When police took Jimmy into custody, they followed protocol for people charged with a crime: mug shot, fingerprints.
But Jimmy had not been charged with a crime. His father asked the county to bring Jimmy in for a mental evaluation & treatment after he'd threatened to hurt family members & himself.
On his booking form, under "offence," was a single word: “LUNACY," a charge that doesn't exist.
Today in Labor History November 23, 1903: Army troops were sent to Cripple Creek, Colorado to put down a rebellion by striking coal miners. 600 union members were thrown into a military bullpen, and held for weeks without charges. When a lawyer arrived with a writ of habeas corpus, General Bell, who led the repression, responded "Habeas corpus, hell! We'll give 'em post mortems!” The strike was led by Big Bill Haywood and the Western Federation of Miners, which, at the time, was the most militant union in the country, calling for revolution and abolition of the wage system.
“When members of the public are engaged in a peaceful #protest in a public space—assuming they are not obstructing traffic, or disrupting campus activities—there is very little legal basis for law enforcement to demand they leave.”
A campaign to raise money for the family of the policeman who shot dead French teenager Nahel M. topped 1.47 million euros ($1.6 million) on Tuesday, far outstripping donations to Nahel's family and…
From last week: “I think the presence of armed riot #police always increases the tension in these kinds of situations—and I think it’s the wrong move.”
Two women and one man were kept at a police station for hours on Saturday. These three people arrested were volunteers with the Night Stars programme, which is run by Westminster City Council.
The rape alarms are handed out by the volunteers as part of their efforts to "promote women's safety and reduce violence against women and girls", according to the council's website.
We must devastate the avenues where the wealthy live.
-Lucy Parsons
Today, In honor of Black History Month, we celebrate the life of Lucy Parsons (c. 1851 – 1942) an American anarchist born to an enslaved African American who then married a black freedman in Texas. She may also have had indigenous and Mexican heritage. She married Albert Parsons, a former Confederate officer, in Waco, Texas. After the war, he was shot in the leg for helping African Americans register to vote.
They moved to Chicago together around 1873 and their politics were radicalized by the violent repression of the Great Upheaval of 1877. Both members of the International Workingmen's Association, and the Knights of Labor, they participated in the strikes that would result in up to 30 deaths by cops and national guards, in Chicago, alone. Nationwide, the wave of wildcat strikes associated with the Great Upheaval would result in over 100 worker deaths. Because of his revolutionary street speeches, Albert was fired from his job at the Chicago Times and blacklisted. Albert Parsons was executed in 1887 as one of the Haymarket Martyrs who had been fighting for the eight-hour workday.
Lucy Parsons later set up the Chicago Working Women's Union with her friend Lizzie Swank and other women. Lucy would go on to cofound the IWW, in 1905, with Mother Jones, Big Bill Haywood, Eugene Debs, James Connolly, and others. The IWW was and is a revolutionary union seeking not only better working conditions in the here and now, but the complete abolition of capitalism. The preamble to their constitution states, “The working class and the employing class have nothing in common.” They advocate the General Strike and sabotage as two of many means to these ends. Lucy also edited radical newspapers and became a sought-after public speaker.
“We are up against a bunch of rich people who don’t want to see #homeless people anywhere near their stuff.”
Volunteers with #Houston Food Not Bombs are going to court to fight an anti-food sharing ordinance which they say violates their First Amendment rights, reports Staff Writer Michelle Pitcher in our latest article: https://www.texasobserver.org/houston-food-not-bombs-trial/
From our magazine: Fewer than 10 of 254 counties in #Texas have standard protocols forcing subjects of a protective order to hand over firearms as required by #law. These gaps in enforcement lead to murder and terror, according to our investigation of the numbers.
“This was the choice of the school to refer to law enforcement, the choice of the law enforcement to detain the child, the choice of the prosecutor to charge him and try to trump up the charges.”
About 50 #Texas DPS State Troopers were sent out in response to a peaceful attempt to march and occupy a Plaza at UT #Austin today. Reportedly three arrests according to those on scene.
UT #Austin faculty are reportedly planning to walk out tomorrow in response to the brutal #police violence on campus today against activists who support #Palestine.
This is an expansion of an already planned rally in solidarity with faculty who lost their jobs in an anti-#DEI backlash.
Fundraiser for officer who shot Nahel outstrips donations to victim's family (www.france24.com)
A campaign to raise money for the family of the policeman who shot dead French teenager Nahel M. topped 1.47 million euros ($1.6 million) on Tuesday, far outstripping donations to Nahel's family and…