#civilliberties — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #civilliberties, aggregated by home.social.
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Gloria Steinem’s Final Essay before her death this week - "When you’re lucky enough to have lived a long life, as I have done, your role is to remind us how far we have come." https://periscope.corsfix.com/?https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newyorker.com%2Fculture%2Flife-and-letters%2Fgloria-steinems-final-essay= #civilliberties #women #girls #law #civilrights #justice #equality #publichealth #choice #privacy #freedom #voting #democracy
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Gloria Steinem’s Final Essay before her death this week - "When you’re lucky enough to have lived a long life, as I have done, your role is to remind us how far we have come." https://periscope.corsfix.com/?https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newyorker.com%2Fculture%2Flife-and-letters%2Fgloria-steinems-final-essay= #civilliberties #women #girls #law #civilrights #justice #equality #publichealth #choice #privacy #freedom #voting #democracy
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Gloria Steinem’s Final Essay before her death this week - "When you’re lucky enough to have lived a long life, as I have done, your role is to remind us how far we have come." https://periscope.corsfix.com/?https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newyorker.com%2Fculture%2Flife-and-letters%2Fgloria-steinems-final-essay= #civilliberties #women #girls #law #civilrights #justice #equality #publichealth #choice #privacy #freedom #voting #democracy
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Gloria Steinem’s Final Essay before her death this week - "When you’re lucky enough to have lived a long life, as I have done, your role is to remind us how far we have come." https://periscope.corsfix.com/?https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newyorker.com%2Fculture%2Flife-and-letters%2Fgloria-steinems-final-essay= #civilliberties #women #girls #law #civilrights #justice #equality #publichealth #choice #privacy #freedom #voting #democracy
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Gloria Steinem’s Final Essay before her death this week - "When you’re lucky enough to have lived a long life, as I have done, your role is to remind us how far we have come." https://periscope.corsfix.com/?https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newyorker.com%2Fculture%2Flife-and-letters%2Fgloria-steinems-final-essay= #civilliberties #women #girls #law #civilrights #justice #equality #publichealth #choice #privacy #freedom #voting #democracy
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this.weekinsecurity:
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Vigilantism comes for Flock
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"More Americans than ever are destroying Flock license plate cameras amid rising backlash against the company. Is the tide turning on intrusive U.S. mass surveillance, and where does the privacy fight go next?"https://this.weekinsecurity.com/vigilantism-comes-for-flock/
4.9.2026
#BigBrother #CivilLiberties #Flock #Freiheitsrechte #Kennzeichenscanner #LicensePlateCamera #LicensePlateTracking #Massenüberwachung #MassSurveillance #Privacy #Surveillance #Überwachung
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this.weekinsecurity:
"
Vigilantism comes for Flock
"
"More Americans than ever are destroying Flock license plate cameras amid rising backlash against the company. Is the tide turning on intrusive U.S. mass surveillance, and where does the privacy fight go next?"https://this.weekinsecurity.com/vigilantism-comes-for-flock/
4.9.2026
#BigBrother #CivilLiberties #Flock #Freiheitsrechte #Kennzeichenscanner #LicensePlateCamera #LicensePlateTracking #Massenüberwachung #MassSurveillance #Privacy #Surveillance #Überwachung
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this.weekinsecurity:
"
Vigilantism comes for Flock
"
"More Americans than ever are destroying Flock license plate cameras amid rising backlash against the company. Is the tide turning on intrusive U.S. mass surveillance, and where does the privacy fight go next?"https://this.weekinsecurity.com/vigilantism-comes-for-flock/
4.9.2026
#BigBrother #CivilLiberties #Flock #Freiheitsrechte #Kennzeichenscanner #LicensePlateCamera #LicensePlateTracking #Massenüberwachung #MassSurveillance #Privacy #Surveillance #Überwachung
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this.weekinsecurity:
"
Vigilantism comes for Flock
"
"More Americans than ever are destroying Flock license plate cameras amid rising backlash against the company. Is the tide turning on intrusive U.S. mass surveillance, and where does the privacy fight go next?"https://this.weekinsecurity.com/vigilantism-comes-for-flock/
4.9.2026
#BigBrother #CivilLiberties #Flock #Freiheitsrechte #Kennzeichenscanner #LicensePlateCamera #LicensePlateTracking #Massenüberwachung #MassSurveillance #Privacy #Surveillance #Überwachung
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this.weekinsecurity:
"
Vigilantism comes for Flock
"
"More Americans than ever are destroying Flock license plate cameras amid rising backlash against the company. Is the tide turning on intrusive U.S. mass surveillance, and where does the privacy fight go next?"https://this.weekinsecurity.com/vigilantism-comes-for-flock/
4.9.2026
#BigBrother #CivilLiberties #Flock #Freiheitsrechte #Kennzeichenscanner #LicensePlateCamera #LicensePlateTracking #Massenüberwachung #MassSurveillance #Privacy #Surveillance #Überwachung
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Texas: Faith, Freedom, and Mind Your Damn Business
By Cliff Potts, CSO
Editor-in-Chief, WPS NewsBaybay City, Leyte, Philippines — September 4, 2026, 9:15 p.m. PHT
Texas talks about faith constantly and practices freedom inconsistently. Religion is waved like a banner while personal liberty is quietly narrowed, regulated, or punished when it doesn’t line up with political fashion. This contradiction has become so normal that many Texans barely notice it anymore.
Faith is not the problem. Power is.
Faith Is Personal, Not Administrative
Texas is home to churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, meeting houses, and people who believe quietly or not at all. That pluralism is not a flaw. It is a fact. Faith has always been part of Texas life, but it has never belonged to the state.
When government begins enforcing one version of belief, it stops protecting faith and starts weaponizing it. That does not strengthen religion. It cheapens it. Faith that requires government backing is not faith—it is insecurity dressed up as authority.
People believe deeply without being coerced. The state does not need to supervise that.
Freedom Means Leaving People Alone
Texas politicians love to invoke freedom while inserting themselves into private decisions about bodies, families, education, and belief. That is not freedom. It is control wrapped in familiar language.
True freedom is not loud. It is boring. It is the quiet confidence that your neighbor’s life choices are none of your business unless they cause real harm. A free society tolerates disagreement without demanding conformity.
If a belief system is strong, it does not need the force of law to survive.
Religion in Schools Without Indoctrination
Teaching about religion is not the same thing as preaching it. Students benefit from understanding the beliefs that shape history, culture, and global affairs. Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Shinto, Indigenous traditions, and secular ethics all belong in a serious education.
Teaching one belief as truth while excluding others is not education. It is indoctrination. Texas should be confident enough to teach broadly without fear.
Knowledge does not weaken faith. It strengthens discernment.
The Myth of Moral Decline
Texas politics often leans on claims of moral collapse to justify intrusion into private life. These claims rarely hold up under scrutiny. Crime trends, family structures, and social behavior are influenced far more by economics, education, and stability than by religious enforcement.
Blaming social problems on belief differences avoids addressing harder causes like poverty, healthcare access, housing, and education. Moral panic is easier than policy work.
A serious state solves problems instead of sermonizing about them.
Faith Communities Do Real Work
Faith-based organizations are often the first to respond when communities struggle. They feed people, shelter families, provide counseling, and show up quietly without demanding credit. That work matters. It deserves respect and support.
What it does not require is political dominance. Faith communities are strongest when they act voluntarily, not when they are fused to state power.
Service speaks louder than slogans.
Freedom of Conscience Cuts Both Ways
Freedom of religion includes the freedom not to believe. It includes the freedom to change beliefs. It includes the freedom to practice quietly without public approval. Protecting conscience means accepting outcomes you may personally dislike.
That is the price of liberty. It is also its strength.
Texas cannot claim to honor freedom while punishing people for living differently.
When Government Picks Winners
History offers no shortage of warnings about governments that decide which beliefs are acceptable. Even when intentions begin as sincere, outcomes tend toward exclusion, resentment, and abuse. Texas is not immune to that pattern.
Keeping church and state separate does not weaken either. It protects both from corruption.
Personal Faith, Public Restraint
Leaders are allowed their faith. They are allowed to be guided by conscience. What they are not allowed to do is impose that conscience as law when it infringes on the rights of others.
Restraint is not betrayal. It is maturity.
What a Confident Texas Would Do
A confident Texas would protect freedom of worship for everyone and freedom from coercion for everyone else. It would teach religion academically, not devotionally. It would trust families and individuals to handle belief without supervision.
Most of all, it would stop confusing moral authority with legal power.
Why This Matters Going Forward
Faith will continue to shape Texas culture. That is not in question. The question is whether it will be used to inspire service and compassion—or to justify intrusion and control.
Freedom survives only when people mind their own damn business.
Texas is strong enough to do that.
This essay will be archived as part of the ongoing WPS News Monthly Brief Series available through Amazon.
References (APA)
#churchAndState #CivilLiberties #educationPolicy #personalFreedom #religiousFreedom #TexasPolitics #TexasReligion #WPSNews
Pew Research Center. (2025). Religious diversity and belief in the United States.
First Amendment Center. (2025). Religion, government, and constitutional boundaries.
National Council of State Legislatures. (2025). Religious freedom and public policy analysis.
Gallup. (2025). Public attitudes toward religion and government.
American Academy of Religion. (2025). Teaching religion in public education. -
Getting the Flock Out of Ord, Nebraska
The county seat of my boyhood summers just voted, five to nothing, to pull its surveillance cameras off the poles, the first town in Nebraska to do it. The reasons cut deeper than the invoice. Ord, Nebraska sits eleven miles up the North Loup River valley from the village of North Loup, where I spent the summers of my boyhood on my grandfather's place, and in the mental geography of a ten-year-old those eleven miles separated the known world from its capital. North Loup had a few hundred souls, a grain elevator, and Popcorn Days. Ord had the Valley County courthouse with a square built around it, implement lots, storefront commerce enough to dazzle a village kid, and a radio station whose call letters spell the valley itself: K-N-L-V, North Loup Valley, on the air at 1060 since 1965 with farm markets in the morning and high school ball at night. When my grandfather's rooftop antenna strained for television it caught one signal, 10/11 out of Lincoln, and that was the extent of the visible world. Ord was "town." You washed up a little before going. […]https://bolesblogs.com/2026/08/07/getting-the-flock-out-of-ord-nebraska/
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Québec’s Bill 9 doesn’t just ban symbols — it bans obligations
#Quebec #Canada #Bill9 #Bill21 #ReligiousFreedom #Law #HumanRights #Islam #CharterRights #Secularism #Faith #SupremeCourt #Politics #QuebecPolitics #CivilLiberties #FreedomOfReligion #Politics
https://the-14.com/quebecs-bill-9-doesnt-just-ban-symbols-it-bans-obligations/ -
https://prismreports.org/2026/05/20/seattle-shield-private-companies-surveillance/
#SeattleShield #GlobalShieldNetwork #InfraGard #Privacy #Surveillance #CivilLiberties #DigitalRights #ICE #PoliceSurveillance #DataPrivacy #FourthAmendment #GovernmentSurveillance #TechPolicy #PrivacyRights #FacialRecognition #CyberSecurity #SPD #Amazon #Facebook #Meta #SeattlePolice #DBIAServices #ABM #ABMSecurityServices #NetSentinal #BlueLeaks
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https://prismreports.org/2026/05/20/seattle-shield-private-companies-surveillance/
#SeattleShield #GlobalShieldNetwork #InfraGard #Privacy #Surveillance #CivilLiberties #DigitalRights #ICE #PoliceSurveillance #DataPrivacy #FourthAmendment #GovernmentSurveillance #TechPolicy #PrivacyRights #FacialRecognition #CyberSecurity #SPD #Amazon #Facebook #Meta #SeattlePolice #DBIAServices #ABM #ABMSecurityServices #NetSentinal #BlueLeaks
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https://prismreports.org/2026/05/20/seattle-shield-private-companies-surveillance/
#SeattleShield #GlobalShieldNetwork #InfraGard #Privacy #Surveillance #CivilLiberties #DigitalRights #ICE #PoliceSurveillance #DataPrivacy #FourthAmendment #GovernmentSurveillance #TechPolicy #PrivacyRights #FacialRecognition #CyberSecurity #SPD #Amazon #Facebook #Meta #SeattlePolice #DBIAServices #ABM #ABMSecurityServices #NetSentinal #BlueLeaks
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https://prismreports.org/2026/05/20/seattle-shield-private-companies-surveillance/
#SeattleShield #GlobalShieldNetwork #InfraGard #Privacy #Surveillance #CivilLiberties #DigitalRights #ICE #PoliceSurveillance #DataPrivacy #FourthAmendment #GovernmentSurveillance #TechPolicy #PrivacyRights #FacialRecognition #CyberSecurity #SPD #Amazon #Facebook #Meta #SeattlePolice #DBIAServices #ABM #ABMSecurityServices #NetSentinal #BlueLeaks
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https://prismreports.org/2026/05/20/seattle-shield-private-companies-surveillance/
#SeattleShield #GlobalShieldNetwork #InfraGard #Privacy #Surveillance #CivilLiberties #DigitalRights #ICE #PoliceSurveillance #DataPrivacy #FourthAmendment #GovernmentSurveillance #TechPolicy #PrivacyRights #FacialRecognition #CyberSecurity #SPD #Amazon #Facebook #Meta #SeattlePolice #DBIAServices #ABM #ABMSecurityServices #NetSentinal #BlueLeaks
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https://www.europesays.com/africa/?p=223689 Uganda Passes Controversial Protection of Sovereignty Bill After Adopting Major Amendments # JoelSsenyonyi # JonathanOdur #AnitaAmong #CivilLiberties #ConstitutionalRights #DavidMuhoozi #EconomicSabotage #ForeignAgentsLaw #NationalSovereignty #PoliticalFunding #ProtectionOfSovereigntyBill2026 #Uganda #UgandaParliament #UgandaPolitics #WilsonKajwengye
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"Over the years, Congress continued to bolster the agency’s budget, pointing to the dangerous nature of its work.
As the Border Patrol was drawn into the war on drugs, the agency began getting military-grade equipment.
In 1992, a Border Patrol agent fired his semiautomatic weapon 12 times at an unarmed man in Nogales, Ariz., as he fled back to Mexico. Two shots hit the man in the back, and the agent dragged him to a nearby crevice where he died, the 1997 report said.
Between 2004 and 2011, the agency added nearly 11,000 agents, bringing it to a total of 21,400. The number of employees accused of misconduct or arrested off-duty increased, as well, the Government Accountability Office found in a 2013 report.
That was, in part, because the agency could not keep up with background checks, the G.A.O. found.
In 2010 Border Patrol agents hogtied, beat and used a stun gun to shock a 42-year-old unarmed Mexican father of five who was in custody after crossing the border illegally near San Diego. The man, Anastasio Hernández Rojas, died. The official cause of death was identified as a heart attack, and the Justice Department declined to criminally investigate the agents involved.
Last spring, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights concluded that U.S. law enforcement violated Mr. Rojas’s human rights, pointing to the “application of tactics that threaten life and integrity.” It called for the U.S. to reopen the investigation and hold the agents involved responsible.
“We’ve been having these conversations from the southern border for a long, long time,” said Andrea Guerrero, the executive director of Alliance San Diego, a community organization and part of a coalition that promotes human rights along the southern border. “But it is the first time that we’re seeing different communities experiencing the intensity of what we have lived.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/03/us/politics/border-patrol-history-aggression.html
#USA #Immigration #BorderPatrol #PoliceState #BorderControl #HumanRights #CivilLiberties
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No-Bid #ICE Contract Went to Former ICE Agents Being Sued for Fabricating Criminal Evidence on the Job
The $73 million deal for assisting with deportations went to a company whose executives are accused of retaliating against a fellow ICE worker.
Sam Biddle, April 17 2025
"U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement just signed a contract worth $73 million with a firm whose executives are accused of taking part in a scheme to manufacture evidence against a co-worker during their time working at the Department of Homeland Security.
"According to a contract document reviewed by The Intercept, federal contractor #UniversalStrategicAdvisors will provide services pertaining to #ICE’s 'non-detained docket,' a master list of millions of #noncitizens believed to be removable from the United States but not yet in the agency’s custody.
"The contract cites President Donald #Trump’s declaration of a #NationalEmergency on the #USMexicoBorder, an overwhelming glut of potential #deportees, and a shortage of officers to process them all as justification for hiring a private vendor to assist with the collection of biometric data, coordinating removals, and monitoring #immigrant populations.
"The document says that with a fleet of new outsourced employees, ICE can reassign hundreds of officers to tasks that better align with Trump’s recent executive orders aimed at maximizing the agency’s detention and deportation operations. With the contractors onboard, the document says at least 675 ICE officers 'will be able to take all appropriate actions to comply with the EO’s by prioritizing conducting at-large arrests, removals, and detention related activities.'
"A former ICE official, who spoke to The Intercept on the condition of anonymity, said they were concerned by this plan to further privatize the agency’s operations at the same time as the Trump administration has dramatically slashed its workforce and gutted important oversight bodies like the Office for #CivilRights and #CivilLiberties, as well as the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman. 'I certainly take issue with them firing career feds and demolishing whole offices, just to hire contractors to do the same work, many of them who are former ICE employees now retired,' the official said."
Read more:
https://theintercept.com/2025/04/17/ice-deportation-contracts-us-advisors/Archived version:
https://archive.ph/DjRAG#WorkerRetaliation #ICEDetention #Deportations #HumanRightsAbuses #USPol #WorldPol #Corporatocracy #CorporateFascism #Fascism #Authoritarianism #Cronyism
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Just made my monthly phone call to shout at #SaanichPolice to remind them I will NEVER FORGET how their #policeUnion boss led team on night my Dad died & refused to put a mask on & refused to leave our home despite first arrival cops & paramedics determining it was a full medical cardiac emergency requiring ZERO COPS. I WILL NEVER STOP REMINDING #SAANICH PD HOW THEY COMPLETELY FUCKED UP & TRAUMATIZED US MORE ON NIGHT MY DAD DIED!!!
#VancouverIsland #YYJpoli #FuckThePolice #AbolishPoliceUnions #DemandTransparency #CivilLiberties #Saanich
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Britain leads the world in cracking down on climate activism, study finds
Research shows UK police arrest environmental and climate protesters at three times the average global rate
Damien Gayle
Wed 11 Dec 2024 01.00 EST"British police arrest environmental protesters at nearly three times the global average rate, research has found, revealing the country as a world leader in the legal crackdown on climate activism.
"Only Australia arrested climate and environmental protesters at a higher rate than UK police. One in five Australian eco-protests led to arrests, compared with about 17% in the UK. The global average rate is 6.7%."
Original article:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/dec/11/britain-leads-the-world-in-cracking-down-on-climate-activism-study-findsArchived version:
https://archive.ph/ukkvZ#CriminalizingDissent
#ACAB #Autocracy #Corporatocracy
#Fascism #CriminalizingDissentIsAutocracy
#ClimateCrisis #GlobalBurning
#CorporateFascism #HumanRights #CivilLiberties #ClimateActivists
#Blackwater #NoDAPL #StandWithStandingRock
#ClimateAction #PipelineProtests #WaterProtectors #BigOilAndGas #AntiProtestLaws #SLAPPs #ErikPrinceColonialism #Article20 #2023PublicOrderAct
#Project2025 #HR9495 #GlobalWitness #AntiTerrorLaws -
Pioneering research reveals growing dangers and repression of climate activism globally
Press release issued: 11 December 2024
"A new report has uncovered the many risks of participating in climate and environmental protests across the world – and how more countries are criminalising and repressing this activity in a bid to keep it in check.
"The report, led by the University of Bristol, is the first to examine global statistics on this form of protest and identify alarming trends. It reveals that more than 2,000 climate and environmental protesters have been killed over the past 12 years and that a raft of new anti-protest legislation has been enacted.
"It calls for governments, police forces and the legal system to help protect people’s right to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression."
"Lead author Dr Oscar Berglund, Senior Lecturer in International Public and Social Policy at the University’s School for Policy Studies, said: “This research sheds important light on how the growing pursuit of climate and environmental protest is being handled globally. Our evidence clearly shows a global crackdown in liberal democracies as well as autocracies.
"'This is worrying because it focuses state policy on punishing dissent against inaction on climate and environmental change instead of taking adequate action on these issues. It also represents authoritarian moves that are inconsistent with the ideals of vibrant civil societies in liberal democracies.'
"The findings showed murders and disappearances of climate and environmental activists are common in many countries, with international non-governmental organisation (NGO) Global Witness reporting at least 2,106 killings between 2012 and 2023. Brazil had the highest number with 401 fatalities, followed by 298 in the Philippines, 86 in India, and 58 in Peru.
"A significant proportion of climate and environmental protests involved arrests, according to the research. The highest proportion, one in five, was found in Australia, followed by 17% in the UK – much higher than the international average of 6.3%.
"Non-violent protesters were also found to be given lengthy prison sentences to act as a deterrent. For example, this year in the UK many climate activists have been sent to prison, with the longest sentence being five years.
"The report defines environmental protests as being aimed at stopping specific environmentally destructive projects, such as fossil fuel exploration and #extraction, #deforestation, dam building or #mining. #ClimateProtests are described as more urban-based events, which tend to have broader policy demands, such as ending oil exploration, or more overarching political demands, for instance enacting a #GreenNewDeal.
"The researchers analysed data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) and Global Witness to gather global data and explore trends as well as new anti-protest legislation introduced in countries in different parts of the world.
"Four main ways were identified to criminalise and repress climate and environmental protests. Anti-protest laws are being introduced, criminalising groups, introducing new crimes, making punishment more severe for existing crimes, increasing police powers, and giving officers impunity when harming activists. Protest is also being criminalised through prosecution and courts.
"Dr Berglund explained: 'This involves using existing legislation, including anti-terror or anti-organised crime laws, to curb protest. Climate protest is being de-politicised in the courts, prohibiting mentions of climate change or environmental damage in proceedings, or otherwise changing court processes in order to increase the likelihood of activists being found guilty.'
"The third category is through policing, which is carried out not only by state actors like police or military, but also private security and military or organised crime groups. This sees a range of attempts to prevent protests through using stop and search, arrests, physical violence, and threats and intimidation of protesters.
"Dr Berglund said: “Perhaps most shockingly, we found killings and disappearances to be common in some countries. In many ways, these are an extension of policing as they are either carried out or permitted by the same authorities, often following death threats and other forms of intimidation.”
"The report makes numerous recommendations, including for public authorities to conduct regular evaluations and publish data demonstrating how their actions help safeguard the right to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression. It also calls for anti-terror and anti-organised crime legislation against climate and environmental activists to stop.
"Dr Berglund said: 'Human rights frameworks should be at the forefront of policing considerations and operations to ensure that the public can exercise their right to protest without impediment or fear.'
"'Climate and environmental protests are increasingly prevalent, for good reason as the climate crisis worsens, and responses to this activity are evolving at pace. Further research is needed to better understand the situation so suitable measures can be identified and implemented to protect human rights and keep protesters safe.'"
https://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2024/december/climate-activism.html
#CriminalizingDissent #ACAB #Autocracy #Corporatocracy #Fascism #CriminalizingDissentIsAutocracy #ClimateCrisis #GlobalBurning #CorporateFascism #HumanRights #CivilLiberties #ClimateActivists #Blackwater #NoDAPL #StandWithStandingRock #ClimateAction #PipelineProtests #WaterProtectors #BigOilAndGas #AntiProtestLaws #SLAPPs #ErikPrinceColonialism #Article20 #2023PublicOrderAct
#Project2025 #HR9495 #GlobalWitness #AntiTerrorLaws