Tag: protesters

Andrew Brown’s Killing Has Protesters In Elizabeth City, N.C., Marching In The Footsteps Of Centuries Of Fighters For Black Rights
SOCIAL JUSTICE

Andrew Brown’s Killing Has Protesters In Elizabeth City, N.C., Marching In The Footsteps Of Centuries Of Fighters For Black Rights

Melissa N. Stuckey, Elizabeth City State University Protests have been taking place in a small North Carolina city for the past two months, sparked by the early morning report on April 21, 2021, that Andrew Brown Jr., a local African American man, had been shot and killed by county sheriff’s deputies serving search and arrest warrants. Eleven months after the murder of George Floyd and just one day after former police officer Derek Chauvin’s conviction, Brown’s killing immediately became part of a larger national story about African Americans being killed by law enforcement agents and subsequent demands for accountability and reform. For weeks, protesters have held daily marches along Road, Ehringhaus, Main and Water Streets in Elizabeth City. They have also marched through the Shepard ...
Instead of demonising Black Lives Matter protesters, leaders must act on their calls for racial justice
SOCIAL JUSTICE, VIDEO REELS

Instead of demonising Black Lives Matter protesters, leaders must act on their calls for racial justice

The intensification of the Black Lives Matter movement in the US in recent months has led to radical reform and action. The police officers responsible for the killing of George Floyd were all charged with serious offences, including one with second-degree murder. The city of Minneapolis voted to replace its police force with a “new system of public safety”, while other cities have slashed their police budgets. Demands for judicial and police reform in Australia The BLM and Stop First Nations Deaths in Custody protests across Australia since early June have similarly called for charges against police officers and prison guards responsible for deaths in custody, as well as an end to racialised police violence. Another major protest is scheduled for today in Sydney amid warnings from Prime...
What are the ‘reopen’ protesters really saying?
IMPACT, VIDEO REELS

What are the ‘reopen’ protesters really saying?

The “anti-lockdown” and #Reopen protests in the U.S. have powerful and secretive backers, but there are real Americans on the streets expressing their opinions. As an ethnographer – someone who studies cultural participation – I’m interested in who those Americans are, and why they’re upset. I spent the last week in what you might call an online road trip, studying 30 posts of protest footage from events in 15 cities. I found some shared themes, which don’t fit well with popular narratives about these protests. Protesters object to handouts, but want work. 1. Poverty is taboo, but work is ‘essential’ Despite the economic toll the lockdowns are taking on America’s poor, no protesters put their own poverty on display, such as posting signs asking for help. Instead, they held signs with mo...
Seattle Protesters Climate Wish List
LIFESTYLE

Seattle Protesters Climate Wish List

The protesters were relatively chipper, if subdued, on this Monday morning—a fitting time of day for a meeting of the Sunrise Movement. This national youth-led effort is pushing the Green New Deal and has been championed by U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. About 30 participants gathered in Seattle’s Occidental Square to demand that Washington U.S. Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell support the Green New Deal. Participants rehearsed songs about building a better future and passed lighters—not to smoke, but rather to burn their “objects of personal import” (as the protest’s media advisory described them) for dramatic effect. They singed a few fingers, stomped out the flames on the brick pavers, and stashed the smoldering items in their backpacks. Before the millennial protesters ...
Protesters ousted from sacred site where Elvis filmed movie
LIFESTYLE

Protesters ousted from sacred site where Elvis filmed movie

State sheriffs on Thursday removed protesters from the ruins of a Hawaii hotel where they have been squatting since last year in an attempt to block redevelopment of land where Hawaiian chiefs once lived and where Elvis Presley’s character got married in the movie “Blue Hawaii.” The Hawaii Department of Public Safety said in a statement Thursday that state sheriffs arrested 23-year-old Mahealani Hanie-Grace for trespassing at Coco Palms on Kauai. The protest began when two men arrived claiming they owned the property because they descend from King Kaumualii, the last ruler of Kauai. They’ve been joined by dozens of others. Police have cited protesters for trespassing. A judge last month issued an order to evict them. The public safety department said 25 deputy sheriffs partic...