From Minneapolis to Tampa protests, repression and defiance.
Protester in front of a phalanx of police in Tampa, May 30
From Ferguson to New York to Minneapolis the countless cases of extreme racist police brutality left unpunished and with no one held to account is what has led to the ongoing uprisings across the United States.. And that is what they are...not riots.
When people are pushed to the point where options for political action simply do not seem to exist, and are between a far right that despises them and a liberal political class that is fully complicit in their ongoing oppression, uprisings like the one occurring in American cities are an inevitable result.
This is worth remembering when we hear mainstream media commentators demanding not that the police promise to end their actual violence, but that community activists disavow the supposed "violence" of those in revolt.
And, as is always the case when popular resistance flows into the streets, the police will respond with more brutality. We are seeing this now across the US with attacks on protesters and media and other provocations.
Here are some highlights from the past couple of days.
More than 30 incidents of violence and harassment against media workers were reported on social media and in news outlets on Friday and Saturday, according to a tally the Guardian collated.
They included the blinding of Linda Tirado, a freelance photojournalist and activist who has contributed to the Guardian, who was hit in the eye with a nonlethal round while covering unrest in Minneapolis; the arrest of the HuffPost US reporter Chris Mathias during protests in New York; and the shooting of the Swedish foreign correspondent Nina Svanberg, who was struck in the leg by several rubber bullets on Friday night.
The reporter starts this video by noting "no one was doing anything" when the police started firing...and then almost immediately someone is hit by a projectile. He then goes on to state that there was "no provocation" at all...the police showed up and started firing.
Tanks driving down residential streets in Minneapolis as troops fire paint and teargas at people on their own property.
As protests continue across the United States into the early hours of Sunday morning, at least 25 cities across 16 states have imposed curfews. The National Guard has also been activated in around a dozen states and the District of Columbia.
CALIFORNIA
Beverly Hills
Los Angeles
COLORADO
Denver
FLORIDA
Miami
GEORGIA
Atlanta
ILLINOIS
Chicago
KENTUCKY
Louisville
MINNESOTA
Minneapolis
St. Paul
NEW YORK
Rochester
OHIO
Cincinnati
Cleveland
Columbus
Dayton
Toledo
OREGON
Eugene
Portland
PENNSYLVANIA
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
SOUTH CAROLINA
Charleston
Columbia
TENNESSEE
Nashville
UTAH
Salt Lake City
WASHINGTON
Seattle
WISCONSIN
Milwaukee