested, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the scene was chaotic, with officers issuing conflicting, often inaudible commands to the crowd, and pushing people onto the sidewalk, which was already crowded with police bicycles. Pacheco said that members of the press were caught between protesters and police as officers tried to keep demonstrators out of the roadway and intersections.

    Amid the chaos, Fedorova was arrested. Journalists Talia (Jane) Ben-Ora and Sean Beckner-Carmitchel both reported on social media that at the time of her arrest Fedorova was wearing Chicago–issued press credentials, which the police confiscated, and that her camera lens was cracked by the police.

    Fedorova’s attorney Steven Baron confirmed to the Tracker that Fedorova was “swept up in the mass arrest and detained for many hours at the Area 3 Chicago Police headquarters.” She was released the following morning and her press credentials were returned to her later in the day.

    Mickey Osterreicher, general counsel for the National Press Photographers Association, told the Tracker that Chicago police returned Fedorova’s credentials after NPPA and the journalists’ attorneys notified them “that such seizures were improper.”

    Osterreicher also said that in advance of the DNC, he had offered the Chicago Police Department a training on interacting with the press similar to one he gave the Milwaukee Police Department before the Republican National Convention in July.

    “They told me that they had been providing First Amendment training and they didn’t need anything from NPPA,” Osterreicher said. “Given the events of last night, I would have to say that that alleged training was an abysmal failure.”

    The DNC’s Public Safety Joint Information Center confirmed that Fedorova had been cited for disorderly conduct — failure to obey police. It did not respond to an additional question about why she was arrested.

    “Olga and the others were charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct for simply doing their jobs as reporters,” Baron told the Tracker. “We are disappointed that the City of Chicago chose to sweep the First Amendment under the rug with its heavy-handed tactics against working journalists.”


    This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • 20 Bangladeshi students who cops blinded during protests speak out

    Bangladesh student Omar Faruq believes the future of his country is bright. But all he can see is darkness, after police trying to crush a student-led revolution blinded him with rubber pellets.

    More than 450 people were killed – many by police fire – in the weeks of protests leading up to the ousting of ex-premier of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina, who fled to India on 5 August ending her 15-year autocratic rule.

    But dozens of protesters were also robbed of their vision – some in one eye, others entirely – by the plastic or rubber grapeshot pellets police fired from shotguns.

    Bangladeshi security forces are accused of having resorted to excessive force to quell the protests.

    In Bangladesh, the aftermath of the protests is ongoing

    “I was bombarded with pellets all over… my nose, eyes, everywhere – from close range” said 20-year-old Faruq.

    He had hitchhiked 200km from the northern city of Bogura to attend the protests in the capital Dhaka.

    Now he is getting treatment at the National Institute of Ophthalmology and Hospital (NIOH), the country’s biggest specialised eye centre. Its records show nearly 600 people have lost at least some vision from shotgun pellets fired during the weeks of civil unrest against Hasina. Among those, 20 have been blinded completely.

    Hundreds of others with pellet injuries in their eyes are undergoing treatment in smaller hospitals across Dhaka, according to local media reports.

    “We were doing up to 10 surgeries at a time” said Mohammad Abdul Qadir, NIOH’s acting director. “We have never seen such a situation before”.

    Rights groups discourage the use of pellets for crowd control against unarmed protestors, calling the cluster clouds of shots indiscriminate. US-based Physicians for Human Rights has called their use “inherently inaccurate”, and potentially “lethal to humans at close range”.

    Human rights violations?

    The United Nations last week said there were “strong indications” Bangladeshi security forces used “unnecessary and disproportionate force”, with a team expected to visit Dhaka to investigate. Those in the NIOH hospital, where ward after ward is filled with protesters with impaired vision, say they are witnesses to the violence.

    Mohammad Abdul Alim, 34, lay writhing in pain in his bed at the hospital, several pellets still lodged in his body. His left eye was swollen and bloodshot:

    Sometimes I wish I could just cut off the left side of my face. I can’t even properly see how much rice there is on my plate when I eat.

    An X-ray image of Alim’s skull bore testimony to his agony – dozens of pellets lodged all over.

    Alim said the police gave him and his fellow protesters 20 seconds to disperse before raining them with pellets. He said scores of people “immediately collapsed” after the shots.

    Alim said he hoped the new authorities – an interim administration led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus – would “take care” of his treatment.

    A sacrifice for Bangladesh

    Yunus’s government said it was setting up a foundation to “take care of the wounded and the families of the dead and wounded” who took part in the protests:

    We can never forget the contributions of the students and people who sacrificed their lives and who were grievously wounded while participating in the protests against the dictatorship.

    He vowed his government would do “whatever is needed to take good care of the wounded and families of the deceased” as soon as it could.

    But, for now, the injured have only their families to fall back on.

    In another ward at NIOH, Nazrul Islam stroked the hair of his younger brother Rahmatullah Sardar Shabbir, trying to comfort him. Doctors had managed to extricate two of the three pellets that pierced the 26-year-old’s left eye on 4 August – but failed to restore his vision.

    “I cannot see anything with my left eye” said Shabbir, a law student.

    But Shabbir – and almost everyone else at NIOH who have lost their vision to pellets fired at them while participating in the protests – said they had no regrets.

    “It is a sacrifice for my country” he said, a Bangladeshi flag unfurled above his bed. “We have created a new Bangladesh”.

    Featured image and additional reporting via Agence France-Presse/Luis Tato

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • The Exonerated: Two Chicago Men Wrongly Imprisoned for Decades Speak Out on Police Abuse, Torture


    This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • The Exonerated: Meet Two Chicago Men Wrongly Imprisoned for Decades, on Police Torture, Death Row & More

    Seg jimmy stanley

    As Chicago hosts the 2024 Democratic National Convention, we look at the city’s long history of police misconduct, including the use of torture under police commander Jon Burge, accused of leading a torture ring that interrogated more than 100 African American men in Chicago in the 1970s and 1980s using electric shocks and suffocation, among other methods, to extract false confessions from men who were later exonerated. Illinois has one of the highest rates of wrongful convictions in the United States, and a disproportionate number of the wrongfully convicted are Black or Brown people. For more, we speak with two men from Chicago who were exonerated after serving decades in prison: Stanley Howard spent 16 years of his life on death row for a 1984 murder that he confessed to after being tortured; Jimmy Soto was released from an Illinois prison in December after a 42-year fight to prove his innocence.


    This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Amid Trump Shooting Chaos, Butler Police Gave Boost to Secret Service, SWAT


    This content originally appeared on The Intercept and was authored by The Intercept.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • After Shooting, Police Officer Ensures His Family Left Trump Rally Safely


    This content originally appeared on The Intercept and was authored by The Intercept.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Far right race riot agitator Matt Goodwin gets schooled on ‘two-tier policing’ trope

    Former director of communications under Jeremy Corbyn James Schneider informed far-right, race riot agitator Matt Goodwin that his ‘two-tier policing’ claim reverses the reality, on GB News.

    “Through the looking glass” over two-tier policing

    Schneider said:

    Now I just find this discussion so through the looking glass. Things that we’re hearing about the two tier… are based on things that are objectively not true. Like Suella Braverman saying Islamists are in control of our city… The actual reality is that policing has racism going the other way. If there is a two tier, you’re far more likely to be stopped and searched if you’re black, you’re more likely to die in custody, and so on

    From Elon Musk to the Telegraph, racist disorder stokers have pushed the ‘two-tier policing’ accusation, without proof.

    On GB News, the ‘evidence’ of anti-white two-tier policing that Goodwin produced was extra security for mosques when… far-right Islamophobic rioters have attacked mosques. They attacked a mosque in Southport on 30 July, breaking windows through hurling objects at the religious premises.

    Schneider replied that Catholic churches aren’t under attack, so they don’t need the security.

    The actual racism of the police

    Rather than being anti-white in terms of two-tier policing, studies show that the police is actually institutionally racist against Black and brown people.

    Inquest reported in 2023 that Black people are seven times more likely to die after the use of force by UK police.

    An extensive 2023 report on the Met police by baroness Louise Casey, meanwhile, found “disproportionate use of powers” against Black people. The report further found minoritised communities were “over-policed” and yet “under-protected”. That’s because they are more likely to suffer several violent crimes than their white counterparts.

    You’re six times more likely to be murdered in London if you are Black, the inquiry found. Casey said overall that the Met was institutionally racist.

    Stop and search has disproportionately impacted ‘Black appearing people’. Those between 11 and 61 are at least 3.5 times more likely to face the measure than white people, the report stated 70-80% of the time, the search leads to no further action. And, according to the report, more stop and search doesn’t lead to more results.

    Casey also points out that how the Met treats its own Black and brown officers reflects policing outcomes for Black and brown people.

    The report found there was a “hostile culture” against Black and brown Met officers. And that Black officers are 81% more likely to face a misconduct case than white officers. At the same time, Black officers are four times more likely to raise a grievance allegation against the Met. And 46% of Black officers reported experiencing racism at work.

    That’s your two-tier policing right there, Goodwin.

    Featured image via GB News – YouTube

    By James Wright

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Outrage After Teen Afghan Refugee Pinned To Ground By Iranian Police


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and was authored by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • NYC Journalist Faces Hate Crime Charge for Allegedly Filming Gaza Protest Action; Police Raid Home


    This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • NYC Journalist Faces Hate Crime Charge for Allegedly Filming Gaza Protest Action; Police Raid Home

    Seg3 action

    Press freedom groups are raising alarm after New York police arrested and charged videographer Samuel Seligson for allegedly filming pro-Palestinian activists hurling red paint at the homes of top officials of the Brooklyn Museum, part of a campaign by activists demanding the institution divest from Israel. Seligson faces eight counts of criminal mischief with a hate crime enhancement, which is a felony. Police also raided his home twice. Seligson is a well-known local journalist whose work has appeared on major news outlets, and his attorney Leena Widdi says the charges are an attack on constitutionally protected press freedoms. “It is an extremely concerning assault on the First Amendment. The reason why the freedom of press is so strongly protected is because there’s some underlying belief that in order for the public to meaningfully participate in a democracy, they must be actually informed,” Widdi tells Democracy Now!


    This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Macron gives Pacific mission to Kanaky New Caledonia green light, says diplomat

    By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific presenter/Bulletin editor

    France has approved a high-level Pacific “fact-finding mission” to New Caledonia to gather information from all sides involved in the ongoing crisis.

    “We are welcoming a mission of the troika for a fact-finding mission in New Caledonia before the [Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting],” the French Ambassador to the Pacific, Véronique Roger-Lacan, told RNZ Pacific in an exclusive interview today.

    “I gave a letter to the [PIF] Secretary-General Baron Waqa and Prime Minister Mark Brown, the chair.

    READ MORE

    “It’s a good idea. It’s important that everyone can assess the situation together with [France].”

    She said it was important that dialogue continued.

    “We repeat the fact that these riots were conducted by a handful of people who contest democratic, transparent and fair processes, and that the French state has restored security, and is rebuilding and organising the reconstruction [of New Caledonia]. ”

    Forum leaders wrote to French President Emmanuel Macron last month, requesting to send a Forum Ministerial Committee to Nouméa to gather information from all sides involved in the ongoing crisis.

    The confirmation comes as the Forum foreign ministers are meeting in Suva, ahead of the 53rd PIF Leaders Summit on Tonga at the end of the month.

    ‘We are family’
    Melanesian Spearhead Group chairperson and Vanuatu Prime Minister Charlot Salwai backs independence for New Caledonia through a democratic process.

    “It’s a concern … and we decided to have a mission into New Caledonia to talk to the both sides,” Salwai said.

    It has been almost three months since violence broke out in the French territory, killing 10 people, and causing tens of millions of dollars in damage to the economy.

    Salwai told RNZ Pacific he had supported the independence of Melanesian countries for a long time.

    “It’s not only a [PIF] member and neighbour, but we are family,” Salwai said.

    “We are also for a long time Vanuatu support independence of Melanesian countries.

    “We’re not going to interfere in the politics in France, but politically and morally, we support the independence of New Caledonia. Of course, it has to go through democratic process like a referendum, they are the ones to decide.”

    Pacific leaders want to send a high-level Pacific mission to Nouméa before the end of the month.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Indonesian human rights groups seek independent probe of NZ pilot’s death in Papua

    By Victor Mambor in Jayapura and Pizaro Gozali Idrus in Jakarta

    Indonesian human rights groups have called for an independent investigation into the death of a New Zealand helicopter pilot in a remote part of Papua province earlier this week.

    The pilot, identified as Glen Malcolm Conning, was reportedly killed by an armed group shortly after landing in Alama district in Mimika regency on Monday.

    Amnesty International Indonesia’s executive director, Usman Hamid, described the killing as a serious violation of humanitarian law and called for an independent probe into the death.

    “We urge the Indonesian authorities to immediately investigate this crime to bring the perpetrators to justice, including starting with a forensic examination and autopsy of the victim’s body,” he said.

    “The protection of civilians is a fundamental principle that must always be upheld, and the deliberate targeting and killing of civilians is unacceptable,” Usman told BenarNews in a statement.

    The Papuan independence fighters and security forces are blaming each other for the attack and have provided conflicting accounts of what happened on the airstrip.

    Indonesian rights groups want independent probe of New Zealand pilot’s death in Papua
    A photograph of New Zealand helicopter pilot Glen Malcolm Conning, who worked for PT Intan Angkasa Air Services, in front of his coffin at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Indonesia, on August 7. Image: Antara Foto/Muhammad Iqbal

    The West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) — the military wing of the Free Papua Movement (OPM) — ​​has denied it was responsible.

    Suspicions of ‘orchestrated murder’
    In a statement, a spokesman, Sebby Sambom said: “We suspect that the murder of the New Zealand helicopter pilot was orchestrated by the Indonesian military and police themselves.”

    He alleged that the killing was intended to undermine efforts to negotiate the release of another New Zealand pilot, Phillip Mehrtens, who has been held by the rebel group since February last year.

    He said photos showing the pilot’s body and the helicopter without apparent signs of burns contradicted the police’s claims that they were burned.

    The photos, which Sambom sent to BenarNews, appear to depict Conning’s body collapsed in his helicopter’s seat, with his left arm bearing a deep gash.

    Four passengers who Indonesian authorities said were indigenous Papuans, including a child and baby, were unharmed.

    Police said the attackers ambushed the helicopter, forcibly removed the occupants, and subsequently executed Conning. They said in a statement that the pilot’s body was burned along with the helicopter.

    Responding to the rebel group’s accusations, Bayu Suseno, spokesperson for a counter-insurgency task force in Papua comprising police and soldiers, insisted that the resistance fighters were responsible for the pilot’s death.

    “The armed criminal group often justify their crimes, including killing civilians, migrants, and indigenous Papuans working as healthcare workers, teachers, motorcycle taxi drivers, and the New Zealand pilot, by accusing them of being spies,” he told BenarNews.

    No response over contradictions
    He did not respond to a question about the photos that appear to contradict his earlier claim that Conning’s body was burned with the helicopter.

    Sambom said on Monday that if Conning was killed by independence fighters, it was because he should not have been in a conflict zone.

    “Anyone who ignores this does so at their own risk. What was the New Zealander doing there? We consider him a spy,” he said.

    Bayu said another New Zealand pilot, Geoffrey Foster, witnessed the aftermath of the attack.

    Foster approached Conning’s helicopter and saw scattered bags and the pilot slumped in his seat covered in blood, prompting him to take off again without landing, Bayu said.

    Executive director of the Papua Justice and Human Integrity Foundation Theo Hesegem expressed concern and condolences for the shooting of the pilot and supported efforts for an independent investigation into the incident.

    “There must be an independent investigation team and it must be an integrated team from Indonesia and New Zealand,” he told BenarNews .

    Indonesia’s National Human Rights Commission, Komnas HAM, condemned the attack and said such acts undermined efforts to bring peace to Papua.

    ‘Ensure civilian safety’
    “Komnas HAM asks the government and security forces to ensure the safety of civilians in Papua,” said the commission’s chairperson Atnike Nova Sigiro in a statement on Wednesday.

    The perpetrators of the attack must be brought to justice, Komnas HAM said.

    The attack is the latest by an armed group on aviation personnel in the province where Papuan independence fighters have waged a low-level struggle against Indonesian rule since the 1960s.

    Another New Zealand pilot, Phillip Mehrtens, was abducted by insurgents from the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) 18 months ago and remains in captivity.

    Mehrtens was seized by the fighters on February 7 in the central highlands of Papua. The rebels burned the small Susi Air plane he was piloting and released the Papuan passengers.

    While his captors have released videos showing him alive, negotiations to free him have stalled. The group’s demands include independence for the Melanesian region they refer to as West Papua.

    Copyright ©2015-2024, BenarNews. Published with the permission of BenarNews.

  • Police arrest 22 peaceful climate protesters AT ONCE while racist riots spread across the UK

    Overnight on 7 August, cops arrested 22 activists mobilising for a climate camp at Drax Power Station in Yorkshire. That is, the very night far-right fascists planned attacks against asylum support centres across the UK, cops were pouring their energies into preventing a peaceful protest against a climate-wrecking corporation.

    Did someone mention something about two-tier policing?

    Protecting the powerful – like Drax

    Drax is an energy company which makes its money from a power station near Selby, in Yorkshire.

    The company has a habit of boasting its green credentials, claiming that its wood-burning ‘biomass’ power station produces renewable energy. This allows them to receive huge pubic subsidies. However, as the Canary has consistently highlighted, Drax is a serial green-washer.

    Drax burns more trees than any other power station in the world. It is also the UK’s largest single source of carbon emissions. Both Drax and the government claim that the emissions ‘don’t count’ because the trees are grown in other countries, and because one day far in the future another tree will store that carbon. Obviously, that is absolutely insane.

    Notably, there’s nothing remotely ‘renewable’ about its wood pellet-burning operation. Instead, repeated nonprofit investigations have shown the devastating environmental impacts of Drax’s core business activities. In March, Biofuelwatch and Portuguese nonprofit NGO ZERO exposed how:

    Drax is sourcing wood pellets for its Yorkshire power plant from a nature reserve in Portugal.

    More specifically, Drax is the biggest customer of Pinewells pellet plant in Portugal. Their investigation found that Pinewells has been sourcing trees from clearcuts in the mountainous Serra da Lousã nature reserve. The EU designated it a Natura 2000 site in 2008, under the EU Habitats Directive. Natura 2000 sites form an ecological network across Europe to protect wild animals, plants, and habitats of conservation importance.

    All this is to say that the company is chief among UK’s big polluters. It’s why climate activists have been gearing up to take on the greenwashing energy giant.

    Two-tier policing

    Reclaim the Power decided to target Drax with an action camp from the 8-13 August. Unfortunately, before the protest could even begin North Yorkshire police swooped in and arrested 22 activists.

    As with any decent protest – they were in the process of transporting disabled ramps and toilets to make sure the site was accessible. Maybe the idea of an accessible protest was too much for North Yorkshire police to comprehend?

    Reclaim the Power said:

    Police actions this morning send the clear message that protecting the peace and quiet of Drax — who take £1.7 million a day in subsidies and hand it to shareholders as ‘profit’ — is more important than protecting the lives and livelihoods of people whose taxes pay those very subsidies.

    Racist violence is happening Nationwide. Black and Brown communities are under attack with fire and bricks and the police have made the unfathomable decision to divert resources away from those communities to arrest 22 people taking equipment to make a peaceful climate protest safe and accessible.

    The police claim they are ‘not against protest but against crime’, but their actions show otherwise. In Yorkshire this morning, police prioritised locating and arresting people suspected of organising peaceful protest with tents, toilets and track for wheelchairs over locating and arresting people who are actually organising, far right riots with bricks, knives and other weapons.

    A protester who has been helping to coordinate the camp told the Canary that North Yorkshire Police are essentially acting as Drax’s own private security firm. Repeatedly they said they are not opposed to peaceful protests. However, they have still taken away the kit the protesters were using to ensure the camp was both peaceful and safe. Essentially, they are being silenced for speaking out against greenwashing.

    Reclaim the Power told the Canary that:

    After police seized key infrastructure the camp is now cancelled

    So Police forces up and down the country struggle to cope with huge levels of violence – while North Yorkshire Police are choosing to protect a powerful company who made over £1bn in profits in 2023 alone.

    What is Drax afraid of?

    Last month, Drax secured a high court injunction against potential future protesters at its site. Drax received a tip off from the police and then requested the courts protection – which the court granted.

    However, the injunction does not cover a ‘strip of land’ which they had marked out for the peaceful protest.

    Currently, taxpayers subsidise Drax by nearly £2m a day, even though it made over £1b in profits in 2023. Their profits come from our energy bills – which are sky-high at the moment. This means that British people are essentially paying twice. We have a new government, – which means Drax is currently trying to renew their subsidies, so the time is crucial in encouraging our government to put money into genuine green energy solutions like wind, solar and hydropower, not scams like Drax. However, and maybe unsurprisingly, the Labour Party have accepted donations from the company in the past.

    Profit before planet?

    Subsidising Drax means that vast sums of public money are funding a project that is actively fuelling the climate crisis, and causing huge harm to human life and the planet. There is a chance to stop this – but we cannot afford to wait.

    If the far-right rioters were really that bothered about wasting tax payers money – they would be campaigning for places like Drax to be saving the tax payers money.

    As ever, the cops are protecting the climate wrecking corporations, because in reality they protect the interests of the state – not the public. If they were truly there to serve the public, they wouldn’t be cracking down on peaceful protesters trying to save the planet from ecological breakdown.

    Feature image via Skill Builder/Youtube

    By HG

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • CPJ calls on New York police to explain arrest of journalist over pro-Palestine vandalism

    Washington, D.C., August 7, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists urges the New York Police Department explain its reasons for arresting a New York City videographer on hate crime charges after he reported on pro-Palestinian protesters who smeared red paint on the homes of two Brooklyn Museum officials, including the director who is Jewish.

    “We are concerned that New York City authorities arrested independent videographer Samuel Seligson on hate crime charges, and we urge law enforcement to explain their reasons,” said CPJ U.S., Canada, and Caribbean Program Coordinator Katherine Jacobsen. “Journalists play an important role in documenting protests and they should be allowed to gather news without fear of arrest or retaliation.”

    The Associated Press reported that a police complaint described Seligson as a participant in the June 12 crime for travelling with the protesters, but cited an unnamed law enforcement official as saying that Seligson, a regular reporter on New York City protests who has sold footage to major media outlets, was not directly involved in the property damage.

    Four homes were vandalized and a banner was hung across the entry of museum director Anne Pasternak’s apartment accusing her of being a “white-supremacist Zionist.”

    Seligson was previously arrested in May while documenting another pro-Palestinian demonstration in Brooklyn and charged with disorderly conduct, obstruction of government administration, and resisting arrest. That case has been closed, AP reported.


    This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • OPM blames Indonesia over tragic death of NZ helicopter pilot

    Asia Pacific Report

    The West Papuan resistance movement OPM has blamed the tragic death of a New Zealand helicopter pilot in a remote part of the troubled Melanesian region on Indonesia’s security forces and “every nation supporting barbarity”.

    In a statement today, the OPM (Free Papua Organisation) chairman-commander Jeffrey Bomanak claimed his movement had undertaken a “thorough investigation” and unilaterally rejected any implication of responsibility for the death of pilot Glen Conning.

    He also expressed sincere apologies to the pilot’s family.

    Bomanak said the OPM “respects civilians from Sorong to Merauke” and also from “other parts of the world”.

    Commander Bayu Suseno holds a photo of the NZ pilot Glen Conning
    Commander Bayu Suseno holds a photo of the NZ pilot Glen Conning . . . describes the recovery operation. Image: AJ screenshot APR

    The Jakarta Post reports that Glen Malcolm Conning, 50, a pilot for PT Intan Angkasa Air Service, was killed yesterday after landing in a remote part of Central Papua province with two Indonesian health workers and two children, all of whom survived.

    The Cartenz Peace Taskforce, assembled to deal with Papuan independence fighters, retrieved his body from the remote area and transported it to Timika near the Freeport copper and gold mine, reported the newspaper citing a military statement.

    “The body of the pilot has been evacuated from the Alama district to Timika and arrived at 12:50 pm local time. The body is currently at the Mimika General Hospital for an autopsy,” Cartenz spokesman Adjutant Senior Commander Bayu Suseno said.

    Mimika police head Adjutant Senior Commander I Komang Budiartha told reporters yesterday that three helicopters had been dispatched for the search effort, according to The Post.

    ‘Heart-broken’ for loss
    RNZ Pacific reports that a statement by Natasha Conning on behalf of his family said he was truly loved by his family and friends, who he had cherished spending time with when he was not flying or being in the outdoors.

    “Our hearts are broken from this devastating loss,” she said.

    The OPM has been waging a low-level liberation struggle in West Papua against Jakarta since a contested UN-supervised Act of Free Choice vote in 1969 in the former Dutch colony, which has been widely condemned as a sham.

    The OPM statement today from chairman-commander Jeffrey P. Bomanak
    The OPM statement today from chairman-commander Jeffrey P. Bomanak. Image: APR

    In the OPM statement today, Commander Bomanak said: “From the beginning of the brutal invasion and illegal annexation, our war of liberation is the very defence of our homeland, just as it would be for you, and as it was during WWII.”

    The “barbarity” of the Indonesian military and police was well known and “illegally supported by a tyranny of vested interests — geopolitical and trade from every nation with armament exports and a resource industry that steals our natural resources”, Bomanak said.

    He said the death of the New Zealand pilot was “another tragic chapter in six decades of international support for Indonesia’s crimes against humanity”.

    Bomanak also criticised the New Zealand government for allowing citizens to be employed by the “rogue state”.

    NZ hostage pilot
    In February 2023, pro-independence fighters took another New Zealand pilot hostage. Phillip Mehrtens, 37, who was captured shortly after landing his plane in the remote mountainous area of Nduga to drop off passengers.

    He has been held hostage ever since and has featured in several videos and photographs circulated by his captors.

    A spokesperson for the West Papua Action Aotearoa (WPAA) group, former Green MP Catherine Delahunty, said in a statement that the killing of Conning was an “utter tragedy for his family and friends”, adding that her movement was concerned over the killing of any civilians in West Papua.

    She also noted that the area of the tragedy was a “conflict zone” and that the Indonesian military had a responsibility for the safety of pilots flying there.

    Delahunty said the New Zealand government needed to respond to the dangerous situation “affecting our pilots” by calling on Indonesia to allow the UN Human Rights Commissioner and foreign media into West Papua.

    She said the government should stop “sitting on their hands and start negotiating with Indonesia for peace, human rights and self-determination in West Papua”.

  • Keir ‘Mr Crackdown’ Starmer is coming for the far-right goons – and the rest of us, too

    Following several days of race riots, many have wondered how our new Labour Party PM Keir Starmer will react. Those who are familiar with his record probably had a good idea, as Starmer was the director of public prosecutions during the 2011 riots. His response then gives a good indication of the response he will demand now:

    Crack down on riots

    Robin Murray is a “former winner of the Legal Aid Lawyer of the year award”. Describing his experience from 2011, he continued:

    In the riot courts, there was a judicial bloodbath the next day. Duty solicitors overwhelmed huge delays and ultimately bail refused whilst many were sent to the Crown Court. And who was in charge of the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service]? Keir Starmer. Expect more of the same over the next few days…

    to all clunk heads who think it would be fun to join a far right riot because you can expect your lives to be turned upside down as civil Society at times can react with a savageness that matches your own in order to protect the wider community.

    You will be entitled to legal representation but even the best lawyers will struggle to save you from a judicial system geared up to send you a message. If you riot/ break the law expect ruthless retribution. I merely state this as part of my past experience not as judgment

    I fought very hard with all the skills of many years in the legal profession but the tide of retribution flowing through the Legal system the last time this happened was overwhelming. I felt sorry for a few clients caught up with it who were more stupid than wicked.

    Some were not the main key offenders, but were on the periphery simply and wrongly looting shops where others had smashed the glass. Sam had no prior convictions. All were reminded in custody. So don’t get caught up in this, stay home & don’t ruin your lives. Re-evaluate.

    It seems like we’re going to see a similar response to that of Starmer and the coalition government of 2011, with 24 hour courts on the horizon:

    There is some difference between now and 2011, however, in that Starmer is reportedly more ‘understanding’ of the racist goons who are cutting a warpath across the UK:

    Some have pointed out that Labour’s stance on migration is actually a right-wing position that’s identical to that of the Tories:

    The thing to bear in mind, though, is that this position of promoting racism with one breath and migration with the next has clearly run its course. Sooner or later, a section of the population will say ‘if foreigners are so bad, why are we letting them in?’. That point is now here – on the streets – violently manifesting the hatred our mainstream politicians and journalists have been feeding them for years.

    2011

    The riots of 2011 were far different than the race riots we’re seeing today. As Emily Apple wrote for the Canary in 2018:

    In 2011, riots spread across the UK. They began in Tottenham after a protest over the police shooting of Mark Duggan. During the protests, the police refused to meet with Duggan’s family and friends. According to Paul Lewis, who covered the protests for The Guardian:

    “What happened over the next four hours is subject to debate, but what is clear is that tensions gradually escalated, as police made only limited attempts to talk to the demonstrators.”

    Lewis also reported that it was an incident with a 16-year-old girl that ‘sparked’ the riot:

    “Others present said the spark for the rioting was a specific incident involving a 16-year-old woman, who stepped forward to confront police around 8.30pm, demanding answers, but was attacked with shields and batons.

    “They beat her with a baton, and then the crowd started shouting ‘run, run’, and there was a hail of missiles,” said Anthony Johnson, 39. “She had been saying: ‘We want answers, come and speak to us.’”

    And as the protest escalated, a doubledecker bus was set on fire and missiles were thrown.

    The riots spread across London and the UK during the next few days. There was widespread damage to property and looting, and five people died.

    In a 2013 essay, professor Sarah Lamble wrote:

    The events of August 2011—which began with a peaceful demonstration outside a police station in Tottenham to protest the fatal police shooting of twenty-nine-year-old Mark Duggan and subsequently erupted into five days of rioting, looting, and burning in cities across England, presented the state with a political opportunity.

    Clearly these events were a sign of widespread rage, disaffection, and discontent, and they stemmed from deeper problems that had been brewing for years. But rather than seize the moment to confront these issues, the government chose instead to simply extend its law, order, and moral “responsibilization” agenda.

    She also spoke about how the state ignored its own laws to come down heavy on the lawbreakers:

    Questions were raised about the proportionality of sentencing as well as political interference with the judiciary’s supposed independence, particularly when it was revealed that magistrates had been advised to disregard normal sentencing guidelines for riot-related offenses…

    There were many striking cases: a twenty three-year-old with no prior convictions sentenced to six months imprisonment for stealing £3.50 worth of bottled water; a twenty-two-year-old sentenced to sixteen months for stealing ice cream; a forty-eight-year-old sentenced to sixteen months for stealing doughnuts; a woman who slept through the riots but was imprisoned for accepting a pair of shorts that had been looted by her lodger; and two young men sentenced to four years each for attempting to incite a riot via Facebook, even though their posts did not result in any such action…

    Despite appeals, most sentences were upheld on the grounds that the context of the riots constituted an aggravating factor that warranted additional punishment…

    The consequentialist rationality standard that was so stringently applied to those who participated in the riots did not apply to those doling out punishment. Stiff sentences were publicly justified on the need for deterrence, despite the lack of evidence that longer sentences have any such effect—a fact that even the director of public prosecutions admitted…

    The vengeful state

    The riots across the country have been difficult to watch:

     

    Anyone with more than two brain cells looks at these rampaging goons and wants to see them and their movement obliterated. In that sense, few will shed a tear when judges hand down disproportionate sentences to the hate mobs.

    We need to be aware of the situation we’re in, though.

    Starmer and the riots: he’s coming for all of us

    Starmer isn’t going to crack down on these riots because he recognises a civilised society cannot tolerate the intolerable – he’s going to do it because he’s Mr Crack Down.

    He would have reacted the same way to the Black Lives Matter protests, and to those who protested against the Tories when they repressed our right to protest in the first place.

    He will react the same way to those protesting against climate change, even as climate scientists warn us the effects are outpacing their worst fears.

    When the effects of climate change lead to more migration and Starmer’s policies do nothing to slow down either issue, he’ll crack down on the resulting chaos from every angle, and the resentment will grow in line with the problems his government is failing to fix.

    Starmer is a cop first and foremost, and this fact will inform every action he makes as prime minister.

    Featured image via the Times (YouTube)

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Ex-Spycop gives damning Stephen Lawrence revelation – then someone cuts the livestream

    A former undercover police officer has messed up – saying the quiet part out loud on video for all the world to see during the Spycops public inquiry. It related to the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence – and how undercover officers supposedly spied on his family and friends.

    And his comment is a telling glimpse into the way how the people who supposedly serve the public all too often serve the interests of the ruling class instead.

    Stephen Lawrence: ‘intelligence gathering, not smearing’ says Spycop

    Amid ongoing hearings, it’s clear that the struggle for truth regarding the Spycops scandal is far from over. Secretive police units were responsible over the course of decades for using undercover officers to infiltrate activist groups.

    One target was the campaign for justice over the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993. And in response to a question relating to the Lawrence case, former spycop Trevor Morris (who also defended his deception of two women upon infiltrating left-wing campaign groups) denied that his job was to smear people. He said:

    We’re about gathering intelligence, not smearing individuals. That’s a security service job. Let them do that.

    After a few seconds of reflection, the penny dropped. He’d messed up. So he quickly backtracked, squeaming “sorry, I shouldn’t say that”, and insisting “let’s scrap that last bit”. Seconds later, the broadcast was suspended, and it didn’t resume until about 50 minutes later:

    “That’s a security service job”

    Declassified UK has been a great source in recent years for revelations about the British security service, MI5.

    Whether that’s how it has helped to cover up sexual abuse in Northern Ireland, trained spies for repressive dictatorships, “amassed gossip and conspiracy theories through many hours of fruitless phone taps and mail intercepts”, or cosied up to Keir Starmer (as Director of Public Prosecutions) in the same year that Starmer made a favourable decision for the organisation relating to its alleged “role in CIA torture”, it’s not a pretty picture.

    And like the Spycops, the agency “gathered information on thousands of individuals who never remotely posed a threat to Britain’s security”, thus distracting from “real threats to the public”.

    But is its job also about “smearing individuals” it targets, as Trevor Morris suggested?

    “The mask slipped” during Spycops hearing

    The Canary spoke to film editor Madoc Roberts from The Spies Who Ruined Our Lives, a new documentary on the Spycops scandal in which women affected share their stories. He responded to Morris’s ‘mistake’ by saying:

    The mask slipped. It was like someone getting their lines wrong and the director has to shout cut. But this is real life and he let the cat out of the bag.

    He continued:

    In our film, Peter Francis, an undercover police officer turned whistle-blower, clearly states that they were infiltrating family justice campaigns in order to try and smear the families. The most notorious being the Stephen Lawrence campaign. The only reason to do this is to stop criticism of the police corruption.

    Finally, he added:

    But this episode also exposes that theatre that lies behind the inquiry. Any facade that it is a genuine and open process is destroyed as soon as one of the police officers goes off script. He was also appalling in his attitude to the women who he dehumanised to lessen the awfulness of the police actions.

    It was state-sponsored rape. In order to do it, they were using the identities of dead children which could only be done with the blessing of the Home Office. The whole thing was political policing which we rightly criticise in other countries but our establishment tries to cover it up.

    Stephen Lawrence: yet more questions

    But what about the smearing of the Lawrence family and their supporters?

    Morris’s admission is one of two things. Either he is lying under oath – a serious offence – in an attempt to dampen the evidence against him. This also goes against the evidence of other undercover cops.

    Or, were MI5 involved in the Lawrence case – and Morris just gave the game away? At this point, it is unclear.

    Featured image via UCPI – YouTube

    By Ed Sykes