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When we think of police brutality, we often categorize it as an epidemic specific to the United States. However, unfortunately it is a global one, with the most infamous example of this occurring in Nigeria, popularizing the #EndSARS movement.

Founded in 1984 to combat a rise in violent crime including kidnapping and robbery, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad was created to significantly reduce the occurrence of these offenses, but it did not last for long.

As time progressed, SARS officials have been accused of using their resources to target individuals from low-income communities to abuse, torture and execute them. And though this has been occurring for many years, it was not until a video last month went viral that appeared to show SARS officials killing a man unjustifiably, did the rest of the world start to pay attention.

As a Nigerian American, the blatant acts of terrorism occurring in Nigeria deeply trouble me for reasons you can likely infer. But I want to clarify that this isnt just about me. The real question is why should YOU care about the injustice happening in a country across the world, when it may have little-to-no effect on you here.

As Americans or as just Westerners, we should care about human rights issues all around the world, especially seeing our role in causing many of these issues said Dami Ojikutu, secretary of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County Black Lives Matter and member of UMBCs African Student Association.

In the UK there has been definitive proof that money has been appropriated to fund the SARS unit in Nigeria and it is likely the same for the US as well. I feel that many black people should also care about the events that occur in Nigeria because there are lessons and organizational strategies that can be learned from the End SARS movement that we can apply here as well.

Similar to Ojikutu, the only answer I have as to why you should care about the SARS crisis is because they are human beings and their lives matter too. This is especially true if you claim to be a supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement within the United States. Contrary to popular belief, the Black Lives Matter movement is an organization meant to draw attention to the injustices and adversities that Black people face worldwide, not just in the United States, as the blatant disregard for Black lives is a global issue.

Although the months following George Floyds death in May initially reignited the Black Lives Matter movement, sparking nationwide protests and the institution of new legislation policy, support from non-Black communities has since dwindled, and social media engagement regarding the issue is essentially nonexistent now.

So, if youre looking for ways to change, a good starting point is to use your social media platforms to raise awareness about what is happening in Nigeria. Additionally, you can cautiously donate money directly to mutual aid funds, organizationsor individuals within the country, or, if you cannot donate, you can repost the donation links you come across to increase the likelihood that someone will.

However, its important to recognize donations may not be the most effective way to offer aid to Nigeria. The Nigerian government has frozen bank accounts that have been assisting the protesters with Mutual Aid and are now moving to ban social media in Nigeria entirely. I know people want sudden action but that action can only be taken by people who are living in Nigeria. You cant just throw money at the problem Ojikutu explained.

While sharing and spreading awareness is important, its equally important to know what not to share. We need people to not share anti-protester links. This serves the interest of the Nigerian elite and politicians. We need people to be against the Nigerian government and call out the propaganda that they will probably share. We need people to not spread false information and verify what is going on, Ojikutu stated.

We also need to recognize that the abuse occurring at the hands of SARS is a direct result of colonization, as the police state in Nigeria was initially formed in 1861 to protect the capitalist interests of those that initially colonized the country. As of Oct. 1, Nigeria has only been a free country for 60 years.

The situation in Nigeria is comparable to the impact that slavery has in the United States, which has resulted in centuries of institutionalized racism here. As a people we need to do our due diligence in understanding the long-term effects of colonialism and its impact on policing and general anti-Black legislation today.

The takeaway from the situation should be that military personnel or police can easily be abused and sicked on their citizens in all countries regardless of race or nationality. Its not just an American problem, Ojikutu explained.

Its up to the youth not just in Nigeria but around the world to make changes for the better as we cannot be reliant on the older generation who is used to a horrible status quo to make decisions for a world they will not be around for.

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#EndSARS: Black Lives Matter is a global issue | The Retriever - The Retriever

"Especially in those moments when the campaign was at its slowest, the African American community stood up again for me," Biden said in his victory speech on Saturday. "You all had my back, and I will have yours."

The following conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

What motivated Black voters to show up to the polls in such high numbers?

Black voters tend to participate in high numbers, so we saw an extension of that. Black voters were pretty clear about what was at stake in this election. There were many conversations about the overtures that the Republican Party was making to Black voters. But what we saw was that, as much noise as the party made, it wasn't successful. The vast majority of Black voters, both Black men and Black women, voted to eject the President from the White House.

I think that high Black participation had to do with a lot of things. It had to do with Trump's ties to White nationalists and White militias. Black voters don't play that. We're like: No, no thank you.

It had to do with the coronavirus response, or lack thereof. It had to do with health care. Black voters, particularly those in the South, have been under a regime that's been denying us access to affordable, quality health care, compared with our counterparts.

It had to do with police violence. The highly publicized killings of George Floyd, Tony McDade, Breonna Taylor: It was really clear to Black voters that not only does the current administration have no plans to address police violence -- it's creating a culture in which accountability is fleeting and in many cases nonexistent.

I think that Black voters saw our votes as a form of protest. Black voters saw a direct connection between protesting in the streets and protesting at the polls.

To what extent will future Democratic Party triumphs in regions including the South depend on elevating the Black organizers who've done heroic work despite Republican efforts to suppress Black voter turnout?

The people who reached out to Black voters this cycle -- and every cycle before -- are Black organizers. When we look at what's happening in Georgia, as well as in states across the South and Southwest, we see that Black organizers prioritized making sure that our communities were powerful in the process, given everything at stake.

That's an important story to tell, because often people talk about Black voters as if we're a monolith and as if we just wake up one day and are like: Oh, we're voting. There was a lot of work done by groups such as the New Georgia Project and Georgia Stand Up. These are a couple of our partners, and they've been working for years with little investment and little support.

In this cycle, we really invested in these partners because we wanted them to be successful at organizing communities throughout Georgia. And that's exactly what happened.

It isn't an overstatement to say that Black voters acted like a firewall for American democracy. How can the Biden administration follow through on its commitment to Black communities?

The Biden administration can do everything in its power to distinguish itself from the previous one. One thing I think that Biden's campaign really struggled with was not getting wrapped up in the messages that were coming from the Republican Party.

In particular, I think that the messages about rioting and looting in relationship to the Black Lives Matter movement were a trap for the campaign. What the Biden administration will need to do is prioritize some of the issues that are attacking Black communities first and worst.

That work looks like asking what it means to create a Department of Justice that actually provides oversight to states in regard to upholding civil and human rights.

It looks like making sure that we're moving resources from the federal government to states to try to address some of the huge disparities that Black communities face, from health care to housing to jobs.

It looks like investing in a caring economy, in an economy that's not based on punishment. The Biden campaign struggled to articulate its vision for justice for Black communities that are being attacked by systemic racism.

The way to pay homage to Black communities for our service and our dedication to the Democratic Party is to address the issues that we care about. It's pretty simple.

As we go into Georgia's two runoff elections, I think that we have to stay focused on what it is that people want and need. There have been many conversations over the past few days about moderate politics, but the reality is that most Black voters don't care about that. Most Black voters aren't swayed by those messages. What motivates Black voters is the possibility of change.

And so as long as the Biden administration stays focused on that -- on making sure that Black lives actually matter by taking on the recommendations that groups have put forward to improve Black communities -- it will do well by Black voters. And by doing that, it will also improve the lives of so many other people who aren't Black but who are suffering under some of the same disparities to different degrees.

That so many White voters again backed Trump after what America has seen over the past four years illustrates that the country has a sturdy White constituency that's willing to ignore or embrace racism. What might the lingering influence of Trumpism mean for how the Biden administration governs?

It's important, especially in this political context, to be everyone's president. That's the job. But it's true that for too long, the Democratic Party has been overly focused on what White voters want, though White voters aren't turning out for the party. We have to be honest about that.

This isn't to say that the Biden administration shouldn't pay attention to what White folks want. It's to say that I don't see there being a danger of White people being left out. Never in this country's history has that happened.

I think that the real challenge for the Biden administration will be to tell a story about a way forward that includes Black voters. The Biden slogan was "build back better."

The moral thing to do is to identify what change looks like. It looks like no longer prioritizing one group of people over another. It looks like policy. It looks like resources. It looks like investing where we haven't really invested before. It looks like a lot of things that will actually help everyone. The way forward isn't always going to be popular, but it's the right thing to do.

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How Black voters and simmering protests contributed to Trump's loss - CNN

AMERICAN PROTEST-Despite pre-election plywood covering store fronts in cities across the United States, it was total fearmongering that far right militias, Black Lives Matter, or Antifa would initiate street violence during or after the November 3 presidential election.

Why? We clearly know who are the major purveyors of violence in the United State, especially who has the guns and military equipment, extensive training, and uses them every day to attack and often kill people in the United States and other countries. It is not the far-right militias, Black Lives Matter, or Antifa. Instead, it is local and federal police departments and the countrys military.

First, the largest armed group in the United States is the countrys military. They have an annual budget of at least $750 billion, with another $400 billion scattered among other federal agencies and departments. They have about 500 domestic military installations and control 800 foreign military bases.At present the United States government is engaged in nine foreign wars, and whenever there is a serious domestic rebellion, presidents routinely order the countrys military to enter cities like Detroit and Los Angeles to suppress civil disturbances.

Furthermore, a branch of the armed forces, the National Guard, has trained units in Alabama and Utah ready to instantly deploy to any part of the United States to quell new civil disturbances.

Second, there are nearly 15,000 police departments in the United State and least 75 percent of them have SWAT teams trained in commando operations and bestowed more military equipment than they can use.They engage in over 100,000 quasi-military operations every year, and in May-July 2020 these SWAT teams were widely used to quell demonstrations opposing excessive police violence over the entire United States.

Third, the FBI has 52 field offices, and each office has a trained, heavily armed SWAT team of at least 42 people. Like U.S. Marshalls and ICE officers, they can be instantly deployed to oppose street demonstrations, as they recently were in Washington, DC and Portland, Oregon.

Fourth, these groups are connected through Fusion centers and other administrative mechanisms to operationally link them together to suppress mass movements, like Occupy and Black Lives Matter. Their tools include drones, spy planes, and mass surveillance.

Fifth, the FBI has made it clear that the main domestic terrorist threat in the United States (ignoring the 1000 people per year that the police murder) comes from Alt Right white supremacists, not unarmed mass movements, like Black Lives Matter (BLM).

The latter is a protest organization with a nationalist outlook, with no military component, but extensive support from large, social justice philanthropies (e.g., Ford Foundation). While BLM and the sympathy demonstrations it sparked in June 2020 could not prevent organized criminals, undercover cops, provocateurs, and deranged people from showing up, BLM does not recruit, organize, or train these opportunists.

Sixth, Antifa is not even an organization; it is a loose 80-year-old alliance of local anti-fascist individuals and informal small groups that coalesce to confront fascist groups when they initiate violence.Also, there is no connection between Antifa and Black Lives Matter. They are rarely at the same events and neither group engages in electoral politics.

Too bad so many trees had to needlessly die for all that plywood.

(Victor Rothman is a California-based political analyst.) Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.

See more here:
Why Street Violence from Militias, Black Lives Matter, and Antifa Never Appeared - City Watch

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) Starting this Friday, some local businesses are hosting a weekly holiday pop-up event to support local businesses on 'Black Lives Matter Way'.

The Community Action Network of Western New York is pushing people to shop small this holiday season in Buffalo.

On Friday, Leslie's Boutique and Anderson's Flower Shop are hosting pop-ups selling gently used clothing and flowers from 1-6 p.m. at 1474-1476 Fillmore Avenue.

Next Friday, Nikki's Chocolates is hosting a pop-up event selling assorted chocolates from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 27 Chandler Street.

On November 27th, LadySuperb is hosting a pop-up event selling women's handbags and accessories all-day online; you can find them by clicking here.

On December 4th, Ansar Fragrances and More is hosting a pop-up event selling essential oils and more from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 1371 Fillmore Avenue.

On December 11th, People Helping All Mankind (PHAM) is hosting a pop-up event selling t-shirts and hoodies all-day online; you can find them by clicking here.

On December 18th, Soulfully Prepped LLC is hosting a pop-up event selling breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 68 Tonawanda Street.

Originally posted here:
Weekly holiday pop-up event to support small businesses on 'Black Lives Matter Way' starting Friday - WKBW-TV

People protest against abuses by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in Lagos, Nigeria, Oct. 12.

As a Nigerian-American, I was very disappointed in myself for my lack of knowledge about #EndSARS protests in Nigeria that have captivated the world recently. (In Nigeria, SARS stands for the so-called Special Anti-Robbery Squad police force unit.)

The dissonance between my words and my action was painfully obvious. Ive been saying that all Black lives should matter, no matter what part of the world they inhabit, and I was ignoring an important movement from my mother country. Rectifying that, I spent the past week reading up on #EndSARS protests.

As I read, I noticed similarities between violence carried out by SARS in Nigeria and violence doled out by the men in blue in the U.S. Both forces rely on profiling in order to identify targets for their attacks. The SARS forces carouse the streets looking for suspects based on certain lifestyle traits, such as the car they are driving or the jewelry on their wrists. SARS used this disturbing method on Oct. 3 to rob a yet-to-be-identified young adult of his life in Ughelli, a town in southeastern Nigeria. He was killed for the dangerous crime of driving a Lexus. Two days later, SARS forces shot and killed Daniel Chibuke, a 20-year-old up-and-coming rapper, for daring to sit near a hotel with a friend.

I was reminded of the laws and methods U.S. police use to target Black people, such as stop and frisk. Black men and masculine of center people are targeted by police for the most frivolous minutiae, such as wearing a hoodie or driving a car with the radio too loud. Basic things that people of other ethnicities can do without a second thought can endanger the lives of Black masculine people.

In both countries, Black masculine people are harassed, beaten and killed for not buying into classist respectability politics and daring to live as their true selves. The young mens deaths remind me of a time when I was profiled and patted down by a police officer for having the audacity to go to a grocery store wearing a hoodie on a chilly night. The fear I felt at that moment must have been exactly what those two men and others were experiencing as they met their tragic end.

In Nigeria the deaths of the two young men became a call to action for that countrys marginalized, just like Trayvon Martins death in 2012 provided the impetus for the Black Lives Matter movement in the U.S.

Nigerian LGBTQ+ resistance builds

Learning about the origin of the #EndSARS movement piqued my interest. To find out more about this grassroots organizing, I googled SARS and discovered this hashtag: #QueerNigerianLivesMatter. Seeing those four words pleasantly surprised me as its not often that LGBTQ+ people in Nigeria are granted such visibility.

There, as in the States, queer and trans people live under the specter of police violence. Earlier this year, police raided a Lagos Hotel and arrested 57 men on the mere suspicion of being gay. Similar police raids are conducted all over Nigeria on gay men and lesbian women.

Since President Muhammadu Buhari signed the 2014 Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act into law, police violence against queer and trans people has skyrocketed. It is noteworthy that many current oppressive anti-queer laws stem from the colonial era when the British instituted puritanical,Western-style sexual mores into law against Nigerias many ethnic groups.

For Nigerian LGBTQ+ people, the #EndSARS movement could potentially be their Stonewall movement. That uprising in the U.S. in late June 1969 was the culmination of frustration and anger that the most marginalized LGBTQ+ people felt at being on the receiving end of police brutality.

The Stonewall Rebellion sent shockwaves throughout the world and compelled generations to fight for queer liberation. As the current rebellion against police violence is waged in Nigeria, queer and trans activists leading the charge could serve as inspiration to the BLM activists in the U.S., like the Stonewall activists have inspired millions.

In Nigeria, people such as non-binary activist Matthew Blaise and queer liberation organizer Ani Kayode Somtochukwu could be the Marsha P. Johnson and the Storme DeLarverie of the modern day. Queer and trans Nigerians fight to have the #EndSARS movement recognize their trials and tribulations mirrors the fight for Black LGBTQ+ people to gain visibility within the mainstream Black Lives Matter movement in the States.

In the U.S., local grassroots organizations have worked hard to recognize Black queer and trans victims of police brutality, but Tony McDade and Layleen Polanco havent been able to garner as much notice as George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and even Breonna Taylor. McDade, a Black trans man, was gunned down by Tallahassee, Fla., police, and Polanco, an Afro-Latinx trans woman, died because of medical negligence by Rikers Island prison staff in New York City. They have been rendered invisible relative to the cisgendered, heterosexual Black victims of police brutality.

The spirited fight of queer #EndSARS protesters in Nigeria could provide the impetus for Black LGBTQ+ activists in the U.S. to increase their fight for representation within the broader Black Lives Matter movement.

Womens pivotal role in #EndSARS

As someone with lifelong sympathies with feminism, I feel proud of the role women have played in the #EndSARS movement. While a large focus on police brutality centers on cishet men, women are also victims of sexual violence at the hands of SARS and the Nigerian police in general. One grassroots organization in particular, the Feminist Coalition, is playing a pivotal role in the ongoing protests, providing food, shelter and medical treatment to protesters fighting for an end to police brutality.

Black Lives Matter was founded in the U.S. in 2012 by three Black women, at least one of whom identifies as gender-nonconforming. Black women and femmes have been a major presence at protests against police brutality,

It warms my heart to witness the long tradition of Black women and femmes continuing and driving political movements forward. From Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth during the 19th-century abolition movement, to todays protests spearheaded by Damilola Odufuwa, Odunayo Eweniyi, Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza and so many more, Black women have contributed immensely to the fight for Black liberation.

The week I spent educating myself about #EndSARS has taught me that the global fight for Black lives is alive and well. In an era of increasing fascism, Black people no matter which part of the world they inhabit need to band together to rebel against oppression no matter how it manifests itself.

The simultaneous protests in Nigeria and the United States are a positive development in working toward a world where all Black people are truly free.

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Black Lives Matter from Nigeria to the U.S. - Workers World