Sunday, May 31, 2020
Of course the police won't claim this agent provacateur...
He prepared his phony 'alibi' in advance.
No one knows better how to get away with crimes like this than a police officer...
https://www.rt.com/usa/490180-pederson-provocateur-autozone-riot-minneapolis/
Minnesota PD denies undercover COP started Minneapolis riot amid avalanche of speculation
The St. Paul Police Department has categorically denied one of its officers escalated the Minneapolis riots by smashing the window of an auto parts store while undercover, after social media sleuths claimed to have identified him.
St. Paul Police Department attempted to squelch viral rumors fingering Officer Jacob Pederson as the agent provocateur who smashed the windows of a Minneapolis AutoZone earlier this week in footage widely circulated on social media. In a series of tweets posted on Thursday, they denied that the man in the footage was Pederson and attempted to shame people for spreading the rumor, insisting their officer had been “working hard, keeping people and property safe, and protecting the right to peacefully assemble.”
[...]
29 May, 2020 20:43 / Updated 1 day ago
George Floyd: US protests over police brutality intensify
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/05/george-floyd-protests-police-brutality-intensify-live-200530231110124.html
Several US states activate National Guard troops as protests over police killings of unarmed Black people grow.
updated 9 minutes ago
Another round of protests is gripping major cities across the United States against police brutality and violence, especially against unarmed Black people.
Several states have called in National Guard troops to help quell the protests, some of which have turned violent. Cities nationwide have also implemented curfews, but protesters appear undeterred.
Protesters in Minneapolis, Minnesota, have pledged to continue until all four officers involved in the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, are charged. Floyd died on Monday after a white officer knelt on his neck. Officer Derek Chauvin has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter. The other officers have not been charged.
Trump orders Pentagon to put military police on alert, saying they may be deployed to Minnesota.
Latest updates:
Sunday, May 31
14:00 GMT - Trump will not activate federal troops for now - NSA's O'Brien
President Donald Trump will not invoke federal authority over the National Guard for now, National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien said on Sunday.
"We're not going to federalise the Guard at this time," O'Brien told reporters at the White House, saying law enforcement decisions should rest with governors and mayors.
10:17 GMT - Police failing to ensure right to protest: Amnesty International
"In city after city, we are witnessing actions that could be considered unnecessary or excessive force. We call for an immediate end to any such use of force and for law enforcement to ensure and protect the legal right to protest,” Rachel Ward, National Director of Research at Amnesty International USA, said in a statement.
According to the human rights group, police tactics used so far can trigger escalating violence. "Equipping officers in a manner more appropriate for a battlefield may put them in the mindset that confrontation and conflict are inevitable," read the statement, adding that police "should demilitarize their approach and engage in dialogue with protest organizers."
09:35 GMT - 'Fires continue burning': La Mesa local media
Protests turned violent in the city of La Mesa near San Diego, California where demonstrators set buildings ablaze.
"Fires continue burning across the city. Protests have been ongoing since early this morning," Hunter Sowards, a reporter from local KUSI News media, said in a tweet.
Hunter Sowards
✔@huntersowards3
The City of La Mesa has enacted a curfew beginning May 31st from 1:30AM-7:00 AM. Fires continue burning across the city. Protests have been ongoing since early this morning. City leaders urge people to go home. @KUSINews
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The city is under curfew from 1.30am (8.30am GMT) until 7am (2pm GMT).
08:19 GMT - Minneapolis protesters undeterred by curfew
"We don't need a curfew, we need change," Mia, a 20-year resident of Minneapolis told Al Jazeera.
Going home would "[send] the wrong message that they can shut us up when they want to, and that's not the case here", she said as protesters have promised to remain in the streets at least until all four officers involved in Floyd's death have been charged.
Read Lucien Formichella’s full story here.
07:58 GMT - Trump 'didn't give me the opportunity to even speak': George Floyd's brother
The brother of George Floyd said he was not given "the opportunity to even speak" when President Donald Trump called the Floyd family on Friday.
"It was so fast. He didn't give me the opportunity to even speak. It was hard," Philonise Floyd told MSNBC.
"I was trying to talk to him but he just kept like pushing me off like 'I don’t want to hear what you're talking about,'" he said.
"And I just told him I want justice, I said I can't believe they committed a modern day lynching in broad day light. I can't stand it," Philonise Floyd added. "I just want to understand, why do we have to go through this?"
07:25 GMT - Protests raise concerns over spread of coronavirus
Protesters in Atlanta said they had to take to the streets to protest against police brutality despite the dangers associated with the coronavirus pandemic.
"It’s not OK that in the middle of a pandemic we have to be out here risking our lives," Spence Ingram, a Black woman marching in Atlanta, told The Associated Press news agency.
It came as health experts and officials raised concerns over the virus’s spread during the protests that keep gripping major cities across the US.
"If you were out protesting last night, you probably need to go get a COVID test this week," Atlanta Mayor Keisha Bottoms said, adding that "there is still a pandemic in America that’s killing Black and Brown people at higher numbers."
Protesters throw firecrackers amid tear gas during a protest against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in Atlanta, US [Reuters]
06:57 GMT - Journalists hit by police in Minneapolis
Two members of a Reuters TV crew were shot with rubber bullets in Minneapolis shortly after a curfew as they were covering the protest.
"My security advisor and I were post with rubber bullets tonight. He had PRESS labeled clearly and visibly on his bulletproof vest," one of the two reporters Julio-Cesar Chavez said in a tweet as he posted a photo of a previous moment when a police officer was aiming directly at him.
Julio-César Chávez
✔@JulioCesrChavez
My security advisor and I were shot with rubber bullets tonight. He had PRESS labeled clearly and visibly on his bulletproof vest
Before being shot, at a separate incident, I was directly aimed at. I took cover https://twitter.com/mollyhf/status/1266911382613692422 …
Molly Hennessy-Fiske
✔@mollyhf
Minnesota State Patrol just fired tear gas at reporters and photographers at point blank range.
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11:33 PM - May 30, 2020 · Minneapolis, MN
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Chavez explained in a second tweet that he was shot in the arm and the back of his neck with rubber bullets, while his security adviser was shot in the face, but saved by the gas mask he was wearing.
Julio-César Chávez
✔@JulioCesrChavez
Tonight I was shot in the arm and the back of my neck with rubber bullets in the middle of covering the Minneapolis protests. My security advisor was shot in the face; his gas mask protected him.
Here’s what happened: http://reuters.com/article/us-minneapolis-police-protest-update/reuters-cameraman-hit-by-rubber-bullets-as-police-disperse-protesters-idUSKBN237050 …
Here’s what it looks like:
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1:32 AM - May 31, 2020 · Minneapolis, MN
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No immediate comments were made as Reuters asked about the incident to Minneapolis Police Department. Spokesman John Elder who requested a copy of the video.
06:38 GMT - San Francisco to impose curfew
San Francisco Mayor London Breed has declared the implementation of a citywide curfew starting on Sunday 8pm (03:00 GMT).
"People are hurting right now. They're angry. I'm angry," she said on Twitter, as she announced the decision.
"The City and the police will support peaceful protests, as we did all day today," however, she added, "We can't tolerate violence and vandalism. Now is the time to go home."
London Breed
✔@LondonBreed
We are implementing a curfew that will start tomorrow at 8pm.
People are hurting right now. They're angry. I'm angry.
The City and the police will support peaceful protests, as we did all day today.
We can't tolerate violence and vandalism. Now is the time to go home.
1,877
1:02 AM - May 31, 2020
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04:32 GMT - Biden: We must not allow this pain to destroy us
Joe Biden, the presumptive US Democratic presidential nominee, said in a statement early on Sunday that "we are a nation in pain, but we must not allow this pain to destroy us".
"These last few days have laid bare that we are a nation furious at injustice. Every person of conscience can understand the rawness of the trauma people of color experience in this country ... like the horrific killing of George Floyd," the former vice president said.
"Protesting such brutality is right and necessary ... But burning down communities and needless destruction is not. Violence that endangers lives is not. Violence that guts and shutters businesses that serve the community is not."
Joe Biden
✔@JoeBiden
We are a nation in pain, but we must not allow this pain to destroy us. We are a nation enraged, but we cannot allow our rage to consume us. Please stay safe. Please take care of each other. https://medium.com/@JoeBiden/we-are-a-nation-furious-at-injustice-9dcffd81978f …
We are a nation furious at injustice.
These last few days have laid bare that we are a nation furious at injustice. Every person of conscience can understand the rawness of the…medium.com
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04:00 GMT - LA calls in National Guard
The mayor of Los Angeles says the National Guard will be deployed overnight to help local law enforcement as protests continue in the country's second-largest city.
Mayor Eric Garcetti says he asked California Governor Gavin Newsom on Saturday to send 500 to 700 members of the Guard. Crowds of demonstrators have torched police cars, vandalised and burglarised shops and clashed officers. Hundreds of people have been arrested since Friday night. Police have used tear gas to disperse the crowd.
03:58 GMT - Protesters defy curfew in Salt Lake City
Protests are continuing in Salt Lake City despite a curfew issued by the mayor and National Guard troops deployed by Utah's governor.
Police officials say they are prepared to give people time to leave, but they plan to arrest people who refused to comply.
What started as a peaceful demonstration Saturday against the death of George Floyd turned destructive. A group of people flipped over a police car and lit it on fire. A second car was later set on fire.
Police officials say six people have been arrested and that a police officer was injured after being struck in the head with a baseball bat.
03:50 GMT - National Guard called in Washington, DC
The National Guard has been called out in Washington, DC, as pockets of violence erupted during a second straight night of protests.
Hundreds of protesters converged on the White House during the day Saturday and marched on the National Mall, chanting "Black Lives Matter," "I can't breathe" and "No justice, no peace". Those protests remained relatively peaceful.
Ashish Malhotra@amalhotra2
Tear gas in the air just blocks from the White House about 20 minutes who. Could honestly barely breathe for a few
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Police used pepper spray to try to disperse the crowd, but the standoff continued. Protesters dragged away barricades and some broke up concrete to use as projectiles. At one point, a rubbish bin was set on fire.
National Guard troops took up position around the White House on Saturday night.
03:45 GMT - Nearly 1,400 people arrested in 17 US cities
Police have arrested nearly 1,400 people in 17 US cities as protests continue over the death of George Floyd, according to the Associated Press news agency.
An Associated Press tally of arrests found at least 1,383 people have been arrested since Thursday. The actual number is likely higher as protests continue Saturday night.
03:00 GMT - NYC police drive into protesters
New York City Police Department cruisers drove into protesters who were standing against a barricade and began pelting the police car with objects. The two vehicles drove into the small crowd, knocking several to ground, video shared on Twitter showed.
The Associated Press news agency also reported on the incident
Warning: Graphic video
Pierre G.@pgarapon
Wtf!!! #BlacklivesMaters #brooklynprotest
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02:50 GMT - Nashville mayor declares emergency as courthouse burns
The mayor of Nashville, Tennessee, has declared a state of civil emergency after protesters set a fire inside the Metro Courthouse in the state's capital city.
Thousands had rallied near the Capitol building Saturday afternoon to peacefully protest police brutality and racism. But things turned violent after darkness fell, with protesters breaking windows in government buildings and causing other property damage.
AJ Abell (Fox17)
✔@aj_abell
People are setting the Metro City Hall on Fire #GeorgeFloydProtests #NashvilleProtest @FOXNashville
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The Tennessean newspaper says demonstrators also pulled down a statue outside the Capitol of Edward Carmack, a controversial former legislator and newspaper publisher who espoused racist views.
Police deployed tear gas and began warning demonstrators that the protest was unlawful.
Governor Bill Lee issued an order Saturday night for the National Guard to mobilize "in response to protests that have now taken a violent, unlawful turn in Nashville".
02:15 GMT - Trump continues to attack Minneapolis leaders
US President Donald Trump continued his attacks on Minneapolis city leaders as protests there continued for a fifth night.
"The National Guard has been released in Minneapolis to do the job that the Democrat Mayor couldn't do," he said as protests raged on in the city.
"Great job by the National Guard," he tweeted. "No games!" he added, appearing to cheer on the tougher tactics being used by law enforcement around the country.
02:00 GMT - What Al Jazeera correspondents and reporters are seeing in major US cities
Gabriel Elizondo in New York City: "It's pretty chaotic out here right now ... Groups of protesters are really playing cat and mouse [with police] ... Right now the bottom line is: New York City is really a city in the middle of fog right now because it's really hard to make out exactly what's happening
Natasha Ghoneim in Chicago, Illinois: "This moment is eerily reminiscent of another moment that the city of Chicago had, and it won't fade from its memory. That was in 2014 when the police shot and killed 17-year-old Laquan McDonald." (Read more about that police killing here.)
Lucien Formichella in Minneapolis, Minnesota: "There was a tense moment here in Minneapolis earlier when what was believed to be a drunk man attempted to drive his car through the protest area. The situation was de-escalated by protesters, and the man was sent back. Protesters then erected makeshift barricades to stop cars from driving down the street."
A banner with an image of George Floyd is held by protesters rallying against his death in Minneapolis police custody, in Minneapolis, Minnesota [Leah Millis/Reuters]
Rob Reynolds in Los Angeles: "As night falls the standoff between protesters and police continue."
Mike Hanna in Washington, DC: "The demonstrations here have been largely peaceful through the course of the day and indeed in the course of the evening. There had been some scuffles. At one stage demonstrators were being pushed back across the park in front of the White House, but generally, the demonstrations have been relatively peaceful."
01:45 GMT - More cities impose curfews
Eugene, Oregon, was the latest US city to impose a nightly curfew as protests over the death of George Floyd intensifies.
Eugene city officials enacted a 9pm Saturday curfew. Seattle and Portland, Oregon, also issued Saturday night curfews due to unrest.
Eugene is home to the University of Oregon.
01:30 GMT - Protests erupt on the US West Coast
Protests are rocking several cities on the West Coast of the US
Washington Governor Jay Inslee activated up to 200 members of the National Guard to respond to protests, some violent, in downtown Seattle that forced the closure of the Interstate 5 freeway and the imposition of a citywide curfew.
Inslee said the Guard personnel would be unarmed and be directed by Seattle officials, who requested the help to protect property and manage crowds who had gathered in response to the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
A woman gestures in front of police officers during a protest against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in Los Angeles, California [Patrick T Fallon/Reuters]
The mayor of Seattle, Washington, meanwhile announced a 5pm curfew for Saturday following protests that spilled onto Interstate 5, forcing its closure through the central part of the Northwest's largest city.
The mayor of Portland, Oregon declared an 8pm curfew for Saturday after that city saw fiery protests Friday night.
00:40 GMT - Protesters in Minneapolis run after man believed to have a knife
Calls of "he's got a knife" rang out as a large group of about 100 protesters followed a man out of the protest.
Many in the group were shouting "let him go". Before he walked out of the car park where he was, another man ran up and sprayed him with what appeared to be mace.
"I saw somebody run that way after him, [onto Lake Street] but I don't know if he got caught," said one witness.
Lucien Formichella@lucien_form
Calls of "he's got a knife" rang out as a large group of protesters, roughly 100, followed a man out of the #Minneapolisprotest
Many in the group were yelling "let him go." Before getting out of the parking lot, another man ran up and sprayed him with what appeared to be mace.
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7:38 PM - May 30, 2020
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00:15 GMT - Protesters defy curfew in Minneapolis, other cities
Hundreds of protesters continued to rally in Minneapolis, even as a citywide curfew took effect. Similar reports were coming from other cities across the US.
Protesters have told Al Jazeera that they will stay in the streets and continue to rally at least until all four officers involved in the death of Floyd are arrested. They are also calling for police reforms.
Hundreds of people continued to rally in Minneapolis on Saturday after a curfew began [ Lucien Formichella/Al Jazeera]
00:05 GMT - Protests intensify in Texas
As anger over the death of Floyd intensified in Texas, Governor Greg Abbott said he was sending more than 1,500 state troopers to cities where demonstrations were taking place.
Abbott said in a news release Saturday that troopers are being sent to Houston, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio.
Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said on Twitter that nearly 200 people were arrested Friday and most will be charged with obstructing a roadway as several protesters blocked an interstate road and a highway.
Hundreds of protesters gathered in Austin on Saturday outside police headquarters and then marched along Interstate 35.
00:00 GMT - Protesters confront police in Chicago
Protesters were confronting police in Chicago, Illinois, for a second night as anger about police violence and the death of Floyd grew.
More than 100 arrests were made on Friday night in relation to the protests, police said.
NO MORE COP UNIONS
By Kim Kelly, The New Republic.
May 30, 2020
https://popularresistance.org/no-more-cop-unions/
Abolishing Police Unions Should Be Part Of The Broader Fight To Defund, Demilitarize, And Ultimately Dismantle The U.S. Police Force.
When Derek Chauvin of the Minneapolis Police Department killed 46-year-old George Floyd in cold blood last week, he showed the world exactly what kind of man he is. Chauvin has been cited multiple times for using excessive force on the job; he has been involved in at least two other police shootings, including that of Ira Latrell Toles, who is Black, in 2008. Chauvin has repeatedly abused his power, privilege, and authority to menace and terrorize—and he’s now been shown killing a human being on camera. Even so, he remains free to cower in his house and order delivery while demonstrators protest outside. And thanks to the tangled auspices of union affiliation, he’s also someone who technically counts as my “union brother.”
Today just 12 percent of the American workforce is unionized, and labor laws bar a vast swath of workers (particularly those who are classified as independent contractors or who are undocumented) from basic labor protections. But police are a high-density union profession—which creates no small amount of distress to labor activists in a moment like this. True, the 2018 Janus vs. AFSCME Supreme Court decision on public-sector union organizing had some cop unions nervous about their membership rolls, but police forces remain heavily unionized throughout the country. Police unions represent hundreds of thousands of members in state, federal, and local jurisdictions. (The Fraternal Order of Police, the nation’s largest cop union, has more than 340,000 members.)
And most of these union members are independent from any other labor organizations—which means, in turn, that they’re at best marginally involved with the most pressing mission of today’s labor movement, which concentrates on organizing many of the same low-wage, service-sector communities of color who are disproportionately abused and harassed by police. It wouldn’t make any sort of strategic sense for police-affiliated unions to try and make nice with the rest of the movement. So that leaves one obvious, if tricky, option: abolishing police unions as part of the broader fight to defund, demilitarize, and ultimately dismantle the U.S. police force as it currently exists. Labor leaders should seize upon this crucial moment to fully embrace this aim—and some already have.
However, it’s not exactly a simple or straightforward proposition. The International Union of Police Associations, which represents over 100,000 law enforcement employees as well as emergency medical personnel, is officially affiliated with the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, the largest federation of unions in the United States. Its membership comprises 55 national and international unions, and it counts 12 million active and retired members. But if the federation wants to prove that it’s seriously committed to racial justice and true worker solidarity, the AFL-CIO must permanently disaffiliate from the IUPA and sever its ties with any and all other police associations.
There is already precedent for such a move. The AFL-CIO has disaffiliated from other unions in the recent past, most notably the Teamsters, the Service Employees International Union, and most recently, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, whose leaders criticized the federation for failing to throw its considerable weight behind progressive health care and immigration policy. Given the ongoing epidemic of racist police violence against the Black community and other communities of color in the U.S., there is no better reason—and no better time—to take a stand. It’s already been a long time coming.
After all, the partnership between the police unions and the federation is hardly shatterproof. The IUPA only chartered with the AFL-CIO in 1979; since then, the cops’ union has expanded into affiliations with law enforcement and corrections officers in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. And much like the AFL-CIO-affiliated National Border Patrol Council, which has overseen its own brand of racist terror, police unions seem to realize they’re not exactly welcome among the unions that have been forced to accept them as peers.
“Legally, unions are responsible for representing their members,” Booker Hodges, a former Minnestota police officer who now works as an assistant commissioner for the state’s Department of Public Safety, wrote in a 2018 blog post on Police One. “The public seems to support this premise when it concerns other labor unions, but not those who represent police officers. Even members of other labor unions, particularly those who belong to educator unions, don’t seem to support this premise when it comes to police unions. Many of them have taken to the streets to protest against police officers, criticized police unions for defending their members and called for an end of binding arbitration for police officers.”
It’s also not as though the police unions’ leaders are taking any pains to show solidarity, or even sympathy, with their fellow workers. Rather, police unions have a long, wretched history of doing exactly the opposite: playing on public fears and misconceptions to push damaging “no angel” narratives about the victims of police violence, while also howling about the “bravery” and “sacrifice” their employees make to “protect” fellow citizens.
For example, on its official website, the IUPA linked to a May 27 Police magazine article that characterized George Floyd’s killing as “the death of a suspect during an arrest in which a Minneapolis officer put his knee on the back of the man’s neck to pin him to the ground.” This was a naked attempt to mislead readers and convince them that Chauvin has to be categorically innocent. It’s also in keeping with the “thin blue line” model of deference to the life-and-death authority granted by reflex to most municipal cops: The law enforcement community—and especially its unions’—first response, when one of its officers is caught red-handed, is to circle the wagons, vilify the victim or survivor, and bat away any criticism or dissent as virtual sedition. If and when reforms are introduced in the wake of an abuse of police powers, police and their unions remain in wagon-circling mode, determined to shoot them down. The bottom line here is all too plain: The police do not want reform; they want the freedom to operate with impunity.
The article IUPA boosted also took care to note that, in Minneapolis, kneeling on a suspect’s neck is apparently considered a “non-deadly force option” (albeit one that is banned elsewhere in Minnesota). And in a gruesome twist, Lieutenant Bob Kroll, the president of the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis, has not only allowed his membership to continue utilizing these violent, fear-based training tactics but also has actively encouraged their use. After Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey banned such tactics in 2019, Kroll pushed back and went so far as to offer free “warrior-style” classes to the union’s 800 members over the remaining three years of Frey’s term. Now Kroll and the union have George Floyd’s blood on their hands and are finally facing some much-needed and long-overdue scrutiny.
One of the only public statements that Kroll has made following Floyd’s murder has been to correct the rumor that Chauvin took part in a recent Trump rally. The photos actually depicted Mike Gallagher, the president of the police union in Bloomington, Minnesota, where a Somali-American police officer was convicted of murdering a white woman in 2017. That officer, Mohamed Noor, holds the dubious honor of being the only Minneapolis police officer to be convicted in an on-duty, fatal shooting, and Kroll drew criticism for throwing said officer, who is Black, under the bus.
For his part, Chauvin had 18 prior complaints filed with Minneapolis Police Department’s Internal Affairs, while his accomplice Tou Thao was the subject of six complaints (including one that was still open as of the time of his firing). This is, among other things, a stiff rebuke to the effort to dismiss systemic violence as the work of “a few bad apples.” These two apples were, in fact, already known to be rotten—yet there they were, armed, dangerous, and interacting daily with the public.
Unfortunately, union protection plays no small role in keeping cops like Chauvin and Thao out on the streets. Collective bargaining agreements for police generally include normal language around wages and benefits but can also act as an unbreachable firewall between the cops and those they have injured. Typically, such contracts are chock full of special protections that are negotiated behind closed doors. Employment contract provisions also insulate police from any meaningful accountability for their actions and rig any processes hearings in their favor; fired cops are able to appeal and win their jobs back, even after the most egregious offenses. When Daniel Pantaleo, an NYPD officer who was involved in the 2014 murder of Eric Garner, was finally fired, the police union immediately appealed for his reinstatement and threatened a work slowdown. Now the Sergeants Benevolent Association’s official Twitter account spends most of its time needling New York City Mayor De Blasio and spouting profanity and pro-Trump propaganda.
Ultimately, police unions protect their own, and the contracts they bargain keep killers, domestic abusers, and white supremacists in positions of deadly power—or provide them with generous pensions should they leave. The only solidarity they show is for their fellow police officers; other workers are mere targets. Their interests, as well as those of other right-wing oppressors’ unions like those that represent ICE, border patrol, and prison guards, are diametrically opposed to those of the workers whom the labor movement was launched to protect. As retired NYPD commander Corey Pegues wrote in his memoir, Once a Cop, police unions are “a blanket system of covering up police officers.”
Despite their union membership, police have also been no friend to workers, especially during strikes or protests. Their purpose is to protect property, not people, and labor history is littered with accounts of police moonlighting as strikebreakers or charging in to harass or injure striking workers. The first recorded strike fatalities in U.S. history came at the hands of police, who shot two New York tailors dead as they tried to disperse. During the Battle of Blair Mountain, the police fought striking coal miners on the bosses’ behalf. In 1937, during the Little Steel Strike, Chicago police gunned down 10 striking steelworkers in what became known as the Memorial Day Massacre. In 1968, days after Dr. Martin Luther King addressed a group of sanitation workers, Memphis cops maced and assaulted the striking workers and their supporters, killing a 16-year-old boy.
As the Industrial Worker noted on Twitter, current AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka was president of the United Mineworkers of America during the 1989 Pittston Coal Strike, and he “harshly criticized” the police for engaging in violence against the striking miners. Trumka’s long career as a union official has furnished him with decades of object lessons in the lengths to which the state will go to protect financial power and the interests of elites; he has also seen firsthand how readily striking or protesting workers are thrown into the line of fire by the police and military. During his tenure at the AFL-CIO, Trumka has supported progressive causes and spoken out against the legacies of racism, within and without the labor movement. This week, Trumka astutely tweeted that “racism plays an insidious role in the daily lives of all working people of color. This is a labor issue because it is a workplace issue. It is a community issue, and unions are the community.”
In a 2008 speech at a United Steelworkers convention in support of then-candidate Barack Obama, Trumka quoted conservative philosopher Edmund Burke, saying “all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.” More than a decade later, it’s all too clear that evil continues to triumph. Doing nothing in this context means allowing police unions to continue holding a comfortable berth within the labor movement, even as they keep shielding and supporting racists, abusers, and killers. As Trumka has also said, we can no longer sit still and avoid confronting issues of racial and economic inequality.
It’s imperative to take action now. The AFL-CIO has a chance to atone for its past racial transgressions by moving toward a more just, equitable, and intersectional labor movement. Disaffiliating with the IUPA is only a start, but it would be an important step in the right direction. The decision would draw a line in the sand and show the federation’s broader membership that union leaders truly believe that Black lives matter—and that the working class deserves to feel safe and protected in our own communities. The Industrial Workers of the World has long barred law enforcement (and prison guards) from its membership rolls; it’s high time for the AFL-CIO to follow its lead.
The age-old query “Which side are you on?” has rung out at rallies and picket lines and vigils since Florence Reece put the slogan to paper in 1931. It hung in the air while police were maiming striking coal miners then, and it remains on the lips of the millions of modern workers fighting for a fair shake. As we once more raise our voices and ask ourselves that question, the only acceptable response is crystal-clear: that we’re on the side of the workers, not their abusers and oppressors. As Reece once sang, there can be no neutrals here.
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