As debate raged around health care and Russia-gate last month, Attorney General Jeff Sessions quietly held a “national summit” of law enforcement representatives to discuss the future of policing. Vice President Mike Pence predicted that the summit, which was largely held behind closed doors, would “impact this country for years to come.” Its purpose was to influence the recommendations — due out next week — of the Department of Justice…

By Stephen A. Crockett Jr. – In her first major piece of legislation since taking office, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), along with everyone’s favorite Republican, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), has introduced a bipartisan bail-reform bill—the Pretrial Integrity and Safety Act of 2017—which would encourage states to stop holding accused offenders in jail who can’t pay bail for their release. As it stands, individuals who have been arrested and are awaiting…

By Greg Palast Why would somebody say a crazy statement like that?” Bernie had his arms spread like gull wings, fingers scribbling facts in the air. “Why” was not really a question. Watch this five-minute video of Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rev. Jesse Jackson and their alliance to take on Kris Kobach, the Dr. Moriarty of vote suppression. In Jesse Jackson’s private ministry office, the Reverend and I had just…

By Cristina Silva – The Sydney Peace Foundation announced last week it will give Black Lives Matter its 2017 peace prize during a ceremony scheduled in November for Sydney. The award recognizes the work of the founding leaders of the social justice activist network, Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi, who began working together…

Joana Gorjão Henriques has been a journalist at the leading national daily in Portugal, Público, since 2000; a Nieman Fellow at Harvard in 2010; and a contributor to The Guardian. She is mainly a long-form writer who reports on racism, discrimination and social injustice. NOTE: Joana Gorjão Henriques describes herself as “white”. But, in the US (and many other countries), she would not be “white”… but, rather, a nonwhite Latina….

by Ricardo Vaz Sunday, July 16, was a significant day in Venezuela’s political history. The right-wing opposition MUD, backed by the United States, threw all its weight behind a “consultation” that they hoped would show that their (coup) attempts had a formidable public backing and trigger the “zero hour” of a new phase that would lead to the removal of the Bolivarian government. In the end the stunt backfired, leaving…

By Al Calloway Typically, too many African American political leaders, preachers and so-called intellectuals shy away from the issue of Reparations. As a result, the black body politic has not risen to demand that the U.S. government, industry, and white Americans in general, deal with rectifying the heinous wrongs experienced both by our enslaved black forebears and present day African American citizens. In the final analysis, African people throughout the…

My grandmother, and yours, too probably, used to say that things done in the dark would eventually come to light.  There is way too much “dark” public policy being done by this administration, too many instances when whispers and innuendo are substitutes for truth and transparency.  If 45 wonders why there are so many leaks from the Oval Office, perhaps he ought to consider more transparency.  Instead, he veers in…

It is now widely accepted and shown by scholars that the permanent dislocation and forced transportation of over 30 million enslaved Africans to the Caribbean and the wider Americas, and the mutilation and murder of millions unknown, constitute modernity’s greatest crime against humanity. But Western European culture, while aggressively championing the cause of human liberty, political freedom, and the public accountability of government, has so far failed to repair the…

By Bert Wilkinson At the just concluded meeting of Caribbean Community leaders in Grenada, the question of making European nations that had participated in the transatlantic slave trade compensate the region for the genocide was discussed at length, but officials are tightlipped about exactly what some European governments have indicated in their replies for demands for reparations from the Caribbean. For most of the past four years, regional governments have…

Paul Butler talks about breaking the “chokehold” on African American men By Sam Fullwood III Early on, in his recently published book, Chokehold [Policing Black Men], Paul Butler states, “[c]ops routinely hurt and humiliate black people because that is what they are paid to do.” It’s a bold and stark claim that Butler, a Georgetown University Law School professor and former federal prosecutor, never backs away from as he challenges…

A voter listens to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speak in South Carolina a day after her debate with rival candidate Bernie Sanders on Feb. 12, 2016, in Denmark, S.C. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) By Terrell Jermaine Starr Disclaimer: I do not hate Bernie Sanders. He does not owe me money. It’s really not that deep to me, fam. That white man means a whole lot more to Bernie bros than…