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phoenix
'Billionaires Own Trump': Sunrise Organizers Occupy Republican's Phoenix Office
"Donald Trump is putting our futures on the auction block," said one campaigner. "He's gutting green jobs, handing tax cuts to billionaires, and ignoring the climate crisis."
Sep 23, 2024
As part of its engagement effort to reach 1.5 million young voters in swing states, the climate justice group Sunrise Movement on Monday organized a protest at Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's Phoenix, Arizona campaign office, where they attempted to deliver a check to "buy" the former president "back from Big Oil."
Five campaigners delivered a fake campaign check reading, "$1 billion and $1," a reference to Trump's promise to oil executives that he would slash regulations and end President Joe Biden's renewable energy initiatives if they donated $1 billion to his campaign.
"My future, and the future of this country, shouldn't be up for sale," said 20-year-old Nate Scofield, a campaigner from North Carolina who occupied Trump's Phoenix office. "Donald Trump is putting our futures on the auction block. He's gutting green jobs, handing tax cuts to billionaires, and ignoring the climate crisis. We came here today to send a clear message: We won't stand by while he sells out our families and our future."
The occupation was met with hostility by Trump campaign staffers, who yelled, "Get your ass out of here," and "I hope you don't have kids" at the campaigners.
The campaigners sat in the office holding signs reading, "Trump profits, Arizona burns" and "Billionaires Own Trump."
Ashton Dolce, 17, spoke about how the climate crisis has devastated Arizona, where officials suspect hundreds of people may have died in just one county from extreme heat this summer.
"The heat is relentless, wildfires rage, and our water is disappearing," said Dolce. "Donald Trump's response? Let our homes burn while cashing in from Big Oil. Arizona is at the frontlines of the climate crisis, but we are also on the frontlines of this election. That's why I'm organizing my community, mobilizing young voters, and holding Trump accountable for his loyalty to Big Oil."
Police were called an arrested the organizers, but 21-year-old Riya Kumar of Idaho said she was "willing to take this risk today because my family and my future are on the line this election."
"Living in Idaho, I've seen wildfires worsen every year, and the smoke choking our communities," said Kumar. "We can't afford Donald Trump as president."
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After 100 Days of 100°F, Sanders Says 'Climate Emergency Demands a Massive-Scale Mobilization'
"This is a moral imperative," said the senator as historic heat continued in Phoenix, Arizona.
Sep 05, 2024
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday evening issued yet another call for a major mobilization to take on the fossil fuel-driven climate crisis in response to a new record in Phoenix, Arizona: 100 straight days of the temperature hitting at least 100°F.
"100 straight days of 100-degree heat," Sanders (I-Vt.) said on social media, sharing a report from The Washington Post. "The heatwave has killed at least 150 people this summer in Phoenix alone."
"The climate emergency demands a massive-scale mobilization," stressed the senator, a longtime advocate for a swift, just transition away from oil and gas. "There is no choice. This is a moral imperative."
The death toll comes from the Post, which noted that in 2023, the hottest year on record globally, "heat deaths increased 50% from 2022, reaching a record of 645 people in Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix. This year, 150 heat deaths have been confirmed by the government and an additional 440 deaths are under investigation."
Increasingly deadly extreme heat is a national issue. Research published last month in the peer-reviewed Journal of the American Medical Association shows that heat-related deaths in the United States rose 117% between 1999 and 2023, with the highest rates recorded in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Texas.
After the 100-day mark on Tuesday, the National Weather Service (NWS) said Wednesday that "with the high temperature exceeding 110°F at Phoenix Sky Harbor this afternoon, the number of days of 110°F+ high temperatures for the year now ties last year's record number of 110°F+ highs at 55 days. Expect a new record to be set tomorrow (forecasted highs of 110-115°F)."
The NWS warned Thursday that "unseasonably hot conditions are expected to persist into next week," projecting temperatures between 108-114°F in the Arizona city through Monday.
As the Arizona Republic reported earlier this week:
Not only was this the hottest summer on record in Phoenix, but in Flagstaff, Winslow, Kingman Douglas, and Tucson too.
"For most of the state, it's looking like the hottest summer on record," said Sean Benedict, the lead meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Phoenix. "There were several locations around Arizona that set the record for the hottest summer."
Climate Central pointed out Tuesday that the extreme heat in and around Phoenix was "made at least four to five times MORE likely to occur (yes, even in early September) due to human-caused climate change."
As communities around the world have endured intense heat throughout 2024, scientists have warned it could break the 2023 record and become the new hottest year in human history. The European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said last month that the most recent July was just barely the second-warmest July globally—ending a streak that lasted from June 2023 to June 2024, during which each month was the hottest on record.
"Globally, July 2024 was almost as warm as July 2023, the hottest month on record," C3S deputy director Samantha Burgess said at the time. "July 2024 saw the two hottest days on record. The overall context hasn't changed, our climate continues to warm. The devastating effects of climate change started well before 2023 and will continue until global greenhouse gas emissions reach net-zero."
Although C3S has not yet released its official findings for last month, Agence France-Presse reported Tuesday that the agency's preliminary data show that "August 2024 should be on a par with last year's record 16.82°C (62.28°F)."
The C3S findings slightly conflict with those of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which found that the latest July "was Earth's warmest July on record, extending the streak of record-high monthly global temperatures to 14 successive months." NOAA also hasn't yet released its data for August.
What climate experts agree on is that much more must be done to address the crisis created by fossil fuels. As World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Celeste Saulo said in response to this summer's findings: "Climate adaptation alone is not enough. We need to tackle the root cause and get serious about reducing record levels of greenhouse gas emissions."
In addition to transitioning from fossil fuels to green energy, some have called for going after corporate giants that continue to rake in record profits from their planet-wrecking products. In June, Public Citizen unveiled a legal memo detailing how local or state prosecutors could bring criminal charges against Big Oil for deaths from extreme heat—using Arizona as an example.
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In Landmark Report, DOJ Finds Phoenix Police Violated Rights of Homeless
"This behavior is not only unlawful but conveys a lack of humanity and dignity of some of the most vulnerable members of our society," said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke.
Jun 14, 2024
"A person's constitutional rights do not diminish when they lack shelter," reads a landmark report released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Justice, the result of a three-year investigation into the Phoenix Police Department.
The finding is nothing new to advocates for unhoused people who have spent years fighting overpolicing and police brutality against the population, but the report represents the first time the DOJ has found violations of the civil and constitutional rights of people who lack shelter.
The DOJ opened an investigation into the Phoenix Police Department (PhxPD) after complaints about excessive force by police, and pledged to do a full accounting of police violence and of discrimination against Black, Latino, and Native American residents.
Officials found that the overpolicing of Phoenix's unhoused population has become a "central pillar of PhxPD's enforcement strategy," despite the department's stated policy to "lead with services" and provide referrals to agencies that can help unhoused people with housing, healthcare, and other needs.
"Between January 2016 and March 2022, people who were homeless accounted for over one-third—37%—of all PhxPD misdemeanor arrests and citations," reads the report.
The DOJ found the PhxPD principally violated unhoused people's rights by detaining them without reasonable suspicion and by seizing their property without notice—violations of the residents' Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights.
Officers last year forcefully moved hundreds of people to a large homeless encampment called The Zone near Phoenix's Capitol complex, which was ultimately cleared last November following a lawsuit filed by neighboring residents.
The DOJ found the police put unhoused people in harm's way by forcing them to move to The Zone, where high rates of crime including sexual assault had been reported. The report also found the PhxPD unlawfully subjected unhoused people to citations and arrests for camping in public parks and other areas, with one man cited or arrested 20 times over three years.
"We found that unhoused people in Phoenix have suffered a pattern of unconstitutional conduct," said Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general for civil rights. "Additionally, the city and the police department seize and destroy the property of homeless people without providing adequate notice or fair opportunity to collect their belongings. This behavior is not only unlawful but conveys a lack of humanity and dignity of some of the most vulnerable members of our society."
Arizona state Rep. Analise Ortiz (D-24) applauded the DOJ's historic report, but noted that "the proposed state budget includes $0 for homelessness."
In addition to the police department's violations against many of Phoenix's 2,700 unhoused people, the DOJ reported on racial discrimination, with Black drivers 144% more likely than white drivers to be pulled over, and on department leaders urging officers to use projectiles often with a "use it or lose it" policy.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Arizona said the report would bolster its ongoing litigation against the city and the PhxPD, and said it was not "not surprised" to hear that the DOJ had found widespread misconduct by the police.
"This damning report makes clear that the Phoenix Police Department suffers from an ingrained permissive culture that tolerates and even encourages widespread use of force, including deadly force, against some of our community's most vulnerable people," said Scott Greenwood, interim executive director of the group. "Moreover, this culture overwhelmingly directs enforcement activity against Black, Brown, Indigenous, and houseless people and harms people experiencing behavioral or emotional health crises."
"The people of Phoenix deserve genuine community safety," Greenwood added. "Today's report reflects a failure of leadership by prior chiefs over the last decade and a city government that has neglected or refused to hold them accountable. The most important thing that the mayor and city council can do now is to embrace this process as a vehicle for transformative change rather than stick their heads in the sand. Policing can and must be both effective and constitutional. Policing in Phoenix is neither."
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