Fight Back! News

News and Views from the People's Struggle

In-Justice System

By staff

Protest demands dropping federal  charges against  Isavela Lopez.

Minneapolis, MN – On September 29, over 70 activists and community members showed up at the federal courthouse to demand that U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson immediately drop the charges against Isavela López.

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By Toni Duplechain-Jones

Sean Coleman, mother of the late Junious Coleman, tells the crowd about how after filing a  complaint on an NOPD officer in 2021, the same officer later came to her house and told her not to continue with the process.

New Orleans, LA – On the evening of September 25, around 50 people attended a People's Townhall on Public Safety co-hosted by the New Orleans Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression and Black Lives Matter Grassroots.

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By staff

David Pulido demands justice for Noe Rodriguez.

Santa Ana, CA – On September 16, Community Service Organization Orange County (CSO OC) members demanded justice for Noe Rodriguez and protested attacks on the Police Oversight Commission at a city council meeting. Though the city faces two lawsuits related to the police killing of Noe Rodriguez, city staff have tried to ignore the incident. CSO OC has made that effort unsuccessful.

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By staff

On September 25, Cuba’s Foreign Ministry announced the passing of Assata Shakur in Havana, due to health problems and her advanced age. Shakur was a well-known fighter for Black liberation.

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By Oliver Cheese

Elijah Hooks.

Tallahassee, FL – Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, the state’s only public HBCU, has expelled a prominent student organizer and community leader for protesting the university’s new MAGA-backed president.

Elijah Hooks, a political science student on the cusp of graduation, organized a rally on May 14 to oppose the appointment of Marva Johnson as FAMU’s next president. Johnson is an ally of far-right Governor Ron DeSantis with no experience in higher education.

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By staff

Detroit, MI – On September 23, the Detroit Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, together with other community groups in the city, demonstrated outside of a city council community meeting for a city ordinance guaranteeing the release of police body-worn camera footage.

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By Owen Frassetto

GVSU Students hold a moment of silence for Demartravion Reed at a vigil on campus.

Allendale, MI – The Sultry Xi Nu chapter of the Sigma Gamma Rho sorority organized a vigil on the evening of Monday, September 22, at Grand Valley State University to honor the life of Demartravion “Trey” Reed, a young Black man who was found deceased on the campus of Delta State University in Mississippi last Monday. The rally was organized in partnership with the GVSU Pan-Hellenic Council and the Progressive Student Union.

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By Freedom Road Socialist Organization

The temperature is rising by the day and the air is thick with a dangerous new electricity. The magnified polarization of this country points to the unraveling of a system built on inequality, repression and an empire whose decline is accelerating. Flashpoint events like Kirk’s killing are not isolated incidents, they’re symptoms of a terminal illness.

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By Rae Lee

Protest against placing police in schools.

Seattle, WA – On Wednesday, September 17, the Seattle Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (SAARPR) hosted a rally with the demands of “No Cops in Classrooms! Community Control of the Police!” just before the meeting of the Seattle School Board at the Stanford Education Center. The board was set to deliberate on whether the pilot SEO – “Student Emphasis Officer,” comparable to “Student Resource Officer” — program would move forward at Garfield High School.

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By staff

Minneapolis march led by Mariah Samuels' cousins Avonne Winston, Dionika Aron and Shakira Rodriquez and family friend Jami Dixon.

Minneapolis, MN – Hundreds of community members filled the streets of North Minneapolis, September 20, to remember Mariah Samuels with a march led by her loved ones from the home where she was shot and killed on September 14 to the Minneapolis Fourth Precinct police station.

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By Gabriel Miller

Chicago protest demands release of surviviors of police torture. | Fight Back! News/Kaya Rial

Chicago, IL- A dozen protesters gathered on Friday, September 19 outside the 50th Anniversary Gala of the Illinois Humanities nonprofit, a celebration for which Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker had been named an honorary co-chair. The protesters rallied and chanted to demand that Pritzker use his executive power to grant clemency for hundreds of petitioners with credible claims of police torture and wrongful conviction.

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By staff

Appleton, Wisconsin protest against Trump's troop deployments to major cities.

Appleton, WI – On September 14, several dozen people gathered at Appleton’s Houdini Plaza in a demonstration denouncing Trump, ICE and the invasion of our cities, including the deployment of the military in Los Angeles, the National Guard in Washington DC, and the proposed deployment of the national guard to Chicago.

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By staff

Charleston, SC – On September 15, an organizer with the Elbit Out Of South Carolina Coalition, Matt Colburn, appeared in court on a charge of “damaging or tampering with a vehicle.” The charge stemmed from an alleged incident on Thursday, August 7, during which time the Coalition was engaged in their weekly picket outside of the local Elbit Systems Facility in Ladson, South Carolina.

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By staff

Speakers at September 12 press conference demand U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson drop all charges against Isavela López.

Minneapolis, MN – At a press conference September 12 in front of the Federal Courthouse in Minneapolis, several speakers demanded that U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson drop all charges against Isavela López.

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By staff

people holding a banner reading, "stop cop city"

Atlanta, GA – In a devastating blow against Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr’s crusade of attempting to intimidate opponents of the construction of Cop City (a training facility intended to militarize the police and train them in urban warfare tactics), on September 9 a Georgia judge tossed out the case against the 61 people indicted with RICO charges, citing a lack of proper procedure.

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By staff

A mass of protesters hold "Got ICE? Crush it!" and red "Stop Deportations, Defend Immigrants!" signs.

Chicago, IL – On September 6, 8000 Chicagoans rallied and marched downtown to demand that no federal troops be deployed in the city.

The demonstration, led by the Coalition Against the Trump Agenda (CATA) in partnership with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR), showed broad opposition to the incoming illegal military occupation and made clear that Chicagoans are not afraid to exercise their democratic right to resist.

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By Iain McNeely

A young man leads a protest, holding a mic with a slight smile.

Washington, D.C. — On Friday, September 5, over 30 activists and community members assembled in Washington, D.C. 's Navy Yard neighborhood for a “mass cop watch” organized by the DC Against Trump Agenda (DCAT) coalition.

This cop watch is just one of many actions that the coalition has organized in weeks since President Trump declared that he would be federalizing DC’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and deploying the National Guard to the city.

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By staff

A room full of people watches as someone gives a Powerpoint presentation on community control and the NYC transit system.

Brooklyn, NY – On September 6, The New York Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NYAARPR) hosted a town hall in Crown Heights to discuss community experiences with the NYPD and ways to fight back against police terror on the subway system. The town hall was held at Another World community center, which emerged from mutual aid efforts started as the Crown Heights CARE Collective in 2022.

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By staff

Protesters outside racist  district attorney town hall meeting.

East Los, CA — On the evening of September 4, Chicanos from East Los Angeles mobilized to disrupt a local town hall hosted by racist, right-wing Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman at a Chicano restaurant called East Los Tacos.

Hochman's reactionary policies like gang enhancements and his “tough on crime” approach have been proven to not make anyone safer. In fact, they deeply and disproportionately target and harm Black and Chicano neighborhoods. In general, crime in Los Angeles has been decreasing for years.

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By staff

Black youth protesters fill a city hall atrium and raise their fists in the air. They hold signs that say, "No More Money for MPD" and "MPA Loco 21 - Crazy Demands."

Milwaukee, WI – In late August the Milwaukee Police Association (MPA), a police union, put out a call for their membership to join them for a protest on September 5 related to contract negotiations with the City of Milwaukee. The group planned to march from Red Arrow Park to City Hall where they would hold a press conference. Locals often refer to the park as Dontre Hamilton Park to honor the death of Dontre Hamilton, a Black man murdered by now-former Milwaukee Police Department officer Christopher Manney.

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