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Denver Protests Ongoing Imperialist Wars

(raimd.wordpress.com)

October 7 was the 8th anniversary of the start of the current war in Afghanistan by the United States. A number of national groups in the remaining U.S. anti-war movement called for actions. Locally the Denver Anti-War Network (DAWN) called for a march many months ago, and it kicked off this day. Many activists gathered for two separate events in Denver on October 7th, a march against the Afghanistan war, and a “Justice and Peace Jamboree” right after the march.

About 50 people mobilized for a rally and march that started at the Denver Federal Courthouse downtown. A rally was held there for an hour. A street theater was held about the situation in Afghanistan. The crowd consisted of nominal anti-imperialists, anarchists, national liberation supporters, and anti-police brutality activists, along with RAIM members and supporters. As it was a broad-based march against the war in Afghanistan, there were many who advocated First Worldist, pro-Amerika politics. RAIM provided many anti-imperialist, anti-Amerika, anti-troop, and pro-Third World signs and slogans to promote our politics. After the rally the march then set down 16th Street mall. It was small in comparison to previous anti-war rallies, but was spirited and opted for more charged slogans. “Number One Terrorist, U.S. Imperialists” were chanted by a large majority of the protesters for much of the march. The protest itself stayed on message, the notable interject of the so-called health care debate in the march was a sign brought by a RAIM comrade: “The Real Health Care Crisis- Amerikan Imperialism.”

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Follow this link for the audio file: http://www.ucimc.org/content/kiwane-carrington-press-conference-audio-0.

Community leaders, family members and concerned citizens gathered for a press conference this morning at the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center to address the police killing of unarmed 15 year-old African American youth, Kiwane Carrington.  He was shot dead at a residence in Champaign on October 9, 2009 after police responded to a call of an alleged burglary in the 900 block of W. Vine St. at 1:20pm.

Kiwane Carrington press conference.

Location: UC-IMC

Date: Monday, October 9, 2009. 10:00am.

On Friday afternoon, Oct. 9, 2009, Champaign police fatally shot an unarmed 15 year-old African American named Kiwane Carrington. The name of the Champaign police officer who did the shooting or how many police officers were involved has not been released. The Illinois State Police are currently investigating the death.

Champaign police responded to a call at 1:20 p.m. of an alleged burglary in the 900 block of W. Vine St. According to a statement from Champaign police at 5:30 p.m., they were “confronted” by two 15 year olds when they arrived. Both refused to obey the officers and get on the ground. A physical struggle ensued during which a weapon “was discharged resulting in the fatal wounding of one of the subjects.” Although the names of the officers involved in the struggle have not been released, Champaign Police Chief R. T. Finney’s shoulder was sprained in the incident.

The second youth was arrested, charged with residential burglary, and taken to the Youth Detention Center. Because he is a juvenile, his name is not being released.

Our condolences to the family of young Kiwane Carrington.

The October episode of Chicago Independent Television features a film by the Unlympics Committee, a Chicago grassroots group asking critical questions (and organizing fun activities!) about Chicago's recent bid for the Olympics. That is followed by two segments pertaining to the 2008 Republican National Convention — one in which a St. Paul prosecutor comes to Chicago to face a protest, and another which covers one year since the infamous 2008 crackdown in St. Paul against RNC activists. And finally, we'll visit peace activists who make their presence felt at the 2009 Chicago Air and Water Show.

Read more about Episode 51 | CIMC TV Podcast | CIMC Video Page | CITV on YouTube

Only one day after the anti-"Chief" rally at Assembly Hall protesting the Students for Chief Illiniwek's "Next Dance," the News Gazette had a major story buried on A8 of the Sunday newspaper.

In the middle of the page is a headline "Regalia returned."  There is a picture of former "Chief" portrayers and representatives of the Ogalala Lakota College.  The caption reads: "Former Chief Illiniwek portrayers and representatives of the Ogalala Lakota College gather outside the Varsity Room at Memorial Stadium on Saturday before the Illinois-Penn State football game in preparation for a transfer of the University of Illinois' chief regalia to Ogalala Lakota College.  A News-Gazette photographer was refused admittance to the ceremony by UI Associate Director of Athletics Dana Brenner, who told the photographer it was a 'private function.'"

This return comes after past statements from Frank Fools Crow disapproving of how the University used the regalia it purchased from him, the Executive Committee of the Ogalala Tribal Council passing a resolution asking the regalia be returned and the subsequent retirement of the "Chief" by the University in 2007.

From the Newswire: "Throughout the…litany of news coverage on the IOC’s decision [to award the 2016 Olympics to Rio de Janeiro rather than Chicago], little attention has been given to what is arguably the majority sentiment in Chicago. When citizen opposition, polls and community organizing is taken into consideration, today’s decision is not appropriately characterized by “deep sadness.” Community leaders and organizers, as well as citizens, registered far different reactions than what was expressed by politicians and prominently echoed by U.S.-based mainstream media outlets."

"J.R. Fleming, an organizer with the Olympics Human Rights Project of Chicago, told CIMC that there were, “many issues that needed to be addressed before the Olympics. Homelessness, our transportation and educational structures are horrible. The demolition of public housing here in Chicago and nationally, there are 300,000 people a month are losing their jobs.”

“We dodged a real bullet today,” Tom Tresser exclaimed from Copenhagen via Skype to CIMC. Tresser is a long-time Chicago activist and an organizer with one of the lead opposition groups to Chicago’s bid, the coalition No Games Chicago. “This was a real wake up call to the mayor and his team who has been pushing this thing for years spending millions of dollars that should have gone to the neediest, not the greediest. This is a time to be giving more to people who are losing their homes, and instead it went to people who are planning a party that fortunately will never happen,” Tresser said.

"The final toll in terms of the city’s costs for promoting its bid for the Olympics was in upwards of $50 million dollars, including $3.1 million doled out to the powerful Hill and Knowlton public relations firm, hired three years ago by the city of Chicago to promote its bid." Read more

Additional Coverage: Victory: Chicago Loses The Olympics | Chicago Reader - 2016 Olympics: more post-mortem | Chicago Reader - Meanwhile, There's A City To Run | Think Progress: Bush Administration’s Tourist Visa Policy May Have Cost America The 2016 Olympics

Despite the dreary day, about 75 people came out for the sixth annual Unity March on October 3, 2009. The event is a unique coming together of black, brown, and white people from both the campus and the community. This year’s march addressed the growing economic crisis, the need for health care and housing for all, and the criminalization of the poor.

The march kicked off from the Champaign city building. The Champaign city council has repeatedly been negligent in protecting its most vulnerable citizens, failing to adequately fund the Township office which provides for the poorest of the poor, refusing to penalize the owners of Gateway Hotel which displaced 200 poor people when it closed, and enforcing its zoning codes to shut down the Safe Haven tent community of homeless men and women.

More than 200 people marched across the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to protest the return of its racist mascot, “the Chief,” which was retired by the Board of Trustees in February 2007.

For the second year a registered student organization, Students for Chief Illiniwek, has rented Assembly Hall to hold an event called “The Next Dance” for those who wish to see the mascot’s return. The University of Illinois continues to refuse to educate its students about the reason for the mascot’s retirement, or enforce its trademark on the image.

The march began at the Alma Mater and went up Green Street. University of Illinois and Champaign police had threatened organizers that they would be arrested if anyone walked in the street. A remarkably well-organized event, the crowd policed itself with designated individuals wearing red arm bands and ushering the marchers. There were two legal observers and medical technicians also present. There were fortunately no arrests.

Jacob Richards of  Housing First! No More Deaths (above)

An organizer of the Housing First! No More Deaths! campaign was arrested 09/29/09 during the group's weekly meeting, in an act of politically targeted police abuse of power. Housing First! No More Deaths! is committed to empowering people to actively and collectively work to address root causes of houselessness and create grassroots solutions. 

The arrest of Jacob Richards was an obvious act of retribution for his political activities. On 9/28/09, Richards assisted local houseless community members who were being harassed in a public park by two officers from the Grand Junction Police Department. The same two officers returned on 9/29/09 during the publicly advertised campaign meeting, asked Richards to identify himself, and arrested him on an unrelated petty matter.

Despite the fact that the GJPD has a working relationship with Richards and is in regular contact with him, they chose to arrest him in the public arena of a campaign meeting. In a phone conversation a few hours after the arrest, Deputy Chief of Police John Zen stated, “That makes it look like retribution for political activities.”

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On September 29, hundreds attended a protest outside City Hall in downtown Chicago against Chicago's bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics, and decrying the Olympic bid as a financial boondoggle for the city. Even though some 300 attended the rally, public opinion against Chicago 2016 has grown, with even Chicago corporate media finding a majority of Chicagoans opposed to the bid (meanwhile, Madrid saw half a million people rally FOR Madrid's 2016 Olympic bid). "That these poll numbers couldn't be translated into larger numbers of people on the street yesterday is a reflection of the fact that many religious and community organizations that focus on survival issues that would be directly impacted by these games – food, housing, education, jobs – are apparently intimidated into keeping their opposition silent."

The Chicago bid book, which outlines the financial proposal for Chicago's 2016 bid, was written before the recession hit and many of the anticipated funding streams have since dried up. Thus, funding the Olympics could skyrocket into the billions of dollars with the shortfall paid by city residents and from the city's controversial TIF program — an ostensible program to aid development but which has morphed into a mechanism to funnel public funds into unaccountable slush funds controlled by Mayor Daley and approved surrogates.

Activism on the Olympics in Chicago has increased, with No Games Chicago sending delegates to Copenhagen where the final vote will take place on October 2nd. The Chicago 2016 publicity machine, run by the controversial PR group Hill & Knowlton, has deployed an all-star team to sway the International Olympic Committee, including President Obama and even possibly Michael Jordan. Despite this blitz, analysts say that Rio De Janeiro is still a slight favorite to win the 2016 Olympics.

Past IMC coverage: Feature: Chicago Opposition to 2016 Olympics Bid Ramps Up | Video: No Games Chicago Rally in Chicago | Video: Critical Mass Opposes the Olympics in Chicago

Additional coverage: No Games Chicago | NGC Copenhagen Coverage | Chicago Reader's Coverage of the Chicago 2016 Olympics Bid | Chicago 2016 Olympics meets the public: full audio | Truthout: The Invisible Fourth Pillar

At the conclusion of the Pittsburgh G20 summit and resistance, videos of police brutality produced by G-Infinity Media (project of Pittsburgh IMC) have received hundreds of thousands of hits.  But the independent journalists behind the people's perspective coverage of the summit were targeted by authorities during the worst of the police riots Friday night at the University of Pittsburgh.

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**Feel Free to Forward to Other Interested Folks**

Denver Anarchist Black Cross has been busy organizing letter writing nights, a 5K run, and establishing connections with political prisoners and fellow badass people in the movement. To keep up with what we're doing and actions you can take to support political prisoners and work to better defend our movements please subscribe to our announcement list by going to

http://groups.google.com/group/denver-abc-announce/subscribe

We're committed to keeping the list to a low level of traffic, so you'll only get information about upcoming events and occasional urgent calls to action. For daily news on the status of political prisoners, state repression, prisoner writing and much more visit out blog at denverabc.wordpress.com

We've got a lot of fun and exciting work coming up- a Zombie Martyr Ball, hip hop benefit show for Mutulu Shakur and a film screening on National Stop Police Brutality Day (October 22nd). To be the first to know about this and more make sure to sign up!

Love and Solidarity,
Denver Anarchist Black Cross

Start Time:  October 3, 2009 11:00am - 2:00pm

The U-C Independent Media Center is celebrating 10 years of promoting social and economic justice in the Champaign County area. Find out what the fuss is about at our open house on Saturday, October 3 from 11-2pm at 202 S. Broadway Street in Urbana.

The 6th Annual Unity March is Saturday, Oct. 3, at noon.

It will kick off from the Champaign City Building in downtown Champaign, travel down University Ave, and end for a rally at the Champaign County Courthouse.

There will be a reception at the Independent Media Center afterwards.

*Bring donations (blankets and bedding) to benefit Safe Haven.

 

Date: October 2, 2009
Location: UIUC Assembly Hall (1800 S. 1st Street, Champaign, IL)

Time: 6:00pm Rally Before the ‘Next Dance’
7:00pm Press Release & Coalition Speakers
7:30pm Open Mic
8:15pm Rally After the ‘Next Dance’

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign retired “Chief Illiniwek” as its official symbol in February of 2007. However, this has not stopped student organizations such at the Students for Chief Illiniwek (SFCI) from using the name and imagery of the “Chief”:

Last year, the SFCI hosted a similar performance on November 15, 2008. Here is a link to some of the media coverage from last year’s “Next Dance” as well as the protest to the “Next Dance”: http://www.iresist.org/next_dance.html

The G20, an economic forum from 19 countries and the European Union, is holding its September 2009 summit in Pittsburgh. The summit and the city have crystallized as a flashpoint for activist efforts on the economic crisis, the climate crisis, and many human rights crises.

Police and deputies have repressed, attacked, and harrassed the thousands of activists who have converged in Pittsburgh for the G20 protests and the assorted events organized nearby. Chicagoans are also entering the fray, covering the protest preparation.

Indymedia Coverage: Pittsburgh Indymedia/G-Infinity Media | Rochester IMC | Twin Cities IMC | G20 IMC Twitter Feed

Videos from Chicago Independent Television: G20 Pittsburgh: Scanner recordings of "police riot" at University of Pittsburgh | G20 Pittsburgh - Which Side Are You On? | Anarchist Bloc in Peoples March - G20 Pittsburgh | Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) G20 Pittsburgh | Hitler running security during G20 Pittsburgh NSSE (Hitler spoof)

G20 LINKS author: Joe Anybody

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G20 is Live
Here are links to the Independent Media covering the mess
Time now is 10:20 am on thursday (PST)

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Pittsburgh G20

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 http://twitter.com/g20imc ---Twitter Account at the G20

On August 24th, eleven windows at the Colorado Democratic Party Headquarters were purposefully broken. The media quickly took up the story, but only within a narrow framework that couldn’t explain the incident. As members of the Denver Anarchist Black Cross, we would like to offer a practical analysis of why someone might take such action against the Democratic Party.

The first question asked by the media, understandably, was why this was done. Unfortunately, the question was framed as all political questions are framed in our society—right or left? Whoever smashed the windows could either be a “Republican thug” attempting to intimidate the Democrats, or a Democrat provocateur trying to soil the image of the Republicans.

To frame the issue in the same old Democrat/Republican binary is to once again assume that those are our only options. This framework dismisses or simplifies the experiences of the vast majority of people. People have diverse understandings of the world, and unique desires and goals that do not fit perfectly into political party boxes. In the end, the framework failed as the suspect was identified as an anarchist, a “fan of no party.”

The political system was not the only binary imposed by the media coverage of the incident. Blog, radio, and newspaper reports all grappled to identify the gender of the arrested suspect when reports from the police came into conflict with communication from the individual’s friends. In the confusion, some reports claimed there had been two different people arrested. The media eventually reported that the arrestee is transgender.

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DENVER - A jury of three men and three women reached a verdict on the fate of a Denver Police officer who was videotaped slamming a man's head into the ground during an arrest outside of Coors Field last year on the Opening Day of the Colorado Rockies.
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Cpl. Michael Cordova was found not guilty of the third-degree misdemeanor. Cordova, who was hired in 2001, will be able to continue working in law enforcement.

John Heaney, who was riding his bike past Coors Field on the way to see his mother in a nearby hospice, claims the under officers taunted and challenged him. Not knowing they were cops, Heaney says he tipped off Cordova's hat. After that, the 58-year-old man claims the officers pulled him off his bike, kicked, punched and beat him.

When he was lying on his stomach about to be handcuffed, video shows Cordova pulling Heaney's head up with his ponytail, then slamming his face into the ground.

The arrest was caught on videotape by a local sports production crew.

The jury began deliberating around 11 a.m. Tuesday morning, after hearing closing arguments. Cpl. Cordova did not take the stand in his own defense.

"We feel like we established enough facts to prove our case," Cordova's defense attorney Marc Colin said.

During the trial, Colin argued to jurors that the sound on the videotape and that witnesses say they heard was not the sound of Heaney's two front teeth breaking on the cement, but rather it was the sound of a baseball hitting a bat during batting practice outside of Coors Field.

The defense also called expert witnesses who said it looked like Heaney was resisting arrest on the videotape, and as a result, Cordova and other police officers were legally authorized to use force to take Heaney into custody.

"Cordova acted within the duties of a police officer and within the scope of his training," Colin told jurors.

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