thenation--2020-06-24--Bill Barr Gets Shredded: A Threat to ‘Our Rule Of Law and to Public Trust in It’

On the same day that a Trump-appointed judge backed Attorney General William Barr and instructed trial judge Emmet Sullivan to drop the case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn on charges to which he pleaded guilty , Assistant US Attorney Aaron Zelinsky outlined the corruption of Barr ’ s Justice Department in similarly meddling in the case of Trump buddy Roger Stone .
Testifying before the House Judiciary Committee , former Stone prosecutor Zelinsky essentially repeated what he said in a bombshell statement yesterday : He was pressured to “ cut Roger Stone a break ” because “ he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ What I heard–repeatedly–was that Roger Stone was being treated differently from any other defendant because of his relationship to the President .
I was told that the Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia , Timothy Shea , was receiving heavy pressure from the highest levels of the Department of Justice to cut Stone a break , and that the U.S. Attorney ’ s sentencing instructions to us were based on political considerations .
I was also told that the acting U.S. Attorney was giving Stone such unprecedentedly favorable treatment because he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Zelinsky says the prosecution faced pressure to leave some of Stone ’ s misdeeds out of the sentencing recommendation , but resisted .
When Shea first tried to reduce the recommendation that Stone be sentenced to seven to nine years , Zelinsky threatened to leave the prosecution team , and Shea relented .
But when the sentence recommendation was announced , Trump tweeted his dismay , and Barr stepped in to reduce it himself .
That ’ s when Zelinsky left the prosecution ; he is still an assistant US Attorney for the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was a career Justice Department lawyer who went to the inspector general because of what he perceived as Barr ’ s corrupt meddling in antitrust cases .
John Elias , who has worked for presidents of both political parties , reported possible “ abuse of authority , a gross waste of funds , and gross mismanagement , ” with Barr particularly targeting the cannabis industry , as well as car companies trying to meet California ’ s rigorous emissions standards .
Cannabis company cases normally make up 2 percent of Justice Department cases @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that number rose to 30 percent .
Donald Ayer , former deputy attorney general under George H.W .
Bush , was there to back up the two whistle-blowers : “ I was privileged to serve in the Department of Justice under two Republican and one Democratic president , and I am here because I believe that William Barr poses the greatest threat in my lifetime to our rule of law and to public trust in it.
” He said Trump ’ s attorney general worked on behalf of “ an authoritarian president.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ George W. Bush attorney general Michael Mukasey defended Barr ’ s intervention , since Judge Amy Sullivan ultimately sentenced Stone to 40 months , which was within the window Barr recommended .
Thus , he argued , Barr ’ s intervention made no difference ; effectively “ no harm , no foul.
” Anyone who watched the impeachment hearings suffered some PTSD sitting through this one .
Republicans performed their trademark stupid pet tricks , insisting Zelinsky was politically motivated and relying on hearsay while barely acknowledging Elias ’ s charges .
Early @ @ @ @ @ @ @ got ejected for banging on the table like an angry toddler .
Ohio Representative Jim Jordan mockingly compared Zelinsky to the anonymous whistle-blower who triggered impeachment , insisting he had no firsthand knowledge of Shea ’ s reasoning .
“ All of the people I mentioned were in fact in conversation with Acting US Attorney Shea , ” the assistant US Attorney replied calmly .
Representative Mike Johnson even mocked Zelinsky for testifying remotely , even after he said he had a newborn at home and the pediatrician cautioned against visiting Congress in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Speaking of the pandemic , Arizona Representative Andy Biggs brought back the insane Fox News–fomented Obama-era “ scandals ” involving the New Black Panther Party and the Fast and Furious program , as the coronavirus ravages his home state .
It even devolved into a culture war over masks ; Jordan refused to wear one , breaking House rules , and said “ the only masking we should be discussing ” was the so-called “ unmasking ” of Michael Flynn by the Obama administration .
Bush administration veteran Ayer denounced the “ Obamagate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spewing.
” Democratic Representative Cedric Richmond had the best retort to those insisting the hearing was only about embarrassing Trump : “ Let ’ s just be clear .
If we wanted to embarrass the president , we would sit back and do nothing , and just let him continue to embarrass himself and say that you should drink bleach.
” Maryland Representative Jamie Raskin committed to tracking down the “ liars and felons and frauds ” assisted by Barr on behalf of Trump—an important promise given that many leading Democrats are wary @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he deserves it , so close to an election .
Raskin is the type of legislator I trust to honor that commitment , and I hope he has a lot of company .
Even if Joe Biden wins in November , Barr and Trump and other administration wrongdoers need to face consequences for their behavior over these four long , lawless years .

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On the same day that a Trump-appointed judge backed Attorney General William Barr and instructed trial judge Emmet Sullivan to drop the case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn on charges to which he pleaded guilty, Assistant US Attorney Aaron Zelinsky outlined the corruption of Barr’s Justice Department in similarly meddling in the case of Trump buddy Roger Stone.
Testifying before the House Judiciary Committee, former Stone prosecutor Zelinsky essentially repeated what he said in a bombshell statement yesterday: He was pressured to “cut Roger Stone a break” because “he was the president’s friend.”
What I heard–repeatedly–was that Roger Stone was being treated differently from any other defendant because of his relationship to the President. I was told that the Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Timothy Shea, was receiving heavy pressure from the highest levels of the Department of Justice to cut Stone a break, and that the U.S. Attorney’s sentencing instructions to us were based on political considerations. I was also told that the acting U.S. Attorney was giving Stone such unprecedentedly favorable treatment because he was “afraid of the President.”
Zelinsky says the prosecution faced pressure to leave some of Stone’s misdeeds out of the sentencing recommendation, but resisted. When Shea first tried to reduce the recommendation that Stone be sentenced to seven to nine years, Zelinsky threatened to leave the prosecution team, and Shea relented. But when the sentence recommendation was announced, Trump tweeted his dismay, and Barr stepped in to reduce it himself. That’s when Zelinsky left the prosecution; he is still an assistant US Attorney for the District of Maryland.
Appearing with Zelinsky was a career Justice Department lawyer who went to the inspector general because of what he perceived as Barr’s corrupt meddling in antitrust cases. John Elias, who has worked for presidents of both political parties, reported possible “abuse of authority, a gross waste of funds, and gross mismanagement,” with Barr particularly targeting the cannabis industry, as well as car companies trying to meet California’s rigorous emissions standards. Cannabis company cases normally make up 2 percent of Justice Department cases, Elias testified; under Barr, that number rose to 30 percent.
Donald Ayer, former deputy attorney general under George H.W. Bush, was there to back up the two whistle-blowers: “I was privileged to serve in the Department of Justice under two Republican and one Democratic president, and I am here because I believe that William Barr poses the greatest threat in my lifetime to our rule of law and to public trust in it.” He said Trump’s attorney general worked on behalf of “an authoritarian president.”
On behalf of House Republicans, former George W. Bush attorney general Michael Mukasey defended Barr’s intervention, since Judge Amy Sullivan ultimately sentenced Stone to 40 months, which was within the window Barr recommended. Thus, he argued, Barr’s intervention made no difference; effectively “no harm, no foul.” Current Issue View our current issue
Anyone who watched the impeachment hearings suffered some PTSD sitting through this one. Republicans performed their trademark stupid pet tricks, insisting Zelinsky was politically motivated and relying on hearsay while barely acknowledging Elias’s charges. Early on, Texas Representative Louie Gohmert almost got ejected for banging on the table like an angry toddler. Ohio Representative Jim Jordan mockingly compared Zelinsky to the anonymous whistle-blower who triggered impeachment, insisting he had no firsthand knowledge of Shea’s reasoning. “All of the people I mentioned were in fact in conversation with Acting US Attorney Shea,” the assistant US Attorney replied calmly.
Representative Mike Johnson even mocked Zelinsky for testifying remotely, even after he said he had a newborn at home and the pediatrician cautioned against visiting Congress in person because of the coronavirus pandemic. Speaking of the pandemic, Arizona Representative Andy Biggs brought back the insane Fox News–fomented Obama-era “scandals” involving the New Black Panther Party and the Fast and Furious program, as the coronavirus ravages his home state. It even devolved into a culture war over masks; Jordan refused to wear one, breaking House rules, and said “the only masking we should be discussing” was the so-called “unmasking” of Michael Flynn by the Obama administration.
Bush administration veteran Ayer denounced the “Obamagate nonsense” the GOP minority was “spewing.”
Democratic Representative Cedric Richmond had the best retort to those insisting the hearing was only about embarrassing Trump: “Let’s just be clear. If we wanted to embarrass the president, we would sit back and do nothing, and just let him continue to embarrass himself and say that you should drink bleach.”
Maryland Representative Jamie Raskin committed to tracking down the “liars and felons and frauds” assisted by Barr on behalf of Trump—an important promise given that many leading Democrats are wary of trying to impeach Barr, though he deserves it, so close to an election. Raskin is the type of legislator I trust to honor that commitment, and I hope he has a lot of company. Even if Joe Biden wins in November, Barr and Trump and other administration wrongdoers need to face consequences for their behavior over these four long, lawless years.


thenation--2020-06-24--When We Don’t Say Their Names, We Deny Them Justice

As I marched down Washington Avenue in Brooklyn at a protest against police brutality earlier this month , I carried a sign around my neck that read , in big block letters , i won ’ t be next .
Black women like me may come out to demonstrations as somebody ’ s mother , somebody ’ s sister , somebody ’ s daughter or partner .
But we are fighting for our own lives , too—while too many black women are ignored , even in death .
Since the rise of the current movement for black lives , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dissent have usually been the deaths of black cis-men , whose faces and names are drilled into the public consciousness with every chant and every hashtagged campaign .
The mainstream media then amplifies the narrative that black cis-men are most at risk , most worthy of defending—while the murders of black women and black trans and gender-nonconforming people serve as background noise or even , in the eyes of some , a distraction .
This disparity in attention has too often left the most vulnerable of the black population without the recognition , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ attain justice .
At recent protests , we hear shouts of “ Hands up !
Don ’ t shoot !
” and “ I can ’ t breathe ” —references to the deaths of Michael Brown , Eric Garner and George Floyd .
Protesters perform symbolic acts such as kneeling for nine minutes , echoing the time that Floyd ’ s killer knelt on his neck .
Chants of “ Say his name !
” overcome the chants to “ Say her name—Breonna Taylor !
” Rarely do we shout the names of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , a black trans woman who was stabbed to death in Missouri in May , or Dominique “ Rem ’ mie ” Fells of Philadelphia , a black trans woman whose body was found near the Schuylkill River , or Riah Milton , a black trans woman who was shot to death near Cincinnati , or Monika Diamond , a black trans woman and activist who was shot and killed in North Carolina in March .
Breonna Taylor Was Murdered for Sleeping While Black This lack of public name recognition may seem like @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s not .
The outcry over specific murders can be proportional to arrests , indictments , and possibly even the prosecution or sentencing of those responsible for these killings .
Nationwide protests surely had something to do with charges ’ now being levied at all four police officers involved in George Floyd ’ s murder .
Earlier this year , the outrage over Ahmaud Arbery ’ s murder resulted in the arrest of the former-police-officer-and-son duo who killed Arbery while he was jogging near his Georgia home .
In March , Breonna Taylor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ June 5 , was shot and killed by police while sleeping in her home in Louisville , Ky. After the national media picked up the story about Arbery ’ s murder , Brittany Packnett-Cunningham , a black activist and MSNBC contributor , posted on Facebook in May about Taylor ’ s death and demanded , “ Make # BreonnaTaylor ’ s name as important as # AhmaudArbery ’ s .
Make # NinaPop ’ s name as viral as theirs.
” That prompted Bernice King , daughter of Martin Luther King Jr. , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ activist Shaun King to post about Taylor ’ s death as well .
The story began to get more traction , but it didn ’ t go national until after the eruption of protests for Floyd , whose murder—and the video depicting it—dominated the news cycle .
Late calls for justice on Taylor ’ s behalf have yet to lead to the arrest of her killers .
It took more than three months for one of the officers to be fired .
And her death has still received more attention than most : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an Afro-Latinx trans woman , was found dead in solitary confinement at Rikers , where she was being held on a $ 501 bail stemming from a low-level drug offense and sex-work-related charge .
Earlier this month , the Bronx DA found that there was “ no criminality ” involved in Cubilette-Polanco ’ s death—though a recent report from the Department of Corrections revealed that , at multiple times during her solitary confinement , her jailers had risked her safety .
On May 27 of this year , Tony McDade , a black @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by police in Tallahassee .
The chief of police has vowed to keep the shooting officer ’ s name confidential , claiming that Marsy ’ s Law—which keeps the names of victims of violence private for their safety—applies to McDade ’ s killer .
That cop now has a better case for claiming he acted in self-defense .
Even those cases that do make the news may not see justice .
In 2015 , Sandra Bland died in a Texas jail cell after being arrested during a traffic stop .
When she was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ start a new job at Texas A & M , and her family and supporters say that she did not want to die .
Despite conflicting details surrounding her mental state , her hanging in jail was ruled a suicide .
The state trooper involved in the arrest was charged with perjury—a charge that was then dropped when he agreed to never work in law enforcement again .
Beyond these injustices , the mainstream media and hashtag-heavy campaigners also tend to forget other killers beyond the police : the sexual assault , incarceration @ @ @ @ @ @ @ interpersonal violence , and maternal mortality that snatch away so many black people ’ s lives .
Black women have always been the stewards of our own stories .
Out of necessity and solidarity , we have carried the weight of amplifying our voices along with everyone else ’ s .
Women such as Angela Davis , Fannie Lou Hamer , and Ella Baker played major roles in the civil rights and black liberation movements of the 1950s , ’ 60s , and ’ 70s , while also being painfully aware of what @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that gender was “ not so much…separate from other issues , but an emerging consciousness of the interconnectedness of racism , and capitalism , and sexism.
” Davis experienced firsthand the sexism that pervaded organizations like the Black Panther Party and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee .
She also spoke out against the Million Man March in 1995 , saying at a press conference in Manhattan , “ Justice can not be served by countering a distorted , racist view of black manhood with a narrowly sexist vision of men standing ‘ a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and queer folks have also pioneered other social justice movements , such as environmental justice and reproductive justice , with the aim of fighting for black life on different fronts .
Hazel Johnson is considered the “ mother of the environmental justice movement.
” She founded the nonprofit People for Community Recovery in 1979 , advocated for Chicago housing rights , and crusaded against environmental pollution , eventually playing a key role in Bill Clinton ’ s 1994 executive order for Environmental Justice for Low Income & Minority Populations .
Black women and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ justice movement in the mid-1990s because they knew that legal hurdles to obtaining abortions had different implications for different folks—and that even if marginalized women could get past legal obstacles , they would still have to overcome many other problems of access .
In the fight for LGBTQ rights , the Stonewall riots were led by black , trans , and queer people , including black activist , drag queen , and survivor Marsha P. Johnson .
And it was three black women , two of them queer—Alicia Garza , Opal Tometi , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Black Lives Matter movement , coining the slogan in the wake of George Zimmerman ’ s 2013 acquittal for murdering Trayvon Martin .
Black women , trans , and queer people understand the stakes .
We keep crusading , even as the police kill us in the homes from which poor black women are at the highest risk of eviction .
Even as the police use excessive force to subdue us and sexually harass us .
Even as we are punished for doing all we can to survive domestic violence and other @ @ @ @ @ @ @ study found , the average wealth for a single black woman is only $ 200 , compared to over $ 15,000 for a single white woman and $ 28,900 for a single white man .
In 2014 , the African American Police Forum and Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies started the # SayHerName campaign to bring more attention to the deaths and bodily harm of black girls and women who have had violent interactions with the police .
The hashtag and subsequent efforts to highlight cis and trans women , girls @ @ @ @ @ @ @ injustice caught on within the realm of social media , black and independent media outlets , and local activists .
But you still wouldn ’ t know it from the majority of mainstream news headlines , the chants shouted at protests , and criminal proceedings against the officers snuffing out black life .
That could be starting to change .
On June 14 , as many as 15,000 people rallied in Brooklyn to honor , protect , and say the names of black trans lives that have been lost to all forms of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ action was organized by more than 100 black trans women , queer people of color , and gender -nonconforming activists and artists .
In speeches delivered from the plaza in front of the Brooklyn Museum , organizers reminded the crowd that too many people in our community are being victimized by state violence and institutional racism , misogynoir , transphobia , and queerphobia , without recognition or reparation .
The marginalization of black cis- and transwomen and black gender-nonconforming people in this uprising is not theoretical .
Marching on Eastern Parkway , I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ between this protest and others I ’ d attended before .
This protest was inclusive of queer black people and accessible to those with disabilities : organizers reserved space for people to sit on the ground or in wheelchairs , made sure the march ’ s second destination was wheelchair accessible , and provided an ASL interpreter for the duration of the action .
It was a potent reminder to the world that progress or remediation for some is justice for none .
It was a rebuttal to those cis-black men who fear @ @ @ @ @ @ @ distracting .
When we are free—from incarceration , state-sanctioned and interpersonal violence , economic injustice , environmental injustice , reproductive injustice , and human rights abuses as a whole—we are all free .
Such a movement represents the future of what a fight for black lives should look like , and it is the only movement I want to be a part of .

As I marched down Washington Avenue in Brooklyn at a protest against police brutality earlier this month, I carried a sign around my neck that read, in big block letters, i won’t be next. Black women like me may come out to demonstrations as somebody’s mother, somebody’s sister, somebody’s daughter or partner. But we are fighting for our own lives, too—while too many black women are ignored, even in death.
Since the rise of the current movement for black lives, the sparks that keep lighting the fire of dissent have usually been the deaths of black cis-men, whose faces and names are drilled into the public consciousness with every chant and every hashtagged campaign. The mainstream media then amplifies the narrative that black cis-men are most at risk, most worthy of defending—while the murders of black women and black trans and gender-nonconforming people serve as background noise or even, in the eyes of some, a distraction.
This disparity in attention has too often left the most vulnerable of the black population without the recognition, the funds, and the power to attain justice.
At recent protests, we hear shouts of “Hands up! Don’t shoot!” and “I can’t breathe”—references to the deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner , and George Floyd. Protesters perform symbolic acts such as kneeling for nine minutes, echoing the time that Floyd’s killer knelt on his neck. Chants of “Say his name!” overcome the chants to “Say her name—Breonna Taylor!” Rarely do we shout the names of Tony McDade, or of Nina Pop, a black trans woman who was stabbed to death in Missouri in May, or Dominique “Rem’mie” Fells of Philadelphia, a black trans woman whose body was found near the Schuylkill River, or Riah Milton, a black trans woman who was shot to death near Cincinnati, or Monika Diamond, a black trans woman and activist who was shot and killed in North Carolina in March. Related Article Breonna Taylor Was Murdered for Sleeping While Black Elie Mystal
This lack of public name recognition may seem like an insignificant detail, but it’s not. The outcry over specific murders can be proportional to arrests, indictments, and possibly even the prosecution or sentencing of those responsible for these killings. Nationwide protests surely had something to do with charges’ now being levied at all four police officers involved in George Floyd’s murder. Earlier this year, the outrage over Ahmaud Arbery’s murder resulted in the arrest of the former-police-officer-and-son duo who killed Arbery while he was jogging near his Georgia home. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann
In March, Breonna Taylor, whose 27th birthday would have been June 5, was shot and killed by police while sleeping in her home in Louisville, Ky. After the national media picked up the story about Arbery’s murder, Brittany Packnett-Cunningham, a black activist and MSNBC contributor, posted on Facebook in May about Taylor’s death and demanded, “Make #BreonnaTaylor’s name as important as #AhmaudArbery’s. Make #NinaPop’s name as viral as theirs.” That prompted Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., and the controversial but influential writer and activist Shaun King to post about Taylor’s death as well. The story began to get more traction, but it didn’t go national until after the eruption of protests for Floyd, whose murder—and the video depicting it—dominated the news cycle.
Late calls for justice on Taylor’s behalf have yet to lead to the arrest of her killers. It took more than three months for one of the officers to be fired. And her death has still received more attention than most: In June 2019, Layleen Cubilette-Polanco, an Afro-Latinx trans woman, was found dead in solitary confinement at Rikers, where she was being held on a $501 bail stemming from a low-level drug offense and sex-work-related charge. Earlier this month, the Bronx DA found that there was “no criminality” involved in Cubilette-Polanco’s death—though a recent report from the Department of Corrections revealed that, at multiple times during her solitary confinement, her jailers had risked her safety. On May 27 of this year, Tony McDade, a black trans man, was shot and killed by police in Tallahassee. The chief of police has vowed to keep the shooting officer’s name confidential, claiming that Marsy’s Law—which keeps the names of victims of violence private for their safety—applies to McDade’s killer. That cop now has a better case for claiming he acted in self-defense. Current Issue View our current issue
Even those cases that do make the news may not see justice. In 2015, Sandra Bland died in a Texas jail cell after being arrested during a traffic stop. When she was pulled over, Bland was about to start a new job at Texas A&M, and her family and supporters say that she did not want to die. Despite conflicting details surrounding her mental state, her hanging in jail was ruled a suicide. The state trooper involved in the arrest was charged with perjury—a charge that was then dropped when he agreed to never work in law enforcement again.
Beyond these injustices, the mainstream media and hashtag-heavy campaigners also tend to forget other killers beyond the police: the sexual assault, incarceration, eviction, dismal wealth disparities, interpersonal violence, and maternal mortality that snatch away so many black people’s lives.
Black women have always been the stewards of our own stories. Out of necessity and solidarity, we have carried the weight of amplifying our voices along with everyone else’s. Women such as Angela Davis, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Ella Baker played major roles in the civil rights and black liberation movements of the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s, while also being painfully aware of what Davis described in a 2018 interview: that gender was “not so much…separate from other issues, but an emerging consciousness of the interconnectedness of racism, and capitalism, and sexism.” Davis experienced firsthand the sexism that pervaded organizations like the Black Panther Party and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. She also spoke out against the Million Man March in 1995, saying at a press conference in Manhattan, “Justice cannot be served by countering a distorted, racist view of black manhood with a narrowly sexist vision of men standing ‘a degree above women.’”
Black women and queer folks have also pioneered other social justice movements, such as environmental justice and reproductive justice, with the aim of fighting for black life on different fronts. Hazel Johnson is considered the “mother of the environmental justice movement.” She founded the nonprofit People for Community Recovery in 1979, advocated for Chicago housing rights, and crusaded against environmental pollution, eventually playing a key role in Bill Clinton’s 1994 executive order for Environmental Justice for Low Income & Minority Populations. Black women and other women of color started the reproductive justice movement in the mid-1990s because they knew that legal hurdles to obtaining abortions had different implications for different folks—and that even if marginalized women could get past legal obstacles, they would still have to overcome many other problems of access. In the fight for LGBTQ rights, the Stonewall riots were led by black, trans, and queer people, including black activist, drag queen, and survivor Marsha P. Johnson.
And it was three black women, two of them queer—Alicia Garza, Opal Tometi, and Patrisse Cullors—who are credited with founding the Black Lives Matter movement, coining the slogan in the wake of George Zimmerman’s 2013 acquittal for murdering Trayvon Martin.
Black women, trans, and queer people understand the stakes. We keep crusading, even as the police kill us in the homes from which poor black women are at the highest risk of eviction. Even as the police use excessive force to subdue us and sexually harass us. Even as we are punished for doing all we can to survive domestic violence and other abuses—and even though, as one 2015 study found, the average wealth for a single black woman is only $200, compared to over $15,000 for a single white woman and $28,900 for a single white man.
In 2014, the African American Police Forum and Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies started the #SayHerName campaign to bring more attention to the deaths and bodily harm of black girls and women who have had violent interactions with the police. The hashtag and subsequent efforts to highlight cis and trans women, girls, and femmes in discussions of social injustice caught on within the realm of social media, black and independent media outlets, and local activists. But you still wouldn’t know it from the majority of mainstream news headlines, the chants shouted at protests, and criminal proceedings against the officers snuffing out black life.
A protester displays wings that say “Black Trans Lives Matter” while marching in Brooklyn, June 14, 2020. (Michael Noble Jr. / Getty Images)
That could be starting to change. On June 14, as many as 15,000 people rallied in Brooklyn to honor, protect, and say the names of black trans lives that have been lost to all forms of violence and discrimination. The Brooklyn Liberation action was organized by more than 100 black trans women, queer people of color, and gender -nonconforming activists and artists. In speeches delivered from the plaza in front of the Brooklyn Museum, organizers reminded the crowd that too many people in our community are being victimized by state violence and institutional racism, misogynoir, transphobia, and queerphobia, without recognition or reparation.
The marginalization of black cis- and transwomen and black gender-nonconforming people in this uprising is not theoretical. Marching on Eastern Parkway, I immediately noticed a tangible, experiential difference between this protest and others I’d attended before. This protest was inclusive of queer black people and accessible to those with disabilities: organizers reserved space for people to sit on the ground or in wheelchairs, made sure the march’s second destination was wheelchair accessible, and provided an ASL interpreter for the duration of the action.
It was a potent reminder to the world that progress or remediation for some is justice for none. It was a rebuttal to those cis-black men who fear that a more expansive movement is too distracting. When we are free—from incarceration, state-sanctioned and interpersonal violence, economic injustice, environmental injustice, reproductive injustice, and human rights abuses as a whole—we are all free. Such a movement represents the future of what a fight for black lives should look like, and it is the only movement I want to be a part of.


thenation--2020-06-24--John Bolton Is a Terrorist in Pinstripes

Can a tedious , overlong book , packed from one end to the other with self-serving anecdotes , half-truths , and hearsay , still , in spite of its obvious faults , be an instructive one ?
One that helps make sense of a particular era , and of the players involved ?
In the case of John Bolton ’ s The Room Where It Happened , the answer is yes , not only because it reinforces what we already know about the venality and narcissism of the current president , but also because of what it reveals about the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to expose the buffoon in The Room , but in the end , it is Bolton who stands exposed , not only as a warmonger par excellence but as someone who may have witnessed criminal actions by the president and did nothing .
Bolton recounts conversations Trump had with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Chinese President Xi Jinping in which Trump seemed to try to leverage the power of his office in ways that , at a minimum , are worthy of congressional investigation .
This would seem to be in keeping @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his personal and political wants with his duties as president ; his now infamous conversation with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky , which served as the basis for Trump ’ s impeachment by the House , being the best-known example .
Trump and Bolton Are Still on the Same Team But instead of coming forward with potentially damning information that , importantly , might have convinced House investigators to expand their inquiry beyond the Ukrainian muddle , Bolton simply sat on it and saved it for the book .
And then there is the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Bolton was dispensing to Trump during his time as an outside adviser , and later on as national security adviser .
In the span of just several pages , Bolton recalls that at one time or another he has counseled Trump to launch a preventive strike on Iran ’ s nuclear program ; scrap the Paris climate agreement ; tear up the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action ( aka the Iranian nuclear deal ) ; pull out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces ( INF ) Treaty ; withdraw from the UN Human Rights @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Agency ; prepare a preemptive strike against North Korea ’ s nuclear and ballistic missile program ; and consider the idea of a sinister , conspiratorial link between Iran , North Korea , and Syria .
After a litany like this , one can ’ t help but recall MacGeorge Bundy ’ s observation about the hawkish Washington columnist Joseph Alsop , that he had “ never known him to go to any area where blood could be spilled that he didn ’ t come back and say more blood .
That is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it is Bolton ’ s .
To see the truth of this , all one has to do is look at what Bolton considers his successes and his failures from his time in office .
Bolton clearly feels he succeeded on a number of fronts , particularly with regard to gutting what was left of the arms control and verification regime , painstakingly designed over decades to prevent another Cold War–style arms race and slow the spread of nuclear weapons .
Not content with killing the INF , Bolton writes that “ other @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the United States should also come under the ax , not to mention numerous multilateral agreements the US has unwisely made.
” These include ( but are bymm no means limited to ) the Law of the Sea Convention , the 1992 Treaty on Open Skies and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty .
Perhaps Bolton ’ s proudest achievement ( if you can call it that ) was preventing Trump from fulfilling his campaign promise to withdraw American troops from Syria .
According to Bolton , Trump repeatedly told then–White House Chief of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ get out of the Middle East entirely , and in December 2018 , Trump instructed his national security team to begin planning a withdrawal from Syria .
This was unacceptable to Bolton because of his fixation , to the exclusion of all else , on Iran , which , like a clinical paranoiac , he saw lurking around every corner .
His scheme to prevent a withdrawal from Syria proved successful : “ The US presence remained , fluctuating around fifteen hundred country-wide.
” At no point does Bolton , a lawyer , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ UN ambassador , ever broach the subject of the legality of our military presence and actions in Syria—or elsewhere .
In this , he is an all too typical product of the US foreign policy establishment , where the ends justify the means and the exercise of American power need not be constrained by trifling considerations like morality and justice .
Americans might look at Bolton and see a bland mustachioed bureaucrat ; the rest of the world likely sees a terrorist in pinstripes .
And in this book , Bolton only lends @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it say about Bolton that when Trump ’ s instincts inclined more toward diplomacy and less toward military action , Bolton always did his best to undermine the president ?
No one could possibly mistake Trump for a dove when it comes to the Islamic Republic of Iran .
Yet withdrawing from the JCPOA and slapping Iran with harsh economic sanctions wasn ’ t nearly enough for Bolton .
His goal was the wholesale destruction of the Iranian economy , and he laments that the administration ’ s policy didn ’ t go @ @ @ @ @ @ @ two weeks in June of 2019 , Iran was alleged to have , in short order , shot down an unmanned American drone and been behind attacks on several oil tankers ( none of them American ) in the Persian Gulf .
Bolton saw an opening for a war with Iran that he has long desired .
Never one to take a crisis for granted , Bolton manipulated the NSC process and won Trump ’ s approval for a series of US strikes along the coast of Iran and “ other measures.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ?
Think of it : Bolton nearly resigned because he wasn ’ t able to stop Trump from not killing 150 people over the loss of an unmanned drone which had no business being over Iranian airspace in the first place .
If Trump ’ s resistance to attacking Iran brought the national security adviser to the brink of resignation , the president ’ s efforts—wholly supported by the South Korean government and a wide plurality of its people—to reach some kind of modus vivendi with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un made Bolton @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his national security adviser ’ s efforts to undercut him , and when Trump met Kim for a second time in the DMZ , Bolton was 1,200 miles away in Mongolia .
Ultimately , The Room Where It Happened is proof , hard as it is to believe , that there are even crazier people than Trump in Washington—and John Bolton is one of them .

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Can a tedious, overlong book, packed from one end to the other with self-serving anecdotes, half-truths, and hearsay, still, in spite of its obvious faults, be an instructive one? One that helps make sense of a particular era, and of the players involved?
In the case of John Bolton’s The Room Where It Happened, the answer is yes, not only because it reinforces what we already know about the venality and narcissism of the current president, but also because of what it reveals about the author. Bolton’s plan was to expose the buffoon in The Room, but in the end, it is Bolton who stands exposed, not only as a warmonger par excellence but as someone who may have witnessed criminal actions by the president and did nothing.
Bolton recounts conversations Trump had with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Chinese President Xi Jinping in which Trump seemed to try to leverage the power of his office in ways that, at a minimum, are worthy of congressional investigation.
This would seem to be in keeping with Trump’s habit of conflating his personal and political wants with his duties as president; his now infamous conversation with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, which served as the basis for Trump’s impeachment by the House, being the best-known example. Bolton and Trump Trump and Bolton Are Still on the Same Team Jeet Heer
But instead of coming forward with potentially damning information that, importantly, might have convinced House investigators to expand their inquiry beyond the Ukrainian muddle, Bolton simply sat on it and saved it for the book.
And then there is the separate issue of the kind of advice Bolton was dispensing to Trump during his time as an outside adviser, and later on as national security adviser.
In the span of just several pages, Bolton recalls that at one time or another he has counseled Trump to launch a preventive strike on Iran’s nuclear program; scrap the Paris climate agreement; tear up the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (aka the Iranian nuclear deal); pull out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty; withdraw from the UN Human Rights Council; defund the UN Relief Works Agency; prepare a preemptive strike against North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile program; and consider the idea of a sinister, conspiratorial link between Iran, North Korea, and Syria. Current Issue View our current issue
After a litany like this, one can’t help but recall MacGeorge Bundy’s observation about the hawkish Washington columnist Joseph Alsop, that he had “never known him to go to any area where blood could be spilled that he didn’t come back and say more blood. That is his posture toward the universe.”
As it is Bolton’s.
To see the truth of this, all one has to do is look at what Bolton considers his successes and his failures from his time in office. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann
Bolton clearly feels he succeeded on a number of fronts, particularly with regard to gutting what was left of the arms control and verification regime, painstakingly designed over decades to prevent another Cold War–style arms race and slow the spread of nuclear weapons. Not content with killing the INF, Bolton writes that “other bilateral and multilateral treaties involving Russia and the United States should also come under the ax, not to mention numerous multilateral agreements the US has unwisely made.” These include (but are bymm no means limited to) the Law of the Sea Convention, the 1992 Treaty on Open Skies and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty.
Perhaps Bolton’s proudest achievement (if you can call it that) was preventing Trump from fulfilling his campaign promise to withdraw American troops from Syria. According to Bolton, Trump repeatedly told then–White House Chief of Staff John Kelly that he wanted to get out of the Middle East entirely, and in December 2018, Trump instructed his national security team to begin planning a withdrawal from Syria.
This was unacceptable to Bolton because of his fixation, to the exclusion of all else, on Iran, which, like a clinical paranoiac, he saw lurking around every corner. His scheme to prevent a withdrawal from Syria proved successful: “The US presence remained, fluctuating around fifteen hundred country-wide.”
At no point does Bolton, a lawyer, a former undersecretary of state and former UN ambassador, ever broach the subject of the legality of our military presence and actions in Syria—or elsewhere. In this, he is an all too typical product of the US foreign policy establishment, where the ends justify the means and the exercise of American power need not be constrained by trifling considerations like morality and justice. Americans might look at Bolton and see a bland mustachioed bureaucrat; the rest of the world likely sees a terrorist in pinstripes. And in this book, Bolton only lends credence to that perception.
What does it say about Bolton that when Trump’s instincts inclined more toward diplomacy and less toward military action, Bolton always did his best to undermine the president?
No one could possibly mistake Trump for a dove when it comes to the Islamic Republic of Iran. Yet withdrawing from the JCPOA and slapping Iran with harsh economic sanctions wasn’t nearly enough for Bolton. His goal was the wholesale destruction of the Iranian economy, and he laments that the administration’s policy didn’t go far enough.
Over a span of two weeks in June of 2019, Iran was alleged to have, in short order, shot down an unmanned American drone and been behind attacks on several oil tankers (none of them American) in the Persian Gulf.
Bolton saw an opening for a war with Iran that he has long desired. Never one to take a crisis for granted, Bolton manipulated the NSC process and won Trump’s approval for a series of US strikes along the coast of Iran and “other measures.”
And then Trump balked.
Bolton recalls:
Trump said he had been told by someone unnamed there might be a hundred fifty Iranian casualties. “Too many body bags,” said Trump, which he was not willing to risk for an unmanned drone—“Not proportionate,” he said again. Pompeo tried to reason with him, but he wasn’t having it.
And what was Bolton’s reaction?
In my government experience, this was this most irrational thing I ever witnessed any President do…. I had thought about resigning several times before, but this for me was a turning point.
Think of it: Bolton nearly resigned because he wasn’t able to stop Trump from not killing 150 people over the loss of an unmanned drone which had no business being over Iranian airspace in the first place.
If Trump’s resistance to attacking Iran brought the national security adviser to the brink of resignation, the president’s efforts—wholly supported by the South Korean government and a wide plurality of its people—to reach some kind of modus vivendi with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un made Bolton apoplectic.
Eventually, Trump tired of his national security adviser’s efforts to undercut him, and when Trump met Kim for a second time in the DMZ, Bolton was 1,200 miles away in Mongolia.
Ultimately, The Room Where It Happened is proof, hard as it is to believe, that there are even crazier people than Trump in Washington—and John Bolton is one of them.


thenation--2020-06-24--Rural New York Is in the Streets, Marching for Black Lives

reene ounty , .
.—I knew about the June 4 march in Catskill to protest the murder of George Floyd only because I read about it that morning on a community Facebook page .
So I expected to see a few dozen people at most , given not just the limited advance information but also the fact that Greene County ( of which Catskill is the main town ) is 90 percent white and went overwhelmingly for Trump in the 2016 presidential election .
I couldn ’ t have been more wrong .
There are only 47,000 people in this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , about 1,000 people turned out for the event .
The crowd included significant numbers of black , white , and Latino protesters , mostly young , but with a fair number of older people , too .
I had the feeling from the looks on many people ’ s faces that they were as surprised as I was by the turnout .
Call-and-response shouts of “ No justice , no peace ” rang out as we walked across the historic bridge that spans the Catskill Creek and continued up to Main Street @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for a movie set in the 19th century .
Many marchers wore “ I can ’ t breathe ” T-shirts , and I saw two white people carrying signs that read , “ White silence equals violence.
” Everyone took a knee at the police station .
It was almost impossible from the back of the crowd to hear more than snatches of the speeches , but later I was able to watch a video of a young woman from our local high school reading a poem .
It began : “ America @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Well , at least it ’ s supposed to be .
They forgot to mention that ’ s only if you don ’ t look like me.
” In Rural America , Opioids Kill Many More Than Covid-19 Where I Live , the Pandemic Can Feel Remote What the Pandemic Looks Like in Rural New York More in this series The poet , April-Destiny Walcott , whom I spoke to a few days later , is 18 , a graduating senior , and says she ’ s the only African American student in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said she was inspired to write the poem by seeing the George Floyd video and also by thinking that what happened to Floyd could have happened to one of her two brothers .
April said racism hasn ’ t been a big problem for her since her family moved to the area a few years ago , but “ you can tell the difference in how people treat you.
” As one example , she cited an incident last year in which she was in the car with her mother and one of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was broken , so when a state policeman walked up to the car , they assumed that was the reason .
But what shocked her was that as the officer approached , “ his hand was on his gun.
” Fortunately , the incident ended with only a violations ticket .
Such experiences haven ’ t caused April and her family to be anti-police , however .
When I asked her mother , Ebony Roberts , who sat in on our discussion , how she felt about having police regularly on duty inside @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ As a parent , I feel comfortable going off to work knowing that they are there.
” Since the Catskill Black Lives Matter event , there have been other protests in other small nearby towns , including Ravena , Cohoes , and Coxsackie .
And on June 20 , there was a joint march of protesters from Columbia and Greene Counties across the Rip Van Winkle Bridge that spans the Hudson River .
The Facebook page started by the Catskill march organizers , a group of young women of color , already @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of new postings every day .
From what I can see , what is happening here is not just a matter of rural young people trying to emulate their urban counterparts but rather part of a deeply felt nationwide movement .
A Facebook request by the Catskill march organizers for a show of interest as to how many people might want to go by bus to the planned March on Washington in August quickly garnered more than 100 responses .
The mention of the march planned for August took me back to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Freedom , which I took part in .
The turnout for that event , like that for the Catskill march , was beyond expectations—at least a quarter of a million people , including a fair number of white people , despite such widespread fears among whites that the march would turn violent that the Kennedy administration closed all federal offices so workers could stay home .
I doubt that many of us who trudged through the streets on that miserably hot and humid day realized the importance of what we were doing .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ having played a major rule in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 , which banned segregation in public places and discrimination in employment .
The Bravery of Marching for Black Lives in the Middle of a Pandemic Attaining a similar success now won ’ t be easy , and will require action in the voting booth as well as in the streets .
Just a couple days before the Catskill event , our congressman , Antonio Delgado , wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post in which he argued that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ experience , he said , including the fact that he is the first person of color to ever represent upstate New York in Congress , proves “ that voting can bring about change that once might have seemed out of reach—in fact , it ’ s crucial to changing the laws and policies that have caused so much agony.
” Eighteen-year-old April Walcott is headed for community college in the fall , and thinks she would like to become a lawyer .
“ After seeing what can happen to people like me , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to help people know what authorities can and can ’ t do.
” As for me , I ’ m thinking about what I can do to ensure that Delgado and other progressive candidates get elected or reelected in November .

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Sign up for our Wine Club today. Did you know you can support The Nation by drinking wine?
G reene C ounty, N.Y .—I knew about the June 4 march in Catskill to protest the murder of George Floyd only because I read about it that morning on a community Facebook page. So I expected to see a few dozen people at most, given not just the limited advance information but also the fact that Greene County (of which Catskill is the main town) is 90 percent white and went overwhelmingly for Trump in the 2016 presidential election.
I couldn’t have been more wrong. There are only 47,000 people in this entire county, but by my estimate, about 1,000 people turned out for the event. The crowd included significant numbers of black, white, and Latino protesters, mostly young, but with a fair number of older people, too. I had the feeling from the looks on many people’s faces that they were as surprised as I was by the turnout.
Call-and-response shouts of “No justice, no peace” rang out as we walked across the historic bridge that spans the Catskill Creek and continued up to Main Street, which looks like the back lot for a movie set in the 19th century. Many marchers wore “I can’t breathe” T-shirts, and I saw two white people carrying signs that read, “White silence equals violence.” Everyone took a knee at the police station.
It was almost impossible from the back of the crowd to hear more than snatches of the speeches, but later I was able to watch a video of a young woman from our local high school reading a poem. It began: “America, the land of the free. Well, at least it’s supposed to be. They forgot to mention that’s only if you don’t look like me.” All Politics Is Local My Neighbors Certainly Didn’t Celebrate Biden’s Win, but They Also Didn’t Publicly Mourn Trump’s Loss Karen Rothmyer Trump’s Response to Losing the Vote Calvin Trillin One Black Lives Matter Protest in Rural New York Opens the Door to Change Karen Rothmyer
The poet, April-Destiny Walcott, whom I spoke to a few days later, is 18, a graduating senior, and says she’s the only African American student in her class of about 140. She said she was inspired to write the poem by seeing the George Floyd video and also by thinking that what happened to Floyd could have happened to one of her two brothers.
April said racism hasn’t been a big problem for her since her family moved to the area a few years ago, but “you can tell the difference in how people treat you.” As one example, she cited an incident last year in which she was in the car with her mother and one of her siblings. One of the headlights was broken, so when a state policeman walked up to the car, they assumed that was the reason. But what shocked her was that as the officer approached, “his hand was on his gun.” Fortunately, the incident ended with only a violations ticket.
Such experiences haven’t caused April and her family to be anti-police, however. When I asked her mother, Ebony Roberts, who sat in on our discussion, how she felt about having police regularly on duty inside the high school, she responded, “As a parent, I feel comfortable going off to work knowing that they are there.” Current Issue View our current issue
Since the Catskill Black Lives Matter event, there have been other protests in other small nearby towns, including Ravena, Cohoes, and Coxsackie. And on June 20, there was a joint march of protesters from Columbia and Greene Counties across the Rip Van Winkle Bridge that spans the Hudson River. The Facebook page started by the Catskill march organizers, a group of young women of color, already has over 4,500 members, with dozens of new postings every day.
From what I can see, what is happening here is not just a matter of rural young people trying to emulate their urban counterparts but rather part of a deeply felt nationwide movement. A Facebook request by the Catskill march organizers for a show of interest as to how many people might want to go by bus to the planned March on Washington in August quickly garnered more than 100 responses.
The mention of the march planned for August took me back to the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which I took part in. The turnout for that event, like that for the Catskill march, was beyond expectations—at least a quarter of a million people, including a fair number of white people, despite such widespread fears among whites that the march would turn violent that the Kennedy administration closed all federal offices so workers could stay home. I doubt that many of us who trudged through the streets on that miserably hot and humid day realized the importance of what we were doing. But the march is now seen as having played a major rule in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which banned segregation in public places and discrimination in employment. Black Lives Matter The Bravery of Marching for Black Lives in the Middle of a Pandemic Elie Mystal
Attaining a similar success now won’t be easy, and will require action in the voting booth as well as in the streets. Just a couple days before the Catskill event, our congressman, Antonio Delgado, wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post in which he argued that protesting and voting go together. His experience, he said, including the fact that he is the first person of color to ever represent upstate New York in Congress, proves “that voting can bring about change that once might have seemed out of reach—in fact, it’s crucial to changing the laws and policies that have caused so much agony.”
Eighteen-year-old April Walcott is headed for community college in the fall, and thinks she would like to become a lawyer. “After seeing what can happen to people like me,” she said, “I want to help people know what authorities can and can’t do.”
As for me, I’m thinking about what I can do to ensure that Delgado and other progressive candidates get elected or reelected in November.


thenation--2020-06-24--Drop the Charges Against Protesters!

Drop the Charges Against Protesters!

Some weeks ago in Washington , D.C. , one of us , Arjun , saw several black young people tag a building near the White House .
As Arjun watched them write on the wall , a police officer quickly approached , presumably to make an arrest .
He urged the officer to consider their age , imagine their story , and think about what they had just inscribed in big black letters , “ Black Lives Matter.
” After a tense back and forth , the police officer left the scene .
Many thousands have been arrested in recent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for violating curfew , others for trespassing , vandalism , property destruction , theft , and simple peaceful protest .
That night in DC , the officer was pressed to do the right thing , but what about all the protesters the cops did arrest ?
According to The Washington Post , between May 27 and June 12 , more than 14,000 people were arrested during the protests .
The true number is likely much higher , as the Post ’ s study is limited to 48 US cities and draws from police @ @ @ @ @ @ @ often incomplete .
Now , the fate of these protesters is in the hands of prosecutors .
If those prosecutors want to be on the right side of history , they must not reinforce the same structures and institutions that the protesters and racial justice movement seeks to dismantle .
They should drop the charges .
In many places , it is still unknown how prosecutors will proceed .
History does not suggest many reasons to be optimistic , but in some places—Miami , Los Angeles , and New York , for instance—prosecutors @ @ @ @ @ @ @ including for curfew-related offenses .
At the same time , they are moving forward with charges for property destruction , looting , and other protest-related actions .
Federal prosecutors , meanwhile , seem particularly eager to bring such cases ; in New York , they have brought a raft of charges against two young minority lawyers , who now face up to life in prison , for allegedly charring the dashboard of an empty and already vandalized police cruiser .
Black activists , scholars , and their allies have been documenting police violence @ @ @ @ @ @ @ role in creating a new Jim Crow for quite some time , but calls for racial justice have overwhelmingly gone unheard .
A black president didn ’ t move the needle , nor did the birth of the black billionaire class .
Colin Kaepernick tried to awaken us , but was punished , and turned into an example : If you resist the racial hierarchy , you will be cast aside .
This time things feel different .
After the senseless extinguishing of the light that was Breonna Taylor , and the videotaped @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in quick succession , there appears to be a growing and widespread recognition that black lives don ’ t matter in America .
These acts affirmed—yet again—that traditional , legalistic , formal petitions for grievances aren ’ t working , and it is a crisis .
So , people protested , screamed , vandalized , and looted because they had reached a point of fury and righteousness that could no longer be suppressed .
In the final pages of her book The New Jim Crow : Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness @ @ @ @ @ @ @ She wrote that we should not be surprised “ when those who have been locked up and locked out finally have the chance to speak and truly be heard , what we hear is rage ” and that it “ may remind us of riots , uprisings , and buildings aflame.
” That moment is here .
Now we must listen to and learn from those who have been robbed of so much .
One only has to look to the uprising against the previous Jim Crow to understand that history will be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
In 2007 , the Tennessee legislature passed the Rosa Parks Act , which offered pardons to civil rights protesters who had to spend the majority of their lives with convictions on their records because of their courage during the civil rights movement .
Alabama passed a Rosa Parks Act as well and even displays activists ’ arrest records in a museum .
This applies to both misdemeanor and felony charges .
The protesters arrested over the last few weeks for charges like failure to disburse , disorderly conduct , and unlawful assembly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ posted in a museum one day .
Their only crime in the eyes of the world , and in the eyes of history , will be the courage of their convictions and the willingness to risk their own safety for the value of free speech .
It was they who reignited this movement—a fire that was lit in Ferguson back in 2014 .
They might have felt a legitimate fear of protesting given the history of police abuse in this country , to say nothing of recent reports of police brutality against protesters @ @ @ @ @ @ @ faced the additional , novel threat of Covid-19 infection .
Yet they still came out , night after night .
Some even defied curfews and other arbitrary restrictions that were being rolled out across the country .
In D.C. , they marched past curfew despite the immense militarized presence of both the police and national guard—the latter of which deployed helicopters in the kinds of “ show of force ” maneuvers commonly used in war zones to scare away insurgents .
An arrest or minor charge can have significant consequences that ripple throughout @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one of us , Justin , who was arrested for protesting in Ferguson in 2014 , arrest meant the minor , but still significant harm of feeling pressured to plea to a lesser charge in order to avoid the potential loss of an opportunity to be a Fulbright scholar .
Much more serious collateral consequences include those that can affect job applications and licensing for professions or even lead to jail time ( for those considered to be violators of parole ) or deportation ( for those who have tenuous citizenship status ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their courage and forgiven their civil disobedience—not prosecuted .
This is especially true in the case of those who were charged for violating curfew , since a number of those curfews were of questionable legality and may not have survived legal scrutiny .
Many of them were hastily issued , imposed with little notice , applied to unreasonably large geographic locations , and instituted with little justification besides the unreasonable fear of black people .
In cities such as New York , Los Angeles and Washington , authorities quickly revoked their curfews once @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be dropped for those who marked up buildings and other establishments with graffiti and political writing .
These weren ’ t acts of wanton vandalism , as some have suggested .
These were forms of political speech , done by people whose voices have gone unheard .
As one building on H Street , just a few blocks from the White House , now reads : “ Why Do We Have to Keep Telling You Black Lives Matter ?
” Indeed , the mayor of D.C. famously engaged in her own Black Lives @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the country in places as diverse as Oakland , Charlotte , and Denver have invited people to do the same .
How hypocritical is it to prosecute people for engaging in the same act that the leaders of a city mimic only days later ?
Those charged with looting should also be considered for amnesty .
James Baldwin once said that it was “ obscene ” to “ accus [ e ] a captive population who has been robbed of everything of looting.
” And he explained , when pressed to define what @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a window and grabs a TV set : “ He doesn ’ t really want the TV set .
He ’ s saying screw you… .
He wants to let you know he ’ s there.
” We saw examples of this in D.C.—in a break-in , after which people left with nothing but pans , and in a case in which someone left a broken storefront eating a bag of Skittles .
There have been reports like this across the country , where the only objects taken were small trifles or basic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and diapers .
These acts weren ’ t hedonism .
They were acts of protest by people whose ancestors were pillaged and enslaved , and whose wealth and labor are being pillaged right now through corporate bailouts , subprime mortgages , and exploitative wages .
They weren ’ t wanton attempts at destruction , they were forms of repudiation—repudiation of a system that gives police immunity for extrajudicial killings and values property more than their lives .
Indeed , there have been times in recent weeks during which more attention has been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of innocent black people .
People Can Only Bear So Much Injustice Before Lashing Out This is as true of those arrested over the last few weeks as it was of the Ferguson protesters who helped sparked this movement , including Josh Williams , who has languished in jail for five years for stealing a bag of chips and lighting a QuikTrip trash can on fire .
Williams is a political prisoner and must be freed immediately .
We should also be cautious in what we characterize as “ violence.
” Bodily harm @ @ @ @ @ @ @ violent .
Damaging vacant buildings and other inanimate property is not .
In a country that takes pride in the revolutionary acts of the Boston Tea Party , it ’ s hypocritical to label all of those who damage or loot property in response to brutal police policies and practices as violent protesters who should be charged .
To be sure , some will argue that it will set a bad precedent and damage the rule of law to drop charges against protesters .
Others will argue that it will enrage the owners @ @ @ @ @ @ @ property was vandalized .
However , rather than using the same criminal justice logic that enabled the murder of George Floyd and countless others , we should explore solutions rooted in restorative justice .
That would involve listening—truly listening—to the voices of those who engaged in the protests .
Across D.C. , for example , some businesses and institutions that were vandalized , looted , or even set ablaze have scribbled messages across their now-boarded-up windows celebrating Black Lives Matter and calling for criminal justice reform .
Others have sent out tweets supporting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ very entities harmed by these acts don ’ t favor prosecution , why should the government ?
A better response would be a mediated conversation between these businesses and the protesters .
Conversations like this could provide some of the honest accounting and truth telling that we as a country have evaded for so long .
It could help us learn and grow from this moment and move toward a path of reconciliation .
This is a once-in-a-generation moment , and the reforms we pursue and adopt in the coming weeks will shape @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people in America for years to come .
These reforms must include amnesty for the Floyd and Ferguson uprisers , whose only real crimes are righteous rage and the courage of their convictions , and they must be extended to those who languish in prison for no crime other than being black .
It ’ s their sacrifices that helped us reach this moment .
The time to reform is now .

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Some weeks ago in Washington, D.C., one of us, Arjun, saw several black young people tag a building near the White House. As Arjun watched them write on the wall, a police officer quickly approached, presumably to make an arrest. He urged the officer to consider their age, imagine their story, and think about what they had just inscribed in big black letters, “Black Lives Matter.” After a tense back and forth, the police officer left the scene.
Many thousands have been arrested in recent weeks in connection with the Floyd uprisings—some for violating curfew, others for trespassing, vandalism, property destruction, theft, and simple peaceful protest. That night in DC, the officer was pressed to do the right thing, but what about all the protesters the cops did arrest? According to The Washington Post, between May 27 and June 12, more than 14,000 people were arrested during the protests. The true number is likely much higher, as the Post’s study is limited to 48 US cities and draws from police data and media reports, which are often incomplete.
Now, the fate of these protesters is in the hands of prosecutors. If those prosecutors want to be on the right side of history, they must not reinforce the same structures and institutions that the protesters and racial justice movement seeks to dismantle. They should drop the charges.
In many places, it is still unknown how prosecutors will proceed. History does not suggest many reasons to be optimistic, but in some places—Miami, Los Angeles, and New York, for instance—prosecutors are opting to drop some charges, including for curfew-related offenses. At the same time, they are moving forward with charges for property destruction, looting, and other protest-related actions. Federal prosecutors, meanwhile, seem particularly eager to bring such cases; in New York, they have brought a raft of charges against two young minority lawyers, who now face up to life in prison, for allegedly charring the dashboard of an empty and already vandalized police cruiser.
Black activists, scholars, and their allies have been documenting police violence and the criminal justice system’s role in creating a new Jim Crow for quite some time, but calls for racial justice have overwhelmingly gone unheard. A black president didn’t move the needle, nor did the birth of the black billionaire class. Colin Kaepernick tried to awaken us, but was punished, and turned into an example: If you resist the racial hierarchy, you will be cast aside. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life A Grim Chronicle of Trump’s Corrupt Public Life Chris Lehmann
This time things feel different. After the senseless extinguishing of the light that was Breonna Taylor, and the videotaped lynchings of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd in quick succession, there appears to be a growing and widespread recognition that black lives don’t matter in America. These acts affirmed—yet again—that traditional, legalistic, formal petitions for grievances aren’t working, and it is a crisis. So, people protested, screamed, vandalized, and looted because they had reached a point of fury and righteousness that could no longer be suppressed.
In the final pages of her book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander foreshadowed this moment. She wrote that we should not be surprised “when those who have been locked up and locked out finally have the chance to speak and truly be heard, what we hear is rage” and that it “may remind us of riots, uprisings, and buildings aflame.” Current Issue View our current issue
That moment is here. Now we must listen to and learn from those who have been robbed of so much.
One only has to look to the uprising against the previous Jim Crow to understand that history will be kinder to those who drop the charges. In 2007, the Tennessee legislature passed the Rosa Parks Act, which offered pardons to civil rights protesters who had to spend the majority of their lives with convictions on their records because of their courage during the civil rights movement. Alabama passed a Rosa Parks Act as well and even displays activists’ arrest records in a museum. This applies to both misdemeanor and felony charges.
The protesters arrested over the last few weeks for charges like failure to disburse, disorderly conduct, and unlawful assembly will also surely have their arrest records posted in a museum one day. Their only crime in the eyes of the world, and in the eyes of history, will be the courage of their convictions and the willingness to risk their own safety for the value of free speech. It was they who reignited this movement—a fire that was lit in Ferguson back in 2014. They might have felt a legitimate fear of protesting given the history of police abuse in this country, to say nothing of recent reports of police brutality against protesters; and, of course, they faced the additional, novel threat of Covid-19 infection. Yet they still came out, night after night. Some even defied curfews and other arbitrary restrictions that were being rolled out across the country. In D.C., they marched past curfew despite the immense militarized presence of both the police and national guard—the latter of which deployed helicopters in the kinds of “show of force” maneuvers commonly used in war zones to scare away insurgents.
An arrest or minor charge can have significant consequences that ripple throughout a person’s life. For one of us, Justin, who was arrested for protesting in Ferguson in 2014, arrest meant the minor, but still significant harm of feeling pressured to plea to a lesser charge in order to avoid the potential loss of an opportunity to be a Fulbright scholar. Much more serious collateral consequences include those that can affect job applications and licensing for professions or even lead to jail time (for those considered to be violators of parole) or deportation (for those who have tenuous citizenship status). These protesters should be celebrated for their courage and forgiven their civil disobedience—not prosecuted.
This is especially true in the case of those who were charged for violating curfew, since a number of those curfews were of questionable legality and may not have survived legal scrutiny. Many of them were hastily issued, imposed with little notice, applied to unreasonably large geographic locations, and instituted with little justification besides the unreasonable fear of black people. In cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Washington, authorities quickly revoked their curfews once challenged by lawsuits.
Charges should also be dropped for those who marked up buildings and other establishments with graffiti and political writing. These weren’t acts of wanton vandalism, as some have suggested. These were forms of political speech, done by people whose voices have gone unheard. As one building on H Street, just a few blocks from the White House, now reads: “Why Do We Have to Keep Telling You Black Lives Matter?” Indeed, the mayor of D.C. famously engaged in her own Black Lives Matter street art, and mayors around the country in places as diverse as Oakland, Charlotte, and Denver have invited people to do the same. How hypocritical is it to prosecute people for engaging in the same act that the leaders of a city mimic only days later?
Those charged with looting should also be considered for amnesty. James Baldwin once said that it was “obscene” to “accus[e] a captive population who has been robbed of everything of looting.” And he explained, when pressed to define what it means when a person smashes in a window and grabs a TV set: “He doesn’t really want the TV set. He’s saying screw you…. He wants to let you know he’s there.” We saw examples of this in D.C.—in a break-in, after which people left with nothing but pans, and in a case in which someone left a broken storefront eating a bag of Skittles. There have been reports like this across the country, where the only objects taken were small trifles or basic necessities, like prescription drugs, groceries, and diapers.
These acts weren’t hedonism. They were acts of protest by people whose ancestors were pillaged and enslaved, and whose wealth and labor are being pillaged right now through corporate bailouts, subprime mortgages, and exploitative wages. They weren’t wanton attempts at destruction, they were forms of repudiation—repudiation of a system that gives police immunity for extrajudicial killings and values property more than their lives. Indeed, there have been times in recent weeks during which more attention has been given to property damage than the lynching of innocent black people. Black Lives Matter People Can Only Bear So Much Injustice Before Lashing Out Elie Mystal Systemic Racism Is Social Dynamite Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II and Dr. Mary Bassett Minneapolis Public Schools Abolished Their Police First Mary Retta
This is as true of those arrested over the last few weeks as it was of the Ferguson protesters who helped sparked this movement, including Josh Williams, who has languished in jail for five years for stealing a bag of chips and lighting a QuikTrip trash can on fire. Williams is a political prisoner and must be freed immediately.
We should also be cautious in what we characterize as “violence.” Bodily harm committed against individuals by the police is violent. Damaging vacant buildings and other inanimate property is not. In a country that takes pride in the revolutionary acts of the Boston Tea Party, it’s hypocritical to label all of those who damage or loot property in response to brutal police policies and practices as violent protesters who should be charged.
To be sure, some will argue that it will set a bad precedent and damage the rule of law to drop charges against protesters. Others will argue that it will enrage the owners of stores that were looted or whose property was vandalized. However, rather than using the same criminal justice logic that enabled the murder of George Floyd and countless others, we should explore solutions rooted in restorative justice. That would involve listening—truly listening—to the voices of those who engaged in the protests. Across D.C., for example, some businesses and institutions that were vandalized, looted, or even set ablaze have scribbled messages across their now-boarded-up windows celebrating Black Lives Matter and calling for criminal justice reform. Others have sent out tweets supporting the protests. If some of the very entities harmed by these acts don’t favor prosecution, why should the government?
A better response would be a mediated conversation between these businesses and the protesters. Conversations like this could provide some of the honest accounting and truth telling that we as a country have evaded for so long. It could help us learn and grow from this moment and move toward a path of reconciliation.
This is a once-in-a-generation moment, and the reforms we pursue and adopt in the coming weeks will shape race relations and the lives of black people in America for years to come. These reforms must include amnesty for the Floyd and Ferguson uprisers, whose only real crimes are righteous rage and the courage of their convictions, and they must be extended to those who languish in prison for no crime other than being black. It’s their sacrifices that helped us reach this moment.
The time to reform is now.