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The fatal shooting of Justine Damond has created shock both in her homeland of Australia and across the U.S. While some members of the far-right have insisted that anti-racism groups have been silent since the shooting of the Australian white woman, diverse rallies including prominent black activists and families/friends of police brutality victims have proven that anti-racism groups are not only showing up for Justine Damond theyre setting race aside to do it. Shaun King, an avid police brutality and Black Lives Matter writer for New York Daily News implied that it doesnt surprise him that black activists protested in Minneapolis, because people are bothered by injustice and when they see this, it wasnt racial. Cathy Jones, who organized a vigil near the crime scene the day after Damonds death, claimed that its never been about race. Its been about police accountability. Even John Thompson, best friend of Philando Castille, said at a solidarity gathering, Its not about race. Its not about white. Its not about black. Its about the police chief killing us. As uncertainty continues and rage builds, people have put race on the back burner to justify their support for Damond and to get more people to acknowledge police brutality. This is courteous, and fighting for Justine is vital but race shouldnt have to be excluded from the picture for people to rally.

Though many have factored race out of the reasons behind the shooting of Justine Damond, this doesnt mean race can automatically be eliminated as a factor in previous police shootings of people of color. Damonds case showed people that police brutality can affect both blacks and whites, but it doesnt erase the fact that police brutality impacts blacks disproportionately: black Americans are nearly 2.5 times likelier than white Americans to be fatally shot by police officers. There are more white victims of police shootings than black victims, but this is due to the largeness of the white population in the U.S. There are almost 160 million more white people than black people in the United States (2016). White people make up 62% of the population in the U.S., but only 49% of the population of those fatally shot by police officers. Meanwhile, black people make up 13% of the U.S. population, but 24% of the population fatally shot by police officers. These ratios, according to the Washington Post, prove that black people are 2.5 times likelier than white Americans to be shot. Does this mean that cases like the shooting of Justine Damond arent a problem? Of course not. We need to highlight any case where someone is unfairly killed by police. Still, the racial disparity in the likeliness of being killed by police is a sign of racial bias.

People have set race aside out of respect for the Damond family, but reiterating police brutalitys disproportionate impact on black lives is not disrespectful. Its just telling the truth. Police brutality against all needs to end, and a large part of ending this brutality means focusing on the black communities that are the likeliest subjects of it. Ending police brutality for whites means encouraging officers not to be so trigger-happy. Ending police brutality for blacks takes an added level of consideration. It means ending a predetermined view of black people as criminals. By setting race aside, we are limiting our room for improvement. When we consider police brutality just a human issue, we allow law enforcement to ignore the data that has proven that police brutality and profiling has horribly impacted black communities and we allow officers to not improve their relationship with those communities. We leave room for police departments to approach improving their tactics in a shallow sense that wont adhere to the specific needs of communities of color.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/i-mourn-justine-damond-just-like-i-mourned-michael_us_5974f440e4b0f1feb89b447a

The traffic stop has become an example of a cop encounter that has increasingly turned deadly for black Americans. According to a 2011 Bureau of Justice study, 13% of black drivers were stopped by police in 2011 compared to 10% of white drivers. The same study states that 84% of white drivers stopped by police believed they were stopped for a legitimate reason compared to the mere 68% of black drivers stopped by police that believed this. Black drivers stopped by police are also more likely to be searched by police than white drivers. Studies over the next five years within large cities have only confirmed these racial disparities. A San Francisco report showed that in 2015, 13.3 percent of black people were searched following traffic stops, compared to just 1.7 percent of white people. The report also documents that SFPD officers exhibit racial bias in their arrests, citing instances of officers using racial slurs, acting in a sexually inappropriate manner towards Black women, and committing acts of violence against Black people. The Department of Justices investigation of the Ferguson Police Department, released in 2015, proved, among other violations, that FPD repeatedly engages in unconstitutional stops and arrests in violation of the Fourth Amendment, and that this misconduct disproportionately impacts African-Americans. Data from other big cities only falls in line with this disproportionate policing: a 2015 New York Times analysis found that since 2010, Greensboro officers searched black drivers more than twice as much as whites, and a 2016 report found that in Chicago, black and Hispanic drivers are four times as likely to be searched than white drivers. With so many high-profile fatal police shootings occurring after traffic stops, the racial aspect of traffic stop demeanor among officers cant just be swept under the rug.

https://www.thenation.com/article/what-happened-to-sandra-bland/

Police brutality has various causes and racial effects. These may make police brutality difficult to describe but this doesnt mean that they can be disregarded. Fighting against police brutality is about ensuring the safety of all races, but its also about ensuring that no one race is brutalized more than another.

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Solidarity With Justine Damond Shouldn't Belittle The Fight For Black Lives - HuffPost

Silent protest parade in New York against the East St. Louis riots, 1917.

The only sounds were those of muffled drums, the shuffling of feet and the gentle sobs of some of the estimated 20,000 onlookers. The women and children wore all white. The men dressed in black.

On the afternoon of Saturday, July 28, 1917, nearly 10,000 African-Americans marched down Fifth Avenue, in silence, to protest racial violence and white supremacy in the United States.

New York City, and the nation, had never before witnessed such a remarkable scene.

The Silent Protest Parade, as it came to be known, was the first mass African-American demonstration of its kind and marked a watershed moment in the history of the civil rights movement. As I have written in my book Torchbearers of Democracy, African-Americans during the World War I era challenged racism both abroad and at home. In taking to the streets to dramatize the brutal treatment of black people, the participants of the Silent Protest Parade indicted the United States as an unjust nation.

This charge remains true today.

One hundred years later, as black people continue to insist that Black Lives Matter, the Silent Protest Parade offers a vivid reminder about the power of courageous leadership, grassroots mobilization, direct action and their collective necessity in the fight to end racial oppression in our current troubled times.

One of the great accomplishments of the Black Lives Matter movement has been to demonstrate the continuum of racist violence against black people throughout American history and also the history of resistance against it. But as we continue to grapple with the hyper-visibility of black death, it is perhaps easy to forget just how truly horrific racial violence against black people was a century ago.

Prior to the Silent Protest Parade, mob violence and the lynching of African-Americans had grown even more gruesome. In Waco, a mob of 10,000 white Texans attended the May 15, 1916, lynching of a black farmer, Jesse Washington. One year later, on May 22, 1917, a black woodcutter, Ell Persons, died at the hands of over 5,000 vengeance-seeking whites in Memphis. Both men were burned and mutilated, their charred body parts distributed and displayed as souvenirs.

Even by these grisly standards, East St. Louis later that same summer was shocking. Simmering labor tensions between white and black workers exploded on the evening of July 2, 1917.

For 24 hours, white mobs indiscriminately stabbed, shot and lynched anyone with black skin. Men, women, children, the elderly, the disabled no one was spared. Homes were torched and occupants shot down as they attempted to flee. White militia men stood idly by as the carnage unfolded. Some actively participated. The death toll likely ran as high as 200 people.

The citys surviving 6,000 black residents became refugees.

East St. Louis was an American pogrom. The fearless African-American anti-lynching activist Ida B. Wells traveled to the still smoldering city on July 4 and collected firsthand accounts of the aftermath. She described what she saw as an awful orgy of human butchery.

The devastation of East St. Louis was compounded by the fact that America was at war. On April 2, President Woodrow Wilson had thrown the United States into the maelstrom of World War I. He did so by asserting Americas singularly unique place on the global stage and his goal to make the world safe for democracy. In the eyes of black people, East St. Louis exposed the hypocrisy of Wilsons vision and America itself.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People quickly responded to the massacre. Founded in 1909, the NAACP had yet to establish itself as a truly representative organization for African-Americans across the country. With the exception of W.E.B. Du Bois, one of the NAACPs co-founders and editor of The Crisis magazine, the national leadership was all white. Branches were overwhelmingly located in the North, despite the majority of African-Americans residing below the Mason-Dixon line. As a result, the NAACP had largely failed to respond with a sense of urgency to the everyday horrors endured by the masses of black folk.

James Weldon Johnson changed things. Lawyer, diplomat, novelist, poet and songwriter, Johnson was a true African-American renaissance man. In 1916, Johnson joined the NAACP as a field secretary and made an immediate impact. In addition to growing the organizations southern membership, Johnson recognized the importance of expanding the influence of the NAACPs existing branches beyond the black elite.

Johnson raised the idea of a silent protest march at an executive committee meeting of the NAACP Harlem branch shortly after the East St. Louis riot. Johnson also insisted that the protest include the citys entire black community. Planning quickly got underway, spearheaded by Johnson and local black clergymen.

By noon on July 28, several thousand African-Americans had begun to assemble at 59th Street. Crowds gathered along Fifth Avenue. Anxious New York City police officers lined the streets, aware of what was about to take place but, with clubs at the ready, prepared for trouble.

At approximately 1 p.m., the protest parade commenced. Four men carrying drums began to slowly, solemnly play. A group of black clergymen and NAACP officials made up the front line. W.E.B. Du Bois, who had recently returned from conducting an NAACP investigation in East St. Louis, and James Weldon Johnson marched side by side.

The parade was a stunning spectacle. At the front, women and children wearing all-white gowns symbolized the innocence of African-Americans in the face of the nations guilt. The men, bringing up the rear and dressed in dark suits, conveyed both a mournful dignity and stern determination to stand up for their rights as citizens.

They carried signs and banners shaming America for its treatment of black people. Some read, Your hands are full of blood, Thou Shalt Not Kill, Mothers, do lynchers go to heaven? Others highlighted the wartime context and the hollowness of Americas ideals: We have fought for the liberty of white Americans in six wars; our reward was East St. Louis, Patriotism and loyalty presuppose protection and liberty, Make America safe for Democracy.

Throughout the parade, the marchers remained silent. The New York Times described the protest as one of the most quiet and orderly demonstrations ever witnessed. The silence was finally broken with cheers when the parade concluded at Madison Square.

The Silent Protest Parade marked the beginning of a new epoch in the long black freedom struggle. While adhering to a certain politics of respectability, a strategy employed by African-Americans that focused on countering racist stereotypes through dignified appearance and behavior, the protest, within its context, constituted a radical claiming of the public sphere and a powerful affirmation of black humanity. It declared that a New Negro had arrived and launched a black public protest tradition that would be seen in the parades of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, the civil rights demonstrations of the 1960s and the Black Lives Matter marches of today.

The Silent Protest Parade reminds us that the fight against racist violence and the killing of black people remains just as relevant now as it did 100 years ago. Black death, whether at the hands of a Baton Rouge police officer or white supremacist in Charleston, is a specter that continues to haunt this nation. The expendability of black bodies is American tradition, and history speaks to the long endurance of this violent legacy.

But history also offers inspiration, purpose and vision.

Ida B. Wells, James Weldon Johnson and other freedom fighters of their generation should serve as models for activists today. That the Silent Protest Parade attracted black people from all walks of life and backgrounds attests to the need for organizations like the NAACP, following its recent national convention, to remember and embrace its origins. And, in building and sustaining the current movement, we can take lessons from past struggles and work strategically and creatively to apply them to the present.

Because, at their core, the demands of black people in 2017 remain the same as one of the signs raised to the sky on that July afternoon in 1917:

Give me a chance to live.

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100 years ago African-Americans marched down 5th Avenue to declare that black lives matter - The Conversation US

The protest was organised after viral footage appeared to show a police officer trying to restrain Rashan Charles in a shop in Dalston before he tragically died later in hospital

BINS have been set on fire near a police station in London during a protest over the death of a black man who tragically died after an altercation with cops on Saturday.

Up to 150 people, many holding Black Lives Matter banners, brought traffic to a standstill outside the cop station in Stoke Newington, North London, in a vigil for tragic Rashan Charles.

PA:Press Association

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Unverified footage on social media appeared to show at least one officer attempting to restrain Charles on the floor of a shopin Kingsland Road, Dalston, on Saturday at 1.45am.

The 20-year-old died later in hospital.

The vigil was organised by Stand Up To Racism and campaigners say they are enormously concerned and angered over his death.

The crowd, which was made up of people from different races and ages, listened to speeches about alleged police brutality as uniformed officers looked on.

Metropolitan Police said Mr Charles was seen trying to swallow an object and that an officer sought to prevent the man from harming himself.

The police watchdog, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), is investigating.

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In a statement, Chief Superintendent Simon Laurence, the Borough commander for Hackney, said: "All police officers understand that they will be asked to account for their actions and they would not want it any other way.

"I understand his death has had an impact on some members of the local community."

He also said he had earlier met with community representatives and wanted to continue to hear about community concerns.

The IPCC tweeted: "For those following #justiceforrash #justiceforrashman - We are making good progress, building a full picture of what happened and why.

"We know people have concerns, but our independent investigation will be thorough, rigorous & when appropriate its findings will be published."

The crowd marched peacefully from the police station, behind a line of uniformed officers, to the shop where the incident happened.

Dalston resident Joyce Folks, 67, joined the walk to the shop as it passed by. She said: "I am here as a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother and it is as all those things that when I saw that video, I cried for that boy.

"My condolences are with the family. We are out here in numbers because it is the only way we can show that we care. It is a sign of community spirit. This needs to be peaceful."

The crowd walked back to the station, but a few people that stayed behind threw bottles and sticks at police at around 8.15pm.

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Hundreds join Black Lives Matter protest over death of man, 20, who died after being chased by cops in east London - The Sun

LOS ANGELES More than two years after leaving the Obama administration, former Attorney General Eric Holder is reentering the political fray.

His goal: to lead the legal resistance to Donald Trumps agenda and perhaps even run against the president in 2020.

Seized by a sense of urgency to oppose Trump and restore what he regards as Americas best self, Holder is mulling a White House bid of his own, according to three sources who have spoken to him and are familiar with his thinking.

Up to now, I have been more behind-the-scenes, Holder told Yahoo News in an exclusive interview about his plans. But thats about to change. I have a certain status as the former attorney general. A certain familiarity as the first African-American attorney general. Theres a justified perception that Im close to President Obama. So I want to use whatever skills I have, whatever notoriety I have, to be effective in opposing things that are, at the end of the day, just bad for the country.

Now is the time to be more visible, Holder added. Now is the time to be heard.

On Monday morning, Holder launched this new phase of his career by traveling to California to speak out.

Nearly all of the officials who stepped to the podium in the lobby of Los Angeless Ronald Reagan State Building Monday were Californians. They showed up, and summoned the local press corps, in order to promote a piece of legislation called SB 54 (aka. the California Values Act), which is designed to prevent the Trump administration from forcing local police departments to assist in the deportation of undocumented immigrants. Critics and even some supporters have said it would transform the whole of California into a so-called sanctuary state.

The lineup included outspoken anti-Trump Democrat Kevin de Leon, president pro tempore of the California state Senate, who introduced SB 54 last December and is now working to push it through the legislature; Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck, who finally endorsed the controversial measure; other top cops from Long Beach and Sacramento; and Linda Lopez, head of immigrant affairs for L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti.

The only outsider was Holder the lanky lawyer with the short gray hair and the thick black mustache.

One of Barack Obamas closest friends and most prominent appointees, Holder isnt from California. (He lives in the Washington, D.C., area, where hes a partner at Covington & Burling.) He no longer works in law enforcement. And he isnt an immigration activist.

For the last few months, however, Holder has quietly been serving as outside counsel to the California legislature, working with de Leon and other Democrats to craft an aggressive legal response to what they consider President Trumps most threatening policies.

Holders presence at Mondays press conference was meant to emphasize that relationship to dramatize the issue, to raise the consciousness of people, to help the legislation along, he told Yahoo News.

And so, in the Reagan building lobby, Holder explained why he thinks SB 54 is constitutional (the federal government does not have the ability to force states to do things that are inherently federal in nature) and why, in his view, the Trump administrations threats to withhold federal funding in response arent (the federal government cant coerce states into doing something states dont want to do by threatening to withhold support). Meanwhile, Holders team at Covington released a lengthy memorandum backing him up.

But Mondays event was also something bigger: a coming-out party of sorts for a figure who sees his work in California as a springboard to a new role as the key legal architect and one of the major public faces of the nationwide progressive pushback against President Trump.

Rarely mentioned as a 2020 contender and controversial while in office, Holder would enter any Democratic primary contest as a long shot. Even his engagement with the resistance is something of a surprise. For most of his career, Holder was seen as a conventional, mild-mannered figure. But he grew more pugnacious as attorney general, in part because Republicans never stopped attacking him, and he wound up pursuing a sharply progressive agenda during Obamas second term.

Even so, Holder insists that he never envisioned himself as an anti-Trump crusader.

I thought, frankly, along with everybody else, that after the election, with Hillary Clinton as president, I could walk off the field, he said. So when she didnt win, I thought, Well have to see how this plays out. But it became clear relatively soon and certainly sooner than I expected that I had to get back on the field and be in effective opposition.

California state Senate President pro tempore Kevin de Leon, left, and Holder on June 19, 2017, in Los Angeles. (Photo: Andrew Romano/Yahoo News)

In the months ahead, Holder plans to expand the scope of his opposition to Trump. Part of that expansion will center on the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, a new, Obama-backed group thats working to prepare Democrats for 2020, when states will redraw the boundaries of their legislative and congressional districts for the first time in a decade.

Up until my now our efforts have been largely organizational raising funds, generating support, Holder told Yahoo News. But now were moving into an operational phase where well be filing lawsuits and Ill be more visible talking about those issues.

Another part of Holders campaign will involve explicitly political appearances. On Saturday, for instance, the former attorney general waded into Virginias marquee 2017 gubernatorial race with a keynote address at the state Democratic Partys annual Jefferson-Jackson dinner, in which he excoriated Trump and embraced the resistance the first of a series of such speeches, with North Carolina next on the calendar.

We have come too far as a nation, sacrificed too much, made too much progress, to allow the state of our nation to be undermined by the extreme part of a divided minority administration, Holder said, describing Trumpism as the worst of us. If opposition is to be the course and it must be we must recognize and remember that the power of the American people has been too often underestimated. Once roused we are a mighty force.

But the most intriguing and perhaps most consequential aspect of Holders ambitious new effort is a scheme, still in its early stages, to create a national, privately funded, PAC-like organization that would develop and coordinate legal resistance strategies among various states and localities that are determined to stymie Trump.

California is in so many ways a trendsetter, whether it is in pop culture or in politics, Holder told Yahoo News. Thats why it was such an attractive possibility for me to go to California and work with the legislators there in crafting their response to the Trump administration because I think what California does gives courage to other states and other public officials in other parts of the country who might be thinking about principled opposition. It shows how that opposition can take shape.

So far, the legal resistance has been largely improvised, with young liberal lawyers spontaneously descending upon airports in the wake of Trumps Muslim travel ban and state attorneys general individually butting heads with Jeff Sessions, their federal counterpart.

Holder wants to change that.

You look at this as kind of a continuum, where you oppose the policy as it is proposed, you hope that it doesnt become law, but then, to the extent that it does, you use the courts to try to overturn it, he explained. As the different states and different public officials start to stand for the same things and take the same positions as they start to use the same tactics the opposition becomes that much more effective.

For now, Holder will continue to set the stage in California. (Earlier this month, the state Assembly decided not to renew his $25,000-a-month contract; the state Senate, however, plans to retain his services indefinitely.) And while immigration isnt the only hot-button topic on Holders to-do list de Leon is also soliciting his advice on climate change and health care its the one thats front-and-center right now, as Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents ramp up noncriminal deportations and the courts consider whether Trumps executive order on sanctuary cities is constitutional.

Were here with a very clear purpose: to underscore the undeniable truth that preserving and enhancing trust, real and genuine trust between law enforcement and the diverse communities they serve, is essential for the safety and well-being of all residents of this great state indeed, this great nation, Holder said at Mondays event, alluding to the argument that undocumented immigrants will stop reporting crimes to the local cops if those same officers are also tasked with deporting them.

California is leading, Holder concluded. California is doing the right thing. This is something that needs to be done nationwide.

If Holder gets his way, he will spend the months and years ahead ensuring thats exactly what happens.

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Eric Holder joins the anti-Trump resistance and mulls a ...

"The creation of this new federal commission on election integrity by this administration is another frightening attempt to suppress the votes of certain Americans," Holder told attendees of the NAACP National Convention in Baltimore. "Make no mistake, this commission, led by a fact-challenged zealot, will come up with bogus reasons why further restrictions should be placed on the right to vote."

While Holder did not name him directly, the commission is led by Kris Kobach, the Kansas Secretary of State who is an advocate for tougher voting restrictions. Four Democratic lawmakers last week wrote to Vice President Mike Pence requesting that Kobach be removed from the commission.

Since its creation in May, Trump's commission investigating voter fraud has been met by charges from Democrats and voting rights advocates that it could lead to voter suppression. The commission's request that state election officials turn over data and personal information on the nation's 200 million voters also sparked bipartisan outrage with many states saying they would not comply.

Trump has defended the mission of the commission, however, telling the group at its first meeting Wednesday, "we want to make America great again. We have to protect the integrity of the vote and our voters."

Holder said that the right to vote in the United States is "under siege" and must be protected.

"At a time when we should be expanding opportunities to cast a ballot, there is a movement in America that attempts to make it more difficult, to suppress the vote," Holder said.

He also pushed back at the President's oft-repeated claim that 3 million to 5 million people may have voted illegally in the 2016 election, suggesting that it is more likely that a person would be struck by lightening than that they would impersonate another person at the polls.

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Eric Holder: Trump voter fraud commission led by 'fact-challenged zealot' - CNN International