News

Photos and video courtesy www.Unicornriot.ninja - Despite the Obama administration's half-hearted pledge to review and/or suspend construction on the Dakota Access Pipeline the Oil war against the Lakota Nation continues.

Construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, owned by Energy Transfer Partners of Texas and Marathon Petroleum of Findlay Ohio, has continued. Another Prayer camp near the construction pathway was begun yesterday, September 27, and was attacked by a highly militarized police operation today.

Led by the People's Justice Partnership and relatives of Henry Green and Tyre King nearly 200 people took over City Council Chambers during their weekly meeting to demand justice. City Authorities had prepared new roadblocks to public participation for the event including requiring photo identification to enter the building and extra police on hand. New rules were in place limiting the total number of people permitted to attend the meeting to fewer than the total number of seats in Council Chambers.

While the rebellious streets in Charlotte seem to have quieted by a curfew and threats of National Guard deployment, and extra security at today's Panther's game against the Vikings hindered a planned protest, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department is no closer to telling the truth.

A recent internet furor has been had over the increase in the price of an Epipen. The drug's manufacturer, Mylan has raised the wholesale price from $56 to $461 since acquiring the patent eight years ago. An Epipen is life saving emergency medication for the severely allergic. If a person has allergies serious enough, they need the auto-injector within minutes or they are dead. There have been no new techniques for manufacturing, new research or nor costs for the drug. The price increase is simply a ransom on the lives of millions of people.

The now under construction Bakken pipeline, also termed the North Dakota access pipeline, is slated to stretch from the Bakken shale fields of North Western North Dakota to a terminal in Illinois. The oil that will flow down the pipeline will eventually feed Southern and Eastern markets, specifically including Ohio. The oil will be blasted out of the ground via hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking.

On August 26th hundreds of activists from Columbus and around the country will gather at the Barak Recreation Center to set the ground work for supporting a national prison work stoppage both in Ohio and in their local communities. Over 100 conference attendees have registered for the three day event from out of town alone. Local organizers from the Red Bird Books and other groups formed an adhoc committee to put together the event which is called Bend the Bars.

The Department of Justice recently announced that it would examine and not renew it's contracts for privately built and operated prisons. This was hailed by some reformers as a major victory for human rights, the federal budget and the Democratic Party's election efforts. Hillary Clinton is attempting to shore up her flagging support from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party.

It seemed like “just” another police shooting of a black person. By the incomplete statistics available, #SylvilleSmith in Milwaukee is number 183 this year. At the time of this writing that number has grown to 185 in 229 days or one every 29 hours. The total number of deaths by police violence will go up from 730 before this article is prosted. A 23 year old man's life would have been condensed to a blip on the late news as a local story.

Calling something a war is often an exercise in hyperbole. The Greek philosopher Aeschylus once said “In war, truth is the first casualty.” This has extended to the naming of wars “police actions” or calling them “operations” with names like “Restore Freedom” and “Inherent Resolve.” To cut through the Public Relations fog, one could define war as the late Jesse Helms defined pornography, “I know it when I see it.” One sees war in terms of casualties, and when using casualties for a lens to describe what American policing is doing the American public, one clearly sees a war.