Category: violence

  • One of the most essential branches of English liberty is the freedom of one’s house. A man’s house is his castle.
    —James Otis, Revolutionary War activist, on the Writs of Assistance, 1761

    What the Founders rebelled against—armed government agents invading homes without cause—we are now being told to accept in the so-called name of law and order.

    Imagine it: it’s the middle of the night. Your neighborhood is asleep. Suddenly, your front door is splintered by battering rams. Shadowy figures flood your home, screaming orders, pointing guns, threatening violence. You and your children are dragged out into the night—barefoot, in your underwear, in the rain.

    Your home is torn apart, your valuables seized, and your sense of safety demolished.

    But this isn’t a robbery by lawless criminals.

    This is what terror policing looks like in Trump’s America: raids by night, flashbangs at dawn, mistaken identities, and shattered lives.

    On April 24, 2025, in Oklahoma City, 20 heavily armed federal agents from ICE, the FBI, and DHS kicked in the door of a home where a woman and her three daughters—all American citizens—were sleeping. They were forced out of bed at gunpoint and made to wait in the rain while agents ransacked the house, confiscating their belongings.

    It was the wrong house and the wrong family.

    There were no apologies. No compensation. No accountability.

    This is the new face of American policing, and it’s about to get so much worse thanks to President Trump’s latest executive order, which aims to eliminate federal oversight and empower local law enforcement to act with impunity.

    Titled “Strengthening and Unleashing America’s Law Enforcement to Pursue Criminals and Protect Innocent Citizens,” the executive order announced on April 28, 2025, removes restraints on police power, offers enhanced federal protections for officers accused of misconduct, expands access to military-grade equipment, and nullifies key oversight provisions from prior reform efforts.

    Trump’s supporters have long praised his efforts to deregulate business and government under the slogan of “no handcuffs.” But when that logic is applied to law enforcement, the result isn’t freedom—it’s unchecked power.

    What it really means is no restraints on police power, while the rest of us are left with fewer rights, less recourse, and a constitution increasingly ignored behind the barrel of a gun.

    This isn’t just a political shift. It’s a constitutional unraveling that hands law enforcement a blank check: more weapons, more power, and fewer consequences.

    The result is not safety; it’s state-sanctioned violence.

    It’s a future in which no home is safe, no knock is required, and no officer is ever held accountable.

    That future is already here.

    We’ve entered an era in which federal agents can destroy your home, traumatize your family, and violate the Fourth Amendment with impunity. And the courts have said: that’s just how it works.

    These rulings reflect a growing doctrine of unaccountability enshrined by the courts and now supercharged by the Trump administration.

    Trump wants to give police even more immunity, ushering in a new era of police brutality, lawlessness, and the reckless deployment of lethal force on unarmed civilians.

    This is how the rights of ordinary Americans get trampled under the boots of unchecked power.

    There was a time in America when a person’s home was a sanctuary, protected by the Fourth Amendment from unlawful searches and seizures.

    That promise is dead.

    We have returned to the era of the King’s Writ—blanket search powers once used by British soldiers to invade colonial homes without cause. As James Otis warned in 1761, such writs “annihilate the privilege” of privacy and due process, allowing agents of the state to enter homes “when they please.”

    Trump’s new executive order revives this tyranny in modern form: armored vehicles, night raids, no-knock warrants, federal immunity. It empowers police to act without restraint, and it rewards those who brutalize with impunity.

    Even more alarming, the order sets the stage for future legislation that could effectively codify qualified immunity into federal law, making it nearly impossible for victims of police violence to sue.

    This is how constitutional protections are dismantled—not in one dramatic blow, but in a thousand raids, a thousand broken doors, a thousand courts that look the other way.

    Let’s not pretend we’re safe. Who will protect us from the police when the police have become the law unto themselves?

    The war on the American people is no longer metaphorical.

    Government agents can now kick in your door without warning, shoot your dog, point a gun at your children, and suffer no legal consequences—so long as they claim it was a “reasonable” mistake. They are judge, jury, and executioner.

    With Trump’s new order, the architecture of a police state is no longer theoretical. It is being built in real time. It is being normalized.

    Nowhere is this threat more visible than in the unholy alliance between ICE and militarized police forces, a convergence of two of the most dangerous arms of the modern security state.

    Together, they’ve created a government apparatus that acts first and justifies itself later, if at all. And it runs counter to everything the Bill of Rights was designed to prevent: punishment without trial, surveillance without suspicion, and power without accountability.

    When ICE agents armed with military-grade equipment conduct predawn raids alongside SWAT teams, with little to no accountability, the result is not public safety. It is state terror. And it’s exactly the kind of unchecked power the Constitution was written to prevent.

    The Constitution is intended to serve as a shield, particularly the Fourth Amendment, which safeguards against unreasonable searches and seizures. But in this new reality, the government has nullified that shield.

    All of America is fast becoming a Constitution-free zone.

    The Founders were aware of the dangers of unchecked power. That’s why they gave us the Fourth Amendment. But rights are only as strong as the public’s willingness to defend them.

    If we allow the government to turn our homes into war zones—if we continue to reward police for lawless raids, ignore the courts for rubber-stamping abuse, and cheer political leaders who promise “no more handcuffs”—we will lose the last refuge of freedom: the right to be left alone.

    As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, the Constitution cannot protect you if the government no longer follows it—and if the courts no longer enforce it.

    The knock may never come again. Just the crash of a door. The sound of boots. And the silence that follows.

    The post Home Invasions on the Rise: Constitution-Free Policing in Trump’s America first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • The Trump administration’s designation of drug cartels as “terrorists” has opened the door to direct military intervention in Latin America. However, behind this security narrative lies an uncomfortable reality: most of the weapons that fuel organized crime violence come from the United States.

    The US government, led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Donald Trump, issued an Executive Order designating Mexican and regional drug cartels as “terrorists”. With this, the White House and the Pentagon build the framework of justification for self-enabling drone and missile warfare attacks on the sovereign territories of Latin America.

    The post US Fuels Organized Crime In Latin America With Illegal Weapons appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Before settling on a hospital, Timothy Wilson considered myriad targets for a terrorist attack, including a mosque, a synagogue, and an elementary school attended mostly by Black children. As he narrowed down his choices in the spring of 2021, however, and his plan began to take shape, the 36-year-old white supremacist texted a question to another plotter: “How did McVeigh do it?”

    Thirty years ago this week, Timothy McVeigh rented a Ryder truck, loaded it with a 7,000-pound fertilizer bomb, drove to the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City, parked, lit the fuse and escaped to a waiting getaway car.

    The post How Timothy McVeigh’s Oklahoma City Bombing Birthed The Trump Era appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • In the face of ongoing Draconian state repression, Youth Demand has successfully disrupted London once again in two acts of mass civil disobedience.

    The latest actions come amid a sweep of crackdowns in which cops have nicked protesters under the Tories’ dodgy pre-crime laws. However, clearly protesters remains undeterred – as they took two more actions across the capital.

    Youth Demand supporters have shown once more that they won’t be silenced from calling out the UK government’s disgusting complicity in Israel’s continued genocide. First, on Saturday 12 April, Youth Demand initiated a series of swarming roadblocks. Around 50 Youth Demand supporters blocked traffic across London.

    The post More Violence And Repression, But Youth Demand Refuse To Back Down appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Just as was warned by leftist and social organizations , the march called by the Dominican far right against the community of Friusa on March 30 ended in chaos, violence and destruction of community property. Both the government, through its spokesman Homero Figueroa , as well as the paramilitary organization Antigua Orden Dominicana (AOD), which organized the march, are washing their hands and accusing alleged infiltrators of the violence, all in an attempt to do damage control and evade responsibility. According to the authorities, weapons were confiscated and 32 arrests were made.

    The post The March In Friusa Failed; The Neo-Fascist Movement Was Divided appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, citing a shooting at the U.S. Capitol 135 years ago, suggested in an April 5 video that the media would write fewer “false stories” if disputes were resolved using violence.

    In the video, posted on the social platform X, Mullin stands on a stairway inside the Capitol building and recounts the story of reporter Charles Kincaid, who in 1890 shot and killed a former congressman, William Taulbee, amid a feud stemming from Kincaid’s reporting.

    Kincaid was later found not guilty on the grounds of self-defense, according to the House of Representatives historical archives.

    Mullin, gesturing in the video to the spot where he said the incident occurred, adds: “Now, there’s a lot we could say about reporters and the stories they write, but I bet they would write a lot less false stories — as President Trump says, ‘fake news’ — if we could still handle our differences that way.”

    After The Oklahoman published a story about Mullin’s comments, the senator claimed in an April 6 post that he was joking and accused the outlet of being “out of touch with Oklahoma.”

    “Don’t forget I also JOKED about bringing back caning to settle political disputes,” he said.

    Mullin did not respond to a request for comment.


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.


  • This content originally appeared on Human Rights Watch and was authored by Human Rights Watch.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • DHAKA, Bangladesh – The leader of a Rohingya insurgent group blamed for instigating attacks that provoked a deadly offensive by the Myanmar military and the forced cross-border exodus of Rohingya in 2017 has not spilled “significant information” since his arrest earlier this week, Bangladesh police said.

    Ataullah Abu Jununi, leader of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, or ARSA, was arrested on Tuesday at an apartment near Dhaka where he had been staying for four months.

    The Rapid Action Battalion, an elite security force, said it took him into custody on suspicion of terrorism and illegal entry. Nine suspected accomplices were also arrested that day from northern Mymensingh district, RAB said.

    Mohammad Shahinur Alom, the officer-in-charge of Siddhirganj police station, said Ataullah and his accomplices were being interrogated for 10 days under a court order.

    “He is behaving in a very modest way. He has yet to give any significant information. Let us see what happens in the next several days,” Shahinur Alom told RFA affiliate BenarNews on Friday.

    Ataullah’s arrest occurred the same day that Southeast Asian NGO Fortify Rights released a 76-page report alleging that ARSA and another group had committed potential war crimes through killing, abducting and torturing Rohingya who were sheltering at refugee camps in southeastern Bangladesh.

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    The report also alleges that ARSA under Ataullah’s leadership carried out coordinated attacks on government security outposts in Myanmar in August 2017, prompting the Myanmar military and Buddhist vigilante groups to launch a brutal offensive against the entire Rohingya population in Rakhine state.

    The crackdown forced about 740,000 to flee to the Bangladesh camps, which are home to about 1 million refugees.

    “As the commander-in-chief of ARSA, Ataullah is responsible for ordering and overseeing egregious violations of international law, including targeted killings, abductions, and the torture of Rohingya civilians,” Fortify Rights CEO Matthew Smith said in a news release on Thursday, after Ataullah was arrested.

    “This is a critical moment. Bangladesh has taken the important step of arresting Ataullah and others, and we encourage the ICC prosecutor to seek an arrest warrant for Ataullah to prosecute him in The Hague,” Smith said, referring to the International Criminal Court.

    A man identifying himself as Ataullah Abu Jununi (center), commander of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, delivers a statement to the Myanmar government and ethnic groups in Rakhine state in this image from a social media video, Aug. 28, 2017.
    A man identifying himself as Ataullah Abu Jununi (center), commander of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, delivers a statement to the Myanmar government and ethnic groups in Rakhine state in this image from a social media video, Aug. 28, 2017.
    (ARSA)

    Who is Ataullah?

    Born in a refugee camp in Pakistan’s port city of Karachi in 1977, Attaulah and his parents moved to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, where he was enrolled in an Islamic religious school, according to the International Crisis Group (ICG).

    As a young boy, he worked at a mosque in Saudi Arabia and attended the Rohingya community meetings where his speeches impressed Saudis, who backed his efforts to gain rights for Rohingya Muslims.

    ICG said Ataullah became leader of ARSA in 2016. In 2017, he posted a video vowing to fight for the rights of the persecuted Rohingya in Rakhine, Myanmar.

    In the Aug. 28 video statement, Ataullah stated that ARSA was established in response to Burmese government and paramilitary abuses against the stateless Rohingya community.

    “Our primary objective under ARSA is to liberate our people from dehumanized oppression perpetrated by all successive Burmese regimes,” he said.

    What is ARSA?

    ARSA, a Rohingya insurgent group formerly known as Al-Yaaqin, gained international notoriety after it launched coordinated attacks on government security outposts in Rakhine state in August 2017, leading to the bloody crackdown against the Rohingya people.

    In September 2021, popular Rohingya leader Muhib Ullah, who had visited the White House in Washington as part of his advocacy for Rohingya to be repatriated to Myanmar, was assassinated at his office in a refugee camp.

    After years of denying an ARSA presence in the camps, Bangladesh authorities in June 2022 said Ataullah had ordered ARSA members to kill Muhib.

    In 2023, ARSA joined forces with the Myanmar government, according to the ICG.

    “Despite the Myanmar military junta being responsible for genocide and crimes against humanity against Rohingya, ARSA and the junta have joined forces to fight the Arakan Army, one of Myanmar’s most powerful ethnic armed organizations based in Rakhine state,” the ICG said.

    How are Rohingya reacting?

    After hearing the news of the ARSA leader’s arrest, refugee camp resident Mohmmad Amin said he had paid a 300,000 taka (U.S. $2,467) ransom to be released after members of the Rohingya militant group abducted him.

    “Ataullah sold the Rohingya people for his personal gain. We are happy for his arrest. We hope Bangladesh will give him tough punishment,” Amin told BenarNews, adding, “Ataullah was involved in the murder of Muhib Ullah.”

    In the same camp, a group of Rohingya circulated a video asking Bangladesh’s interim government to release Ataullah, terming him a leader fighting for the rights of the Rohingya.

    A Rohingya refugee walks with a child in a market, at the Rohingya refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, March 15, 2025.
    A Rohingya refugee walks with a child in a market, at the Rohingya refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, March 15, 2025.
    (Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters)

    Meanwhile, Imtiaz Ahmed, a professor of international relations at Dhaka University, questioned the report that Ataullah lived in an apartment near Bangladesh’s capital for months without being arrested, saying it was not believable. Still, the arrest is a significant development in relations with Myanmar, he said.

    “Ataullah Jununi’s arrest is a significant signal from Bangladesh to the Arakan Army and the central government that ARSA is under control,” Ahmed told BenarNews.

    Across the Bangladesh-Myanmar border in Rakhine state, the anti-junta Arakan Army rebels have made significant gains in battles with junta troops to gain control of the region.

    “The U.N. secretary-general has stressed that Bangladesh should talk to the Arakan Army. Ataullah’s arrest could create a congenital atmosphere for probable repatriation of the Rohingya refugees, provided that Arakan Army and the central government agree,” he said.

    Abdur Rahman in Teknaf, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, contributed to this report.

    BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news organization.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Kamran Reza Chowdhury for BenarNews.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  •  
    Miami, March 20, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the arson attacks on at least three TV and radio stations in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince over the last week, as escalating gang violence has caused widescale destruction.

    Between March 12 and 13, armed gangs from the Viv Ansanm (Living Together) coalition attacked independent stations Radio Télévision Caraïbes (RTVC) and Mélodie FM, setting fire to both buildings, which had been previously abandoned due to insecurity in the area. No casualties were reported.

    On March 16, heavily armed Viv Ansanm members also ransacked and set fire to the privately owned TV channel Télé Pluriel in the Delmas 19 neighborhood, according to staff members who spoke to CPJ and wished to remain anonymous out of concern for their safety.

    Separately, at least 10 journalists were physically attacked and had equipment stolen during a large street demonstration on March 19, according to the Haitian Online Media Association (CMEL).

    “Journalists, particularly those in radio broadcasting, have long played a vital role in keeping Haitians informed about what is happening in their communities,” said CPJ U.S., Canada, and Caribbean program coordinator Katherine Jacobsen. “The arson attacks on these three radio stations are the latest attempt from Haitian gangs to sow chaos and destruction and weaken the media’s ability to work. The security situation in the country must be stabilized to allow journalists, and all citizens, to live without fear of violence.”  

    Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé called the attack on RTVC “a despicable act” against freedom of expression and issued a statement promising to reinforce security for media institutions.

    “The losses were enormous,” Télé Pluriel staff said in a report, adding that they have been unable to access the area due to ongoing violence. Télé Pluriel is owned by Pierre-Louis Opont, a former head of Haiti’s Provisional Electoral Council, and his award-winning journalist wife Marie Lucie Bonhomme. They were each separately abducted and subsequently released in 2023.

    RTVC is the oldest radio station in Haiti. Mélodie FM is owned by Marcus Garcia, a renowned Haitian journalist who was exiled during the Duvalier dictatorship in the 1980s.

    Violence, instability, and impunity in journalist killings have plagued Haiti since the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.


  • This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.


  • This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Women took to the streets of cities across the globe on Saturday to mark International Women’s Day. Protests and rallies were held in major capitals as activists called for an end to inequality and gender-based violence, among many other demands. Thousands marched in the European capital, Brussels to warn against what organisers of the rally called a “worrying regression” in women’s rights.

    The rise of the right, and in some cases, far-right, across European countries has led many activists to worry that women’s rights may be under threat.

    “With the rise of the far right everywhere in Europe there could really be a backlash on the rights (of women and minorities),” said Quentin Poucard, a French protester participating in the Brussels rally.

    The post Hundreds Of Thousands Commemorate International Women’s Day appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Women took to the streets of cities across the globe on Saturday to mark International Women’s Day. Protests and rallies were held in major capitals as activists called for an end to inequality and gender-based violence, among many other demands. Thousands marched in the European capital, Brussels to warn against what organisers of the rally called a “worrying regression” in women’s rights.

    The rise of the right, and in some cases, far-right, across European countries has led many activists to worry that women’s rights may be under threat.

    “With the rise of the far right everywhere in Europe there could really be a backlash on the rights (of women and minorities),” said Quentin Poucard, a French protester participating in the Brussels rally.

    The post Hundreds Of Thousands Commemorate International Women’s Day appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Seg3 illegal wildcat strike select

    We speak with Jose Saldaña, director of Release Aging People in Prison, about a wildcat strike by New York prison guards who claim limits on solitary confinement have made their work more dangerous. “The people who are living in a dangerous environment are the incarcerated men and women,” says Saldaña, who notes the strike began the same week murder charges were announced against six of the guards who brutally beat to death handcuffed prisoner Robert Brooks in an attack captured on body-camera video. “The whole world saw it, and they’re questioning: How long has this been going on in the prison system? This illegal strike is to erase that consciousness that’s building,” says Saldaña. We are also joined by anthropologist Orisanmi Burton, who studies prisons and says the proliferation of solitary confinement and other harsh measures is directly linked to political organizing behind bars starting in the late 1960s. “Prisons in the United States are best understood as institutions of low-intensity warfare that masquerade as apolitical instruments of crime control,” says Burton, author of Tip of the Spear: Black Radicalism, Prison Repression, and the Long Attica Revolt.


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.


  • This content originally appeared on Laura Flanders & Friends and was authored by Laura Flanders & Friends.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • For over a year now, Israel has been intensifying its military assaults on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, from mass killings to attacks on healthcare workers, mass arrests, forced displacement, home demolitions, and military airstrikes.

    In our latest visual, we bring attention to the ongoing violence the Israeli military and settlers have inflicted on Palestinians in the West Bank over the past 16 months.

    On January 19, the Israeli army invaded and laid siege to Jenin refugee camp. The siege is part of a wider military offensive that Israel is carrying out across the northern West Bank. This offensive has led to the displacement of more than 40,000 Palestinians residing in the refugee camps of Jenin, Tulkarem, Nur Shams, and El Far’a, and represents the highest number of Palestinians displaced in the West Bank since 1967.

    Each year surpasses the last in becoming the deadliest year for Palestinians as Israeli violence intensifies with impunity in the West Bank. With Israel’s accelerating annexation and settlement expansion, Palestinians face unrelenting and ongoing assaults on their land, homes, and lives. The Israeli government’s policies, backed by military force, settler violence, and unwavering U.S. support, have created a reality in which Palestinians are constantly struggling against erasure.

    We know the reality is dim, but now is not the time for silence. Now is the time to speak up, to educate, and to challenge injustice. In the words of Toni Morrison, “There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

    The post 16 Months of Israeli Violence in the West Bank first appeared on Dissident Voice.


    This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Visualizing Palestine.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Terrace, British Columbia – The Tears to Hope Society is organizing their annual memorial march for missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, two-spirit, transgender and gender-diverse peoples in Terrace on Feb. 14. It is open to the public.

    “Feb 14 is a special day for the missing and murdered indigenous women and girls, and think it’s important that people get out and acknowledge that they are going missing or being murdered, many of them unsolved murders, particularly up here on the Highway of Tears,” said Gladys Radek, a Witset elder with the Tears to Hope Society.

    The post Annual Memorial March For Missing And Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • This content originally appeared on Amnesty International and was authored by Amnesty International.

  • When a footman finds a pest in the pantry, does he ask the King whether he should stamp on it? What about if the King has been speaking for years about the need to “crush” and “destroy” and “eliminate” pests that infect his palace?

    Early last month, a former Cambodian opposition politician, Lim Kimya, was shot dead in the streets of Bangkok. The Thai police are still investigating the crime, but we know that several suspects are tied to elite Cambodian politics, including one who was an advisor to Hun Sen, the ruling party chief and former prime minister. Sam Rainsy, the exiled opposition leader, is convinced that Prime Minister Hun Manet, who took over from his father in 2023, and Hun Sen were personally behind the assassination.

    Lim Kimya of the Cambodia National Rescue Party in Phnom Penh, Oct. 26, 2017.
    Lim Kimya of the Cambodia National Rescue Party in Phnom Penh, Oct. 26, 2017.
    (Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP)

    The ruling Cambodian People’s Party, or CPP, denies this. On Jan. 20, Hun Manet gave the government’s most effusive statement of denial thus far. “If we were truly behind this assassination,” Hun Manet said, “we would have taken sufficient measures to hide the killers. Instead, we handed over the killer to Thailand at the request of that country’s authorities, which proves that we are not involved in this assassination.”

    That may not have been the clincher that Hun The Younger thought it was. One might enquire as to how Hun Manet knows what the ruling party would have done had it contracted an assassination. Moreover, it could have been an incompetent operation. And many hitmen are paid not only to kill but also to do the years in prison after having given a false reason for the crime. The social commentator Kem Ley was shot dead at a Phnom Penh petrol station in 2016, apparently over a personal debt — a very dubious motive.

    Respect or violence?

    Nevertheless, let’s accept Hun Manet’s reasoning. Yet much comes down to what he means by being “behind the assassination.” Sam Rainsy and some others are convinced it was a direct order from the very top. Yet the government’s own laws make illegal “incitement to commit a felony or disturb social security.”

    Cambodia's Senate President Hun Sen, left, and Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Manet appear at a ceremony marking Cambodia's 71st Independence Day celebrations in Phnom Penh on Nov. 9, 2024.
    Cambodia’s Senate President Hun Sen, left, and Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Manet appear at a ceremony marking Cambodia’s 71st Independence Day celebrations in Phnom Penh on Nov. 9, 2024.
    (Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP)

    So I ask: can anyone who has listened to Hun Sen over the past few years think that he doesn’t want political opponents to be killed? Put differently, suppose you’re an enterprising upstart who wants to please his political masters or a recent convert to the CPP cause. If you had even only given a cursory glance over Hun Sen’s comments, would you think that the most powerful man in the land, who has ruled for more than four decades, wants you to treat political opponents with utmost respect and toleration or would you think he wants you to treat them with utmost violence?

    He was talking about something different, but Sok Eysan, the CPP’s greying spokesperson, noted in November that “statements from the party’s leader [Hun Sen] often translate into action.” Indeed, Cambodian politics often resembles working towards the Samdech. So let’s take a few examples of Hun Sen’s statements over the past few years. Last June, an audio recording was leaked of him imploring supporters to “smash” and “destroy” opposition activists. “You must smash this force to a point that they no longer disturb us,” he told his underlings. According to another account, he reportedly said that “we must crush and suppress the color revolutionaries one by one to maintain peace for the people.”

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    In 2023, Hun Sen was almost kicked off of Facebook after live-streaming a speech in which he warned opposition supporters that he would rally CPP folk to “beat you up” and “send people to your place and home.” “Either you face legal action in court, or I rally CPP people for a demonstration and beat you guys up,” he stated. Per a different translation, he stated: “There are only two options. One is to use legal means and the other is to use a bat.” The same year, speaking about activists who allege he has close ties to Vietnam, Hun Sen proclaimed: “You cannot escape [prison] because you are a fish in a barrel. I can break your neck to eat any time I want to.”

    Ahead of the 2017 local elections, he said if there were any protests, “the armed forces will crack down on them immediately … If war happens, let it be.” That same year, in an even more overt statement, he warned his political opponents: “you should prepare your coffins.”

    In a speech to troops in 2019, he called on the military to “destroy … revolutions that attempt to topple the legitimate government,” adding he is “not afraid to issue an order.” “Better to see the death of four or five people rather than the death of tens of thousands and millions,” he claimed. As for anyone in the military who is disloyal, he added, “they must be destroyed.” He then noted: “I am the one who steers the wheel.”

    Statements = action

    Only, he isn’t apparently at the helm when opponents and critics are destroyed (even figuratively). But this hasn’t stopped Hun Sen’s underlings from aping his terminology. For instance, five days before Kem Ley was shot dead in 2016, a general called on the military to “eliminate and dispose of [anyone] fomenting social turmoil.” All this must be coupled with the escalation of legal terminology. The government wants to pass legislation now that would brandish political opponents as “terrorists,” on top of Hun Sen’s claims that his opponents are “traitors.”

    So, according to his own spokesperson, Hun Sen’s statements “often translate into action.” And Hun Sen isn’t shy about admitting the immense power he wields in the country. Thus, would a reasonable person listening to these aforementioned comments think that Hun Sen hasn’t committed “incitement to commit a felony or disturb social security?”

    Granted, Hun Sen and his ilk could say that they were just being evocative; that when they say “smash” and “destroy” and “eliminate” and “suppress,” they only mean it figuratively. Okay, one can figuratively “smash” an opposition movement or even metaphorically prepare one’s coffins.

    But what about the warning to “use a bat” or to “beat you up?” Frequently, Hun Sen has specifically referenced physical violence as a comparison to legal prosecution. There is no way other than the literal to interpret him saying that it would be justified to “eliminate” five people in 2019 or 200 people in 2017 to safeguard the rest of society. Worse, his recommendations of violence are unspecific. He never says who should constitute the five or 200 people who could be “eliminated” for the sake of the greater good. He never says who specifically he thinks needs to be “crushed.”

    What is an underling supposed to think? That political opponents and activists, who the most powerful person in Cambodia says are “traitors” and “terrorists,” aren’t really a threat to the nation? That they should be tolerated? That one should not eliminate a few individuals to save the nation?

    So I ask Hun Manet: do you think your father has incited violence or not?

    David Hutt is a research fellow at the Central European Institute of Asian Studies (CEIAS) and the Southeast Asia Columnist at the Diplomat. The views expressed here are his own and do not reflect the position of RFA.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by David Hutt.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Rwanda is a proxy for Western interests in the mineral-rich Great Lakes region. Its military is armed by the United States, United Kingdom, France, the European Union, and supported by other proxies like Uganda. It is closely aligned to Israel and its intelligence and military are equipped with Israeli-made spyware and weapons. Paul Kagame, Rwanda’s president, remains a key ally of the West even as his regime surveils, jails, tortures, disappears and assassinates critics; seizes sovereign territory; and violates the most fundamental norms of international law.

    The post We Stand With The People Of The Congo appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • A Rohingya woman told BenarNews she was sexually assaulted by Arakan Army insurgents in Myanmar’s Rakhine state who killed three relatives, forcing her to flee to a refugee camp in Bangladesh.

    The woman, who asked to remain anonymous over safety concerns and is not pictured in this report, said she had grown used to the sounds of bombs falling and gunshots, but did not expect to be a victim of violence.

    “One morning in August, I woke up to constant pounding at the door. The moment I opened it, a group from the Arakan Army kicked me to the ground, groped and physically assaulted me in front my family members before slaughtering my father-in-law and two brothers-in-law and dragging them out of our home,” she told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.

    She added that her husband was able to flee from the attackers.

    “Though sometimes my village is caught between the Arakan Army and Myanmar military clashes, I never thought this conflict one day would knock on my door.”

    The woman was among at least 60,000 Rohingya who have crossed the border into southeastern Bangladesh since late 2023 to seek refuge from fighting between the Arakan Army (AA) rebels and Burmese junta-affiliated military forces.

    Incidents of sexual violence and other abuses against Rohingya came to light in a report published this week by the Burma Task Force, a coalition of 38 U.S. and Canadian Muslim Organizations led by Justice for All.

    The report alleged that both military troops and AA insurgents had targeted Rohingya, with the rebels in some cases killing Rohingya while sparing non-Rohingya in the same village. In addition, the AA used Rohingya as human shields in battles with the military.

    The Arakan Army specifically targets girls for sexual abuse. Some women knew of rape victims; most have heard of such incidents,” the report said of interviews in the Bangladesh camps.

    Rohingya woman Samira, who lost her family members in clashes between Myanmar’s military and the Arakan Army in Maungdaw, Rakhine state, has settled in a southeastern Bangladesh refugee camp, Feb. 5, 2025.
    Rohingya woman Samira, who lost her family members in clashes between Myanmar’s military and the Arakan Army in Maungdaw, Rakhine state, has settled in a southeastern Bangladesh refugee camp, Feb. 5, 2025.
    (Abdur Rahman/BenarNews)

    The Rohingya woman spoke to a BenarNews reporter at the Jadimora camp in Teknaf, a sub-district of Cox’s Bazar, about the ordeal that brought her to Bangladesh.

    “I lost consciousness during the assault. When I regained it, I saw the village completely razed and fires smoldering everywhere,” she said on Wednesday. “The villagers who were alive and injured set out on an uncertain journey toward the Bangladesh border. They took me with them.

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    “I trudged along with the caravan for three days through the rugged hills, muddy plains and forest and along the way saw hundreds of bodies scattered in the forest or floating in the water.”

    On a positive note, the woman reunited with her husband at the camp on the Bangladeshi side of the border.

    Arakan Army

    Another Rohingya woman who requested anonymity said she and her family were forced out of their homes in Myanmar and moved into a school building.

    “One day in August the Arakan Army showed up at the school compound, separated the young girls and took them away, leaving their families in the dark about their whereabouts,” the woman (also not pictured) told BenarNews.

    “My family fled the school as my husband feared something worse could happen to me,” she said, adding they arrived at Camp 26 in Cox’s Bazar three months ago.

    A BenarNews reporter talked to a dozen women who had arrived as part of the recent influx triggered by the fighting between AA and junta troops. The Burmese military has led Myanmar since launching a coup against the government headed by Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.

    Rohingya line up for drinking water at a Cox’s Bazar refugee camp in Bangladesh, Nov. 22, 2024.
    Rohingya line up for drinking water at a Cox’s Bazar refugee camp in Bangladesh, Nov. 22, 2024.
    (Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters)

    The AA, an insurgent group that has been fighting with the military, is supported by Rakhine state’s Buddhist majority and has been accused of committing rights abuses against Rohingya people.

    Aflatun Khatun, a Rohingya woman in her 60s who took shelter recently at the Balupara camp in Ukhia, recalled how she lost her livestock.

    “Thirteen of my buffalos were killed in a drone attack in September,” she told Benar News, adding, “Many villagers died in that attack. They used the drones to target Muslim villages.”

    Md Yunus, 40, who lived in Maungdaw in Myanmar’s Rakhine state before crossing the border into Bangladesh in November 2024, said AA members arrived at the beginning of that month, threatened the villagers and told them to never return.

    “A few days later, they again came back, set fire to the village and fatally shot those who dared to stay back,” he told BenarNews.

    “That was the moment I felt a desperate need to leave my home with my wife and children. I moved to the woods, stayed there for three days before we managed to cross the border to take shelter here.”

    No food

    The Justice for All report said the Rohingya woes did not end after crossing into Bangladesh, as many of the new arrivals had no food or shelter.

    Nearly 1 million Rohingya live in refugee camps in and around Cox’s Bazar, including 740,000 who fled a military offensive in Rakhine state, starting in August 2017.

    Aflatun Khatun fled with her paralyzed husband and family members to escape an attack by the Arakan Army in Myanmar and took refuge in a Rohingya camp in Teknaf, Bangladesh, Feb. 5, 2025.
    Aflatun Khatun fled with her paralyzed husband and family members to escape an attack by the Arakan Army in Myanmar and took refuge in a Rohingya camp in Teknaf, Bangladesh, Feb. 5, 2025.
    (Abdur Rahman/BenarNews)

    Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, commissioner of Office of Refugee, Relief and Repatriation, said the Bangladesh government was working to determine the number of new refugees in the camps and has sought assistance for them.

    “We provided headcount data to the World Food Program, which started providing food support to the newly arrived Rohingya,” he told BenarNews.

    BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated news service.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Abdur Rahman and Mostafa Yousuf for BenarNews.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Syria – The following is on the hell of the “new Syria” ruled by al-Qaeda/ISIS terrorist Joolani, where his co-terrorist thugs run around hunting down minorities, torturing and killing them.

    There are countless such videos, and worse, being shared on Telegram & social media, from Syrians who film these terrorists’ attacking civilians (because media in Syria is now under control of HTS/al-Qaeda, you won’t see reports there…nor from the influencers chirping about how great & free Syria is now, and hey, ISIS are very helpful people…)

    Following are just some examples of the lawlessness and pure terrorism that has been unleashed on Syria, on Syrian civilians.

    The post New ‘Freedom-Bringing’ ‘Government’ Tortures And Kills Minorities appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Early in the morning, a few days ago, I received a phone call from Standing Rock. My brother said he had heard that ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) was picking up people on the Pine Ridge Reservation. He also said that he heard the Proud Boys (a militant group that was involved in the White House raid in 2020 and now pardoned by the US President Trump) were driving their pickups all over Rapid City. Then I knew why he called so early. He was worried about me.

    I laughed and said “No, none of that is true. I’ll talk to my granddaughter who lives on the rez and she’ll tell me.

    The post Fear Paralyzes: Courage And Fortitude Will Get Us Through Together appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Kenya has deployed another batch of 217 police officers to Haiti, adding to the 400 sent last year as part of a “multinational mission” aimed at addressing the country’s deepening crisis of gang violence. The intervention aims to protect critical infrastructure and conduct “targeted operations” alongside the Haitian National Police, however, there are significant doubts about its effectiveness in resolving the systemic challenges plaguing Haiti.

    On October 2, 2024, the United Nations Security Council authorized this year-long, Kenyan-led security intervention to purportedly combat gang violence and restore stability to territories controlled by armed groups.

    The post Kenya Deploys 200 More Police Officers To Haiti As Crisis Escalates appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Whitesupremacycops

    Former FBI special agent Mike German, whose new book Policing White Supremacy: The Enemy Within chronicles his experience working undercover in far-right, white nationalist militias and warns of the unchecked danger they pose to American society, responds to Trump’s mass pardons of January 6 insurrectionists, many of whom were members of or affiliated with far-right militias. “The pardons definitely send a message both to the far-right militant movement that political violence against Trump’s enemies will be rewarded … [and] sends a message to law enforcement that there’s no value in investigating and prosecuting far-right violence,” says German. He also notes that right-wing extremism has already infiltrated much of U.S. law enforcement, making it harder to root out and guard against political violence.


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Venezuela’s Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino condemned the recent message of the former far-right presidential candidate Edmundo González, who seeks to generate a climate of violence in the country amid President Nicolás Maduro’s inauguration scheduled for this Friday, January 10. Padrino noted that the Bolivarian National Armed Force (FANB) is a professional institution that is committed to the defense of the country’s sovereignty and people’s will.

    In a statement released this Monday, January 6, the top military commander said that “we have observed with profound indignation a video published last night, January 5, by the coward Edmundo González addressing the FANB in ​​a shameless and insolent manner with absurd and incoherent statements that demonstrate not only ignorance regarding the military institution but also an exacerbated desperation in the face of the imminent and resounding failure of his coup plans.”

    The post Venezuela’s FANB Condemns Promotion Of Violence By Edmundo González appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • A flood of devastating new testimonies documenting the systemic sexual abuse of Palestinian men and women by Israeli soldiers has surfaced in recent weeks. Yet, as these harrowing accounts gain traction amongst human rights groups and international organizations, Western media has conspicuously turned its focus elsewhere—amplifying Israel’s poorly corroborated claims against Hamas.

    Following a raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip on December 28, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor published a report documenting harrowing testimonies of sexual assault by Israeli soldiers.

    The post Systemic Rape Allegations Against Israel Meet A Deafening Silence appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.