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A Year After Mike Brown’s Death, Ferguson Activists Fear Little Has Changed
Activists hold signs condemning police violence at a #ReclaimMLK protest in Silver Spring, Maryland. January 24, 2015. (Flickr / Stephen Melkisethian)
August 10, 2015
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A Year After Mike Brown’s Death, Ferguson Activists Fear Little Has Changed

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

It’s been one year since Officer Darren Wilson shot Michael Brown outside his apartment complex in Ferguson, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. Despite superficial changes in the political landscape, people are still being shot by police and community members and activists are still struggling for justice.

Speaking with MintPress News, Joshua Saleem, director of the American Friends Service Committee’s Peace Education program, said the past year has made him more cynical about the future. The AFSC is a nonprofit created by the Religious Society of Friends, better known as the Quakers, who have a strong emphasis on nonviolent conflict resolution and peace.

“I was very hopeful a year ago when I saw people paying attention to something that the community of color here in St. Louis has known for a long time,” Saleem said. “But now I’m a little more skeptical, even with the Department of Justice and the work they’ve done, there’s a lot of pushback and a lot of resistance to the change that needs to happen when it comes to undoing institutional racism in the St. Louis region.”

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Indigenous Canadians Resist Pipeline Developers And Oil Companies Since 2009
One of the entrances to the Unist’ot’en Camp is laden with signs intended for oil company personal. (Facebook / Unist’ot’en Camp)
August 6, 2015
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Indigenous Canadians Resist Pipeline Developers And Oil Companies Since 2009

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

In central British Columbia, a band of First Nations people has maintained a remarkable resistance against big oil for the last six years.

The Wet’suwet’en, a band of about 140 indigenous members, maintain the Unist’ot’en Camp, a checkpoint blocking the only bridge entering their land. It’s a direct challenge to the Canadian status quo because the Wet’suwet’en say they won’t let pipeline crews, oil company developers, or even Canadian police onto their land. A website for the Idle No More movement, which seeks equality and civil liberties for Indigenous people, describes the purpose of the camp:

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ACLU Demands Mississippi Stop Invading Privacy Of Millions Of Google Users
Google's main campus in Mountain View, California. October 8, 2012. (Flickr / Niharb)
August 5, 2015
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ACLU Demands Mississippi Stop Invading Privacy Of Millions Of Google Users

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

On Monday, the ACLU asked an attorney general to “back off” and stop invading the privacy of Internet users to infringe on free speech or serve the agenda of big corporations and their lawyers.

In December, Google sued Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood, “alleging that his efforts to hold the search engine accountable for objectionable content online, such as illegal prescription drugs and pirated movies, violate federal law and are unconstitutional under the First and Fourth Amendments,” according to Dana Liebelson, writing last year for the Huffington Post.

But according to the suit and emails obtained by HuffPost, Hood hasn’t just been overzealous in his pursuit of allegedly objectionable content online; he actively collaborates with representatives of corporate industry to target the tech giant:

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The Forgotten 5 Million Non-Jewish Victims Of The Holocaust
"Memorial to the Sinti and Roma of Europe Murdered under the National Socialist Regime" in Berlin, Germany. May 15, 2014. (Flickr / Victoria Nesfield)
August 5, 2015
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The Forgotten 5 Million Non-Jewish Victims Of The Holocaust

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

According to most figures, about 6 million Jews died at the hands of the Nazis and their supporters in the Holocaust, one of the most disturbing examples of genocide in human history. But the Nazis took around 11 million lives, leaving another 5 million dead that are all too often overlooked or forgotten when in discussions of this grim period of history.

Terese Pencak Schwartz is a Polish-American Jew, born of two Holocaust survivors who were not Jewish. Because she identified strongly with her family history, Schwartz realized there was a crucial piece missing from the history of that time period. “The impression I got was that people were not aware of any other Holocaust victims except Jews,” she wrote on Remember.org in 1997. “This concerned me greatly.”

Schwartz acknowledged that the Nazis sought the total destruction of the Jews, “a significant fact that I do not repudiate, nor want to diminish in any way,” then continued:

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GOP Mega-Donor Sheldon Adelson Recruits NBA To Fight Israeli Boycott Movement
Omri Casspi, playing for the Sacramento Kings in March 2009. (Wikimedia Commons / Chamber of Fear)
July 31, 2015
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GOP Mega-Donor Sheldon Adelson Recruits NBA To Fight Israeli Boycott Movement

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

A delegation of eight professional basketball players visited Israel earlier this month. Yet this was no simple sightseeing visit: Multiple reports suggest the trip was part of a renewed, multimillion dollar effort to oppose the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.

Organized by Omri Casspi, an Israeli player for the NBA’s Sacramento Kings, the first reports appeared on JNS.org, a global Jewish news service, which claimed the trip was sponsored by “a foundation [Omri] Casspi has formed, which seeks to fight anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement initiatives.” Casspi, along with eight teammates, flew aboard a private jet on a tour of his home country. Later, Casspi insisted the trip was “nothing about politics,” forcing JNS.org to add a correction to the story.

However, the private jet on which players flew to Israel is owned by Sheldon Adelson, a billionaire casino magnate known for pouring millions of dollars into opposing the BDS movement. Further, Casspi is known to sponsor an anti-BDS foundation in his own name, and the trip also featured “charity” events designed to build goodwill for Israel, sponsored by the basketball nonprofit NBA Cares.

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Film The Police: How To Use Your Smartphone To Hold Cops Accountable
In this March 27, 2016 photograph, two members of the Peaceful Streets Project film a police officer in the Rundberg area of Austin, Texas. (Facebook / Peaceful Streets Project)
July 27, 2015
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Film The Police: How To Use Your Smartphone To Hold Cops Accountable

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

From the Rodney King incident in 1991 to more recent incidents like the deaths of Eric Garner and Freddie Gray, we might never know the appalling reality of modern police brutality if it weren’t for video recorded by bystanders.

Multiple courts have upheld the rights of journalists and photographers to take photos or video in public spaces and film the police and other law enforcement going about their duties. However, the ACLU notes:

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