#silencingdissent — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #silencingdissent, aggregated by home.social.
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#HongKong 's #Tiananmen activists sentenced to up to seven years in prison
by Koh Ewe, September 11, 2026
"Three Hong Kong activists who organised annual vigils commemorating Beijing's 1989 crackdown on #TiananmenSquare protests have been handed prison sentences of up to seven years.
"Two of the defendants - Lee Cheuk-yan, 69, and Chow Hang-tung, 41 - were convicted last month of inciting others to subvert state power, under the city's controversial national security law.
"A third defendant, Albert Ho, 74, had pleaded guilty in January.
"For years, Hong Kong was one of the only places in Chinese territory where people could hold gatherings to mark the Tiananmen Square crackdown - a topic that is highly sensitive and heavily censored in mainland #China.
"These gatherings were banned by Hong Kong's authorities in 2020, citing Covid-19 policies, but never resumed. That same year, the national security law, which makes illegal a wider range of dissenting acts, officially came into force.
Authorities say the law is necessary to maintain stability, but critics argue it has eroded Hong Kong's autonomy and created a climate of fear."Lee, Chow and Ho were charged in 2021. They faced up to 10 years in prison after their conviction.
"On Friday, the court sentenced Lee to seven years in prison, while Chow was handed seven years and three months. Ho, who pleaded guilty, was sentenced to five years in prison.
"According to a court summary in August, Lee and Chow had 'incited other persons to organise, plan, commit or participate in acts by unlawful means with a view to subverting the state power', according to a summary on Friday.
"Chow told the court in May the law itself was on trial.
"Speaking to the BBC before her arrest in 2022, Chow said she was 'prepared to be arrested' and 'willing to pay the price for fighting for democracy'."
Read more:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgyvk2djk4oArchived version:
https://archive.ph/16o4Z#WorldPol #NeverForgetTiananmen #TiananmenSquareMassacre #Authoritarianism #SilencingDissent #CriminalizingDissent
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#HongKong 's #Tiananmen activists sentenced to up to seven years in prison
by Koh Ewe, September 11, 2026
"Three Hong Kong activists who organised annual vigils commemorating Beijing's 1989 crackdown on #TiananmenSquare protests have been handed prison sentences of up to seven years.
"Two of the defendants - Lee Cheuk-yan, 69, and Chow Hang-tung, 41 - were convicted last month of inciting others to subvert state power, under the city's controversial national security law.
"A third defendant, Albert Ho, 74, had pleaded guilty in January.
"For years, Hong Kong was one of the only places in Chinese territory where people could hold gatherings to mark the Tiananmen Square crackdown - a topic that is highly sensitive and heavily censored in mainland #China.
"These gatherings were banned by Hong Kong's authorities in 2020, citing Covid-19 policies, but never resumed. That same year, the national security law, which makes illegal a wider range of dissenting acts, officially came into force.
Authorities say the law is necessary to maintain stability, but critics argue it has eroded Hong Kong's autonomy and created a climate of fear."Lee, Chow and Ho were charged in 2021. They faced up to 10 years in prison after their conviction.
"On Friday, the court sentenced Lee to seven years in prison, while Chow was handed seven years and three months. Ho, who pleaded guilty, was sentenced to five years in prison.
"According to a court summary in August, Lee and Chow had 'incited other persons to organise, plan, commit or participate in acts by unlawful means with a view to subverting the state power', according to a summary on Friday.
"Chow told the court in May the law itself was on trial.
"Speaking to the BBC before her arrest in 2022, Chow said she was 'prepared to be arrested' and 'willing to pay the price for fighting for democracy'."
Read more:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgyvk2djk4oArchived version:
https://archive.ph/16o4Z#WorldPol #NeverForgetTiananmen #TiananmenSquareMassacre #Authoritarianism #SilencingDissent #CriminalizingDissent
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#HongKong 's #Tiananmen activists sentenced to up to seven years in prison
by Koh Ewe, September 11, 2026
"Three Hong Kong activists who organised annual vigils commemorating Beijing's 1989 crackdown on #TiananmenSquare protests have been handed prison sentences of up to seven years.
"Two of the defendants - Lee Cheuk-yan, 69, and Chow Hang-tung, 41 - were convicted last month of inciting others to subvert state power, under the city's controversial national security law.
"A third defendant, Albert Ho, 74, had pleaded guilty in January.
"For years, Hong Kong was one of the only places in Chinese territory where people could hold gatherings to mark the Tiananmen Square crackdown - a topic that is highly sensitive and heavily censored in mainland #China.
"These gatherings were banned by Hong Kong's authorities in 2020, citing Covid-19 policies, but never resumed. That same year, the national security law, which makes illegal a wider range of dissenting acts, officially came into force.
Authorities say the law is necessary to maintain stability, but critics argue it has eroded Hong Kong's autonomy and created a climate of fear."Lee, Chow and Ho were charged in 2021. They faced up to 10 years in prison after their conviction.
"On Friday, the court sentenced Lee to seven years in prison, while Chow was handed seven years and three months. Ho, who pleaded guilty, was sentenced to five years in prison.
"According to a court summary in August, Lee and Chow had 'incited other persons to organise, plan, commit or participate in acts by unlawful means with a view to subverting the state power', according to a summary on Friday.
"Chow told the court in May the law itself was on trial.
"Speaking to the BBC before her arrest in 2022, Chow said she was 'prepared to be arrested' and 'willing to pay the price for fighting for democracy'."
Read more:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgyvk2djk4oArchived version:
https://archive.ph/16o4Z#WorldPol #NeverForgetTiananmen #TiananmenSquareMassacre #Authoritarianism #SilencingDissent #CriminalizingDissent
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#HongKong 's #Tiananmen activists sentenced to up to seven years in prison
by Koh Ewe, September 11, 2026
"Three Hong Kong activists who organised annual vigils commemorating Beijing's 1989 crackdown on #TiananmenSquare protests have been handed prison sentences of up to seven years.
"Two of the defendants - Lee Cheuk-yan, 69, and Chow Hang-tung, 41 - were convicted last month of inciting others to subvert state power, under the city's controversial national security law.
"A third defendant, Albert Ho, 74, had pleaded guilty in January.
"For years, Hong Kong was one of the only places in Chinese territory where people could hold gatherings to mark the Tiananmen Square crackdown - a topic that is highly sensitive and heavily censored in mainland #China.
"These gatherings were banned by Hong Kong's authorities in 2020, citing Covid-19 policies, but never resumed. That same year, the national security law, which makes illegal a wider range of dissenting acts, officially came into force.
Authorities say the law is necessary to maintain stability, but critics argue it has eroded Hong Kong's autonomy and created a climate of fear."Lee, Chow and Ho were charged in 2021. They faced up to 10 years in prison after their conviction.
"On Friday, the court sentenced Lee to seven years in prison, while Chow was handed seven years and three months. Ho, who pleaded guilty, was sentenced to five years in prison.
"According to a court summary in August, Lee and Chow had 'incited other persons to organise, plan, commit or participate in acts by unlawful means with a view to subverting the state power', according to a summary on Friday.
"Chow told the court in May the law itself was on trial.
"Speaking to the BBC before her arrest in 2022, Chow said she was 'prepared to be arrested' and 'willing to pay the price for fighting for democracy'."
Read more:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgyvk2djk4oArchived version:
https://archive.ph/16o4Z#WorldPol #NeverForgetTiananmen #TiananmenSquareMassacre #Authoritarianism #SilencingDissent #CriminalizingDissent
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#HongKong 's #Tiananmen activists sentenced to up to seven years in prison
by Koh Ewe, September 11, 2026
"Three Hong Kong activists who organised annual vigils commemorating Beijing's 1989 crackdown on #TiananmenSquare protests have been handed prison sentences of up to seven years.
"Two of the defendants - Lee Cheuk-yan, 69, and Chow Hang-tung, 41 - were convicted last month of inciting others to subvert state power, under the city's controversial national security law.
"A third defendant, Albert Ho, 74, had pleaded guilty in January.
"For years, Hong Kong was one of the only places in Chinese territory where people could hold gatherings to mark the Tiananmen Square crackdown - a topic that is highly sensitive and heavily censored in mainland #China.
"These gatherings were banned by Hong Kong's authorities in 2020, citing Covid-19 policies, but never resumed. That same year, the national security law, which makes illegal a wider range of dissenting acts, officially came into force.
Authorities say the law is necessary to maintain stability, but critics argue it has eroded Hong Kong's autonomy and created a climate of fear."Lee, Chow and Ho were charged in 2021. They faced up to 10 years in prison after their conviction.
"On Friday, the court sentenced Lee to seven years in prison, while Chow was handed seven years and three months. Ho, who pleaded guilty, was sentenced to five years in prison.
"According to a court summary in August, Lee and Chow had 'incited other persons to organise, plan, commit or participate in acts by unlawful means with a view to subverting the state power', according to a summary on Friday.
"Chow told the court in May the law itself was on trial.
"Speaking to the BBC before her arrest in 2022, Chow said she was 'prepared to be arrested' and 'willing to pay the price for fighting for democracy'."
Read more:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvgyvk2djk4oArchived version:
https://archive.ph/16o4Z#WorldPol #NeverForgetTiananmen #TiananmenSquareMassacre #Authoritarianism #SilencingDissent #CriminalizingDissent
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Trump Goes After Anonymous Email Provider in Italy. The Real Target Is Free Speech in the U.S.
Trump designated an Italian web-hosting provider as a foreign “terror” group. It could take #antifascist sites in the U.S. offline.
Matt Sledge
August 28 2026"In the latest escalation of the Trump administration’s war on the left, the U.S. government’s designation of a popular antifascist webhosting provider as a terror group could shutter a swath of radical websites in the U.S.
"Secretary of State #MarcoRubio and Treasury Secretary #ScottBessent announced Wednesday that they were targeting the Italy-based A/I Collective with terror sanctions. Federal law gives the Treasury Department broad discretion to apply the terror label to foreign groups.
"A wide array of #anarchist, antifascist, and #FarLeft groups in the U.S. and abroad use the privacy-minded collective’s offerings, including an anonymous email service and its popular noblogs.org blogging platform.
"The practice of designating an internet platform and service provider as a terror group — rather than those pursuing violence themselves — has 'huge' implications for the future free speech on the internet, warned Jillian York, the director of international freedom of expression at the #ElectronicFrontierFoundation.
" 'They are going after the messenger,' York said. 'I don’t think that the members of the group would necessarily condone the actions of the people that they hosted. What they do condone is the freedom to host, the ability to be anonymous, the ability to be private.'
"The A/I Collective told The Intercept that it is exploring its legal options to fight the sanctions, which block U.S. citizens and companies from providing the group with financial support.
"In an unsigned statement, the group said that it denies the U.S. government’s allegations.
" '#Antifascism and #anticapitalism are not #terrorism ,' the group said. '#Protesting is not terrorism. And everyone has the right to speak out and to struggle for #humanity.' " [And #MotherEarth ! ]
Source:
https://theintercept.com/2026/08/28/trump-antifa-terrorist-websites-free-speech/Archived version:
https://archive.ph/4ETk2#FreeSpeech #AutisticiInventati #Solidarity #USPol #WorldPol #SolidarityWithAutisticiInventati #FreedomOfExpression #SilencingDissent #CriminalizingDissent #CriminalizingProtest #Fascism #CharacteristicsOfFascism
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HT
@brucesA single signature by #Trump can remove you from the #internet
by di Stefania Maurizi, 31 August 2026
Excerpt: " 'Designating a collective that has been active for over twenty years in the European civil and digital rights movement—and has always operated openly—as a terrorist organization is part of the technological war that the United States is waging against anyone who asserts autonomy over digital networks and infrastructure...' "
https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2026/08/29/autistici-inventati-trump-terrorists-news/8491452/
#AutisticiInventati #USPol #WorldPol #ItalyPol #Censorship #SilencingDissent #CriminalizingDissent #Trumpistan #CharacteristicsOfFascism
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#US Manufactured Crimes and Spied on Peaceful #Protesters During #Minneapolis Metro Surge, New Court Filing Reveals
By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, August 14, 2026
MINNEAPOLIS -- "While #Dakotas were praying at a #SacredSpring for those held in federal detention at the #WhippleBuilding in Minneapolis -- the U.S. government was spying on, and stalking, the #WhippleWatchers, a new court document reveals.
"The government is refusing to release all of its documents on its surveillance of those watching the Whipple building. The Whipple building is on the site of a former concentration camp, where Dakota and Ho Chunk were imprisoned, suffered and died.
" 'The government admits withholding at least five #ProjectWhippleShield #ROIs (Reports of Investigation) from the initial disclosures,' the court filing states.
"In the current case, the court document for discovery filed yesterday describes how the U.S. government spied on and tracked peaceful protesters during the #resistance to #OperationMetroSurge.
"Not only were peaceful protesters spied on, #stalked and #doxxed, but the #surveillance was carried out to #ManufactureCrimes when none existed, states the court document filed by a defense attorney for one of the government's targets."
Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2026/08/us-manufactured-crimes-and-spied-on.html#Authoritarianism #Fascism #USPol #UnionBusting #SilencingDissent
#CriminalizingDissent #DefundICE #DefundDHS #CharacteristicsOfFascism
#DepartmentOfHomelandInsecurity -
Documents show federal surveillance operation in #Minnesota targeted #progressive groups, #unions
By TIM SULLIVAN and JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER
Updated 11:02 PM EDT, August 13, 2026MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — "Federal agents launched a sweeping undercover surveillance operation earlier this year targeting progressive organizations, labor unions and other groups protesting the immigration crackdown then raging through Minneapolis, according to court documents filed Thursday.
"The program, dubbed #OperationPuppetMaster, was aimed at what officials called a network of conspirators helping 'violent opportunists and agitators.' The documents were filed in a case involving 15 people charged by federal prosecutors in June with impeding the crackdown, accusing them of conspiring against the federal government through a range of actions, from throwing ice chunks to setting up blockades.
"The government documents were released Thursday in connection with a motion from a defense lawyer in the case, #KevinRiach, who requested that officials disclose more material collected during the investigations.
"The reality, according to government documents revealed in court motions, was Department of Homeland Security officers infiltrating meetings in churches, schools and parks that were often simply discussions of constitutionally protected protests.
"A statement from the department said Homeland Security Investigations doesn’t comment on the existence or status of on-going investigations or investigative methods. The statement referred questions to the U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota, which didn’t immediately respond to an after-hours email from The Associated Press."
#Authoritarianism #Fascism #USPol #UnionBusting #SilencingDissent
#CriminalizingDissent #DefundICE #DefundDHS #CharacteristicsOfFascism
#DepartmentOfHomelandInsecurity -
‘Outrageous’: #Trump Officials Investigated #LeftWing Groups After #AlexPretti Killing in #Minneapolis
One #FirstAmendment advocacy group called the investigation a “disturbing, invasive, and utterly unjustifiable attack on freedom of expression and political dissent.”
Julia Conley
Aug 13, 2026"The Trump administration began the probe under the auspices of investigating whether the groups had provided 'help and money,' as the Times reported, to people who had participated in protests across the #MinneapolisSaintPaul area, where tens of thousands of residents rallied against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (#ICE) and defended their neighbors from immigration raids last winter.
"Newly released government documents, which were uncovered after an attorney filed a motion with the federal District Court in Minnesota demanding information about the DHS investigation, show that the agency characterized the protesters who opposed ICE as 'violent opportunists and agitators.'
"The investigation included #DHS’ use of administrative subpoenas to obtain financial records from #SunriseMovement, Communications Workers of America [ #CWA ], and the #SEIU, scrutinizing what the agency called 'domestic terrorist financing.' "
https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-left-wing
#Authoritarianism #Fascism #USPol #UnionBusting #SilencingDissent #CriminalizingDissent #DefundICE #DefundDHS #CharacteristicsOfFascism #DepartmentOfHomelandInsecurity
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Posting again for others. My #Facebook account was suspended today. They wanted me to submit a photo ID, but my hubby, who also had his account suspended, told me that didn't change anything. This is #Fascism and #FaceSurveillance at it's highest form. If you're still on FB and get suspended, download your archive and maybe make an announcement on #Instagram (mine was still working).
#BigBrother #ZuckSucks #SilencingDissent #CharacteristicsOfFascism #TechBros #SurveillanceState
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Incarcerated for Life in #Trump’s War on the Left
#AutumnHill had already gone home when a #protest outside an #ICE facility turned violent. She was still sentenced to 50 years, over twice as long as any #Jan6 defendant
by MATTHEW COOLEY
August 12, 2026"The battering ram took down the door first. A column of steel bolted to the front of a tactical vehicle slammed through Autumn Hill’s front entryway. Then the windows shattered. FBI agents threw flash-bang grenades through the glass, their concussions rattling the house’s front rooms. Hill was in the shared office space, in a thin red dress, puttering around on her computer. She heard screams from the other rooms. Then, the buzzing of a drone, as the police flew a quadcopter in through the splintered doorframe. A voice from the drone shrieked out, telling the residents of the house to come out with their hands up. Hill was terrified. She edged out of the door and immediately stared down a wall of gun barrels, masked agents screaming orders, the drone screaming in the air behind her.
" 'I remember thinking, ‘If I don’t do exactly what I’m told for the next minute of my life I’m going to die right now,' Hill says.
Through its loudspeaker, the #drone called repeatedly for one name: '#BenjaminSong.' Song wasn’t in the house, and no one inside knew them by that name. To Hill and her chosen family — an eclectic mix of personalities who lived together in what they called the '#BigGayHouse' — Song was 'Champagne,' a #genderfluid, politically #radical #activist who had, the night before, led a group to a demonstration outside of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility near #PrairielandTX. The protest, on July 4, 2025, was loosely organized in a collection of local activism group chats, and attracted a few dozen attendees, all of whom had their own idea of what they wanted to accomplish. Many, like Hill, planned a '#NoiseDemo,' or a loud protest involving fireworks and loud chants, aimed at disrupting the guards’ routine and letting the detainees inside know that they had supporters outside the fence."
Archived version:
https://archive.ph/eRg8I#WarOnTheLeft #USPol #Prairieland #DetentionCenters #Fascism #NSPM7 #PrairielandDefendants #Orwellian #SilencingDissent #CriminalizingDissent #Prairieland8 #CharacteristicsOfFascism
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Incarcerated for Life in #Trump’s War on the Left
#AutumnHill had already gone home when a #protest outside an #ICE facility turned violent. She was still sentenced to 50 years, over twice as long as any #Jan6 defendant
by MATTHEW COOLEY
August 12, 2026"The battering ram took down the door first. A column of steel bolted to the front of a tactical vehicle slammed through Autumn Hill’s front entryway. Then the windows shattered. FBI agents threw flash-bang grenades through the glass, their concussions rattling the house’s front rooms. Hill was in the shared office space, in a thin red dress, puttering around on her computer. She heard screams from the other rooms. Then, the buzzing of a drone, as the police flew a quadcopter in through the splintered doorframe. A voice from the drone shrieked out, telling the residents of the house to come out with their hands up. Hill was terrified. She edged out of the door and immediately stared down a wall of gun barrels, masked agents screaming orders, the drone screaming in the air behind her.
" 'I remember thinking, ‘If I don’t do exactly what I’m told for the next minute of my life I’m going to die right now,' Hill says.
Through its loudspeaker, the #drone called repeatedly for one name: '#BenjaminSong.' Song wasn’t in the house, and no one inside knew them by that name. To Hill and her chosen family — an eclectic mix of personalities who lived together in what they called the '#BigGayHouse' — Song was 'Champagne,' a #genderfluid, politically #radical #activist who had, the night before, led a group to a demonstration outside of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility near #PrairielandTX. The protest, on July 4, 2025, was loosely organized in a collection of local activism group chats, and attracted a few dozen attendees, all of whom had their own idea of what they wanted to accomplish. Many, like Hill, planned a '#NoiseDemo,' or a loud protest involving fireworks and loud chants, aimed at disrupting the guards’ routine and letting the detainees inside know that they had supporters outside the fence."
Archived version:
https://archive.ph/eRg8I#WarOnTheLeft #USPol #Prairieland #DetentionCenters #Fascism #NSPM7 #PrairielandDefendants #Orwellian #SilencingDissent #CriminalizingDissent #Prairieland8 #CharacteristicsOfFascism
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Incarcerated for Life in #Trump’s War on the Left
#AutumnHill had already gone home when a #protest outside an #ICE facility turned violent. She was still sentenced to 50 years, over twice as long as any #Jan6 defendant
by MATTHEW COOLEY
August 12, 2026"The battering ram took down the door first. A column of steel bolted to the front of a tactical vehicle slammed through Autumn Hill’s front entryway. Then the windows shattered. FBI agents threw flash-bang grenades through the glass, their concussions rattling the house’s front rooms. Hill was in the shared office space, in a thin red dress, puttering around on her computer. She heard screams from the other rooms. Then, the buzzing of a drone, as the police flew a quadcopter in through the splintered doorframe. A voice from the drone shrieked out, telling the residents of the house to come out with their hands up. Hill was terrified. She edged out of the door and immediately stared down a wall of gun barrels, masked agents screaming orders, the drone screaming in the air behind her.
" 'I remember thinking, ‘If I don’t do exactly what I’m told for the next minute of my life I’m going to die right now,' Hill says.
Through its loudspeaker, the #drone called repeatedly for one name: '#BenjaminSong.' Song wasn’t in the house, and no one inside knew them by that name. To Hill and her chosen family — an eclectic mix of personalities who lived together in what they called the '#BigGayHouse' — Song was 'Champagne,' a #genderfluid, politically #radical #activist who had, the night before, led a group to a demonstration outside of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility near #PrairielandTX. The protest, on July 4, 2025, was loosely organized in a collection of local activism group chats, and attracted a few dozen attendees, all of whom had their own idea of what they wanted to accomplish. Many, like Hill, planned a '#NoiseDemo,' or a loud protest involving fireworks and loud chants, aimed at disrupting the guards’ routine and letting the detainees inside know that they had supporters outside the fence."
Archived version:
https://archive.ph/eRg8I#WarOnTheLeft #USPol #Prairieland #DetentionCenters #Fascism #NSPM7 #PrairielandDefendants #Orwellian #SilencingDissent #CriminalizingDissent #Prairieland8 #CharacteristicsOfFascism
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Incarcerated for Life in #Trump’s War on the Left
#AutumnHill had already gone home when a #protest outside an #ICE facility turned violent. She was still sentenced to 50 years, over twice as long as any #Jan6 defendant
by MATTHEW COOLEY
August 12, 2026"The battering ram took down the door first. A column of steel bolted to the front of a tactical vehicle slammed through Autumn Hill’s front entryway. Then the windows shattered. FBI agents threw flash-bang grenades through the glass, their concussions rattling the house’s front rooms. Hill was in the shared office space, in a thin red dress, puttering around on her computer. She heard screams from the other rooms. Then, the buzzing of a drone, as the police flew a quadcopter in through the splintered doorframe. A voice from the drone shrieked out, telling the residents of the house to come out with their hands up. Hill was terrified. She edged out of the door and immediately stared down a wall of gun barrels, masked agents screaming orders, the drone screaming in the air behind her.
" 'I remember thinking, ‘If I don’t do exactly what I’m told for the next minute of my life I’m going to die right now,' Hill says.
Through its loudspeaker, the #drone called repeatedly for one name: '#BenjaminSong.' Song wasn’t in the house, and no one inside knew them by that name. To Hill and her chosen family — an eclectic mix of personalities who lived together in what they called the '#BigGayHouse' — Song was 'Champagne,' a #genderfluid, politically #radical #activist who had, the night before, led a group to a demonstration outside of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility near #PrairielandTX. The protest, on July 4, 2025, was loosely organized in a collection of local activism group chats, and attracted a few dozen attendees, all of whom had their own idea of what they wanted to accomplish. Many, like Hill, planned a '#NoiseDemo,' or a loud protest involving fireworks and loud chants, aimed at disrupting the guards’ routine and letting the detainees inside know that they had supporters outside the fence."
Archived version:
https://archive.ph/eRg8I#WarOnTheLeft #USPol #Prairieland #DetentionCenters #Fascism #NSPM7 #PrairielandDefendants #Orwellian #SilencingDissent #CriminalizingDissent #Prairieland8 #CharacteristicsOfFascism
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Incarcerated for Life in #Trump’s War on the Left
#AutumnHill had already gone home when a #protest outside an #ICE facility turned violent. She was still sentenced to 50 years, over twice as long as any #Jan6 defendant
by MATTHEW COOLEY
August 12, 2026"The battering ram took down the door first. A column of steel bolted to the front of a tactical vehicle slammed through Autumn Hill’s front entryway. Then the windows shattered. FBI agents threw flash-bang grenades through the glass, their concussions rattling the house’s front rooms. Hill was in the shared office space, in a thin red dress, puttering around on her computer. She heard screams from the other rooms. Then, the buzzing of a drone, as the police flew a quadcopter in through the splintered doorframe. A voice from the drone shrieked out, telling the residents of the house to come out with their hands up. Hill was terrified. She edged out of the door and immediately stared down a wall of gun barrels, masked agents screaming orders, the drone screaming in the air behind her.
" 'I remember thinking, ‘If I don’t do exactly what I’m told for the next minute of my life I’m going to die right now,' Hill says.
Through its loudspeaker, the #drone called repeatedly for one name: '#BenjaminSong.' Song wasn’t in the house, and no one inside knew them by that name. To Hill and her chosen family — an eclectic mix of personalities who lived together in what they called the '#BigGayHouse' — Song was 'Champagne,' a #genderfluid, politically #radical #activist who had, the night before, led a group to a demonstration outside of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility near #PrairielandTX. The protest, on July 4, 2025, was loosely organized in a collection of local activism group chats, and attracted a few dozen attendees, all of whom had their own idea of what they wanted to accomplish. Many, like Hill, planned a '#NoiseDemo,' or a loud protest involving fireworks and loud chants, aimed at disrupting the guards’ routine and letting the detainees inside know that they had supporters outside the fence."
Archived version:
https://archive.ph/eRg8I#WarOnTheLeft #USPol #Prairieland #DetentionCenters #Fascism #NSPM7 #PrairielandDefendants #Orwellian #SilencingDissent #CriminalizingDissent #Prairieland8 #CharacteristicsOfFascism
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She protested #ICERaids. Then agents showed up at her door
by Meg Anderson, August 3, 2026
"Early one morning this June, #TreasureThoreson was drinking coffee on her couch in #Minneapolis when she heard a knock at the front door.
" 'I go and I see a woman standing there in office clothes, but with a Homeland Security vest over the top. And I see six more agents standing in my front yard,' Thoreson told NPR. "She said, 'We have a warrant for your arrest, for conspiracy.' "
"Thoreson, a special education teacher, was still in her pajamas. The agent let her change clothes and hug her partner goodbye before taking her into custody.
"The government charged Thoreson and 14 others with engaging in a conspiracy to impede federal agents — a conspiracy it says culminated in the use of blockades outside the Whipple Federal Building, which served as ICE's headquarters during the immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota this past winter.
"The government cited meetings and conversations on the encrypted messaging app #Signal as evidence. At the advice of her lawyer, Thoreson declined to comment on the specifics of the indictment.
An increasing trend
"The charges against Thoreson are part of an escalating trend. NPR reviewed court records from the last five years to examine how the federal government is wielding one specific charge: conspiracy to impede or injure an officer, which can carry a sentence of up to six years in federal prison.
"The statute, which dates back to the Civil War, has historically been used infrequently. But since President #Trump took office last year, the Justice Department has charged more than three dozen people in at least 10 cases. All of them involve people protesting federal immigration enforcement.
The government has also indicted nearly 50 people on #conspiracy charges in #Michigan, #Texas and #Minnesota using different legal statutes."
Read more:
https://www.npr.org/2026/08/03/nx-s1-5886263/ice-dhs-immigration-enforcement-conspiracy-arrests#USPol #CharacteristicsOfFascism #CriminalizingDissent #SilencingDissent #ICESucks #DefundICE #TrumpSucks #DepartmentOfHomelandInsecurity
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Congress members join protest against #oligarch’s dinner for #Trump thrown by Ellisons
#Paramount #Skydance CEO fetes administration as it weighs $110bn merger with CNN parent #WarnerBros Discovery
Jeremy Barr in Washington
Thu 23 Apr 2026 20.43 EDT"Dozens of protesters, including members of Congress, gathered along the National Mall on Thursday to protest an 'intimate' dinner being held by #ParamountSkydance’s chief executive, #DavidEllison, 'in celebration of the first amendment' and 'honoring the Trump White House and CBS White House correspondents', and attended by Donald Trump.
"Paramount has faced criticism for the dinner, which has been seen by some as illustrative of the cozy relationship between the #Ellisons and the White House – right as the Trump administration is weighing whether to approve the company’s $110bn merger with CNN parent company #WarnerBrosDiscovery ( #WBD ). The dinner comes before Saturday’s White House correspondents’ dinner, which Trump will attend. His defense secretary, #PeteHegseth, is expected to sit at one of the many tables bought by CBS News for the event.
"Earlier Thursday, WBD shareholders voted 'overwhelmingly' to approve the merger, which will still require approval from the Department of Justice and European regulators.
"The US representative Jamie Raskin, who has been vocal in his criticism of the Ellisons’ ownership of CBS News, referred to the event as 'a lavish oligarch’s dinner for Donald Trump'.
" 'We’re gathered here together tonight [because] in the building behind us, David Ellison is hosting a dinner to honor President Trump, a dinner that’s designed to cement the Ellisons to the president in their years-running corrupt merger scheme,' Raskin said."
Read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/23/david-ellison-trump-dinner-paramount-skydance-cnnArchived version:
https://archive.ph/hQ6Ku#USPol #PowerCorruptionAndLies #CorporateSuckUps #Oligarchy #Fascism #SilencingDissent #SilencingCriticism #OligarchsDinner #Oligarchs4Dinner #EatTheRich #CharacteristicsOfFascism
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From 2022: #NSW Police Use #AntProtest Laws to Monitor Tour Groups
by Paul Gregoire & Ugur Nedim,13 Oct 2022
Excerpt: "#SilencingDissent
"Back in 2014, then NSW premier Mike Baird told a NSW mining industry dinner that his government was going to 'crackdown' on those who choose to break the law when they protest. And he singled out '#protesters who unlawfully enter #mining sites.'
"A little over a year later, the Coalition government followed through with the premier’s promise when it passed a series of harsh #AntiProtestLaws, under the Inclosed Lands, Crimes and Law Enforcement Legislation Amendment (Interference) Bill 2016.
"The legislation created the new offence of aggravated unlawful entry on inclosed lands. Section 4B of the #InclosedLand Protection Act 1901 provides that interfering, or attempts to interfere, with the conduct of a business on enclosed land can land a #protester with a fine of up to $5,500.
"Under the provisions of the bill, police were provided with additional powers to stop, search, detain, and seize the property of protesters, as well as being given the power to shutdown a peaceful protest if it is #ObstructingTraffic.
"And the bill also inserted a definition of #mine into section 201 of the #CrimesAct 1900, so that the offence of interfering with a mine includes #coal seam #gas exploration and extraction sites. This offence carries a maximum penalty of seven years imprisonment.
"The #WilpinjongThree
"Bev Smiles, Bruce Hughes and Stephanie Luce are the first people to be up on protesting charges since the laws were changed. In April last year, the three were arrested for protesting outside the #Wilpinjong #CoalMine in #Wollar.
"The three are up on charges of rendering a road belonging to a mine useless and hindering the working equipment belonging to a mine. These are both offences that carry the penalty of seven years imprisonment.
"When the trio appeared at Mudgee Local Court on February 9, the presiding magistrate rejected police claims that the Wollar-Ulan Road, where the defendants were arrested, actually belonged to the mining company.
" 'They have pleaded not guilty, and are awaiting a judgment on the case,' Mr Phillips explained. 'The outcome of that case will be important.” If the three have 'the book thrown at them' then it’s likely to discourage the protesting of coal mines in NSW."
#AustraliaPol #AusPol #CriminalizingProtest #NoMining #CoalMines #UraniumMines #Australia #WaterIsLife #LandIsLife #LandBack
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Why Isn’t News of #Trump Building Vast #ConcentrationCamps Being Treated as a #NationalEmergency?
History shows us that once a nation builds a #MassDetention apparatus, it never remains limited to its original targets. Wake up, people.
by #ThomHartmann, Feb 05, 2026
Excerpt: "The British originated the term '#ConcentrationCamp' to describe facilities where '#rebel' or 'undesirable' civilians were held in #SouthAfrica during the #SecondAngloBoerWar (1899–1902) to control and punish a #rebellious population.
"They were facilities where the 'bad elements of society' were 'concentrated' into one location so they could be easily controlled and would lose access to society and thus could not spread their messages of #resistance against the #BritishEmpire.
"Future generations of Americans—our children and grandchildren—won’t ask us whether #ICE followed civil detention statutes: they’ll want to know why we allowed concentration camps to exist in America at all.
"The Germans adopted the term in 1933 when #Hitler took power and created his first camp for #communists, #socialists, #UnioLleaders, and, by the end of the year, Hitler’s #PoliticalOpponents. They Germanized the phrase into '#Konzentrationslager' and referred to the process of their incarceration as 'protective custody.'
"The first camp was built at #Dachau just weeks after Hitler became Chancellor in 1933, and by the end of the year there were around 70 of them operating across the country."
#USPol #WakeUpPeople #HistoryRepeats #Fascism #Authoritarianism #DetentionCenters
#PrivatePrisons #CriminalizingDissent
#SilencingDissent #CharacteristicsOfFascism #DepartmentOfHomelandInsecurity -
The #ICE killing takes #America a step closer to #GeorgeOrwell’s nightmare
The Trump administration’s reaction to the fatal shooting of #ReneeGood is another dark chapter in its rewriting of history – and has disturbing echoes of the dystopian 1984, writes Sean O’Grady
Thursday 08 January 2026
Excerpt: "' #Orwellian' is a word that gets chucked around far too much, but there is surely something quite sinister in the official responses to the shooting of a civilian, Renee Good, in Minneapolis by a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.
"Obviously, there’s always some room for argument about what happened and why in such circumstances, but not about the more obvious facts, backed up by videos and eyewitness accounts.
"The ultimate boss of ICE, the homeland security secretary, #KristiNoem, declared that Good was involved in an act of '#DomesticTerrorism', as if she were an Isis operative – and with zero evidence to back up that extreme claim, and little sign that she was deliberately using her vehicle as a weapon. "
Archived version:
https://archive.ph/hpDlH#USPol #DoublePlusUngood #NineteenEightyFour #Orwellian #ICEOut #ThoughtPolice #Authoritarianism #MuderPatrol #EnemiesOfTheState #Resistance #ResistICE #SilencingDissent #Newspeak
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So, I am seeing some patterns... Cutting #USDA funding, support for #LocalFood and #LocalFarms, #SNAPCuts, #UnaffordableHealthCare, etc. #HungerGames. Plain and simple. Cull the population. This is #LifeOrDeath for many Americans. And #NationalGuard / #ICE / #DHS bullshit is just the establishment of a national police force ( #CapitolPolice ) to #SilenceDissent. #DoublePlusUngood! Pay attention folks!
#USPol #WorldPol #Fascism #authoritarianism #ClimateCrisis #NineteenEightyFour #BigBrother #CatchingFire #SilencingDissent #Resistance #LandBack #TakeBackThePlanet
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Ring cameras are about to get increasingly chummy with law enforcement
Amazon’s Ring partners with company whose tech has reportedly been used by ICE.
Scharon Harding – Oct 17, 2025
"Law enforcement agencies will soon have easier access to footage captured by Amazon’s Ring smart cameras. In a partnership announced this week, Amazon will allow approximately 5,000 local law enforcement agencies to request access to Ring camera footage via surveillance platforms from Flock Safety. Ring’s cooperation with law enforcement and the reported use of Flock technologies by federal agencies, including US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), has resurfaced privacy concerns that have followed the devices for years.
"According to Flock’s announcement, its Ring partnership allows local law enforcement members to use Flock software 'to send a direct post in the Ring Neighbors app with details about the investigation and request voluntary assistance.' Requests must include 'specific location and timeframe of the incident, a unique investigation code, and details about what is being investigated,' and users can look at the requests anonymously, Flock said.
" 'Any footage a Ring customer chooses to submit will be securely packaged by Flock and shared directly with the requesting local public safety agency through the FlockOS or Flock Nova platform,' the announcement reads.
"Flock said its local law enforcement users will gain access to Ring Community Requests in 'the coming months.' "
#BigBrother #BigBrotherIsWatching #USPol #ACAB #TrumpIsABully #SecretPolice #ICESucks #Disappeared
#Orwellian #ThoughtPolice #ICEOfficers #BigGuns #SilencingDissent #CharacteristicsOfFascism #authoritarianism -
#Chicago judge questions Trump official over #ICE agents' use of force
By Diana Novak Jones and Joseph Ax
Mon, October 20, 2025Excerpt: "A federal judge in Chicago on Monday grilled U.S. immigration officials about federal agents' use of tear gas and other forceful tactics against protesters as part of President Donald Trump's crackdown in the city.
"U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis has repeatedly expressed concern that federal agents were violating her October 9 order requiring them to wear visible #identification and limiting their use of anti-riot weapons such as #PepperBalls and #TearGas. On Friday, Ellis ordered federal officers who have body cameras to turn them on while conducting immigration enforcement activity and during interactions with the public.
"At Monday's hearing, Ellis also said she would allow the plaintiffs in the case - protesters, journalists and clergy members who sued the Trump administration alleging they were deliberately brutalized during peaceful demonstrations - to question several officials under oath, including Gregory Bovino, a top U.S. Border Patrol official.
"In granting the plaintiffs' request, Ellis made it clear the litigation is limited to the tactics used by field agents, not the president's stated rationale.
" 'I don't think that it matters what the administration's objectives are or what goals they have or what ideology is pushing this enforcement action,' she said. 'This lawsuit...is all about how our ICE officials and #CBP officials are enforcing the laws.'
"Clashes between protesters and federal agents, particularly #BorderPatrol agents and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, have increased since Trump launched the crackdown in early September.
"Trump also ordered the deployment of National Guard troops to the Chicago area, part of the Republican president's extraordinary campaign to send military personnel to Democratic-run cities purportedly to fight crime. A federal judge has temporarily blocked the deployment, but the Justice Department has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to allow the troops to proceed.
"Separately, a federal appeals court on Monday cleared the way for hundreds of Guard soldiers to deploy to Portland, Oregon, despite the objections of the Democratic mayor and governor there."
Read more:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/chicago-judge-questions-trump-official-211559155.html#USPol #ACAB #TrumpIsABully
#SecretPolice #ICESucks #Disappeared
#Orwellian #ThoughtPolice #ICEOfficers #BigGuns #SilencingDissent #CharacteristicsOfFascism #authoritarianism #ICE #MurderPatrol -
#ICE boosts weapons spending 700%
A Popular Information investigation reveals tens of millions in new ICE spending on #guns, #ChemicalWeapons, and explosives.
Judd Legum
Oct 20, 2025Excerpt: "U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has sharply increased its spending on weapons in 2025, according to an analysis of federal government contracting data by Popular Information. Records from the Federal Procurement Data System reveal that ICE has increased spending on 'small arms, ordnance, and ordnance accessories manufacturing' by 700% compared to 2024 levels.
"New spending in the small arms category from January 20, 2025, the day Trump was inaugurated, through October 18, totaled $71,515,762. Most of the spending was on guns and armor, but there have also been significant purchases of chemical weapons and 'guided missile warheads and explosive components.'
"On September 29, 2025, ICE made a $9,098,590 purchase from #GeisseleAutomatics, which sells #SemiAutomatic and #AutomaticRifles. The total spending by ICE in the small arms category between January 20 and October 18, 2024, was $9,715,843."
https://popular.info/p/ice-boosts-weapons-spending-700
#USPol #ACAB #TrumpIsABully
#SecretPolice #ICESucks #Disappeared
#Orwellian #ThoughtPolice #ICEOfficers #BigGuns #SilencingDissent #CharacteristicsOfFascism #authoritarianism -
WTF! #Navajo Reporter #MarleyShebala Violently Arrested by #NavajoPolice, After Filing Ethics Complaint on Navajo President #BuuNygren
By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, October 16, 2025
WINDOW ROCK, Navajo Nation -- "Navajo Police were sent today to evict Marley Shebala, Dine' Zuni Pueblo reporter, from her home. Marley, 73, screamed in pain as she was arrested by police. Marley had filed an ethics complaint against Navajo President Buu Nygren, and was reporting on the ongoing #corruption in the Navajo tribal government.
" 'I am 73 years old, and they have me handcuffed in my home with my daughter, our Navajo police, to
serve and protect' Marley says, as she continues to livestream. Navajo police used a locksmith to enter her home, before the violent arrest."Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/10/navajo-reporter-marley-shebala.html#Diné #Dineh #ACAB #Journalists #ReaderSupportedNews #Journalism #BuuNygrenSoldOutHisPeople #UraniumMining #NavajoNation #IndigenousNews #SilencingDissent #CoalMining #TrumpSucks #BeautifulCleanCoal #Cancer #WaterIsLife #LandIsLife #EnergyFuels
#Dineteh #NukingTheNavajo
#Havasupai #UraniumMines
#EnvironmentalRacism #WhiteMesaMill #NukingTheNavajo #NukingTheUte #Ute #Paiute #Hopi #BidiiRoots #DineCARE #PinyonPlainUraniumMine #AirIsLife #UraniumMine #UraniumTransport #RadioactiveDust #RememberKleeBenally #BigCoal #DishonoringTheMemoryOfKleeBenally
#HaulNo #NoMiningWithoutConsent -
#PrivatePrison Companies Set to Make Billions Reopening #Jails for #ICE
“There’s a private interest behind the #detention and the incarceration of our community,” said an #activist #protesting the facilities.
by Sophie Hurwitz, March 6, 2025
Excerpt: "Late Wednesday afternoon, private prison company CoreCivic announced it would be reopening a notorious family detention center in South Texas, under an amended contract with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The facility, first built in 2014, will house up to 2,400 people, including children. It had been shut down last year to save costs, after years of reports suggesting poor treatment, including a report of one toddler who died due to a lack of medical care.
"The reopening is part of a trend. CoreCivic isn’t the only company bringing back facilities. We are at the beginning of what looks like a private prison boom, as the groups profit off President Donald Trump’s plans for mass deportation. They are set to make billions. As the Washington Post reported, the GEO Group and CoreCivic stand to benefit in particular from #Trump’s immigration plans—the companies hold at least 16 vacant facilities that can be reopened within months for mass detention and deportation.
"The GEO Group announced in late February that it would be reopening #DelaneyHall in #NewarkNJ, as a “massive” immigration detention center with 1,000 beds. In California, ICE is considering repurposing and reopening the women’s prison #FCIDublin, closed last year due to mass #SexualAbuse, for #ImmigrantDetention. In Baldwin, Michigan, ICE and the GEO Group have expressed interest in reopening #NorthLake Correctional Facility, a former private prison shuttered in 2022. (A Biden administration order directed the Department of Justice to allow contracts with private prison groups to expire.) In #LeavenworthKS, CoreCivic looks likely to partner with ICE to reopen yet another shuttered private prison, documents obtained by the #ACLU revealed.
"As of February 27, ICE held 43,759 detainees, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a nonpartisan data-gathering organization. Trump is putting pressure on ICE to increase the number of arrests per day. His administration has already fired one ICE director, ostensibly for not deporting enough people.
"In the communities surrounding these new jails for migrants, activists and politicians are fighting back. In Newark, where the GEO Group stands to make $1.2 billion by reopening Delaney Hall, the immigrant rights organization Make the Road is planning a rally against the jail March 11."
#USPol #TrumpSucks #BigUglyBill #BigBeautifulBill #PrisonState #SilencingDissent #IndefiniteDetention #ICE #protesters #CoreCivic #GEOGroup #ResistICE #Resistance
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The #PrivatePrison Industry Looks Forward to Soaring Profits Thanks to #Trump’s Budget
The $45 billion for immigration #detention in the "Big, Beautiful Bill" represented a long-sought win for #PrivatePrisons.
by Matt Sledge, July 10 2025
"The private prison industry saw its influence wane under Joe Biden, but it remains dominant in the business of immigration detention. So when President Donald Trump signed the so-called 'Big, Beautiful Bill' on July 4, dedicating $45 billion to immigration detention with a goal to double or triple the population behind bars, it was a huge payoff.
"The victory was in the works for years. A private prison company handed consulting and lobbying gigs to Trump’s allies, its political action committee was the first to max out its donation to Trump, and industry executives had already made plans to reopen shuttered prisons — laying the groundwork for what they promised investors would be an incarceration bonanza.
"In the 2024 election cycle, employees and PACs affiliated with the publicly traded industry behemoths #GEOGroup and CoreCivic contributed overwhelmingly to #Republicans and Trump.
"Republicans received 92 percent of $3.7 million in contributions affiliated with GEO Group and 96 percent of the $785,000 in contributions affiliated with #CoreCivic, according to #OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan, nonprofit research group that tracks official disclosures. When Trump won, the two companies gave $500,000 each to his #inaugural committee."
Read more:
https://theintercept.com/2025/07/10/corecivic-trump-big-beautiful-bill/Archived version:
https://archive.ph/t6cYB#USPol #TrumpSucks #BigUglyBill #BigBeautifulBill #PrisonState #SilencingDissent #IndefiniteDetention #ICE #protesters
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#NationalGuard documents show public ‘fear’ and #troops’ ‘#shame’ over #WashingtonDC presence
By Alex Horton, September 10, 2025
"The National Guard, in measuring public sentiment about President Trump’s federal takeover of Washington, D.C., has assessed that its mission is perceived as 'leveraging fear,' driving a 'wedge between citizens and the military,' and promoting a sense of 'shame' among some troops and veterans, according to internal documents reviewed by the Washington Post.
[...]
"Friday’s assessment highlights 'Mentions of Fatigue, confusion, and #demoralization - ‘just gardening,’ unclear mission, wedge between citizens and the military.'
"The National Guard was ordered to this mission and does not have a responsibility to make it palatable to the public, said Jason Dempsey, a former Army officer who studies civil military affairs for the Center for a New American Security. But, he said, military leaders should think about how deployments with political undertones could have implications for recruiting and sustaining the force.
"The themes raised in these assessments, Dempsey said, also should give pause to American citizens. National Guard troops are overseen by governors, who almost always provide their approval when those forces are mobilized for federal service overseas or within the United States. But the mission in Washington, and an earlier deployment to Los Angeles, both occurred against the consent of civil authorities in those jurisdictions.
" 'When elected representatives say, ‘We do not want them,’ but the federal government sends them, and then you see these kinds of numbers,' he said, 'it does raise existential questions for the health of the National Guard, for how America views its National Guard, and how America uses the military writ large.'
"Such concerns were also spelled out in a separate cache of internal documents that outlined another Trump administration initiative: the creation of a #QuickReactionForce of National Guard troops to respond to #CivilUnrest anywhere in the United States. In that case, first reported by the Post as Trump’s D.C. deployment got underway in mid-August, military officials voiced concern about 'potential political sensitivities' and 'legal considerations related to their role as a nonpartisan force.'
"Trump has since signed an executive order directing the formation of the quick reaction force."
Archived version:
https://archive.ph/UE4uh
#SilencingDissent #Clampdown #TrumpIsAFascist #Authoritarian #authoritarianism #NationalGuard -
#DOJ Deletes Study Showing #DomesticTerrorists Are Most Often #RightWing
Following Charlie Kirk’s assassination and the Trump administration’s promise to go after the “radical left” a study showing most domestic terrorism is far-right was disappeared.
by Emanuel Maiberg
Sep 16, 2025 at 12:25 PM"The Department of Justice has removed a study showing that white supremacist and far-right violence “continues to outpace all other types of terrorism and domestic violent extremism” in the United States.
The study, which was conducted by the National Institute of Justice and hosted on a DOJ website was available there at least until September 12, 2025, according to an archive of the page saved by the Wayback Machine. Jason Paladino first reported that the study was removed. 404 Media noticed the removal after it was flagged by Daniel Malmer, a PhD student studying online extremism at UNC-Chapel Hill.
" 'The Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs is currently reviewing its websites and materials in accordance with recent Executive Orders and related guidance,' reads a message on the page where the study was formerly hosted. 'During this review, some pages and publications will be unavailable. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.' "
Read more [paid members only]:
https://www.404media.co/doj-deletes-study-showing-domestic-terrorists-are-most-often-right-wing/#USPol #Fascism #TrumpIsAFascist #FashPatel #Authoritarianism #MemoryHoled #MemoryHole #404Media #SilencingDissent #Antifa #Resistance
#CharacteristicsOfFascism -
#Skydance deal allows #Trump’s #FCC to “#CensorSpeech” and “#SilenceDissent” on #CBS
FCC now has “never-before-seen controls” over a #newsroom, commissioner warns.
by Ashley Belanger – Jul 25, 2025
Excerpt: "Like many protesting #Colbert's firing, Gomez suggested that the FCC's requirements to approve the Skydance acquisition 'may only be' the 'beginning' of the Trump administration's #censorship and ongoing 'assault on the #FirstAmendment.'
"Notably, the White House issued a rare statement in response to a recent #SouthPark episode Paramount aired, which mockingly depicted Trump seducing Satan. The White House fumed that 'no fourth-rate show can derail President Trump’s hot streak.' But Trump (whose current term's ratings are at an all-time low) taking the time to acknowledge the episode drew jokes on social media that South Park may have riled Trump enough to scramble the Paramount acquisition approval. At the very least, the statement shows that Trump still cares what people say about him on TV. Trump has long been considered the US president most obsessed with TV, and critics now fear that he has seized new powers to more effectively block negative coverage."
#Fascism #Authoritarianism #USPol #TrumpSucks #SilencingDissent #SilencingCritics #Censorship #CharacteristicsOfFascism #BrendanCarr
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#Trump’s #BigBill Would Let Him Expand His #LosAngeles #ImmigrationCrackdown ‘Everywhere’
“If it works out well in L.A., expect it everywhere,” a Trump official says of the admin’s plans for #militarized #ICERaids around the country
By Andrew Perez, Asawin Suebsaeng
June 12, 2025"Donald Trump’s '#BigBeautifulBill' wouldn’t just force millions of #poor people off their #HealthInsurance and #FoodAssistance to help pay for more #TaxCuts for the rich.
"The Trump #TaxBill would steer tens of billions of dollars to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for #detention capacity, employee bonuses, and to hire new agents. It would supercharge ICE’s ability to conduct raids, and allow the administration to expand the campaign of terror it’s waging on immigrants in Los Angeles to blue cities around the country.
"ICE’s aggressive worksite raids and courthouse arrests throughout the Los Angeles area have, of course, inspired a wave of protests — giving the president an excuse to send the U.S. military to a Democratic city, something he’s long fantasized about, while inspiring demonstrations across the country.
" 'This bill would give Donald Trump the ability to do what he’s doing [in California] on a scale we really haven’t seen before,' says #DavidBier, the director of immigration studies at the #CatoInstitute, a libertarian think tank. 'He will be able to replicate this militarized approach to Los Angeles across maybe dozens of American cities.'
"For Trump and key officials, including immigration-crackdown policy architect #StephenMiller, this is exactly the point, with Los Angeles currently being used as an autocratic staging area. They want to replicate this militarized, ramped-up blitz of ICE raids, backed by the U.S. armed forces, in several other Democratic strongholds — particularly if larger-scale protests spread to other cities.
"As Rolling Stone previously reported, the president and his senior officials have already mapped out near-term plans for how to further ratchet up the already tense blitz of ICE operations, especially in the coming days in Los Angeles, where the federal agents are now being protected by Trump’s literal troop deployment to the city, against the wishes of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.
"Sources familiar with the matter tell Rolling Stone that senior Trump administration officials are closely monitoring the situation in L.A. as a test case for what they want to do soon in places such as #Chicago, #philadelphia #BostonMA, or the #WashingtonDC, area."
Archived version:
https://archive.ph/SgWWL#BigUglyBill #USSenate #USPol #Authoritarianism #protestors #SilencingDissent #USPol #NoKings #Protest #Solidarity #Immigrants #MassDeportation #EndICE #StopICE #Project2025 #MAGA #ThisIsFascism
#USConstitution #DueProcess #FirstAid #JustFollowingOrders #NationalGuard #Resistance #FashPatel #TrumpIsANazi #StephenMillerIsANazi #ResistICE #FuckICE #KillThePoor #EatTheRich #NoTaxBreaksForTheRich -
HYPOCRITES! #Trump Suddenly Cares About ‘#Insurrectionists’ and Protecting Cops
The president pardoned hundreds of Jan. 6 rioters who assaulted police in one of his first presidential acts
By Nikki McCann Ramirez
June 9, 2025"Insurrectionists beat cops with flag poles, crushed them with riot shields, tased them in the neck, and spat on them during the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. But when President Donald Trump claimed on Monday that he has no tolerance for 'insurrectionists' who clash with police officers, he wasn’t talking about the 1,500 rioters he pardoned upon assuming office earlier this year; he was talking about people in Los Angeles, California, protesting his administration’s anti-immigration actions.
"Speaking to reporters outside of the White House on Monday, the president claimed that demonstrators opposing sweeping ICE raids in L.A. were 'professional agitators, they’re insurrectionists, they’re bad people,' and that 'they should be in jail.'
"It’s clear that while there is public unrest in Los Angeles, the city is not in the throes of an active insurrection against the federal government — a claim Trump and his allies have repeatedly made since protests began on Friday. 'An insurrection against the laws and sovereignty of the United States,' White House Deputy Chief of Staff #StephenMiller wrote on X in response to videos of protesters blocking a highway. The president added on Sunday that 'a once great American City, Los Angeles, has been invaded and occupied by Illegal Aliens and Criminals […] now violent, insurrectionist mobs are swarming and attacking our Federal Agents to try and stop our deportation operations.'"Unless the president invokes the #InsurrectionAct — an 1807 law that allows the president to deploy the military or the National Guard for the purpose of domestic law enforcement — members of the guard would be restricted largely to the protection of federal buildings.
"Local and state lawmakers have also stated unequivocally that the tensions in the city increased severely after Trump federalized National Guard troops for deployment in L.A. without the request or consent of California officials. Local officials in Los Angeles say that while there have been instances of protesters clashing with police, vandalizing property, and burning vehicles, the majority of such confrontations have been isolated, taken place at night, and — according to L.A. Police Chief Jim McDonnell — are not exemplary of 'the people that we see during the day who are legitimately out there exercising their First Amendment rights to be able to express their feelings about the immigration enforcement issue.'
"Trump, who resisted activating the National Guard on #January6 to quell the violence being carried out by his supporters against law enforcement, has now warned that disrespect toward law enforcement will be met with a show of force. 'Nobody’s going to spit on our police officers. Nobody’s going to spit on our military,' the president told reporters Monday, before posting on Truth Social: 'IF THE SPIT, WE WILL HIT.'
The administration’s top law enforcement officials are also warning against aggression toward law enforcement. “Hit a cop, you’re going to jail… doesn’t matter where you came from, how you got here, or what movement speaks to you,' FBI Director #FashPatel wrote. 'If the local police force won’t back our men and women on the thin blue line, we @FBI will.'
"Deputy FBI Director #DanBongino added that the agency would 'be investigating and pursuing all available leads for assault on a federal officer.'
" 'We will not forget. Even after you try to,' Bongino added.
"The statements ring a little hollow when one remembers that just a few months ago the president pardoned not only individuals who spit on cops, but who outright assaulted them. Miller, Patel, Bongino, and other administration figures have largely excused their actions and demonized the #BidenAdministration for pursuing legal action against the rioters. "
Archived version:
https://archive.ph/vaP8D#USPol #TrumpSucks #Authoritarianism #ICERaids #ICESucks #Protests #SilencingDissent #Resistance #ResistFascism #ResistICE #AxisOfEvil #StephenMillerIsANazi #KristiNoem
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What’s in Trump’s big bill? Trillions in tax cuts, changes to Medicaid and more
By KEVIN FREKING and LISA MASCARO
Updated 8:21 PM EDT, May 13, 2025WASHINGTON (AP) — "#Republicans in Congress are moving with rapid speed to advance President Donald Trump’s big bill of #TaxBreaks, #SpendingCuts and beefed-up border security funding as leaders work to enact many of his campaign promises.
"House committees have been laboring for months to draft the legislation, which Republicans have labeled 'THE ONE, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL,' a nod to Trump himself. Speaker Mike Johnson is pushing to approve the package and send it to the Senate by Memorial Day.
"Democrats say they will fight what House party leader #HakeemJeffries calls 'this extreme and toxic bill.' "
https://apnews.com/article/trump-tax-cuts-bill-medicaid-work-requirements-17cbde167f3b434e925a199c3253b8e1#BigUglyBill #Environment #Ethics #StudentLoans #Medicaid #TaxBreaksForTheRich
#CorporatePolluters #AirIsLife
#WaterIsLife #LandIsLife
#MAGADeathCult #TrumpHatesTheEnvironment
#TrumpHatesThePoor
#AntiLife #Greenpeace
#Indivisible #FreePalestine
#CREW #PeaceAndJustice
#Corporatocracy #CharacteristicsOfFascism
#SilencingDissent
#USPol #HR9495 #StopHR9495
#TaxPackage #Authoritarianism
#AuthoritarianRule
#FightForTheFuture
#Section112209 -
Defendants in Georgia ‘Cop City’ case say they are in limbo as trial delays continue
By R.J. RICO
Updated 12:26 AM EDT, May 12, 2025ATLANTA (AP) — "Single mother Priscilla Grim lost her job. Aspiring writer Julia Dupuis frequently stares at the bedroom ceiling, numb. Geography and environmental studies researcher Hannah Kass is worried about her career prospects after she graduates from her Ph.D. program.
"The three are among 61 defendants accused by Republican Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr of participating in a yearslong racketeering conspiracy to halt the construction of a police and firefighter training facility just outside Atlanta that critics pejoratively call 'Cop City.'
"Their cases are at a standstill, 20 months after being indicted under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law, or RICO, which is likely the largest criminal racketeering case ever filed against protesters in U.S. history, experts say.
"Trial for five of the defendants was supposed to start last year but got bogged down in procedural issues. The judge overseeing the case then moved to another court. A new judge has set a status hearing for Wednesday.
"The delays have left people in limbo, facing charges carrying up to 20 years behind bars for what they maintain was #LegitimateProtest, not #DomesticTerrorism. The case also has suppressed a movement that brought together hundreds of #activists to protect a wooded patch of land that ultimately was razed for the recently completed $118 million, 85-acre (34-hectare) project.
"Officials say the project is sorely needed to replace outdated facilities and boost officers’ morale. Opponents say it will be a training ground for a #MilitarizedPolice force and its construction has worsened #environmental damage in a poor, majority-Black area.
"Protests escalated after the fatal 2023 shooting of Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, known as #Tortuguita, who was camping near the site when authorities launched a clearing operation. Officials said they killed Tortuguita, 26, after the activist shot and wounded a trooper from inside a tent.
"A family-commissioned autopsy concluded Tortuguita was killed with their hands in the air, but a prosecutor found the officers’ use of force was 'objectively reasonable.' "
Read more:
https://apnews.com/article/cop-city-rico-charges-61-atlanta-be5ef1ed1951a73870656f61fbbc567b#ACAB #StopCopCityQueens #StopCopCitiesEverywhere #JusticeForTort #USPol #StopCopCity #WeelauneeForest #DefendTheForest #CopCity #SilencingDissent #CiminalizingDissent #MilitarizedPolice
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#Florida: Anti-Elon Musk '#TeslaTakedown' #protests break out across U.S.; Florida law enforcement ordered to respond
Story by Annabelle Sikes, 3/29/2025
"The Brief
- "Tesla Takedown" protests are breaking out across the United States, including in Florida.
- The demonstrations are part of #activists' attempts to escalate a movement targeting Tesla dealerships and vehicles in opposition to Elon Musk’s role as the head of the newly-created Department of Government Efficiency (#DOGE).
- In response to the protests, Attorney General #JamesUthmeier has ordered Florida law enforcement officers to respond to and monitor the events.[...]
"Uthmeier said Florida has 'zero tolerance' for crimes against people or property. He said if the protests turn violent, Florida is prepared to 'do what's necessary to restore order and hold offenders accountable.'
" 'Our troopers are here working around the clock patrolling these dealerships,' Uthmeier said in the X post. 'And if you wanna come here, you’re going to face the full force of law.' "
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/anti-elon-musk-tesla-takedown-protests-break-out-across-us-florida-law-enforcement-ordered-to-respond/ar-AA1BUBGV#FloridaProtestLaws #USProtestLaws
#USPol #AntiProtestLaws #SilencingDissent #CriminalizingDissent #BadDOGE -
#SilencingDissent: The #Crackdown on #PeacefulProtest in #Europe
In our recently published Rule of Law report, Liberties’ members reported an increase in restrictions on the right to peaceful protest in all countries.
by Flore du Teilleul
April 10, 2025Excerpt:
"The right to peaceful protest is essential to our democracies, allowing people to come together with a unified voice to support or oppose key issues. It serves as a powerful mechanism for individuals to hold their governments to account and is often the last resort when prior messages go unheard. However, politicians often perceive this right as a threat, especially when force of numbers demonstrates support for an issue."In our recently published Rule of Law report, Liberties’ members reported an increase in restrictions on the right to peaceful protest in all countries - from bans on individual protests to the disproportionate use of force by the police and legislative changes. A widespread trend emerged of restricted #ProPalestine protests and #EnvironmentalDefenders receiving particularly harsh penalties.
Bans on Protests
"Restrictions on various protest movements justified on public safety grounds were documented in many member states. In #Germany, the Berlin Assembly Authorities implemented a temporary blanket ban targeting pro-Palestine demonstrations. Initially, the ban targeted celebrations of the mass murder and pro-Hamas demonstrations but later extended to all pro-Palestinian protests. Similarly, in #Latvia, an unregistered #FreePalestine movement protest was banned after an assessment by the state security service that the event would, among other risks, harm the country’s international interests.
"The Estonian police banned a protest in support of #Palestinians, which was later declared unlawful by the administrative court. In #Hungary, Prime Minister #ViktorOrbán publicly prejudiced support for Palestinians by linking it with terrorism, equating solidarity with civilians victims to threats to the public order. As the fifteen attempts to organise protests were successively banned, the government and the Prime Minister re-asserted their power by deciding what can be demonstrated for, namely, topics in line with their political interests. Following the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, the Hungarian government has repeatedly declared and extended the state of danger, allowing for the adoption of emergency decrees restricting, among other rights, the freedom to assemble. Both the Hungarian Supreme Court and Constitutional Court upheld the protest bans on the basis of public safety and security, legalising the practice of police-authorised restrictions in times of conflict.
"Further restrictions, including bans on #slogans and #signs during #demonstrations, sought to criminalise protesters. Several individuals were arrested or fined for displaying signs or slogans related to Palestine. In #Belgium, activists faced administrative sanctions for carrying a #PalestinianFlag or the #keffiyeh. Similarly, in the #Netherlands, attendees of an #ExtinctionRebellion demonstration were prohibited from mentioning the conflict in the Middle East. The enforcement of restrictions went as far as arrests, as Croatian activists were charged with misdemeanor after projecting a message in support of Palestine on a building across from the Israeli Embassy in Zagreb.
"In Hungary, a demonstrator faced criminal charges after wearing a gas mask and removing it after being asked by the police. In a worrying trend of criminalising protest activities, several activists were arrested and charged with sedition before an Extinction Rebellion demonstration in the Netherlands.
Disproportionate use of force by the police
"The criminalisation of environmental and pro-Palestine protesters was worsened by the violent repression of the police through excessive use of force. This was particularly notable in Sweden, where student encampments in support of Palestinians were forcibly displaced and participants were charged with criminal offenses. #PainGrips, water guns and #WaterCannons were used against environmental activists, pro-Palestinian and anti-immigration demonstrators in Germany, the #Netherlands and #Ireland.
"Environmental activists faced similar fates, The NGO ‘#FranceNatureEnvironnement’ reported concerns to the UN Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders following the violent repression of protesters during a demonstration against the A69 highway. In #Sweden, a woman was dismissed from her job at the Swedish Energy Agency for participating in an environmental demonstration and a growing number of #EcoActivists were fined for participating in peaceful protests."
Read more:
https://www.liberties.eu/en/stories/rule-of-law-2025-protests/45384#RightToProtest #SilencingDissent #AntiProtestLaws #EuropeanLaws #Croatia #ACAB #CriminalizingDissent #CriminalizingProtest #FreePalestine #FreeGaza #EnvironmentalProtests #EnvironmentalActivists
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#StandingRock Chair on #Greenpeace Verdict -- False, Self-serving Narrative in Insulting Lawsuit
"If Greenpeace can be held liable for telling the truth about #SiouxNation Treaty rights, then we are all in trouble."
By Standing Rock Chairwoman Janet Alkire, via #CensoredNews, March 27, 2025
"As Chairwoman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, I take offense to the jury verdict in the #EnergyTransfer #SLAPP lawsuit against Greenpeace. We expect more from #NorthDakota judges and members of the jury from our neighboring communities.
"#EnergyTransfer’s claims in this case were ridiculous. They were wholly disrespectful of the #StandingRockSioux Tribe, our ancestors, and our youth, who started the movement in 2016 to protect our water from an oil spill from #DAPL. Neither Greenpeace nor anyone else paid or persuaded Standing Rock to oppose DAPL.
"Our young people and our elders urged us to protect our water and #UnciMakah (grandmother earth). That is what happened, and is happening still. Energy Transfer’s false and self-serving narrative that Greenpeace manipulated Standing Rock into protesting DAPL is patronizing and disrespectful to our people.
"We understand that many Morton County residents support the #OilIndustry, even out-of-state #pipeline companies such as Energy Transfer. But we are your neighbors, and you should not be fooled that easily. Energy Transfer does not know us. They don’t know who we are – an Indigenous Nation that has survived every attack because our ancestors are with us.
"Greenpeace did not manipulate Standing Rock, but #EnergyTransfer has manipulated #MortonCounty. DAPL crosses our Treaty and aboriginal land for hundreds of miles.
"Our ancestors occupied this land for thousands of years before #NorthDakota came into existence. The land between the Heart and Missouri River are our #unceded Treaty lands under the 1868 and 1851 Fort Laramie Treaties. Our aboriginally-occupied territories extend east to the James River and beyond. That is a historical truth. If Greenpeace can be held liable for telling the truth about Sioux Nation Treaty rights, then we are all in trouble."The construction of Fort Rice on our northern boundary in 1864 was a violation of the Fort Laramie Treaties. This required our Tribe to be vigilant. No one should be surprised that warrior society burials are found in this area, near the pipeline route.
"And do not insult our cultural experts, who have wisdom over matters most residents of Morton County or bureaucrats at the State Historical Society know absolutely nothing about. Energy Transfer and its lawyers should be ashamed of themselves. Everyday North Dakotans on the jury should know better.
"When it comes to the excessive police and private security response to the generally peaceful protests at #CannonBall, believe your eyes. The scenes of guard dogs menacing Tribal members are reminiscent of the violence of #WhiteSupremacists in the #DeepSouth during the 1950’s and 60’s, but it was in North Dakota, in this day and age. It was on the news and on the internet.
"Many of the protesters were Native American veterans of the United States armed forces. Energy Transfer used attack dogs against peaceful protesters and war heroes. But the jury sided with the out-of-state, unlicensed security with the attack dogs, instead of North Dakota veterans who supported Standing Rock.
"A Texas oil company has come to North Dakota, and its lawyers and propaganda machine are weaving stories about how the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and our supporters have lied, and how the poor pipeline company, a trillion dollars richer than in 2016 when this all started, should receive extra millions from non-profit organizations. It’s a funny thing about liars – they always accuse everyone else of lying. The Greenpeace trial was marked by secrecy.
"The court is not making the transcript public. The documents obtained by Greenpeace about Energy Transfer’s terrible safety record are protected by a secrecy order and are not available to the public. The judge exhibited so much bias in favor of Energy Transfer that a team of international human rights lawyers felt compelled to monitor the trial. One prominent monitor stated 'In my six decades of legal practice, I have never witnessed a trial as unfair as the one against Greenpeace that just ended in the courts of North Dakota.'
"Standing Rock has tried to work for greater transparency on DAPL. It is our experience with the Army Corps of Engineers and Energy Transfer that all documents relating to DAPL pipeline safety are heavily redacted, and kept secret. What are they hiding? Who is looking out for the communities that may be affected by an oil spill? And why didn’t the North Dakota court allow Greenpeace to address these questions at the trial?
"DAPL is a dangerous pipeline. It crosses our unceded Treaty and aboriginal land. Energy Transfer destroyed Tribal burials as identified by our cultural experts, and committed violence against our people. That is the history that North Dakota and Morton County must reckon with. After the Greenpeace verdict, that day seems farther off than ever."Source:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/03/standing-rock-chair-on-greenpeace.html
#StandWithStandingRock #SLAPPsLawsuits #SLAPPs #FossilFuel #BigOilAndGas #Academi #EricPrince #Blackwater #ACAB #PrivateSecurity #BigOil #KelcyWarren #Oiligarchy #CorporateColonialism #WaterProtectors #StevenDonziger #EnvironmentalRacism #ReaderSupportedNews #CorporateFascism #SilencingDissent #StandingRockReservation -
American Association of University Professors [#AAUP] v. #Rubio
A case challenging the #Trump administration’s policy of ideological deportation.
"On March 25, 2025, the Knight Institute filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s policy of arresting, detaining, and deporting noncitizen students and faculty who participate in pro-Palestinian activism. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), AAUP’s #Harvard, #NYU, and #Rutgers campus chapters, and the #MiddleEastStudies Association, argues that the policy chills noncitizens from speaking and, by extension, robs these organizations and their U.S. citizen members of noncitizens’ perspectives on a matter of significant public debate.
"The lawsuit responds to a climate of repression and fear on university campuses. Federal agencies are attempting to deport multiple individuals for their #ProPalestinian advocacy, including #MahmoudKhalil, a leader of protests at Columbia University. These actions have sent chills through the community of noncitizen students and faculty on campuses around the country, causing some to pull out of academic conferences, stay home from #protests, and withdraw from other forms of public advocacy and engagement.
"The lawsuit alleges that the administration’s policy of ideological deportation violates the First Amendment right of the plaintiffs to hear from and associate with noncitizen students and faculty, that it is unconstitutionally vague, and that it violates the Administrative Procedure Act. The suit seeks a court order declaring that the policy is unlawful and enjoining the federal government from enforcing it."
Status: Complaint filed on March 25, 2025.
Case Information: American Association of University Professors v. Rubio, No. 1:25-cv-10685 (D.Mass).
https://knightcolumbia.org/cases/aaup-v-rubio
#YunseoChung #RightToProtest #SilencingDissent #USPol #CharacteristicsOfFascism #law
#immigration #FreeSpeech #MarcoRubio #Trump #FreedomOfAssembly #Authoritarianism #Palestine #CriminalizingDissent #HigherEducation -
Looks like the American Association of University Professors agrees with me!
#AAUP, Allies Sue over #Trump Policy of Arresting and Threatening to Deport #Students and #Faculty for #LawfulSpeech
"The national AAUP; chapters at #Harvard, #Rutgers, and #NYU; and the #MiddleEastStudies Association today filed a lawsuit seeking to block the Trump administration from carrying out large-scale arrests, detentions, and deportations of noncitizen students and faculty members who participate in #ProPalestinian #protests and other protected #FirstAmendment activities.
"We believe that the administration’s ideological-deportation policy violates the First Amendment by targeting constitutionally protected speech that Americans have a right to hear and engage with. The policy has created a climate of fear and repression on campuses around the country. We are represented in the case by the #KnightFirstAmendmentInstitute at #ColumbiaUniversity, #AhilanArulanantham, and Zimmer, Citron & Clarke LLP.
"Following executive orders issued by President Trump in January, the federal agencies that enforce immigration laws have arrested and detained several people associated with U.S. colleges and universities, including a legal permanent resident, on the basis of constitutionally protected speech and association.
"Today’s filing argues that the ideological-deportation policy has created a climate of #repression and intense fear on university #campuses, 'terrorizing students and faculty for their exercise of First Amendment rights in the past, intimidating them from exercising those rights now, and silencing political viewpoints that the government disfavors.'
"'The Trump administration is going after international #scholars and students who speak their minds about #Palestine, but make no mistake: they won't stop there. They'll come next for those who teach the history of #slavery or who provide #GenderAffirming health care or who research #ClimateChange or who counsel students about their reproductive choices. We all have to draw a line together—as the old labor movement slogan says: an injury to one is an injury to all,' says AAUP President Todd Wolfson.
"'The First Amendment means the government can’t arrest, detain, or deport people for lawful political expression—it’s as simple as that. This practice is one we’d ordinarily associate with the most repressive political regimes, and it should have no place in our democracy,' says #JameelJaffer, executive director at the Knight First Amendment Institute."
Source:
https://www.aaup.org/news/aaup-allies-sue-over-trump-policy-arresting-and-threatening-deport-students-and-faculty-lawful
#RightToProtest #SilencingDissent #USPol #CharacteristicsOfFascism #law
#immigration #FreeSpeech #MarcoRubio #Trump #FreedomOfAssembly #Authoritarianism #Palestine #CriminalizingDissent #HigherEducation -
#BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews, March 11, 2025:
"While the bizarre court case continues in #MandanND, #EnergyTransfer v #Greenpeace, our most viewed articles include this one from the medics at #StandingRock, who were targeted and
attacked as the medics were treating water protectors on Oct. 27, 2016 -- a tactic that was used in #Palestine when medics were targeted and assassinated during the past two years. At Standing Rock, law enforcement had silencers on their weapons. 'Why do they have silencers if they are here for peace,' a medic said, who was fired on by law enforcement using shotguns loaded with lead-filled bean bags. According to the #GenevaConvention, knowingly firing at a medic wearing clear insignia is
a #warcrime."From 2016: #MortonCountySheriff and the Violent Gang of #Police Targeted and Arrested #Medics while they were Treating Patients
Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2016/10/standing-rock-medics-shot-by-police-and.html
#ReaderSupportedNews #ACAB #StandWithStandingRock #GreenpeaceUSA #SLAPPs #SLAPPsLawsuits #SilencingDissent #CriminalizingDissent #NorthDakota #StandingRockSiouxTribe #StandingRockReservation #BigOil #CorporateColonialism -
Dispatches from Joye: The Beginning of #Resistance to #DakotaAccessPipeline, Spring of 2016
By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews, Feb. 25, 2025
MANDAN, North Dakota -- "We travel back in time to the beginning of the resistance to the Dakota Access Pipeline. Jury selection is underway in the case of #EnergyTransfer v #Greenpeace and #RedWarriorSociety, and oral arguments are to begin tomorrow, in #NorthDakota District Court.
"Energy Transfer, the owner of Dakota Access Pipeline, seeks to erase the fact that this is, and has always been, an #Indigenous-led movement, Greenpeace said.
"On March 29, 2016 -- five months before hundreds, and then thousands arrived at the Standing Rock camps -- #JoyeBraun, #CheyenneRiverLakota, sent Censored News the announcement of the resistance.
"'It must be stopped,' Joye said in the media statement.
"#LaDonnaBravebullAllard, working then in the #StandingRock #HistoricPreservationOffice, released the statement with Joye.
"The headline read, 'Tribal Citizens Rise Up Against #BakkenOilPipeline: #HorseRide and #SpiritualCamp to be Held Along Proposed Route of Dakota Access Pipeline.'"With the dateline of Cannonball, the statement says, 'On April 1st, 2016, tribal citizens of the #StandingRockLakota Nation and ally #Lakota, #Nakota, and #Dakota citizens, under the group name
Chante tin'sa kinanzi Po will have a #HorseRide to celebrate the founding of a #SpiritCamp that will be erected along the proposed route of the Bakken oil pipeline, Dakota Access."https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/02/dispatches-from-joye-beginning-of.html
#StandWithStandingRock #WaterIsLife #NoDAPL #KelcyWarren #Trump #StandWithStandingRock #BigOil #CorporateColonialism #BigOilAndGas #EnvironmentalRacism #StandingRock #SLAPPs #NoDAPL #WaterIsLife #SLAPPsLawsuits #SilencingDissent #ACAB #EnergyTransfer #UnicornRiot -
The Circus is Coming to Town -- The Bizarre Lawsuit of #EnergyTransfer v #Greenpeace and #RedWarriorSociety
by #CensoredNews, January 1, 2025
"It's the most bizarre lawsuit -- Energy Transfer v Greenpeace and Red Warrior Society, eight years later.
"There are loads of documents hidden away with 'confidential' stamps in the court records, and a whole lot of players -- governors, Congressmen, and law enforcement, in the shadows.
"The fragments, , between the blackouts of 'redacted,' show that the head of Energy Transfer hasn't been answering all the questions in depositions. Other snippets show that the #OilPipeline doesn't want to reveal its spills, and whether there's been contamination already into the water at #StandingRock.
"Meanwhile, there's a 'newspaper' tainting the potential jurors, attorneys say, which promotes the sheriff.
"And where are all the files on #TigerSwan, the paid #FBI informants, and the military #SpecialOps? Tens of thousands of documents of TigerSwan were gained by #TheIntercept in another court battle.
"Where are the files on the #drone being shot down by law enforcement, the U.S. #BorderPatrol's surveillance plane, and the #BIA's #surveillance van parked at the casino, with undercover officers wandering around inside?
"The judge, appointed by the governor, won't recuse himself.
"#UnicornRiot media is in Minneapolis Supreme Court fighting the pipeline's subpoena to seize its confidential media records.
"#WaterProtectors and media have been served with third party subpoenas by the pipeline for this fishing expedition for their info.
"And it's all coming to #MandanNorthDakota, at the end of February, to North Dakota's District Court,
home to #MortonCountySheriff.
"It's a $300 million #SLAPP lawsuit to shut them down, says Greenpeace. Greenpeace said there was a large dump of records into the case."Stay tuned, and dig through the files -- good luck."
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/01/the-circus-is-coming-to-town-bizarre.html
#ReaderSupportedNews #NoDAPL #StandWithStandingRock #WaterIsLife #SLAPPsLawsuits #SilencingDissent #ACAB -
#NuclearColonialism v. #RedPower
"The world has no shortage of #PoliticalPrisoners – or of environmental martyrs and heroes– but 80-year-old #LeonardPeltier, a #Lakota and #Anishinaabe AIM member, is arguably the most famous, the legal lynching he underwent so outrageous, and his incarceration in a 'maximum security' prison so protracted. Even former FBI agents have themselves essentially contended that Pelter was scapegoated by the FBI for the lethal shooting of two agents–Jack Coler and Ronald Williams– on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Michael Apted’s 1992 documentary Incident at Oglala, narrated by Robert Redford, is a good place to start if you’re new to this history. But if you’re looking for insights into the role that #UraniumMining played in the conflict, you’d be better off checking out #PeterMatthiessen’s book #InTheSpiritOfCrazyHorse: Leonard Peltier and the #FBI’s War on The #AmericanIndian ovement. To hear a first-hand account, check out Peltier’s memoir #PrisonWritings: My Life Is My Sun Dance.
"Despite well-documented prosecutorial misconduct powerfully depicted in Apted’s documentary, Peltier’s conviction has yet to be overturned. And in the face of decades of global, high-profile pleas for clemency for Peltier, including by James Reynolds, a “senior US attorney who was involved in [his] prosecution,” no president up until now has been willing to free Peltier. Given that he’s in increasingly poor health, time is running out, and the same president who just pardoned his own son may be Peltier’s last shot at clemency. If you haven’t yet done so, check out the Amnesty International petition– and Amy Goodman’s and Denis Moynihan’s recent column–making the case for his release. The Red Nation media collective also has an extensive playlist of podcasts focused on Peltier’s case and the long struggle to free him.
"Peltier, arguably the world’s most visible casualty of nuclear colonialism, was only three years into his sentence when Santee Dakota organizer John Trudell, his contemporary in AIM, delivered a searing 1980 speech at the Black Hills International Survival Gathering. As Zoltan Grossman has documented, 'Multinational mining companies, such as #UnionCarbide and #Exxon, proposed the development of the #BlackHills for energy resources, including #coal mines, #uranium mines, and coal slurry #pipelines.' The Black Hills gathering brought together a global convergence of more than 10,000 Indigenous activists and non-Native allies to hold the line against a repeat of the 1950s, which, per Grossman, had 'result[ed] in the extensive irradiation of the southern Black Hills community of #Edgemont.'"
Read more:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/12/11/tis-the-season-to-talk-climate-collapse-nuclear-colonialism-and-freeing-leonard-peltier/
#FreeLeonardPeltier #ClemencyForLeonardPeltier #ACAB #AmnestyForLeonardPeltier #SilencingDissent #NoUraniumMining -
'Weird' Newspaper Could Taint Jury Pool in #DAPL Case, Court Told
The Strange Case of #EnergyTransfer v. #Greenpeace and #RedWarriorSociety
By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews, Dec. 13, 2024"A newspaper that mysteriously appeared in the mail boxes of Morton County residents could taint the jury pool in the upcoming case of Energy Transfer v. Greenpeace. It is the latest strange development in the case filed against Greenpeace, Red Warrior Society and water protectors over the protest of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
"Now, eight years later, Energy Transfer's $300 million lawsuit filed against Greenpeace, known as a SLAPP lawsuit to silence protesters, is slated for North Dakota Court in February. Besides all this, the pipeline has been on a fishing expedition serving the media and water protectors with third-party subpoenas to extract their information."Central ND News, the 'weird' newspaper targeting Standing Rock Water Protectors, and promoting the Morton County Sheriff, has generic bylines called 'staff reports.' The funders are a conservative group promoting pipelines. It was mailed to Morton County from Chicago, Illinois.
Everett Jack, an attorney representing Greenpeace, said during a Monday afternoon hearing. 'We should have the right to figure out who sent it when they did and why.'"Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/12/weird-newspaper-could-taint-jury-pool.html#ReaderSupportedNews #NoDAPL #StandWithStandingRock #WaterProtectors #WaterIsLife #MortonCountySheriff #CentralNDNews #Conservative #SilencingDissent #CriminalizingDissent #CriminalizingDissentIsAutocracy #CorporateInterests #Corporatocracy #BigOilAndGas #SLAPPs #SLAPP
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#HouseGOP Working to Push Through Bill That Would Let #Trump Shut Down #Nonprofits
#DemocracyNow, November 18, 2024
"On Capitol Hill, House #Republicans [and some #Democrats] are attempting once again to ram through #HR9495, a bill that would allow Trump and future presidents to effectively shut down nonprofits by labeling them a '#terrorist-supporting organization.' The measure could target #HumanitarianAid groups, #news outlets, #schools and countless #CivilSociety organizations. #Congress failed to fast-track the bill last week, falling short of a required two-thirds majority despite dozens of Democrats voting in favor along with Republicans. But the next vote, which could happen this week, would likely only require a simple majority.
"A coalition of groups said in a statement, 'This bill was designed to #criminalize organizations and #activists who oppose the U.S.'s unconditional support of #Israel's #genocide of #Palestinians and the slaughter of #LebaneseCivilians.' Signatories to the statement included the Council on American-Islamic Relations and #AmericanMuslimsForPalestine. #Oxfam criticized the bill, saying Trump could use it to silence and censor critics, curb free speech and target political opponents."
#StopHR9495 #USCongress #CrimininalizingDissent #FirstAmendment #WaterProtectors #Protestors #Activists #FreedomOfExpression #PressFreedom #USPolitics #SilencingDissent #FreePalestine #StudentProtestors #FreeSpeech #Clampdown #StopHR9495
#CharacteristicsOfFascism #Fascism
#Authoritarianism #ProjectEsther #Project2025 #NDAA #Authoritarianism -
Japan asks Denmark to extradite anti-whaling activist #PaulWatson
Denmark announced Thursday that it has received Japan's extradition request for anti-whaling activist Paul Watson, who was arrested in Greenland last month on an international arrest warrant. Watson, the 73-year-old founder of #SeaShepherd, is facing charges related to a 2010 confrontation with Japanese #whaling ships, raising concerns over his potential extradition and the motivations behind Japan's request.
Issued on: 01/08/2024
"#Denmark's justice ministry said Thursday that it had received Japan's extradition request for anti-whaling activist Paul Watson, who was detained in #Greenland last month on an international arrest warrant.
"Watson, the 73-year-old American-Canadian founder of the Sea Shepherd activist group, was arrested on July 21 in Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory, over a 2010 altercation with Japanese whaling ships.
"Watson, who featured in the reality TV series '#WhaleWars', founded Sea Shepherd and the Captain Paul Watson Foundation (#CPWF), and is known for #DirectAction tactics including confrontations with whaling ships at sea.
"'The Ministry of Justice received a formal extradition request regarding Paul Watson from the Japanese authorities yesterday,' the ministry told AFP in an email."
[...]
"'#Japan has a personal vendetta against #PaulWatson, and this so-called offence is the pretext for revenge against a man who defied and therefore humiliated them,' [Francois Zimeray] told AFP.
"He said an extradition to Japan would be a violation of the European Convention on #HumanRights, since 'the country does not respect international standards on fair trials and prisons.'"
#Greenpeace #Ecocide #FreeSpeech #RightToProtest
#CriminalizingDissent
#BiodiversityNecessityDefense
#EarthDefenders #Fascism
#CivilDisobedience #Activism #ClimateActivists #HumanRights #SilencingDissent #Corporatocracy #Article20 #HumanRightsViolations #DefendNature #Japon #SaveOurSeas #FreePaulWatson -
Inside the last-ditch effort to stop the #MountainValleyPipeline
The project is over budget and behind schedule, with a lot of hard work left to do. Its opponents hope that makes #FossilFuel companies think twice about building the next one.
By Katie Myers
Published Jan 16, 2024"As day broke over the small mountain town of #EllistonVirginia, one Monday in October, masked figures in thick coats emerged from the woods surrounding a construction site. Three of them approached three excavators and, one by one, locked themselves to the machines, bringing the day’s work to a halt. As they did so, several dozen of their fellow protesters gathered around them, unfurling banners and chanting amid the groaning and beeping of construction equipment.
"They made their way across the field, over patches of bare earth, around sections of rusty pipe meant for burial beneath the mountain. Eventually the metal tubes will form yet another section of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, which will soon carry 2 billion cubic feet of #fracked #methane from the #ShaleFields of #WestVirginia to #NorthCarolina each day. Their breath billowed in the crisp air. Beyond them stretched a bright blue sky, and mountains tinged with yellow. The past night’s rain pooled on the muddy and compacted soil beneath their feet.
"Workers in highlighter-yellow vests and hard hats milled around, some looking amused, others frustrated. One or two engaged with the #protesters, only to be told off by an irate site manager. A few miles away at the West Virginia state line, another three dozen or so activists did much the same atop #PetersMountain. One even managed to crawl under an excavator and lock herself in place, despite the cold. The others rallied around, enclosing her in a tight, protective circle.
Some might wonder why they bothered. After all, the project is, by the Mountain Valley Pipeline company’s estimate, 94 percent complete and will be wrapped up before summer. It stalled for several years amid legal fights over various permits, but Senator #JoeManchin, a moderate Democrat from West Virginia, almost single-handedly revived it in 2022 in exchange for his support of key Democratic priorities. Since then, the Biden administration and the Supreme Court have all but assured its completion. With the approximately 303-mile pipeline approaching the final stretch after almost a decade’s work, it might seem hardly worth fighting at this point.
"A large contingent of steadfast opposition begs to differ — and will enthusiastically explain why. The pipeline is six years behind schedule, about half a billion dollars over budget, and, despite promises that it would be done by the end of last year, delayed once again. The remaining construction is over rugged terrain, with hundreds of water crossings left to bridge. The company recently postponed, shortened, and rerouted its planned extension into North Carolina, a proposal long stymied by permitting problems with the main line. And, just last month, #Equitrans, which owns the #pipeline and many others across the country, was said to be considering selling itself. The road to the pipeline’s completion remains rocky, its opponents argue, with many opportunities to make finishing it as difficult as possible.
"'We cannot let them destroy our land and water,' said a young woman named Ericka. Like many interviewed for this story, she gave only her first name out of fear of reprisal from #MountainValleyPipelineLLC, which has begun suing #protesters in a bid to silence them. She had brought her three children to occupy the land that day. 'What are we going to drink? Where are we going to live? People have to come here and stop this.'"
#SilencingDissent #DirectAction #ClimateCatastrophe #NoFracking #WaterIsLife #SLAPPs #Fascism #CriminalizingDissent #WaterProtectors #ForestDefenders #EnvironmentalActivists #ClimateActivists #ClimateJustice #CorporateColonialism #EcoActivists #Censorship
#HumanRightsViolations #Article20 #RightToProtest #BigOilAndGas -
From 2020: How #Target, #Google, #BankOfAmerica and #Microsoft quietly fund police through private donations
More than 25 large #corporations in the past three years have contributed funding to private #PoliceFoundations, new report says
by Kari Paul
Thu 18 Jun 2020"The #HoustonPolice foundation has purchased for the local police department a variety of equipment, including #SWAT equipment, sound equipment and dogs for the K-9 unit, according to the report. The #PhiladelphiaPolice foundation purchased for its police force #LongGuns, #drones and #BallisticHelmets, and the #AtlantaPolice foundation helped fund a major #surveillance network of over 12,000 cameras.
"In addition to weaponry, foundation funding can also go toward specialized training and support programs that complement the department’s policing strategies, according to one police foundation.
“'Not a lot of people are aware of this public-private partnership where corporations and wealthy donors are able to siphon money into police forces with little to no oversight,' said Gin Armstrong, a senior research analyst at #LittleSis.
"A variety of companies – including financial institutions, technology companies, retailers, local universities and sports teams, provide funding to police foundations. Donations may be, in part, to curry favor with a force that exists primarily to protect property and #capital, the report said."
#CivilRights #ACAB #StopCopCity #StopCopCitiesEverywhere #DigitalFreeSpeech #CivilLiberties #CorporateColonialism #SilencingDissent #Fascism
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#Lawsuits Have Become the Weapon of Choice Against #Activists
Legal intimidation suits known as “#SLAPPs” are becoming the norm for private #corporations and #governments trying to silence those who speak out on matters of public interest.
by Katie Redford
July 17, 2023“On May 31, #Atlanta #SWAT teams with riot gear and battering rams broke down #MarlonKautz’s door. Police dragged Kautz and two colleagues to jail in their pajamas, charging them with #MoneyLaundering and charity fraud.
“Kautz, Adele MacLean, and Savannah Patterson, are volunteer board members of the #NetworkForStrongCommunities Inc., which was incorporated in 2020. Through it, they are able to raise funds for the #AtlantaSolidarityFund (#ASF). Since 2016, the fund has bailed out people arrested in #Georgia while exercising their First Amendment right to protest and helped them find legal help.
“Recently, the ASF has supported Atlanta activists who have been protesting a new $90 million police training center known as '#CopCity,' arguing that it will rob Atlanta of a #VitalGreenLung and increase inequality in surrounding neighborhoods. The state of Georgia, on the other hand, has charged dozens with 'domestic terrorism' for participating in largely peaceful protests.
“Georgia authorities claim that the money laundering charge is based on evidence of a fund transfer to another organization, but they haven’t shared any other details about their allegations. Magistrate Judge Altman, who presided over the bail hearing, described the state’s evidence as 'unimpressive,' reinforcing the defendants’ claims that the arrests are politically, not legally, motivated.
“Shortly after the arrest, Governor Brian Kemp announced that the state would go after everyone involved, and Attorney General Chris Carr tweeted that the funders of the bail and legal defense fund were next. As an executive director at a climate philanthropy who made charitable donations to the ASF for legal defense, I had to wonder: Was my door going to be battered down next?
“Some of the accused may have trespassed or destroyed property, but to charge protesters with 'domestic terrorism' and a legal defense fund with money laundering is a cynical political act that bears no relation to the misdemeanors alleged. Any American committed to democracy should be interested in making sure these charges lose in both the court of law and the court of public opinion.
“These charges seek to silence and stop opposition to an unpopular development project. They also telegraph a message to others in the state and nationwide: We will not tolerate lawful protest in Georgia. This strategy is known as strategic litigation against public participation (SLAPP), which is an intimidation lawsuit, typically used by private corporations against those who speak out on matters of public interest. Various state governments are increasingly deploying this tactic, too.
“SLAPPs don’t usually win in court, but that’s not what they’re intended to do. Instead, they set out to threaten activists and drain the financial resources of social movements. They often unfold as years-long wars of attrition, where corporations and governments with disproportionately large resources grind down the financial, emotional, and legal capacities of activists. The threat of such a suit—typically brought against individuals or groups that confront powerful people or institutions—discourages free speech and association, chilling democracy itself.
“As a lawyer on the front lines of climate justice activism, I witnessed firsthand how a SLAPP was used to weaponize the law against free speech and association. During the mass protests by Indigenous water protectors and environmentalists campaigning against the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, SLAPPs were used widely.
“As #StandingRock became a global cause célèbre, the pipeline’s owners brought a $900 million #racketeering case against individuals and #NGOs like #BankTrack and #Greenpeace, alleging a vast global conspiracy to damage the company’s reputation and bottom line through fraud and #defamation.
“A federal court ultimately dismissed the lawsuit. But despite its eventual failure in court, the SLAPP tactic served its intended purpose: intimidation. #KrystalTwoBulls, one of the Standing Rock organizers that my organization represented, said that being sued tangled her up, practically and emotionally, in a legal battle that diverted her attention, taking her away from her work on the climate crisis and #Indigenous #LandRights.
“She began to #censor herself; she withdrew from her community and the movement, fearing that conspiracy allegations might extend to anyone she touched. And that, of course, is the point of these suits: to send out the message to either shut up or suffer the consequences.
“The case against #Kautz in #Atlanta similarly seeks to spark fear in activists and donors against supporting #FirstAmendment rights and legal defense. There is reason to believe that prosecutors may also be preparing #RICO charges against anti–Cop City activists, another dangerous use of the legal system to quell #grassroots movements.
“Since Standing Rock, over 20 states have passed '#CriticalInfrastructure' laws, which dramatically increase civil and criminal penalties related to protests at or near #FossilFuel projects. #DomesticTerrorism laws like that in Georgia have a similar intention: to weaponize the legal system against critics and stifle #DissentingVoices.
“I have no doubt that the majority of the domestic terrorism charges around Cop City will fail. But in the process, a political point will have been made, at the expense of the constitutional right to free speech. People protesting to protect the #environment and #climate will have been publicly accused of being harmful to America’s security, and they will have been forced to defend themselves—likely at exorbitant cost—against a 30-year jail sentence. Other potential activists will surely remember these charges when they consider whether it’s worth it to attend a concert, sit-in, or protest.
"The best strategy for stopping SLAPP suits in their tracks, whether they emanate from the private sector or are used by the state, is to keep speaking out, to support defamed activists, and to make the litigants pay a price. About 30 states have introduced legislation that protects against SLAPPs. And last year, #Jami Raskin introduced the #SLAPPProtectionAct of 2022 to #Congress. It must be reintroduced.
“My organization, #EquationCampaign, created a fund to provide lawyers and legal support for people who face this kind of legal retaliation for their environmental and climate work. I’m astonished at the wide range of people who need our help: from #farmers and ranchers to #journalists and #IndigenousActivists. All of them are on the receiving end of David vs. Goliath legal tactics that have long served powerful interests with near-endless resources.
“Absent federal protections, we all must be vigilant in the face of the egregious proliferation of #antiprotest laws and lawsuits.
“#Democracy and the future of this #planet require people to speak up. The law should serve—not silence—those of us who do."
https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/slapp-legal-intimidation-activists/
#ForestDefenders #DefendTheForest #StopCopCity #DirectAction #Fascism #RICO #CriminalizingDissent #WaterProtectors #EnvironmentalActivists #ClimateActivists #ClimateJustice #SilencingDissent #CorporateColonialism #EcoActivists #Censorship #HumanRightsViolations #Article20 #RightToProtest #SlowMarch #BigOilAndGas #EnvironmentalRacism #NoDAPL #DakotaAccess #StandingWithStandingRock