In Biggest Crackdown Since Civil Rights Era, 20 States Move To Criminalize Protest

“In my dozen years of monitoring state legislation, I’ve certainly not seen a wave of anti-protest bills this large,” said ACLU attorney Lee Rowland.

Jake Johnson
By Jake Johnson
Participants in National General Strike Day rally held at Washington Square Park in New York, New York on February 17, 2017. (Photo: Rainmaker/MediaPunch/IPX)

In what is being called the "biggest protest crackdown since the Civil Rights Era," Republicans in at least 20 states have put forward or passed laws with the intention of making protest more difficult and the punishment for expressing dissent more draconian since President Donald Trump's inauguration in January. Throughout his bid for the White

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Cuba Asserts Its Right To Protect US Political Prisoners

President Donald Trump demanded that Cuba returns so-called U.S. “criminals” to the country as a precondition for the resumption of neighborly relations between the long-time foes.

teleSUR
By teleSUR
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parilla addresses the media during a news conference in Vienna, Austria, June 19, 2017. (AP/Ronald Zak)

Cuba defended its sovereign right to grant protection and asylum to U.S. dissidents, civil rights fighters and persecuted persons, rebuffing the demand of U.S. President Donald Trump that the Caribbean nation returns so-called U.S. "criminals" to the country as a precondition for the resumption of neighborly relations between the long-time

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Commission Finds ‘Systemic Racism’ At Root Of Flint Water Crisis

Would the Flint water crisis have been allowed to happen in Birmingham, Ann Arbor or East Grand Rapids?

Jeff Karoub | AP
By Jeff Karoub | AP
Pastor David Bullock holds up a bottle of Flint water as Michigan State Police hold a barrier to keep protestors out of the Romney Building, where Gov. Rick Snyder's office resides on Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016, in Lansing, Mich. (Jake May/The Flint Journal-MLive.com via AP)

FLINT, Mich. — "Systemic racism" going back decades is at the core of problems that caused a lead-contaminated water crisis in the majority black city of Flint, according to a Michigan Civil Rights Commission report issued Friday. The report says the commission did not unearth any civil rights law violations and that nobody "intended to poison

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Racial Disparities In Student Arrests Becoming Nationwide Epidemic

In most states, the share of Black students arrested is at least 10 percentage points higher than their share of enrollment in schools with at least one arrest.

Sarah Hinger
By Sarah Hinger
Chicago Schools Safe Passage

(REPORT) --- Black students make up 15.5 percent of school enrollment nationwide but a staggering 33.4 percent of students arrested. This alarming finding comes from Education Week’s analysis of the latest federal Civil Rights Data Collection from the 2013-2014 school year. This is a problem for all parts of our country. As Education Week

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New York To Pay Out $56.5 Million Over Bogus NYPD tickets

The settlement came following a rash of tickets given out to fulfill the NYPD’s alleged quota system.

Nathan Tempey | Gothamist
By Nathan Tempey | Gothamist
NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly poses for photographers next to the new police cruiser, a 2006 Dodge Charger, on display at New York City Police Department's headquarters in New York, Monday, Aug. 14, 2006. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

(REPORT) --- New York City has agreed to pay out as much as $75 million in taxpayer money to settle a long-running class-action lawsuit regarding hundreds of thousands of bogus summonses that lawyers alleged were the product of the NYPD's quota system. The proposed settlement hit the Manhattan federal court docket this afternoon and still needs

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As Trump Takes Power, Politicians Around US Move To Enact Restrictions On Protests

As the week comes to an end, it becomes apparent that dissent is being criminalized not only nationwide but on multiple fronts. Increased regulations are appearing that limit the public spaces that can be lawfully occupied in protest.

Sarah Cronin
By Sarah Cronin
Protestors block traffic outside the Ferguson, Mo., police department, Wednesday, March 4, 2015, in Ferguson.

(ANALYSIS) --- Indiana passed a bill on Wednesday that authorizes police officers to shut down highway protesting “by any means necessary.” S.B. 285, as it is known, obliges a public official to dispatch all available officers within 15 minutes of discovering any assembly of 10 or more people who are obstructing vehicle traffic. The bill then

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