Skip to main content

The Civil Rights Movement Came Out of a Moment Like This One

Dani McClain The Nation
We find ourselves at a similar moment, fifty years after that critical turning point in civil rights movement history, with “Again?” on our lips and a familiar feeling of dread in response to the violence we witness on the video of the killing of Eric Garner, the incredible amount of force used on a man who announced over and over again, “I can’t breathe.” We need again vision and big thinking—a commitment to playing offense and addressing the problems at their roots.

Friday Nite Videos -- December 5, 2014

Portside
Chokehold Death Protests. Economic Agenda for America. Springsteen: My Oklahoma Home. She's Beautiful When She's Angry. The Feather and the Cannonball.

Tidbits - December 4, 2014

Portside
Reader Comments- Race inequality...by the Numbers; Darren Wilson Acquittal; Workers and Students Leave Jobs, Classes in Nationwide Walkout for Ferguson; Thanksgiving; Univ of Virginia Finally Confronts Its Rape Problem; Madison Teachers Recertify Union; Walmart Black Friday Protests; Price of 13-Year War on Terror; Chile; Israel's Jewish State Bill; 2014 and Future Elections; ALEC Blueprint for 2015; Wanted: A Challenge to Clinton; Chicago's Mayoral Race (correction)

Prosecutor Manipulates Grand Jury Process to Shield Officer

Marjorie Cohn Truthout
In a normal grand jury proceeding, the prosecutor presents evidence for a few days, then asks the grand jurors to return an indictment, which they nearly always do. Of 162,000 federal cases in 2010, grand juries failed to indict in only 11 of them. The standard of proof for a grand jury to indict is only probable cause to believe the suspect committed a crime. It is not proof beyond a reasonable doubt, which is required for conviction at trial.

President Obama: Harding "Pardoned" Debs So Why Not Pardon Snowden and Manning, Too?

Murray Polner LA Progressive
Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning exhibit something of Eugene Debs' understanding that dissent is not disloyalty. Drawing on the courage of - yes - Warren Harding, and while offering clemency would not be politically easy, it would in time [to] burnish Barack Obama's dubious civil liberties legacy.

10 Ways the System Is Rigged to Protect Cops Who Kill; The American Justice System...Broken

Steven Rosenfeld; Albert Burneko
The system is substantially rigged in favor of letting officers off the hook for using excessive force in the line of duty. Policing in America is not broken. With the video of Eric Garner's death, it is impossible not to conclude that the justice system is institutionally biased in favor of using excessive and sometimes lethal force....The judicial system is not broken. American society is not broken. All are functioning perfectly, doing exactly what they have done.

Demand Justice - Federal Action Needed in Grand Jury's Failure to Hold Police Officer Accountable for Death of Eric Garner

Justice for Eric Garner and an end to discriminatory policing - New York City Council's Black, Latino and Asian Caucus; Center for Constitutional Rights Exec Director Vince Warren; Donna Lieberman, Exec Director, New York Civil Liberties Union. Sign your name - Demand the Department of Justice and Pres. Obama do everything in their power to indict Officer Pantaleo on federal criminal charges.

Conservative Activist Launches Push for Wisconsin 'Right to Work' Law

By Jason Stein Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
The governor has also said that he doesn't want a repeat of the large protests that accompanied the passage of Act 10, saying in December 2012 that such a move could create uncertainty and cause employers to hesitate on hiring as he believes businesses did in 2011.

"Truth Needs Witnesses": The Murder of Saïd Mekbel

By Karima Bennoune Open Democracy
The column Saïd Mekbel published the day before he was assassinated in 1994 remains sadly topical today - recalling murdered journalists everywhere - including those killed by the "Islamic State" this year.

Business Day Unsteady Incomes Keep Millions of Workers Behind on Bills

By Patricia Cohen New York Times
Across the country, nearly seven million people working part time would prefer full-time jobs but can’t find them. While their numbers are down from the peak a couple of years ago, these involuntary part-timers still account for 4.5 percent of the labor force, compared to an average of 2.7 percent before the recession