Catholic Committee of Appalachia

The Catholic Committee of Appalachia joins with myriad voices being raised in protest of the refusal to indict the white police officers involved in the recent violent deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and others. The homicides of these two unarmed men and the failure of the grand jury system to provide for the possibility of justice reveal that we are not living in a “post-racial” society. These recent events, and increased visibility of widespread harassment of people of color, have, for the first time for many Americans, shined a light on the reality of systemic, racist police violence, a reality that communities of people of color, including Hispanic, Asian, and Native peoples, know all too well. Continue reading Systemic Racism & Police Violence Against People of Color →

Politico

2014 was an epochal year for social justice. 2015 could be even more dramatic.

The shattering events of 2014, beginning with Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson, Missouri, in August, did more than touch off a national debate about police behavior, criminal justice and widening inequality in America. They also gave a new birth of passion and energy to a civil rights movement that had almost faded into history, and which had been in the throes of a slow comeback since the killing of Trayvon Martin in 2012. That the nation became riveted to the meta-story of Ferguson—and later the videotaped killing of Eric Garner in New York—was due in large part to the work of a loose but increasingly coordinated network of millennial activists who had been beating the drum for the past few years. In 2014, the new social justice movement became a force that the political mainstream had to reckon with. Continue reading The Birth of a New Civil Rights Movement →

Common Dreams

Suit alleges that evidence presented to grand jury ‘with the insinuation that Brown, not Wilson, was the wrongdoer’

Lauren McCauley, staff writer

A member of the St. Louis grand jury that did not indict police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown filed a lawsuit on Monday challenging the court gag order, arguing that prosecuting attorney Robert McCulloch has not accurately portrayed the grand jury trial and that his experience could “help inform a way forward.” Continue reading Fighting Court Secrecy, Ferguson Juror Sues to Break Gag-Order →