Category Archives: Government Oppression

Washington went dry before the rest of the nation. Booze was restricted by 1916. During World War I, the government would not allow alcohol sales within 10 miles of a military installation, and Seattle had a number of those, like Fort Lawton.

In 1919, national prohibition went into effect and lasted until 1933. Saloons shut down, breweries closed or, like distilleries during the recent pandemic that turned to making hand sanitizer, they began making nonalcoholic products like grape juice or soda pop.

But Seattles thirst would not remain unquenched. The large population of men, gambling joints and a sex trade was fueled by loggers, fishermen, miners, sailors, sawmill workers and others. Bribes to members of a long-corrupt police department helped lubricate a system that allowed illegal booze to flow. Some cops were even part of organized bootlegging gangs.

The underground economy wasnt just for the rich who drank in their private clubs. It flourished in places like Pioneer Square, Japantown, Chinatown and Jackson Street, long-standing places where many Seattleites went to sin. And it fed entrepreneurs who took not to risky smuggling, but to making moonshine on a grand scale for different markets with their own hidden stills and breweries.

It should also be said that some scholars believe that Prohibition was largely a movement of the white, Protestant middle class to control the working class, immigrants and people of color especially in growing urban areas.

One flourishing moonshine sector catered to the Japanese community, where illicit sake was sold to quench the thirst of towns with large Japanese populations, including Seattle, Tacoma, Vancouver, British Columbia, and Spokane.

In his landmark book on the first generation of Japanese in the Northwest Issei author Kazuo Ito talked about Japantowns gambling clubs, like the Toyo. Wherever there were Issei, there were sake, women and gambling, he wrote. Clubs like the Toyo paid a price to the police to stay open about $1,000 a month! Thats a lot in 1920s dollars.

For that generation, sake was not only a traditional drink for Shinto rituals or special occasions, but it was the beverage of choice for social recreation, especially among the abundance of cannery boys and sawmill workers who were encouraged to drink and gamble on payday, Ito writes. The greatest number of Japanese in Seattle at that time were employed as laborers.

Sake is called wine but is actually brewed from specially milled white rice and transformed with a fungus called koji, which is also used in making staples like miso and soy sauce. By Prohibition, California had a thriving commercial rice-growing industry in the Sacramento Valley. In other words, sake ingredients were readily available.

In addition, a hard liquor called shochucould also be distilled from sake ingredients to which other things, like sweet potatoes or barley, could be added. Such a drink was sometimes referred to as Japanese whiskey.

The process of sake brewing can be elaborate, with many steps. Illegal sake was often made in outlying rural areas, away from the prying eyes of the citys dry squad officers who raided with axes and smashed and confiscated what they found. Federal agents and local sheriffs stepped in to stop sake at these sources and make arrests.

Some operations were large. In 1918, the feds busted a rice whiskey operation between the Washelli cemetery and Edmonds that was the largest ever discovered in the area. Confiscated were an elaborate still, 3,000 pounds of rice and laundry and garbage containers designed to conceal the booze in a delivery truck.

Another operation, in Milton in Pierce County, was also said to be big. It was hidden in the woods and manned by four Japanese men. Fifteen large vats with a capacity of 4,500 gallons of sake were taken, along with tons of rice and corn.

A raid by Seattle dry squadders In 1919 at a Ravenna truck garden resulted in the arrests of four Japanese men with a 500-gallon mash tub and bottles labeled grape juice. The moonshiners were taken to the city jail.

Four hundred gallons of sake was seized or destroyed in a bust south of Georgetown on McKinley Hill. The local sheriff was amazed at the scale, saying I have wondered a long time where so much sake came from.

The breweries and stills had to be hidden, but so too their points of distribution. In Seattles International District a bust at Fifth and Maynard avenues resulted in the seizure of 2,000 gallons of sake and rice whiskey, but one man escaped through a secret underground passage.

A caf at Fifth Avenue and Main Street was found to have a hidden sake stash under its garbage cans. And how about this? A rooming house on King Street had attached its sinks faucet to two 20-gallon copper vats of moonshine and sake. Hot and cold running booze! It was detected because the landlady had left the faucet on when police raided.

Seattle celebrated when Prohibition ended. But some people had to reacquaint themselves with beverages. Ito quotes a Japanese caf owner saying the demand for beer after repeal of Prohibition was intense at the Jackson Caf in the International Districts Bush Hotel. Desperate customers drank it even though it was warm, too foamy and flat to taste. To look back on it, he said, both seller and customer had forgotten the taste of beer. They certainly werent picky, as happy days were there again.

Despite Prohibition, though, people hadnt lost their taste for their traditional rice-based beverage. Sake endured as a cultural touchstone. It was even brewed in secret in the barracks of camps where West Coast Japanese Americans were forcibly incarcerated during World War II. It helped to keep spirit and culture alive despite hard times and oppression.

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Mossback's Northwest: The bootleg sake of Prohibition-era Seattle - Crosscut

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On Wednesday, the United States Treasury Department sanctioned Astan Quds Razavi (AQR) and Execution of Imam Khomeinis Order (EIKO), plus their subsidiaries and four other individuals including Ahmad Marvi, the AQRs current caretaker. These two huge financial institutions controlled by the Iranian regimes Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, are the regimes resources for plundering the national wealth and funding terrorism.

These institutions enable Irans elite to sustain a corrupt system of ownership over large parts of Irans economy, said U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin. The United States will continue to target those who enrich themselves while claiming to help the Iranian people.

Today, the United States is imposing sanctions on two organizations controlled by the Supreme Leader of Iran, the Execution of Imam Khomeinis Order (EIKO) and Astan Quds Razavi (AQR). While masquerading as charitable organizations, EIKO and AQR control large portions of the Iranian economy, including assets seized from political dissidents and religious minorities, for the benefit of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, his office, and senior Iranian government officials, said Mike Pompeo, the U.S. Secretary of State in a press statement.

These institutions enable Irans corrupt leaders to exploit a system of ownership over a wide range of sectors of Irans economy. The United States will continue to target entities and individuals that enrich themselves while claiming to help the Iranian people, Secretary Pompeo added.

In this regard, Behzad Nabavi, a government minister in several administrations, in an interview with the state-run Alef news agency on September 21, 2019 revealed some information about this issue. In our country, there are four institutions which control 60 percent of the national wealth. This includes Executive Headquarters of Imams Directive (Setad Ejraie Farman Imam), Khatam-ol-Anbiay Base, Astan-e Quds and Foundation of the Oppressed and Disabled. None of these institutions are in connection with the government and parliament, he said.

The Iranian Resistance had previously exposed these two financial institutions, along with 12 other power houses, under Khamenei and the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) control, and their role in funding the regimes illicit activities.

In an exclusive report, published on November 8, 2019, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) exposed the AQRs role in funding terrorism and extremism.

Astan-e Quds Razavi has played an active role in providing financial, material and logistical support to fundamentalist and terrorist groups within the last few years. Particularly, the heads of AQR have vast relations with Hezbollahs top officials. It is worth noting that these activities within the past few years have been expanding, read the NCRIs report.

Astan-e Quds Razavi, also supports family members of Iranian agents who have been killed, including members of terrorist groups like Hezbollah, as well as agents in Iraqi, Syria, Nigeria, and so on. The regime organizes pilgrimage and tourism in Iran and uses this for further terrorist and extremist recruitment., the NCRIs report added.

The Iranian regime uses foundations such as Astan-e Quds to circumvent sanctions and fund its oppressive and terrorist policies subsequent to the blacklisting of the IRGC and the expansion of US sanctions aimed at cutting off the regimes economic resources, the regime has utilized AQR and similar entities to circumvent the sanctions and to finance its repressive and terrorist policies, the NCRI wrote.

In a newly published exclusive report, the NCRI also exposed the role of the regimes Setad Ejraie Farman Imam also known as EIKO or Setad in plundering the national wealth and funding the regimes terrorist apparatus.

Setads influence and domination over the Iranian economy surpass even that of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). It is the most assertive of the so-called non-government public sector companies when it comes to the confiscation of assets. An important difference between Setad and other similar institutions in the sphere of the velayat-e faqihs influence is that it has been able to take possession of some of the most profitable and largest commercial and financial firms, thanks to the direct and daily backing of Khamenei himself, the report said.

The NCRIs report highlighted that A review of Setads activities also confirms that this complex is one of the most important interlocutors for transactions with western companies. To strengthen the financial backbone of Setad, in 2010, Khamenei transferred close to $1B worth of assets from Astan-e Abdol-Azim in Rey city to Setad.

Recently Khamenei banned the entry of credible Covid-19 vaccines from the U.S. and the United Kingdom. He persisted on production of so-called domestic vaccines which over 167 pharmacists have called a joke.

This so-called domestic vaccine is being produced under the EIKOs supervision and by one of its subsidiaries. Thus, Khamenei and his foundation further plunder Iranians.

The Food and Drug Administration is under heavy pressure to approve domestically produced vaccines and anti-coronavirus medicines. Because obtaining approval from the Ministry of Health means a huge profit for the drug owner, wrote the state-run Jahan-e Sanat in this regard on December 14.

Khamenei, the IRGC and their financial power houses, are looting the Iranian economy and national wealth and wasting them on terrorism and oppression. While over 200000 people have died because of coronavirus, and while these institutions hold billions of dollars the regime has not allocated a budget for procuring vaccines.

These institutions and immense conglomerates control all aspects of Irans economy. Thus, doing business with the regime in Tehran means directly or indirectly funding the regimes terrorist activities.

The European Union has been promoting business with Tehran, without referring to the dangers this trade will have for not just Iranians, but for EU citizens as well.

Irans diplomat-terrorist Assdollah Assadi and his accomplices, who are on trial in Belgium, tried to plant a bomb in the heart of Europe in 2018. Their bomb plot, if not thwarted, could have been the largest terrorist attack in Europe. The regimes terrorist apparatus which planned and attempted this bombing is funded through various forms including by front companies, institutions, banks or the so-called private sector.

But behind the official banks and companies lies a web of institutions controlled by the regime, and specifically the IRGC and Khamenei.

It is time for the international community, mainly the EU, to adopt a firm policy vis--vis this terrorist regime. The EU should impose, maintain and increase sanctions on the regime and recognize the IRGC as a terrorist entity. It is time for the world community to hold the regime to account.

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U.S. Sanctions Two Financial Institutions Under Khameneis Control Involved in Terrorism and Harming Iranians - National Council of Resistance of Iran...

The English writer George Orwell, who died more than 70 years ago, is experiencing a resurgence of popularity among the political right. Last week, Donald Trump Jr. reacted to Twitter's decision to ban his father from the social media platform with a tweet of his own: "We are living Orwell's 1984. Free-speech no longer exists in America. It died with big tech and what's left is only there for a chosen few."

Minutes earlier, Josh Hawley -- the Missouri senator and outspoken proponent of Trump's false claims to have won the 2020 election, who offered a raised fist to those assembled outside the Capitol, just hours before the mob turned violent and forcibly breached the building's defenses -- had responded to the news that Simon & Schuster had decided to cancel his book contract with a tweet. "This could not be more Orwellian" he wrote. "Only approved speech can now be published. This is the Left looking to cancel everyone they don't approve of. I will fight this cancel culture with everything I have."

On Wednesday, Anthony Shaffer, retired military intelligence officer and adviser to the Trump campaign, accused the BBC's Evan Davis of using "Orwellian language to change what happened" when Davis described the president "inspiring insurrection, sedition, violent attack on Congress."

Orwell opposed censorship, not only official state censorship, which was "obviously ... not desirable," but the informal censorship of the media. As he wrote in an unpublished 1943 essay on "The Freedom of the Press": "If publishers and editors exert themselves to keep certain topics out of print, it is not because they are frightened of prosecution but because they are frightened of public opinion. In this country intellectual cowardice is the worst enemy a writer or journalist has to face."

Yet, while Orwell opposed censorship, he abhorred the corruption of language by political leaders intent on masking dubious or amoral actions behind either the anodyne language of bureaucracy and legalese, or the emotional language of patriotism. One of Orwell's deepest laments was that, during his lifetime, "political speech and writing" had become "largely the defense of the indefensible." Most likely Orwell would not have supported either the de-platforming of Trump, or the cancelation of Hawley's book contract. But he likely would also have despised both men for their cynical abuse of the English language.

More straightforward would have been his reaction to Shaffer's disingenuous effort to invoke his name to delegitimize the BBC's characterization of the events of January 6. In his classic 1946 essay "Politics and the English language," Orwell wrote that "Political language -- and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists -- is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."

The term Orwellian, used correctly, is a shorthand for the perversion of language to mask truth and defend the indefensible, the most concise example of which is the government's mantra in Orwell's "1984": "War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength." "1984," in addition to being an indictment of totalitarianism, is also an indictment of the displacement of plain truth with political doublespeak. It's a warning of the societal danger of rewriting insurrection, sedition and violence as patriotism and protest.

Trump Jr. and Hawley's tweets rolled into my feed as I was finishing the syllabus for an undergraduate history seminar, "George Orwell and the Making of the Modern World," which will explore the early 20th century taught through Orwell's writing. Not for the first time, I was reminded of Orwell's continued relevance, and more broadly, what his work reveals about the importance of truth and language in political discourse in America and beyond.

I teach in the US now, but I taught my first class on Orwell in 2016 in the United Kingdom as that country was consumed by the bitter referendum campaign over whether Britain should leave the European Union. Brexiteers famously campaigned with a giant red bus emblazoned with the slogan "We send the EU 350 million a week. Let's fund our NHS instead."

It was a knowingly false equation, that money "saved" by withdrawal the EU would be directly available for investment at home -- akin to Big Brother's 2 + 2 =5 in Orwell's "1984" -- but one that the Remain camp seemed unable to neutralize. The distortions and untruths of the Brexit campaign only underscored the enduring relevance of Orwell's quip that, "Intellectual honesty is a crime in any totalitarian country; but even in England it is not exactly profitable to speak and write the truth."

Four years later, I was teaching in America. This time, my students and I were discussing Orwell in the context of a Trump presidency that has frequently been denounced by the left as Orwellian for its embrace of lying and "alternative facts," but also in the context of a newly emergent "cancel culture" on the political left which has been perceived as Orwellian by public figures with far more credibility than Sen. Hawley.

I can report that the extremist political rhetoric of the 2020 election campaign as well as the growth of demagoguery and totalitarianism around the globe has only spurred undergraduates' interest in Orwell; the course I'm finalizing is full and has a waitlist.

I first read George Orwell in middle school, during the dying days of the Cold War, when "Animal Farm" was considered an ideal vehicle to teach American students about the perils of Soviet totalitarianism and to inculcate the virtues of America's commitment to free speech and the protection of political dissent. I went on to read "1984" in high school English, where my teacher made analogies between Big Brother and Joseph Stalin and the cult of personality and spelled out the connections between Newspeak and Room 101 and Soviet censorship and the torture and repression of the Gulag.

Donald Trump Jr. is a year older than I am. Josh Hawley is a year younger. For American children of our generation, the Orwell whom we were taught in high school was a Cold Warrior, an anti-Communist crusader against thought policing and dictatorial repression. If I had left Orwell behind in high school, I can imagine having sympathy for Trump and Hawley's claims that their First Amendment rights have been suppressed by a left-wing media establishment they deemed "Orwellian." After all, to quote the inscription beside the statue of Orwell outside the BBC's headquarters in London, "If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear."

But I didn't leave Orwell behind. In college, I read Orwell's indictments of racial oppression, based on his own experience as an imperial officer in Burma, and his writings on unemployment and poverty in Britain and France. Crucially, I read Homage to Catalonia, Orwell's memoir of his decision to volunteer alongside the Trotskyist POUM party in Spain in defense of the Spanish Republic against Franco's coup, only to discover that the POUM's worst enemy was arguably not Franco but the Stalin-backed Republican government which was intent on extinguishing their POUM "allies" with physical persecution and vicious propaganda.

Orwell's memoir sought to dispel the propaganda and rehabilitate the POUM's reputation as champions of democracy. To his dismay, he found that his publisher Victor Gollancz would not publish the book, despite accepting the truth of Orwell's narrative, for fear of upsetting the Stalin-backed government and undermining the Republican cause. Orwell, like Hawley, saw his book contract canceled -- and ultimately published the book through a small press that shared his political sympathies.

The more Orwell I read when I was young, the more I came to appreciate that, even above freedom of speech, Orwell was dedicated to defending the truth. In the world of "1984," where Big Brother insists that 2+2 =5, "freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four."

Published in 1949, Orwell's "1984" is set, not in Communist Russia, but in Oceania, a dystopian Anglo-American superpower constantly at war with Russia (Eurasia) and China (Eastasia). In setting his novel in a version of Britain, Orwell is underscoring the point that political repression and dishonesty are not the preserve of Soviet totalitarianism.

The students who are enrolled in my class this spring were born well after the end of the Cold War. Their interest in Orwell is driven presumably less by his political relevance as an anti-Communist tribune than by the question of whether modern political culture, with its information silos, lies and alternative facts, has become the dystopian nightmare that Orwell envisaged.

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Why the right and left both want George Orwell on their side - KCTV Kansas City

Taoiseach Michel Martin has apologised on behalf of the State to the survivors and victims of mother and baby homes.

Speaking in the Dil the day after the publication of the report of the Commission of Investigation on Mother and Baby Homes, Mr Martin said it was "the duty of a republic to be willing to hold itself to account" and face hard truths.

He said the report "presents us with profound questions" and that Ireland had "embraced a perverse religious morality and control, judgementalism and moral certainty, but shunned our daughters".

Mr Martin paid particular tribute to historian Catherine Corless, whose work at the Tuam Mother and Baby Home led to the commission's establishment, who he said "played a critical part" in the report's publication.

The Taoiseach said the report had laid bare the "significant failures of the State, the Churches and of society"

"Women were admitted to mother and baby homes and county homes because no supports were forthcoming from any other quarter. They were forced to leave home, and seek a place where they could stay without having to pay. Many were destitute.

In the personal testimonies of how many women ended up in these institutions, the priest, the doctor and the nun loom large. The sense of oppression, even at this distance, is overwhelming.

"Women, terrified by the consequences of their pregnancy becoming known to their family and neighbours entered mother and baby homes to protect their secret.

"While women may not have been strictly legally forced to enter these homes, the fact is that most had no alternative, especially those who did not have the support of their family or independent financial means."

He went on to issue a full apology to the survivors, saying they were failed by those around them and that each was blameless.

"On behalf of the Government, the State and its citizens, I apologise for the profound generational wrong visited upon Irish mothers and their children who ended up in a mother and baby home or a county home.

"As the commission says plainly, they should not have been there.

"I apologise for the shame and stigma which they were subjected to and which, for some, remains a burden to this day.

"In apologising, I want to emphasise that each of you were in an institution because of the wrongs of others. Each of you is blameless, each of you did nothing wrong and has nothing to be ashamed of.

"Each of you deserved so much better."

An Taoiseach @MichealMartinTD's statement on the Report of Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes.

The full statement can be viewed here: https://t.co/RUOtnnALOs pic.twitter.com/eOHCUWGpe8

However, the Taoiseach said that an apology alone was "not enough".

"We, collectively in this House, will be judged by our actions. Actions always speak louder than words.

The Government accepts and will respond to all of the recommendations made by the commission, and this response will centre on four pillars of recognition, remembrance, records and restorative recognition.

"Recognition begins with this apology and will be followed by commitments to national and local memorialisation and commemoration.

"The views and wishes of former residents will be paramount and all commemoration will be led by them."

The Taoiseach said the "shame" around the institutions belonged to the State and not the women and said the Government "is determined to act on all the recommendations of the report and to deliver the legislative change necessary to at least start to heal the wounds that endure".

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Taoiseach's apology says actions on report will speak louder than words - Irish Examiner

Tony Plohetski,Katie Hall|Austin American-Statesman

Death in Custody: The story of Javier Antonio Ambler II

Published on June 8, 2020, the death of Javier Ambler sparked national outcry, cancelled a reality TV show and indicted a sheriff on felony charges.

Bront Wittpenn, Austin American-Statesman

Travis County District Attorney JosGarza has set a March 30 deadline for himself to ask a grand jury to consider charges against officers in the deaths of Javier Ambler and Michael Ramos, two cases that the new DA has set as a priority for his administration.

On Thursday,Garza released a list of about two dozen cases involving law enforcement officers that could be presented to a grand jury in the future,including six cases that involved the death of a civilian as well as 10 separate complaints from individuals who Austin police hit with beanbag rounds during the May 31 downtown protestagainst police brutality.

The oldest case is from nearly three years ago.

Garza also said he would present by the end of March cases involving former Williamson County Sheriff Robert Chody and the Williamson County generalcounsel, Jason Nassour, related to possible evidence tampering charges after Ambler's death.

Chody and Nassour already have been charged with evidence tampering in Williamson County for their alleged role in the destruction of footage from the reality show "Live PD" in Ambler's death.

Garza also plans to present former Austin police officer Walter Dodds' case to the grand jury before March 30.Doddswas arrested in September on a charge of sexually assaulting a woman that he met while responding to a mental health call in April. He resigned from the Austin Police Department in August.

The cases involving people who were hit with beanbag rounds during the May 31 protest are expected to be presented to a grand jury in early fall, Garza said.

Austin police officer Justin Berry, a GOP candidate wholost the election for Texas House District 47 in November, was named as one of several officers being investigated for hitting protesters with beanbag rounds. Berry declined to comment Thursday.

Garza's list also revealed thatTravis County corrections officer Shannon Owens was indicted last month after investigators accused him ofpresenting a false affidavit for arrest and detention in April 2019. A grand jury on Dec. 16 indicted Owens on charges of aggravated perjury and tampering with a government record.

Owens is still employed with the Travis County sheriff's office on restricted duty, pending the outcome of his Internal Affairs investigation.

Garza said his office will giveupdates every two weeks on the cases that his office'scivil rights unit isreviewing.

Our community has been clear thatwhen law enforcement officers use deadly force, prosecutors must investigate the case quickly and with transparency, to ensure that no one is above the law, said Garza, who took office this month.

Garza's decision to take each case to a grand jury is a departure from former District Attorney Margaret Moore, who only presentedfor possible indictment cases in which prosecutors suspected officers committed a crime.

"At this point, results matter far more than words," said Jeff Edwards, an attorney who represents Ambler's family. "If the district attorney truly wants to honor the lives of Javier Ambler and Michael Ramos, he should state unequivocally that he is seeking an indictment against the officers who killed them because what they did was excessive, unreasonable and flat out wrong."

Grand juries should have heard these cases months ago, said attorneys for the deputies and officers involved in Ramos' and Ambler's deaths.

"Based on our knowledge of the facts, it is clear to us that the former DA (Margaret Moore) understood criminal indictments were neither warranted nor appropriate in either case, but she did not want to suffer the political consequences of declining prosecution or having a grand jury refuse to issue indictments," attorneysKen Ervin andDoug OConnell said in a statement Thursday. "We still welcome and encourage a fair and thorough review process where a grand jury hears all the evidence. If that happens, we are confident no indictments will issue."

Ervin and OConnell are representingformer Williamson County Deputies J.J. Johnson and Zach Camden, who resigned last year, and Austin police officer Christopher Taylor, who shot and killed Ramos.

Ambler died in March 2019. Johnson conducted a traffic stop of Ambler because he didnt dim his headlights. After chasing Ambler for 22 minutes, Johnson and Camden repeatedly used a stun gun on the 40-year-old Black father, who had a heart condition. He died while shouting, I cant breathe.

Ramos died in April.Officers had surrounded the car Ramos was in with his girlfriend in Southeast Austinafter receiving a 911 call reporting that they might be doing drugs and that one of them might have a gun. Taylor shot Ramos as Ramos drove away.

Ramos was not armed during the incident, police investigators said.The people who could be indicted in Ramos' case are Austin police officer Mitchell Pieper, who hit Ramos with a beanbag round, and officer Christopher Taylor, who fired the fatal shot that killed Ramos.

Garza will oversee the cases of three indicted officials: Former Austin police officer Nathaniel Stallings, who investigators accused in 2018 of using excessive force against a woman; Austin officer Lando Hall, who was indicted this month on seven counts of misuse of official information; andformer Austin fire Lt. Marcus Reed, who will be retried on charges of sexual assault and official oppression after a Travis County jury was unable to reach a verdict in 2019.

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Grand jury to hear cases of officers involved in the deaths of Ramos, Ambler - Austin American-Statesman

In the wake of supporters of President Donald Trump storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, commandeering the meeting place of Congress for hours while clashing with law enforcement, Philadelphia 76ers head coach Doc Rivers asked a rather poignant question about the mostly white men laying siege to the federal building.

Could you imagine today if those were all Black people storming the Capitol and what wouldve happened? Rivers, who is Black, said to the media.

That to me is a picture worth a thousand words for all of us to see. Its something for us to reckon with, again, no police dogs turned on people, no billy clubs hitting people. People peacefully being escorted out of the Capitol.

It shows you can disperse a crowd peacefully, I guess.

Rivers, who once had his Orlando, Florida, home burned down for committing the crime of miscegenation, perfectly encapsulates the Black experience in America: watching white people not be held accountable in the eyes of the law.

Its why Rivers and scores of other Black people in the sports world were not surprised by the events in Washington.

Racism and the systemic oppression it birthed were what drew former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick to kneel against police violence. It was what drew Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James to fight voter suppression and what drove WNBA star Maya Moore against racial inequalities within the criminal justice system. Its why Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown drove 15 hours from Boston to Atlanta to march, why Black Lives Matter was painted on the court in the NBA bubble and why the Milwaukee Bucks refused to participate in a playoff game.

In one America, you get killed by sleeping in your car, selling cigarettes or playing in your backyard, said Brown. And then in another America, you get to storm the Capitol and no tear gas, no massive arrests, none of that.

But for much of America, this was apparently breaking news.

Multiple cable news pundits across the ideological spectrum expressed shock and horror upon seeing the rioters breaking into the Capitol, uttering some form of, How could this happen here?

That noise you hear is Black people collectively breaking the fourth wall to stare directly at the camera.

This is the country that enslaved Black people for 250 years. This is the country that forced Japanese Americans into concentration camps. This is the country that committed genocide against the Indigenous and stole their land. This is the country that, in the last 20 years, has fought to prevent Muslims and Mexicans from entering the country, to say nothing about denying them the same rights as others in this country.

How could this happen here? This country was made for it to happen here. The coddling of white grievance for centuries only ends in insurrection and sedition. Black Americans have been subjugated and had their bodies plundered since 1619; we have an idea of freedom but have never actually experienced it.

White Americans can rush through two sets of barricades outside of what should be one of the most heavily guarded buildings in the country, fight with Capitol Police, including spraying officers with the same sort of chemical agents law enforcement used against Black Lives Matter protesters this summer, and be allowed to do so.

For Black people, militarized police forces brutally crack down on them for marching down the street while simply asking for equal rights.

Black people would not have been allowed to get past the first barrier, let alone inside the Capitol, without first being shot. Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton was killed in his Chicago home in 1969 because the Illinois government assumed he was planning violence against the government.

We live in two Americas, James said a day after the siege. And that was a prime example of that yesterday, and if you dont understand that or dont see that after seeing what you saw yesterday, then you really need to take a step back not even just one step, but maybe four or five, or even 10 steps backwards and ask yourself how do you want your kids, or how do you want your grandkids, or how do we want America to be viewed as. Do we want to live in this beautiful country?

The evening before the siege took place in Washington, I was in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley had announced on Jan. 5 that his office would not be pursuing charges against Rusten Sheskey, the officer who shot Jacob Blake, a Black man, seven times while responding to a domestic violence call in August. The shooting, which has left Blake paralyzed from the waist down, led to a brief work stoppage in professional sports, spearheaded by the Bucks refusing to play in a playoff game against the Orlando Magic.

The day before Graveleys announcement, the Kenosha city council passed an emergency declaration regarding potential civil unrest, as did Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth. Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers also authorized the deployment of the National Guard to the city in anticipation of possible unrest following Graveleys decision.

For the people who were calling for justice, I think its a story that is not at all unfamiliar, Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, who advised the Bucks during their protest over the summer, told The Undefeated by phone on Friday, referring to the reaction to the Blake decision. And when that theme is as familiar as it is, you know the ending of this movie. Its like the same exact plot, just different characters, different actors different settings.

I arrived at the Kenosha County courthouse around 7 that evening, and it was almost as if I had driven straight into an occupied war zone. Humvees and other armored vehicles lined the streets of Kenosha, with heavily armed soldiers wandering around. Police cars sped through the streets, and officers set up impromptu roadblocks. What can only be assumed to be snipers were perched atop the courthouse building.

All of this for maybe 50 protesters marching across the city being followed by a dozen cars. There was no looting, no violence, nor were there weapons brandished or buildings damaged. But because the protesters were marching against state violence and for racial equality, they were viewed as dangerous threats to society.

When the marchers confronted some of the National Guard at the courthouse, the soldiers set up a loose perimeter around them. Some even had their fingers near the trigger of their assault weapons as protesters yelled and jeered at them.

Now compare that with the Capitol Police. When the insurrection began, there were no armored vehicles, no tear gas and no violent beatings of the rioters. Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser had asked days earlier for the National Guard to be deployed in anticipation of this white violence, and her request was denied.

All because whiteness isnt inherently viewed as a threat the way Blackness is.

While looting and destruction have happened at some Black Lives Matter protests, there has rarely been what could be considered violence directed at state actors. Black protester anger is a symptom of the violation of the social contract between members of society and the government, and even then their anger should be considered rather tame for folks who were once considered property by this same government. White grievance has nothing to do with the social contract; its about preserving white supremacy only.

This episode exposed many things about America: the unchecked powers of the office of the president, the propensity to violence of white people, the lack of preparedness of the nations police in reaction to said violence, the naked ambition of politicians to retain power, so on and so forth.

But what it may have exposed the most is what Kaepernick brought to light some five years ago.

In August 2016, Kaepernick refused to stand during the playing of the national anthem to bring attention to police brutality and the systemic oppression of Black people in this country. Kaepernick did this by hitting America at the core of what it holds closest to its heart: patriotism.

Americans, mostly of the white variety, claim to believe in freedom, democracy and equality, yet many Black Americans, including Kaepernick, understand those values are contingent on the person being white. Black Americans have only been free in this country for just over 150 years. The country has only truly been a democracy since 1965. Black people have never received true equality, down to last week, when the marchers in Kenosha were met with militarized force while the insurrectionists in Washington posed for selfies with police and were gently escorted out of the very building they had just infiltrated.

So Kaepernick, by himself, at least in the beginning, simply decided to not participate in the pageantry or, one could argue, propaganda of standing for an anthem that includes the lyrics: Oer the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Whose land? Whose home?

And for that one gesture, Kaepernick was ostracized from the NFL entirely and had threats made against his life, all for asking the country to live up to its supposed values. He was condemned by the very people who encouraged and defended the actions of the rioters in Washington last week. Trump. Conservative cable news, such as Newsmax, One America News and Fox News. Conservative politicians such as Sens. Ted Cruz (rich spoiled athletes who dishonor our flag) and Lindsey Graham (If youre looking for racism in America, Mr. Kaepernick, look in the mirror).

Here's a peaceful protest: never buy another shoe, shirt, or jersey of rich spoiled athletes who dishonor our flag. https://t.co/GrGPYX8HCh

Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) September 12, 2016

Kaepernick, like many Black athletes, never called for insurrection or sedition; he never even mentioned secession, as some Florida Republicans have in the wake of the presidential election. He simply pleaded for equality. Equality to not be shot and killed by law enforcement. Equality in the criminal justice system (which he now supports the abolishment of). Equality in being a human being.

But that appears too large an ask in America. Blackness, in every form, is to be viewed with caution while white sedition from the American Revolution to the Civil War to Jim Crow-era violence against the civil rights movement is accepted as a means to an end to Americas values.

As Rivers said, none of this was surprising to those of us who have been paying attention.

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Black Americans have never been more free than they are today. The events on Jan. 6 were about the threat of diversity and progress in this country. An entire administration built on drug dealers, criminals, rapists and shole countries and law and order was just white supremacy and racism with a new coat of paint. Theres no surprise a Confederate battle flag was spotted in the hands of one of the rioters.

The white people who stormed the Capitol were always going to be allowed to do it. Law and order wasnt designed to apply to people who looked like them. New York Magazine reported that a New Hampshire police chief was one of the Trump supporters in the Capitol on Jan. 6. Ashli Babbitt, the woman who was shot and killed by Capitol Police inside the building, was an Air Force veteran who served in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Capitol Police seen surrendering their posts or declining to restrain the rioters once they entered the building didnt have a sudden breakdown in protocol. Because whats the protocol of controlling your own kind?

Martenzie is an associate editor for The Undefeated. His favorite cinematic moment is when Django said "Y'all want to see somethin?"

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The storming of the U.S. Capitol is what happens when white supremacy is coddled - The Undefeated

Apart from banners supporting president Donald Trump, a number of other flags were seen waving at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

WASHINGTON, D.C., USA The dramatic images we saw during the historic riots at the U.S. Capitol last week included a lot of different flags and symbols.

Apart from the pro-Trump banners you may have noticed rioters carrying, there were other flags you might not have recognized. We wanted to take a closer look.

The "Gadsen Flag" with the words "Don't tread on me," for one, has been around for centuries, and there are many variations of it now.

The yellow flag, with a coiled rattlesnake, tends to symbolize opposition to restrictions and government oppression. It has origins before the American Revolution but has recently been used by the Tea Party movement, militia groups, and even in sports branding. Now, the flag tends to symbolize opposition to restrictions and government oppression.

Another flag you might have noticed shows black-and-white stripes across a green banner.

These "Kekistan" or "Kek" flags are often used by white nationalists to troll liberals, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. This flag first appeared on the website 4chan in 2017 as a symbol for the made-up sect who worship Kek, the ancient Egyptian deity of darkness.

Another flag shows a ring of stars around the Roman numeral for three III. These are generally carried by a group known as the Three Percenters.

The Three Percenters are an American-Canadian faction described by the Anti-Defamation League as "anti-government extremists who are part of the militia movement." Their name is derived from the unproven claim that only 3% of Americans fought for independence during the American Revolution.

The Three Percenters, also styled 3 Percenters, 3%ers and III%ers, are an American and Canadian militia movement and paramilitary group described as having right-libertarian and far-right ideology. The group advocates gun ownership rights and resistance to the U.S. federal government's involvement in local affairs.

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Identifying the flags seen at the U.S. Capitol riots - KVUE.com

More than 70 Harvard student organizations from across the University signed a statement demanding the release of Ekpar Asat the brother of Rayhan Asat, Harvard Law Schools first Uighur graduate from a Xinjiang internment camp.

The statement, written by the Harvard Law School Advocates for Human Rights, calls for the immediate release of Ekpar Asat and for swift accountability for the mass atrocities continuing to be committed against this ethnic group.

As Harvard students, we lend our support to Rayhan Asat in her fight to secure her brothers release and seek justice for the Uighur community, the statement reads. We join widespread calls for the United States government and the international community to demand that the Chinese government end their long-standing and systematic oppression of the Uighur ethnic minority.

International human rights groups estimate more than 1 million people have been held in the so-called re-education camps, and allege that ethnic Muslims are subjected to religious persecution and forced sterilization in the camps. In response to what it called human rights violations, the United States issued sanctions against several Chinese officials involved in July.

Rayhan Asat said she was surprised that the Chinese government chose to detain her brother, particularly given his dearth of anti-government activity.

I just never thought it would happen to my brother because hes never critical of the Chinese government, she said.

Ekpar Asat, a tech entrepreneur and philanthropist, founded a social media platform for Uighurs in his college years. In 2016, Asat participated in the U.S. Department of States International Visitor Leadership Program, which boasts alumni including New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and United Nations Secretary-General Antnio Gueterres.

The Chinese government did approve him to come to this trip its a government-approved trip between the United States and China, Rayhan Asat said. And the program is designed to promote [the] U.S.-China relationship.

When Ekpar Asat came to the U.S. to attend the program, he and his sister made arrangements for their immediate family to return to America for Rayhan Asats graduation from the Law School.

Our agreement was that he would be coming back for my graduation in two months time he got the visa and everything, Asat said, who is a U.S. permanent resident. We thought that we were going to see each other never had I ever thought that would be the last time Id be seeing him.

Asats brother disappeared three weeks after his return from the U.S. Her parents told her that they would no longer be able to attend her Law School graduation as planned because a family member was ill, but Asat suspected something was wrong.

It was only four years later in January 2020 that she got official confirmation of what had happened. She met with members of Congress to advocate for her brother in December 2019, who then sent a letter asking the Chinese government about the whereabouts of Ekpar Asat.

In response, Beijing officials said that Ekpar Asat had been sentenced to fifteen years in prison for inciting ethnic hatred and ethnic discrimination.

The charges against Asat were a "sham" and he was imprisoned with "no trial, no lawyer, no evidence, no due process, no justice," according to tweets from the U.S. State Department.

Law School student Sondra R. P. Anton, director of activism at HLSs Advocates for Human Rights, said the writers of the statement strived to humanize Rayhan Asats story. Anton said that, too often, mass atrocity and genocide are rendered faceless and nameless.

Rayhan could have been any of us, she said.

Tzofiya M. Bookstein 23, who first became involved in Uighur advocacy last spring, said she was able to contribute to Rayhan Asats campaign through collaborating with the Jewish Movement for Uighur Freedom, an international initiative she helped found in 2020.

Something that was really amazing with this petition was that the network kind of activated, and I could bring in people who I had worked with in my own community to amplify this petition and have them reach out to their networks, Bookstein said. It was a really amazing way to bring the two initiatives together.

Rebecca S. Araten 22, a former Crimson News editor involved with the Jewish Movement for Uighur Freedom, highlighted the breadth of student organizations that had signed the statement, many of which hold no political affiliations.

There are progressive organizations, there are cultural and affinity organizations, there are pre-med related organizations, and just a lot of groups that are seeing this issue not as something political, she said. Theyre signing on because this is a human rights issue, and theres no way to not support Ekpar and his freedom.

Rebecca N. Thrope 22, a member of the campaign, wrote in an email that she was moved by Rayhan Asats consideration for supporters despite her difficult situation.

Working with Rayhan has taught me so much about the care it takes to sustain this effort, Thrope wrote. She time and time again cares for us as she boosts our morale and pushes us to achieve more ambitious goals.

Rayhan Asat wrote an opinion piece for The Crimson in June of 2020, in which she details the story of her brother, his detainment, and her advocacy efforts that demand the Chinese government release Ekpar from the Xinjiang detention center.

Many of you will be shapers and movers of our society, Asat wrote in her editorial. Therefore, I ask you: Join the fight, be the light, be the integrity, be the voice for my brother, and my people. Because you are my people too.

Staff writer Emmy M. Cho can be reached at emmy.cho@thecrimson.com.

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70 Harvard Organizations Demand Law School Graduate's Brother Be Released from Chinese Detention Camp | News - Harvard Crimson

Good news if you were disappointed by how Bobby Seale and Fred Hampton were treated in Aaron Sorkins The Trial of the Chicago 7: Shaka Kings Judas and the Black Messiah, which stars Daniel Kaluuya as Hampton, leader of the Black Panther Party, and Lakeith Stanfield as William ONeal, the man who sold Hampton out to the FBI, finally has a release date. The pandemic release limbo is finally over, at least for this film, thank God. But, first, Warner Bros. dropped a brand-new trailer for the film earlier on Tuesday, and to the surprise of absolutely no one, it looks pretty great.

Heres the trailer:

Heres the longest synopsis weve ever read for a film its practically a press release, but were cool with it:

Chairman Fred Hampton was 21 years old when he was assassinated by the FBI, who coerced a petty criminal named William ONeal to help them silence him and the Black Panther Party. But they could not kill Fred Hamptons legacy and, 50 years later, his words still echo louder than ever. I am a revolutionary!

In 1968, a young, charismatic activist named Fred Hampton became Chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, who were fighting for freedom, the power to determine the destiny of the Black community, and an end to police brutality and the slaughter of Black people.

Chairman Fred was inspiring a generation to rise up and not back down to oppression, which put him directly in the line of fire of the government, the FBI and the Chicago Police. But to destroy the revolution, they had to do it from both the outside and the inside. Facing prison, William ONeal is offered a deal by the FBI: if he will infiltrate the Black Panthers and provide intel on Hampton, he will walk free. ONeal takes the deal.

Now a comrade in arms in the Black Panther Party, ONeal lives in fear that his treachery will be discovered even as he rises in the ranks. But as Hamptons fiery message draws him in, ONeal cannot escape the deadly trajectory of his ultimate betrayal.

Though his life was cut short, Fred Hamptons impact has continued to reverberate. The government saw the Black Panthers as a militant threat to the status quo and sold that lie to a frightened public in a time of growing civil unrest. But the perception of the Panthers was not reality. In inner cities across America, they were providing free breakfasts for children, legal services, medical clinics and research into sickle cell anemia, and political education. And it was Chairman Fred in Chicago, who, recognizing the power of multicultural unity for a common cause, created the Rainbow Coalition joining forces with other oppressed peoples in the city to fight for equality and political empowerment.

Judas and the Black Messiah will have its premiere at this years Sundance Film Festival before it hits theaters and HBO Max on February 12.

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'Judas and the Black Messiah' has a new trailer and a release date - Vanyaland

The Mental Health Act confers unique powers on the state: allowing police, health and social services to detain a person on the basis of their mental state.

We know that the Act saves lives, providing vital health care in an emergency to people who need urgent help, but we also know that the use of coercion to treat mental illness can be frightening and traumatic. For too many people, powers that exist to protect them have ended up causing lasting harm, and the use of these powers is far from equal across society.

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This is why the publication of the governments plan to reform the Act this week is so welcome.

The current legislation was written in 1983, and partially updated in 2007. In that time, the way mental ill health is understood and treated has changed but the law has not kept up. Now, with the publication of a government reform plan, based largely on an independent report written two years ago by Sir Simon Wessely, we have a chance to bring mental health law into the 21st century. The changes will give patients more control and autonomy over their care, ensure that the needs of those with learning disabilities and autism are better met, and work towards making the system less discriminatory towards Black people.

Every year since the Act was last updated, the use of coercion has risen. That means more people are sectioned, often with the involvement of the police. And since 2007, compulsory powers can be extended once people leave hospital, through community treatment orders which require people to comply with treatment or face a return to hospital.

Use of these powers is not spread evenly. Black people in England and Wales are four times more likely to be sectioned than white people, and even more likely again to be given a community treatment order. These inequities may partly relate to higher rates of mental illness, but they cannot be explained away without understanding Black peoples experiences of racism, oppression and injustice that begin early in life and are too often reflected in how they experience mental health care.

The reforms aim to stop discrimination and racism within the mental health system using a Patient and Carer Race Equality Framework (a tool designed to improve care and race equality,recommended in the 2018 Independent Review).It is vital that this is properly resourced and given the time it needs to make a real difference in communities and services nationwide.

The Mental Health Act doesnt just provide a legal basis for people to be detained in hospital. It also sets out the ways in which peoples rights can be protected during that time. For example it sets limits on how long a person can be detained and what for, and it provides protections such as a right to independent advocacy and aftercare.

The Governments plans seek to boost those protections: including enabling people to write Advance Choice Documents to say how they would like to be treated when they are unwell. And it pledges to boost advocacy services so that more people get advice and support about their rights. This will mean people will get the care and dignity they desire when unwell.

The Government also pledges to end the use of mental health law to detain people solely because they are autistic or have a learning disability. If this is accompanied by investment in better community support, it should prevent the inappropriate use of mental health legislation to keep people in hospitals and care homes for months and years at a time.

While the changes proposed by government will not happen quickly, we hope that in time they will mean that peoples rights and dignity are respected at every turn

Reforming the Mental Health Act will rebalance a system that too often leaves people traumatised and treated without dignity when they are at their most unwell. But it will not on its own be enough to tackle the injustices and inequalities that lie beneath the letters of the law.

Deeply ingrained racism and discrimination in society must be tackled to prevent mental ill health in communities. Investment in community mental health support is also vital: years of austerity, especially in social care, have eroded the services that support people living with a mental illness, putting them at greater risk of relapse and hospitalisation.

And the hospital buildings used for mental health support are in urgent need of modernisation: in some cases, the places people are detained when they are most unwell are some of the poorest and most dated parts of the NHS estate. And in last years hospital upgrade plan, just two of the 40 sites chosen by government for modernisation were for mental health care.

Reform of the Mental Health Act is long overdue. While the changes proposed by government will not happen quickly, we hope that in time they will mean that coercion is used only where it is necessary, for as short a time as possible, respecting peoples rights and dignity at every turn. The Governments plans are now out for consultation, with plans for new legislation to be introduced later this year.

Andy Bell is deputy chief executive at Centre for Mental Health and was a member of the working group for the Independent Review of the Mental Health Act in 2018

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People have been traumatised by the Mental Health Act for decades the government's reform plan is welcome - iNews