Here are the videos so far produced by Free Concord from the weekend of the NATO Summit in Chicago, May 18-20.
A glimpse of helicopter coverage by Chicago police and higher authorities throughout the marches. (more…)
News has broken today that fully informed jury activist Julian Heicklen has fled the country to avoid a pending warrant out of Santa Ana, California, where he is wanted yet again for distributing educational fliers on the rights of jurors. On May 22, Julian is said to have been granted Israeli citizenship at customs. It is unclear whether the eighty year old pamphleteering pioneer plans on returning to the United States. Freedoms Phoenix has the story.
http://freedomsphoenix.com/Article/112245-2012-05-23-julian-heicklen-flees-united-states.htm
After a 27 hour journey with activists from around Massachusetts and New Hampshire, early yesterday morning we arrived in the windy city. Expending almost every battery for the recording devices that I own, there is now upwards of 14 gigabytes of video, image, and audio files waiting to be processed. Throughout the day I filmed scenes from a scheduled rally in Daley plaza (where a cell phone jamming device was being used), an unpermitted march throughout downtown Chicago, and an evening assembly in Grant park. The Chicago Tribune has published photos from Friday’s festivities. Today crowds are expected to continue swelling. Here’s a juxtaposition preview of some of the coverage you’ll soon be seeing at Free Concord. The first image was a much more common sight than the second.
This post originally published at freeconcord.org.
It’s a surprise to learn that Medea Benjamin was allowed into a press conference marking the anniversary of Osama Bin Laden’s mysterious execution. ‘Counterterrorism Advisor’ John Brennan spoke about US military operations overseas, including the use of drones to kill suspected combatants, at the April 30 event at the Woodrow Wilson International Center in DC. Medea (whom you may remember from the Jefferson Dance Party) stood and interrupted the official’s speech and spoke out on behalf of innocent victims of increasingly advanced US militarism. The venue was reasonable enough to not ask that she be arrested after police dragged her from the room. Linked you can read Medea’s account of the event, and see the courageous interruption below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXj7YfLRx5I
NH News
Today Dave Ridley published an illustrated weekly audio broadcast from Ron Paul on the current state of US foreign intervention. (more…)
From freeconcord.org:
While visiting the 21st annual Extravaganja festival in Amherst, Massachusetts, I had the chance to meet a long-time advocate for a peace declaration in the war on drugs. Jack Cole is one of the founding members of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition who worked in undercover narcotics for a great portion of his police career. Though he had known for years while working in the field that he was actively harming communities by perpetuating an unnecessary war, it was some time before he decided to make speaking out against the war a major part of his life. Since doing so, he has found it difficult to, in good conscience, not continue to work hard to maintain the momentum LEAP has been building in opposition to prohibition policy.
In this interview, Jack overviews the surprising success LEAP has had since its formation in March 2002. Now spanning 86 countries, LEAP is beginning to have even more active duty criminal justice officials, as early on their public membership was almost exclusively retired individuals. Jack also gets into how the drug war is greatly decreasing the effectiveness of more imperative criminal justice functions because of the ease of fishing in the drug war.
Many thanks to Jack Cole and his fellow spokesmen for LEAP, who undertake the important task of disseminating unpopular truths. See the 13-minute interview embedded below.
https://www.youtube.comwatch?v=_0sexte4kJw
From freeconcord.org:
Chen Guangchen (left) after his escape, with Hu Jia
Detained human rights activist Chen Guangcheng has escaped the custody of local government officials who had been keeping him under house arrest since 2010. Chen is known as a lawyer who worked to expose forced abortions and sterilizations among 7,000 women in rural China.
While drawing attention to the human rights abuses in 2006, he was brought up on bogus charges of “deliberately destroying property” and “disrupting traffic”. After serving a four year prison sentence, he was confined to his home, where guards kept constant watch to prevent him from communicating with the outside world. Actor Christian Bale attempted to visit the activist in December of last year with a CNN film crew in tow, and was forcibly blocked from the property.
He reportedly escaped on April 22, and made his way to Beijing, where he released a 15 minute video announcing his safe escape and making requests of Chinese Premiere Wen Jiabao. His video statement focuses on urging Wen to investigate the unlawful nature of his detention and the intimidation and physical force used against his supporters, as well as calling for an investigation into corruption at all levels. (more…)
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