The West Papuan Council of Churches says New Zealand hostage pilot Phillip Mehrtens’ life is in danger if negotiations do not take place with the West Papua Liberation Army (TPNPB).
The council is calling on Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to cease military operations in West Papua and seek dialogue with TPNPB.
Chief moderator Reverend Benny Giay said they are sending a letter to President Widodo.
Since the kidnapping of 37-year-old pilot Phillip Mehrtens on February 7 by TPNPB local commander Egianus Kogoya, violence has escalated between the Indonesian Army and the guerrilla TPNPB, with both sides reporting military and civilian casualties as a result.
“Egianus Kogoya could shoot the pilot,” Reverend Giay said.
Reverend Benny Giay . . . the Indonesian government has to take a peaceful approach . . . “We are asking the Indonesian president to withdraw the military.” Image: Sastra Papua
“In order to stop that, the Indonesian government has to take a peaceful approach,” he said.
“We are asking the Indonesian president to withdraw the military and to allow the church to go in and to dialogue with the TPNPB for the release of the pilot.”
Peaceful talk plan ‘ignored’
“We know that the TPNPB leader has proposed a kind of peaceful talk, but the government has not responded, and we are asking this through our letter, the TPNPB have proposed a peaceful talk…so why can’t you [President Widodo] take it?” Rev Giay said.
But Indonesian authorities say they are pursuing a “peaceful dialogue” to the crisis.
Commander of the Indonesian National Armed Forces Admiral Yudo Margono told local reporters in Sulawesi last week that they were being cautious.
Indonesia news agency Detikcom reported Admiral Margono saying on June 7: “We still prioritise [negotiations] carried out by religious leaders, community leaders and PJ regents there,” he said.
“If we prioritise operations with the military, of course, there will be many negative impacts on public safety,” he added.
It was a message repeated late last month by Papua Police chief Mathius Fakhiri.
“I talked to various parties about this negotiation process including the Church, which includes the Church Council and the Bishop who will do as much as possible to negotiate with the Egianus Kogoya group to be able to release the pilot,” Fakhiri told Detikcom on May 25.
“I opened myself to all parties, from the beginning, namely the Nduga government in collaboration with the Chief of Police and then there were also parties from Komnas HAM who offered themselves and we accepted,” Fakhiri added.
Church leader claims Indonesia ‘not taking us seriously’ However, Reverend Giay said the church could not mediate a dialogue unless the Indonesia military ceased its operations.
“The Papuan police chief has agreed that church [negotiators] should go in and talk with Egianus . . . but that means the military has to be withdrawn from the area [and] that has not been done yet,” Reverend Giay said.
“As of now, I cannot guarantee anything about church involvement because as of now the government is not taking us seriously,” he claimed.
Both Indonesia’s military and TPNPB have confirmed shootouts in the Nduga Regency of the remote highlands of Papua.
Indonesian authorities have confirmed the deaths of four Indonesian soldiers as a result of the fighting.
Reuters reported two weeks ago that the TPNPB released a video of Merhtens saying he would be shot in two months if the group’s demands were not met.
“If they [Indonesia] do not allow the church to go in and mediate, we will conclude that they are involved in the possible death of the pilot,” Reverend Giay said.
“From our discussions here, we think the conditions of the pilot may be worsening.
“We want to see the pilot . . . for Egianus to show us that he is okay…that is our first priority.”
Mehrtens’ welfare ‘top priority’ for MFAT According to New Zealand’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs, everything is being done to try and seek Mehrtens’ release, but the details of this have been limited.
The TPNPB maintains that New Zealand has not approached them for negotiation.
“The welfare of the New Zealander at the heart of this situation is our top priority,” MFAT told RNZ Pacific in a statement in March.
“We are doing everything we can to secure a peaceful resolution and the safe release of the hostage, including working closely with the Indonesian authorities and deploying New Zealand consular staff.”
Reverend Giay said Wellington needed to pressure Jakarta into ceasing its military operations.
“New Zealand government and the international community has to pressure the Indonesia government and military to seek a peaceful dialogue.”
“That is only possible if the Indonesian military withdraw,” he added.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Police in Dak Lak province, in Vietnam’s Central Highlands, have arrested 22 people in connection with an armed attack on two police stations, according to state media reports Monday.
The Ministry of Public Security had previously reported on its website that six suspects had been taken into custody in connection with Sunday morning’s attack on police stations in Ea Tieu and Ea Ktur communes. It said six people – police officers and commune officials – were killed in the attack and several officers, commune officials and civilians were injured.
The State-linked Voice of Vietnam website said Monday that police had now arrested 22 people and freed two hostages, quoting Ministry of Public Security spokesperson Lieut. Gen. To An Xo, who said another hostage escaped on his own.
Previously, two state newspapers, VnExpress and Cong Thuong (Industry and Trade), published detailed information about the incident, saying that at dawn on June 11, around 40 people wearing camouflage vests split into two groups to attack the two police stations. The motive is not clear.
Some of them then stopped a pickup truck and shot and killed the driver, according to a VnExpress bulletin, which was deleted shortly after posting. Cong Thuong also reported the shooting of the driver but then withdrew its article.
Translated by RFA Vietnamese. Edited by Mike Firn.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.
Seventeen Papua New Guinean schoolgirls who were kidnapped, raped and held hostage by armed men in Bosavi, Hela, last Wednesday were released yesterday.
The National’s source said they were released following a payment of 3300 kina (NZ$1500) and nine pigs as ransom to the gunmen.
“The females were released but they are traumatised. Some of them are just girls. It is the first time for them to be exposed to this kind of violence,” said the source.
“Meanwhile, the teachers of Walagu Primary School are still on the run, with the school closed since then.
“A female teacher who was seven months pregnant was airlifted by police to Komo in a chopper yesterday.”
Another government worker said: “Last week 40 armed men from Komo to Bosavi had accused the villagers for reporting them to police in the last kidnap incident [in February].
“They went to Komo passing through Walagu village near Mt Sisa.
‘Kidnapped at gunpoint’
“At Walagu, they kidnapped the females at gunpoint saying the villagers had assisted security forces and reported them to have involved in the kidnap of the New Zealand research scientist a few months back.
“They were held hostage at Mt Sisa for three days until their release yesterday.
“We are appealing to the Hela government to stop the smuggling of guns in the province.
“We also appeal to the authorities to arrest the 40 men from Bosavi, as they have raped our children who are between the ages of 13 to 15 and yet they demand a ransom.
“People in authority should meet with all its 24 council wards in Komo-Hulia electorate and arrest youths who have homemade guns in their possessions.”
Police sources also confirmed that the group seemed to be the same one that was involved in the earlier kidnap and ransom in February when the captives included an Australian-based New Zealand academic.
Lack of action ‘serious error’
The lack of follow up action by police and the military was a “serious error of judgement and appears to have emboldened them to continue with this kind of activities an easy money making venture”, a police source said.
Meanwhile, condemnation of the action and calls for serious government action came from the Member for Koroba-Lake Kopiage, William Bando; the Vanimo Green MP and Chairman of Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence, Belden Namah; and the Lutheran Church Head, Dr Jack Urame.
Namah said last night that he was alarmed that the police hierarchy and the ministry had gone silent on a serious issue involving the lives of children.
Majeleen Yanei is a reporter with The National newspaper in Port Moresby. Republished with permission.
But while deputy Police Commissioner (chief of operations) Philip Mitna confirmed the incident to the newspaper, he said he could not comment further as he had not yet received the full report from his divisional commander.
RNZ Pacific’s PNG correspondent Scott Waide said police had not responded to his requests for comment.
Waide has spoken to a local health worker but has been unable to verify the information.
Second Bosavi hostage drama
Hela Governor Philip Undialu said such occurrences were common in the Mt Bosavi area, where gun smuggling, and a lot of other criminal activities took place.
Local media reported police were preparing a rescue mission, but it was unclear when this was to have happened.
In February, the PNG government admitted that 100,000 kina had been paid to kidnappers to release three hostages, including a New Zealander, who were also taken captive in the Mt Bosavi area in the Southern Highlands.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.
The trial of three Papuan “free speech” students accused of treason has resumed at the Jayapura District Court this week.
The defendants — Yoseph Ernesto Matuan, Devio Tekege, and Ambrosius Fransiskus Elopere — have been charged with treason for organising a free speech rally where they were accused of raising the banned Morning Star flags of West Papuan independence at the Jayapura University of Science and Technology (USTJ) on November 10, 2022.
During the hearing on Thursday, linguist Dr Robert Masreng testified as an expert witness presented by the public prosecutor.
He said the Morning Star flags displayed in the event were “merely an expression”.
The students organised a protest to voice opposition against the Papua dialogue plan initiated by the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM).
However, the event was broken up by police and several participants were arrested.
Dr Masreng, a faculty member at Cenderawasih University’s Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, clarified the definitions of treason, independence, Morning Star, conspiracy, and the meanings of writings displayed during the free speech rally.
Treason ‘definitions’
He said that according to the Indonesian Thesaurus dictionary, “treason” referred to engaging in deceitful actions or manipulating others to achieve personal objectives.
It could also denote rebellion, expressing a desire to prevent something from happening.
Additionally, Dr Masreng noted that treason could signify an intention to commit murder.
In court, Dr Masreng explained that treason involved deceptive actions, rebellion, and an intention to commit murder.
He emphasised that the Morning Star flag was a symbol that gained meaning when it was used for a specific purpose. Without a clear intention behind its use, the flag lost its importance.
Dr Masreng said that the Morning Star flag was often used as a symbol to express ideas.
He said that the meaning of the flag could be understood based on how it was used in different situations, and different people might interpret it in their own unique ways.
‘Independence’ clarified
Dr Masreng clarified the term “independence” by explaining that it represented a perspective of freedom that had a wide-ranging and abstract significance when it was used.
The understanding of the word relied on the specific situation and how different people perceived it, especially in relation to the core concept of freedom.
Dr Masreng said this meant that when someone expressed themself, it implied being free from criticism and oppression.
He also provided an interpretation of the chant “referendum yes, dialogue no.”
He said the chant conveyed a decision to the general public without involving Parliament.
Rejecting dialogue was an expression of the speaker’s unwillingness to engage in a dialogue.
Regarding the statement requesting intervention of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Papua, Dr Masreng said this signified that the problems in Papua were not limited to domestic concerns, but were matters that should be acknowledged by the international community.
“It means an expression of asking the government to be open to the international community, allowing them to enter Papua and observe the dire human rights situations in the region,” he said.
Republished from Jubi with permission.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.
The Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary “has a gap” in its accountability and governance in the organisation, warns Police Commissioner David Manning.
And the missing gap needs to be filled.
Manning said that during the launch of a workshop for Governance and Accountability when he reminded divisional commanders, directors, provincial police commanders, legal experts and stakeholders that more needed to be done to fulfil the expectation of government and the people in the country.
“As a discipline organisation, governance and accountability is a key ingredient to successful work and I urge all officers to share their experiences with stakeholders taking part in this workshop and learn from them on leadership and accountability,” Manning said.
He said the workshop was part of the Corporate Plan 2022-2030 for the constabulary.
Former Police Commissioner Ila Geno officially launched the workshop, saying accountability was “part and parcel of governance”.
“The governance speaks about controls or authority, the action or manner in system of government. We must be committed to better build the constabulary and it all starts from individuals and adding values to our work.”
Geno shared his experience as police commissioner during the 1988-98 Bougainville Crisis dealing with the people and the issues in efforts to maintain peace and order.
Marjorie Finkeois a PNG Post-Courier reporter. Republished with permission.
The Asheville Blade (3/29/23) covers the arrest of one of their journalists, Veronica Coit (with a graphic created by another arrested journalist, Matilda Bliss).
Two recent cases in the South have raised fears that journalists and activists who use their constitutional rights against police power will be targeted by the state. Worse, establishment media don’t seem terribly troubled by this.
In North Carolina, Matilda Bliss and Veronica Coit, two reporters from the progressive Asheville Blade, were convicted of “misdemeanor trespassing after being arrested while covering the clearing of a homeless encampment in a public park in 2021.” The judge in the case “said there was no evidence presented to the court that Bliss and Coit were journalists, and that he saw this as a ‘plain and simple trespassing case’” (VoA, 4/19/23).
They’re appealing the conviction (Carolina Public Press, 5/17/23; NC Newsline, 6/2/23), and they have a good bit of support. In April, Eileen O’Reilly, president of the National Press Club, and Gil Klein, president of the National Press Club Journalism Institute, denounced the reporters’ conviction, saying that they “were engaged in routine newsgathering, reporting on the clearing by local police of a homeless encampment” (PRNewswire, 4/20/23). Available evidence, they said, “shows Bliss and Coit did not endanger anyone or obstruct any police activity,” adding that they “were arrested while reporting on a matter of public importance in their community.”
Dozens of other press advocates, including the Committee to Protect Journalists (5/3/23), PEN America (4/25/23) and the Coalition for Women in Journalism (4/19/23), have blasted the convictions.
‘Anti-establishment views’
The house of two of the Atlanta defendants is “emblazoned with anti-police graffiti in an otherwise gentrified neighborhood” (AP, 5/31/23).
In Atlanta, the assault on protesters against “Cop City”—a planned project that would devastate scores of acres of forest land on the city’s south side for a massive military-style security training complex—amped up when Georgia Bureau of Investigation and Atlanta police “arrested three leaders of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, which has bailed out [anti-Cop City] protesters and helped them find lawyers” (AP, 5/31/23).
The three were charged with money laundering and charity fraud. The “money laundering” consisted of transferring $48,000 from their group, the Network for Strong Communities, to the California-based Siskiyou Mutual Aid—and back again. The “fraud” amounted to the defendants reimbursing themselves for expenses like building materials, yard signs and gasoline. Deputy Attorney General John Fowler seemed to get closer to the actual reason for the prosecution when he said the defendants “harbor extremist anti-government and anti-establishment views” (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 6/2/23).
When news broke about the arrests, Atlanta activist and journalist circles were abuzz with fears and questions (Atlanta Community Press Collective, 5/31/23). There must be more to the story, right? These people couldn’t simply be arrested for providing bail and legal support—that would be absurd. What next: arresting defense attorneys?
The judge in the case has shared such skepticism, freeing the three on bond despite pressure from the state attorney general not to, and expressing “concerns about their free speech rights and saying he did not find the prosecution’s case, at least for now, ‘real impressive’” (AP, 6/2/23).
Tensions around Cop City are already high. Its projected cost has doubled (Creative Loafing, 5/29/23), dozens of protesters have been hit with domestic terrorism charges (WAGA, 3/5/23) and an autopsy for an activist killed by police “shows their hands were raised when they were killed” (NPR, 3/11/23).
The recent arrests have only raised the temperature. Not long after the three activists were granted bail, the Atlanta City Council “voted 11–4 after a roughly 15-hour long meeting” to approve the project, “sparking cries of ‘Cop City will never be built!’ from the activists who packed City Hall to oppose the measure” (Axios, 6/6/23; Twitter, 6/6/23).
‘Is she real press?’
Slate (6/1/23): “The state’s intention to criminalize dissent could not have been clearer.”
The Atlanta arrests have received considerable press attention. Slate (6/1/23) and the Intercept (5/31/23) wrote pieces highlighting the severity of the charges. The Asheville case, despite considerable outcry from press advocates, hasn’t had much attention outside left-wing and local press, with the surprising exception of a report on Voice of America (4/19/23), a US government–owned network.
What neither of these cases has received is an outcry from major newspaper editorial boards or network news shows, calling attention to their violation of constitutional rights—although the Atlanta arrests did get a news story in the New York Times (6/2/23) that included condemnations from civil liberties groups. (MSNBC published an op-ed denouncing the arrests on its website—6/3/23.) At FAIR, I have rung the alarm that journalists for both mainstream and small outlets have faced arrests (3/16/21) and extreme police violence (9/3/21). These incidents are part of that trend.
In the Asheville instance, Judge James Calvin Hill was already hostile toward the reporters’ First Amendment claims, as he questioned whether they were actually journalists (Truthout, 6/1/23). “She says she’s press,” a police officer said in court of Coit, to which Hill responded: “Is she real press?”
The Asheville Blade is a small, scruffy left-wing outlet; are we to assume that courts will determine what constitutes a journalistic outlet based on budget, size of distribution, popularity and political orientation?
In the case of the Atlanta arrests, coverage often carried photos of the activists’ Eastside house, painted purple with anti-police signage and graffiti. This hippie vibe might not be the image Atlanta’s powerful business class wants to project as the commercial center of the South; the Atlanta Police Foundation includes support from some of the city’s top corporations (New Yorker, 8/3/23), including Coca-Cola, Delta, Home Depot—and Cox, the AtlantaJournal-Constitution‘s parent company.
The Journal-Constitution, the major local paper, has run pieces (5/8/21, 1/25/23, 3/8/23) in favor of Cop City and other aggressive anti-crime tactics. Its editorial board (8/21/21) declared, “There’s no time to waste in moving to replace the city’s current, dilapidated training grounds,” because “criminals will continue to ply their trade, exacting a cost in property, public fears and even lives.”
Needless to say, this is not the way the Asheville Blade writes about police issues. But that shouldn’t matter, because constitutional rights, by their definition, are not supposed to discriminate.
Concern for freedom—elsewhere
The New York Times‘ concern (6/5/23) for a persecuted journalist is not so rare—at least when the persecutors are official enemies.
We live in a media environment (FAIR.org, 10/23/20, 11/17/21, 3/25/22) where we must constantly endure think piece after think piece about whether conservative college students are safe from ridicule if they come out against nonbinary pronouns, or if a comedian has suffered a dip in popularity because their schtick is considered “unwoke.” Governments actually trying to imprison people for exercising their constitutional rights somehow don’t generate the same sense of alarm in establishment media.
Unless, of course, those governments are abroad, in official enemy nations. The New York Times (6/5/23) prominently reported a “rare victory for journalism amid a crackdown on the news media in Hong Kong” after a court “overturned the conviction of a prominent reporter who had produced a documentary that was critical of the police.” When Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested in Russia, this was naturally covered, not just by his own paper (3/31/23) but its rivals as well (New York Times, 5/23/23; Washington Post, 5/31/23).
If our media really cared about the future of free discourse in contemporary America, and the state of freedom of speech and association, Atlanta and Asheville would be the focus of the same sort of media attention.
A Kill the Bill protester has been on trial in Bristol Crown Court this week. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is accusing Michael Truesdale of using a captured police riot shield during Bristol’s uprising against police violence in 2021.
Judges at Bristol Crown Court have now sentenced 35 people to prison for the Kill the Bill demonstration outside Bridewell Police Station. They have received over 110 years between them.
Michael has denied the charges against him, and is defending himself in front of a jury this week.
Excessive, indiscriminate police violence
The police’s body-worn cameras captured Michael on film. In the video, he was standing with the shield in what he called “a defensive stance” and using it to push back officers in riot gear. The CPS says that this amounts to violent disorder, a charge carrying a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
Michael argued that he was acting in self-defence, and in the defence of others. He told the court that he only had the shield for a few minutes, and he was using it:
to defend other people from shield strikes, from baton strikes, from PAVA [incapacitant] spray – and in the process defend[ing] myself
Michael said that the police used:
excessive violent behaviour towards protesters, indiscriminately.
Michael told the court that he had also seen police striking protesters with bladed shield strikes, and that this is why he needed to act to defend himself. Bladed shield strikes are where a police officer uses the edge of a riot shield to hit somebody.
Protesting ‘against police powers and police practice’
Michael explained to the court why he attended the Kill the Bill protest in March 2021. He said that the protest was:
in relation to the Police Crime Sentencing and Courts Bill [now an Act]. We were there to protest against police powers and police practice, and the murder of Sarah Everard.
Michael said that one of the reasons he had gone was because of the attack on protest. He said:
There was a lot of concern among anyone who takes part in protest about this. Noisy protests could be shut down
He continued:
if you did protest it would entail very close cooperation with the police otherwise it wouldn’t happen. I was really concerned as protest is the only way we have really to make our voices heard.
Michael said that some of his friends had been brutalised by the police at a vigil for Sarah Everard the previous week. Officers even arrested another of his friends for taking part in the memorial on Clapham Common.
Michael told the court that police had banned a Bristol vigil for Sarah, planned in the same period as the Clapham Common event, under Covid-19 regulations.
Protecting others
Michael joined the Kill the Bill march from College Green on 21 March 2021. He initially hung back when the confrontation started outside Bridewell Police Station. He watched with concern as police on horseback entered the crowd and the confrontation escalated.
Owen Greenhall, Michael’s defence barrister, showed footage of one of the mounted officers using an overarm baton strike against protesters. This is despite the police’s own guidance clearly stating that batons should not be aimed towards the head.
The footage also showed police officers repeatedly hitting a woman with a baton
Later on, Michael said that he felt he needed to intervene when he saw the police attacking another woman. Footage shows officers shoving a woman in red to the floor. She got up and tried to climb a traffic-light pole to escape. Michael said he stepped in to help her, holding an arm out. He said that he was trying keep the police away from her.
Michael told the court:
I saw her being pushed over, another officer rugby tackled her. I saw them bashing her with shields, batons and all sorts.
I could see her being hit with batons, she was climbing the pole, she gave me her water bottle – I was pushing against the pole with one arm, and using the other arm to keep them off her.
He said:
It felt at any time the police could charge.
Shortly afterwards, Michael said that someone in the crowd handed him a police riot shield. He said he used it to defend himself and others, as the police were pushing forward and there was nowhere for the protesters to go.
According to Michael, the scariest point of the evening was when he was shoved to the floor by a line of riot police who were pushing forward. He said:
I was forced to one knee by the weight of the police officer and the officers behind him.
My concerns were that I had seen a lot of bladed strikes being used against people – seeing the shield in that position it seemed it was going to make a bladed strike.
Michael said he put his hand on the officer’s shield and pulled himself up off the floor.
Shortly afterward, the police sprayed Michael in the face with PAVA spray, and he was forced to leave the crowd and receive first aid.
Kill the Bill protest ‘the most important I’ve attended’
Greenhall, defending Michael, asked why he didn’t leave earlier, when the police violence started. Michael said:
Whilst it would have been convenient for me to leave, and I would have got less hurt, I wouldn’t have defended those people – when faced with people attacking its important for me to defend them. Its irrelevant that it’s police officers attacking.
He continued:
I think it was a very important protest, arguably the most important I’ve attended. The Bill would erode our democracy and have negative effects on us throughout our lives. It was important to stay and stand up for the right to protest.
The jury are now listening to closing speeches from the defence and the prosecution. They are expected to begin deliberating on a verdict on Friday 9 June.
People in Bristol are raising funds for those already sentenced. Click here to find out how to write to the people in prison, or donate to their crowdfunder here.
Col Rabih Alenezi received advice after reporting death threats, of which he says he receives 50 a week
A Saudi Arabian dissident living in London was told to “emulate” the life of the US whistleblower Edward Snowden by a Metropolitan police officer, amid death threats he received after fleeing his country.
Col Rabih Alenezi, 44, had been a senior official in Saudi Arabia’s security service for two decades, but sought asylum in the UK after he claimed to have been ordered to carry out human rights violations. His life was threatened for criticising the regime of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
People have been out protesting once again in France over president Macron‘s pension reforms. This is despite him passing the changes into law in April. The demonstrations came as public support for Macron continued to look shaky.
However, the bigger picture here is that French people are refusing to back down in the face of politicians’ nefarious actions.
Macron forced through reforms to France’s state pension system in April. Amongst other measures, he raised the pension age from 62 to 64.
The government printed parts of the pensions overhaul, including the key increase in the retirement age, in France’s official journal on Sunday 4 June. This means they are now law. However, unions have led a revolt against the plans.
The protests haven’t been without problems. The state has come down hard on some demonstrators. The Canary reported that, during May Day protests:
Police fired gas at demonstrators in Toulouse in southern France, while four cars were set on fire in Lyon. In Nantes, police also fired tear gas, whilst protesters hurled projectiles. And in Marseille, protesters briefly occupied the luxury InterContinental, smashing flowerpots and damaging furniture.
Interior minister Gerald Darmanin said police arrested 540 people across the country, including 305 in Paris.
And, on Tuesday 6 June, people once again turned out to show their anger at Macron and his crony-capitalist reforms.
Yet more protests in France
Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported on the 14th day of demonstrations against the president’s law changes since January. Macron signed the legislation into law in April, raising the pension age to 64 from 62 after the government used a controversial-but-legal mechanism to avoid a vote in parliament on the bill.
The General Confederation of Labour (CGT) Union has been central to the fight back against Macron. Its head, Sophie Binet, said of the protests:
It’s going to be another big day in the history of the trade union movement… After six months the unions are still united and the level of anger, frustration and motivation is high.
I hear people say sometimes that everything is over, but it’s not true.
Clearly, countless people feel the same. On 6 June, people came out for around 250 demos across France. The CGT took direct action in some places, cutting power supplies to companies:
FRANCE | #Manif6Juin :14th day of mobilization against the #Reform of #Pensions, several cities of are already experiencing a citizen surge such as Lyon, Toulouse, Montpellier, Grenoble. In Issy-les-Moulineaux, the #CGT says it has cut power to several companies #strike. pic.twitter.com/qx3Gtxb6a8
[DIRECT] Du monde à Toulouse pour la #manif6juin. Des manifs sont en cours au Havre, à Rouen, à Montpellier… Suivez la journée de mobilisation avec nous. Il faut tirer les bilans des derniers mois et préparer la suite, en exigeant un véritable plan de bataille contre Macron ! pic.twitter.com/MN00eSpbN6
— Révolution Permanente (@RevPermanente) June 6, 2023
In Nantes, cops again fired tear gas at the public:
— Breaking News 24/7 (@Worldsource24) June 6, 2023
AFP reported the state had put 11,000 cops on duty for the day. In contrast to March and April, when rubbish piled up in the streets of Paris and most long-distance trains were cancelled, there was only limited disruption to transport and public services. For example, around a third of flights were cancelled at Paris Orly airport.
Will anything stop Macron?
Meanwhile, Macron’s arrogant refusal to back down had been hitting him in the polls. However, his personal ratings are also moving higher again, having plunged to near-record depths in March and April.
After two months of falls, a poll on 2 June showed that 29% of people had confidence in his ability to manage the country, up four points. However, around two thirds of people (64%) expressed no confidence in him. This underlines the deep animosity felt by many voters towards the former investment banker.
It remains to be seen whether anything can reverse Macron’s deplorable law changes now. There is a motion by an opposition party in France’s parliament to try and undo the law. However, it is unlikely this will work. So, it is likely people will continue to protest.
Ultimately, Macron probably doesn’t care – as this is his second and final term in office. The effect of this scandal on his party, though, likely to last.
A prominent civil rights group is calling for a federal investigation into Georgia police’s arrest of three lead organizers for the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, a bail fund that has helped in protesters’ fight against Cop City, raising deep concerns about the state’s seeming quest to paint protesters against Cop City as “terrorists.” In a statement released on Friday, Legal Defense Fund (LDF) said…
A widely used Chinese video surveillance company sanctioned by Western governments incorporates an AI technology that automatically alerts authorities if a person is detected unfurling a banner.
The AI in cameras made by Dahua Technology appears to be explicitly aimed at quelling protests, according to IPVM, a U.S.-based surveillance research company that first reported the technology’s existence.
Dahua deleted references to the system, called “Jinn,” after IPVM asked the company for comment, but an archived version of its website discusses its use for the purposes of “social safety” and “social governance” – terms frequently used by Chinese authorities to justify surveillance and arrests.
The detection system is just one example of the growth of AI and government tracking technologies in China that have proliferated over the last several years amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
A series of mass technology procurements by police forces across China have greatly increased authorities’ abilities to clamp down on social freedoms, control citizens and, critics say, abuse groups targeted by the government.
‘An alarm will be generated’
According to Dahua’s archived webpage, the AI system was launched in 2021 and available as of May 2023.
Its debut appears to have coincided with a wave of police investment in geographic information systems across China in 2020.
Dahua surveillance cameras installed on the Dahua Technologies office building in Hangzhou, China, May 29, 2019. Credit: AFP
It is not known what police jurisdictions use this particular Dahua AI, but the company is a major provider of police technology, said Charles Rollet of IPVM.
“With the banner alarm – that’s catering to the Chinese enterprise market: the big, usually police, authorities,” he said. “It’s intended for police or some form of city authority … there’s no reason to track them [banners] automatically unless you want to track protests, basically.”
Perhaps the most recognizable protest in China in recent years – the White Paper protest against strict COVID lockdowns – was started by a man unfurling a banner on a bridge last year — an indication of the possible relevance of the technology for police (though it is not known if unfurling banner tracking was used by police in that particular case).
Dahua, which is sanctioned by the U.S., U.K. and Australian governments, provides a number of predictive policing AI technologies that can surveil civilians using biometrics data. Previously, internal documents from the company showed that it provides facial recognition AI to track Uyghurs, which led to the Western sanctions. Dahua denied racial targeting.
A demo of a banner unfurling that AI filmed in 2020 was also posted on Dahua’s website before being deleted. “If a person holding a banner is detected within the camera field and lasts for a certain period of time, an alarm to police will be generated,” the demo explained.
Dahua did not respond to a request for comment from RFA.
Policing tech boom
The banner unfurling technology is a continuation of “the development of AI and how that technology is becoming really available” to Chinese police, said Rollet.
China is known to collect vast troves of data on its residents, and rapidly expanding AI technologies give authorities a new way to gather intel.
“Traditional police work needs to be transformed into digital, intelligent and convenient simplified online operation,” it said. “The effective management of the model to make it play its biggest role has become an urgent problem in the development of public security technology.”
A man has his face marked for identification by technologies from state-owned surveillance equipment manufacturer Hikvision on a monitor at Security China 2018 in Beijing, China, Oct. 23, 2018. Credit: Ng Han Guan/AP
The project aims to create automatic alerts to inform police of movements of particular populations in the Songjiang district of Shanghai, a populous suburb with a large population of academics and university students.
The “target populations” the project seeks to automatically track include Uyghurs; foreigners with illegal residence status; faculty and staff members of key universities; foreign journalists stationed in China; foreigners who have visited Xinjiang or other similar areas; individuals with COVID vaccinations; suspected criminals, sex workers, and drug dealers; and families with abnormal electricity consumption.
According to a notice on its website that was later removed, Songjiang police awarded the project to a technology security firm, the Shanghai Juyi Technology Development Company, that appears to specialize in government contract work.
The Shanghai Juyi Technology Development Company did not return a request for comment.
As with Dahua, the Songjiang police removed the notice after IPVM publicized it in May, and RFA was unable to reach the project’s manager listed on the document.
The limits of Big Brother
The 26 categories of “target populations” in the Shanghai project are what are considered “focus personnel” by Chinese authorities, according to Maya Wang of Human Rights Watch.
“People who are petitioners, people who have a prior criminal record, people who have psychosocial disabilities and so on, … these groups of people are being monitored by the police” both physically and through technologies, Wang told RFA.
Chinese paramilitary firefighters stand on guard beneath a light pole with security cameras at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, March 8, 2018. Credit: Mark Schiefelbein/AP
But the way in which AI is used to track people shows both the sophistication and artlessness in how Chinese authorities think about surveillance, said Geoffrey Cain, author of “The Perfect Police State,” a book on Chinese surveillance.
The parameters they use – tracking the unfurling of a banner or flagging jumps in household electricity use (in the Shanghai police project) – tend to work backwards from behaviors that might only be vaguely connected to censured activities they are trying to pre-emptively clamp down on, such as protesting or cryptocurrency mining.
“It reminds me back when this whole surveillance state really got kicking off around 2016 and 2017,” Cain said. “They were going after people who suddenly start smoking or drinking or people who suddenly, you know, purchase the items being used to make a tent.
“And it’s not because there’s any specific reason, but the reasons they would give is that those types of behaviors are suspicious. It’s almost like they’ve arbitrarily chosen something that would be unusual,” he said.
“It’s as if the authorities are moving backwards, putting the cause before the fact.”
Discrimination and danger
But there is real impact for the groups targeted.
Mass surveillance of Uyghurs in particular has been a key factor in enabling their persecution, said HRW’s Wang.
“Wherever they go in China, Uyghurs are essentially being singled out for discriminatory and targeted policing,” she said. “And that means that they often suffer – they often are unable to find a place to stay, a hotel. Typically, when they take the train, they are subjected to investigation and interrogation and so on.”
Visitors take photos near surveillance cameras as a policeman watches on Tiananmen Square in Beijing, July 15, 2021. Credit: Ng Han Guan/AP
According to a May analysis of Chinese police geolocation systems acquisitions by China Digital Times, a specialist media firm, a wave of police investment in these tracking systems was first seen in 2017, and then again in 2020, increasing throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Some contracts coincided with other government purchases of surveillance systems specifically designed to target Uyghurs,” the report noted. “There are also notable concentrations of procurement in regions with significant Uyghur or other minority populations.”
More broadly, the concern is that “these [AI surveillance] systems are all empowering authorities to violate human rights in different ways, depending on how they are used,” said Wang.
“And when they are so cheap and widely available and in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative, given Chinese government Chinese financing, they are spreading with detrimental impact on rights globally,” she said.
Rollet agreed. “I could see this taking off in other countries,” he said. “I think the bigger risk is that it sets a precedent and gives other countries ideas about what they should do, you know?”
Edited by Boer Deng
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Investigative and Gulchehra Hoja for RFA Uyghur.
A widely used Chinese video surveillance company sanctioned by Western governments incorporates an AI technology that automatically alerts authorities if a person is detected unfurling a banner.
The AI in cameras made by Dahua Technology appears to be explicitly aimed at quelling protests, according to IPVM, a U.S.-based surveillance research company that first reported the technology’s existence.
Dahua deleted references to the system, called “Jinn,” after IPVM asked the company for comment, but an archived version of its website discusses its use for the purposes of “social safety” and “social governance” – terms frequently used by Chinese authorities to justify surveillance and arrests.
The detection system is just one example of the growth of AI and government tracking technologies in China that have proliferated over the last several years amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
A series of mass technology procurements by police forces across China have greatly increased authorities’ abilities to clamp down on social freedoms, control citizens and, critics say, abuse groups targeted by the government.
‘An alarm will be generated’
According to Dahua’s archived webpage, the AI system was launched in 2021 and available as of May 2023.
Its debut appears to have coincided with a wave of police investment in geographic information systems across China in 2020.
Dahua surveillance cameras installed on the Dahua Technologies office building in Hangzhou, China, May 29, 2019. Credit: AFP
It is not known what police jurisdictions use this particular Dahua AI, but the company is a major provider of police technology, said Charles Rollet of IPVM.
“With the banner alarm – that’s catering to the Chinese enterprise market: the big, usually police, authorities,” he said. “It’s intended for police or some form of city authority … there’s no reason to track them [banners] automatically unless you want to track protests, basically.”
Perhaps the most recognizable protest in China in recent years – the White Paper protest against strict COVID lockdowns – was started by a man unfurling a banner on a bridge last year — an indication of the possible relevance of the technology for police (though it is not known if unfurling banner tracking was used by police in that particular case).
Dahua, which is sanctioned by the U.S., U.K. and Australian governments, provides a number of predictive policing AI technologies that can surveil civilians using biometrics data. Previously, internal documents from the company showed that it provides facial recognition AI to track Uyghurs, which led to the Western sanctions. Dahua denied racial targeting.
A demo of a banner unfurling that AI filmed in 2020 was also posted on Dahua’s website before being deleted. “If a person holding a banner is detected within the camera field and lasts for a certain period of time, an alarm to police will be generated,” the demo explained.
Dahua did not respond to a request for comment from RFA.
Policing tech boom
The banner unfurling technology is a continuation of “the development of AI and how that technology is becoming really available” to Chinese police, said Rollet.
China is known to collect vast troves of data on its residents, and rapidly expanding AI technologies give authorities a new way to gather intel.
“Traditional police work needs to be transformed into digital, intelligent and convenient simplified online operation,” it said. “The effective management of the model to make it play its biggest role has become an urgent problem in the development of public security technology.”
A man has his face marked for identification by technologies from state-owned surveillance equipment manufacturer Hikvision on a monitor at Security China 2018 in Beijing, China, Oct. 23, 2018. Credit: Ng Han Guan/AP
The project aims to create automatic alerts to inform police of movements of particular populations in the Songjiang district of Shanghai, a populous suburb with a large population of academics and university students.
The “target populations” the project seeks to automatically track include Uyghurs; foreigners with illegal residence status; faculty and staff members of key universities; foreign journalists stationed in China; foreigners who have visited Xinjiang or other similar areas; individuals with COVID vaccinations; suspected criminals, sex workers, and drug dealers; and families with abnormal electricity consumption.
According to a notice on its website that was later removed, Songjiang police awarded the project to a technology security firm, the Shanghai Juyi Technology Development Company, that appears to specialize in government contract work.
The Shanghai Juyi Technology Development Company did not return a request for comment.
As with Dahua, the Songjiang police removed the notice after IPVM publicized it in May, and RFA was unable to reach the project’s manager listed on the document.
The limits of Big Brother
The 26 categories of “target populations” in the Shanghai project are what are considered “focus personnel” by Chinese authorities, according to Maya Wang of Human Rights Watch.
“People who are petitioners, people who have a prior criminal record, people who have psychosocial disabilities and so on, … these groups of people are being monitored by the police” both physically and through technologies, Wang told RFA.
Chinese paramilitary firefighters stand on guard beneath a light pole with security cameras at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, March 8, 2018. Credit: Mark Schiefelbein/AP
But the way in which AI is used to track people shows both the sophistication and artlessness in how Chinese authorities think about surveillance, said Geoffrey Cain, author of “The Perfect Police State,” a book on Chinese surveillance.
The parameters they use – tracking the unfurling of a banner or flagging jumps in household electricity use (in the Shanghai police project) – tend to work backwards from behaviors that might only be vaguely connected to censured activities they are trying to pre-emptively clamp down on, such as protesting or cryptocurrency mining.
“It reminds me back when this whole surveillance state really got kicking off around 2016 and 2017,” Cain said. “They were going after people who suddenly start smoking or drinking or people who suddenly, you know, purchase the items being used to make a tent.
“And it’s not because there’s any specific reason, but the reasons they would give is that those types of behaviors are suspicious. It’s almost like they’ve arbitrarily chosen something that would be unusual,” he said.
“It’s as if the authorities are moving backwards, putting the cause before the fact.”
Discrimination and danger
But there is real impact for the groups targeted.
Mass surveillance of Uyghurs in particular has been a key factor in enabling their persecution, said HRW’s Wang.
“Wherever they go in China, Uyghurs are essentially being singled out for discriminatory and targeted policing,” she said. “And that means that they often suffer – they often are unable to find a place to stay, a hotel. Typically, when they take the train, they are subjected to investigation and interrogation and so on.”
Visitors take photos near surveillance cameras as a policeman watches on Tiananmen Square in Beijing, July 15, 2021. Credit: Ng Han Guan/AP
According to a May analysis of Chinese police geolocation systems acquisitions by China Digital Times, a specialist media firm, a wave of police investment in these tracking systems was first seen in 2017, and then again in 2020, increasing throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Some contracts coincided with other government purchases of surveillance systems specifically designed to target Uyghurs,” the report noted. “There are also notable concentrations of procurement in regions with significant Uyghur or other minority populations.”
More broadly, the concern is that “these [AI surveillance] systems are all empowering authorities to violate human rights in different ways, depending on how they are used,” said Wang.
“And when they are so cheap and widely available and in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative, given Chinese government Chinese financing, they are spreading with detrimental impact on rights globally,” she said.
Rollet agreed. “I could see this taking off in other countries,” he said. “I think the bigger risk is that it sets a precedent and gives other countries ideas about what they should do, you know?”
Edited by Boer Deng
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Investigative and Gulchehra Hoja for RFA Uyghur.
The UK’s National Union of Journalists (NUJ) has withdrawn a statement in support of Grayzone journalist Kit Klarenberg. It came after counter-terrorism police detained him at Luton airport on 17 May.
Kit Klarenberg detained at Luton airport
The Grayzone is a controversial US-based media outlet which focuses on US and UK foreign policy, from a non-Western perspective. Some people have accused it of pushing propaganda for authoritarian states like Russia and Syria. However, Grayzone would say it is anti-US imperialism. On Klarenberg’s detention, it reported:
As soon as journalist Kit Klarenberg landed in his home country of Britain on May 17, 2023, six anonymous plainclothes counter-terror officers detained him. They quickly escorted him to a back room, where they grilled him for over five hours about his reporting for this outlet. They also inquired about his personal opinion on everything from the current British political leadership to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
At one point, Klarenberg’s interrogators demanded to know whether The Grayzone had a special arrangement with Russia’s Federal Security Bureau (FSB) to publish hacked material.
During Klarenberg’s detention, police seized the journalist’s electronic devices and SD cards, fingerprinted him, took DNA swabs, and photographed him intensively. They threatened to arrest him if he did not comply.
The detention order the cops gave to Klarenberg was standard. It reads that the Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act (2019) allows counter-terror police to detain people if they suspect they are “a person who is or has been engaged in hostile activity”.
Grayzone seems to think this was the case with Klarenberg. It cited his reporting on things like:
how a cabal of Tory national security hardliners violated the Official Secrets Act to exploit Brexit and install Boris Johnson as prime minister. In October 2022, he earned international headlines with his exposé of British plans to bomb the Kerch Bridge connecting Crimea to the Russian Federation. Then came his report on the CIA’s recruitment of two 9/11 hijackers this April, a viral sensation that generated massive social media attention.
asked which publications I wrote for, and I told them I wrote for many… Their overwhelming, if not exclusive, interest was in The Grayzone.
The NUJ: sorry, what?
After his detention, the NUJ initially came out in support of Klarenberg. It put a statement on its website on Friday 2 June saying the union expressed “grave concern” over police detention of him. NUJ assistant general secretary Séamus Dooley said in the statement that:
The detention of Kit Klarenberg and line of questioning pursued by officers is of huge concern to the NUJ. Journalists have the right to protect sources and the seizure of Kit’s personal material in this manner under counter terrorism law, leaves many questions unanswered.
The apparent targeting of a journalist risks creating a chilling effect on others reporting on stories in the public interest and many will be aware that it follows the recent arrest of publisher Ernest M, also under counter-terrorism legislation by British police in April. Journalists will no doubt be astounded by actions of the police and rightly expect information on reasons behind Kit’s detention.
However, not long after the NUJ released the statement, it took it down again:
.@NUJofficial has deleted its statement of concern about my detention. Concerning, given I was explicitly asked about journalistic materials and + significant proportion of interrogation concerned journalism. This is of concern to all journalists entering and leaving the UK. https://t.co/ebAGvYX06L
Both the online entry and an accompanying tweet of @NUJOfficial’s “grave concern” about my detention under counter-terror powers have been deleted. But it remains extant on their president’s Twitter timeline. How could/why should any journalist trust them after this capitulation?
Other people on Twitter were angry with the NUJ. Grayzone journalists Aaron Maté and Max Blumenthal shared their fury:
After expressing concern over the detention of journalist @KitKlarenberg, UK’s National Union of Journalists (@NUJofficial) deletes their statement without explanation.
The cowardice that pervades the Western media field never ceases to amaze. https://t.co/o3jjdjdHuv
The Canary asked the NUJ for comment. We specifically wanted to know why it had withdrawn its statement in support of Klarenberg. It had not responded at the time of publication.
Klarenberg’s situation has echoes of UK cops arresting French publishing manager Ernest Moret in April. He works for left-wing publisher Editions La Fabrique. The Guardian reported at the time that:
He was arrested, after six hours of questioning, for alleged obstruction in refusing to disclose the passcodes to his phone and computer.
“interrogated for several hours and asked some very disturbing questions”, said the publishers, including about his view on pension reform in France, as well as his opinion on the French government and president Emmanuel Macron.
As of 2pm on Monday 5 June, the Guardian had failed to report on police detaining Klarenberg. Moreover, the NUJ statement in support of Moret is still online. So, it seems in the corporate media and the NUJ, there’s one rule for some journalists being harassed by cops, and a different one for others. Of course, as writer RD Hale highlighted in Council Estate Media, there’s a massive problem with this. Hale asked :
Hands up everyone who only wants to see journalism the government likes? No one? Okay, then we all see the problem here.
At least 1,059 journalists have been murdered in the past ten years, and 387 were arbitrarily detained at the end of 2020, according to RSF. The rate of impunity for crimes of violence against journalists is still around 90%. Threats and hate speech against journalists are flourishing online, as well as disinformation. And women journalists are being targeted both as journalists and as women.
Latin America and the Caribbean was the deadliest for journalists in 2022 with 44 killings, over half of all of those killed worldwide. Asia and the Pacific registered 16 killings, while 11 were killed in Eastern Europe.
So, a white, male journalist being detained for a few hours in Luton airport is very mild in comparison.
However, the situation in the UK is relative. Our state claims we have a free press – and condemns other, non-Western countries which don’t. Yet here it is actively targeting journalists – and trying to legislate to do so, as well. The NUJ’s apparent backpedalling on its support for a journalist is a major concern, too.
Agreement with the political outlook of Klarenberg’s journalism or the Grayzone more broadly is less important than solidarity against the state’s authoritarianism.
For a country that claims to be a democracy (and likes pushing its version of democracy onto other countries), the UK is not – and never has been – any such thing. It is quickly turning more authoritarian by the day – and Klarenberg’s detention signals a slippery slope the UK is heading down.
A bill introducing harsh penalties and extending the scope of a law applying to those who obstruct public places has been passed after an all-night sitting by the South Australian Legislative Council this week, reports veteran investigative journalist Wendy Bacon — herself twice imprisoned for free speech.
South Australia now joins New South Wales, Tasmania, Victoria and Queensland, states which have already passed anti-protest laws imposing severe penalties on people who engage in peaceful civil disobedience.
However, South Australia’s new law carries the harshest financial penalties in Australia.
Thirteen Upper House Labor and Liberal MPs voted for the Bill, opposed by two Green MPs and two SABest MPs. The government faced down the cross bench moves to hold an inquiry into the bill, to review it in a year, or add a defence of “reasonableness”.
The Summary Offences (Obstruction of Public Places) Amendment Bill 2023 was introduced into the House Assembly by Premier Peter Malinauskas the day after Extinction Rebellion protests were staged around the Australian Petroleum and Exploration Association (APPEA) annual conference on May 17.
The most dramatic of these protests was staged by 69-year-old Meme Thorne who abseiled off a city bridge causing delays and traffic to be diverted.
Meanwhile, the gas lobby APPEA which is financed by foreign fossil fuel companies has stopped publishing its (public) financial statements. Questions put for this story were ignored but we will append a response should one be available.
The APPEA conference is a major gathering of oil and gas companies that was bound to attract protests. Its membership covers 95 pecent of Australia’s oil and gas industry and many other companies who supply goods and services to fossil fuel industries.
The dramatic climate protest staged by 69-year-old Meme Thorne who abseiled off an Adelaide bridge last month. Video: The Independent
The principal sponsors of this year’s conference were corporate giants Exxon-Mobil and Woodside.
Since March, Extinction Rebellion South Australia has been openly planning protests to draw attention to scientific evidence showing that any expansion of fossil fuel industries risks massive global disruption and millions of deaths.
The new laws will not apply to those arrested last week, several of whom have already been sentenced under existing laws.
In fact, when SA Attorney-General Kyam Maher was asked about the protests on May 17 shortly after the abseiling incident, he told the Upper House that “there are substantial penalties for doing things that can impede or restrict things like emergency services. I know that (police) . . . have in the past and will continue to do, enforce the laws that we have.”
Sensing that something was in the wind, he said he would be open to suggestions from the opposition.
Fines up 66 times, prison sentence introduced That afternoon, SA Opposition Leader and Liberal David Speirs handed the government a draft bill. This was finalised by parliamentary counsel overnight and whipped through the Lower House on May 18, without debate or scrutiny.
It took 20 minutes from start to finish: as one Upper House MP said, it would take “longer to do a load of washing”.
While Malinauskas and Speirs thanked each other for their cooperation, some MPs had not seen the unpublished bill before they passed it.
The new law introduces maximum penalties of A$50,000 (66 times the previous maximum fine) or a prison sentence of three months.
The maximum fine was previously $750, and there was no prison penalty.
If emergency services (police, fire, ambulance) are called to a protest, those convicted can also be required to pay emergency service costs. The scope of the law has also been widened to include “indirect” obstruction of a public place.
This means that if you stage a protest and the police use 20 emergency vehicles to divert traffic, you could be found guilty under the new section and be liable for the costs.
Even people handing out pamphlets about vaping harm in front of a shop, or workers gathering on a footpath to demand better pay, could fall foul of the laws.
An SABest amendment to the original bill removing the word “reckless” restricts its scope to intentional acts.
The APPEA oil and gas conference in Adelaide last month triggered protests. Image: Extinction Rebellion/Michael West Media
Peter Malinauskus told Radio Fiveaa on Friday that the new laws aimed to deter “extremists” who protested “with impunity” by crowd sourcing funds to pay their fines.
In speaking about the laws, Malinaukas, Maher and their right-wing media supporters have made constant references to emergency services, and ambulances. But no evidence has emerged that ambulances were delayed.
The author contacted SA Ambulances to ask if any ambulances were held up on May 17, and if they were delayed, whether Thorne was told. SA Ambulance Services acknowledged the question but have not yet answered.
The old ambulance excuse Significantly, the SA Ambulance Employees Union has complained about the “alarming breadth” of the laws and reminded the Malinauskas government that in the lead-up to last year’s state election, Labor joined Greens, SABest and others in protests about ambulance ramping, which caused significant traffic delays.
The constant references to emergencies are reminiscent of similar references in NSW. When protesters Violet Coco and firefighter Alan Glover were arrested on the Sydney Harbour Bridge last year, police included a reference to an ambulance in a statement of facts.
The ambulance did not exist and the false statement was withdrawn but this did not stop then Labor Opposition leader, now NSW Premier Chris Minns repeating the allegation when continuing to support harsh penalties even after a judge had released Coco from prison.
It later emerged that the protesters had agreed to move if it was necessary to make way for an ambulance.
The new SA law places a lot of discretion in the hands of the SA police to decide how to use resources and assess costs. The SA Police Commissioner Grant Stevens left no doubt about his hostility to disruptive protests when he said in reference to last week’s abseiling incident, “The ropes are fully extended across the street. So we can’t, as much as we might like to, cut the rope and let them drop.”
In Parliament, Green MP Robert Simms condemned this statement, noting that it had not been withdrawn.
In court, the police prosecutor (as NSW prosecutors have often done) argued that Thorne, who has been arrested in previous protests, should be refused bail.
Her lawyer Claire O’Connor SC reminded that courts around the country had ruled bail could not be denied to protesters as a form of punishment.
Shock jocks, News Corp, back new laws She said that, at worst, her client faced a maximum fine of $1250 and three-month prison term if convicted — but added she intended to plead not guilty.
“You cannot isolate a particular group of offenders because of their motivation and treat them differently because of their beliefs,” she said. The magistrate granted Thorne bail until July.
For now the South Australian government has satisfied the radio shock jocks, Newscorp’s Adelaide Advertiser (which applauded the tough penalties), authoritarian elements in the SA police, and the Opposition.
But it has been well and truly wedged. After a fairly smooth first year in power, it now finds itself offside with a massive coalition of civil society, environmental groups, South Australian unions, the SA Law Society and the Council for Social Services, the Greens and SA Best.
In less than two weeks, Premier Malinkauskas’s new law was condemned by a full page advertisement in the Adelaide Advertiser that was signed by human rights, legal, civil society, environmental and activist organisations; faced two angry street rallies organised to demonstrate opposition to the laws; and was roundly criticised by a range of peak legal and human rights organisations.
Back to the past Worst of all from the government’s point of view, SA Unions accused Malinkaskas of trashing South Australia’s proud progressive history.
“South Australian union members have fought for over a century to improve our living standards and rights at work. It took just 22 minutes for the government to pass a Bill in the House of Assembly attacking our rights to take the industrial action that made that possible.
“Their Bill is a mess and must be stopped,” SA Unions stated in a post on their official Facebook page.
In hours long speeches during the night, Green MPs Robert Simms and Tammie Franks and SABest Frank Pangano and Connie Bonaros detailed the history of protests that have led to progressive changes, including in South Australia.
They read onto the parliamentary record letters from organisations condemning both the content and unprecedented manner in which the laws were passed as undermining democracy.
Their message was crystal clear — peaceful disobedience is at the heart of democracy and there can be no peaceful disobedience without disruption.
Simms wore a LGBTQI activist pin to remind people that as a gay man he would never have been able to become a politician if it was not for the disruptive US-based Stonewall Riots and the early Sydney Mardi Gras, in which police arrested scores of people.
Protest is about “disrupting routines, people are making a noise and getting attention of people in power . . . change is led by people who are on the street, not made by those who stand meekly by,” he told Parliament.
Simms read from a letter by Australian Lawyers for Human Rights president Kerry Weste, who wrote, “Without the right to assemble en masse, disturb and disrupt, to speak up against injustice we would not have the eight-hour working day, and women would not be able to vote.
“Protests encourage the development of an engaged and informed citizenry and strengthen representative democracy by enabling direct participation in public affairs. When we violate the right to peaceful protest we undermine our democracy.”
At the same time as it was thumbing its nose at many of its supporters, the South Australian government left no one in doubt about its support for the expansion of the gas industry.
SA Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis told the APPEA conference, “We are thankful you are here.
“We are happy to a be recipient of APPEA’s largesse in the form of coming here more often,” Koutsantonis said. “The South Australian government is at your disposal, we are here to help and we are here to offer you a pathway to the future.”
‘Gas grovelling’ not well received This did not impress David Mejia-Canales, senior lawyer at the Human Rights Law Centre, whose words were also quoted in Parliament:
“Two days after the Malinauskas government told gas corporations that the state is at their service, the SA government is making good on its word by rushing through laws to limit the right of climate defenders and others to protest. Australia’s democracy is stronger when people protest on issues they care about
“This knee-jerk reaction by the South Australian government will undermine the ability of everyone in SA to exercise their right to peacefully protest, from young people marching for climate action to workers protesting for better conditions. The Legislative Council must reject this Bill.”
During his five-hour speech in the early hours of Wednesday, SA Best Frank Pangano told Parliament that he could not recall when a bill has “seen so much wholesale opposition from sections of the community who are informed, who know what law making is about.
“You have got a wide section of the community saying in unison, ‘you are wrong’ to the Premier, you actually got it wrong. But we are getting a tin ear.”
And it was not just the climate and human rights activists who were “getting the tin ear”: the SA Australian Law Society released a letter expressing “serious concerns with the manner in which the [bill] was rushed through the House of Assembly”.
It wrote, “This is not how good laws are made.
“Good laws undergo a process of consultation, scrutiny, and debate before being put to a vote. The public did not even have a chance to examine the wording of the Bill before it passed the House of Assembly.
“This is particularly worrying in circumstances where the proposed law in question affects a democratic right as fundamental as the right to protest, and drastically increases penalties for those convicted of an offence.”
The Law Society also sent a list of questions to the government which were not answered.
One of the last speeches in the early morning was by SABest MLC Connie Balaros who, wearing a t-shirt that read “Arrest me Pete”, vowed to continue to campaign against the laws and accused Labor MPs of betraying their members, the community and their own history.
No more baby steps. No more excuses. No more greenwashing. No more bottomless greed of the fossil fuel industry and its enablers.
Early this year, UN Secretary-General Antonio Gutierrez declared, “2023 is a year of reckoning. It must be a year of game-changing climate action.
“We need disruption to end the destruction. No more baby steps. No more excuses. No more greenwashing. No more bottomless greed of the fossil fuel industry and its enablers.”
Climate disasters mount Since he made that statement, climate scientists have reported that Antarctic ice is melting faster than anticipated. This week, there has been record-beating heat in eastern Canada and the United States, Botswana in Africa, and South East China.
Right now, unprecedented out-of-control wildfires are ravaging Canada.
An international force of 1200 firefighters including Australians have joined the Canadian military battling to bring fires under control. Extreme rain and floods displaced millions in Pakistan and thousands in Australia in 2022.
Recently, extreme rain caused rivers to break their banks in Italy, causing landslides and turning streets into rivers. Homelessness drags on for years as affected communities struggle to recover long after the media moves on.
Is it any wonder that some people don’t continue as if it is ‘business as usual’. Protesters in London invaded Shell’s annual conference last week and in Paris, climate activists were tear gassed at Total Energies AGM.
Is it any wonder that some people don’t continue as if it is “business as usual”. Protesters in London invaded Shell’s annual conference last week and in Paris, climate activists were tear gassed at Total Energies AGM.
In The Netherlands last weekend, 1500 protesters who blocked a motorway to call attention to the climate emergency were water-cannoned and arrested.
On Thursday, May 30, Rising Tide protesters pleaded guilty to entering enclosed lands and attempting to block a coal train in Newcastle earlier this year. They received fines of between $450 and $750, most of which will be covered by crowdfunding.
Three of them were Knitting Nannas, a group of older women who stage frequent protests.
This week the Knitting Nannas and others formed a human chain around NAB headquarters in Sydney. They called for NAB to stop funding fossil fuel projects, including the Whitehaven coal mine.
Knitting Nannas, Rising Tide Two Knitting Nannas have mounted a legal challenge in the NSW Supreme Court seeking a declaration that the NSW anti-protest laws are invalid because they violate the implied right to freedom of communication in the Australian constitution.
A similar action is already been considered in South Australia.
In this context, fossil fuel industry get togethers may no longer be seen as a PR and networking opportunity for government and companies.
Australian protesters will not be impressed by Federal and State Labor politicians reassurances that they have a right to protest, providing that they meekly follow established legal procedures that empower police and councils to give or refuse permission for assemblies at prearranged places and times and do not inconvenience anyone else.
Wendy Bacon is an investigative journalist who was professor of journalism at University of Technology Sydney (UTS). She worked for Fairfax, Channel Nine and SBS and has published in The Guardian, New Matilda, City Hub and Overland. She has a long history in promoting independent and alternative journalism.Republished from Michael West Media with permission from the author and MWM.
Transparency International Papua New Guinea has welcomed the conviction of lawyer Paul Paraka as the police confirm they are widening the investigation into the fraud case.
Transparency PNG spokesperson, Peter Aitsi, said the evidence outlined the complex structures that Paraka and others put together.
Significant case
He said it was a very significant case because of the amount of public money involved.
“And those are just the funds that have been identified within this case itself and paid to different parties as a result of Paraka’s activities.
“From a TI point of view we would encourage the agencies to continue to develop the evidence and if there are further charges to be laid against individuals then we would encourage them to ensure they uphold their duty and responsibility,” Aitsi said.
Paraka’s law firm, which he claimed was the biggest in the country, was engaged by the Attorney-General and Solicitor-General’s office in 2000, but this arrangement ceased in 2006.
However, from 2007 the state was still making payments to legal firms linked to Paraka.
Investigations have seesawed for 10 years and led to the replacement of the Attorney-General, the shutting down of the police fraud unit investigating the matter, and acccusations of politicians being involved.
Meanwhile, Paul Paraka threatened legal action amid claims the issues were simply administrative matters.
Police action Police Commissioner David Manning has confirmed an investigation into fraud, money laundering and misappropriation following Paraka’s conviction.
Manning said the Paraka case attracted significant national interest due to the huge amounts of public money involved in these corrupt dealings.
“The way and manner in which these funds were syphoned through the Department of Finance to various law firms, who would then transfer this money to Mr Paraka himself, has been the subject of public outrage,” he said.
Manning said police will continue to pursue, investigate, charge and arrest those involved, and to recoup all money lost in these illegal deals.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Disgruntled North Koreans are lashing out against police corruption by openly protesting against them and in some cases beating officers, according to a local government official who saw a secret document detailing the cases.
“Not long ago, I came across a secret document containing surprising information. Between July and December of last year, dozens of incidents of people protesting against the tyranny of police, or even extracting revenge by beating them up have occurred here in Ryanggang province,” an administrative official in the northern province told Radio Free Asia on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
The document had details on several violent attacks on police officers, he said.
“A resident from Paegam county and his son cornered a police officer on the roadside and he inflicted severe bruises on the officer’s head,” the official said.
“It was said to be revenge for the officer insulting his wife by treating her like a criminal in her workplace by forcing her to confess that she was responsible for a loss that occurred at her workplace,” he said.
People have come to view the police as bullies, another resident of Ryanggang province told RFA on condition of anonymity to speak freely.
“The anger of the residents against the police, who use all kinds of tyranny under the pretext of law enforcement, is increasing,” he said. “When you go to the marketplace, you can often see women protesting or arguing loudly, and pointing fingers at the police who are in charge.”
Sometimes fights will break out at the marketplace between police and merchants, the resident said.
“Nearby people, like women who have come to shop, will take the side of the merchant and they’ll protest against the police together,” he said. “To see a weak woman directly confronting a police officer while he was on duty would have been unimaginable in the past”
Economic collapse
North Korea’s centrally planned economy collapsed in the 1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union, and since then, salaries for government-assigned jobs have become essentially worthless.
To survive, people have had to take on side jobs, start businesses, or – in the case of police officers – collect bribes.
The already struggling economy took a turn for the worse during the COVID-19 pandemic, and citizens who once tolerated the police making bribery rounds are now fed up, sources tell RFA.
In another incident, in the city of Hyesan, an officer stopped a driver and demanded gasoline and cash when the driver did not have the sufficient documents for driving on hand.
“In anger at the tyranny of the … officer, who detained him and his car for over two hours, the driver ran over the officer’s motorcycle with his car and beat him up until he was knocked out,” the official said.
In another incident, a woman from Kimjongsuk county visited the house of the police officer who had sentenced her husband to 6 months at a labor training camp. She said her husband had not shown up for work for family reasons but the officer had treated him like an unemployed gangster.
“She protested by ripping off the officer’s sleeves and tearing the epaulet off of [his uniform],” the official said, adding that the frequency of incidents similar to those detailed in the internal document caused the police to submit a report, with relevant data, to the central government, asking for help and guidance.
“Even the social security agents I know are very perplexed,” he said. “They say that unless those who fight against law enforcement officers are punished severely, they won’t know what else could happen to them down the line.”
Tipping Point
The government has however been taking measures to prevent these types of violent outbursts against police.
Since June 2022, citizens have been required to attend educational sessions on following the law in the workplace and at home, and the country’s leader Kim Jong Un has enacted policies that treat violence against law enforcement as acts against the state that must be punished severely.
But the cases reported in the document show that some citizens are so far past their breaking points that they are willing to disregard the risk they take when they go after the police.
The sources said that it was likely that people in other parts of the country also feel animosity towards the police and that it is approaching a tipping point.
“Some of my friends insist that if a war breaks out, they will go out and kill the police first,” he said. “The people’s patience seems to be reaching its limit.
Translated by Claire Shinyoung Oh Lee. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Ahn Chang Gyu for RFA Korean.
Disgruntled North Koreans are lashing out against police corruption by openly protesting against them and in some cases beating officers, according to a local government official who saw a secret document detailing the cases.
“Not long ago, I came across a secret document containing surprising information. Between July and December of last year, dozens of incidents of people protesting against the tyranny of police, or even extracting revenge by beating them up have occurred here in Ryanggang province,” an administrative official in the northern province told Radio Free Asia on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
The document had details on several violent attacks on police officers, he said.
“A resident from Paegam county and his son cornered a police officer on the roadside and he inflicted severe bruises on the officer’s head,” the official said.
“It was said to be revenge for the officer insulting his wife by treating her like a criminal in her workplace by forcing her to confess that she was responsible for a loss that occurred at her workplace,” he said.
People have come to view the police as bullies, another resident of Ryanggang province told RFA on condition of anonymity to speak freely.
“The anger of the residents against the police, who use all kinds of tyranny under the pretext of law enforcement, is increasing,” he said. “When you go to the marketplace, you can often see women protesting or arguing loudly, and pointing fingers at the police who are in charge.”
Sometimes fights will break out at the marketplace between police and merchants, the resident said.
“Nearby people, like women who have come to shop, will take the side of the merchant and they’ll protest against the police together,” he said. “To see a weak woman directly confronting a police officer while he was on duty would have been unimaginable in the past”
Economic collapse
North Korea’s centrally planned economy collapsed in the 1990s after the fall of the Soviet Union, and since then, salaries for government-assigned jobs have become essentially worthless.
To survive, people have had to take on side jobs, start businesses, or – in the case of police officers – collect bribes.
The already struggling economy took a turn for the worse during the COVID-19 pandemic, and citizens who once tolerated the police making bribery rounds are now fed up, sources tell RFA.
In another incident, in the city of Hyesan, an officer stopped a driver and demanded gasoline and cash when the driver did not have the sufficient documents for driving on hand.
“In anger at the tyranny of the … officer, who detained him and his car for over two hours, the driver ran over the officer’s motorcycle with his car and beat him up until he was knocked out,” the official said.
In another incident, a woman from Kimjongsuk county visited the house of the police officer who had sentenced her husband to 6 months at a labor training camp. She said her husband had not shown up for work for family reasons but the officer had treated him like an unemployed gangster.
“She protested by ripping off the officer’s sleeves and tearing the epaulet off of [his uniform],” the official said, adding that the frequency of incidents similar to those detailed in the internal document caused the police to submit a report, with relevant data, to the central government, asking for help and guidance.
“Even the social security agents I know are very perplexed,” he said. “They say that unless those who fight against law enforcement officers are punished severely, they won’t know what else could happen to them down the line.”
Tipping Point
The government has however been taking measures to prevent these types of violent outbursts against police.
Since June 2022, citizens have been required to attend educational sessions on following the law in the workplace and at home, and the country’s leader Kim Jong Un has enacted policies that treat violence against law enforcement as acts against the state that must be punished severely.
But the cases reported in the document show that some citizens are so far past their breaking points that they are willing to disregard the risk they take when they go after the police.
The sources said that it was likely that people in other parts of the country also feel animosity towards the police and that it is approaching a tipping point.
“Some of my friends insist that if a war breaks out, they will go out and kill the police first,” he said. “The people’s patience seems to be reaching its limit.
Translated by Claire Shinyoung Oh Lee. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Ahn Chang Gyu for RFA Korean.
We get an update on the armed police SWAT team raid and arrest of three organizers with the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, which has been raising money to bail out protesters opposed to the construction of a massive police training facility known as Cop City in the Weelaunee Forest, one of the city’s largest green spaces and the former site of a prison farm. Marlon Kautz, Adele Maclean and Savannah Patterson were charged with money laundering and fraud. The arrests come as 42 protesters face charges including domestic terrorism for opposing Cop City and just days before the Atlanta City Council is set to vote on the project. These new and unprecedented arrests are a clear attack on “the infrastructure of the movement,” says Kamau Franklin, founder of the organization Community Movement Builders and a vocal Cop City opponent. He joins us from Atlanta for the latest on the protests and the state repression campaign against them.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International have found that Kenyan police killed 12 people, including two children, during opposition demonstrations in March. As in theUK, there are few examples of police accountability in Kenya. According to government figures, three people died during the March unrest, including a policeman. However, now human right organisations have documented 12 deaths during three days of anti-government protests. Veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga called the demonstration over a cost of living crisis and last year’s disputed election. The two organisations said in a joint statement that they had:
corroborated 12 killings in interviews with family members and witnesses.
They went on to say:
While some of the victims were involved in the protest, most of the 12… were bystanders, passersby, or people in their homes and business premises.
Two children, including a four month old baby, also died from health complications after police fired tear gas into residential homes in Kibera, a neighbourhood in Nairobi.
Abuse, abduction, murder
Human rights organisations often accuse Kenya’s police force of excessive force and unlawful killings. This is especially the case in poorer neighbourhoods. Speaking at a press conference in Nairobi, HRW researcher Nyagoah Tut Pur denounced the “complete and utter impunity” enjoyed by the Kenyan security forces.
Meanwhile Irungu Houghton, Amnesty’s executive director in Kenya, called for “zero tolerance” towards police officers guilty of abuse and violence. In October four Kenyan police officers were charged over the disappearance of three men whose bodies have never been found. The officers came from a notorious unit already linked to extrajudicial killings. The feared Special Service Unit (SSU) that was shut down by president William Ruto in October over accusations of involvement in a spate of abuses, abductions, and violent murders. Prosecutors also announced later that month that they would charge police with crimes against humanity over a deadly crackdown on post-election protests in 2017. UN rights chief Volker Turk hailed the decision at the time. The charges cover rape, murder, and torture. One particularly horrifying case involved a six month old baby girl. Her death became a symbol of police brutality during the bloody election aftermath.
Civillian scrutiny
Kenya’s parliament established the International Police Oversight Authority (IPOA) in 2011 to provide civilian scrutiny of an institution reputed to be among the country’s most corrupt. Only a handful of officers have been convicted as a result of IPOA investigations. That’s in spite of the fact that the watchdog has examined more than 6,000 cases of alleged police misconduct. Activists say that police often refuse to cooperate with inquiries.
According to Missing Voices, a campaign group focused on extrajudicial killings in Kenya, there have been at least 1,264 deaths at the hands of police since it began collecting data in 2017. Between January and March alone, there were 28 cases of police killings, and one case of enforced disappearance.
Residents in the Thai border town of Mae Sot are on high alert after police arrested more than 100 people last week in a search for illegal immigrants.
The raids follow the discovery of a house producing weapons for resistance forces fighting the junta in Myanmar on May 14. Thai authorities were informed that there were at least six people involved in the production of weapons.
But the number of arrested has gone far beyond the handful being pursued, say local groups helping Myanmar nationals in the border town. In total, around 100 people were arrested this week in Mae Sot and the surrounding areas, said Moe Kyaw, chairperson of the Joint Action Committee for Burmese Affairs.
“The rest were arrested on the way to Mae Tao clinic at surprise checkpoints. Some were inspected on the way to the market and in the market. When they could not provide the pass, they were arrested,” he said. “I have heard that at least 50 people were arrested on the 23rd alone.”
Rose, a community leader assisting migrant workers who asked not be further identified, said the task force was focusing on small unregistered factories in the surrounding areas and Mae Tao, a community south of Mae Sot.
“Regarding the arrests, they [the authorities] have conducted checks of the houses and neighborhoods. They arrested people who had no documents,” she said, adding that some had been able to put up bail, while others will be deported.
“During these days, [Thai authorities] raided small garment factories which had not registered and arrested [illegal workers]. Those factories are cottage industries and they do not have registration.”
Witnessing raids
On May 22, Tak Immigration reported they had arrested a group of Myanmar nationals near a small factory in Mae Tao for illegally entering Thailand and working without a permit.
“I tried to run away to the other side of the sugarcane field. They also hit me, but I got away” said one woman who witnessed the raid.
A police officer stands on duty near the Burmese market during rush hour in Mae Sot, Thailand, on May 25, 2023. Credit: RFA
Of the 20 people present at the factory, 15 were arrested after police and immigration also raided the nearby workers’ dormitories.
While the arrests in factories were initially carried out in suspected connection to the house producing weapons, this was not the case, said Moe Kyaw.
“According to reports, at first, they [the authorities] had watched [the factories] on suspicion of weapons being there and later people were arrested,” he said. “[The authorities] raided on suspicion of [weapons being there] but they found undocumented workers instead.”
Democracy activists fleeing from Myanmar and those awaiting resettlement from the United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights told Radio Free Asia they were concerned about their security.
Kyaw Kyi, a member of an organization helping migrants in the area, says he’s been unable to help those arrested by the police. He told RFA he tried calling the UN agency to get more information on those arrested, but was unsuccessful.
“Even if I don’t go out, I’m very scared just staying in the house,” Kyaw Kyi told RFA. “If I get arrested, I will go. Currently, we are unprotected. We have lost a lot of human rights.”
Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Special for RFA.
Law enforcement officers in Georgia have arrested three top organizers behind a bail fund in Atlanta that has been aiding protesters against Cop City. Atlanta police arrested the organizers, the CEO, chief financial officer and the secretary for the group behind the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, at their homes on Wednesday morning. According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI)…
A police officer in the US state of Mississippi has been suspended after shooting an 11-year-old boy while responding to a domestic disturbance. The cop shot Aderrien Murry, who is Black, once in the chest – causing his lung to collapse and leaving him with fractured ribs and a lacerated liver. The boy’s mother, Nakala Murry, said she asked her son to call police after the father of another one of her children turned up at the family home around 4am.
Murry said an officer arrived with his gun drawn and asked those inside the home to come out. She told CNN that her son was shot as he entered the living room with his hands up:
Once he came from around the corner, he got shot. I cannot grasp why.
She said her son “kept asking”:
‘Why did he shoot me? What did I do wrong?’
Indianola is a predominantly African American town of nearly 10,000 residents in the Mississippi Delta. Meanwhile, a Washington Post database claims that police have shot and killed 407 people in the US this year alone.
Murderous cops
Carlos Moore, an attorney for the Murry family, said the police officer, Greg Capers, has been suspended pending an investigation. In a statement Moore said:
Aderrien Murry is blessed to be home and alive. No child should ever be subjected to such violence at the hands of those who are sworn to protect and serve.
We cannot continue to tolerate a system that allows police officers to use deadly force with impunity.
Shocked social media users discussed yet another incident of murderous cops. One person pointed out that the argument for having police is often that they “help” communities:
police in mississippi shot an 11 year old boy who called 911 because his mother needed help. his name is Aderrien Murry and thankfully he survived. the officer who shot him Greg Capers is on paid administrative leave.
Many services are needed at a domestic disturbance, but no one needs to have police officers over to shoot their children. Diversity consultant Dr. Sumun Pendakur reflected on how young Aderrien is:
Aderrien Murry is a BABY. He is one year older than my son. He called the cops, was told to come out, and was then shot in the chest by those cops. He has a collapsed lung, fractured ribs and a lacerated liver. https://t.co/gWFjPYQmzV
— Dr. Sumun Pendakur (@SumunLPendakur) May 25, 2023
Another user questioned why police still hadn’t released body camera footage:
I’m going to go out on a limb & say, if the body-cam footage were exculpatory for the cop, it would have been released by now#SaveMississippi
After being shot in the chest by officer Greg Capers, 11 year old Aderrien Murray asked, ‘Why did he shoot me? What did I do wrong?’… pic.twitter.com/4TI6wsNMUW
These questions and concerns are all too common. However, it’s horrifyingly easy for police forces to continue to act murderously with no accountability.
Indoctrination of anti-Blackness
The officer who shot Aderrien in the chest is also Black. It’s worth repeating here that policing as a system is inherently anti-Black. That doesn’t mean Black officers are immune from the logic of white supremacy that underpins policing, merely by being Black themselves. Associate professor Rashad Shabazz explained why surprise shouldn’t be part of the conversation when Black officers violate Black people. Shabazz, discussing the role of Black officers in brutalising Tyre Nichols, said:
When we look at skin color or people as racialized subjects, they signify something to us. Black people, in this society – and in other parts of the world – for many signify danger, threat and criminality.
Here, Shabazz argued that Blackness is itself seen as a sign of danger and everybody operates under this system, regardless of race. He continued:
Our surprise that five Black police officers could brutalize another Black man indicates we have an impoverished understanding of race and racism in this country.
Amara Enyia, a policy and research manager for the Movement for Black Lives, also explained that being Black and a police officer doesn’t undo the indoctrination of white supremacy’s anti-Blackness:
That’s one of the most insidious characteristics of the system, because we may buy into a notion that because they’re Black means they can’t possibly have adopted the norms and values of the system.
Aderrien is a child. Even as a child, he was seen by the cops as a danger. There’s a problem with the officer in Mississippi who shot an 11 year old. More than that, however, there’s a problem with the system that places Black people as inherently and endlessly dangerous. In shooting a child on a domestic disturbance call, this officer continued the work of white supremacy. It’s up to the rest of us to dismantle that work of white supremacy, and see it for the murderous violence that it is.
Police in the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan have detained more than 30 people following clashes over the weekend between hundreds of armed police and Hui Muslims trying to prevent the demolition of a dome on a major mosque.
Authorities in the mostly Muslim town of Nagu started arresting people for public order violations after clashes on Saturday, when a government demolition team toppled the minarets and dome roof of the historic Najiaying Mosque.
It is part of the “sinicization” of religion under President Xi Jinping that ushered in a nationwide crackdown on Muslim, Christian and Tibetan Buddhist religious activities and venues in 2017.
The mosque, run by Hui Muslims, had recently expanded its minarets and dome, a move that was ruled illegal by a local court, al-Jazeera reported, amid concerns that further clashes look likely when authorities move to demolish a dome in nearby Shadian on Friday.
Social media footage posted by Twitter user Ismail Ma showed hundreds of police in full riot gear forming a blockade outside the mosque gate on Saturday. They prevented members of the public from entering, with some members of the crowd trying to push through the phalanx of officers and throwing what appeared to be paving slabs at police amid angry shouting.
In another clip, a crowd faces off with ranks of riot police in a city street, shouting “Allahu Akbar,” according to Ma.
“According to the live video obtained so far, there are a lot of plainclothes policemen mingling among the people,” Ma tweeted. “There are non-local people around who aren’t Muslims, and whose accents aren’t local, so watch out for … plotting and framing.”
An officer who answered the phone at the Nagu county police department declined to comment when contacted by Radio Free Asia on Monday.
“I don’t know about this – you need to wait for an official announcement,” the officer said.
‘Disrupting social order’
On Sunday, the Tonghai county prosecutor and police issued a joint statement calling on anyone involved in the clashes to turn themselves in, saying they had “seriously disrupted social order.”
Anyone who does so by June 6 and gives a truthful confession will be dealt with more leniently, the statement said, calling on others to inform on their fellow protesters to get a lighter sentence.
A crowd faces off with ranks of riot police in Nagu in the Chinese province of Yunnan. Credit: majuismail1122 Twitter
A Hui Muslim resident of Yunnan who gave only the surname Yang said the authorities have been demolishing mosque domes across the region in recent years, pointing to the “sinicization” program under Xi.
“Islam in China is to be de-Arabized,” Yang said. “This is totally evil – there’s no freedom of religion at all.”
Wlodek Cieciura, assistant professor in the department of Sinology, Islam and Muslims in China and the Sinophone World at the University of Warsaw, said via Twitter that the Nanjiaying mosque was “once of the most famous centers of Islamic learning and culture in China.”
He added that “the situation in Shadian town, some 90 km to the south is said to be even more charged.”
Cieciura cited a Hui friend as saying that Shadian and Najiaying were “the last bastions of dignity for Chinese Muslims,” and “This might be our final stand.”
Shadian saw a major resistance among Hui Muslims to the Cultural Revolution smashing of religious venues and artifacts under late supreme leader Mao Zedong, suffering a major massacre in 1975, Cieciura said, adding that there are plans to similarly “renovate” the Shadian Mosque on June 2.
Targeting churches as well
A Christian believer from the eastern province of Anhui who gave only the surname Wang said the “sinicization” program had earlier targeted church crosses around the country in recent years, particularly in the eastern province of Zhejiang.
“They’ve removed pretty much all of the cross from churches now, and now they’re moving on to other religions,” Wang said. “The removal of domes from mosques is similar to the removal of crosses.”
“They are moving on to rectify religions other than Christianity,” he said.
In a May 27 tweet, Ciecura cited comments from Muslims on social media as “declaring their readiness to defend the mosques to the end.”
The Shadian resistance movement erupted in 1964 in response to nationwide political witch hunts targeting religious believers, and continued until at least 1975, culminating in the massacre of around 1,600 Muslims in an orgy of violence that the government blamed on disgraced former premier Lin Biao, and later on the Gang of Four.
Police in the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan have detained more than 30 people following clashes over the weekend between hundreds of armed police and Hui Muslims trying to prevent the demolition of a dome on a major mosque.
Authorities in the mostly Muslim town of Nagu started arresting people for public order violations after clashes on Saturday, when a government demolition team toppled the minarets and dome roof of the historic Najiaying Mosque.
It is part of the “sinicization” of religion under President Xi Jinping that ushered in a nationwide crackdown on Muslim, Christian and Tibetan Buddhist religious activities and venues in 2017.
The mosque, run by Hui Muslims, had recently expanded its minarets and dome, a move that was ruled illegal by a local court, al-Jazeera reported, amid concerns that further clashes look likely when authorities move to demolish a dome in nearby Shadian on Friday.
Social media footage posted by Twitter user Ismail Ma showed hundreds of police in full riot gear forming a blockade outside the mosque gate on Saturday. They prevented members of the public from entering, with some members of the crowd trying to push through the phalanx of officers and throwing what appeared to be paving slabs at police amid angry shouting.
In another clip, a crowd faces off with ranks of riot police in a city street, shouting “Allahu Akbar,” according to Ma.
“According to the live video obtained so far, there are a lot of plainclothes policemen mingling among the people,” Ma tweeted. “There are non-local people around who aren’t Muslims, and whose accents aren’t local, so watch out for … plotting and framing.”
An officer who answered the phone at the Nagu county police department declined to comment when contacted by Radio Free Asia on Monday.
“I don’t know about this – you need to wait for an official announcement,” the officer said.
‘Disrupting social order’
On Sunday, the Tonghai county prosecutor and police issued a joint statement calling on anyone involved in the clashes to turn themselves in, saying they had “seriously disrupted social order.”
Anyone who does so by June 6 and gives a truthful confession will be dealt with more leniently, the statement said, calling on others to inform on their fellow protesters to get a lighter sentence.
A crowd faces off with ranks of riot police in Nagu in the Chinese province of Yunnan. Credit: majuismail1122 Twitter
A Hui Muslim resident of Yunnan who gave only the surname Yang said the authorities have been demolishing mosque domes across the region in recent years, pointing to the “sinicization” program under Xi.
“Islam in China is to be de-Arabized,” Yang said. “This is totally evil – there’s no freedom of religion at all.”
Wlodek Cieciura, assistant professor in the department of Sinology, Islam and Muslims in China and the Sinophone World at the University of Warsaw, said via Twitter that the Nanjiaying mosque was “once of the most famous centers of Islamic learning and culture in China.”
He added that “the situation in Shadian town, some 90 km to the south is said to be even more charged.”
Cieciura cited a Hui friend as saying that Shadian and Najiaying were “the last bastions of dignity for Chinese Muslims,” and “This might be our final stand.”
Shadian saw a major resistance among Hui Muslims to the Cultural Revolution smashing of religious venues and artifacts under late supreme leader Mao Zedong, suffering a major massacre in 1975, Cieciura said, adding that there are plans to similarly “renovate” the Shadian Mosque on June 2.
Targeting churches as well
A Christian believer from the eastern province of Anhui who gave only the surname Wang said the “sinicization” program had earlier targeted church crosses around the country in recent years, particularly in the eastern province of Zhejiang.
“They’ve removed pretty much all of the cross from churches now, and now they’re moving on to other religions,” Wang said. “The removal of domes from mosques is similar to the removal of crosses.”
“They are moving on to rectify religions other than Christianity,” he said.
In a May 27 tweet, Ciecura cited comments from Muslims on social media as “declaring their readiness to defend the mosques to the end.”
The Shadian resistance movement erupted in 1964 in response to nationwide political witch hunts targeting religious believers, and continued until at least 1975, culminating in the massacre of around 1,600 Muslims in an orgy of violence that the government blamed on disgraced former premier Lin Biao, and later on the Gang of Four.
FRANCE 
| 
" Pas de retrait, pas de 
(@bjamar_) 
