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The Current Situation The More You Know...

FREE book of the day: “Who do you serve, and who do you protect?”

For the next four days, you can get the ebook version of Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect?: Police Violence and Resistance in the United States for FREE from Haymarket Books, a nonprofit book publisher based in Chicago and project of the Center for Economic Research and Social Change.

Here’s the publisher’s blurb:

What is the reality of policing in the United States? Do the police keep anyone safe and secure other than the very wealthy? How do recent police killings of young black people in the United States fit into the historical and global context of anti-blackness?

This collection of reports and essays (the first collaboration between Truthout and Haymarket Books) explores police violence against black, brown, indigenous and other marginalized communities, miscarriages of justice, and failures of token accountability and reform measures. It also makes a compelling and provocative argument against calling the police.

Contributions cover a broad range of issues including the killing by police of black men and women, police violence against Latino and indigenous communities, law enforcement’s treatment of pregnant people and those with mental illness, and the impact of racist police violence on parenting, as well as specific stories such as a Detroit police conspiracy to slap murder convictions on young black men using police informant and the failure of Chicago’s much-touted Independent Police Review Authority, the body supposedly responsible for investigating police misconduct. The title Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect? is no mere provocation: the book also explores alternatives for keeping communities safe.

Once again, the book is FREE for the next four days and you can download it here. While you’re at it, check out Haymarket’s books, which are eye-opening, sometimes uncomfortable, and definitely not going to be found on the book table in Costco/Sam’s Club/whatever big box store you buy your “basic” books from.

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The Current Situation

Tweet of the day: This will probably be my first accordion number on TikTok

Tap the tweet to see the source.

This tweet’s from a couple of years ago, but it’s still just as valid today, as people like the (former) co-owner of Nocturnal Hospitality Group have learned.

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The Current Situation

Courage

Photo by Grace Jensen. Tap to see the source.

When faced down by racist manbaby Jay Snowden at a Black Lives Matter protest in Whitefish, Montana, Samantha Francine pushed up her sunglasses so she could stare right back at him, eye-to-eye, even as he loomed over her with clenched fist and threatening posture. But she did not back down.

Here’s a video of Snowden’s tirade:

According to the report from NBC Montana:

He uses several expletives, knocks signs out of protesters’ hands and yells at an apparent clergyman before police take him away. The crowd around him chants “peaceful!” continuously throughout the nearly 3-minute video.

The man who caught the encounter on video tells NBC Montana it was totally peaceful up until that moment. He says Snowden drove by and flipped off the crowd the night before also.

From the statement issued by the Whitefish police:

Protests over the death of George Floyd have been ongoing in Whitefish since Monday night. Crowds of approximately 60 to 70 individuals have been peacefully protesting adjacent to Whitefish City Hall and at 2nd and Spokane. During last night’s protest an individual became confrontational with the protestors and police intervened, removing the individual from the scene. The subject, Jay Snowden 51 of Whitefish, was charged with one count of disorderly conduct this morning after Whitefish Police consulted with the Whitefish city prosecutor. Snowden has an initial court date of June 17, 2020.

 

If the name “Whitefish, Montana” rings a bell, it’s because neo-nazi, mentor to Trump senior advisor Stephen Miller, and professional speedbag Richard Spencer is at least a part-time resident. Here’s a Guardian article about it, and here’s a CNN report:

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The Current Situation

I like to think of it as “one-stop shopping”

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It Happened to Me The Current Situation

The state of American healthcare, explained in one photo

Seen on North Nebraska Avenue last weekend.

This one’s got all the major themes: Diabetes, unequal distribution, the profit motive, and “Oh jeez, I’m on my own; I’d better improvise something or I’m totally screwed.”

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The Current Situation

Even by Fox News standards, this is ghoulish

Tap the screenshot to see the source video.

Also covered in Media Matters: Fox News compares stock market performance after high-profile cases of police brutality and violence against Black men.

Found via Oliver Willis.

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The Current Situation

Such pivot. Much hypocrisy.

Tap the image to see it at full size.

Thanks to Mitch Wagner for the find!