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On Jan. 21 2017, the Womens March on Washington ledwhat many now believe wasthe largest single-day demonstration in recorded U.S. history. Organized by experienced women of coloractivists and organizers (Linda Sarsour, Tamika Mallory, and Carmen Perez), the march called on women of diverse backgrounds, including immigrant, queer/trans, and Muslim women, to demonstrate a show offorce against the new regime of Donald Trump, which has so far been built almost exclusively on a platform of anti-women, anti-immigrant, anti-Black, anti-Muslim and xenophobic rhetoric.

Despite the impressive critical massthat turned outon January 20th, however, there were substantial and substantiated criticisms of the march:notwithstandingits leadership by women of color, the march was largely white, cisgender, and middle-class in representation.

Amidst white womens calls that womens rights are humans rights, there was little discussion of the way in which white women have historically colluded with white patriarchy in the oppression of Black people to obtain their rights, nor was there discussion of white womens historical participation in thegenocide and oppression of Indigenous people. Not to mention that it was white women who, more than any other single group of people, voted Donald Trump into the presidential office by an overwhelming majority.

In addition, calls for solidarity among all women through the donning of the now infamous pink pussy hats sparked rightful cynicism and criticismfrom trans and gender non-conforming women,many of whom did not appreciate an outdated and exclusionary version of womanhood rooted in biology rather than identity, experience, and structural oppression. Not all women have vaginas, and not all womens parts are pink. For many trans women and/or women of color, the call tounite underasupposedly universal symbol of womanhood that was so blatantly rooted in a white, cisgender experiencemade it impossible to endorse.

Despite its many flaws and shortcomings, however, the Womens March was not a one-time occurrence, and it did not simply disband after the march.

Since Jan. 21, the Womens March has become a smaller but more focused contingent of activists that more pointedly centers issues affectingBlack, immigrant, and Muslim women. Most recently, the WM contingent, under the leadership of Palestinian-American Muslim activist Linda Sarsour,centrally took up the concerns of the Black Lives Matter Movement in a way that it should continue to do if it is to be a lasting force for change during the Trump presidency and beyond.

After news broke last month that the court had failed to indictthe police officer who murdered Philando Castile (a legal, licensed gun carrier in the state of Minnesota), co-chair of the Womens MovementTamika Mallorya Black woman who has spent many years advocating for gun controlissueda letter to the NRA (National Rifle Association) askingwhy it had not stood up for the rights of Philando Castile. Given that Castilewas a legal gun owner (as required by law, Castile informed the officer who pulled him over that he had a legal license to carry), she argued, the NRA logically should have rallied for his cause, since it allegedlysupports the rights of citizens to arm themselves.

In typical hypocrite fashion, however, it soon became clear that by citizens right to bear arms, the NRA didnot mean all citizens, but seeminglyonly white male citizens. Anyone elses right to bear arms, apparently, was not worth defending. Rather than responding to Mallorysletter directly, the NRA instead issued thisoffensive advertisement, and Mallory was deluged with death threats from NRA supporters.In response, Sarsour, Mallory, and the WM contingent led a march from the NRA headquarters to the Department of Justice in Washington D.C.to demand that the NRA be held accountable for its failure to address the infringement of Castiles second amendment rights, and for endangering the safety of Tamika Mallory.

The kind of work that the Womens March is now doingwork that directly and specifically addresses police violence against the Black community and the safety of Black women in particularisexactly the kind of work it should continue to do. In other words, the Womens March should take its cue from the Black Lives Matter movement by centering issues specific to Black women and their communities.If the womens movement is to make any kind of meaningful progress, it must first make Black lives matter.

This is true especially because the Womens March that took place on January 20th, 2017 had an important precedent, which has so far received little attention: the Womens March of 1997, which was entirely conceived and led by Black women. OnOct. 25, 1997, an estimated 750,000 Blackwomen gathered together to march down the Ben Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia, in order to inspire Blackwomen across the nation to work for their own improvement as well as that of their communities. The Womens March should not only acknowledge its debt to this earlier iteration of the Womens March, conceived and ledtwenty years previous by Black women, but should continue to center the voices and issues of Black women which remain by and large unaddressed.

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The Women's March Joins Forces with Black Lives Matter - Wear Your Voice

In the Black Lives Do Matter letter in the Green Valley News, July 16, Georgia Hotton states that when your black, its almost like having a gun pointed at your face, which is from the movie Detroit, to be released next month.

Yes, Hottons claim is absolutely accurate since 93 percent of blacks who are murdered are killed by other blacks. In Chicago, more than 100 people were shot over the long 4th of July holiday, mostly in black neighborhoods, leaving at least 14 dead. The next weekend in Chicago, 40 people were shot, 10 dead. The fatalities included a community activist trying to curb street violence and a 9-year-old boy.

During the past 35 years, according to FBI crime stats, 324,000 (rounded off) blacks were murdered in the United States and 93 percent, or, 301,000, were murdered by blacks.

Hotton claims that blacks are asking for equal justice since a disproportionate number of blacks are imprisoned. We can fix this problem. Lets establish a new criminal statute that plea bargains a certain number of crimes by blacks down to the misdemeanor category, e.g. simple assault, with no state prison time, until the white prison population is equal to the black prison population. There, that took care of that problem.

Hotton further claims that blacks are only responsible for 36 percent of violent crimes while whites commit 42 percent. I will accept Hottons facts as accurate, taken from the book, Tears We Cannot Stop by Michael Dyson, a black activist and professor. What Hotton fails to point out is the disparity in population numbers. Since whites total 76 percent of the U.S. population of 325 million, and blacks represent only 13 percent, there are 173 million more whites available for criminal activity than blacks.

Activists and others who consistently alter and distort the facts in high-profile matters are bent on convincing others that law enforcement is to blame in so-called controversial incidents, usually a police shooting of a black person when the facts, even after a Department of Justice investigation, proved that the witnesses were lying. The shooting of Michael Brown in August 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri, sparked the Black Lives Matter movement nationwide and led to riots across the country. And to this day, many in the African American community still align themselves with the black activists who will not reverse their erroneous conclusions and advise their following of the facts. Why? Because that is what they surreptitiously believe and that is what they shout to their constituents.

In their minds it also justifies their destructive organization, whose platform not only encourages anti-police demonstrations, but openly promotes the killing of police officers. What frequently follows is the looting, burning and razing of their communities across the nation.

Georgia Hotton, you are either part of the problem or have been duped by anti-American fanatics on the extreme left whose focus is to instill hatred and blind allegiance to the destruction of the United States of America, as we know it, through lies, deceit and evil conspiracies.

In his book, Dyson ignores some of the root causes of the black communitys negative profile. He should shout to the gang bangers to stop their illegal activity, stop selling drugs, stop killing each other over turf disputes, advise fathers to assume personal responsibility for bearing children, to promote family values at home, and to advise communities to instill cooperation with law enforcement.

William Davis lives in Green Valley.

Editors note: The 93 percent statistic for black-on-black homicides comes from a 2010 Bureau of Justice Statistics report that looked at black homicide victims from 1980 through 2008. That report also concluded that 84 percent of white victims were killed by white offenders.

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IN MY VIEW: Do black lives matter to blacks? - Green Valley News

By Katie Mitchell

After fours years of rapid national expansion, the future of the Black Lives Matter movement is uncertain. The 2016 presidential election of Donald Trump and the concurrent Republican sweep of Congress radically transformed the national political landscape. And for advocacy organizations like the Black Lives Matter Network, the prospect of garnering nationwide policy change has plummeted.

In the first half of this year, the organization has spent much time recoiling from this conservative revolution. Both the Washington Post and BuzzFeed have reported a slowdown in BLM street protests. And in a recent NPR interview, Black Lives Matter network co-founder, Patrisse Khan-Cullors referred to the movements national prospects as devastating.

However last week, on its fourth anniversary, the BLM Network took account of the movements victories to date and articulated a robust new game plan for operating in Trumps America moving forward. In the 55 page report, organizers sketched out how a localized, intersectional agenda can keep the movements momentum going during this time of political uncertainty.

Our dissent, demonstrations, demands, and tireless fight for dignity have revealed a ubiquitous white rage, resentment, and revenge, Shanelle Matthews, Director of Communications for the Black Lives Matter Global Network said in the written statement referring to the nations rise in popular xenophobia and racism. Coupled with economic insecurity and a rise in global conservatism, we are living in a more precarious political landscape than we were just one presidential election ago.

Despite that, our mandate has not changed, Matthews continued. Organize and end all state-sanctioned violence until all Black Lives Matter.

Beyond Matthews resolute call to continue organizing, her emphasis on advocating for all black lives is an important distinction. As the movement has blossomed in recent years, leaders have combatted the common tendency to only rally around male, cisgender victims of police brutality and elevate cisgender male voices in protest leadership roles. Rather, BLM has prioritized centering women and trans people in both leadership roles and advocacy.

As organizers who work with everyday people, BLM members see and understand significant gaps in movement spaces and leadership. A network spokesperson said in the anniversary report. Black liberation movements in this country have created room, space, and leadership mostly for Black heterosexual, cisgender menleaving women, queer and transgender people, and others either out of the movement or in the background to move the work forward with little or no recognition.

As a network, we have always recognized the need to center the leadership of women and queer and trans people, the report explained.

Political scientist note just how sharply this focus on centering the most marginalized communities and amplifying their voices sharply contrasts from traditional civil rights advocacy groups operating principles.

Placing police brutality into a wider web of inequality has largely been missing from the more narrowly crafted agendas of the liberal establishment organizations, like [Rev. Al] Sharptons National Action Network (NAN), which have focused more on resolving the details of particular cases than on generalizing about the systemic nature of police violence, Princeton University Professor of African-American Studies Dr. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor writes in From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation.

Taylor explains this means that the legacy civil rights organizations usually concentrate on legal approaches to addressing police brutality, whereas this generation of activist connects police oppression with other social issues.

In the BLM Network four-year report, writers highlight both the strategic and social value of addressing the interwoven web ofcrises such as transphobia, sexism, poverty, and structural racism.

In addition to continuing to cultivate diverse coalition across identities, BLM activists are doubling down on the local, grassroots tactics in light of the Trump Administration. Given that the Trump White House has articulated a staunchly adversarial stance towards Black Lives Matter, organizers are looking to local state legislators and city councils to achieve the policy changes that they seek.

The local is where the work is, Cullorssaid in an interview with NPR. if you zoom in to cities, to towns, to rural areas, people are fighting back, and people are winning.

The organizers who authored the report have confidence that this combined strategy of intersectional and local organizing will be a successful formula.

Despite all that we are up against given this new political landscape, we are uniquely positioned to build substantial power for Black people in 2017. Shanelle Matthews wrote in the report. We know this because we have been here before, and we have the wisdom of elders and the wherewithal to listen and strategize accordingly.

The work will be harder, Matthews wrote, but the work is the same.

Author Bio: Katie is a public health professional, focusing on health communication and programming. Shes most passionate about eliminating the health disparities that negatively impact Black mothers and their children. She enjoys reading, devouring chocolate chip cookies, and pretending to be from Atlanta. Shes on theTwitterand not much else.

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On Its Fourth Birthday, Black Lives Matter Doubles Down On An Intersectional Agenda - Wear Your Voice

A sign in south Minneapolis, where a woman was killed Saturday night by a police officer, reads "Why did you shoot and kill our neighbor and friend?" Doualy Xaykaothao/MPR News hide caption

A sign in south Minneapolis, where a woman was killed Saturday night by a police officer, reads "Why did you shoot and kill our neighbor and friend?"

A woman died after being shot by a Minneapolis police officer late Saturday night, according to the state's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

Her identity has not been released by authorities, but her fianc Don Damond identified her to MPR as Justine Ruszczyk, an Australian woman who taught yoga and meditation.

Around 11:30 p.m. CT Saturday, two Minneapolis police officers responded to a 911 call of a possible assault in south Minneapolis. One officer shot and killed the woman.

According to the bureau, the two officers did not have their body cameras turned on, nor did the squad camera record the fatal shooting.

Late Sunday afternoon, Minneapolis mayor Betsy Hodges and Assistant Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said they had few other details to share.

Arradondo said following the 911 call, officers were dispatched on an "unknown trouble" call. He said officers arrived at the address and when it became a shooting he alerted the BCA, which now leads the investigation.

The Hennepin county Medical Examiner's Office is conducting an autopsy.

Both Hodges and Arradondo said they are not releasing the victim's name and said that information will later come from the BCA.

But at a gathering Saturday night, friends and neighbors said the victim taught yoga and meditation in the community.

At a healing circle in front of the crime scene, those neighbors and close friends, as well as Black Lives Matter activists and members of Womens March Minnesota, held hands, and talked about the deceased woman, naming her simply as "Justine."

"Peace flowed through her," said neighbor Melinda Barry. "She was a lovely, lovely person. And we want to remember Justine tonight, and call for answers, but we want just to remember and respect Justine, tonight, and her family, and share our love for her family, and how much we want to wrap our support around them."

Nancy Coune and Cindi Claypatch said they knew her well from their involvement at the Lake Harriet Spiritual Community Center in South Minneapolis.

"If you could just see her, she was adorable with this incredible smile," said Coune.

"You know, it's like when you're in the presence of a room with somebody who's in a nice feeling, you rise whether they open their mouth or not ... she was really shiny, she was very bright," added Claypatch.

Eduardo Drake is also part of the Lake Harriet Spiritual Community Center. He brought flowers and wrote a message in chalk for his friend.

"Justine was all about love, just bringing your biggest heart forward, no matter what you're doing in life," said Drake. "Her loss, for me, is just a personal reminder that we shouldn't waste time on petty gripes or complaints, we should just find a way to love, bigger and better, because we don't know when the people we care about may not be there anymore."

Friends and community members say they want to know the names of the two officers involved in the shooting, and also want transparency as the investigation continues.

Mayor Betsy Hodges said it's "difficult and challenging" to have few facts at this point.

She called the southwest Minneapolis neighborhood where the shooting happened "tightknit." She represented the area when she served on the city council.

Earlier Sunday in a statement Hodges said, "my understanding, from the BCA's initial statement, is that the officers' body cameras were not turned on at the time of the incident and the squad camera did not capture the incident. I intend to learn more."

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Minneapolis Woman Killed By Police Officer After Call Of Possible Assault - NPR

WASHINGTON A Baton Rouge police officer left permanently disabled after a black separatist killed three policemen and injured three more in a shootout is now suing Black Lives Matter for inciting violence across the United States, and one author thinks this may be the lawsuit that puts to an end the violent BLM movement.

The suit, filed by an anonymous victim of the gunmans deadly ambush on police, names Deray Mckesson and four other Black Lives Matter leaders as defendants.

Mckesson, who has met with former President Obama in the White House, is a prominent organizer for Black Lives Matter.

Gavin Long, a 29-year-old Marine, targeted police outside a convenience store near the Baton Rouge police headquarters in July 2016, opening fire with a semi-automatic rifle. He was killed after a shootout with police.

Anyone who remembers how the Southern Poverty Law Center made its bones will rejoice at the news of this lawsuit, Colin Flaherty, author of White Girl Bleed A Lot, told WND.

The SPLC sued the [Klu Klux Klan] and won a large judgment because it convinced a jury that the Klan was fomenting violence around the country. Whatever the Klan did, however the Klan did it, it is plain to see that Black Lives Matter encourages the same violence with two big differences: 1) People actually listened to BLM. 2) There was tons and tons of violence associated with BLM activities all over the country.

Flaherty added both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders supported BLM or used BLM talking points during the 2016 election.

And they were not hiding anything: Just the opposite, violence against police was one of their major themes, Flaherty said. They called it self-defense, and they were successful in convincing a large number of their members that attacking police was just fine because it was self-defense or retribution.

Flaherty, who has extensively studied and documented the violence committed by BLM, believes the damage from BLM riots is beyond calculation.

In Baltimore, more than 60 business owners are filing the same kind of suit against the city, saying the city encouraged then allowed large-scale black mob violence against their business, Flaherty said, adding, I would love to sit on this jury.

Long had said he wanted to bring the same destruction that bad cops continue to inflict upon my people, upon bad cops as well as good cops in hopes that the good cops (which are the majority) will be able to stand together to enact justice and punishment against bad cops.

Before the attack, Long searched online for the addresses of police officers involved in the fatal shooting of Alton Sterling, a black man killed by police outside a store in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Its never been tougher to be one of the men in blue than it is right now. Get The War On Police: How the Ferguson Effect Is Making America Unsafe now at the WND Superstore

Sterlings death fueled Black Lives Matter protests across the country, and led to a local protest in Baton Rouge that saw nearly 200 people arrested.

The recently filed lawsuit notes that DeRay Mckesson was in charge of the Baton Rouge protests, and reports that the protest turned into a riot.

Rather than work to calm the crowd, Mckesson allegedly incited the protesters to riot and commit violence, the suit claims.

The suit further claims that Black Live Matters leaders encourage violence against police generally, especially in retaliation for the death of black men killed by police.

Im very intrigued by this lawsuit and anxious to see how the courts rule on it, said Jeff Roorda, a retired police officer and a four-term Missouri state representative who currently works for the St. Louis Police Officers Association. We have a balancing test in the courts in this country that weighs the importance of free speech against the recklessness of dishonest, dangerous words.

Itll be interesting to see if the court holds BLM and its leaders to the same standards that the rest of we Americans are held to.

Before Longs shooting in Baton Rouge, Micah Xavier Johnson killed five police officers and injured nine others in another allegedly Black Lives Matter-inspired attack in Dallas, Texas.

Johnson claimed he was angry over police killings of black men and stated he wanted to kill white people, namely white police officers, according to Dallas Police Chief David Brown.

Barack Obama claimed at the time that it was very hard to untangle the motives surrounding the Dallas attack.

The so-called random violence against police officers in Dallas, Baton Rouge, and so many other places isnt random at all, Roorda, author of The War on Police: How the Ferguson Effect is Making America Unsafe, told WND. This hate-inspired violence based on the hands-up, dont shoot lie has to stop.

Johnsons social media included an image with the slogan Black Power, and he had expressed interest in the Facebook page of the New Black Panther Party, the Washington Post reports.

The plaintiff in the case is reportedly a 42-year-old father of two and an 18-year veteran of law enforcement.

The plaintiff was left with brain damage after being shot by Long, and only recently emerged from a vegetative state.

The suit asks for at least $75,000 in damages.

This is the second lawsuit filed against Mckesson by a Baton Rouge police officer.

A previously filed lawsuit claims that Mckesson was responsible for injuries sustained by police during the Baton Rouge protests. A federal judge has yet to rule on whether the lawsuit will move forward.

Mckesson himself was arrested during the Alton Sterling protests, but charges were never brought against him.

The truth is that cops are getting shot and killed by the same criminals who are committing the black-on-black violence that plagues our inner cities, Roorda believes.

Lets stop pretending that those who turn violence against the protectors of our most vulnerable are some sort of martyrs. Theyre not. Theyre just murderers.

Its never been tougher to be one of the men in blue than it is right now. Get The War On Police: How the Ferguson Effect Is Making America Unsafe now at the WND Superstore

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Author: Black Lives Matter encourages KKK-like violence - WND.com