Welcome to Majority.FM's AM QUICKIE! Brought to you by justcoffee.coop
TODAY'S HEADLINES:
Another killer cop catches a murder charge, this time in Georgia. But human rights advocates say we are a long way from justice for police brutality.
Meanwhile, essential delivery workers are having a lot of problems with police during this time of curfews. Millions more people each week face an untenable economic situation.
And lastly, why is it so satisfying to see conservatives lose their minds over the police-free zone the lefties set up in Seattle? We bring you the latest from the CHAZ – or the CHOP – whichever, take your pick.
THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:
Killer Atlanta Cop Charged
The United Nations Human Rights Council held an urgent session in New York yesterday on racism and police brutality. The UN’s chief of human rights, Michelle Bachelet (BATCH-EH-LETT), said during the proceedings that QUOTE Too little has changed over too many years. The scale of today's protests point at the sea change. We need a decisive action around the world ENDQUOTE.
It’s far from decisive, but there was one sign of progress in yesterday’s headlines. The fired Atlanta cop who shot and killed Rayshard Brooks, a twenty-seven-year-old restaurant worker, caught felony murder charges yesterday. In addition to the murder charge, Garrett Rolfe will face 10 other offenses for shooting Brooks twice during a suspected drunk driving stop. Prosecutors say they have video showing Rolfe kicked Brooks on the ground after shooting him. The Brooks family’s attorney told reporters QUOTE Was this justice today? Not yet ENDQUOTE.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution yesterday reported on a sudden string of hangings that has killed six black and Hispanic Americans in four states. The people fear lynchings, but police have ruled each case a suicide. Across the country, Oakland, California’s mayor announced a hate crimes investigation after nooses were found hanging from trees on public land. But after the mayor’s announcement, Oakland police put out a statement that the ropes could simply have been part of someone’s exercise routine.
So, yeah, we need decisive action around the world to end racism and police brutality.
Curfews Punish Gig Workers
If anybody’s essential, it’s the person delivering your Phad Thai. Gig workers are increasingly facing arrest for violating curfew, the Washington Post reported yesterday. Many delivery apps like Caviar, Uber and Instacart have kept operating during periods of coronavirus curfew around the country. But they aren’t always letting their drivers know the legal risks they might face – not to mention threats to life and limb from the police. The companies say they have instituted changes to keep workers safer, like distributing face masks, but critics and labor advocates say it’s not enough. What’s more, their workforce has expanded dramatically as a result of the pandemic and economic crisis. Hundreds of thousands people have joined the gig economy labor pool in recent months. And they’re finding out the hard way just how cruel and unjust the lords of Silicon Valley can be.
One in thirteen San Francisco renters has broken their lease in the past hundred days. That’s according to the San Francisco Chronicle, which says that people are walking out on their leases rather than fall behind on rent. The top category of renters to bail on their leases were those between eighteen and twenty-five years old. But all kinds of people are suffering all over the place. Reports from Kentucky yesterday showed eight-hour unemployment line. That’s thousands of people standing for hours in the sun, lined up along along a road. And, presumably, getting more angry by the minute. This is what you get with a capitalist economy in free-fall that provides no meaningful safety net.
CHAZ Freaks Out Squares
The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, or CHAZ -- also known as the Capitol Hill Organized Protest, or CHOP – continues to drive Republicans insane. The gentrified Seattle neighborhood has been occupied by protesters who are determined to keep the cops at bay. They’ve held their ground for eleven days now, and reclaimed some public land in the process. This week some members of the CHOP community met with elected officials and bureaucrats from the city of Seattle to agree on new borders. These were described by local alt-weekly The Stranger as slightly smaller, but more permanent.
The newspaper reported fruitful conversations between residents and the city over the last few days[. Now] the Seattle Fire Department, Seattle Public Utilities, and the Seattle Department of Transportation are removing the old flimsy barriers at the intersections and
installing concrete barriers wrapped with particle board... Honey Buckets are being rearranged. [And] The No Cop Co-Op is moving down the street a bit.
The idea is to allow greater access for emergency vehicles, including fire trucks. It seems the only people who are taking the words autonomous zone literally work in conservative media. Far-right websites put out a call for so-called patriots to QUOTE end domestic terrorism ENDQUOTE in the CHOP with an event scheduled for today. Local activists don’t seem too worried, as past incursions by the far right ended in humiliation for the reactionaries.
Showing just how obsessed the right is with this anarchist experiment in Seattle, Florida drunk driver and Congressman Matt Gaetz yesterday went on a wild rant about the CHOP. He asked the majority Democrats if they’d host a Congressional delegation to Seattle so they could assess conditions for themselves. Evidently he believes Trump, who claimed Seattle has been taken over by domestic terrorists. Gaetz then got into a heated back-and-forth with Louisiana Congressman Cedric Richmond, who suggested Gaetz might have a conscious racial bias. Gaetz responded by shouting Who in the hell do you think you are?! This is outrageous! But Richmond, who chaired the Congressional Black Caucus until last year, had the final word: If the shoe fits, he said. Matt Gaetz? Racist? Yeah, that shoe fits just fine.
Here’s what Gaetz could see happening in the CHOP if he actually cared to look: A young black Stanford graduate with training in degrees in energy and sustainability, who started a vegetable garden in a Capitol Hill park. The urban farmer, Marcus Henderson, told The Stranger his work on the CHOP farm seeks to remedy historic injustices. One way systemic racism in America has worked is by depriving blacks of land. Henderson runs a small organization called Black Star Farmers, which is also the name of his website and his Instagram page. If you’re in the Seattle area, they are seeking donations of organic compost, mulch, river rocks, cinder blocks, worms, and other small-farm necessities. Oh no: anarchy!
AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:
Former Trump national security adviser John Bolton’s book is the talk of the Beltway, especially since the White House is basically trying to ban it. In excerpts widely reported yesterday, Trump is revealed to have asked Chinese leader Xi Jinping for held getting re- elected. The walrus moustache always laughs last.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer endorsed New York Representative Eliot Engel yesterday. Engel, a hawkish centrist, faces progressive favorite Jamaal Bowman in the New York Democratic primary next Tuesday, June 23. Chuck would’ve been smarter to sit this one out.
Honest-to-goodness pirates are menacing the Gulf of Mexico, or so says the US State Department. The latest travel advisory for Mexico warns that armed criminal groups have been known to target and rob commercial vessels, oil platforms, and offshore supply vessels in the southern Gulf_._ Good to know someone out there is still making an honest living.
That’s all for the AM Quickie. Join us this afternoon on the Majority Report.
June 18, 2020 - AM Quickie
HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner
WRITER - Corey Pein
PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn