Offering asides, recommended links, blogworthy quotations, and more, In Brief is the Northwest Progressive Institute's microblog of world, national, and local politics.
Police officer: Relax, we only kill black people
In this dashcam video, presented with context by The Young Turks, Police Lieutenant Greg Abbott can be heard saying to a motorist he has pulled over, “Remember, we only kill black people. Yeah, we only kill black people, right? All of the videos you’ve seen, have you seen the black people get killed? You have.”
To The Editor:
More than four hundred people have joined the hunger strike in the NWDC in Tacoma that started Monday. What are they demanding? Edible food, access to medical care, expedited immigration hearings, and pay of more than $1 per day of labor. These demands are not only utterly reasonable, it is horrifying that they are not already standard practice and that people detained in the NWDC have to take such extreme measures to demand basic rights and necessities.
This is not the first time the NWDC has drawn attention for it’s questionable practices. Last fall, we heard about the detention of a man who was adopted from Korea as a toddler and lived in the U.S. his entire life, simply because his adoptive parents didn’t fill out the proper forms. He was torn away from his wife and kids and locked up in the NWDC to be deported to a country he knew nothing about.
It seems clear that our current system of detaining undocumented people is a gross violation of human rights. And yet the Trump administration is asking for billions of additional tax dollars to implement mass detentions and deportations of undocumented people. What about America being “the land of the free,” “the land of opportunity?” Are these values we care about at all as a nation or are they just intended as cute catch phrases? Sen. Patty Murray, Sen. Maria Cantwell, and Rep. Dave Reichert should reject this unreasonable request.
But this is a bare minimum. These injustices have been going on for much longer than the current administration has been in power, and simply preventing them from getting worse doesn’t make them better. There should be an immediate investigation into the shady practices of the NWDC, and for long term solutions to this crises we must work towards comprehensive immigration reform, including a path to citizenship for undocumented Americans.
— Helen Mountjoy-Venning, Olympia
Highlights from court ruling halting Trump’s Muslim Ban 2.0
Courtesy of the New York Times: “Here are some highlights from Wednesday’s ruling by Judge Derrick K. Watson of United States District Court in Honolulu, who issued a temporary restraining order blocking the Trump administration’s revised travel ban from going into effect nationwide.”
There are so many problems with Trump. I always wanted to come to America, I love America, but not any more, not with Trump.
— Refugee Abdullahi Warsame (The Globe and Mail: Fearful of Trump policies, families risk frigid 3 AM hike from Minnesota into Canada)
How Washington State upended Trump’s travel ban
The New York Times profiles Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson. The nation’s attention is now on Washington after the state won a sweeping victory against the Trump regime in federal court, incensing the so-called president.
Democrats either need to feed, nurture and aggressively champion the resistance, or they need to get out of the way in favor of someone who will. The usual rules no longer apply.
— Markos Moulitsas, speaking to The New York Times (As Democrats take to the streets, lawmakers rush to keep up).
Mexico: We will not pay for Trump border wall
Mexico’s political leaders have wisely chosen defiance instead of capitulation. In a nationally televised address, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto declared that his country does not believe in walls and will not finance the border barrier that Trump has vowed to build. If the last few days have taught us anything, it’s that by uniting together against Donald’s bigotry, we can stop neofascism in its tracks.
Maricopa County’s Joe Arpaio officially charged with criminal contempt
“Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio was officially charged Tuesday with criminal contempt of court when a federal judge affixed her signature, a formality that throws the lawman’s political and personal future into a level of crisis never before seen in his twenty-three years in office,” reports the Arizona Republic’s Megan Cassidy.
“Federal prosecutors on Monday charged Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County with criminal contempt of court, saying he willfully defied a judge’s orders to stop targeting Latinos — including citizens and legal immigrants — in traffic stops and other law enforcement efforts, behavior the judge said showed a pattern of discriminatory policing,” The New York Times reports.
NCAA moves championship events out of North Carolina, citing anti-LGBT law
Breaking from The New York Times: “The National Collegiate Athletic Association said on Monday that it would relocate all seven previously awarded championship events from North Carolina during the 2016-17 academic year because of concerns over laws passed by the state that it said violated the civil rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.”
Racism is racial prejudice plus power. Racism is the intentional or unintentional use of power to isolate, separate and exploit others. This use of power is based on a belief in superior racial origin, identity or supposed racial characteristics. Racism confers certain privileges on and defends the dominant group, which in turn sustains and perpetuates racism. Both consciously and unconsciously, racism is enforced and maintained by the legal, cultural, religious, educational, economic. political and military institutions of societies.
— Excerpt from the National Council of Churches’ 1984 policy statement on racial justice, quoted at Netroots Nation 2016.
I saw a young man, shot, helpless — shot for no apparent reason. I saw my nephew shot by a man, clinging to his life with no help. It was the most horrific thing I have ever seen in my life.
— Clarence Castile, uncle of Philando Castile, who was killed by police in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, during a traffic stop near St. Paul.
The slaughter of Castile by police was captured on video and it has led Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton to call for a federal investigation.
Two reporters for The Advocate of Baton Rouge explain what is known so far about the killing of Alton Sterling, a thirty-seven year old black man who was killed by police in Baton Rouge without justification.
Many of the gun shot wounds were fairly severe… Many trunk, abdomen and extreme gun shot wounds. Our operating room has been quite busy all day long with those injuries.
— Dr. Michael Cheatham, chief surgical quality officer for the Orlando Regional Medical Center (via the Orlando Sentinel).
North Carolina Republicans, U.S. Department of Justice file dueling lawsuits over HB 2
The fight over HB 2 North Carolina’s discriminatory new law targeting transgender individuals, has escalated after Republican Governor Pat McCrory and his legislative cohorts filed a lawsuit against the federal government seeking a determination that HB 2 does not violate the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Department of Justice promptly responded with its own lawsuit asserting that HB 2 *does* violate the Civil Rights Act. Justice is asking for an injunction to block HB 2 from being enforced.
Right wing white supremacists hail the ascension of ‘Emperor Trump’ as Republican nominee
“White supremacists, nationalists and antigovernment conspiracists feverishly embrace the Republican candidate as their Great White Hope, not to mention a ‘Patriot sleeper cell’,” David Neiwert reports.
Donald Trump is the face of modern fascism
“Nationalism, condescension towards human rights, use of scapegoats for a unifying cause, sexism, threats to free journalism, subordinating all other concerns for national security, fetish for police power, are some of the common traits of fascism. Trump check marks on all of them, albeit in a modern American context,” writes University of North Florida President Parvez Ahmed.
Trump’s message resonating with — and mobilizing — white supremacists
“Intentionally or not, Donald Trump’s remarks are resonating with — and mobilizing — white supremacists, many of whom have traditionally refrained from participating in the political process. He has their support, whether he wants it or not,” writes Jonathan Mahler.
A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian… I say only that this man is not Christian if he has said things like that. We must see if he said things in that way and in this I give the benefit of the doubt.”
— Pope Francis, speaking to reporters on his return flight from Mexico. His Holiness asserted that Donald Trump is “not Christian” if he really wants to wall off Mexico from United States and deport millions of immigrants.
In Brief is authored by the staff, board, and contributors of the Northwest Progressive Institute, a netroots powered strategy center working to raise America's quality of life through innovative research and imaginative advocacy.
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