Now that Henry Louis Gates’ Jr. has gotten a tiny taste of what “the underclass” undergo each day, do you think that he will go easier on them? Lighten up on the tough love lectures? Even during his encounter with the police, he was given some slack. If a black man in an inner city neighborhood had hesitated to identify himself, or given the police some lip, the police would have called SWAT. When Oscar Grant, an apprentice butcher, talked back to a BART policeman in Oakland, he was shot…! UPDATE via Lady Liberty's Lamp: Boston Cop Bigotry Continues; Racist Officer Sends Email Screed to Boston Globe Reporter, Wraps Self in US Military Uniform, Repeatedly Calls Gates "Jungle Monkey" ORIGINAL HARDCOPY SCAN of Barrett email, via Fox 25 News, Boston.

Raj Jayadev, Writes: "What would have happened to Dr. Gates if he were not an acclaimed scholar and author, friend to the President, and someone whose stardom could greatly embarrass a city and county justice system? what would have happened if Dr. Gates, were he not a noted scholar, was arrested in my city, San Jose, California with the same fact pattern, even as described by the police report?"

A protest was held on the steps of Cambridge City Hall to support Harvard professor Henry L. Gates vs. the Cambridge Police. According to the event organizers, the arrest of Prof. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. by a Cambridge police officer - after Prof. Gates showed two forms of identification to a police officer who arrived to find Prof. Gates safely in his own home in a predominantly white, upscale neighborhood known as “Harvard Square” - has brought the struggle against racism to the front pages of newspapers throughout the US and around the world. Read More | Watch Video

From the newswire: “Christopher Alex Cornstalk, age 44, died July 17, 2006 from natural causes in the city of Markham, Illinois… A funeral was held and Mr. Cornstalk was buried. The story should have ended there…[But] a number of "Chicago Rescue Workers" (emergency room, fire department and police staff from several Chicago-area cities and villages) participated in a Facebook group named ‘Did You Know This Alcoholic Indian?’.”

The group appears to violate the federal law which mandates strict confidentiality of medical information and identity. What’s more, Native American Facebook users who discovered the group expressed outrage over the characterization of the group. Facebook has since deleted the group, and the Chicago Fire Department has all but disavowed any connection, but the controversy continues. Read more

On the night of July 25, a group of sexy autonomous individuals visited Embassy Suites Airport Hotel to continue a campaign against the hotel that hosted Neo-Nazi David Irving. David Irving is a notorious white supremacist and holocaust denier - more information at  http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2009/07/392426.shtml

Wearing ravishing disguises, the group came prepared with flyers that were left under the doors of most of the rooms in the hotel. The flyers informed the patrons of Embassy Suites' heinous apathy to the presence of fascists in our community. Since we do not support the right of Nazis to spew their filth in our community, we felt it was necessary to send a strong message to Embassy Suites and those who choose to give them money that supporting Irving and any Nazi is unacceptable.

Ignoring Nazis in the past has not made them vanish, as many liberals would pretend. Removing Nazis from one's community in the past has always involved direct action targeting their homes, their work, and the spaces in which they organize. On Saturday night, Embassy Suites Airport Hotel felt the second wave of backlash against them and their yuppie army of paying guests.

The national coordinator of the American Tea Party movement is standing behind David McKalip and has pledged her help as he struggles with the fallout over the racist email he sent showing President Obama dressed as a witch doctor.

(At left: National Tea Party coordinator Amy Kremer.)

Read More | | | Related: Cartoon by Mike Flugennock: "Teabagger: coming 9/12" | "Freedom Works" Tea Party: September 12 March on Washington

When a suburban Philadelphia swim club kicked out a group of black and Latino kids on June 29 because of their skin color, the incident generated much outrage throughout the country. But it would be a mistake to think that such incidents and attitudes are a rare exception.

A vigil for Leonard Peltier
Monday July 27 6 PM
Pioneer Square
Downtown Portland
Speakers : Dorothy Ackerman, Sioux elder on the Grand Council of the American Indian Movement
Michael One Road, NW AIM

Leonard Peltier's first full parole hearing was held in 1993, at which time his case was continued for a 15-year reconsideration. Mr. Peltier has recently applied for and been granted a parole hearing. The hearing is scheduled for July 28, 2009. All supporters are encouraged to step up their efforts in support of parole for Leonard Peltier

www.whoisleonardpeltier.info

INVETERATE RELIGIOUS NUTCAKE PROFESSES NONVIOLENCE WHILE ISSUING COY, THINLY-VEILED THREATS AGAINST DOCTORS, DEMOCRATS, PRO-CHOICE MOVEMENT

After a momentous comeback show at the Supreme Court, Randall Terry And His Fabulous Fail Train staged an encore performance at the National Press Club. While claiming to draw inspiration from Martin Luther King, he simultaneously issued dire warnings of "convulsions" and attempted to draw parallels between fetuses and Holocaust Jews, while also taking a moment to mock his fellow Catholics. Still photography by Isis, via Flickr. | Video by Mike Flugennock: Nobody Here But Us Chickens, streaming out of YouTube, 05mins. 29secs.

On July 18th, anarchists in Seattle Washington converged downtown to confront a group of Nazis gathering to host a lecture by British Holocaust Denier David Irving.

Around 70 people marched through downtown Rochester yesterday, July 20th, to call for an end to RICO charges against 24 local residents. Organized by Activists Against Racism Movement (AARM), the march started at the Federal Building, wound through the city and ended with a rally at the city/county jail. Powerful and energetic, the march sent a message that community safety will come when people unite together to fight for justice not by longer prison sentences or harsher policing. Read More & Pics | | | Background: Members of the so-called "Wolf Pack" Gang Proclaiming Innocence | RICO LAWS? PROVE IT!!

Over six months have passed since the murder of Oscar Grant III and BART has yet to tell the truth about what happened on January 1st nor has a single employee has been held accountable by BART for their role in the murder nor for their attempts to cover up the truth. On July 16th, No Justice No BART boarded BART trains to informed thousands of people about what happened on the Fruitvale BART platform moments before Oscar Grant was murdered and the lies told by Police Chief Gary Gee shortly thereafter.

"Copwatch 13" writes:, Two Oakland police officers, Phong Tran and Scott Hewitt, shot and killed Parnell Smith on Wednesday, July 15th, near the corner of 16th Avenue and International Boulevard. Smith, who was unarmed when he was shot, was running away from Tran and Hewitt as they fired on him. On Thursday, when grilled about why police would shoot Smith if he was only running away, Oakland Police Spokesman Jeff Thomason initially said, "This was a gunfight...it was a gun battle that took place in the streets of Oakland." However, on Friday, Thomason acknowledged that his earlier statements were premature. Read More & Pics | | | Related: No Justice No BART Takes the Truth to the Trains | Murder Charge Sticks for Johannes Mehserle | Advance the Struggle’s Analysis of the Oakland Rebellions of January

On Sunday, July 19, approximately 50 anti-fascists and anti-racists made their way to the Embassy Suites - Airport hotel in Portland, to oppose the Holocaust-denier and neo-fascist David Irving, and the sympathizers who had paid $24-$30 each to hear him talk.

Although Irving's event was not shut down, we consider our intervention to have been successful in sending a clear message that fascist organizing is not welcome in our community, and that Irving will be met with resistance. This was not only an achievement for Rose City Antifa members, who were a minority within the opposition to the event, it was also an important result for the broader anti-racist community, which mobilized effectively and at short notice. We believe that events such as that on Sunday set the stage for more substantial victories in the future.

David Irving is a British writer of histories who has been involved with the fascist political scene since the 1960s. Always known for the pro-Hitler bias of his books, approximately two decades ago Irving made the transition to being a fully-fledged Holocaust-denier. In addition to spreading blatant historical lies, Irving has publicly stated that "The Jews are the architects of their own misfortune". Although Irving has been banned from several countries and even imprisoned for his Holocaust-denial propagandizing and pro-Nazi agitation, he has been touring the United States since the beginning of July.

Members of the Houston Black Firefighters Association are pressing the Federal Bureau of Investigation to probe a recent noose incident and the alleged discriminatory treatment of members. One of the group's members, Jesse O'Quinn, discovered a hangman's noose at a Houston fire station located on the east side of town. As reported by KHOU Channel 11 News, the noose was hanging in a White supervisor's partially opened locker door. Mr. O'Quinn spotted it and reported it to the assistant fire chief only to be reprimanded for not following the chain of command

“We are outraged by this incident and the fact that they would reprimand him (Mr. O'Quinn) for reporting it. That's crazy,” said Capt. Otis Jordan, president of Black firefighters group, to The Final Call. He has served in the field for 29 and has led the organization for nine years. [More from Brother Jesse Blog]

From the open publishing newswire: Why we must root out racism and sexism at HFD | Flames of Hatred Rally July 28th | Houston community leaders, politicians, and more delivers statements regarding the on-going issues at the Houston Fire Department

Rochester Indymedia has resolved to witness Tyquan Rivera's pretrial hearings and trial, first-hand, after observing an ongoing pattern of sloppy and inaccurate reporting of the case by the local corporate media. With the help of a journalist from Boston Indymedia, who was also present on July 1st in Judge Joseph Valentino's courtroom for his rulings, Rochester Indymedia began to notice other disturbingly oppressive patterns developing in Rivera's case, enacted both in the courtroom and in the ongoing corporate media coverage.

Additional Information: A Child in Chains: A reportback from Tyquan Rivera's pretrial hearing | Media Review of Last Month's Pretrial Hearing | Digging for Truth in the Tyquan Rivera Case | Let’s Not Retreat into Cocoons of Expedient Simplicity and Pretentiousness

Audio: Eye-witness e-mail account of police brutality before Tyquan Rivera allegedly shot into police as read on WDKX on February 4th, 2009

Related: AARM Holds Second Event on the Media and Racism | Racism and the Media Community Discussion a Success | Facts about Juvenile Injustice | Activists Against Racism Movement

Rose City Antifa has uncovered the location of David Irving's lecture. He is speaking at Embassy Suites - Airport located at 7900 NE 82nd Street Portland, OR 97220. The phone number of this venue is (503) 460-3000. Irving's personal cellphone number is (305) 923-6779. He is slated to begin his lecture today, Sunday July 19th, at 3pm.

John Brown Childs, a UCSC professor emeritus, author, scholar and educator, joined the Teachers for Class War radio show on Free Radio Santa Cruz for an hour of discussion on July 13th. Topics range from Katrina to Obama, UCSC politics to his namesake John Brown, and the civil rights movement of the sixties to contemporary issues facing Santa Cruz.

Advance the Struggle writes:"The murder of Oscar Grant set Oakland on fire, but who put the fire out? The working class people of Oakland, their consciousness set ablaze, found an inadequate set of organizational tools at their disposal to do the work that deep down we all know has to be done - confront the state (government) and its underlying property relations."

A press conference was held at the Independent Media Center on June 25, 2009, where community leaders spoke out about the police shooting of Toto Kaiyewu, a medical student from Carbondale. When Kaiyewu was passing through Villa Grove, a former “sundown town,” he was profiled by a local cop, stopped, and a chase ensued that ended with police gunning him down on I-74.

Those who addressed the media were (from left to right) Patsy Howell, reading a statement from the Muslim American Society, Tracy Parsons, who called the actions of the authorities “deplorable,” Erma Bridgewater, long-time community activist, and Aaron Ammons of CU Citizens for Peace and Justice, who called for changes to make this “more than just another black male killed by the police.” Read More

Past Coverage: Adding Insult to Injury: State’s Attorney Releases Medical Records of “Toto” Kaiyewu | Racial Profiling Incident Leads to Police Shooting of “Toto” Kaiyewu

On July 7th, California State prosecutors were forced to admit that they have insufficient evidence against the San Francisco 8. Charges against four of the defendants were dropped and Jalil Muntaqim pled no contest to conspiracy to commit voluntary manslaughter. He received credit for time served and 3 years probation. He will return to New York to fight for parole. Those for whom charges were dismissed were Ray Boudreaux, Richard Brown, Hank Jones, and Harold Taylor. Read More & Past Coverage | Background on the SF8 Case

Yesterday, June 27th, white supremacists attempted to distribute hate literature in downtown Houston. Antifascists mobilized to confront the gathering and sent a clear message to the fascists - not in our city! White supremacists intended to hold a memorial for a dead nazi creepball David Lane. Dave was a member of an armed white supremacist group called "the Order," and kicked the bucket in federal prison in 2007 where he was serving time for the murder of Jewish radio host Allen Berg.

When the so-called "Aryan Front Line Skinheads" declared their intention to distribute copies of Dave's racist rants in the Houston area, antifascists immediately went on the alert. The boneheads tried to be clever by waiting until 11pm the night before to post an actual location, but antifa were already standing by. The call went out, and in the morning our scouts were on location at the downtown federal building where the fascist goons planned to gather. Antifascists from around the city began gathering in a downtown park at 10 am. By eleven there were over 40 of us, and still no sign of the nazis. [Read Full Article with Photos | Antiracistaction.net]

Related: Rose City Antifa: Statement on Anti-Semites and their Collaborators

Recent events have highlighted the fact that anti-Semitic organizers in Portland, Oregon are relying on "Leftist" spaces and groups to tolerate their efforts and ideology. On Wednesday, June 10, Valdas Anelauskas, a self-described "white separatist" who is involved with Holocaust-denial circles, gave a presentation to a group of sympathizers in Portland, Oregon. The event was sponsored by the Portland 9/11 Truth Alliance, and was initially scheduled to take place at the Laughing Horse Book & Video Collective... The Laughing Horse collective canceled the anti-Semitic event within 48 hours of being notified about its true nature. Valdas Anelauskas is a "racialist" (read: racist) activist currently based in Eugene, Oregon. Anelauskas is now active in the Pacifica Forum, a Eugene, Oregon organization which hosts Holocaust-denial speakers such as David Irving plus Mark Weber of the Institute for Historical Review.

While Portland 9/11 Truth Alliance activist Tim Titrud was one organizer for Anelauskas' talk in Portland, Titrud appears to have been assisted by a cast of several others, especially Tim Calvert... Calvert's conspiracy theories about Jewish power, and his denial of the Nazi genocide against the Jewish people, have been an open secret in Portland for years.

Rose City Antifa strongly opposes attempts to make excuses for anti-Semitism, or to pretend that it is any less poisonous than any other form of racism. Other organizations involving Tim Calvert, such as the Cascadia Education Project, are also advised to take notice. No compromise and no half-measures!

- Rose City Antifa / Portland ARA

This Saturday, June 20th 2009, Pat Puchanan's organization The American Cause had their conference in Tyson's Corner Virginia.

Now there are many recognizable characters on the speakers list. But, the last one mentioned is Peter Brimelow — someone who might not be well known, but he is one with quite a dubious reputation of racism.

The Peoria Journal Star owes a long overdue public apology to the late Mark Clark, and especially to his remaining family members.

Peorian Mark Clark, then 22, was murdered by Chicago police authorities during the infamous predawn raid on December 4, 1969 at a West Side apartment where he and a group of fellow Black Panthers were sleeping. The renowned and charismatic Panther Fred Hampton, age 21, also was killed by police, shot point blank in the head while still on his mattress.

The incident became a landmark event in the urban civil rights movement with both Clark and Hampton considered martyrs to the causes of worldwide black liberation and the revolutionary human rights struggle. According to published newspaper reports, 14 police officers assigned to the office of then Cook County State’s Attorney Edward V. Hanrahan (who died just last week, on June 9, at age 88) stormed the apartment at 2337 W. Monroe St. occupied by seven Black Panthers in a 4:40 a.m. raid.

On Wednesday, Latino leaders decried the sentences of two teens acquitted in the beating death of Luis Eduardo Ramírez, for related charges to the July 2008 fatal incident in Shenandoah, Pa. "There was no Justice done for Luis Ramirez, and we should not and will not rest until all four perpetrators of such a hideous crime are duly prosecuted under federal hate crime statues and found guilty of murder," said Reverend Miguel Rivera, chairman for the National Coalition Of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders (CONLAMIC). Read more at Media Mobilizing Project

Against a background of epidemic police brutality across the country, the Philadelphia Chapter of the National Action Network convened a Community Public Hearing on Sunday, June 7, to examine the conduct of Philadelphia police and the Office of the District Attorney.

For more than seven hours, individuals and even entire families gave accounts of their experiences at the hands of police that frequently turned deadly. The picture that emerged was one of systematic violation of human and civil rights by Philadelphia police, particularly in five police districts with a heavy concentration of Black residents.