- Misiziibi Rising: Tar Sands Revolt, June 5-8
- Indigenous women-led Mississippi canoe paddle opposing Line 3, May 9
- ‘No More Pipeline Blues’: Bonnie Raitt and the Indigo Girls support water protectors
- Sam Grant: Connecting the Derek Chauvin trial with Enbridge Line 3
- MPCA still won’t own up to its flawed approval of the PolyMet Mine, harm to Fond du Lac Band
U.S. Justice Dept. to investigate Minneapolis police practices, culture
The U.S. Justice Department today announced a sweeping probe of the Minneapolis Police Department, investigating its practices, culture, and use of force to see if there is a pattern of unconstitutional or unlawful policing.
Sounds impressive, but we’ve heard this reform story before, nationally and locally. Problems persist.
Continue readingGuilty, yes, but it’s only the start
Hennepin County jurors today found former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin guilty of second-degree murder in the death of George Floyd, along with two lesser counts.
It was the first time in state history that a white police officer was held accountable for killing a Black man, according the Minnesota ACLU.
In their closing arguments, prosecutors stressed to the jury that Chauvin’s trial was a pro-police prosecution, not an anti-police prosecution. They knew that some jurors had a favorable opinion of police and didn’t want to lose any a vote by suggesting this was an indictment of the police in general.
Yet this moment calls for an overhaul of our system of public safety. The push will come from many organizations and from across the city, including those people currently occupying George Floyd Square.
Continue readingAlong with police violence, white culture should be on trial, too
White bodies have demanded obedience, submission, and respect from black bodies since this nation was founded, even before.
Things have improved, slowly, but white supremacy is still alive, even thriving. In policing, it can show up as intimidation, excessive force, and death for Black bodies.
It is easy for those of us who are white (including this author) to “other” the police, as if we haven’t benefited from their policing and other forms oppression that have led to gross racial inequalities in our communities. We are part of that same social conditioning into white supremacy.
Continue readingWeekend Reads: EPA presses for wild rice water protection, LaDonna Brave Bull Allard walks on, and more
- EPA presses MPCA to protect wild rice
- LaDonna Brave Bull Allard walks on
- PUC to hear Honor the Earth’s petition to investigate Enbridge’s pipeline data
- Dakota ‘Village of Well Being’ still hoping to get building code waiver
- Law enforcement bill to Enbridge for Line 3 protection reaches $500,000
- Gov. Walz gets low to failing grades on protecting our climate
This is more than an accident
Hundreds of people attended a vigil in Brooklyn Center Monday night near the site where a police officer shot and killed Daunte Wright. (Crowd video here.) It ended by 7 p.m., the start of a curfew imposed by Gov. Tim Walz.
Many residents ignored the curfew and clashed with police during the evening.
In a media conference today, Brooklyn Center officials spoke to the “tragic” events and the community’s grief, but failed to speak to the community’s justifiable anger.
Brooklyn Park Police Chief Tim Gannon called the shooting “an accident.” The state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension would do the investigation, he said.
Regardless of who’s doing the investigating, Gannon needs to acknowledge this is more than an accident. The officer’s actions were, at a minimum, reckless and negligent.
Continue readingVigil tonight for unarmed black man shot and killed by Brooklyn Center police during traffic stop
The family of Daunte Wright, the 20-year-old unarmed black man who was shot and killed by police in Brooklyn Center last night, has called for a peaceful celebration of life tonight at 6:00 p.m. at 63rd Avenue North and Kathrene Drive, the site of the shooting. LED candles have been requested. (Previous version said 7 p.m. but because of potential curfew it was moved up an hour.)
At a news conference today, Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon said the officer “apparently meant to fire a Taser but instead made an ‘accidental discharge’ from her gun,” the Washington Post reported.
Continue readingAnother case of white supremacy policing, Maryland repeals ‘Police Bill of Rights,’ and a look at ‘excited delirium’
As the Derek Chauvin trial begins its third week, as Maryland’s legislature passes a law to address police abuses, the latest example of excessive force by police against a person of color has emerged in a lawsuit filed against cops in Windsor, Va.
On Dec. 5, police officers pulled over U.S. Army officer Caron Nazario, drawing their guns and shouting at him to get out of his car, ABC News reported.
Nazario, who is black and Latino, tells them he’s afraid to get out of his car.
The officer responds angrily: “You should be.”
Continue readingDecision delayed (again) on DAPL shut down; Appeals Court strikes down key ICWA provision, and more
In this blog:
- Judge, Army Corps, play Kick-the-Can-Down-the-Road on DAPL shut down
- U.S. Court of Appeals weakens Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA)
- ND House passes law mandating Native American history as a part of K-12 education
- CNN Op/Ed by Rep. Ilhan Omar, Tara Houska: The pipeline that President Biden needs to stop
- Water protectors blockade Enbridge’s Bemidji office demanding #StopLine3
- Michigan tribal leaders denounce Enbridge for ‘manipulative’ video about Indigenous peacemaking
- Enbridge and Frankenstein
Fond du Lac Band court victory helps all Minnesotans concerned with clean water
The PolyMet ruling forces EPA, MPCA to do their jobs
The Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa won a big court victory in February in its ongoing effort to stop multinational corporate giant Glencore from building the PolyMet copper mine upstream from its reservation.
The Band has significant and legitimate concerns that the PolyMet mine would worsen an already bad problem of mercury-contaminated fish and water for its community. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) knew of the problem and was supposed to notify Fond du Lac so it could participate in the permitting process.
The court ruled the EPA failed to follow the law. As a result, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has suspended PolyMet’s permit to fill or dredge a large area of wetlands for its mine. “It also means that five major permits for the $1 billion PolyMet project are now stayed or under review,” the Star Tribune wrote.
“The move spotlights the Band’s groundbreaking effort to assert Indigenous water quality standards as a ‘downstream state’ under the Clean Water Act,” it said.
The court ruling also spotlights lax environmental oversight by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) and the EPA.
Continue reading