#eight policemen killed

[zvaigzdelasas]

A court in Argentina on Tuesday sentenced three police officers to life imprisonment for the racially motivated killing of Lucas González, a teenager, in November 2021. Of the eleven officers who were accused of tampering with evidence, the court found six of them guilty of covering up the crime and sentenced them to prison for four to eight years. The court acquitted the other five officers, in a case which became emblematic of institutional violence in Argentina.

11 Jul 23

[dailyanarchistposts]

A.5 What are some examples of “Anarchy in Action”?

A.5.2 The Haymarket Martyrs

May 1st is a day of special significance for the labour movement. While it has been hijacked in the past by the Stalinist bureaucracy in the Soviet Union and elsewhere, the labour movement festival of May Day is a day of world-wide solidarity. A time to remember past struggles and demonstrate our hope for a better future. A day to remember that an injury to one is an injury to all.

The history of Mayday is closely linked with the anarchist movement and the struggles of working people for a better world. Indeed, it originated with the execution of four anarchists in Chicago in 1886 for organising workers in the fight for the eight-hour day. Thus May Day is a product of “anarchy in action” — of the struggle of working people using direct action in labour unions to change the world.

It began in the 1880s in the USA. In 1884, the Federation of Organised Trades and Labor Unions of the United States and Canada (created in 1881, it changed its name in 1886 to the American Federation of Labor) passed a resolution which asserted that “eight hours shall constitute a legal day’s work from and after May 1, 1886, and that we recommend to labour organisations throughout this district that they so direct their laws as to conform to this resolution.” A call for strikes on May 1st, 1886 was made in support of this demand.

In Chicago the anarchists were the main force in the union movement, and partially as a result of their presence, the unions translated this call into strikes on May 1st. The anarchists thought that the eight hour day could only be won through direct action and solidarity. They considered that struggles for reforms, like the eight hour day, were not enough in themselves. They viewed them as only one battle in an ongoing class war that would only end by social revolution and the creation of a free society. It was with these ideas that they organised and fought.

In Chicago alone, 400 000 workers went out and the threat of strike action ensured that more than 45 000 were granted a shorter working day without striking. On May 3, 1886, police fired into a crowd of pickets at the McCormick Harvester Machine Company, killing at least one striker, seriously wounding five or six others, and injuring an undetermined number. Anarchists called for a mass meeting the next day in Haymarket Square to protest the brutality. According to the Mayor, “nothing had occurred yet, or looked likely to occur to require interference.” However, as the meeting was breaking up a column of 180 police arrived and ordered the meeting to end. At this moment a bomb was thrown into the police ranks, who opened fire on the crowd. How many civilians were wounded or killed by the police was never exactly ascertained, but 7 policemen eventually died (ironically, only one was the victim of the bomb, the rest were a result of the bullets fired by the police [Paul Avrich, The Haymarket Tragedy, p. 208]).

A “reign of terror” swept over Chicago, and the “organised banditti and conscienceless brigands of capital suspended the only papers which would give the side of those whom they crammed into prison cells. They have invaded the homes of everyone who has ever known to have raised a voice or sympathised with those who have aught to say against the present system of robbery and oppression … they have invaded their homes and subjected them and their families to indignities that must be seen to be believed.” [Lucy Parsons, Liberty, Equality & Solidarity, p. 53] Meeting halls, union offices, printing shops and private homes were raided (usually without warrants). Such raids into working-class areas allowed the police to round up all known anarchists and other socialists. Many suspects were beaten up and some bribed. “Make the raids first and look up the law afterwards” was the public statement of J. Grinnell, the States Attorney, when a question was raised about search warrants. [“Editor’s Introduction”, The Autobiographies of the Haymarket Martyrs, p. 7]

Eight anarchists were put on trial for accessory to murder. No pretence was made that any of the accused had carried out or even planned the bomb. The judge ruled that it was not necessary for the state to identify the actual perpetrator or prove that he had acted under the influence of the accused. The state did not try to establish that the defendants had in any way approved or abetted the act. In fact, only three were present at the meeting when the bomb exploded and one of those, Albert Parsons, was accompanied by his wife and fellow anarchist Lucy and their two small children to the event.

The reason why these eight were picked was because of their anarchism and union organising, as made clear by that State’s Attorney when he told the jury that “Law is on trial. Anarchy is on trial. These men have been selected, picked out by the Grand Jury, and indicted because they were leaders. They are no more guilty than the thousands who follow them. Gentlemen of the jury; convict these men, make examples of them, hang them and you save our institutions, our society.” The jury was selected by a special bailiff, nominated by the State’s Attorney and was explicitly chosen to compose of businessmen and a relative of one of the cops killed. The defence was not allowed to present evidence that the special bailiff had publicly claimed “I am managing this case and I know what I am about. These fellows are going to be hanged as certain as death.” [Op. Cit., p. 8] Not surprisingly, the accused were convicted. Seven were sentenced to death, one to 15 years’ imprisonment.

An international campaign resulted in two of the death sentences being commuted to life, but the world wide protest did not stop the US state. Of the remaining five, one (Louis Lingg) cheated the executioner and killed himself on the eve of the execution. The remaining four (Albert Parsons, August Spies, George Engel and Adolph Fischer) were hanged on November 11th 1887. They are known in Labour history as the Haymarket Martyrs. Between 150,000 and 500,000 lined the route taken by the funeral cortege and between 10,000 to 25,000 were estimated to have watched the burial.

In 1889, the American delegation attending the International Socialist congress in Paris proposed that May 1st be adopted as a workers’ holiday. This was to commemorate working class struggle and the “Martyrdom of the Chicago Eight”. Since then Mayday has became a day for international solidarity. In 1893, the new Governor of Illinois made official what the working class in Chicago and across the world knew all along and pardoned the Martyrs because of their obvious innocence and because “the trial was not fair.” To this day, no one knows who threw the bomb — the only definite fact is that it was not any of those who were tried for the act: “Our comrades were not murdered by the state because they had any connection with the bomb-throwing, but because they had been active in organising the wage-slaves of America.” [Lucy Parsons, Op. Cit., p. 142]

The authorities had believed at the time of the trial that such persecution would break the back of the labour movement. As Lucy Parsons, a participant of the events, noted 20 years later, the Haymarket trial “was a class trial — relentless, vindictive, savage and bloody. By that prosecution the capitalists sought to break the great strike for the eight-hour day which as being successfully inaugurated in Chicago, this city being the stormcentre of that great movement; and they also intended, by the savage manner in which they conducted the trial of these men, to frighten the working class back to their long hours of toil and low wages from which they were attempting to emerge. The capitalistic class imagined they could carry out their hellish plot by putting to an ignominious death the most progressive leaders among the working class of that day. In executing their bloody deed of judicial murder they succeeded, but in arresting the mighty onward movement of the class struggle they utterly failed.” [Lucy Parsons, Op. Cit., p. 128] In the words of August Spies when he addressed the court after he had been sentenced to die:

“If you think that by hanging us you can stamp out the labour movement … the movement from which the downtrodden millions, the millions who toil in misery and want, expect salvation — if this is your opinion, then hang us! Here you will tread on a spark, but there and there, behind you — and in front of you, and everywhere, flames blaze up. It is a subterranean fire. You cannot put it out.” [quoted by Paul Avrich, Op. Cit., p. 287]

At the time and in the years to come, this defiance of the state and capitalism was to win thousands to anarchism, particularly in the US itself. Since the Haymarket event, anarchists have celebrated May Day (on the 1st of May — the reformist unions and labour parties moved its marches to the first Sunday of the month). We do so to show our solidarity with other working class people across the world, to celebrate past and present struggles, to show our power and remind the ruling class of their vulnerability. As Nestor Makhno put it:

“That day those American workers attempted, by organising themselves, to give expression to their protest against the iniquitous order of the State and Capital of the propertied … “The workers of Chicago … had gathered to resolve, in common, the problems of their lives and their struggles… “Today too … the toilers … regard the first of May as the occasion of a get-together when they will concern themselves with their own affairs and consider the matter of their emancipation.” [The Struggle Against the State and Other Essays, pp. 59–60]

Anarchists stay true to the origins of May Day and celebrate its birth in the direct action of the oppressed. It is a classic example of anarchist principles of direct action and solidarity, “an historic event of great importance, inasmuch as it was, in the first place, the first time that workers themselves had attempted to get a shorter work day by united, simultaneous action … this strike was the first in the nature of Direct Action on a large scale, the first in America.” [Lucy Parsons, Op. Cit., pp. 139–40] Oppression and exploitation breed resistance and, for anarchists, May Day is an international symbol of that resistance and power — a power expressed in the last words of August Spies, chiselled in stone on the monument to the Haymarket martyrs in Waldheim Cemetery in Chicago:

“The day will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you are throttling today.”

To understand why the state and business class were so determined to hang the Chicago Anarchists, it is necessary to realise they were considered the leaders of a massive radical union movement. In 1884, the Chicago Anarchists produced the world’s first daily anarchist newspaper, the Chicagoer Arbeiter-Zeiting. This was written, read, owned and published by the German immigrant working class movement. The combined circulation of this daily plus a weekly (Vorbote) and a Sunday edition (Fackel) more than doubled, from 13,000 per issues in 1880 to 26,980 in 1886. Anarchist weekly papers existed for other ethnic groups as well (one English, one Bohemian and one Scandinavian).

Anarchists were very active in the Central Labour Union (which included the eleven largest unions in the city) and aimed to make it, in the words of Albert Parsons (one of the Martyrs), “the embryonic group of the future ‘free society.’” The anarchists were also part of the International Working People’s Association (also called the “Black International”) which had representatives from 26 cities at its founding convention. The I.W.P.A. soon “made headway among trade unions, especially in the mid-west” and its ideas of “direct action of the rank and file” and of trade unions “serv[ing] as the instrument of the working class for the complete destruction of capitalism and the nucleus for the formation of a new society” became known as the “Chicago Idea” (an idea which later inspired the Industrial Workers of the World which was founded in Chicago in 1905). [“Editor’s Introduction,” The Autobiographies of the Haymarket Martyrs, p. 4]

This idea was expressed in the manifesto issued at the I.W.P.A.‘s Pittsburgh Congress of 1883:

“First — Destruction of the existing class rule, by all means, i.e. by energetic, relentless, revolutionary and international action. “Second — Establishment of a free society based upon co-operative organisation of production. “Third — Free exchange of equivalent products by and between the productive organisations without commerce and profit-mongery. “Fourth — Organisation of education on a secular, scientific and equal basis for both sexes. “Fifth — Equal rights for all without distinction to sex or race. “Sixth — Regulation of all public affairs by free contracts between autonomous (independent) communes and associations, resting on a federalistic basis.” [Op. Cit., p. 42]

In addition to their union organising, the Chicago anarchist movement also organised social societies, picnics, lectures, dances, libraries and a host of other activities. These all helped to forge a distinctly working-class revolutionary culture in the heart of the “American Dream.” The threat to the ruling class and their system was too great to allow it to continue (particularly with memories of the vast uprising of labour in 1877 still fresh. As in 1886, that revolt was also meet by state violence — see Strike! by J. Brecher for details of this strike movement as well as the Haymarket events). Hence the repression, kangaroo court, and the state murder of those the state and capitalist class considered “leaders” of the movement.

For more on the Haymarket Martyrs, their lives and their ideas, The Autobiographies of the Haymarket Martyrs is essential reading. Albert Parsons, the only American born Martyr, produced a book which explained what they stood for called Anarchism: Its Philosophy and Scientific Basis. Historian Paul Avrich’s The Haymarket Tragedy is a useful in depth account of the events.

[kalakian]

Why it's hard to talk about Martial Law and the Marcos regime

The student who dared to question Imee Marcos.

Archimedes Trajano, a student of Mapua Institute of Technology who unfortunately met his end in the hands of Imee Marcos’ henchmen.

During an open forum at the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, the then-21-year-old questioned Imee on her capability to lead the youth and told her that she only became the head of the Kabataang Barangay because she was the president’s daughter. He also questioned her on the human rights abuses being committed by her father.

On September 2, 1977, his crumpled body was strewn on the streets of Manila. The official explanation was that he had died in a frat rumble inside his dormitory. Witnesses, however, said that Imee’s security dragged him away from the open forum. Trajano’s family successfully sued Marcos for civil damages in a Hawaii court; however, the local Supreme Court overturned it in 2006 due to a technicality committed by a lower court in trying to implement the prior verdict.

CONGRESS PADLOCKED UNDER MARTIAL LAW, 1972-1986

Days before the scheduled reopening of the Senate and the House of Representatives under the 1935 Constitution, Marcos promulgated the 1973 Constitution, which effectively abolished Congress and replaced it with a unicameral legislature which would be formed three years after. Opposition legislators reported to the Legislative Building on January 22, 1973, but found the building padlocked and under an armed guard.

The 7th Congress had been set to open its second regular session on January 22. The photo depicts Senators Doy Laurel, Eva Estrada Kalaw, Ramon Mitra, and Jovito Salonga posing in front of the Senate session hall which had been padlocked, a stark symbol of power held by a single man.

Between 1972 and 1977, sixty thousand Filipinos were arrested for “political reasons.” A new word entered the Filipino vocabulary, “salvage.” The brutal verb described how the military would disappear individuals, torture and murder them, and then toss their corpses into vacant lots or drop them by the side of the road. Thousands were salvaged under Marcos’ reign of terror.

Photo shows the legs of Judy Taguiwalo, former Social Welfare secretary and member of the Samahan ng Demokratikong Kabataan, as policemen force her and her fellow activists to leap off a jeepney during a rally after the State of the Nation Address of President Ferdinand Marcos in front of Manila's Congress on January 26, 1970. 

Two were killed and many were injured after a scrimmage at Manila’s Burgos Drive up to nearby golf link in Intramuros and Luneta Park. The injured were brought to the Philippine General Hospital on Taft Avenue.

Prior to the confrontation between students and policemen, Ed Jopson of Ateneo and the conservative National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP) chose radio commentator Arienda as a rally speaker over firebrand Gary Olivar of UP and SDK. It was dubbed as the “microphone battle” of the radical and conservative protesters in the 70s.

(1) FilipiKnow: 10 Lesser-Known Photos from Martial Law Years That Will Blow You Away

GMA: High court voids case vs Imee over 1977 killing of student

(2) FilipiKnow: 10 Lesser-Known Photos from Martial Law Years That Will Blow You Away

Official Gazette: The History of the Senate of the Philippines

(3) World Socialist Website: Forty-eight years since Marcos declared martial law in the Philippines

(4) ANC: The 7 deadly protests of the First Quarter Storm

[mark-of-chrysus]

#7

Daniel wasn't born invincible, although most people wouldn't be able to tell you that. Even in the first loop, he had first crawled through the filth before reaching the top. But it hadn't been enough. This is why, in every loop after that one, for at least a few dozen of them he had approached people like Gun, Goo, and Diego to teach him. Some were harder to convince than others and some would downright refuse to teach him until he found a way to prove to them he was worthy. He had to do things that he didn't dare to remember some days.

He remembered the first time he was made to kill.

His second loop, Gun had been much crueler than he usually was. He made his two masterpieces fight to the death, just for the sake of it. Daniel orphaned a little girl that day. He couldn't bare to look in the mirror for weeks, but he pushed on. He needed to be stronger! So, the boy-turned-killer gritted his teeth and force-fed himself sleeping pills every night.

The second time he killed it came much easier.

Perhaps because he was still reeling from the first one. It was only a few weeks after Eli's blood had covered his hands that another lay before him with his neck broken. It had been so easy it was gut-churning, like breaking a particularly tough twig. He emptied the contents of his stomach in a bush nearby, but couldn't find it in himself to regret it very much. It was horrifying to realize he regretted getting caught and ending up in juvie more than killing Zoe's stalker.

The third time's the charm, right? It wasn't.

That night he stumbled into a bar and drank himself into obliviousness to forget the feeling of a too-small boy beneath the tips of his fingers. He had killed a kid, not much younger than himself, a year at maximum, but a kid! The feeling of bile rising in his throat hadn't left him for the entire loop. When he woke up he was in a cell, with policemen looking down at him with a mix of disgust and horror. They regarded him as a monster, and Daniel deserved it. It didn't take long to get a confession out of him and back to juvie he went. It didn't matter, the phantom touch lingering whenever he clutched his fist was still there.

When the fourth came he still cried.

By the time of the fifth, he lost his appetite completely.

The sixth came with mandatory visits to the therapist's office.

The seventh brought on a new therapist and sturdier cuffs.

It helped, incredibly. There was no more killing in that loop, and the couple that followed.

The eight was accidental, and it left Daniel screaming and crying, and vomiting hysterically. He wasn't locked up for that one, but he somehow found his way back to the therapist's office. The first one he tried had left him with a bitter taste on his tongue. The second one knew exactly which buttons to push. It was a miracle Daniel didn't end up with a ninth corpse to the ever-growing pile attached to his name.

Finally, after a lot of breakdowns and unhelpful psychologists, Danny ended up meeting a nice lady by the name of Robin Lim, who managed, with an amount of ungodly patience and calm, to get through to him. It wasn't a sudden catharsis that left him feeling the office a thousand tons lighter, but it was like the steady flow of a stream, growing quicker and bigger every day until he could finally breathe without feeling like he was choking on air.

Robin remained Daniel's therapist for over eight loops until he finally came to terms with what he had and most likely would again do. He managed to establish a system of what to do when it happened again and how to manage his inner turmoil so that it didn't spill into something dangerous, either for himself or others.

While the looping had the effect of twisting his morals to the extreme sometimes, Daniel was always careful to keep a grip on his emotions and try to use the techniques Robin had taught him to regulate those that could become a threat. It wasn't perfect (the seemingly, only imperfect thing about him now), but it worked and it made him view the world in another light.

It was both surprising and not that he now understood Jinho, to a certain level. He knew what it felt like to be given a ray of light and not manage to cling to it no matter how hard he struggled. He had been pathetic and weak and selfish in a way that made him both better and so much worse than the scrawny boy. Better because he had learned from it and strived to make himself the best possible version despite his worries, insecurities, paranoia, and tilted moral compass. Worse because, unlike Jinho, he had succeeded and killed people to further his own selfish goals.

At the end of the day, the imperfect-perfect boy remained a human, one who struggled and hurt and cried. As long as he kept a tight leash on the part of him that could make others struggle and hurt and cry (and even worse) he kept going, trying to find a way to end the cycle and keep the people he loved safe.

Even if that meant entire loops-worth of counseling and breakdowns, he would do it. For those he cherished? Anything.

[kudosmyhero]

Batman (vol. 1) #455: Identity Crisis: part 1

Read Date: September 26, 2022 Cover Date: October 1990 ● Writer: Alan Grant ��� Penciler: Norm Breyfogle ◦ Kevin Breyfogle ● Inker: Steve Mitchell ● Colorist: Adrienne Roy ● Letterer: Todd Klein ● Editor: Dennis O'Neil ◦ Kelley Puckett ●

Synopsis: It is almost dawn in Gotham City when Batman responds to gun shots. He encounters a masked gunman who shoots four people, killing two. Batman disarms the gunman and slams into him. Pulling off the mask he finds a sixty-seven year woman who later explains her actions as a whim. Meanwhile reporter Vicki Vale takes pictures of some homeless people for an article in View Magazine. As she leaves, another criminal, wearing an identical mask as the old woman, arrives and attacks the homeless men with an axe.

Tim Drake has a dream where he is tormented over his mother's death by images of Batman and Nightwing. In the dream, Tim seems most distraught by the heroes' masks. Batman wakes him up and reminds him that today is his mother's funeral. Vicki developes her photographs and discovers that she has an image of the masked criminal who attacked the homeless men. Bruce and Alfred watch a news report of yet another man dressed in the same mask who killed eight people in a store before being shot/killed by policemen. He is identified as Josef Macky. Tim is in the Batcave looking at Jason Todd's Robin costume and begins to understand the desire to wear a mask and take revenge. Bruce advises Tim to accept his anger instead of fighting it. They leave for the funeral.

Vicki watches a news report of the homeless men who were attacked. After killing three of the homeless men, the killer was pushed by the others into their fire. He is identified as a bus driver. Vicki reinspects the photos thinking she may have evidence that the police can use. She enlarges a car leaving the scene in order to get the license plate number. At the funeral Dick Grayson offers Tim his help and speaks with Bruce who tells him that Tim wants to wear the Robin costume but that Bruce doesn't want that. Vicki takes the photo of the license plate to the police. Lt. Kitch tells her that they already had the number and had traced it to Rico Marcuse who said he was driving by on his way to work. They could find no connection between him and the ax-killer. Vicki's not convinced and decides to track Rico down herself.

After Tim searches unsuccessfully on the computer all afternoon trying to link the various murderers, Bruce decides to hit the streets and denies Tim's requests to join him. Batman tells Tim he doesn't think Tim's ready for the responsibility that comes with the mask. Tim says he doesn't understand and Batman tells him that, when he does, he might be ready. Batman orders Tim to stay put or he'll never get the chance to be Robin. Meanwhile, Vicki tracks Rico to his workplace and finds his car. As she decides her course of action, she is confronted by a sledge-hammer wielding masked man.

(https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Batman_Vol_1_455)

Fan Art: Tim Drake by f19850928

Accompanying Podcast: ● Everyone Loves the Drake - episode 11

[whitesinhistory]

Lamar “Ditney” Smith knew the dangers of helping Black citizens vote in Mississippi in 1955. He had received death threats, and knew about many Black people who had been lynched in his county. In May, white men had killed another Black activist, the Rev. George W. Lee, for registering voters in Mississippi. State Democratic party chairman Thomas Tubb declared, “We don’t intend to have Negroes voting” in the August primary, and said those who did vote might get “a whipping.” But Mr. Smith, a 63-year-old World War I veteran and farmer, kept at it. He encouraged Black citizens to vote by absentee ballot, a seemingly safer option than going to the polls.

Lamar Smith

On Saturday morning, August 13, 1955, Mr. Smith was home at their farm with his wife, Annie, when someone called and told him to come to the county courthouse in Brookhaven. Mr. Smith was crossing the courthouse lawn at 10 am, absentee ballots in hand, when three white men surrounded him. One pressed a .38-caliber handgun against his ribs and fired. None of the dozens of onlookers came to Ditney Smith’s aid as he lay dying. A white Brookhaven man, Tex Sample, never forgot hearing someone nearby say, “Nobody carries that n—r to no hospital.” The sheriff heard the shots and saw a blood-splattered white man walk away but did not stop him. He took eight days to arrest three white men. They were released after a parade of witnesses, some of whom had  been within 30 feet of the confrontation, falsely told a grand jury they had seen nothing. NAACP investigators determined that Mr. Smith had walked into a trap. A half-century later, a witness told the FBI that three men had delivered whiskey to “someone who knew Smith and was instrumental” in persuading him to come to the courthouse. After the murder, a notary public who had assisted Black voters said he was warned to stop, lest he “wind up like Ditney Smith.” Lamar Smith was only one of the many Black leaders murdered in the 20th century in the South, in places where the numbers of Black eligible voters could have changed the outcome of elections. . As was so often the case, no one was held accountable for any of the killings explored in this article. The killers included white policemen, sheriffs, businessmen, even a legislator—all part of the Jim Crow system aimed at disenfranchising Black voters. Local prosecutors usually refused to bring charges even though they knew the perpetrators of this violence. When there were prosecutions, all-white juries acquitted the guilty. The dead were blamed, falsely accused of being “rabble rousers” and Communists. Their families fled North, leaving behind their homes, farms, and businesses.

FBI agents and local police officers examine a pickup truck in Natchez, Mississippi, after a bomb blast killed Wharlest Jackson, an activist and the treasurer of the Natchez NAACP. (AP)

So many civil rights-related killings went unsolved that in 2007, a law named for Emmett Till launched FBI reinvestigations—but many of the cases were deemed not “prosecutable.” Witnesses and suspects had died, and evidence was gone. Those who were murdered were fathers and mothers, teachers, ministers, farmers, undertakers, grocers, and laundry workers—upstanding members of their communities who risked their lives to ensure that Black Americans could exercise their constitutional right to vote in places where that right had been denied to them for generations. “Political violence against Black leaders where no one is held accountable was a defining feature of American politics in the 20th century,” said EJI Executive Director Bryan Stevenson. “The failure to hold anyone accountable makes entire systems—state and federal—complicit and implicated in the perpetuation of this kind of violence. And rather than remedy this problem, there continues to be entrenched resistance to even recognizing the problem.” “Lamar Smith was extremely courageous, as were many others,” Mr. Stevenson said. “He gave his life to advance democracy in this country and in return we gave him no justice.”

Lamar Smith’s grandchildren attend a monument dedication ceremony at EJI’s Peace and Justice Memorial Center on April 29, 2019. (Jonece Starr Dunigan)

‘As if they had killed only a rabbit’

On June 12, 1939, Elbert Williams and four other Black citizens of Brownsville, Tennessee, organized their town’s first NAACP branch. They set out to encourage Black residents—who were the vast majority of Brownsville’s 19,000 citizens but had been disenfranchised for decades—to register and vote. When the NAACP branch president and four members visited the local registrar’s office on May 6, 1940, to ask about registering to vote in that year’s presidential election, they were given the runaround and told registration did not begin until August. The next day, a deputy sheriff warned two NAACP members to stop "encouraging Negroes to vote or there would be trouble.” A “mob spirit,” as an NAACP member put it, took hold. On June 15, at around 1 am, some 60 white men led by Brownsville’s night marshal and nominee for sheriff, Samuel “Tip” Hunter, another police officer, and other local officials and businessmen abducted NAACP executive committee member Elisha Davis from his home, drove him to a river bank, terrorized him into naming other members, and ran him out of town under threat of death.

Charter members of the Brownsville, Tennessee, NAACP. Elbert Williams stands at the far left. (The Jackson Sun)

The entire Black community was threatened with reprisals. Milmon Mitchell of the Jackson, Tennessee, NAACP branch, 25 miles from Brownsville, wrote to the national office: “The whites are discharging Negroes from their jobs, threatening to discontinue Negro teachers—merchants and banks are refusing credit to all known members in our organization.” On June 20, 1940, someone told the night policeman,Tip Hunter, that Elbert Williams, a relative of Elisha Davis’s, had been overheard proposing a meeting between the Brownsville and Jackson NAACP branches. Mr. Williams, 32, was a boilerman at a laundry where his wife, Annie, was a presser. That night, the couple had just listened to the radio broadcast of heavyweight champion Joe Louis’s triumphant prizefight at Yankee Stadium and were getting ready for bed when they heard pounding on their door. Mr. Hunter and two other white men were outside. They had Elisha Davis’s younger brother, Thomas, in their car. The three white men forced Mr. Williams into the car barefoot and in his pajamas. At the police station, Tip Hunter interrogated Mr. Williams and Thomas Davis for hours about NAACP activity before releasing Thomas Davis, who left town. By the next morning, Elbert Williams had not come home. When he learned of the escalating terror in Brownsville, NAACP Special Counsel Thurgood Marshall telegraphed President Franklin Roosevelt and pleaded for federal intervention. The NAACP implored Tennessee Gov. Prentiss Cooper to take “immediate action” to protect Brownsville’s Black citizens. Neither federal nor state protection was forthcoming. Two days later, Mr. Marshall sent a telegram to the governor: “We have been advised that the body of Mr. Williams has been found floating in a river near Brownsville.”

A historical marker in Brownsville, Tennessee, honoring Elbert Williams. (John Ashworth)

Summoned by the coroner to the banks of the Hatchie River, Annie Williams identified her husband. His head was swollen to twice its size, he’d been badly beaten and bruised, and there were two holes in his chest that could have been bullet or stab wounds. A rope around Mr. Williams’s neck was tied to a log. A coroner’s inquest, with six white men gathered at the river, concluded on the spot that the death was “caused by foul means by persons unknown.” At the coroner’s direction, the body was buried that day in an unmarked grave. No autopsy was conducted. A Jackson newspaper quoted Tip Hunter as saying he had picked up Mr. Williams and Thomas Davis, questioned them for three hours, and “turned them loose.” He said he’d seen nothing “like a lynching party, either white or Negro." NAACP investigators gave the Justice Department sworn affidavits from witnesses who saw  Mr. Hunter and another law enforcement officer abduct Mr. Davis and Mr. Williams. But an all-white grand jury returned no indictments. Finally, after repeated pleas from the NAACP and with the evidence going cold, the FBI investigated. Agents brought Tip Hunter along to interviews with witnesses in Brownsville – and, not surprisingly, came away without evidence to bring charges. No Black citizens of Brownsville registered to vote in the 1940 election—the fear was too great. The Brownsville NAACP dissolved. At least 20 Black families moved away. In a scathing press release faulting the government for inaction—and the ongoing reign of terror against Black voters—Mr. Marshall quoted a local NAACP representative: “Members of the mob that lynched Elbert Wiliams can be seen in Brownsville each day going about their work as if they had killed only a rabbit. Tip Hunter, the leader of the mob, recently took office as sheriff.” In 1942, federal investigators closed the case for what they claimed was lack of evidence.  Four years later, I.B. Nichols, assistant director of the FBI, acknowledged that the agency had not adequately supervised the case, that it had dragged its feet and failed to follow up on leads.

White residents target a husband and wife on Christmas 

Harry T. Moore and his wife, Harriette V. Moore, both schoolteachers in Mims, Florida, founded Brevard County’s NAACP in 1934. They were fired from their teaching jobs after they campaigned for voting rights and equal pay for Black teachers. It didn’t stop them. As executive secretary of Florida’s NAACP, Mr. Moore helped the organization grow to 63 branches and 10,000 members, and register 116,000 voters—31% of Black voting-age Floridians—in the six years after the Supreme Court’s 1944 decision outlawing white primaries.

Harriette V. Moore and Harry T. Moore in the late 1940s. (Getty Images)

He led a successful campaign to overturn an all-white jury’s wrongful convictions of four Black men in a 1949 rape case. When a sheriff shot two of the defendants, one fatally, before they could be retried, Mr. Moore called for him to be suspended and charged with murder. Six weeks later, on Christmas night, 1951—the Moores’s 25th wedding anniversary—a bomb exploded under their bed. Harry died that night, Harriette nine days later. The couple’s activism had made them a KKK target. The FBI learned that one of four implicated Klansmen had drawn a floor plan of the couple’s home, but no one was ever charged in the case.

‘Somebody had to lead’

In the Mississippi Delta town of Belzoni, George and Rosebud Lee were a success story. She ran a small printing business out of their house. He preached at four churches, owned a grocery store, and belonged to Mississippi’s Regional Council of Negro Leaders. He became the first Black voter to register in Humphreys County in decades. Along with some 60 other residents, he and his friend and fellow grocer Gus Courts founded an NAACP branch in 1954. Within a year they registered 92 Black voters. Thanks to the Jim Crow system, less than 5% of Mississippi’s voting-age Black citizens were registered to vote in 1955. In 14 of 82 counties, a civic group reported, none were registered. Local white officials told Mr. Lee that if he would stop trying to help other Black citizens vote, he and his wife would be allowed to vote. He politely declined their offer. He and Mr. Courts received threatening calls. Other Black residents’ windshields were smashed. One rock had a note attached: “You n—-rs...this is just a token of what will happen” for registering. Rosebud Lee beseeched her husband to lower his profile, but “he said somebody had to lead."

The Rev. George Lee (Mississippi Today)

On the night of May 7, 1955, Mr. Lee was driving home from a meeting with Gus Courts when a convertible swerved past. People on the block heard a shotgun’s blast, then a car crash. The shots tore Mr. Lee’s face apart. The white sheriff claimed the crash killed Mr. Lee. When an autopsy found lead pellets in his face, the sheriff said these might be dental fillings. Finally he theorized that Mr. Lee was a “ladies’ man” who had been shot by a rival. No one was ever charged in Mr. Lee’s murder. Rosebud Lee—like Emmett Till’s mother, months later—insisted her husband’s casket be open at his funeral. Two thousand people attended. Jet Magazine and the Chicago Defender ran photos of George Lee’s mutilated face. Six months later, Mr. Courts was wounded by a shotgun blast fired into his store. He survived, moved North, and testified before a Senate subcommittee about how “the blood began to run in Mississippi.”

Gus Courts in critical condition at a hospital in Mound Bayou, Mississippi, after being shot on November 26, 1955. (Library of Congress)

A white legislator’s deadly anger

Herbert Lee, 49, knew the perils he and other Black farmers in the Mississippi Delta faced if they tried to vote. Mr. Lee, who had seven children, had helped found the county NAACP branch in 1953 and by 1961 was helping another civil rights group,the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, register voters. There was talk that his efforts had angered a white man he’d known since childhood, state Rep. Eugene H. Hurst Jr. A Justice Department lawyer investigating white attacks on civil rights workers was planning to visit Mr. Lee’s farm on his next trip to Mississippi when he heard that Eugene Hurst had shot Mr. Lee to death. The killing occurred at a cotton gin in Liberty, Mississippi, on September 25, 1961. Mr. Lee had arrived with a truckload of cotton. Witnesses saw Mr. Hurst shoot him. The legislator claimed he’d been arguing with Mr. Lee over a $500 debt, and that his gun had discharged accidentally when he struck Mr. Lee in self defense. A Black witness, Louis Allen, corroborated this, and an all-white inquest jury swiftly exonerated Mr. Hurst. Months later, Mr. Allen, a logging operator, admitted he had been pressured to testify falsely. The truth, he told the FBI, was that Eugene Hurst killed Herbert Lee for registering Black voters. His recanting made Mr. Allen a target of harassment, much of it from the white local sheriff, Daniel Jones. In 1962, Mr. Jones arrested Mr. Allen for “interfering with police business”—a charge the sheriff later admitted was flimsy—and broke his jaw with a metal flashlight.

Louis Allen

In 1963, after the sheriff arrested him again, a white businessman warned Mr. Allen: “Louis, the best thing you can do is leave. Your little family, they’re innocent people…All of you could get killed.” Mr. Allen made plans to move to Milwaukee on February 1, 1964, but the night before, as he arrived home in his logging truck, a white man ambushed him. Mr. Allen dived under his truck but was killed by shotgun blasts. His last stop that day had been to seek a reference letter from a white employer who knew his work. The letter was found in his glove compartment. Sheriff Daniel Jones spoke to reporters at the scene. Mr. Allen’s son Hank heard the sheriff tell his mother, “If Louis had just shut his mouth, he wouldn’t be layin’ there on the ground.” In 2006 the FBI reopened the case. Sheriff Jones denied involvement in the murder and cited his Fifth Amendment rights when asked if he was a Klan member. He died in 2013. Two years later, the FBI closed the case, saying “the most viable theory” implicated him and two other deceased men in Mr. Allen’s murder.

Another NAACP activist, another bomb 

Wharlest Jackson, 36, a Korean war veteran and father of five, was treasurer of the NAACP in his hometown, Natchez, Mississippi. In 1967, Armstrong Tire and Rubber Co., where he’d worked for 11 years, promoted him as its first Black employee to become a mixer of chemicals. The promotion came with a raise of 17 cents an hour. Some of Mr. Jackson’s white coworkers were members of the Ku Klux Klan. Mr. Jackson and his wife Exerlena had helped care for Black coworker and Natchez NAACP president George Metcalfe, after he was disabled in 1965 by a bomb rigged to his car’s ignition.

Wharlest Jackson’s widow, Exerlena Jackson, looks at family photos with her children following her husband’s killing. (AP)

On the night of February 27, 1967, Mr. Jackson was almost home from work when a bomb under the driver’s seat of his pickup truck exploded. Eight-year-old Wharlest Jr. was riding his bicycle nearby and found his father’s mangled body. While the governor called it “an act of savagery,” investigations ended without prosecutions. Decades later, federal prosecutors who reviewed the case said they still could not “conclusively” identify the killers.

The Battle Goes On

Resistance to Black voting has continued in the 21st century—and not just in the South. In 2013, the Supreme Court in Shelby County v. Holdereffectively gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by striking down the requirement that states with histories of voter discrimination obtain “pre-clearance” from the federal government before changing their voting laws. States across the country have since enacted voting restrictions and engaged in illegal purges of voting rolls and other voter suppression tactics that, as the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice has said, “fall hardest on communities of color.”

A woman stands outside the U.S. Supreme Court on February 27, 2013, ahead of oral arguments in Shelby County v. Holder. (AP)

Some states disenfranchise people for felony convictions; Mississippi includes offenses such as shoplifting, and disenfranchises a far greater share of Black citizens than white. The fearless work of Black activists who were murdered led to historic victories in Congress and the courts. Millions of Black citizens registered, voted, and helped elect the first generation of Black officeholders in the South since Reconstruction—and the first Black president.

[ejesgistnews]

In a deadly ambush near Tazame village, Tsafe Local Government Area of Zamfara State, bandits killed eight security personnel on Thursday. The victims included five policemen and three soldiers who were assigned to protect a construction company, Setraco Nigeria Limited, during roadworks on the Gusau-Tsafe-Zaria road. Read Also: 38-Year-Old Man Takes His Life After Wife Defends Affair with His Friends An eyewitness, Mubarak Mohammed, reported that the armed assailants emerged from hiding and opened fire on the security personnel as soon as they arrived at the site. Mohammed explained that the security forces had been safeguarding the construction workers from frequent bandit attacks during the road repairs.   "The bandits laid in ambush near the road. As soon as the police and military personnel got there, they opened fire, killing several officers. There was a fierce gunfight, and while some bandits were also killed, more security personnel lost their lives," Mohammed recounted.   The ambush caused widespread panic, with motorists fleeing into the bush for safety, abandoning their vehicles. Mohammed further stated that the construction project had been plagued by frequent bandit attacks, severely delaying its progress. Read Also : Falconets Crash Out of FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup After Defeat to Japan The Zamfara State Police Command confirmed the attack but could not yet provide the exact number of casualties. The state's Police Public Relations Officer, Yazid Abubakar, said efforts were ongoing to gather more information from the scene of the attack, as communication with the field officers had been hindered by poor network coverage.   “We are still working to verify the number of casualties. Our officers have been in the field for rescue operations, and we will release full details once we receive their report," Abubakar stated.   This attack is the latest in a series of violent incidents in Zamfara State, where banditry continues to pose a significant security threat.

[tracknews1]

Heavy commotion as bandits kill five policemen, three soldiers in fresh Zamfara ambush

Eight security personnel were reportedly killed by bandits on Thursday near the Tazame village of Tsafe Local Government Area of Zamfara State. An indigene of the area, Mubarak Mohammed told journalists that the security personnel, consisting of five policemen and three soldiers, were attached to a road construction company, Setraco Nigeria Limited, when the armed bandits suddenly came out of…

[whitepolaris]

The Flying Saucer Flap of '47

The summer of 1947 holds special significance in ufology, especially as it pertains to the Pacific Northwest. Two key UFO events in Washington State got the ball rolling for others soon to follow elsewhere.

On June 21, Harold Dahl and two acquaintances were boating in the Puget Sound near Maury Island, clearing stray logs from the water. Accompanying them were Dahl's sons and his dog. Six enormous donut-shaped objects appeared directly overhead, one of them in apparent distress. As the others surrounded it, the damage craft rained hot metal fragments down on Dahl and company, damaging their boat, burning his son's arm, and killing their dog.

Three days later, Kenneth Arnold of Idaho was piloting his airplane near the Cascade Mountains when he spotted nine crescent-shaped aircraft flying between Mount Rainier and Mount Adams. Not only did this encounter inaugurate the modern era of UFO sightings, it also, by the way of a misquote in a newspaper article, inspired the term "flying saucer." (For further details on both incidents, read our companion volume, Weird Washington.)

Lesser known is the baffling series of aerial anomalies reported in Oregon over the next few days. Like a symphony of weirdness. it escalated from at least two smaller passages to a dazzling crescendo.

On the evening of June 29, a Mrs. Smith, along with her eight-year-old daughter, witnessed a disc-shaped object flying southward just east of Seaside. Although it was fairly high up, it was close enough that they should have heard engine noise; instead, it flew silently. Mrs. Smith was the wife of a local policeman, which (in less cynical times) lent additional credibility to her claim.

Around noon on July 1, reports of flying saucers poured into local police departments in Astoria, Madras, and Portland as about a dozen mystery craft following the course of the Columbia River, Herb Baillet and his wife, Portlanders who up until then had been skeptical of regional UFO reports, were just two of many witnesses. Mrs. Baillet told the Portland Daily Journal, "I first saw three of them as we sat down to lunch and called my husband's attention to them. Later there were ten or twelve of them," flying low below the foothills . . . There was no noise and they did not appear to be flying fast."

And things were about to get quite a bit weirder.

The Original "Independence Day"

The next day, July 2, marked the famous flying saucer crash in Roswell, New Mexico, which distracted much of the nation's attention away from another spectacular incident. On the afternoon of July 4, as Portlanders celebrated Independence Day, scores of people saw numerous flying saucers over the city. (Thankfully, it was not a hostile invasion, as presented in a certain 1996 movie about ill-intentioned space aliens on the Fourth of July.)

According to the Oregonian, the saucers were first spotted over Oaks Amusement Park, south of downtown. Visitors and employees were treated to the strange sight of three to six aluminum-colored or eggshell white discs "wobbling and weaving" as they flew rapidly to the southwest.

Three numbers of the harbor patrol also reported seeing the discs. They estimated the objects altitude at about ten thousand feet.

Meanwhile, several people around the city called police. There was little that law enforcement could do about the odd spectacle, but an "all cars" alert was issued nonetheless. Soon, three policemen in two separate reported that they spotted them. Two of the officers, Water Lissy and Robert Ellis, were pilots. Even so, they could into judge how fast or high the discs were traveling because of their "terrific speed." The third officer, Earl Patterson, an air corps veteran, corroborated their account, adding that whatever the objects were, they were definitely not airplanes. The discs disappeared from the officers' view after roughly thirty seconds.

In addition to Portland police, Sgt. Claude Cross of the state police saw two of the objects from headquarters on Southwest McLoughlin Boulevard. He described them as resembling "toy balloons."

The Oregonian also reported that the flight crew of a Portland-bound airliner from Boise, Idaho, spotted the strange discs, or others like them, later that evening. Captain E. J. Smith, first officer Ralph Stevens, and flight attendant Marty Morrow reported that at 9:04 p.m., shortly after takeoff, the flying saucers were visible at least thirty miles away. They watched them for ten or fifteen minutes, noting that they appeared "very thin, very flat on the bottom, and . . . rough or irregular on top."

"They are not aircraft," they insisted. "They are bigger than aircraft."

The various witnesses, except for Sergeant Cross, agreed that the discs emitted flashes of light, which made it difficult to ascertain how many objects there were (accounts vary between two and twenty). At times, one or two appeared as a crescent shape, which recalled Kenneth Arnold's encounter over Washington a few days earlier. They flew erratically, with sudden changes of direction. Fourth of July fireworks were ruled out as an explanation, as the discs emitted no sound other than a subtle hum.

If there was a conventional early explanation for what was seen that holiday, the best suggestion came from army brass at Fort Lewis, Washington. Although they denied having any experimental disc-shaped aircraft, they pointed out that twenty-four Lockheed P-80 Shooting Stars were flying over Portland in a Fourth of July demonstration. These planes, the first fighter jets used by the army, would certainly have been perceived as state-of-the-art and unusually fast in 1947. To accept this explanation, however, one has to also accept that dozens of reliable witnesses mistook a recognizable, albeit streamlined, airplane shape for a discs or a crescent. This seems unlikely, especially given the other UFOs events in the area over the previous few days.

The Start of Something Big

Washington and Oregon were by no means alone in their preponderance of UFO sightings during the summer of 1947. The phenomenon was happening all over North America. Just three days after the spectacular air show over Portland, newspapers were reporting that "flying saucers" had been seen in thirty-eight states, the District of Columbia, and Ontario, Canada. Subsequent sightings made it clear that whatever they were, they would define post-World War II America as much as the Cold War and the space race. As in 1947, the Beaver State would continue to be caught in the middle of the phenomenon. In fact, just three short years later, a farmer and his camera would attract to Oregon the widespread attention, it was denied in 1947 . . . and then some. (See "McMinnville's Famous Flying Saucer Photos," later in the chapter.)

Vide(FU)o?

An anonymous videographer claims to have shot roughly sixteen seconds of video somewhere near Eagle Point and White City in March 2007. The video shows a shiny object of indeterminate shape apparently hovering beneath some dark clouds. The videographer admits that it may have just been an airplane, but the shaky video makes it hard to determine (it was shot from a moving vehicle). The video is posted on the Internet, where debate rages as to the object's true nature. (See the video here: http://www.ufocasebook.com/oregon032007.html.)

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 5.14 (after 1940)

1940 – World War II: Rotterdam, Netherlands is bombed by the Luftwaffe of Nazi Germany despite a ceasefire, killing about 900 people and destroying the historic city center. 1943 – World War II: A Japanese submarine sinks AHS Centaur off the coast of Queensland. 1948 – Israel is declared to be an independent state and a provisional government is established. Immediately after the declaration, Israel is attacked by the neighboring Arab states, triggering the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. 1951 – Trains run on the Talyllyn Railway in Wales for the first time since preservation, making it the first railway in the world to be operated by volunteers. 1953 – Approximately 7,100 brewery workers in Milwaukee perform a walkout, marking the start of the 1953 Milwaukee brewery strike. 1955 – Cold War: Eight Communist bloc countries, including the Soviet Union, sign a mutual defense treaty called the Warsaw Pact. 1961 – Civil rights movement: A white mob twice attacks a Freedom Riders bus near Anniston, Alabama, before fire-bombing the bus and attacking the civil rights protesters who flee the burning vehicle. 1970 – Andreas Baader is freed from custody by Ulrike Meinhof, Gudrun Ensslin and others, a pivotal moment in the formation of the Red Army Faction. 1973 – Skylab, the United States' first space station, is launched. 1977 – A Dan-Air Boeing 707 leased to IAS Cargo Airlines crashes on approach to Lusaka International Airport in Lusaka, Zambia, killing six people. 1980 – Salvadoran Civil War: the Sumpul River massacre occurs in Chalatenango, El Salvador. 1987 – Fijian Prime Minister Timoci Bavadra is ousted from power in a coup d'état led by Lieutenant colonel Sitiveni Rabuka. 1988 – Carrollton bus collision: A drunk driver traveling the wrong way on Interstate 71 near Carrollton, Kentucky hits a converted school bus carrying a church youth group. Twenty-seven die in the crash and ensuing fire. 2004 – The Constitutional Court of South Korea overturns the impeachment of President Roh Moo-hyun. 2004 – Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark and Mary Donaldson are married at Copenhagen Cathedral. 2004 – Rico Linhas Aéreas Flight 4815 crashes into the Amazon rainforest during approach to Eduardo Gomes International Airport in Manaus, Brazil, killing 33 people. 2008 – Battle of Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester city centre between Zenit supporters and Rangers supporters and the Greater Manchester Police, 39 policemen injured, one police-dog injured and 39 arrested. 2010 – Space Shuttle Atlantis launches on the STS-132 mission to deliver the first shuttle-launched Russian ISS component — Rassvet. This was originally slated to be the final launch of Atlantis, before Congress approved STS-135. 2012 – Agni Air Flight CHT crashes in Nepal after a failed go-around, killing 15 people. 2021 – China successfully lands Zhurong, the country's first Mars rover. 2022 – Ten people are killed in a mass shooting in Buffalo, New York.

[harrison-abbott]

The Wilco Factory

I heard a rough knocking on my door. This was odd because I usually didn’t get visitors. When I opened the door there were two policemen standing there with mean expressions.

“Are you Lewis Bell?” one of them said.

“Yes.”

“Can we come in? We need to ask you some questions.”

“Okay.”

My apartment was cramped and messy and I sat on the sofa, not knowing what else to do and having no clue why these men were here. There was another sofa opposite mine but neither of them sat, they both stayed standing and one of them stepped closer and said to me,

“Did you hear what happened at the Wilco factory yesterday?”

“No … No?”

“You didn’t hear the news?”

“No, what’s the news?”

“You don’t even listen to the radio or anything?”

“I’ve just been here in the apartment. Why, what happened?”

“Where were you yesterday?”

“Umm. I went over to my brother’s house. It was my nephew’s birthday.”

“At what time?”

“That must have been from … noon … and I left about eight at night.”

“Do you have any proof of that? That you were at your brother’s house?”

“Yeah, well. I took some photos. Of the party.”

I took my phone out and showed them the pics I’d taken with the family yesterday. It felt super weird to hand my phone over to the police officer and show him something personal. The man holding it thumbed through the photos. Then he said to his other officer, who was watching me, “Yeah, these times seem to check out.”

Then he threw the phone back to me instead of handing it to me.

“We’ll still need a report from your brother that you were there. Just to check.”

“Okay I can do that. He can do that. What’s all this about anyway? What was it that happened at the Wilco factory?”

“You used to work there, right?”

“I did, yes.”

“And you got fired?”

“Yeah.”

“Why was that?”

“I kept turning up late.”

“Your boss said it was because you were aggressive to the other colleagues.”

“Oh. Well, I didn’t really get on well with all of them but I don’t remember being aggressive.”

“…”

“So what happened at the factory?”

“Seven got killed. A shoot em up. Gunman walked in to the plant with an automatic. He’s still at large.”

“Jesus Christ.”

“Right, I think we’re about done here. But we need your brother to confirm that you were at his house yesterday.”

The officers got ready to leave.

“Wait,” I said, “I don’t understand why you would come here to me. Who was it that told you about me?”

“Your boss.”

“I still don’t get it.”

“The gunman was wearing a mask and we don’t know who he is. Nobody in the factory, the survivors, saw who it was. Your boss thought it might be you that did it.”

“Wow … I barely even knew my boss.”

The policeman shrugged. And then he and his partner walked out of the apartment without another word and one of them shut the door just as roughly as those knocks before they came in.

[dailyanarchistposts]

The Red: Haymarket Centennial

The history of the modern May Day originates in the center of the North American plains, at Haymarket, in Chicago - "the city on the make" - in May 1886. The Red side of that story is more well-known than the Green, because it was bloody. But there was also a Green side to the tale, though the green was not so much that of pretty grass garlands, as it was of greenbacks, for in Chicago, it was said, the dollar is king.

Of course the prairies are green in May. Virgin soil, dark, brown, crumbling, shot with fine black sand, it was the produce of thousands of years of humus and organic decomposition. For many centuries this earth was husbanded by the native Americans of the plains. As Black Elk said theirs is "the story of all life that is holy and is good to tell, and of us two-leggeds sharing in it with the four- leggeds and the wings of the air and all green things; for these are children of one mother and their father is one Spirit." From such a green perspective, the white men appeared as pharaohs, and indeed, as Abe Lincoln put it, these prairies were the "Egypt of the West".

The land was mechanized. Relative surplus value could only be obtained by reducing the price of food. The proteins and vitamins of this fertile earth spread through the whole world. Chicago was the jugular vein. Cyrus McCormick wielded the surgeon's knife. His mechanical reapers harvested the grasses and grains. McCormick produced 1,500 reapers in 1849; by 1884 he was producing 80,000. Not that McCormick actually made reapers, members of the Molders Union Local 23 did that, and on May Day 1867 they went on strike, starting the Eight Hour Movement.

A staggering transformation was wrought. It was: "Farewell" to the hammer and sickle. "Goodby" to the cradle scythe. "So long" to Emerson's man with the hoe. These now became the artifacts of nostalgia and romance. It became "Hello" to the hobo. "Move on" to the harvest stiffs. "Line up" the proletarians. Such were the new commands of civilization.

Thousands of immigrants, many from Germany, poured into Chicago after the Civil War. Class war was advanced, technically and logistically. In 1855 the Chicago police used Gatling guns against the workers who protested the closing of the beer gardens. In the Bread Riot of 1872 the police clubbed hungry people in a tunnel under the river. In the 1877 railway strike, Federal troops fought workers at "The Battle of the Viaduct." These troops were recently seasoned from fighting the Sioux who had killed Custer. Henceforth, the defeated Sioux could only "Go to a mountain top and cry for a vision." The Pinkerton Detective Agency put visions into practice by teaching the city police how to spy and to form fighting columns for deployment in city streets. A hundred years ago during the street car strike, the police issued a shoot-to-kill order.

McCormick cut wages 15%. His profit rate was 71%. In May 1886 four molders whom McCormick locked-out was shot dead by the police. Thus, did this 'grim reaper' maintain his profits.

Nationally, May First 1886 was important because a couple of years earlier the Federation of Organized Trade and Labor Unions of the United States and Canada, "RESOLVED... that eight hours shall constitute a legal day's labor, from and after May 1, 1886.

On 4 May 1886 several thousand people gathered near Haymarket Square to hear what August Spies, a newspaperman, had to say about the shootings at the McCormick works. Albert Parsons, a typographer and labor leader spoke net. Later, at his trial, he said, "What is Socialism or Anarchism? Briefly stated it is the right of the toilers to the free and equal use of the tools of production and the right of the producers to their product." He was followed by "Good-Natured Sam" Fielden who as a child had worked in the textile factories of Lancashire, England. He was a Methodist preacher and labor organizer. He got done speaking at 10:30 PM. At that time 176 policemen charged the crowd that had dwindled to about 200. An unknown hand threw a stick of dynamite, the first time that Alfred Nobel's invention was used in class battle.

All hell broke lose, many were killed, and the rest is history.

"Make the raids first and look up the law afterwards," was the Sheriff's dictum. It was followed religiously across the country. Newspaper screamed for blood, homes were ransacked, and suspects were subjected to the "third degree." Eight men were railroaded in Chicago at a farcical trial. Four men hanged on "Black Friday," 11 November 1887.

"There will come a time when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today," said Spies before he choked.

[brexiiton]

Czech Republic mourns victims of Prague university mass shooting

By Oliver Slow, BBC News

People gathered for Mass at St Vitus Cathedral in Prague to remember those killed

The Czech Republic observed a minute's silence at midday (11:00 GMT) to commemorate those killed in Thursday's mass shooting at a Prague university.

Flags on official buildings were flown at half-mast to mark a day of national mourning.

Fourteen people were shot dead at the Faculty of Arts building of Charles University in the capital by a student who then killed himself.

Police are working to uncover the motive behind the attack.

It is one of the deadliest assaults by a lone gunman in Europe this century.

Those killed in Thursday's attack included Lenka Hlavkova, head of the Institute of Musicology at the university.

Other victims were named as translator and Finnish literature expert Jan Dlask and student Lucie Spindlerova.

The shooting began at around 15:00 local time (14:00 GMT) at the Faculty of Arts building off Jan Palach Square in the centre of the Czech capital.

The gunman opened fire in the corridors and classrooms of the building, before shooting himself as security forces closed in on him, police say.

US tourist Hannah Mallicoat told the BBC that she and her family had been on Jan Palach Square during the attack.

"A crowd of people were crossing the street when the first shot hit. I thought it was something like a firecracker or a car backfire until I heard the second shot and people started running," she said.

"I saw a bullet hit the ground on the other side of the square about 30ft [9m] away before ducking into a store. The whole area was blocked off and dozens of police cars and ambulances were going towards the university."

In a statement, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said the country had been shocked by this "horrendous act".

"It is hard to find the words to express condemnation on the one hand and, on the other, the pain and sorrow that our entire society is feeling in these days before Christmas."

The gunman is thought to have killed his father at a separate location. He is also suspected in the killing of a young man and his two-month-old daughter who were found dead in a forest on the outskirts of Prague on 15 December.

The attack had one of the largest death tolls of any mass shooting by a lone gunman in Europe this century:

Norway, July 2011 Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people by planting a car bomb that killed eight at an Oslo government building and then shooting dead 69 more, most of them teenagers, at an island summer camp run by the ruling Labour Party's youth wing

Germany, April 2002 Robert Steinhauser, 19, killed 16 people - 13 teachers, two pupils, and a policemen - at the Gutenberg Gymnasium secondary school in the city of Erfurt. He had been expelled from the school the previous autumn

Germany, March 2009 Tim Kretschmer, 17, killed 15 people in a shooting that began at his former school in the town of Winnenden, near Stuttgart. He shot dead nine students and three teachers at the school before going on to the nearby town of Wendlingen, where he shot another three passers-by.

Switzerland, September 2001 Friedrich Leibacher entered the regional parliament building in the city of Zug dressed in a police uniform and shot dead 14 people and injured another 10

Serbia, April 2013 Ljubisa Bogdanovic shot dead thirteen people, including a two-year-old boy, and injured his wife in a village outside Belgrade. Bogdanovic was a military veteran who had fought with Serb forces in the Croatian War of Independence in the early 1990s.

Founded in 1347, Charles University is the oldest and largest university in the Czech Republic and one of the oldest such institutions in Europe.

[hardynwa]

Czech Republic declare national mourning for mass shooting victims

The Czech Republic is holding a day of national mourning for those killed in Thursday's mass shooting at a Prague university. Flags on official buildings are being flown at half-mast and a minute's silence will be observed at midday. Fourteen people were shot dead at the Faculty of Arts building of Charles University in the capital by a student who then killed himself. Police are working to uncover the motive behind the attack. It is one of the deadliest assaults by a lone gunman in Europe this century. Those killed in Thursday's attack included Lenka Hlavkova, head of the Institute of Musicology at the university. Other victims were named as translator and Finnish literature expert Jan Dlask and student Lucie Spindlerova. The shooting began at around 15:00 local time (14:00 GMT) at the Faculty of Arts building off Jan Palach Square in the centre of the Czech capital. The gunman opened fire in the corridors and classrooms of the building, before shooting himself as security forces closed in on him, police say. US tourist Hannah Mallicoat told the BBC that she and her family had been on Jan Palach Square during the attack. "A crowd of people were crossing the street when the first shot hit. I thought it was something like a firecracker or a car backfire until I heard the second shot and people started running," she said. "I saw a bullet hit the ground on the other side of the square about 30ft away before ducking into a store. The whole area was blocked off and dozens of police cars and ambulances were going towards the university." In a statement, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said the country had been shocked by this "horrendous act". "It is hard to find the words to express condemnation on the one hand and, on the other, the pain and sorrow that our entire society is feeling in these days before Christmas." The gunman is thought to have killed his father at a separate location. He is also suspected in the killing of a young man and his two-month-old daughter who were found dead in a forest on the outskirts of Prague on 15 December. The attack had one of the largest death tolls of any mass shooting by a lone gunman in Europe this century: - Norway, July 2011 Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people by planting a car bomb that killed eight at an Oslo government building and then shooting dead 69 more, most of them teenagers, at an island summer camp run by the ruling Labour Party's youth wing - Germany, April 2002 Robert Steinhauser, 19, killed 16 people - 13 teachers, two pupils, and a policemen - at the Gutenberg Gymnasium secondary school in the city of Erfurt. He had been expelled from the school the previous autumn - Germany, March 2009 Tim Kretschmer, 17, killed 15 people in a shooting that began at his former school in the town of Winnenden, near Stuttgart. He shot dead nine students and three teachers at the school before going on to the nearby town of Wendlingen, where he shot another three passers-by. - Switzerland, September 2001 Friedrich Leibacher entered the regional parliament building in the city of Zug dressed in a police uniform and shot dead 14 people and injured another 10 - Serbia, April 2013 Ljubisa Bogdanovic shot dead thirteen people, including a two-year-old boy, and injured his wife in a village outside Belgrade. Bogdanovic was a military veteran who had fought with Serb forces in the Croatian War of Independence in the early 1990s. Founded in 1347, Charles University is the oldest and largest university in the Czech Republic and one of the oldest such institutions in Europe. Related Topics Read the full article

[bunnyscar]

Random Ideas I wish could be Anime

Feel free to use for inspiration for writing, pictures, animation, brainstorming, anything (and if you use it, I'd love to see it!)

1.) setting is a modern city where monsters roam the streets at night and are hunted by special policemen. Out of all the monsters, vampires are the most feared, not least because they feed on people's blood and can turn others into vampires by injecting their own blood into their victims. Jake, the main character, is a young vampire who is ostracized by his own clan because unlike most vampires, he cannot turn people into vampires. Instead of changing people, his blood heals whoever ingests it or is injected with it. He also does not like drinking people's blood.

One day he is attacked in a sewer by a group of magicians who want to use his blood to revive a very powerful dark sorcerer. The magicians wound Jake's hands and one eye, collecting his blood from those wounds. A monster hunter enters the sewer, however, and the magicians flee. The monster hunter, a girl named Helen, finds Jake and thining he is human tries to help him. Jake pushes her away, afraid he will lose control and try to suck her blood. The monster she was originally pursuing enters the sewer, however, and mortally wounds her. Jake manages to kill them monster, despite his weakened condition, and forces Helen to drink his blood so that she will not die. Jake passes out then. Helen, confused because he saved her life and he mentions something about a ritual before he passees out, takes him to a hospital that deals with non-humans. Her bosses are not happy that she let a vampire live, but she says he might have useful information.

Strangely, even though the doctor gives Jake donated blood for him to heal, the wounds inflicted by the magicians do not heal. When Jake finally wakes up, Helen and her superiors question him. Jake explains about the magicians and his blood, how they want to use it in a ritual to awaken the dead sorcerer. If he is successfully revived, it will mean chaos. Jake also explains that the magicians used enchanted weapons on him, so that is why those wounds won't heal. He also reveals that he is able to tell the location of his blood, as long as it kept in a concentrated liquid form (e.g. whatever container the magicians are keeping it in), or if it is inside a living creature (e.g. Helen). The monster hunters decide to have him help them find the magicians so they can stop the ritual. Probably he and Helen grow to be friends (especially since they have the connection of Jake's blood). Ideas for how the story could play out: meeting different creatures, harrowing adventures as they look for magicians, uncovering the secret of why Jake has this blood

2.) Sho and Ryu are boys who can turn into dragon like beings; however, they are both young and untrained, so it is dangerous for them to change into that form. Sho was orphaned when he lost control and ended up burning down his village. He was taken in by Uncle, a kind older man who lived in a forest. They lived peacefully there for several years, Sho slowly healing from his emotional scars. But then men came who killed Uncle because of something that Uncle had been associated with before. Enraged and grief stricken, Sho turned into his dragon form and killed the men. When he regained his senses, he almost despaired. But Uncle had told him that if anything happened to him, Sho was to find a man in the mountains and give him a special sword that Uncle had kept. Sho sets out to do this, determined to carry out Uncle’s wish.

He is found and chased by bad guys, wounded, and hides away in a barn. That is when Ryu finds him. 

Ryu is a farm boy, the oldest of eight children. Their mother had already died, so Ryu helps his father take care of the kids and do the farm chores. He is a cheerful, kind boy, and when he finds Sho wounded, he takes him in. Sho is at first wary and distrustful of Ryu and his family, but seeing how innocently and kindly the family treats him, he relaxes. He stays with them a while, but says he must leave once his wounds are healed. 

Though he realizes that Ryu is dragon as well, and he brings it up to Ryu, Sho doesn’t press him. Ryu is completely surprised to find out that this is even a thing, and doesn't see how he himself could be a dragon. Eventually, Sho bids the family goodbye, continuing on his quest. But a day later, Ryu comes back from gathering firewood to find that the farmhouse has been attacked by bandits and his family has been killed. Seeing the smoke from afar, Sho rushes back to find the farm on fire and Ryu on the verge of turning into his dragon form and losing it. Sho stops him just in time. Not having a home anymore, Ryu joins Sho in looking for the man in the mountains. Maybe they meet more dragon children?

3.) Dante is stuck living out the same 3 days of his life endlessly. He is supposedly a hero who is supposed to stop some sort of calamity that comes on the third day, but no matter how many different strategies he uses to try to stop it, every time he fails and ends up at the 1st day again. Even if he tries to commit suicide, he just ends up at the beginning. But one day, he meets someone he's never seen before in all his attempts and everything changes....

4.) A boy's village is destroyed by a monster of darkness, and the monster devours his eye and enter his body. For some reason, however, the monster is not able to take over his body completely, just his eye and part of his face. The boy escapes into caves in the mountain. Even though he longs to be around people and to be in the sun again, he can't, because now that he is part monster he burns if he stands in the sunlight. (I honestly don't know where this story should go....)

[crimechannels]

By • Olalekan Fagbade BREAKING: Eight soldiers, policemen killed by gunmen two patrol vehicles set ablaze Unknown gunmen have reportedly killed no fewer than eight security agents comprising soldiers, policemen and Nigeria Security And Civil Defence Corps in Imo State. The incident which happened on Tuesday morning in Umualumaku community, Ehime Mbano Local Government Area of the state has thrown the area into panic. The joint security taskforce team who were in two security trucks were ambushed and set ablaze by their attackers. None of them survived as they were burnt inside their operational vehicles. The PUNCH reported that a security operative allegedly said that reinforcement teams had been sent to the scene of the crime with the intent to arrest the suspects and rescue the corpses of the slain security operative. A resident in the community who do not want to reveal his identity for security said that he saw the security agents a few minutes before they were set ablaze. He said that the community had been thrown into confusion, owing to the development. When contacted, the spokesperson for the police in the state, Henry Okoye, confirmed the development but asked for time to get the full details of the horrible incident. More details, shortly. #EightSoldiersPolicemenkilledbygunmen