Blog moved to ErikMcGregor.com : November 2016

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Strikes, protests and civil disobedience in NYC as part of Fight for $15 National Day of Action result in multiple arrests including New York Elected Officials

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NEW YORK-- New York Elected Officials, striking fast food workers, supported by airport workers and community, march to McDonald’s at 160 Broadway to protest unfair labor practices and risk arrest. The civil disobedience acts in NYC lead to multiple arrests, including several members of the New York City Council.

As part of a national day of action for the 64 million workers making minimum wage in the US on November 29, striking fast food workers along with airport workers, Uber drivers and messengers, taxi drivers and other low-wage workers and community members will hold a march and risk arrest in Manhattan to protest retaliation and other unfair treatment at McDonalds. Then they will head to Newark Airport for a major rally and march to demand that Newark Airport workers aren’t treated as second class citizens and are given a $15 minimum wage like their colleagues at New York airports. Airport workers will also call on contractor Primeflight to recognize their union rights, raise wages and provide benefits to its workers.

The diverse coalition of the Fight for $15 in New York includes fast food workers, airport workers, Uber drivers and messengers, taxi drivers and many others who are joining community members to demand good jobs and union rights, no deportations, an end to police killings of black people and to say, hands off our health care. Uber drivers and taxi drivers form solidarity caravan at Zuccotti Park to demand good jobs and living wages for app-based drivers

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On the four-year anniversary of the first fast food strike in New York, workers are holding their biggest actions ever across the country. The 2016 elections were defined by frustration with the rigged economy and for low-wage workers in New York City, immigrants, people of color and a range of progressive and community groups this is the first moment where we are coming together to say that we won’t back down.

The Fight for $15 started in New York City in 2012, when 200 brave fast-food workers walked off their jobs, demanding $15 and the right to form a union without retaliation. The movement has spread to cities around the world and to industries across the low-wage service economy including home care and child care. Once considered a long shot, workers have won $15 in California and New York State, in cities like Washington, D.C. and Seattle, and in companies and industries all around the nation.

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With 155,000 members in eleven states and Washington, D.C., including 70,000 in New York City, 32BJ SEIU is the largest property service workers union in the country.

Founded in 1998, NYTWA is the 19,000-member strong union of NYC taxicab drivers, representing yellow cab drivers, green car, and black car drivers, including drivers for Uber and Lyft. We fight for justice, rights, respect and dignity for the over 50,000 licensed men and women who often labor 12 hour shifts with little pay and few protections in the city's mobile sweatshop. Our members come from every community, garage, and neighborhood.

#32BJ #Activism #arrests #Art #CivilDisobedience #FF15 #FightFor15 #humanrights #LivingWage #MinimumWage #MinWageRealityCheck #NewYork #NotOneStepBack #NYC #NYCityCouncil #PeacefulProtest #Protest #rally #RiseFor15 #SEIU #SEIU32BJ #‎Solidarity #Union #UnionWorkers #WeWontBackDown #WorkerRights

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Monday, November 28, 2016

Anti Gun Violence activists to protest FedEx, Hertz, and Wyndham Worldwide for supporting the NRA

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NEW YORK, NY, (NOV. 25, 2016) — In a protest at FedEx, Hertz, and Wyndham Worldwide locations in Midtown Manhattan, Gays Against Guns will demand that the three companies halt their generous discounts for NRA members because the money those members save ends up in the gun lobby’s bank account.

“The NRA spent $52 million in outside spending to elect Donald Trump and pro-gun senators and representatives this year,” said Ken Kidd, a member of Gays Against Guns, an anti-gun violence group that was founded following the June 2016 massacre in an Orlando LGBTQ club that left 49 dead. “Some of that cash came from NRA members who saved money doing business with FedEx, Hertz, and Wyndham Worldwide. If these companies want to do business with the rest of us, they have to stop doing business with the gun radicals at the NRA.”

FedEx gives NRA members discounts of up to 26 percent on shipping firearms. Hertz gives NRA members discounts of up to 25 percent on ALL car rentals. Wyndham Worldwide discounts its hotel room rates up to 25 percent for guests who check in via the NRA website or who show an NRA membership card. Some of the money that NRA members save with FedEx, Hertz, and Wyndham ends up in the NRA’s bank account. That same NRA bank account siphons money straight to politicians, like Donald Trump.

The cash raised from these transactions with NRA members can be substantial. In a recent solicitation sent to NRA members, First Bankcard, a division of the First National Bank of Omaha, a large privately held bank, the credit card provider boasted that “Over $24 million has been raised to date!” for the NRA.

Gays Against Guns is a direct action group committed to ending gun violence in America through sensible gun law reform, a reinstatement of the assault weapons ban, and universal background checks. Founded in June 2016 after a mass shooting in an LGBTQ nightclub in Orlando that left 49 people dead, GAG believes that gun violence is a public health issue that disproportionately affects people of color, religious minorities, and LGBTQ Americans. It has chapters in New York, Los Angeles, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Washington, DC.

#Activism #demonstration #DonaldTrump #DumpBannon #DumpTrump #FedEX #FirstAmendment #GAG #GAGisWatching #GAGNY #GaysAgainstGuns #GunControl #GunViolence #Hertz #humanrights #LoveTrumpsHate #NewYork #NewYorkCity #NewYorkers #NotMyPresident #NRA #NYC #PeacefulProtest #Protest #rally #RejectPresidentElect #revolution #‎Solidarity #stopgunviolence #StopTheHate #teachers #trump #trumpvsallofus #Wyndham

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Monday, November 21, 2016

Gays Against Guns protest Steve Bannon and other racist Trump appointees in front of Trump Soho Hotel

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A legal, nonviolent demonstration was held in front of Trump Soho Hotel (246 Spring St.) denouncing Trump's installation of white nationalists, racists and Islamophobes in his administration--foremost Steve Bannon, Jeff Sessions and Michael Flynn.

Gays Against Guns (GAG), which formed after the Orlando gun massacre in June to fight back against the NRA's lock on sensible gun laws, is expanding its reach with the moniker "GAG is Watching," meant to create public resistance to the most extreme and dangerous aspects of a Trump administration (which was made possible in part by strong support from the NRA).

The organizing group is Gays Against Guns and representatives from an array of groups and organizationally unaffiliated New Yorkers want to join the national chorus sending a message to Trump that the majority of Americans are outraged at the people with clear records of racism and hate speech he is installing in the future administration," said Gays Against Guns cofounder Kevin Hertzog. "Bannon oversaw a website that glorified the Confederate flag only a few days after a white nationalist killed black churchgoers, Sessions was blocked from a post in the 1980s because of racist remarks including joking about the KKK, and Flynn has said that it is 'rational' to fear Muslims.

"We're not so naive as to think that this protest alone is going to stop Trump from these appointments," continued Hertzog. "We're doing it in concert with protests across the nation and the world, and to show that we still have the right and the duty to publicly denounce the government-elect when it takes actions that defy the American values of tolerance, pluralism and civil rights."

#Activism #Art #demonstration #DonaldTrump #DumpBannon #DumpTrump #EndHomophobia #EndTransphobia #FirstAmendment #GAG #GAGisWatching #GAGNY #GayRights #GaysAgainstGuns #humanrights #immigration #LoveTrumpsHate #MuslimRights #NewYork #NewYorkCity #NewYorkers #NotMyPresident #NYC #PeacefulProtest #Protest #rally #RejectPresidentElect #revolution #‎Solidarity #SteveBannon #StopTheHate #trump #trumpvsallofus

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Teachers Speak Out Against Trump: we will defend our community!

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We are teachers at Harvest Collegiate High School in Manhattan who are deeply concerned about the election of Donald Trump.

There have been over 400 hate incidents reported since the election, a huge portion taking place at schools. Many of our students have expressed fear and anxiety over what a Trump presidency might mean for them and their families.

Earlier this week, many of our students expressed their outrage by walking out of class.

On Monday, we plan to gather outside our school at 12:45pm and march to Union Square where we will hold a speak out and sing-along against the bigotry the Trump represents.

As unionized workers, we stand against the attacks on the working class that will surely come from a Trump administration.

We also stand with our students and families against the racism, sexism, xenophobia, sexism, homophobia and anti-Semitism that has been unleashed by the election of Trump.

#Activism #Art #demonstration #DonaldTrump #DumpTrump #FirstAmendment #humanrights #immigration #LoveTrumpsHate #MuslimRights #NewYork #NewYorkCity #NewYorkers #NotMyPresident #NYC #PeacefulProtest #Protest #rally #RejectPresidentElect #revolution #‎Solidarity #StopTheHate #teachers #TeachersAgainsTrump #trump #trumpvsallofus

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Sunday, November 20, 2016

“This is Not a Drill!”

Four Water Defenders took action along the Hudson, interrupting plans to pull AIM pipeline under the river

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Verplanck, NY – Early this morning, four water defenders were arrested for occupying a construction site to stop Spectra Energy’s plan to drag its 42-inch diameter, high pressure, fracked-methane gas pipeline under the Hudson River and adjacent to the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant. Spectra Energy’s proposed Algonquin Incremental Market (AIM) Pipeline would bring fracked gas from Pennsylvania to New England, despite a report from the Massachusetts Attorney General that shows no need for this gas. In New York, if completed, the AIM Pipeline would carry gas through residential communities and within 105 feet of critical safety facilities at Indian Point, endangering 20 million people in the fallout radius of that nuclear power plant.

At 10:30 AM, a rally of 130 people marched to the pipeline site, singing and showing solidarity with the defenders and pledging to continue the fight. Alexandra Zevin, one of the defenders who climbed into the pipeline site, said, “I am deeply concerned about the safety of the Hudson River and the New York area. Spectra has shown that they have a terrible safety record, and I think it’s insane for this pipeline to be proposed so close to a nuclear power plant. They have already tried twice to put the pipeline under the river and failed both times, and I have no trust in them. It is not responsible to risk our health, our safety and our river for corporate profit.”

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Spectra Energy has scrambled to complete their AIM project after losing the drillhead necessary for Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD). Without this crucial component, the company has scraped together a hodgepodge solution by connecting the newer, larger sections of pipe to the old smaller diameter sections under the Hudson River. There has been no environmental or safety review of this new plan.

Today’s action is the latest in an ongoing effort to stop Spectra Energy from constructing their Algonquin Incremental Market Expansion project. While both New York Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand wrote to FERC requesting a “stop work” order on the project, neither has made a public appearance denouncing the project, and FERC has ignored the Senators’ request. On February 29, 2016, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo called for an immediate halt to construction while the state conducts an independent risk assessment but he has also been ignored. Without any real assistance from elected officials, residents and advocates took matters into their own hands today to directly stop construction.

Local Yorktown resident Leigha Eyster was also among those who entered the work site said.,. "My family spans three generations in this neighborhood, and I speak for many residents when I say the AIM pipeline is an unwelcome, unnecessary hazard to our community. The expansion of this pipeline is a senseless, foolish, dangerous act of greed, and means destruction of wetlands, clear cutting of old and new growth forest, total annihilation of decades-old farmland, and degradation of public air and water quality. Not only does this pipeline run underneath the Hudson River, a treasured gem in the Hudson Valley that has undergone decades of successful rehabilitation, it also runs next to the aging Indian Point nuclear power plant. Children and the elderly are especially vulnerable to the pollutants that will be continually off-gassed. It’s time for our communities to move towards safer and more efficient renewable energy sources."

The message is clear: Water and community must come before corporate profits. Now is the time to stop the AIM Pipeline for good.

#Activism #AIMpipeline #arrests #ClimateChange #climatejustice #demonstration #FERC #FossilFree #Fracking #IndianPoint #KeepItIntheGround #Methane #NewYork #NoDAPL #NoPipelines #PeacefulProtest #PeacefulResistance #ResistAIMpipeline #ResistSpectra #SaneEnergyProject #SAPE #SEnRG #‎Solidarity #SpectraEnergy #SpectraPipeline #StopAIMpipeline #StopGasExports #StopSpectra #WaterIsLife ‪#‎weareallconnected‬ #WeSayNo #YOUAREHERE

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Friday, November 18, 2016

Puerto Rican community in New York protest hedge fund manager John Paulson over involvement on Puerto Rico debt crisis

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The activist group United Against Promesa in New York organized a protest outside the office of Donald Trump's favorite hedge fund supporter John Paulson.

This Friday, the Fiscal Control Board/Junta imposed on the people of Puerto Rico by the US government is set to meet for the first time in Puerto Rico. They met twice already on Wall Street with the same vultures who created the financial mess and are now poised to enact drastic austerity measures to squeeze every dime from hardworking families living in the US colony.

The unelected, unaccountable Fiscal Control Board has proven itself to be a the best friend of the hedge fund vultures that created the fiscal crisis. Most of its members have strong relationships with the banks and the corporations that used sketchy practices to put Puerto Rico in a hole and are now looking to cash in no matter the consequences for the Puerto Rican people. One of those vultures is Donald Trump's favorite hedge fund supporter John Paulson, described as the biggest winner in Trump's victory..

John Paulson is perhaps best known for having bet against the U.S. subprime mortgage market in 2007, making about $4 billion. The ensuing global recession tanked economies around the world, sent unemployment skyrocketing and destabilized governments in Europe and North America.

Over the past few years, Paulson and other hedge fund investors have deployed an intense lobbying and public relations campaign in Washington over a variety of issues that would benefit their bottom line. This included heavy lobbying to make sure debts Puerto Rico owed to their hedge funds were first in line for full repayment.

Paulson was one of the very few big names on Wall Street to immediately back Trump after he secured the GOP nomination. The billionaire investor hosted Trump in June for a fundraiser at Le Cirque, a jackets-required midtown Manhattan haunt for the wealthy styled after a traveling French circus, where top donors (like Paulson) coughed up $250,000 to attend. Now, Paulson is a top policy advisor to the incoming Trump administration and he is poised to cash out from the administration big league.

Additional Info on John Paulson:

John Paulson, of the $19 billion Paulson & Co, has gone big on Puerto Rico. He has purchased $120 million in bonds and is also the largest investor in Popular, the territory’s largest banking concern. Furthermore, he is leading the move to the island by hedge fund managers ready to take advantage of the tax haven created by the Puerto Rican government in 2012. Paulson has even considered moving to the island and has already purchased $1 billion in beachfront property and resorts—apparently part of his “distressed” real estate portfolio.

OTHER VULTURE ACTIVITY:

Paulson has been a major player in Greece, most notably buying up large stakes in its banks.

BILLIONAIRE WEALTH:

Paulson is worth $11.2 billion. He is known for betting $15 billion against U.S. mortgages during the 2008 financial crisis, making $3-$4 billion personally.

AUSTERITY POLITICS:

Paulson reinvests his fortune in politicians who push for low taxes and spending cuts, including Mitt Romney and Andrew Cuomo. His firm is a member of the Partnership for New York City, a big business group that promotes austerity policies in New York.

#2016 #Colonialism #HedgeFunds #JohnPaulson #LaGenteAntesQueLaDeuda #NewYork #NoALaJunta #NYC #PROMESA #PuertoRico #PuertoRicoNoSeVende #SeAcabaronLasPromesas #UnitedAgainstPromesa #VultureCapitalism #WallStreet

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Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Students at New York University participated on a School-Wide Walk Out to declare their Campus a Sanctuary Campus

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About a thousand students at New York University participated on a School-Wide Walk Out at noon and congregated in Washington Square Park to hold a rally declaring their Campus a Sanctuary Campus.

In 2004, NYU published a document titled the University as Sanctuary, deeming the university a "sacred space sustaining and enhancing scholarship, creativity and learning." The NYU students and faculty, call on the university to become a sanctuary not only for education, but the community members who study, live, and work on their campus.

In the past week, NYU students have seen their peers experience more hate crimes than ever before. NYU students have expressed fear not only over President-Elect Trump's policies, but the dangerous environment that his supporters have created. Most notably, a Muslim student prayer room was vandalized on the Tandon School of Engineering campus. Our students rallied in support, but our administration stayed chillingly silent.

Silence is the last thing our community and our world needs in this moment. Now more than ever, educational institutions must act as safe havens for our most vulnerable students. With a governmental shift that poses an increasing threat to safety, students turn to their schools for asylum. Knowing the campus has the potential to be a sanctuary, and students demand that potential be realized.

Students at New York University affirmatively stand with immigrants who study, live, and work at New York University by adopting a public, written policy communicating the the following protections:

* The university refuses to share any information voluntarily with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or Customs and Border Protection (CBP) across all aspects of the college/university to the fullest extent possible under the law;

* The university refuses ICE physical access to all land owned or controlled by the university;

* The university prohibits campus security from inquiring about or recording as to an individual’s immigration status or enforcing immigration laws or participating with ICE/CBP in actions.

* The university does not use e-verify.

* The university prohibits housing discrimination based on immigration status.

This policy shall be enforced by all university staff and all contractors and subcontractors and their employees working on property owned or controlled by the college or university.

The university commits to ongoing dialogue with the students about additions to the college or university policy and support for community efforts that protect immigrants who study, live, and work at the university, their families and the whole community.

NYU Students statement:

If we are not prepared to resist, a Trump Presidency could devastate many of our communities. All students must unite to expose and actively resist Trump's enforcement regime.

We are fighting to make our campus a #SanctuaryCampus and are part of the movement to establish public spaces of resistance and protection for our country's most vulnerable people - including undocumented immigrants, Muslims, Black people, Queer people, and all people of color.

We are hurting and we are angry. But we will show this country and the world that we are resilient and that we will continue to resist.

The future is not yet written, and our communities need hope. And for people to feel hope and believe in a better future and a just America, they must see it on the streets, in demonstrations, and on the news. They must hear countless stories of resilience.

#Activism #BlackLivesMatter #Cosecha #demonstration #DonaldTrump #DumpTrump #EndHomophobia #EndTransphobia #FirstAmendment #GayRights #GOP #humanrights #immigration #LoveTrumpsHate #MuslimRights #NewYork #NotMyPresident #NYC #NYU #NYUrising #PeacefulProtest #PeacefulResistance #Protest #rally #RejectPresidentElect #SafeSpaces #SanctuaryCampus #‎Solidarity #StopTheHate #trump #trumpvsallofus #WashingtonSquare #WomenRights

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Tuesday, November 15, 2016

39 Arrested Protesting U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for Approving Dakota Access Pipeline and Spectra’s AIM Pipeline

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New York, NY – On Tuesday, 2,000 New Yorkers rallied in solidarity with the Water Protectors at Standing Rock, gathering at Foley Square in Lower Manhattan and rallying at the office of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. This action was part of a national day of action called by indigenous leaders to take the streets one week after the election. People from all over the Northeast gathered in Foley Square to demand that President Obama’s Army Corps of Engineers and the incoming administration stop the Dakota Access Pipeline. 39 people were arrested in an act of peaceful civil disobedience, confronting the Army Corps by bearing witness in the streets until being removed by police - see links to further photo and video HERE.

Crystal Migwans of the Anishinaabe Nation was the MC for the event. “The election of last week has made visible to the rest of the world the white supremacist forces of settler colonialism that Indigenous people and people of color have been fighting all along. It is now more important than ever to stand with the water protectors at Standing Rock; to turn our attention to the heart of the continent rather than turning away in resignation. The struggles for land, water, and lives there, at what seemed like a distant corner of the world before, should be forefront in all our minds now.”

Pastor Doug Cunningham of New Day Church in the Bronx was also among the speakers. “The unity and courage of the Lakota and other tribes at Standing Rock is deeply inspiring. It is our honor to stand with them in protecting the earth and their rights as indigenous people in this country.”

For months, Indigenous people have set up prayer camps along the pipeline route in North Dakota in a historic feat of sustained nonviolent resistance. Over the past few weeks, these peaceful water protectors have been brutally attacked by militarized law enforcement as they defend their land and water. If completed, the pipeline would run under the Missouri River.

In a letter delivered earlier in the day, members of Iraq Veterans Against the War pointed out that this would violate the 1851 and 1868 Fort Laramie Treaties with The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the Oceti Sakowin (Great Sioux Nation) as well as contradict the stated mission of the USACE, which outlines “environmental sustainability as a guiding principle.” The letter from IVAW (link HERE) was received by Larry Mazola of the North Atlantic Division, Army Corps of Engineers, United States Department of the Army, who responded: “You've made yourself heard. The corps of engineers is re-looking at this. So just by your stand, we're going to go back and take a look and make sure we're doing the right things. And that is directly a result of what you guys are all doing."

Courtney WIlliams, a Peekskill resident who lives in the path of Spectra Energy’s AIM Pipeline, also spoke at the rally. "The US Army Corps has for too long ignored the impacts these pipeline projects have on communities like those at Standing Rock and here in NY. They have ignored the environmental impacts of risking our rivers and our water for fossil fuel infrastructure. We cannot stand for it. We will not stand for it." Williams spoke on behalf of Resist Spectra, a group of residents and advocates organized against the AIM Pipeline, a high-pressure, 42-inch diameter fracked gas pipeline that would run under the Hudson River 105 feet from critical safety facilities at Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant.

Nicole Goodwin, an Army Veteran who served in Iraq, also spoke at the rally. “Today, Iraq Veterans Against the War stood in solidarity with Standing Rock and delivered a letter that our members wrote to the Army Corps of Engineers telling them to stand down. It is especially important for veterans and service members to stand with Standing Rock because we have the responsibility to rectify the US military's history of occupation. We went to the Army Corps today to tell them to deny permits for DAPL, to tell them that we are watching their moves, and that the core values of this country are in danger unless they act."

The message is clear: Water and community must come before corporate profits. That is true at Standing Rock—where Native people defending their land and water are being violently repressed by military forces so that oil companies may profit—and here in New York, where 20 million people have been put at risk by Spectra’s AIM pipeline. The people are calling on President Obama to do the right thing in the remaining days of his administration and stop these pipelines once and for all.

#ArmyCorpsOfEngineers #arrests #CivilDisobedience #climatejustice #DakotaAccess #DakotaAccessPipeline #DefendTheSacred #demonstration #FrontlineToFrontline #indigenous #IndigenousRights #IndigenousRising #KeepItIntheGround #mniwiconi #NewYork #NoDAPL #NYC #NYC2StandingRock #PeacefulProtest #PeacefulResistance #ProtectTheSacred #Protest #ResistAIMpipeline #resistenciaindigena #ResistSpectra #SaneEnergyProject #Solidarity #StandingRock #StandWithStandingRock #StopSpectra #StopTheBlackSnake #StopThePipeline #WaterDefenders #WaterIsLife #WaterProtectors ‪#‎weareallconnected

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Saturday, November 12, 2016

Thousands took the streets of New York City at the Trump Is Not My President march marking day 4 of peaceful protests

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The Trump Is Not My President march kicked off today at noon in Union Square Park where thousands of New Yorkers have gathered for a fourth consecutive day of peaceful protest and civil disobedience in one of the largest anti-Trump demonstrations since his election on Tuesday, a mass of people marched from Union Square in downtown New York to Trump Tower in midtown.

As President-elect Donald Trump’s administration begins taking shape, thousands took to the streets of a divided nation again Saturday to express their frustration at the stunning election result.

Chants include "He cant build the wall, his hands are too small!" and "Racist, sexist, anti-gay, Donald Trump, go away." Protesters were also handing out safety pins, as a symbol of solidarity, for attendees to wear.

Protesters made it clear that they weren't just marching against a Trump presidency, but also against the system that facilitated his rise to power.

Police set up barriers near Trump Tower to prevent protesters from reaching the front of the building, between 56th Street and 57th Street. A large group of protesters also congregated at 57th Street and Fifth Avenue.

Rallies were scheduled throughout the day in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, where organizers said they hoped to continue the momentum after several nights of demonstrations triggered by the real-estate mogul's surprise win in Tuesday's presidential election.

The thousands of protesters in New York on Saturday were joined by similar crowds that swelled in Chicago and Los Angeles. Other demonstrations have taken place in cities like Oakland, Calif.; Baltimore; Kansas City, Mo.; Milwaukee; and Portland, Ore.

#Activism #Art #BlackLivesMatter #demonstration #DonaldTrump #DumpTrump #Election2016 #EndHomophobia #EndTransphobia #First100Days #First100Hours #FirstAmendment #GayRights #GOP #GOPHandsOffMe #humanrights #immigration #LoveTrumpsHate #MuslimRights #NewYork #NewYorkCity #NewYorkers #NotMyPresident #NYC #PeacefulProtest #PeacefulResistance #PresidentalCandidate #Protest #pussygrabsback #rally #RejectPresidentElect #revolution #‎Solidarity #StopTheHate #trump #trumpvsallofus #WomenRights

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Friday, November 11, 2016

For the third night New York rallies against Donald Trump Presidency

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In the third day since Donald Trump was elected president, Anti-Trump protests have erupted for a third night in a row in New York. New Yorkers gathered in Washington Square Park for a "love rally" and moved up Sixth Avenue to Union Square. Some marched through Midtown to protest at Trump Tower.

An estimated 4,000 demonstrators gathered in Washington Square Park, huge numbers of young people. Many of them women to stand in solidarity with the groups that President-elect Donald Trump demonized, ridiculed and threatened during his run for the White House. It was part protest, part support group.

Demonstrators are determined to send a message to America's next president and the people who elected him.

The crowd shouted during the rally chants as "Not my president!" "We reject the president-elect!" "No Donald Trump, no KKK, no racist USA!"

Then the crowd got specific, shouting their disapproval of Trump's stances on social issues, as well as the stances of Vice President-elect Mike Pence.

"Bridges not walls," they chanted, in reference to Trump's plan to build a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border to stop unauthorized immigrants. "Hand too small, can't build a wall."

The women in the crowd shouted "My body, my choice,", referencing Pence's anti-abortion stance. "Her body, her choice," the men shouted back.

Anti-Trump protest say they are preparing for a long fight.

#2016 #Activism #Art #DonaldTrump #DumpTrump #Election2016 #LoveTrumpsHate #NYC #NewYork #NotMyPresident #PeacefulProtest #PresidentalCandidate #Protest #WashingtonSquare #WomenRights #WomenVoters #demonstration #pussygrabsback #rally #trump #trumpvsallofus #‎Solidarity

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Thursday, November 10, 2016

Press Conference in Response to Brooklyn DA's Announcement of No Charges Following Re-Investigation of Police Officer that Killed Nicholas Heyward Jr. in 1994

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November 7th (Brooklyn, NY) - The father of Nicholas Heyward Jr., murdered 22 years ago by a police officer, is outraged at the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office decision to close the re-investigation of the shooting. Nicholas Heyward Sr. does not, contrary to media reports, accept the DA's findings and is appalled at the mischaracterization of his reaction by the Office to the press. Mr. Heyward will host a rally and press conference on Thursday, November 10th at 12:30pm in front of the Brooklyn DA's Office to rebut media reports and make further statements about the failed investigation. He will be joined by his wife, his attorney, his supporters as well as Assemblymember Charles Barron and former Brooklyn DA Civil Rights Bureau Chief Marc Fliedner.

From Mr. Heyward’s first meeting with the Civil Rights Bureau on September 1, 2015, the Brooklyn DA's Office was asked to investigate whether or not there was a cover-up by former DA Charles Hynes’s Office in “investigating” the shooting death of Nicholas Heyward Jr. or a cover-up by NYPD. As the late Ken Thompson has been celebrated for overturning wrongful convictions from the Hynes era, Mr. Heyward fully expected Thompson's office to examine discrepancies and inconsistencies from Hynes's so-called "investigation" of his son’s case. Instead, the Brooklyn DA's Office has come to the same conclusion that Hynes’s Office did by relying on falsified evidence from 1994 to decide again, in 2016, that killing a child playing with a toy is not in crime in Brooklyn, as long as you are a cop.

Acting Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez told Mr. Heyward that they were closing the case because they had not found sufficient evidence to successfully prosecute the now retired Officer Brian George on murder. Acting DA Gonzalez declined to answer on whether they could have successfully prosecuted George on a lesser charge or whether evidence that was destroyed in the custody of the NYPD (which the DA's Office confirmed had been destroyed) affected the re-investigation. Mr. Heyward contends that the statute of limitations should not apply in the case of his murdered son, since the initial investigation was mishandled, the NYPD destroyed key evidence, and because Mr. Heyward had demanded a re-investigation for years -- only to be ignored by Hynes.

There are also discrepancies surrounding the latest Brooklyn DA’s investigation that Mr. Heyward would like to highlight: the toy gun that was deemed “realistic,” the clothes that Nicholas was wearing the night of his death (the clothes in the photo the DA possesses are not those he wore that night), and the fact that other key witnesses, including the first witness, were not interviewed.

The failure to interview witnesses -- by itself -- raised serious doubts about DA Hynes’s intentions in investigating this case. Mr. Heyward sought -- and believed that DA Thompson would have followed through on -- a full public accounting of missteps made by the NYPD and the previous district attorney’s administration so that similar failures would not happen again. This public accounting has never happened, nor has Mr. Heyward been provided with a written copy of the Civil Rights Bureau’s contemporary investigation.

Notably, it was Mr. Heyward who had requested repeatedly to meet the Civil Rights Bureau to discuss additional witness interviews, to contest physical evidence the Office had received from the NYPD, and to request the Office improve its communication with him, so that his knowledge of and research into his son’s case could improve the re-investigation. Instead, the DA’s Office repeatedly suggested that Mr. Heyward not speak out publicly and declined to meet with him for months until last week, when they dropped yet another bombshell on a father who will not stop until he gets justice for his son.

Mr. Heyward wants answers. He wants copies of the final report -- which was leaked to the media but not provided to him. Mr. Heyward also wants to know if current members of the Brooklyn DA’s Office now, specifically Assistant District Attorney Joe Alexis (who prosecuted former police officer Peter Liang for the death of Akai Gurley), unfairly influenced the outcome of this reinvestigation. Alexis worked under Charles Hynes and was part of the original investigation that Mr. Heyward contests.

The fight for justice for Nicholas Heyward Jr. is not over.

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