Police/Legal/Prisons

On the 15th of December, DC Ferguson civil rights protesters asssembled in Chinatown for the nightly round of street blockades. This time one of the targets was I-395 and NY Ave. For the second night in a row police attempted to bypass the legally required "3 warning" rule for mass arrests. This time they tried to say that warnings given at the 395 tunnel were still valid in Chinatown and could be counted against the required three warnings.They tried to go straight to the 3ed warning and got out zip ties, something not previously seen at these protests. Finally someone got police chief Lanier on the line, she said three new warnings were required at every intersection so the cops were thwarted in their hoped-for arrests.

On the 14th of December, civil rights protesters stormed into the Wal-Mart on H st for the 4th time. This time they stood their ground, and soon the cash registers were shut down. Some of the shoppers joined the protest. One of the cops or security guards claimed protesters would be arrested after ONE warning, not the three required by DC law. After a tense ten minutes and call by protesters for reinforcements, the activists exited the store and no arrests were reported.

Video of Wal-Mart occupation raw clips courtesy Netta and DeRay McKessa

On the 12th of December, civil rights protesters assmebled in Chinatown and after the usual street shutdowns slipped around to the back entrance of the Regan Cinemas on 6th st and stormed inside. In addition to educating moviegoers about police murder and brutality, there was another reason for going there: the movie Exodus, playing there, is set in the Middle East and northern Africa yet people with dark skin are shown only as servants and slaves.

Video-Aggressive motorist threatens to ram civil rights protesters

Video-protesters storm Regal 14 Cinema

On the 10th of December, the mothers of a number of young men slain by police spoke to a large crowd outside the Department of Justice. One was from nearby PG county. I heard speech after speech about police responding to attempts to surrender or otherwise non-threatening young men with a fusillade of gunshots. The words of the mothers of the fallen were folllowed by a march through the streets to the White House, shutting down traffic for blocks.

Stirring 1 min 20 sec video

Same video on Liveleak due to outage at Archive.org caused by Pacific storm