August, 28 2020, 12:00am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
AIUSA media office,Email:,media@aiusa.org,Phone: 202-544-0200 x302
Amnesty International USA Joins March on Washington's Call for Police Reform and Justice for Black Lives
On day of historical March, Amnesty launches action with NY County Public Defenders to demand investigation into NYPD’s arrest of Black Lives Matter organizer Derrick Ingram.
WASHINGTON
Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) and its members will join the historic 2020 March on Washington to demand an end to the killings of Black people by the police and systemic reform to root out racism and radically change our approach to law enforcement. AIUSA actively supported the passage of the Justice in Policing Act by the House, which the Senate has refused to take up. With Black Lives Matter growing into the largest social justice movement in U.S. history, the March will channel the energy of thousands of activists to call on Congress to recommit to meaningful police reform.
On the day of the March, AIUSA is launching a new action, in partnership with New York County Public Defenders, to demand that New York County District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr. ensures that the investigation into the New York Police Department's (NYPD) conduct during the attempted arrest of and charges brought against Derrick Ingram, a prominent Black Lives Matter activist, is done in a prompt, impartial, independent, and transparent manner. Earlier this month, Derrick's apartment was besieged, without warrant, by the NYPD, because of his involvement in recent Black Lives Matter protests in New York City. According to the New York Times, the raid involved helicopters and dozens of police, some of whom were wearing riot gear. After writing to the District Attorney on August 27, Amnesty International USA was advised that his office had opened an investigation into Derrick Ingram's case. AIUSA will be mobilizing its nationwide network of grassroots organizers in the coming weeks to support Derrick's case and demand the right to protest be upheld.
"The New York City Police Department and Commissioner Shea projected their message loud and clear. Our movement does not matter to them, dissent is met with intimidation, and the vilification of Black bodies and the terrorism of the Black spirit is a part of their playbook. The attempted siege of my home was a political message to sow fear within our movement. People all over America have organized, protested and strategized because we have reached a fever pitch. We are done witnessing and experiencing the continued brutality and violence against Black lives. Instead of protecting our right to peacefully protest, the police are retaliating against us," said New York Black Lives Matter Organizer Derrick Ingram. "This wasn't simply a case of excessive force: it was purposeful police abuse, a signal to all protesters and dissenters past and present. I'm grateful that AIUSA and New York County Defender Services are supporting me- ensuring justice is upheld and to prevent this from happening again."
AIUSA interviewed Derrick for its August 2020 report The World is Watching, which documents 125 incidents of human rights abuses by police against protesters across the country over the course of one week of Black Lives Matter protests. In a 2015 report, Deadly Force: Police Use of Lethal Force in the United States, AIUSA found that all 50 states and Washington, D.C. fail to comply with international law and standards on the use of lethal force by law enforcement officers, a fact that, upon review this year, remains true five years later. Amnesty International is calling for root and branch police reform at the federal, state and local levels in order to address systemic racism and the widespread misuse of force by law enforcement officials.
"Civil rights are human rights. But nearly 60 years after Dr. Martin Luther King's 'I Have a Dream' speech, our country has a long way to go until all of us can live in dignity, safety, and free from violence. AIUSA is horrified by the continued killings of Black people by the police and the use of excessive force against peaceful protesters demanding respect and justice for Black lives," said Ernest Coverson, campaign manager for AIUSA's End Gun Violence Campaign. "Derrick's case is an extreme example of law enforcement abusing their power to silence those speaking out against injustices and further demonstrates the need to reform the police from the ground up. What happened to Derrick and other Black Lives Matter activists can never happen again."
This statement is available at: https://www.amnestyusa.org/press-releases/amnesty-international-usa-joins-march-on-washingtons-call-for-police-reform-and-justice-for-black-lives/
Amnesty International is a global movement of millions of people demanding human rights for all people - no matter who they are or where they are. We are the world's largest grassroots human rights organization.
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"Supreme corruption demands supreme transparency," said one campaigner behind the new effort.
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A trio of progressive watchdog groups on Thursday unveiled a new database detailing the "troubling connections" between the U.S. Supreme Court's right-wing justices, the conservative organizations that have intervened in cases before the court, and the wealthy donors funding them.
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The watchdogs found that nearly 1 in 7 amicus briefs filed during the 2023-24 Supreme Court term were lodged by at least one powerbroker-affiliated organization. This affects 32 different cases before the court.
"The current U.S. Supreme Court has gone rogue."
For example, in Moore v. United States—in which the Supreme Court could preemptively ban or limit wealth taxes—half of all amicus briefs were filed by groups affiliated with right-wing powerbrokers.
In Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, groups funded by billionaire industrialist Charles Koch want to scupper the Chevron deference, a 40-year precedent under which judges defer to the legal interpretations of federal agencies if Congress has not passed any laws on an issue. Powerbroker-affiliated organizations have filed more than one-third of the amicus briefs seeking to overturn the Chevron doctrine.
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According to SupremeTransparency.org:
The current U.S. Supreme Court has gone rogue. The right-wing justices that make up the court's supermajority frequently toy with precedent and the rule of law to issue opinions that not only defy the will of a majority of Americans, but also rewrite constitutional principles, overturn widely respected legal precedents, and gut longstanding rules that protect the public interest.
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Apr 18, 2024
The climate crisis will shrink the average global income 19% in the next 26 years compared to what it would have been without global heating caused primarily by the burning of fossil fuels, a study published in Nature Wednesday has found.
The researchers, from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), said that economic shrinkage was largely locked in by mid-century by existing climate change, but that actions taken to reduce emissions now could determine whether income losses hold steady at around 20% or triple through the second half of the century.
"These near-term damages are a result of our past emissions," study lead author and PIK scientist Leonie Wenz said in a statement. "We will need more adaptation efforts if we want to avoid at least some of them. And we have to cut down our emissions drastically and immediately—if not, economic losses will become even bigger in the second half of the century, amounting to up to 60% on global average by 2100."
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"That seems like… a lot," writer and climate advocate Bill McKibben wrote in response to the findings. "The entire world economy at the moment is about $100 trillion a year; the federal budget is about $6 trillion a year."
This means that the costs of inaction have already exceeded the costs of limiting global heating to 2°C by six times, the study authors said. However, limiting warming to 2°C can still significantly reduce economic losses through 2100.
"This clearly shows that protecting our climate is much cheaper than not doing so, and that is without even considering noneconomic impacts such as loss of life or biodiversity," Wenz said.
The damages predicted by the study were more than twice those of similar analyses because the researchers looked beyond national temperature data to also incorporate the impacts of extreme weather and rainfall on more than 1,600 subnational regions over a 40-year period, The Guardian explained.
"Strong income reductions are projected for the majority of regions, including North America and Europe, with South Asia and Africa being most strongly affected," PIK scientist and first author Maximilian Kotz said in a statement. "These are caused by the impact of climate change on various aspects that are relevant for economic growth such as agricultural yields, labor productivity, or infrastructure."
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Unlike previous studies, the research predicted economic losses for most wealthier countries in the Global North, with the U.S. and German economies shrinking by 11% by mid-century, France's by 13%, and the U.K.'s by 7%. However, the countries set to suffer the most are countries closer to the equator that have lower incomes already and have historically done much less to contribute to the climate crisis. Iraq, for example, could see incomes drop by 30%, Botswana 25%, and Brazil 21%.
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It is on us to decide: Structural change towards a renewable energy system is needed for our security and will save us money. Staying on the path we are currently on, will lead to catastrophic consequences. The temperature of the planet can only be stabilized if we stop burning oil, gas, and coal.
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Jayapal toldNBC News that the CPC is focusing its blueprint exclusively on domestic goals—especially ones it feels can be achieved.
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The CPC agenda is backed by a wide range of labor, climate, environmental, civil rights, consumer, faith-based, and other organizations.
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Mary Small, chief strategy officer at Indivisible, said: "House progressives were the engine at the heart of our legislative accomplishments in 2021 and 2022. They've continued that momentum to be true governing partners to the Biden administration as those laws and programs are implemented."
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That moment is far from guaranteed, with not only the White House hanging in the balance as Biden will all but certainly face former Republican President Donald Trump in November's election but also the Senate Democratic Caucus clinging to a single-seat advantage over the GOP. Republicans currently hold the House of Representatives by a five-seat margin.
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