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Tuesday, September 5, 2023
Wednesday, May 17, 2023
The Battle at NagaWorld: The Longest Strike in Cambodia History PT.I
A bitter, protracted labor dispute in the poverty-stricken country of Cambodia has revealed the true nature of a brutal system where wealth and power is violently held onto by a tiny ruling elite.
At the center of this struggle lies a beleaguered union at NagaWorld, the nation’s largest casino. Workers in the Labor Rights Supported Union of Khmer Employees at NagaWorld (LRSU) have been on strike for a grueling 17 months. In that time, union members have embraced a daunting struggle with a powerful, intransigent employer, and a notoriously authoritarian government. They have been pushed to the limits of physical and mental exhaustion.
The road to victory for the LRSU is incredibly narrow, and the future wildly uncertain. Union members routinely face intimidation, surveillance, and violence from the authorities, and union leaders are currently in prison, or are awaiting sentencing in an unforgiving legal system. But the LRSU membership is a defiant and audacious group that refuses to give up.
Emerging from the Chaos
September 11, 2022. It’s a typical day in Phnom Penh, the sprawling, densely populated capital of Cambodia. It feels as if the mid-morning sun grabs the city with outstretched arms, and pulls it ever closer. Over 400 union activists from a dozen different unions, LRSU the most prominently represented, line the street opposite the Ministry of Labor and Vocational Training. They bring with them a petition to deliver to the ministry demanding an end to the union busting which has besieged the labor movement throughout the pandemic. It’s unlikely the ruling Cambodia People’s Party will do anything in response to it, but the unions present are determined to fight.
After a number of passionate speeches by union leaders are given, workers start to head east through the city. Marches such as this are rare here, and in the past were violently suppressed by the authorities. The union activists know this and take a calculated risk. As the protest spills out into the streets, it becomes evident rather quickly that the police are ill-prepared to respond to this. The steady flow of tuk tuks and motos grinds to a halt. The police frantically scramble to reassert their authority.
The police form a human wall to prevent the unionists from moving forward, but the momentum of the crowd and sheer willpower of the union activists push the police back. Added police reinforcements stop them from moving forward. Amidst screams of opposition and terror emanating from the crowd, the police start to beat the demonstrators with their fists, and walkie talkies. It’s a terrifying display of brute force.
One worker, beaten into shock by the police, slumps to the ground and throws up. His skin turns pale as sweat drips down his face. His eyes roll back into his head, and he collapses on the burning hot pavement. Union members rush to his aid. One grabs onto him and wraps her arms around him. Several others frantically fan their picket signs to cool him down. A deep feeling of panic and fear is palpable, and it grips the crowd in its clutches.
And just at that moment, teetering at a precipice of absolute police terror, the workers collectively wrench free from the chaos. They regather and reroute the march, ever determined to continue across the city to their final destination at NagaWorld.
Out of the throngs of the crowd emerges LRSU president Chhim Sithar alongside other unionists. They plead with the police and a Cambodia People’s Party (CPP) city official who shows up, worried that another attack by the authorities is iminent. Short, with piercing eyes, and a calm demeanor, she walks undaunted, and with purpose.
As the crowd rushes forward, and the police prepare another violent outburst to subdue the workers, Chhim can be seen walking next to the CPP official who wears a drab gray suit and towers above her. She grasps her hands together in sampeah, a traditional sign of respect in much of Southeast Asia. Her eyes are glazed over as she pleas for the police to fall back.
The march is unpermitted, and the official could easily unleash the full fury of the police on the union members and get away with it. But he shows mercy. An agreement is reached. The police will leave, and workers will disband after they deliver their demands to another ministry. It’s a favorable outcome in a country that is so fiercely anti-union.
This was eight months into the longest strike in recent memory in the “Kingdom of Wonder.” Since then, the situation of the LRSU has become increasingly, and oppressively, arduous.
“We Need LRSU Union!”
NagaWorld is an economic juggernaut in Cambodia. The casino has deceivingly humble origins. It started operations on a small riverboat on the muddy banks of the Mekong River in Phnom Penh in 1995. As casinos became more lucrative, and the country’s economy emerged from the wreckage caused by decades of war and genocide, NagaWorld consolidated monopoly control of gambling in Phnom Penh. This enabled the company to rapidly expand operations, construct buildings that loomed over the city, and garner a reputation as being the destination resort, hotel, and casino in Phnom Penh, one that largely caters to Chinese and Western tourists. Then the COVID-19 pandemic started.
As COVID-19 furiously spread across the planet, the company claimed that their ability to make a profit was racked by the shutdowns, and global economic slump. Although the company still made a $16 million profit during the pandemic, in April 2021 management laid off 1,300 workers.
But the LRSU, which formed in 2009, contends that this mass termination was a calculated move by the company to bust their union. Of the 1,300 fired workers, the entire union leadership, and over 1,100 other union members, were thrown on the street.
In desperate need of money, most of the fired workers took a small severance and agreed to leave the company. But 365 union members wanted to be reinstated. After months of failed negotiations over the union’s simple demand for the company to reinstate these workers, union members decided to switch gears. “There were options after we, the union, and the company couldn’t find a solution. The first was to sue in court, and the second was to start striking. All the union members decided to strike.” Support for the strike was nearly unanimous. The date for the start of the strike was set for December 16, 2021.
The same day the strike started, a Phnom Penh judge issued a warrant that deemed any strike activity starting on or after December 18 illegal, and that these violations would be dealt with to the fullest extent of the law.
The LRSU has always argued that the judge ruled erroneously, and that the union took every step in full accordance with the Constitution and labor law to ensure that the strike was not only just, but also legal.
Union members were undeterred by the judge’s warrant, and commenced with their collective action. When the strike erupted it was a breathtaking display of working class power and protest not witnessed in the streets of Phnom Penh in years. Thousands of NagaWorld union members marched through the streets, demanding that NagaWorld reinstate the fired workers.
The sprawling NagaWorld complex that normally dominates the downtown cityscape was eclipsed by the masses of workers clamoring for justice on the streets below. Raucous yet peaceful demonstrations were a daily occurrence. One union member captured a series of stunning photographs that rapidly spread on social media. From the rooftop of a nearby building, her camera captured images of workers spaced out on the street below, wearing brilliant blue LRSU shirts, spread out to spell the words “We need LRSU Union.” This was a mantra the workers would repeat throughout the year. Their union was a necessity. But the company didn’t cave to the union’s demand. They instead doubled down in their effort to repress the strike.
Repression, Cambodian Style
As people were preparing to ring in the new year on December 31, Sovandy Ry and other union leaders found themselves trapped inside union headquarters. Ten police cars and a phalanx of officers surrounded the building, then initiated the raid. They arrested eight unionists, and seized computers and phones.
When Ry and others were brought to the police station they were informed they were charged with incitement. If found guilty they could serve a maximum of 5 years in prison. “This was a real injustice for me. I did nothing wrong. I just wanted my job back for a living. But they arrested me,” recalled Ry, who started working at NagaWorld in 2006. While fighting back tears she said, “I have no words to describe this feeling.”
Four days later, plainclothes police attacked union president Chhim Sithar on the picket line. They tackled her to the ground and threw her in an unmarked car. She was also charged with incitement, and joined her fellow unionists in prison. Arrests mounted on the picket line sporadically and union members were charged with varying crimes.
“When I arrived at the prison, there were almost ninety prisoners in one room, 6 by 5 meters. The bathroom inside was so dirty. Whenever we used the bathroom there were 5 or 6 people inside,” said Ry. “I was so shocked in prison – it was not at all like how it is in the movies. I slept on the floor where there were three very narrow lines of people. I couldn’t move my body. Everything was difficult. If my family didn’t support me I would have had to force myself to eat the prison food with worms in it.”
Ry received an incredible amount of support from the other prisoners, all of whom expressed confusion as to why she and the other LRSU members were locked up with them. “They showed their warm hearts to me,” said Ry who recalls the inmates telling her, “You did nothing wrong like stealing or selling drugs like us. This really is an injustice for you.”
Chhim Sithar, Ry Sovandy, and the others were kept in isolation from each other, and were denied regular consultations with attorneys. Ry reccounted life in prison as agonizing and monotonous, but a major issue for her was that she and the other union leaders were denied access to any information about the strike. With the leaders in prison cells, separated from the rest of the union, the authorities intensified their repression.
A little after a month into the strike, one union member who had not attended the strike in weeks tested positive for COVID-19. The Health Ministry used this case to weaponize the pandemic, enabling the authorities to repress the strike. Despite a lack of evidence, government officials claimed the strike was a “superspreader event,” despite the fact that all workers were vaccinated and remained masked and socially distant during the protests.
On March 16, 2022, the Royal Government of Cambodia delivered a public statement, proclaiming that the Ministry of Labor and the authorities “do not permit the disgruntled employees to assemble in great numbers at this time due to the need to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and to keep all Cambodians safe.” Any workers who continued to strike, warned the government, would be “removed peacefully, and are at risk of losing their benefits.” The lines were drawn in the sand.
In the weeks and months that followed, whenever the striking workers met, authorities encircled them and forced them onto buses on which they were driven to a facility on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, tested for COVID and kept overnight, sometimes for days. The process was anything but peaceful.
Police went out of their way to injure the workers. It was a common sight to see the police shove workers to the ground or on the bus, hit and punch them, or bludgeon them with walkie talkies or other blunt objects. At one point, the police broke the nose of a striking worker. Images of her bloodied face became viral on social media.
Violence also culminated to deadly levels. On May 11, 2022, police beat striking worker Ratana Sok and pushed her into oncoming traffic. Sok was pregnant at the time. Just 17 days later, she had a miscarriage. She spoke to Radio Free Asia about her turmoil. “Losing my beloved baby has caused me an unbelievable pain that I will feel the rest of my life,” said Sok Ratana. “This experience has shown me the brutality of the authorities and it has deeply hurt my family.”
Feeling cornered-in, and reeling from a constant deluge of violence, workers became tactically innovative. When police set up barricades to prevent workers from getting close to NagaWorld workers broke through the lines. When the police threw them on buses, workers jumped out of the windows, forcing the police to catch them yet again. When the buses rolled through the city, workers hung their signs out of the windows and yelled to people watching the spectacle to educate them about the strike.
And when the police patiently waited every day to detain the large group of workers that arrived at the same time and place near the casino, the collective mass of picketers transformed into dispersed, highly coordinated smaller cells of workers who would swarm on the casino by tuk tuk from multiple locations throughout the city. Workers learned to become tactically innovative, and flexible. It was needed to weather such a lengthy, bitter fight.
The Longest Strike in Cambodian History
Beanrun David is a young LRSU activist who has been on the front lines of the strike since it began. When he started working at NagaWorld in 2019, he initially didn’t know much about the union, and joined the LRSU “not because of what happened to me but because of what happened to my co-workers. They got fired from the company, without any good reason… I thought the company violated their labor rights, so I started to learn more about the union.”
“I joined the Union, then the company always asked for a meeting, and they threatened me to not join or get involved with the union, or else they would fire me.” Beanrun said he continued to learn more about his rights as a worker, and enthusiastically joined the strike. He was not easily intimidated by management’s threats. Five months into the strike, the company retaliated by firing him “for absence and bad behavior,” recounted Beanrun. He said that the company’s reason for terminating him was “completely opposite” from reality. Hundreds of other works have similar stories.
Beanrun’s participation in the strike has been challenging at times. Currently, he depends on his family for support. “I try to find part-time jobs as much as I can. I can do everything like cleaning, delivery… but I can’t take any full-time job since I also need to come to the strike every week.”
“I’ve cut down on food and living expenses but I still need to motivate myself to participate in the strike. Life has completely changed from having a salary every month until now,” said Beanrun. “Sometimes I can’t even find 100 riels in my pocket” – that’s a little less than 3 cents.
Beanrun David is not alone. With little-to-no income coming in, many union members rely on the support of family and friends to survive. It’s common to see strikers selling everything from clothes to honey to homemade paper flower bouquets on social media to make ends meet. Many have scattered across the city, and the country, to look for work, all the while continuing to go on strike.
In order to sustain such a long strike, workers set up a strike fund as donations large and small poured in from across the country and around the world. Other unions and human rights groups in Cambodia have fiercely supported the striking workers. Unions around the world, from the International Trade Union Confederation to the radical Industrial Workers of the World have delivered statements and funds to support the LRSU.
But in January 2023, a $5,050 transfer sent to the strike fund’s ABA Bank account from Australian feminist group Urgent Action Fund was blocked by the bank. An ABA spokesperson justified this move, saying that there was “negative news about NagaWorld,” and that there were concerns over “money laundering” despite no evidence of this taking place.
“This case really impacts workers because this money will support them while everyone doesn’t have any income,” said Ry Sovandy. “This is humanitarian support. We got the money to buy food to support strikers. If we cannot get this support, the strikers won’t be able to even buy rice.” Despite these new hardships, workers are refusing to end the strike.
Not a day goes by that Beanrun David does not feel distressed. “I’m worried because I don’t know when they can solve our problem because it has been a long time already. But I’m telling myself I can’t give up. If I give up, it would set a bad example for workers,” said Beanrun. He also thought that if the workers gave up, then other companies would replicate the violent union busting measures NagaWorld utilized on their own employees. “I have to keep going no matter how starving we are.”
The NagaWorld strike is an anomaly. Strikes simply do not last this long in Cambodia. They are often a day or two day affair which are quickly suppressed by authorities.
Khun Tharo of the Center for Alliance of Labor and Human Rights (CENTRAL), a Cambodian organization that assists workers and human rights activists, had much to say about the unique nature of the NagaWorld strike. “I would say, yes, in the history of the Cambodian labor movement, this is the longest tentative strike.”
“There are a lot of elements why the strike lasts so long: the principles of unionism, creating a strong solidarity among membership and what the workers want to receive, and their resistance, and courage not to conform,” he said. “Very early on, union members knew just how powerful of an employer NagaWorld is, and how difficult the strike would be. They were well prepared for the struggle ahead,” he said.
“I think the union at NagaWorld is very unique in terms of the workers and members and activists. They are very empowered in terms of their basic fundamental rights, and the union members are strongly educated,” said Khun. “Their strategy of resistance, nonviolence and waging a peaceful strike is well informed.”
The major question that looms is whether or not the LRSU can survive the political minefield the Cambodian power structure placed in front of them. Workers are walking through that field as we speak.
Stay tuned for Part. II of this report
Special thanks to Keat Soriththeavy for contributing to this report
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The post The Battle at NagaWorld: The Longest Strike in Cambodia History PT.I appeared first on UNICORN RIOT.
by Unicorn Riot via UNICORN RIOT
Tuesday, May 16, 2023
‘We Do Not Need a School for Assassins’: Hours of Public Comment Unanimously Against ‘Cop City’
Atlanta, GA — Hundreds of Atlantans spoke out against the proposed authorization of $33.5 million taxpayer dollars for the Atlanta Police Foundation to fund the construction of ‘Cop City’ during the public comment section at city council on Monday. The council is expected to vote on the funding on June 5.
The public comment lasted over seven hours and the nearly 300 community members who had the opportunity to speak were unanimous in their opposition to ‘Cop City’, which if built, would be an 85-acre urban warfare police training compound in the South River Forest in DeKalb County, Georgia.
The Atlanta Public Safety Training Center (‘Cop City’) will cost at least $90 million total, with most of the funding flowing from corporations such as Coca-Cola, Chick-fil-A, Cox Enterprises, UPS, Home Depot, Waffle House, Wells Fargo and more.
During the hours-long public comment, many of the same points were brought up by Atlanta residents about what the $33.5 million could go toward instead — affordable housing, repairing roads, improving the electrical grid, the healthcare system, education, family leave, after-school programs, building community centers, community outreach, etc.
Children’s book illustrator and forest defender Noah Grigni, spoke about DeKalb County’s food insecurity and how 20% of children and 14% of adults face hunger everyday. They also pointed out how “amazing” it was that the city “found $33.5 million taxpayer dollars,” which up until a couple months ago, the Mayor’s Deputy Chief Operating Officer LaChandra Burks and Dave Wilkinson, the president and CEO of Atlanta Police Foundation (APF), agreed to an increased amount of $32 million instead of the original $30 million two years prior, revealed in e-mails provided to the Atlanta Community Press Collective through records requests.
Grigni asked the city council to imagine what those funds could do for Atlantans who are hungry and without permanent housing.
“Imagine what Atlanta would look like if you invested in communities, instead of in repression. I implore you to stand up for your constituents and what you know they need. Atlanta needs affordable food and housing, accessible infrastructure, social services, green space, not Cop City.”
Noah Grigni, public comment speaker
Many speakers also named the same two reasons as to why they are opposed to ‘Cop City’ — exacerbation of climate change through the deforestation of Weelaunee, and militarization of police and the escalation of police violence particularly against marginalized communities.
Mykal Alder June, who’s lived in Georgia since 1990, echoed what some said before them about the 17 hours of public comment in September 2021 where over 70% of Atlantans expressed opposition to the police training facility. “You have faced loud, passionate and informed opposition every step of the way, and here we are again. The citizens of Atlanta and the surrounding metro area have taken hours out of their day to come to you, we are here to tell you we do not want this.”
“We do not want further militarization of our police force, we do not want more people murdered in the streets, we do not want these $33.5 million dollars spent on a facility designed to train police for war against us!”
Mykal Alder June, public comment speaker
Reproductive rights and bodily autonomy were also brought up by numerous residents, including Julissa Jackson, the Interim Executive Director of Access Reproductive Care Southeast. “I’m here first and foremost on the behalf of my children’s future, because I love them. As well as the 328 reproductive justice practitioners, leaders and advocates who signed our letter in support of the efforts to stop Cop City and to save the Weelaunee Forest. The construction of Cop City would violate the most basic tenets of reproductive justice.”
Jackson went on to quote professor and legal scholar Dorothy Roberts: “
True reproductive freedom requires a living wage, universal health care and the abolition of prisons. Black women see the police slaughter of unarmed people in their communities as a reproductive justice issue. They recognize that women are frequent victims of racist police violence and that cutting short the lives of black youth violates the right of mothers to raise their children in healthy, humane environments.”The injustices faced by Black women and people who can become pregnant are “not separate from the ongoing political attacks on abortion access or nationwide attacks on bodily sovereignty in the forms of increased violence against trans and nonbinary people,” Jackson added.
Throughout the seven hours and twenty minutes of public comment, dozens of Atlanta residents shared scathing criticisms of the members of their city council and Mayor Andre Dickens.
“Some of ya’ll remind me of middle-schoolers,” said one speaker. “You just sit there staring at your desk, poking at your phone, ignoring the teacher. Some of ya’ll talkin’ to each other, chatting, maybe giving some gossip, instead of actually doing your job to protect us, to protect the people of Atlanta. To listen to the people of Atlanta.”
Milan Barnes, who works for the Center for Popular Democracy, spoke directly to one councilperson: “I know Councilman Dustin Hillis, you’re not really looking at me right now. But I knocked doors for your campaign. You hired two Black women to canvass the city of Atlanta for you. Once again, it’s up to Black women, right? To get you here in order to protect the lives of millions?”
“Cops are racist, we have a fundamental problem. And Cop City is only a branch of the white supremacy that is just ravaging our community,” Barnes added.
Longtime leftist feminist, civil rights and queer activist, Lorraine Fontana, asked city council to consider what happened between 2017 and 2021 that “caused the city government to change course so drastically from protecting our city’s lungs, to align the destruction of those lungs to the building of Cop City?”
“Well, what happened was the summer of 2020,” she answered.
Fontana then talked about the national and local uprisings in response to the police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, “and those of Rayshard Brooks and Ahmaud Arbery here in Georgia.”
“It’s not surprising to me that the corporate-funded APF would push for more police in attempt to protect their property interests, and encourage more corporations moving in to take over Atlanta at the expense of so many being pushed out of a city they could no longer afford to live in. Rather than putting money into solving the causes of criminal behavior, most of which clearly revolve around the growing income inequality in our country, and poverty.”
Lorraine Fontana, public comment speaker
Toward the end of the over seven hours of public comment, Shaheed Rana took the time to highlight the ‘outside agitator’ narrative. Rana asked city council to look at their constituents. “Remember everyone you’ve seen today. These are the people that Mayor Dickens, the media and the police erase when they call us outside agitators.”
“Y’all are erasing a multiracial multigenerational movement that has been trying to talk to you all for two years. The only outside agitators in any community are usually the police.”
Shaheed Rana, public comment speaker
In fact within documents provided to the Atlanta Community Press Collective from an open records request in January, they discovered that 43% of trainees for the proposed police training facility would come from outside of Georgia.
Before public comment began, people opposed to ‘Cop City’ chanted loudly inside Atlanta City Hall. Dozens were turned away who wished to comment because of the large volume of sign-ups. For more details and minute-to-minute updates from the hearing, visit the Atlanta Community Press Collective’s Twitter thread here.
Unicorn Riot's coverage on the movement to defend the Atlanta Forest:
- Landing Page: Unicorn Riot Coverage of the Movement to Protect the Atlanta Forest
- One Granted Bond, Two Denied Pretrial Release: Forest Defenders Appear for Preliminary Hearings (May 4, 2023)
- No Gunpowder Residue Found on Manuel ‘Tortuguita’ Terán According to DeKalb County Autopsy (April 21, 2023)
- Eight Remain in Jail from March 5 Weelaunee Forest Raid, 15 Released (March 24, 2023)
- Behind the #StopCopCity Domestic Terrorism Warrants (March 21, 2023)
- An Historic Direct Action in a Forest Outside Atlanta (March 18, 2023)
- Manuel ‘Tortuguita’ Terán’s Independent Autopsy Report Released at Press Conference (March 13, 2023)
- Police Raid Atlanta Forest After ‘Cop City’ Opponents Overrun Security Post (March 5, 2023)
- ‘Stop Cop City’ Week of Action Begins in Atlanta (March 4, 2023)
- ‘Tortuguita Vive’: A No-Compromise Movement Responds to Police Killing a Forest Defender (February 27, 2023)
- Atlanta Activists Say Prosecutors Plan to Indict them on RICO Charges (February 25, 2023)
- ‘Community’ Committee Cheers Police Violence as Authorities Repress Resistance to ‘Cop City’ (February 24, 2023)
- Supporters of ‘Cop City’ Opponents Rally in Philly (February 24, 2023)
- Minneapolis March Connects Roof Depot Demolition Resistance to the Atlanta Forest (February 21, 2023)
- Atlanta PD Releases Bodycam Footage from Deadly Jan. 18 Forest Raid (February 8, 2023)
- Manuel ‘Tortuguita’ Terán’s Family Seeks Transparency in Police Killing (February 7, 2023)
- City of Atlanta and DeKalb County Announce ‘Agreement’ Amid Growing Opposition to Cop City (January 31, 2023)
- Marches and Vigils Across the US Respond to the Police Killing of Forest Defender Tort (January 22, 2023)
- Protester Shot and Killed by Officers During Raid on Atlanta Forest (January 18, 2023)
- Blackhall Intensifies Destruction of Weelaunee People’s Park in Atlanta Forest (January 16, 2023)
- SWAT Teams Attack Atlanta Forest Encampments, Activists Charged with ‘Terrorism’ (December 18, 2022)
- [Mini Doc] Defending the Atlanta Forest: Behind the Movement to Stop Cop City (Oct. 9, 2022)
- “Cop City” General Contractors’ Offices Attacked (May 19, 2022)
- Police Raid Atlanta Forest Occupation (May 18, 2022)
- Atlanta Fights to Save Its Forest (May 14, 2022)
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The post ‘We Do Not Need a School for Assassins’: Hours of Public Comment Unanimously Against ‘Cop City’ appeared first on UNICORN RIOT.
by Unicorn Riot via UNICORN RIOT
Defense Attorney Earl Gray Says Black Foreman is ‘Racist’ After Guilty Verdict, Judge Grants New Hearing
Saint Paul, MN — In a motion hearing seeking a new trial for convicted murderer Brian Kjellberg, defense attorney Earl Gray called the Black foreman of the jury “racist” and was granted a Schwartz hearing by Ramsey County Judge Leonardo Castro. In late March, Kjellberg was found guilty by a jury of second-degree murder without intent for killing Arnell ‘AJ’ Stewart outside Kjellberg’s home in December 2021. Kjellberg’s sentencing, which was scheduled for May 17, has been been delayed and yet to be rescheduled with the Schwartz hearing now taking its place.
During the May 2 motion hearing, Gray stated that the jury foreman “is against white people who kill Black people, even if it was legitimate like this one.” He said the jury deliberation was too fast to find Kjellberg guilty, and that they couldn’t believe it happened without the foreman pressuring the jury. After the verdict, Kjellberg’s defense team combed through the foreman’s Facebook page and filed for a Schwartz hearing stating they found evidence of “hatred” in posts denouncing white vigilante murders like the killers of Ahmaud Arbery and police killings of Black people. A Schwartz hearing is held to determine if misconduct occurred in the jury room.
“I’m a well-hated person to people like him … How can a man like this lead the jury?” asked Gray, who’s defended high-profile killer cops, to Judge Castro. Gray said that the foreman “stared [him] down” during the closing arguments with looks “full of hatred.” Gray, who’s practiced law since 1970, has defended police in three high profile murder cases in the past six years including: Kim Potter who killed Daunte Wright, Jeronimo Yanez who killed Philando Castile, and Thomas Lane who was party to the murder of George Floyd.
While arguing for the Schwartz hearing, Gray said to the judge that he didn’t strike the foreman from the jury when he had the chance because he was a “minority.”
Gray’s consistent framing of “reverse racism” in the hearing by calling a Black juror “racist” and viewing the juror’s postings of life experiences as a Black man as postings of “hatred,” fall in direct line with past complaints of racism filed against Gray himself.
In 2017, President of Communities United Against Police Brutality, Michelle Gross, filed a formal complaint against Gray for a pattern of racist conduct during the Yanez trial (pdf). Gross stated Gray engaged in “ethnic profiling, harassment and abrasive conduct toward an 18-year-old Ethiopian female potential juror.” Furthermore, Gross noted they were concerned with Gray’s “conduct toward witness Diamond Reynolds, against whom he cast a number of racist innuendoes and harassing comments.” Gray faced no consequences.
Earl Gray is now weaponizing public posts where the foreman in question mentions being on the receiving end of racial harm and the impacts of racism in attempts to alter the guilty verdict of the trial.
At least two jurors are expected to show up to the Schwartz hearing on May 17 to answer if they were coerced by the foreman during deliberations. Three jurors were subpoenaed but one had a recent ankle surgery, according to court records.
Family Calls for Hate Crimes Charge in Killing of AJ Stewart [March 29, 2022]
Family of AJ Stewart Speak on Patterns of White Supremacy That Led to His Killing Over a Parking Spot [Feb. 15, 2023]
Guilty Verdict in Saint Paul Murder Trial of White Vigilante Not Enough, Says Victim’s Family [May 1, 2023]
AJ Stewart parked his vehicle outside Kjellberg’s residence, a converted firehouse in East St. Paul, on Dec. 2, 2021. According to prosecutors, Kjellberg, a 50-year-old white veteran and property owner, then blocked Stewart, a 27-year-old Black man, from entering his car and leaving the parking spot. A brief struggle ensued and Kjellberg stabbed Stewart in the heart with a homemade shank.
After the killing, Kjellberg hired Earl Gray to represent him in the matter and claimed self-defense. After several delays, Kjellberg’s trial started in late March and lasted only four days. The jury found him guilty in less than two hours of deliberation. Kjellberg faces up to 40 years in prison if the conviction holds.
Two dozen family members and supporters of Kjellberg packed Judge Castro’s Ramsey County courtroom for the hour-long motion hearing on May 2, 2023. Defense attorneys Earl Gray and Amanda Montgomery sat at a table with Kjellberg across from prosecutors Hassan Tahir and Makenzie Lee.
The hearing was brought on by motions for acquittal (pdf) and a new trial (pdf) filed by Kjellberg’s defense two weeks after the trial. Gray said the motions were filed because the state didn’t prove Kjellberg wasn’t acting in self defense and that the jury was tainted by a Black foreman.
While arguing for the acquittal before the court, Gray noted Kjellberg was “100% disabled” after suffering a past “traumatic brain injury” a total of five times, which proved, Gray said, that Kjellberg was acting in self-defense after being punched by Stewart.
Judge Castro noted that the jury believed the state proved initial provocation was made by Kjellberg when he didn’t allow Stewart to return to his car. The judge then read the transcript of the cross examination of Kjellberg by the state during the trial, saying that prosecutor Tahir was doing the questioning and Kjellberg the answering:
Tahir: Okay. Ultimately, Mr. Stewart did come running at you. And he didn't start waving on you as soon as he approached you did he? Kjellberg: No. Tahir: In fact, goes again. You were telling him, do not step on my property, do not step on my property. Is that right? Kjellberg: I believe I said that three to four times. Tahir: Okay, and he was trying to just get to his car. Would you agree with that? Kjellberg: I would agree. Yes. Tahir: And you kept repeating to him. You say four or five times do not step on my property, right? Kjellberg: Yes. Tahir: You could have just left him to go? Kjellberg: He could have stayed off my property. Tahir: The question I'm asking you is, could he have gotten in his car and just driven away? Right? Kjellberg: Yes. Tahir: And that would have solved the problem. Kjellberg: Yes. Tahir: But you didn't allow that to happen. Kjellberg: No.
Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Tahir said during the hearing, the state provided plenty of evidence in trial including an audio and video recording from a Ring Video Doorbell which reportedly showed the incident from a distance. The “tool” Kjellberg used, referring to the homemade shank that he killed Stewart with, and the fact that Kjellberg failed to retreat were also points made by the state. Minnesota laws say a person has a duty to retreat before one can use self-defense outside of their home.
Gray, at times, interrupting Judge Castro, argued that Kjellberg was backing up, beaten, and thrown into a rock pile and never “physically stopped [AJ] from getting into his car.” Poking at Stewart’s character, Gray mentioned that Kjellberg had called 911 and that Stewart “had conditional release and didn’t want the police called.”
Stewart’s family has been steadfast since AJ’s murder demanding hate crimes charges be filed against Kjellberg if not first-degree murder. After the guilty verdict, Stewart’s cousin, Tongo Eisen-Martin, told us the family was unsatisfied as the evidence showed the attack was racially motivated and hate crimes or first-degree murder charges were also warranted.
Judge Castro said he would look at the video again and return with a ruling at a later date. Neither of Gray’s motions were immediately successful but neither have failed. The next court date is the Schwartz hearing on May 17 at 1:30 p.m. in Judge Castro’s Ramsey County courtroom in Saint Paul.
Related Unicorn Riot coverage of white vigilantes:
Tyler Newby Sentenced to One Year Home Detention for Killing Dorian Murrell [Nov. 15, 2022]
Pawn Shop Owner Faces No Charges in Killing Calvin Horton, State Blames Protesters [Nov. 8, 2020]
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The post Defense Attorney Earl Gray Says Black Foreman is ‘Racist’ After Guilty Verdict, Judge Grants New Hearing appeared first on UNICORN RIOT.
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Thursday, May 11, 2023
Andrew Kearse Remembered: Widow Shares the Pain of Losing Her Husband to Police
In Schenectady, New York, on May 11, 2017, 36-year-old Andrew Kearse died of a heart attack in the back of a police car. Kearse pleaded with officers from the back of the police cruiser, begging for help over 70 times in the span of 17 minutes and telling officers he was unable to breathe. In an emotionally distressing interview with Unicorn Riot, Kearse’s widow, Angelique Negroni-Kearse, shared the pain she feels after losing her husband.
Six years ago, Kearse was arrested after he allegedly ran from police following a traffic stop for erratic driving. No officers were indicted for Kearse’s in-custody death, including officer Mark Weekes, who drove the patrol car Kearse died in.
The City of Schenectady settled with Kearse’s widow for $1.375M in 2019. The Andrew Kearse Act was successfully passed and signed into law in June 2020, making law enforcement officers liable in civil court if they do not seek care for any person in their custody experiencing a medical or mental crisis. Assemblywoman Nathalia Fernandez and Negroni-Kearse are working to make it a criminal offense.
The Act was also introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives on May 11, 2021, but remains in bureaucratic limbo. The federal law would require “federal law enforcement officers and the Bureau of Prisons’ personnel to provide or obtain immediate medical attention for an individual in federal custody who displays medical distress.”
Since Andrew’s death, Negroni-Kearse has continued to fight for justice for her deceased husband. Watch her testimony to the International Commission of Inquiry on Systemic Racist Police Violence against People of African Descent in the United States in 2021 below.
Watch the full video that featured the Unicorn Riot interview with Negroni-Kearse taken during an event honoring Paul Castaway, killed by Denver Police in 2015, below.
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Wednesday, May 10, 2023
Ten Years After Terrance and Ivan Killed by Minneapolis Police
Minneapolis, MN — On May 10, 2013, Minneapolis Police killed two people in the span of 30 minutes. Terrance ‘Mookie Moe’ Franklin, 22, was hunted, cornered and gunned down with ten shots, including five bullets to the head. Thirty minutes later, Ivan Romero-Oliveras, 24, was killed by a Minneapolis squad car racing through red lights to the scene of the police-involved killing. Ten years later and with at least eleven more victims, the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) continues to utilize the same violent practices, racist techniques, and cover-ups with the same officers.
Though the department is now under new leadership and subject to a court-enforceable agreement to change its culture after an investigation — spawned from the brutal murder of George Floyd — by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, little has changed in the last decade.
Evidence gathered by Franklin’s family attorney, hired investigators and journalists shows that from the onset of Franklin’s 2013 encounter with the police, prompted by a midday 911 call about an alleged burglary suspect, MPD fabricated, misled, and covered up the deadly actions taken by its officers who, experts say, were recorded calling Franklin the N-word several times before fatally shooting him.
Many of the officers involved went on to receive accolades after a carefully crafted narrative was spread through legacy media of hero cops killing a suspect with a “blank stare” who managed to wrestle a gun away from a SWAT team and shoot two of them.
One of Franklin’s killers, Lucas Peterson, was a part of the violent, disbanded Gang Strike Force and went on to train several other killer cops, including Derek Chauvin. A graduate of Minneapolis South High School, Peterson’s record of complaints and lawsuits filed against him is long and shows an extensive pattern of violent and racist acts against Minneapolis community members.
All officers were cleared of wrongdoing shortly after Franklin’s killing and Romero’s death. In early 2020, the City of Minneapolis settled a wrongful death lawsuit (pdf) with the family of Terrance Franklin for $795,000.
Franklin’s killing received renewed attention after the police murder of George Floyd, leading to discussions about reopening his case. The renewed interest has yet to turn into tangible action despite officers offering new information from the incident in return for immunity.
A documentary released by TIME in 2021 showcased some of the inconsistencies in the police reports (pdf). In the film, Terrance’s father shared that MPD killed his uncle, Hosie Walton Jr. (1987), his cousin, Tycel Nelson (1990), and then his son Terrance (2013).
The Last Day of Their Lives
The incident on May 10 started with a 911 call about someone who matched the description of a person who had previously broken into an apartment unit. Police appeared on the scene with their guns drawn, prompting Franklin to drive around an officer and hit the open door of an MPD squad car while evading. This action led to dozens of police being dispatched to the call saying the suspect had attempted to hit an officer with their vehicle as they fled.
After a brief car chase, Franklin got out of his vehicle and ran a few blocks into a basement at 2717 Bryant Avenue South in Uptown Minneapolis.
After some time, five MPD SWAT officers – Andrew Stender, Ricardo Muro, Mark Durand, Michael Meath and Lucas Peterson stormed the cramped basement where Franklin was hiding and released a dog on Franklin. What happened next is still unclear, as no video of the shooting has been produced and facets of the officers’ stories have been proven false.
The police say Franklin allegedly attacked the heavily armed SWAT members, punching an officer and wrestling a gun away from them before shooting two of them in the leg, forcing them to fire back.
Franklin’s family, friends, and advocates don’t trust the police version and have described Franklin’s killing as an “assassination,” “execution” and “murder.”
Family attorney Mike Padden said police “executed” Franklin after SWAT officer Mark Durand mistakenly fired two shots at fellow officers Ricardo Muro and Michael Meath with his MP5 submachine gun.
Audio from a video that was taken from across the street of the killing was forensically dissected and experts report that officers called Franklin the N-word at least twice before shooting him. Padden said the delayed amount of time between the two shots and a flurry of shots heard on the audio proved the police’s reported timeline was inaccurate.
About thirty minutes later, officer Joshua Young weaved through traffic, running red lights down a busy 26th Street while delivering water to the officers who had just killed Franklin. At Blaisdell and 26th, Young’s MPD cruiser ran over and killed Ivan Romero-Oliveras, whose motorcycle had started to slide as he hit the brakes in response to the police entering the intersection. Romero-Oliveras’s girlfriend was on the motorcycle with him. She was seriously injured, but survived the crash.
Hennepin County Attorney’s Office declined to press charges on Young despite his “failure to use care,” claiming Romero-Oliveras was more at fault. Their report (pdf) stated the contributing factors were Romero-Oliveras’s speed and alleged “inexperience” driving motorcycles.
Friends and family of Romero-Oliveras created and maintained a vigil site decorated with flowers for months after his death. And Franklin’s killing led to a several-month long movement seeking justice and police accountability. See images from a variety of protests and a YouTube playlist below.
Southside-Raised Killers, Lucas Peterson and Michael Meath
For years, community members in Minneapolis have understood that Minneapolis Police officers are coming into the city from Andover and far away suburbs to police the citizens. However, the two shooters of Terrance Franklin, Lucas Peterson and Michael Meath, graduated from Minneapolis South High School in 1998 and 2000, respectively.
A former classmate of Peterson and Meath, who wished to remain anonymous, told Unicorn Riot that those two officers were on the high school hockey team together. “I didn’t make the connection that officers Peterson and Meath who killed Franklin were the South hockey guys until like 2018, it was actually a buddy of mine who told me. He put it together.”
The hockey team seemed to stand out from all of the sports teams, the former classmate said, including the majority-white ones. The hockey players were “hypermasculine racist jocks.”
The classmate wondered “how these guys are remembered by other former classmates.” They said, “I wonder if most people even know what they became,” and that it was the community that produced “these killers.”
“I feel the community really has to reckon with the fact that we produce these killers the same as we have produced so many kind and visionary artists and activists.”
Anonymous former Minneapolis South High student
Being a cop runs in Peterson’s family. His father and grandfather were also Minneapolis Police officers. For over twenty years now, Minneapolis residents like former NAACP official Brett Buckner, have been asking for Peterson to be fired, “How soon is his locker going to get cleared out?”
Terrance and Ivan leave behind loved ones and friends. Terrance had a son who’s now a teenager and has lived the last 10 years without his father.
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Monday, May 8, 2023
Three Face Felonies for Allegedly Flyering Near Home of One Georgia Trooper Tied to Killing of Forest Defender
Bartow County, GA — More than 3 ½ months after Georgia State Patrol agents killed forest defender Manuel ‘Tortuguita’ Esteban Paez Terán during a raid on the Weelaunee Forest, officials still refuse to name the officers responsible for their death or take any steps toward bringing them to justice.
After months of waiting, it appears that activists and community members have begun stepping up to provide transparency themselves.
In late April, researchers with the Atlanta Community Press Collective released the names of five Georgia State Patrol SWAT agents believed to be involved in Tortuguita’s killing. The officers’ names are Bryland Myers, Jerry Parrish, Jonathan Salcedo, Mark Lamb, Ronaldo Kegel, and Royce Zah. The Collective discovered the names after receiving a Georgia Bureau of Investigation Gun Shot Residue (GSR) report through a public records request.
On April 28, three people were arrested in Bartow County, Georgia for allegedly providing the public with information about the officers who killed Tortuguita at the neighborhood level. The three are accused of distributing fliers naming one of Tortuguita’s suspected killers, Jonathan Augusto Salcedo, who lives in a small bedroom community outside Cartersville called White, Georgia.
The three are charged with “Intimidate Law Enforcement officer/family in retaliation to discharge of duties by force,” a felony, and misdemeanor stalking. During a bond hearing before Bartow County Magistrate Judge Brandon Bryson on last Monday, all three were refused bond and will continue to be held in Bartow County Jail until their bond hearing in Superior Court.
The felony intimidation charge GA Code § 16-10-97 (2018) carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison depending upon which section of the statute prosecutors plan to apply. The part of the statute that is specific to law enforcement officers carries a minimum sentence of one year and a maximum sentence of five years as well as a $5,000 fine. Warrants filed in the case do not specify which section they are applying.
The flier the trio are accused of distributing featured a photo of Salcedo’s face as well as his address and phone number and information informing neighbors that Salcedo had “murdered” Tortuguita, according to individuals familiar with its contents.
After the incident, Salcedo told prosecutors that he “felt harassed and intimidated by individuals handing out these fliers,” according to court documents.
In criminal arrest warrants filed in Bartow County Magistrate Court, prosecutors accused all three arrestees of “providing fliers in the neighborhood that Jonathan Sacledo [sic] on mailboxes [sic] that were claiming Jonathan was a murderer due to an incident that occurred in Atlanta.” (Salcedo’s name is misspelled by prosecutors throughout the warrant).
Bartow-County-Mag-Court-Arrest-Warrants-redactedThey also state that “said accused was in the Highland Point neighborhood where Jonathan Sacledo [sic] resides” and “did knowingly, willfully, without consent and with the purpose of harassing and intimidating Jonathan Sacledo [sic], make contact with individuals in his neighborhood through fliers with no legitimate purpose.”
The warrants, which are signed by Bartow County Prosecutor Leona Clark, are simply initial declarations by a law enforcement officer intended to establish probable cause for arrest. Many of the statements in the documents will likely be contested by the defense in court as well as by the public in the court of public opinion — for example, whether those arrested did or did not have a “legitimate purpose” to be in the officer’s neighborhood and whether informing neighbors that someone on their block killed someone is constitutionally protected speech.
The charges and the continued incarceration of the three individuals maintain a pattern of Georgia law enforcement using increasingly brutal tactics against people opposed to ‘Cop City’ and participants in the movement to stop it, including charging 42 activists under a rarely used state domestic terrorism statute. Until now, most of the repression against activists appears to be coordinated by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI), although the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has also been involved in the ongoing investigation.
Those arrested in Bartow County were interrogated by FBI officer David King as well as an unknown GBI agent. The three refused to give any information to the officers, according to a source with knowledge of the incident. The majority of the domestic terrorism warrants against Stop Cop City protesters, or people allegedly involved in the movement, have been signed by Special Agent Ryan Long, who appears to be heading the case for the GBI.
In March, following an historic direct action that targeted the construction site of the ‘Cop City’ project, law enforcement arrested 23 individuals at a music festival also taking place in the forest on the same day. Of those 23, three individuals remained in DeKalb County Jail up until earlier this week. Following preliminary hearings for all three on May 3, one was released on bond.
One other individual who was arrested in January and charged with domestic terrorism for their alleged participation in the movement was also released from Fulton County Jail Wednesday.
“As part of their ongoing repression campaign, the police have resorted to effectively kidnapping and holding defendants without bail, without cause, in order to prevent more information about the murder of Tortuguita from coming to light.”
Movement participants in a written statement released to Unicorn Riot
In order to call attention to the escalating repression, groups such as the Mass Defense Committee of the National Lawyers Guild and others have launched a new campaign called ‘We Are all Forest Defenders,’ calling on supporters to publicly express solidarity with those arrested. “In many cases the police cited ridiculous things in arrest warrants like ‘having muddy boots’ or ‘having a legal support number written on them,’” wrote supporters in a public announcement of the campaign.
As part of the campaign, activists are encouraging supporters to post photos of themselves with muddy boots or with a jail support number written on their arm to social media.
“The protest repression in Atlanta is one of many instances of the state deploying legally aggressive tactics to isolate, silence, and intimidate progressive activists,” said the Mass Defense Committee of the National Lawyers Guild in a statement about the campaign sent to Unicorn Riot.
“These repressive arguments from Georgia prosecutors are part of a centuries-long legacy of the U.S. legal system unjustly punishing people who speak out against harmful government actions.”
The Mass Defense Committee of the National Lawyers Guild in a statement sent to Unicorn Riot
Although the Bartow County incident called attention to State Trooper Salcedo, he is only one of five officers suspected of participating in the shooting death of Tortuguita. One of the others, Trooper Royce Zah, is currently being sued in federal court for shooting Georgia State University journalism student Mikaela Dyett in the face with a plastic bullet during a May 29, 2020 George Floyd protest in Atlanta.
“Despite the fact that Ms. Dyett was not committing any crime and did not pose a threat, Trooper Zah fired a round from his FN Herstal 303 at her, striking her in the face just below her left eye,” wrote Dyett’s attorney in a civil complaint. “The polystyrene projectile shattered when it struck Ms. Dyett’s face, causing extreme pain and damage to her face and eye. Plastic shards and bismuth pellets from the projectile embedded in her facial tissues. She ran away, bleeding from her face and eye. The damage to Ms. Dyett’s face and eye caused by Trooper Zah’s FN Herstal 303 projectile has required her to undergo extensive medical procedures and has caused permanent facial disfigurement.”
As three more people sit in Georgia county jails waiting to hear whether they’ll be spending years of their lives in prison, it remains to be seen how far those in power will go to ensure that their increasingly unpopular vision for a ‘Cop City,’ and the world it represents, comes to fruition. The opposition, for their part, shows no signs of stopping.
Unicorn Riot's coverage on the movement to defend the Atlanta Forest:
- Landing Page: Unicorn Riot Coverage of the Movement to Protect the Atlanta Forest
- One Granted Bond, Two Denied Pretrial Release: Forest Defenders Appear for Preliminary Hearings (May 4, 2023)
- No Gunpowder Residue Found on Manuel ‘Tortuguita’ Terán According to DeKalb County Autopsy (April 21, 2023)
- Eight Remain in Jail from March 5 Weelaunee Forest Raid, 15 Released (March 24, 2023)
- Behind the #StopCopCity Domestic Terrorism Warrants (March 21, 2023)
- An Historic Direct Action in a Forest Outside Atlanta (March 18, 2023)
- Manuel ‘Tortuguita’ Terán’s Independent Autopsy Report Released at Press Conference (March 13, 2023)
- Police Raid Atlanta Forest After ‘Cop City’ Opponents Overrun Security Post (March 5, 2023)
- ‘Stop Cop City’ Week of Action Begins in Atlanta (March 4, 2023)
- ‘Tortuguita Vive’: A No-Compromise Movement Responds to Police Killing a Forest Defender (February 27, 2023)
- Atlanta Activists Say Prosecutors Plan to Indict them on RICO Charges (February 25, 2023)
- ‘Community’ Committee Cheers Police Violence as Authorities Repress Resistance to ‘Cop City’ (February 24, 2023)
- Supporters of ‘Cop City’ Opponents Rally in Philly (February 24, 2023)
- Minneapolis March Connects Roof Depot Demolition Resistance to the Atlanta Forest (February 21, 2023)
- Atlanta PD Releases Bodycam Footage from Deadly Jan. 18 Forest Raid (February 8, 2023)
- Manuel ‘Tortuguita’ Terán’s Family Seeks Transparency in Police Killing (February 7, 2023)
- City of Atlanta and DeKalb County Announce ‘Agreement’ Amidst Growing Opposition to Cop City (January 31, 2023)
- Marches and Vigils Across the US Respond to the Police Killing of Forest Defender Tort (January 22, 2023)
- Protester Shot and Killed by Officers During Raid on Atlanta Forest (January 18, 2023)
- Blackhall Intensifies Destruction of Weelaunee People’s Park in Atlanta Forest (January 16, 2023)
- SWAT Teams Attack Atlanta Forest Encampments, Activists Charged with ‘Terrorism’ (December 18, 2022)
- [Mini Doc] Defending the Atlanta Forest: Behind the Movement to Stop Cop City (Oct. 9, 2022)
- “Cop City” General Contractors’ Offices Attacked (May 19, 2022)
- Police Raid Atlanta Forest Occupation (May 18, 2022)
- Atlanta Fights to Save Its Forest (May 14, 2022)
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