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    Whistle becomes key tool in protests against Trump’s ICE crackdown

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    Protesters have been blowing whistles to alert people to agents’ presence – and that has upset figures on the rightWhen Justin Vernon of Bon Iver appeared on the red carpet at the Grammy awards he was wearing an accessory that has become a must-carry for activists in neighborhoods targeted by ICE: a whistle.The whistle has become a key part in the defense against Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown, used to alert people to the presence of agents. But it has also become a target for the right, who have branded whistles “hearing-loss-causing machines” and said the act of blowing a whistle may constitute “assault”. Continue reading… More

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      How anti-ICE pin badges became the essential red carpet accessory

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      Billie Eilish and Biebers wore ‘ICE out’ pins at the Grammys, as more and more celebrities find their political voicesThe red carpet is being used increasingly as a platform for protest – and one accessory in particular has become key: the pin badge.At Sunday night’s Grammy awards, stars including Hailey and Justin Bieber and Billie Eilish wore black and white pins that read “ICE out”, a condemnation of the recent actions of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Continue reading… More

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      in US Politics

      The criminalizing of protest and dissent has a long history in America

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      Trump administration is accusing protesters of ‘domestic terrorism’ but this brazen tactic is as old as the country itselfWhen federal immigration agents shot and killed ICU nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis on 23 January, the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, wasted no time claiming to the press, without credible evidence, that Pretti had been engaged in “domestic terrorism”. Though the administration seems to be trying to soften that initial response after fierce backlash, it’s an accusation that members of the Trump administration have been leveling at wide swaths of people beyond Pretti – including Renee Nicole Good, another Minnesotan killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents two and a half weeks prior, and Marimar Martinez, who survived being shot by ICE agents in Chicago in October – as part of an ongoing strategy to criminalize dissent.It’s a claim ICE agents themselves have started to make directly in confrontations with citizens, seemingly to try and intimidate legal observers, sometimes known as ICE watchers. In one recent video from Portland, Maine, an ICE officer told an observer to stop recording him on her phone, and when she wouldn’t, he took her information down and said: “We have a nice little database … and now you’re considered a domestic terrorist.” Continue reading… More

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      in World Politics

      Governance Without Legitimacy: The Kurdish Region’s Descent into Stagnation

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      For more than three decades, particularly since 1991, the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) has been presented as a semiautonomous polity with its own institutions and an ethnically distinct identity. But beneath that veneer of autonomy lies a more troubling reality.  Corruption has deteriorated the region, and it is not an aberration in the Kurdish… Continue reading Governance Without Legitimacy: The Kurdish Region’s Descent into Stagnation
      The post Governance Without Legitimacy: The Kurdish Region’s Descent into Stagnation appeared first on Fair Observer. More

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      in US Politics

      Resistance to Trump 2.0 is getting more confrontational | Dana R Fisher

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      In Trump’s first term, activists focused on lobbying and voting. Now tactics are shifting to nonviolent civil disobedienceOn 24 January, Alex Pretti was killed by federal agents while he was helping another civilian in Minneapolis who had been knocked to the ground – just weeks after an ICE agent killed Renee Good. In response to this second killing of a Minnesotan, demonstrations spread across the United States to protest the Trump administration and its ultra-violent immigration enforcement tactics.Minneapolis has been in a state of sustained protest. Its general strike on 23 January mobilized tens of thousands of Minnesotans to participate in an economic blackout and march in the streets. Solidarity protests, strikes and marches also took place across the country, including the Free America Walkout, which involved more than 900 local actions across all 50 states on the anniversary of Donald Trump’s second inauguration. Continue reading… More

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      ‘We’re fighting for the soul of the country’: how Minnesota residents came together to face ICE

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      Networks created after police killed George Floyd were reactivated to challenge Trump’s mass deportation policyCory never expected he’d spend hours each day driving around after immigration agents, videotaping their moves. The south Minneapolis resident is “not the type of person to do this”, he said.The dangers of what he’s doing, even after the killings of two observers, largely stay out of his mind when he’s watching Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents – even when he’s gotten hit with pepper spray. In quieter moments, it occurs to him that agents likely know where he lives. Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old whom agents killed while he was filming them, “100% could have been me”, Cory said. Continue reading… More