Tag Archives: Protestors

DNC Protests – Democrats worry about the optics which even a small number of protesters can change dramatically

DNC-Protestors

Important Takeaways:

  • Protest organizers in Chicago expect between 30,000 and 40,000 people to join Monday’s march on the Democratic National Convention, and are asking the city for a permit that would get them closer to the event itself.
  • “We’re going to march regardless, but we’re fighting for the best route possible,” said Faayani Aboma Mijana, a spokesperson for the March on the DNC coalition.
  • The coalition, composed of more than 150 pro-Palestinian, anti-war, and left-wing organizations, has been planning its direct actions for months.
  • Protesters’ focus had always been on Chicago, pressuring the Biden administration for a ceasefire and end to military aid to Israel.
  • The Behind Enemy Lines coalition’s promotional material has told participants to prepare for clashes with law enforcement: “Make bruises from Chicago police batons the 2024 back to school Fall fashion!”
  • Next week’s protests could fall a mile short of the baton-swinging nightmare Democrats are worried about, or that Behind Enemy Lines describe in their literature. It doesn’t need to be that bad to create problems, though: A few protesters finding a delegate hang-out could do it.

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Third Ivy League university president to resign over handling of Gaza war protests

Dr-Shafik

Important Takeaways:

  • Columbia University President Minouche Shafik has resigned from her position, four months after the institution was rocked by campus protests over the war in Gaza.
  • Dr Shafik’s resignation comes only a year after she took the position at the private Ivy League university in New York City, and just a few weeks before the autumn semester is due to begin.
  • In April, Dr Shafik authorized New York Police Department officers to swarm the campus, a controversial decision that led to the arrests of about 100 students who were occupying a university building.
  • The episode marked the first time that mass arrests had been made on Columbia’s campus since Vietnam War protests more than five decades ago.
  • Her resignation comes after three Columbia University deans also resigned last week, after text messages showed the group used “antisemitic tropes”, according to a statement by Dr Shafik, while discussing Jewish students.
  • US college campuses have been a flashpoint for Gaza war protests since Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October, and Israel’s subsequent incursion into the Gaza Strip.
  • The presidents of Harvard and UPenn ultimately resigned amid backlash over their handling of campus protests and congressional testimony, including their refusal to say that calling for the deaths of Jews could violate university policy.

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Protesters demand schools divest from Israel but OpentheBooks.com shows big money going to Ivy League Universities from “State of Palestine” entities

Harvard-College-Protestors

Important Takeaways:

  • Ivy League schools took millions in gifts from ‘State of Palestine’ entities
  • Harvard University and Brown University collected more than $2 million combined from Palestinian entities in recent years, according to a new report released Wednesday that questioned what the universities had to do in exchange for the cash.
  • com, a spending watchdog, said Harvard collected $1,575,000 in funds from the “state of Palestine.” Brown received $643,000.
  • And Indiana University of Pennsylvania, northeast of Pittsburgh, received $7.3 million from entities labeled, the “State of Palestine” and “Palestinian Territory Occupied.”
  • “American universities taking six-figure foreign funding from an area of the world dominated by terrorists raises all kinds of questions,” Adam Andrzejewski, founder of OpenTheBooks, said.
  • The report comes as college campuses are wracked with conflict over Israel’s war with Hamas. Anti-Israeli students accuse the Jewish democracy of a “genocide” in the Gaza Strip, where Israeli troops are trying to root out the Hamas organization that launched the murderous terror attack on Israel in October.
  • Protesters have dug in on demands that schools divest from Israel to express their sentiments about the ongoing war.
  • OpenTheBooks said the Palestinian money may be “radicalizing American students.”
  • OpenTheBooks counters that there is no such entity as “Palestine.”
  • “Neither the U.S. State Department nor the United Nations recognize Palestine as a country. The ‘State of Palestine’ is a political fiction that provides cover for numerous terror organizations funded by Iran and others,” Mr. Andrzejewski wrote.

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Columbia University protesters take over Hamilton Hall after deadline

Hamilton-Hall-Protestors

Important Takeaways:

  • Fury as Columbia University protesters stage insurrection-like takeover of Hamilton Hall after ignoring deadline to leave encampment…but will they be arrested?
  • A group of anti-Israel protesters at Columbia University have seized the historic Hamilton Hall, smashing windows, unfurling an intifada banner, and are refusing to leave, with their actions being compared to the January 6 insurrection.
  • Protestors stormed and occupied the building on the main campus of the Manhattan University after smashing their way into the school.
  • The occupation came nearly 12 hours after the deadline of 2pm on Monday for protestors to leave their protest encampment or face suspension.
  • Due to the takeover, the school issued a stay away notice for members of staff telling them to avoid the Morningside campus on Tuesday morning.
  • Since footage of the takeover was shared on social media, users have been comparing the scenes to that of the January 6 riots in 2021 when Donald Trump supporters overran the US Capitol.

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Pro-Choice Protesters in Seattle desecrate the Bible

Matthew 5:10 ““Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Important Takeaways:

  • Hatred On Full Display: Seattle Protesters Openly Desecrate The Bible
  • This hatred has been on full display since the June 24, 2022, decision by the Supreme Court of the United States to overturn Roe v. Wade
  • And much of that rage is directed toward Christians because of our stand on the sanctity of every human life. Of course, that belief comes from the Bible (e.g., Genesis 1:27; Psalm 139).
  • Protestors in Seattle, Washington, were filmed taking a Bible and kicking it around, playing “soccer” with God’s Word before eventually tossing it into a portable toilet.
  • The outcry against Christians and Christian belief over the past few weeks should be (yet another) wake-up call to Christians—this world is not our home! Yes, we’ve enjoyed freedom and even respect as Christians for decades here in America. But that’s not America anymore!

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Pro Abortion protestors declare over Mother’s Day weekend “if abortions aren’t safe, then neither are you”

Deuteronomy 27:25 “‘Cursed be anyone who takes a bribe to shed innocent blood.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

Important Takeaways:

  • Pro-Abortion Protesters Inflict Mother’s Day Violence and Target Supreme Court Justices’ Homes
  • Earlier in the week in Boulder, Colorado, crews worked to remove graffiti, paint, and broken glass left behind after a night of vandalism at Sacred Heart of Mary Church.
  • In Madison, Wisconsin, vandals attacked the offices of the pro-life group Wisconsin Family Action on Sunday with an arson attack and a spray-painted warning that “If abortions aren’t safe, then you aren’t either.
  • In the D.C. area this weekend, dozens protested outside the homes of conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Chief Justice John Roberts.

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Britain urges citizens to leave Myanmar as violence against protesters mounts

(Reuters) – Britain urged its citizens to leave Myanmar on Friday as security forces cracked down on more protests against the junta, forcing patients out of a hospital in the west of the country and arresting a Polish journalist.

After 12 people were killed on Thursday in one of the bloodiest days since the Feb. 1 coup, the British foreign office warned that “political tension and unrest are widespread since the military takeover and levels of violence are rising”.

Friday’s protests came as South Korea said it would suspend defense exchanges and reconsider development aid to Myanmar because of the violence.

More than 70 protesters have now been killed in the Southeast Asian nation since the military seized power, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) advocacy group said.

Memorials were held for some of them on Friday, including one man whose family said his body had been taken by the security forces and not returned.

A spokesman for the junta did not answer phone calls from Reuters seeking comment.

“Despite repeated demands of the international community, including South Korea, there are an increasing number of victims in Myanmar due to violent acts of the military and police authorities,” South Korea’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

It said Seoul would suspend defense exchanges, ban arms exports, limit exports of other strategic items, reconsider development aid and grant humanitarian exemptions allowing Myanmar nationals to stay in South Korea until the situation improved.

Protests were held in Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city, and several other towns on Friday, photographs posted on social media by witnesses and news organizations showed. Many were dispersed by security forces.

Poland’s foreign ministry said a Polish journalist was arrested, the second foreign reporter to be detained. A Japanese journalist was briefly held while covering a protest.

Riot police and armed soldiers entered the general hospital in Hakha, in the western Chin state, forcing all 30 patients to leave and evicting staff from on-site housing, said local activist Salai Lian.

Soldiers have been occupying hospitals and universities across Myanmar as they try to quash a civil disobedience movement that started with government employees like doctors and teachers but has expanded into a general strike that has paralyzed many sectors of the economy.

The country has been in crisis since the army ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government last month, detained her and officials of her National League for Democracy party, and set up a ruling junta of generals.

Junta spokesman Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun said on Thursday Suu Kyi had accepted gold and illegal payments worth $600,000 while in government. He said Phyo Min Thein, a former chief minister of Yangon, who is also in jail, had admitted making the payments.

Adding corruption charges to the accusations facing Suu Kyi, 75, could bring her a harsher penalty. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate currently faces four comparatively minor charges, such as illegally importing six walkie-talkie radios and flouting coronavirus curbs.

“This accusation is the most hilarious joke,” Suu Kyi’s lawyer Khin Maung Zaw said on social media on Friday. “She might have other weaknesses but she doesn’t have weakness in moral principle.”

‘CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY’

Thursday’s dead included eight people killed when security forces fired on a protest in the central town of Myaing, the AAPP said.

Chit Min Thu was killed in the North Dagon district of Yangon. His wife, Aye Myat Thu, told Reuters he had insisted on joining the protests despite her appeals that he stay at home for the sake of their son.

“He said it’s worth dying for,” she said through her tears. “He is worried about people not joining the protest. If so, democracy will not return.”

The bloodshed came hours after the U.N. Security Council had called for restraint from the army.

U.N. human rights investigator Thomas Andrews on Friday dismissed as “absurd” comments by a senior Myanmar official that authorities were exercising “utmost restraint”. Addressing the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, he called for a united approach to “strip away the junta’s sense of impunity.”

The army did not respond to requests for comment on the latest deaths, but junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun said on Thursday the security forces were disciplined and used force only when necessary.

Rights group Amnesty International accused the army of using lethal force against protesters and said many killings it had documented amounted to extra-judicial executions.

Suu Kyi fought for decades to overturn military rule under previous juntas before tentative democratic reforms began in 2011. She had spent a total of about 15 years under house arrest.

The army has justified taking power by saying that a November election, overwhelmingly won by Suu Kyi’s party, was marred by fraud – an assertion rejected by the electoral commission.

The junta has said a state of emergency will last for a year, but has not set a date for the election.

(Reporting by Reuters staff; Writing by Ed Davies and Raju Gopalakrishnan; Editing by Lincoln Feast, Clarence Fernandez and Catherine Evans)

New York AG sues NYC police for excessive force against protesters

(Reuters) – New York’s state attorney general on Thursday sued New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio and the city’s police commissioner over allegations the police used excessive force against racial justice protesters after the killing of George Floyd in May.

The federal lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan alleges the police repeatedly and without justification used batons and other physical force against protesters, many of whom were never charged with a crime, causing broken bones and concussions among other injuries.

The lawsuit said the police violated protesters’ rights, and is seeking a court order to mandate policies, training and monitoring to assure an end to practices it characterized as unlawful.

In addition to excessive force, state Attorney General Letitia James alleged police detained hundreds of protesters, medics and observers without probable cause. She also accused the police of controlling crowds through “kettling,” or corralling them without giving them a chance to depart, and making mass arrests.

De Blasio said in a statement he supported major discipline reforms but opposed the lawsuit.

“A court process and the added bureaucracy of a federal monitor will not speed up this work,” he said.

The Black Lives Matter protests in May and June became an international movement prompted in part by anger over Floyd, a Black man killed by a white Minneapolis policeman, and Breonna Taylor, a Black woman slain in her Louisville, Kentucky, home by white policemen during a botched raid.

In late May, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo expressed alarm over “disturbing violent clashes” between New York Police Department officers and protesters, and appointed James to investigate and produce a report.

At two days of virtual hearings in June, protesters described being beaten and pepper-sprayed by officers during marches that followed Floyd’s death.

At the time, de Blasio and Police Commissioner Dermot Shea defended the NYPD’s response to protesters as mostly proportionate, saying misconduct was limited to isolated cases that were being investigated.

Both have pointed to several nights of looting that marked some of the earlier protests, widespread property damage and instances of protesters hurling projectiles at police officers, injuring them.

In her preliminary report in July, James recommended that the mayor give up sole control over the police commissioner’s hiring.

In December, a separate report by the New York City Department of Investigation found the NYPD used excessive force and blamed the response on the failure of most officers to receive “relevant training” in policing such protests.

(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Chizu Nomiyama)

Judge rules probable cause U.S. teenager committed crimes in Wisconsin protest shootings

By Nathan Layne

(Reuters) – A judge ruled on Thursday there was probable cause that U.S. teenager Kyle Rittenhouse committed felonies in fatally shooting two protesters and wounding a third during protests in Wisconsin over the summer, clearing one of the final hurdles before trial.

The shootings occurred in August in Kenosha, Wisconsin amid civil unrest sparked by the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man. Rittenhouse’s lawyers have said he was helping protect property and that he acted in self defense.

Rittenhouse, 17, was charged with first-degree homicide and five other criminal counts related to the shootings, in which Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber were killed and Gaige Grosskreutz was wounded. The charges also include two lesser charges for illegal possession of a weapon by a minor and for allegedly endangering the safety of journalist Richard McGinnis.

Loren Keating, a Kenosha County judicial court commissioner, on Thursday denied a motion by Rittenhouse’s lawyer to dismiss the two lesser charges and said the evidence was sufficient for the case to go to trial.

“I do find the state has demonstrated probable cause that in this case felonies were committed relating to the counts in the complaint,” Keating said at a preliminary hearing, advancing the prosecution’s case another step towards trial.

Rittenhouse was extradited in late October from his home state of Illinois to Kenosha to face the charges. Rittenhouse, who has become a cause celebre of sorts for the political right, posted $2 million bail after a public fundraising campaign.

Rittenhouse’s legal team have said their client feared for his life when he fired his semi-automatic rifle on Aug. 25 in Kenosha. Cellphone videos from the night show chaotic scenes, including one where Rittenhouse is chased and falls down before his encounter with Huber and Grosskreutz, who had a handgun.

In questioning of a detective testifying for the state on Thursday, Richards appeared to offer a preview of the likely defense.

“In your investigation and looking at all the hours of videos did you ever see Kyle act inappropriate towards somebody who was not threatening him with a firearm,” Richards asked, before Keating sustained an objection to the question.

“Mr. Richards, here’s the key: you have an opportunity at trial,” Keating said.

(Reporting by Nathan Layne in Wilton, Connecticut; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

Facebook users ‘check in’ to support North Dakota pipeline protests

A log adorned with colorful decorations remains at a Dakota Access Pipeline protest encampment as construction work continues on the pipeline near the town of Cannon Ball, North Dakota, U.S.,

By Timothy Mclaughlin and Amy Tennery

(Reuters) – Thousands of supporters of a Native American tribe and environmental activists fighting construction of an oil pipeline in North Dakota turned to social media on Monday in a bid to confuse police who they believe are using it to track the protesters.

More than 4,600 people used Facebook’s location tagging feature to “check in” on Monday afternoon at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, near the site of the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline, vastly boosting the numbers actually there.

The local sheriff’s department denied it is using social media to keep tabs on demonstrators, and said the online actions by the protesters’ supporters were unnecessary.

“The Morton County Sheriff’s Department is not and does not follow Facebook check-ins for the protest camp or any location. This claim/rumor is absolutely false,” Donnell Preskey, a spokeswoman for the department, said in an email.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and other opponents say the pipeline threatens sacred sites and local water supplies. Supporters say it would be safer and more cost-effective than transporting oil by road or rail. The 1,172-mile (1,885-km) pipeline is being built by a group of companies led by Energy Transfer Partners LP.

The vast majority of new check-ins at the site in rural southwestern North Dakota appear to have been made remotely.

Ironically, using social media from the protest camp is hard due to poor cellphone reception. To get a signal, people walk up a small mound that has been dubbed “Facebook Hill.”

Variations on the search term “check in at Standing Rock” were among the most popular searches on Facebook on Monday afternoon, with more than 10,000 people talking about them.

Mekasi Camp Horinek, a protest leader from Bold Oklahoma, an environmental advocacy group, said he did not know who started the online movement, but he welcomed it.

“It is a lot of people showing their support for Standing Rock,” Horinek said on Monday by telephone from North Dakota. “They can’t be with us here physically, but they are with us in spirit and prayer.”

Horinek was among the 142 protesters arrested by police last week at an encampment set up on private land.

There were also demonstrations at banks linked to the pipeline’s financing on Monday. Twelve people were arrested in San Francisco for demonstrating in the Citigroup Center, according to protest organizers, and demonstrators occupied the lobby of the Wells Fargo Center in Salt Lake City.

(Reporting by Timothy Mclaughlin in Chicago and Amy Tennery in New York; Additional reporting by Ernest Scheyder in Houston and Devika Krishna Kumar in New York; Editing by James Dalgleish)