Category Archives: Black Lives Matter

Their locations in the state are not too far from where George Floyd died at the hands of Minneapolis police in May -- and the signs were the shelter's gesture of solidarity with the nationwide movement against racial injustice.

Instead of tough conversations, however, the shelter was met with backlash, said Katie Bement, executive director of Embrace.

Bement said the non-profit, which serves about 90,000 people in four different counties in the state, was stripped of $25,000 of its funding from Barron County, and its services with more than a dozen local police departments were dismantled.

"We never expected our funding to be held hostage or to have joint services benefiting survivors dismantled," Bement told CNN.

Pushback from local officials, law enforcement

When Embrace first put the signs up in its offices, Bement said the organization received pushback from local law enforcement, who argued the signs were anti-law enforcement.

"As an anti-violence organization, Embrace cannot end one form of violence without addressing the other, and we cannot properly serve all survivors if we do not acknowledge and address the oppression and violence the most marginalized survivors are experiencing," the statement on its website reads.

"Embrace does not support or advocate violence against anyone, even those who are accused of doing harm."

But its message didn't resonate with local officials, Bement said.

Fourteen of the 17 law enforcement departments Embrace partnered with have also said they're ending collaborative services with the organization in some way, Bement said.

Washburn County Sheriff's Office, among the 17 to end the partnership, issued a statement on Friday.

"The Washburn County Sheriff's Office, as well as all other Law enforcement agencies in the surrounding areas, have ended their partnership with Embrace," the statement said.

"Prior to ending this partnership, we have contacted CRA (Community Referral Agency) and have been provided advocacy information to pass along to victims of abuse. This was done to prevent a gap in advocacy coverage for victims of abuse."

"Because some of these social issues were for defunding the police, I'm not going to be part of an agency that supports anything to do with defunding the police," said Fitzgerald, who served as a board member for Embrace before resigning in mid-September.

The impact of dismantling partnerships

Dismantling partnerships with Embrace affects the services available to domestic violence survivors, Bement said.

She pointed to a homicide prevention program currently in place, where if a survivor calls 911, a screen is done by the officer to determine whether the victim is at a high risk of homicide.

If so, they are immediately connected to an Embrace advocate, who works together with law enforcement to ensure the victim is safe. With this change, she said, that program will no longer exist.

"It's really problematic, because I know that program has saved lives," Bement said.

The timing of the situation also presents a dilemma.

Bement told CNN that she has had multiple conversations with local police departments about where Embrace stood, emphasizing that the organization doesn't support violence against anyone. But there "was just a disagreement," she said.

"Embrace really believes that we can't just ignore or accept the existence of racism, ignoring it helps protect or advance racist policies," she said. "We have to be actively opposed."

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A Wisconsin County cut funding to a domestic violence shelter that showed support for Black Lives Matter - CNN

Standing in court with her afro and fist raised, clenched, in the air, Angela Davis became an icon to many, a villain to others. She was prosecuted for three capital charges after guns belonging to her were used in an armed takeover of a courtroom in California in 1970 that resulted in four deaths. She was acquitted and went on to have a long career as a professor, activist and author.

Now 76, the scholar and activist identifies as a "little c communist," she told the New York Times in a recent interview in a recent interview. Decades after being listed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List as a terrorist, Davis is a leader and an inspiration to many Americans, but remains controversial to many others.

Davis spoke to the New York Times for its October series, The Greats, which celebrates five masters of their crafts, including Dawoud Bey, Barbara Kruger, FKA Twigs and Sigourney Weaver. Heres what she had to say.

On her legacy:

For a long time, I felt somewhat intimidated. I felt that there was no way that I, as an individual, could actually live up to the expectations incorporated in that image. There came a point when I realized I didnt have to. The image does not reflect who I am as an individual, it reflects the work of the movement.

Davis told the New York Times it all came into perspective when she met a young woman in a foster-care program wearing the activists face on her shirt. She didnt know a great deal about me at all, but she said, Whenever I wear this, I feel like I can accomplish anything. It makes me feel empowered. From that moment, I realized it really was not about me as an individual. It was about the fact that my image was a stand-in for the work that masses are able to do in terms of changing the world.

On intersectionality:

That book represents a number of positions of people who had a broader, more the term we use now is intersectional analysis of what it means to struggle for gender equality, she says. At the time that I wrote it, I was interested in pointing out that gender did not have to be seen in competition with race. That womens issues did not belong to middle-class white women. In many ways, that research was about uncovering the contributions of women who were completely marginalized by histories of the womens movement, especially Black women, but also Latino women and working-class women.

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In the mid-1970s, Davis advocated on behalf of Delbert Tibbs, a Black man falsely accused of rape and murder in Florida. He was facing the death penalty, she told the New York Times. We were appealing to these white feminists to support him as well as Little, and there was reluctance. Some white feminists did, but by and large that appeal fell flat. So how is it possible to develop the kinds of arguments that will allow people to recognize that one cannot effectively struggle for gender equality without racial equality?

On the LGBTQ+ community:

We didnt include gender issues in [earlier] struggles. There would have been no way to imagine that trans movements would effectively demonstrate to people that it is possible to effectively challenge what counts as normal in so many different areas of our lives, Davis told the New York Times. A part of me is glad that we didnt win the revolution we were fighting for back then, because there would still be male supremacy. There would still be hetero-patriarchy. There would be all of these things that we had not yet come to consciousness about.

On abolishing the police:

The abolitionist imagination delinks us from that which is, Davis told the New York Times. It allows us to imagine other ways of addressing issues of safety and security. Most of us have assumed in the past that when it comes to public safety, the police are the ones who are in charge. When it comes to issues of harm in the community, prisons are the answer. But what if we imagined different modes of addressing harm, different modes of addressing security and safety?

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What if we ask ourselves, Why is it that whenever an issue arises in the community that involves, say, a person who is intellectually disabled or mentally challenged, the first impulse is to call an officer with a gun? Why do we assume that the police are the ones who will be able to recreate order and safety for us? In those instances, there have been so many cases of people being killed by the police simply because of their mental health. This is especially the case with Black people.

On the coronavirus pandemic:

As we looked at the damage that the pandemic was doing, people began to realize the extent to which Black communities, brown communities and Indigenous communities were sustaining the effect of a pandemic in ways that pointed to the existence of structural racism. Then there was the fact that we were all sheltered in place; in a sense, we were compelled to be the witnesses of police lynching. That allowed people to make connections with the whole history of policing and the history of lynching and the extent to which slavery is still very much a part of the influences in our society today.

On the role of black women in history:

Inevitably, when one asks who is the leader of this movement, one imagines a charismatic male figure: the Martin Luther Kings, the Malcolm Xs, the Marcus Garveys. All of these men have made absolutely important contributions, but we can also work with other models of leadership that are rooted in our struggles of the past.

[The boycott] took place because Black women domestic workers had the collective imagination to believe that it was possible to change the world, and they were the ones who refused to ride the bus, Davis told the New York Times. The collective leadership we see today dates back to the unacknowledged work of Rosa Parks and Ella Baker and many others, who did so much to create the basis for radical movements against racism.

On capitalism:

The elephant in the room is always capitalism. Even when we fail to have an explicit conversation about capitalism, it is the driving force of so much when we talk about racism. Capitalism has always been racial capitalism.

When we do this work of organizing against racism, hetero-patriarchy, capitalism organizing to change the world there are no guarantees, to use Stuart Halls phrase, that our work will have an immediate effect, Davis told the New York Times. But we have to do it as if it were possible.

On todays Black Lives Matter movement:

Structural racism, white supremacy, all of these terms that have been used for decades in the ranks of our movements have now become a part of popular discourse, she told the New York Times.

Ive come to the conclusion that our work as activists is always to prepare the next generation, she says. To create new terrains so that those who come after us will have a better opportunity to get up and engage in even more radical struggles. And I think were seeing this now. She plans to be around to see it through.

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What Angela Davis has to say about today's Black Lives Matter movement | TheHill - The Hill

Three men were cited for misdemeanor vandalism after destroying Black Lives Matter signs in Thousand Oaks. Ventura County Star

Ventura County District Attorney Greg Tottenhas approved filing misdemeanor vandalism charges against two Thousand Oaks men for damage done toa Black Lives Mattersigns in June, authorities said Monday afternoon.

One of the men worked for the Ventura County Sheriff's Office at the time.

The sign, which read "BLM," signifying Black Lives Matter, had been posted in late May on private property in Thousand Oaks, according tothe DA's office. It hung from the rear fence of a private home facing Westlake Boulevard and was defaced or destroyed multiple times.

On June 13, Darrin Stone, 60, cut down thesignand carried it away, prosecutors said. The sign was at least the second such bannerdisplayed on the fencedue to previous vandalism. On June 19, Stone cut down the third BLM sign placedon the private fence and carried it off, according to the DA's release.

At the time, Stone was a civilian employee of the sheriff's office who supervised jailinmates. When hisactions were caught on surveillance video, sheriff's detectives recognized him, authorities reportedin June. He was placed on administrative leave at the time.

Stone no longer works for the sheriff's office, said Capt. Eric Buschow, a spokesman for the agency,in an email Monday evening.

Stone has agreed to participate in the DA's misdemeanor diversion program, prosecutors said. If he successfully completes the program, the vandalism charge will not be filed with the court, authorities said.

A second Thousand Oaks man who defaced the sign with spray paint on June 11 also facesa misdemeanor vandalism charge under the same diversion program, Totten's office said. That man, 58, had stopped in his work truck in front of the signand sprayed an "A" over the "B," authorities previously reported. He was tracked down by the company name and numberon histruck.

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The Star generally does not publish names of people arrested or charged solely with misdemeanor offenses. In some cases, including incidents involving public employees or law enforcement personnel, editors choose to publish names, which are a matter of public record.

When the arrests of Stone and the private-sector employee were originally announced in June, a third Thousand Oaks man, Craig Anderson, then 59 and a non-sworn investigative assistant with the DA's office,had also been arrested on suspicion of defacing the sign. Andersonhad reportedly cut the signdown on May 31 and, after noticing the camera,left it at the scene, according to the June announcement.

Anderson was not mentioned in Monday's release.His case had been referred to the Attorney General's office as a matter of DA policy, authoritiespreviously said.

He had resigned from the DA's office by the time his arrest was announced. As of Monday, he was still not employed by the DA's office, according to Ashley Bautista, a spokeswoman for the county.

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On Friday, Totten's office announced a similar outcome for acase that cropped up in July during a protest in Ventura.

The misdemeanor diversion program started in 2017 and is offered to those with minimal or no criminal history who are facing certain low-level misdemeanors, according to the DA release. It is meant to reduce recidivism by providingeducation and rehabilitation to those who are eligible.

It provides offenders the opportunity to complete rehabilitative classes and pay restitution in lieu of formal prosecution. All cases are reviewed by an attorney to determine if there is proof beyond a reasonable doubt to prove the alleged criminal charge, according to Totten's office.

Gretchen Wenner covers breaking news for the Ventura County Star. Reach her at gretchen.wenner@vcstar.com or 805-437-0270.

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Vandalism charges OK'd for damage to Black Lives Matter sign in Thousand Oaks - VC Star

Last Sunday, wearing a face shield, a protective mask and a waist-pouch full of hand sanitiser, I stood in front of the Nigerian high commission in London with hundreds of fellow Nigerians. We held up placards, raised our fists and chanted: End Sars, over and over again.

The cry had first begun in Nigeria, when a video emerged of special anti-robbery squad (Sars) police officers shooting a man on the streets of Lagos. Though the date of the video is unknown, as is the name of the victim, Nigerians are no strangers to police brutality. It has either happened to you, or to someone you know. The police are not your friends, we often joke, with our special blend of black humour.

And yet somehow, something was different this time. Musicians like Runtown and Falz tweeted about a protest. The next day, the streets were full of young people chanting End Sars. Almost everyone had a story about being assaulted by a Sars officer, of being extorted, sexually harassed, or wrongfully detained.

Soon, US celebrities such as P Diddy, Trey Songz and Viola Davis had picked up the hashtag and were tweeting their support. In the UK, actor John Boyega, who is of Nigerian descent, also used his social media page to support the protests. What these stars realised, before most of the western media did, was that this was another iteration of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Nigerian police officers are black, you may say. How can this be a BLM issue? Well, imagine New Zealand police officers shooting, maiming and killing unarmed white citizens because they were well dressed, because they had flashy phones, because they worked in the tech industry and therefore assumed they must be involved in fraud (all reasons used by Sars). Imagine if there were video footage of all these atrocities happening in leafy Christchurch. There would be global outrage. International sanctions. World leaders rushing to condemn these acts.

Yet the world seems curiously indifferent when the victims are black. Part of the reason African leaders get away with atrocities on African soil is because they know the world will turn a blind eye to them. Murderous despots will still be granted visas to Paris, London and New York. They will spend their loot on property and gaudy Rolexes, propping up foreign economies instead of building their own.

The Black Lives Matter movement began because the deaths of innocent African American men and women were ignored, in the same way the deaths of young Nigerians at the hands of Sars have been ignored.

Black lives matter everywhere that black lives are found: be it on the streets of the US, in rubber dinghies on the Mediterranean Sea, or in the towns and cities of Nigeria. Nigerians cried over the killing of George Floyd. And we hope in America, in Brazil, in Britain, in France, in China, in India, the African diaspora will also stand with us as we mourn the protester Jimoh Isiaq, who was shot last Saturday, and others killed by Sars.

When one of us hurts, we all hurt. When one of us wins, we all win. This was the Pan-African dream of Marcus Garvey, of WEB Du Bois, of Constance Agatha Cummings-John, of Edward Wilmot Blyden, of Abdias do Nascimento, of Kwame Nkrumah and of many others.

The protests continue daily in Nigeria. There will also be one in London on Sunday. The government has promised to dissolve the Sars unit and replace it with a Swat team, but many people feel its just renaming rather than resolving the problem. The mistrust is warranted. The Nigerian government has promised to disband Sars before. Protesters continue to ask for tangible steps, such as the release of all detained protesters and the setting up of an independent body to investigate police misconduct.

Already, heroes have emerged. The Feminist Coalition has raised millions of naira for protesters legal and health bills. The podcaster FK Abudu and a host of Nigerian lawyers, such as Moe Odele and Tola Onayemi, are coordinating the release of protesters who have been wrongfully detained. Young Nigerians have marched in the sun and in the rain, and have done so peacefully, picking up their litter at the end of each day.

Yet there are no leaders in the #EndSARS movement: as protesters reiterate, this is an organic, spontaneous eruption of the will of a young Nigerian population. No one knows what the movement will lead to. Some say it is a Nigerian version of the Arab spring. I say, we dont want a spring. Spring is a brief season that passes away. We want a new Nigeria that will last for generations.

What can people in the rest of the world do? If you engage with Nigerian culture, if you dance to Afrobeats stars like Wizkid and Burna Boy, if you eat jollof rice and watch Nollywood movies on Netflix, then please show your support for #EndSARS. Black lives matter everywhere that black lives are found.

Chibundu Onuzo is author of The Spider Kings Daughter and Welcome to Lagos

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Black lives matter everywhere. That's why the world should support the #EndSARS movement - The Guardian

"Where would the Black Lives Matter movement be without the right to free speech?" asks Ira Glasser, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) from 1978 to 2001."There is no social justice movement in America that has ever not needed the First Amendment to initiate its movement for justice, to sustain its movement to justice, to help its movement survive."

Glasser is the subject of the new documentary Mighty Ira, which chronicles his efforts to secure the speech rights of Nazis, undermine government attempts to regulate internet content, combat hate speech laws, and abolish campus speech codes. It is a portrait of a First Amendment hero who managed to have friends across ideological divides while remaining civil, engaged, and effective.

The 82-year-old Glasser is troubled by his former group's seeming embrace of identity politics over free speech, and he worries that younger social justice activists view the First Amendment as an adversary rather than an ally. "John Lewis said that without free speech and the right to dissent, the civil rights movement would have been a bird without wings," Glasser says. "That's historically and politically true without exception."

Written by Nick Gillespie. Produced and edited by Paul Detrick.

Neo-Nazis; Credit: Alexandra Buxbaum/ABACAUSA.COM/Newscom; Ira Glasser; Credit: Mario Ruiz/ZUMA Press/Newscom; Neo Nazi marcher; Credit: ID 132745286 Patrick Morrissey | Dreamstime.com; Black Lives Matter protesters; Credit: Scott W. Grau/Icon Sportswire CBW, Tim Evans/ZUMA Press/Newscom, Adam J. Dewey/ZUMA Press/Newscom; Women's rights marcher; Credit: Jeff Malet Photography/Newscom; Anti-war activist; Credit: Zach D Roberts/ZUMA Press/Newscom; David Duke; Credit: file UPI Photo Service/Newscom; Eldridge Cleaver; Credit: Underwood Archives/UIG Universal Images Group/Newscom; Supreme court protesters; Credit: Jeff Malet Photography/Newscom; Gay rights protester; Credit: Louis Brems/ZUMA Press/Newscom; AIDS activists; Credit: Frances M. Roberts/Newscom, Ezio Petersen UPI Photo Service/Newscom, Michale Smith UPI Photo Service/Newscom; Civil rights movement; Credits: akg-images/Newscom; ICE protest; Credit: John Marshall Mantel/SIPA/Newscom; Joseph McCarthy; Credit: Everett Collection/Newscom; Richard Nixon; Credit: JT Vintage/ZUMA Press/Newscom; Rudy Giuliani; Credit: Jason Winslow / Splash News/Newscom; Donald Trump; Credit: Paul Hennessy/ZUMA Press/Newscom; Bill Barr; Credit: Jeff Roberson/UPI/Newscom; ACLU legal observers; Credit: Mark Hertzberg/ZUMA Press/Newscom, Lannis Waters/ZUMA Press/Newscom, Alex Milan Tracy/Sipa USA/Newscom, Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call/Newscom; ACLU clients; Credit: GDA Photo Service/Newscom, Pat Vasquez-Cunningham/ZUMA Press/Newscom, Romain Blanquart/MCT/Newscom; Neo-nazis; Credit: Jim De Pree/TNS/Newscom; Unite the Right rally; Credit: Stephanie Keith/Reuters/Newscom; ACLU protesters; Credit: ID 173780741 Jerry Coli | Dreamstime.com

Excerpt from:

'Where Would the Black Lives Matter Movement Be Without the Right To Free Speech?' - Reason

Two men who allegedly assaulted demonstrators a day apart at two political rallies on the opposite ends of the political spectrum were arraigned Monday in Nevada County Superior Court.

Jace Samuel Manoguerra, 21, pleaded not guilty to four felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon, after he allegedly fired an Airsoft gun at a Back the Blue rally in Grass Valley on Aug. 8.

James Steven Smith, 40, is one of three men charged in connection with an Aug. 9 Black Lives Matter demonstration in Nevada City, but the only one facing a felony. He also pleaded not guilty.

Manoguerras attorney, Christopher Dort, noted the publicity surrounding his clients case and asked for 60 days to review witness statements. Manoguerra will return to court on Dec. 17.

Grass Valley police say Manoguerra shot the Airsoft gun at people attending the Back the Blue gathering, meant to show support for law enforcement, at Neal and South Auburn streets. No one received serious injuries, though several people were struck, including a juvenile.

According to authorities, officers responded and watched a cell phone video someone had taken. With that video, and knowing the time the shooting occurred, they found a vans license tag number from surveillance cameras. That led them to discover the van was a rental, and ultimately led them to Manoguerra.

Manoguerra claimed no allegiance to a specific group, though police said he very specifically targeted the Back the Blue demonstrators.

Manoguerra posted a $25,000 bail after his arrest.

SMITH

Smith, who is out of custody on a $100,000 bond, appeared with defense attorney Brian Getz and pleaded not guilty. He is set to return to court for a felony conference on Dec. 3.

After investigators viewed multiple videos of apparent assaults during the hour-long event on Aug. 9, Smith was arrested and charged with one count of assault likely to cause great bodily injury and two counts of robbery. He is alleged to have body slammed one person and thrown him to the ground, as well as having forcibly taken a cell phone from another, Assistant District Attorney Chris Walsh said at the time of Smiths arrest.

Smith whose defenders gathered funds for him after his arrest has retained Getz, a San Francisco attorney who made headlines last year for successfully defending one of the two men charged with homicide in the Ghost Ship fire that killed 36 people.

Contact reporter Liz Kellar at 530-477-4236 or by email at lizk@theunion.com.

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Suspects in Black Lives Matter, Back the Blue rally assaults plead not guilty in Nevada County Superior Court - The Union of Grass Valley

District Attorney Jackie Lacey and her husband were sued Tuesday by Black Lives Matter members over an incident in which the husband of Los Angeles County's top prosecutor pointed a gun at them while they were outside the front door of the Laceys' Granada Hills home in March.

Melina Abdullah, Dahlia Ferlito and Justin Marks brought the complaint in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleging civil rights violations, assault, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligence. The suit seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

Attorney Jeffrey Zinder issued a statement on behalf of the Laceys.

This lawsuit was filed two weeks before an election and not at any time in the last seven months because it is being put forward for transparently political purposes.

"This lawsuit was filed two weeks before an election and not at any time in the last seven months because it is being put forward for transparently political purposes," the statement read. "If there was merit in this lawsuit or if it was being offered sincerely, it would have been filed at some point prior to today."

Abdullah is chairwoman of the Department of Pan-African Studies at Cal State Los Angeles and a co-founder of the Los Angeles chapter of Black Lives Matter. She and other BLM demonstrators went to the home where Lacey and her husband David live on March 2, seeking to find out why she had allegedly not agreed as promised to meet with them to discuss issues of community concern.

David Lacey opened the door after the plaintiffs rang the bell and video images show him pointing a gun and saying he would shoot if the visitors did not get off his porch.

"The plaintiffs believe that Jackie Lacey aided and abetted (David) Lacey's decision to cock, load and then point the handgun directly at Dr. Abdullah's chest and at Ms. Ferlito's and Mr. Marks' bodies," the suit states. "The plaintiffs were unarmed and had done nothing to justify this use of deadly force against them."

Black Lives Matter protestors continue to gather outside LA City Hall every week to call for the resignation of District Attorney Jackie Lacey. Kim Tobin reports from Wednesday's protests for the NBC4 News at 4 p.m. on Aug. 5, 2020.

The incident occurred a day before the California primary election, which resulted in the 63-year-old Lacey being forced into a runoff with former San Francisco County District Attorney George Gascon as she seeks re-election to the office she has held since December 2012.

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Jackie Lacey, Husband Sued by Black Lives Matter Members Over Gun Incident - NBC Southern California

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What is missed often about what these movements have in common is we may not be of a religious tradition, but we absolutely are of a spiritual tradition, Khan said, citing the examples of Lewis and Ella Baker, another civil rights forbear with ties to the church. There is something inherently supernatural and spiritual about the work of social justice and the work of change.

The goals of the Black Lives Matter movement also intersect with the objectives of many liberation-focused Black churches: self-sufficient, politically empowered Black communities, equal access to resources and deep regard for public safety.

Al Sharpton, Baptist minister and founder of the National Action Network, said that to suggest that the movements conflict with the church is a new phenomenon would be rewriting of the movement.

This is nothing new, Sharpton said. Martin Luther King used to call it 'creative tension.' We need the push and pull between different disciplines and different tactics to come up with the best way.

Sharpton pointed out that of the Big Six civil rights leaders of the 1960s who coordinated the first March on Washington James Farmer, Roy Wilkins, A. Phillip Randolph, Whitney Young, King and Lewis only one, King, was a preacher. Many, as in the case of Roy Wilkins, were often hostile to the church as an organizing tool and felt it got in the way of the movements goals. Its a pattern that repeats itself in the Black Lives Matter era, Sharpton argued.

It's not like you don't have church leaders that don't disagree with me, he said. And it's not like you don't have Black Lives Matter folks that say he ain't with us even though he's black, and he says he is. There's searching on all sides. Can we make it all work is the challenge.

Two of Black Lives Matters founders, Patrisse Cullors and Alicia Garza, have spoken at National Action Network events and gone on Sharptons show to show operational unity. Younger activists have deferred to Sharpton in their organizing, as was the case in Minneapolis during George Floyds funeral, where it was accepted that Sharpton would deliver Floyds eulogy.

Activists of all generations, genders and sexual and religious orientations are united, moreover, in their view of how Lewis civil rights record has informed the work they have done and continue to do. His legacy proves especially critical now, following the more than two months of protests against racism and police violence that have made Lewis quintessential phrase good trouble newly relevant.

Speaking at Lewis' funeral at Ebenezer Baptist Church, former President Barack Obama, weighed in from the pulpit on the biggest political issues of the day: Voting rights, fair Congressional representation and the presence of federal agents in Americas cities.

We may no longer have to guess the number of jelly beans in a jar in order to cast a ballot, but even as we sit here, there are those in power who are doing their darnedest to discourage people from voting by closing polling locations and targeting minorities and students with restrictive ID laws and attacking our voting rights with surgical precision, Obama, the nation's first Black president, said.

Yet Lewis work, Obama continued, vindicated the faith in our founding.

Several organizers said Lewis legacy has helped them push the boundaries of what could be possible in their work.

Patrisse Cullors, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter, evoked Lewis words from his speech at the first March on Washington in her address to the Democratic National Committees platform meeting on Monday.

Hearkening back to Lewis, we are now involved in a serious revolution, Cullors said, borrowing language from his March on Washington address. Cullors encouraged the Democrats to embrace sea changes recommended by the Black Lives Matter movement, namely the BREATHE Act, which would limit federal ability to deploy police forces to cities and dramatically decrease the defense budget.

It's not enough just to have a seat at the table, we want to create a table or we want to flip the table over, said Angela Peoples, an organizer and director of Black Womxn For, an organization that aims to galvanize the political power of Black women and gender non-conforming folks. But even being able to name that as something that we want or that we even think is possible is only because those that have come before us have pushed their existence and their reality to see beyond what's possible.

This was true even in the face of bodily danger, something that has been associated with Lewis legacy as a protester. Jesse Jackson, former presidential candidate and founder of the multiethnic organizing Rainbow Coalition said that Lewis became immortal on the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Bloody Sunday in 1965. During that day, Lewis skull was cracked by a state trooper with a billy club.

John never stopped fighting, Jackson said. He had no fear and was always a really gentle and tough-minded person.

He also had his eyes on the future, even in his final days: one of the last pieces of legislation Lewis supported was the Justice in Policing Act, which aims to limit police violence. The bill, which would establish a national standard for police tactics and limit officers use of force, passed in the House on June 25, exactly one month after Floyd was killed.

Kayla Reed, director of the organizing group Action St. Louis and co-creator of the Movement for Black Lives Electoral Justice Project, said Lewis legacy inspired her career of activism.

I think it highlights what is possible, Reed said. When we think about how some people put a beginning and end to movements, that movement [work] is actually a lifelong commitment.

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From Bloody Sunday to Black Lives Matter, the role of the Black church is shifting - POLITICO

The 140-foot mural is on the side of a building in downtown Spokane, Washington -- sponsored in part by Terrain, a local arts nonprofit. Terrain, along with digital advertising agencies 14Four and Seven2, hired 16 artists to decorate and paint each letter in Black Lives Matter, according to CNN affiliate KXLY.

To some, though, it was insulting. The mural, completed less than two weeks ago, was vandalized on Wednesday.

But the community isn't letting the negative response hinder the effort. A fundraiser to restore the mural has already raised more than $10,000.

Artist Nicholas Sironka designed and painted the "A" in "Black" of the mural, a letter that received the brunt of the white paint. He wasn't surprised the mural had been vandalized, he told CNN.

"I just feel that the whole Black Lives Matter now to me has more meaning, unity of purpose. Everybody is unified to one purpose and that is eradicating inequality and injustice and all those things put together," he said.

Kiantha Duncan, vice president of the Spokane chapter of the NAACP, said she had a visceral reaction to seeing the photos.

This isn't the only BLM mural that has been defaced in recent weeks. In Spokane, a mural of George Floyd was defaced with white paint, though it has now been restored.

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A Black Lives Matter mural is defaced with red, white and blue paint in Washington state - CNN

The intensification of the Black Lives Matter movement in the US in recent months has led to radical reform and action.

The police officers responsible for the killing of George Floyd were all charged with serious offences, including one with second-degree murder. The city of Minneapolis voted to replace its police force with a new system of public safety, while other cities have slashed their police budgets.

The BLM and Stop First Nations Deaths in Custody protests across Australia since early June have similarly called for charges against police officers and prison guards responsible for deaths in custody, as well as an end to racialised police violence.

Another major protest is scheduled for today in Sydney amid warnings from Prime Minister Scott Morrison that demonstrators would be breaking the law by attending after organisers lost their appeal to overturn the Supreme Court ruling blocking it.

Organisers offered to call it off if Premier Gladys Berejiklian committed to an investigation into the 2015 death of Aboriginal prisoner David Dungay Jr.

The co-chair of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services, Nerita Waight, said last month,

we cannot be silent while police violence is unchecked and continues to kill our people.

There has also been a push to implement the 339 recommendations of the almost 30-year-old Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, which call for the use of arrest and imprisonment as a last resort, safer police and prison practices, independent investigations into deaths in custody and Aboriginal self-determination.

In recent decades, however, governments have defunded many First Nations organisations and programs that would enable successful implementation of these recommendations.

Read more: Can you socially distance at a Black Lives Matter rally in Australia and New Zealand? How to protest in a coronavirus pandemic

While there has been no movement on these larger structural issues just yet, the BLM protests have resulted in smaller victories.

This month, the South Australian government committed to funding a custody notification service to ensure all Aboriginal people who enter police custody have access to a call to the Aboriginal Legal Services.

This service was recommended by the royal commission and has saved First Nations lives in other states and territories.

Another victory has been the initiation of a NSW parliamentary inquiry into how First Nations deaths in custody are investigated.

Ken Wyatt, the federal Indigenous affairs minister, has also met with Aboriginal peak organisations to discuss incorporating justice targets in the new Closing the Gap measures.

Yet, these targets have not yet reined in police powers and the discriminatory over-policing of First Nations adults and children.

Overwhelmingly, the Commonwealth and state governments have responded to the BLM protests in Australia with condemnation.

Police commissioners and political leaders in several states have sought to block protests to prevent the spread of coronavirus, threatening arrests and issuing fines.

NSW Police Minister David Elliott said of the move to push ahead with todays rally,

its actually arrogance and its probably the most dangerous act that anybody could do during a pandemic is organise a mass gathering.

Government leaders say they understand the cause and support the BLM movement, but not the means.

Yet, they still have not responded to the movements demands for mitigating police violence against First Nations people.

In fact, when police attacks on Aboriginal people have been captured on phone cameras and televised in recent months, they have been defended by the police, commissioners and ministers.

There have been at least five First Nations deaths in custody this year, with two in the last month alone.

There are also increasing concerns for the lives of First Nations people in prisons as COVID-19 has begun to spread in institutions and youth detention centres in Victoria.

Read more: 'I can't breathe!' Australia must look in the mirror to see our own deaths in custody

Urgent and systemic change is required to claw back decades of extended police powers in NSW under the Law Enforcement Powers and Responsibilities Act and redress the lack of accountability for the 438 First Nations deaths in custody since 1991 and the 99 deaths investigated by the royal commission.

However, there are internal and external factors preventing this type of structural change.

On the one hand, the police have considerable power in Australia to influence decision-making at the parliamentary level and the way the tabloid media report on policing. The police unions also run active campaigns to defend officers charged in deaths in custody cases.

On the other hand, there has been a national silence about racialised police violence and deaths in custody of First Nations people. Gomeroi scholar Alison Whittaker describes this silence as embedded in colonisation and white supremacy.

The BLM movement has stimulated critical discussions in Australia on racial injustice and how First Nations people have challenged and resisted racialised policing and custodial practices.

It has also opened up conversations on the historic role of the police in the assimilation, enslavement and massacre of First Nations peoples. These practices have disrupted First Nations cultures, laws, families, connections to Country, languages, health and well-being.

This is precisely why a holistic, nationwide truth-telling process is so critical to hold the police to account for enforcing policies to eliminate First Nations people in the past and today. We must decolonise our legal system to remove assumptions about the central role of the police in managing First Nations communities.

Read more: Despite 432 Indigenous deaths in custody since 1991, no one has ever been convicted. Racist silence and complicity are to blame

Truth-telling is not a one-off event, but a process of ongoing exchange. This requires reforming the education system: for instance, by emphasising diversity and cultural competency in the law and justice programs that produce the next generation of police and legal professionals. It also requires a commitment to independent investigations for deaths in custody and police violence.

Truth-telling can be a mechanism for structural change and reparations, as well. This requires resetting police strategies to reduce their disproportionate surveillance of First Nations people and ensuring police accountability.

Enacting policies, such as the NSW Police Aboriginal Strategic Direction 2018-2023 to improve relationships between officers and Aboriginal communities, is meaningless if Aboriginal people are still being disproportionately stopped and searched as part of police detection targets.

In the absence of truth-telling processes, police accountability and government commitments to de-centre the police from the lives of First Nations people, the BLM street protests will continue. Its the only way for First Nations people and their allies to be heard, to educate and to elevate calls for justice.

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Instead of demonising Black Lives Matter protesters, leaders must act on their calls for racial justice - The Conversation AU