RSN: David Sirota | Polls Showed Many Americans Opposed to Civil Rights Protests in the 1960s. But That Changed.

15 June 20

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David Sirota | Polls Showed Many Americans Opposed to Civil Rights Protests in the 1960s. But That Changed.

David Sirota, Jacobin
Sirota writes: "If you find yourself playing pundit and citing current polling as proof that today's civil rights protests against police violence and calls to 'defund the police' will inevitably fail, do yourself a favor: pause and look back at polling from the last successful civil rights uprising in American history."
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"Totally Predictable": State Reopenings Have Backfired
Brian Resnick, Vox
Resnick writes: "Call it a reopening backfire. But really: No expert thought that reopening this quickly was going to work in the first place."
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Montgomery County, Maryland police officer and instructor Craig Dickerson demonstrates an X2 taser during a demonstration for Reuters at the department's training academy in Rockville, Maryland, U.S. September 7, 2016. (photo: USA-Taser/Science Reuters/Gary Cameron)

Black Americans Disproportionately Die in Police Taser Confrontations
Linda So, Reuters
So writes: "As police confront protesters across the United States, they're turning to rubber bullets, pepper spray, tear gas and other weapons meant to minimize fatalities. But some are using a weapon that has potential to kill: the Taser."
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Mando Avery's son, whose name is being withheld for privacy reasons. (photo: Shenelle Williams/Guardian UK)

Outrage Over Video Showing Police Macing Child at Seattle Protest
Hallie Golden, Guardian UK
Golden writes: "The footage captures the outrage of protesters who demand to know why police maced a child, and made no attempt to help."

Footage captures fury of protesters who demand to know why police maced a child, and made no attempt to help

tanding among a group of peaceful anti-racism protesters in downtown Seattle on a recent Saturday afternoon, Mando Avery held his seven-year-old son’s hand as he and three generations of his African American family finished a prayer with members of their church.

Only feet away, Evan Hreha, 34, a hairstylist, arrived at the protests alone.

That was when, Avery said, out of nowhere, a police officer fired mace at the group. It hit his son square in the face.

As the young boy screamed and clutched on to his father, Hreha caught it all on camera. He confronted the officer he believed had maced the boy and told him the footage was going online. He then posted it on social media.

The footage captures the outrage of protesters who demand to know why police maced a child, and made no attempt to help.

Since then, Hreha has been arrested and spent two days in jail for what some are calling police retribution for a video which went viral. The young boy is still traumatized, reeling from the chemical burn on his cheek and asking his parents what he did to deserve it.

“I would say that you were targeting my boy,” Avery told the Guardian, asked what he would say to police.

“I don’t know if you were trying to set an example and strike fear into him. You did a great job.”

What upsets him most, Avery said, is that officers and a group of emergency medical technicians standing about a block away did not step in to help.

“No officer, who’s paid to protect, chose to stand up, break the ranks, go help this child,” he said.

“I just don’t understand how any of them can sleep.”

Police violence and arrests in response to mostly peaceful protests have become one of the themes of nationwide demonstrations triggered by the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May. Protesters have been teargassed, beaten, hit with rubber bullets and kettled. Thousands have reported injuries, some life-threatening, with thousands more arrested. Many face jail time.

After the first weekend of protests in Seattle, the city’s Office of Police Accountability reported at least 12,000 complaints. The majority were related to Avery’s son, whose name is being withheld to protect his privacy.

The OPA has said it is expediting its investigation. Last week, officials announced they would ban the use of teargas during protests for 30 days.

On Saturday 30 May, Avery said, his family drove nearly an hour north from Tacoma, Washington, to be a part of the anti-racism movement and fight for police reform. The family has received some criticism online about bringing their young child to the protests. But when they circled the blocks around the demonstrations, looking for parking, they spotted other families with young children and pets. It felt completely safe, they said.

Within 45 minutes, the boy, who will be entering third grade in the fall, had been maced.

Shenelle Williams, his mother, said hearing his scream was the “most gut-wrenching feeling”.

“I kind of feel like a failure as well,” she said, “because I feel like I couldn’t protect him, but there was nothing that we could do at that time to prevent it.”

Protesters poured milk on the boy’s face, and offered water. On video, they can be heard trying to comfort the screaming child, saying, “It’s going to be OK” and “Give her some space” – many initially mistaking the boy for a girl.

The family is working with a lawyer who is examining what went wrong in this case and many others in Seattle, and what needs to be changed, before deciding on next steps.

“We just wanted to stand up for what was right,” Avery said. “Ultimately our boys will become men and our daughters will become women. And they will ultimately have to face some of the same racial injustices. And enough is enough. Black lives matter.”

Avery said the family’s experience has only served to emphasize the importance of protests and police reform. He said his son has already told him: “One day, daddy, we’re going to get back out there.”

‘It shattered that false narrative’

As his video footage racked up thousands of views, Hreha continued to attend the protests.

But a week later, he was walking home after spending an evening helping a friend hand out free hotdogs to protesters when a group of at least seven police officers surrounded him. They told him, he said, that he had been identified as someone who pointed a laser in an officer’s eye. The officers handcuffed him and took him off to jail.

Hreha said he kept telling the officers he didn’t have a laser and had spent the evening at the hotdog stand. Nonetheless, he was denied bail and ultimately held for two days.

His lawyer, Talitha Hazelton, said there were no pending charges against him and no sign of any “documentation with any narrative about the incident that allegedly justified his arrest”.

Hreha, who is white, said he believes the arrest was in response to the video he took and posted. He now feels there is a target on his back, which has given him a very small taste of what black people deal with every day.

“It’s woken me up a bit,” he said. “It just kind of shattered that false narrative that was in my head that cops always protect and serve.”

The Guardian contacted the Seattle police department for comment, and was referred to the OPA, which said it did not know if a complaint had been received about Hreha’s arrest. Seattle PD referred a further request for comment to the city attorney, which said the Seattle PD had not yet referred the case.

The OPA said the “child pepper spray case” was “currently being investigated. We should have a public update on the progress soon.”

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Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson has expressed concern about the impact on residents of women-only shelters when transgender women are allowed to share bathroom and shower areas. (photo: Astrid Riecken/The Washington Post/AP)

HUD to Discriminate Against Transgender in Rules Flip for Single-Sex Homeless Shelters
Paige Winfield Cunningham, The Washington Post
Excerpt: "Single-sex homeless shelters could choose to accommodate only people whose biological sex matches that of those they serve, under a rule to be proposed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development in the coming weeks."
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Former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who was detained and accused of espionage, holds a sign as he stands inside a defendants' cage during his verdict hearing in Moscow on Monday. (photo: Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

American Paul Whelan Convicted of Spying by Russia, Gets 16 Years in Prison
Isabelle Khurshudyan, The Washington Post
Khurshudyan writes: "Former Marine Paul Whelan was sentenced to 16 years of hard labor in a Russian prison for espionage Monday, the conclusion to a case that has added tension to already strained relations between the United States and Russia."

EXCERPT:

Whelan, 50, said throughout the trial that he was framed. His lawyer, Vladimir Zherebenkov, said his client was unwittingly handed a flash drive containing “state secrets” while visiting Russia for a wedding in late 2018. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Whelan was caught “red-handed.”

Whelan has said he thought the flash drive that he received from an acquaintance contained holiday photos. He said Monday that he plans to appeal the court’s decision.

Now that Whelan has been convicted, speculation is rife about a possible prisoner exchange with the United States. Zherebenkov, Whelan’s attorney, said Monday that “Paul expected this decision because even when he was detained, he was told [by Russian security service agents] that he would be exchanged.”

Without revealing his source, Zherebenkov said he was told Konstantin Yaroshenko, a pilot who was arrested in 2010 for conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the United States, and Viktor Bout, a gun runner who inspired the 2005 Hollywood film “Lord of War,” are the people the Kremlin is focused on as possible trades for Whelan’s release.

“I heard talk that, why should we waste time on the appeal if we can just go ahead with the exchange?” Zherebenkov said. “I can't give you any names, but I know that the exchange is being discussed.”

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Richard Byma from By Acre farms in Sussex County, New Jersey, tends to his Holstein herd in 2007. (photo: Neville Elder/Corbis/Getty Images)

These Small Dairy Farms Are a Model for a Resilient Food System
Andrew Carlson, Daniel Rubenstein and Simon Levin, YES! Magazine
Excerpt: "Rather than selling their milk to large dairy processing companies, vertically structured local farms raise cows, process milk and other foods, and sell them directly to consumers at farm-operated markets and restaurants."
READ MORE

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Westport dairy farms hard hit by coronavirus crisis

Westport dairy farms hard hit by coronavirus crisis



By Jeffrey D. Wagner / Herald News


Some markets have dried up and Garelick plant temporarily closed


WESTPORT — There are fewer than a handful of dairy farmers in town and all have had it worse than any other farming market locally, according to Agricultural Commission Chairman Ray Raposa.

“It’s been tough, as if the business isn’t tough already,” multi-generation farmer Andrew Ferry said during an interview on Tuesday.

Ferry owns Pine Hill Dairy at 272 Pine Hill Road. His father, Michael Ferry, also does dairy work at his farm on Gifford Road. The Ferry family has farmed for generations.

The two say that the COVID-19 epidemic has been especially tough for business in an already difficult time for dairy farming.

Their businesses, as well as Shy Brothers Farm, are part of a Dairy Farms of American cooperative, which ships milk to be processed at a Garelick Farms plant in Franklin, Raposa said.

A worker at the plant tested positive for COVID-19 and that shut the plant down for more than a week, forcing some locally produced milk in Westport to be dumped at a waste processing site, said Ferry.

Andrew Ferry has a stand outside his Pine Hill Road operation, an “honor system” where travelers can stop and buy raw milk. But, all excess milk goes to the Garelick Farms plant.

Luckily, the plant is operating again, according to Andrew Ferry. Ferry and his dad, Michael, say that they are hoping to build their own processing plant later this spring on Michael Ferry’s Gifford Road property.

The duo have a bottling plant already, so a processing facility would allow the Ferrys to do everything on site, and make different products as well.

“It is the only hope that I have right now,” Andrew Ferry said.

Raposa says he believes every dairy farmer in town has reported some milk dumping during this time.

State Rep. Paul Schmid, also a farmer, noted local dairy farmers rely on three markets — schools, retail and export. Schmid said schools and export markets have taken a major financial hit during this pandemic.

Schmid said last year he and state Sen. Michael Rodrigues of Westport worked to create legislation that allows farmers to earn a tax credit whenever milk prices drop to a certain level. Schmid said that the tax credit is on its way.

Schmid and Rodrigues have also been working with a Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources commissioner toward securing federal funding. However, he does not see that funding becoming available to local farmers until June or July.

Katie Greene, a spokesperson for Westport Business to Business, said that her association was holding a Zoom meeting on Thursday morning with guest speakers discussing federal Small Business Administration loans, as well as the economic impact COVID-19 is having on local businesses.

Despite the promise of federal money and other prospects, longtime farmer Jay Tripp, of Tripp’s Dairy Farm on Old Pine Hill Road, was not optimistic.

“Milk prices are down. Beef prices are down. I haven’t heard of anyone getting government money. The SBA money is a little confusing; banks aren’t up to speed, especially since the application says farmers aren’t eligible. I haven’t heard anything from the Farm Service Agency,” Tripp said. “Otherwise, business as usual.”

Raposa and Ferry reported some silver linings. Raposa, who owns Hay Ray’s Farm & Feed on Main Road, said there has been a slight uptick in sales at his store. He says people at this time are opting to avoid box stores and are buying farm and feed products from his business.

Raposa said interest in raising chickens and becoming more self-sufficient is also on the rise.

Ferry said more people are buying milk from his stand, where they can also easily practice social distancing.

“It is pretty clean — customers come in, take their gallon, and put money in a box,” Ferry said. “During times like these, it is convenient for people.”

But, perhaps the biggest benefit during this pandemic — “it’s a contact-less system,” he said.